236 ON THE GODS OF GREECE, 



cattle, yet he is admitted as the ninth Avatar even by 

 the Brahmans of Cast, and his praifes are fung by the 

 poet Jayadeva : his character is in many refpe&s very 

 extraordinary ; but, as an account of it belongs rather 

 to hiftory than to mythology, it is referved for another 

 differtation. The tenth Avatar, we are told, is yet to 

 come, and is expected to appear mounted (like the 

 crowned conqueror in the Apocalypfe) on a white horfe, 

 with a cimeter blazing like a comet, to mow down all 

 incorrigible and impenitent offenders who mail then be 

 on earth. 



Thefe four Yugs have fo apparent an affinity with 

 the Grecian and Roman ages, that one origin may be 

 naturally affigned to both fyftems. The firft in both is 

 diitinguifhed as abounding in gold, though Satya means 

 truth and probity, which were found, if ever, in the 

 times immediately following fo tremendous an exertion 

 of the Divine Power as the deitruclion of mankind by 

 a general deluge : the next is characterized by fi her ; 

 and the third by copper : though their ufual names 

 allude to proportions imagined in each between vice and 

 virtue. The prefent, or earthen, age feems more pro- 

 perly difcriminated than by iron, is in ancient Europe ; 

 fince that metal is not bafcr, or lefs ufeful, though more 

 common, in our times, and confequently lefs precious, 

 than copper; while mere earth conveys an idea of the 

 lowefl degradation. We may here obferve, that the 

 true Hiftory of the World feems obvioufly divihble 

 into jour ages or periods; which may be called, firft, 

 the Diluvian, or purelt age; namely, the times pre- 

 ceding the deluge, and thofe fucceeding it till the 

 mad introduction of idolatry at Babel: next, the Pa* 

 triarchal, or pure, age ; in vrnch, indeed, thpre were 

 mighty hunters of beads and of men, from the rife of 

 patriarchs in the family of Sem, to the (imultane- 



ous. 



