ITALY, AND INDIA. 225 



u all that relates to mankind." They may even be of 

 folid importance in an age when fome intelligent and 

 virtuous p^rfons are inclined to doubt the authenticity 

 of the accounts delivered by Mofes concerning the pri- 

 mitive world ; fince no modes or fources of reafoning 

 can be unimportant, which have a tendency to remove 

 fuch doubts. Either the fir ft eleven chapters of Gene/is 

 (all due allowances being made for a figurative eaftern 

 ftyle) are true, or the whole fabric of our national re- 

 ligion is falfe; a conclufion which none of us, I truft, 

 would wifh to be drawn. I, who cannot help believing 

 the divinity of the Mejfiah, from the undifputed anti- 

 quity and manifeft completion of many prophecies, 

 efpecially thofe of Ifaiah, in the only perfon recorded 

 by hiftory to whom they are applicable, am obliged, of 

 courfe, to believe the fanclity of the venerable books to 

 which that facred perfon refers as genuine : but it is 

 not the truth of our national religion, as fuch, that I 

 have at heart; it is truth itfelf; and if any cool, un- 

 biaffed reafoner will clearly convince me, that Mofes 

 drew his narrative through Egyptian conduits from the 

 primeval fountains of Indian literature, I fhall efteem 

 him as a friend for having weaned my mind from a 

 capital error, and promife to ftand among the foremofl 

 in afliiting to circulate the truth which he has afcer- 

 tained. After fuch a declaration, I cannot but perfuade 

 myfelf, that no candid man will be difpleafed, if, in the 

 courfe of my work, I make as free with any arguments 

 that he may have advanced, as I mould really delire 

 him to do with any of mine that he may bedifpofedto 

 controvert. Having no fyltem of my own to maintain, 

 I fhall not purlue a very regular method, but lhall take 

 all the Gods, of whom I dilcourfe, as they happen to 

 prefent themfelves; beginning, however, like the Ro- 

 mans and the Hindus, with Janus or Ganej'a. 



The titles and attributes of this old Italian deity arc 

 fully comprifed in two choriambitk vcrfes of Sulpitius ; 



and 



