742 UNIVERSALITY OF THE ANCIENT 



Plutarch further states, that Osiris, an Egyp- 

 tian name of the sun, signified likewise the JEther 

 or active principle in Nature, and Isis the passive 

 elements from which everything is formed. Ma- 

 crobius also maintained, that there exists a lumin- 

 ous, igneous, and subtil fluid, which, under the 

 name of JEther or spirit, fills the universe, that 

 it is the essential principle of motion and life ; 

 and is in fact the Deity. (Somn. Scip.) 



The truth is, fhat the worship of the sun, or of 

 that aetherial fire which animates the infinitude 

 of suns which glitter in the boundless firmament, 

 was practised in Memphis and Thebes, Nineveh, 

 and Babylon, Tyre and Sidon, Balbec and Jeru- 

 salem, long before the time of Abraham, that 

 it prevailed from Ethiopia to Siberia, and from 

 eastern Asia to the remotest borders of western 

 Europe, if not in every part of the inhabited 

 world, for it may be traced in the language, 

 mythology, and monuments of north and south 

 America. Temples dedicated to the sun have 

 been discovered in the ruins of Palenque and 

 other ancient cities of central America. We also 

 learn from Robertson's History of America, that 

 the Iroquois, Hurons, Algonquins, Natchez, and 

 many other Indian tribes, performed the religious 

 ceremony of dancing around what they called the 

 holy fire, into which they cast a portion of every- 

 thing they used, as a sacrifice in honour of the 

 sun. (Vol. ii. B. iv. p. 23.) 



The same fact is attested by Adair and many 



