ITALY, AND INDIA. 24I 



advifes, with Jupiter, whofe fupremacy, thunder, and 

 iibertinifm, every boy learns from Ovid ; while his great 

 offices of Creator, Preferver, and Deftroyer, are not ge- 

 nerally confidcred in the fyftems of European mytho- 

 logy. The Romans had, as we have before obferved, 

 many Jupiters, one of whom was only the Firmament 

 perfonified, as Ennius clearly exprefl'es it : 



Afpice hoc fublime candens, quern invocant omnes 

 Jovem. 



This Jupiter or Die fpiterh the Indian God of the vifible 

 heavens, called Indra, or the King ; and Divcfpetir, or 

 Lord 0/ the Sky ; who has alio the character of the Ro- 

 man Genius, or chief of the Good Spirits; -but molt of 

 his epithets in Sanfcrit are the fame with thofe of the 

 Ennian Jove. His confort is named Sachi ; hiscelef- 

 tial city, Amardvali ; his palace, Vaijayanta ; his 

 garden, Nandana ; his chief elephant, Airdvat ; his 

 charioteer, Mdiali ; and his weapon, Vajra, or the 

 thunderbolt: he is the regent of winds and fhowers; 

 and though the Eaft is peculiarly under his care, yet 

 his Olympus is Merit, or the north pole, allegorically 

 reprefented as a mountain of gold and gems. With 

 all his power he is conhdered as a fubordinate Deity, 

 and far inferior to the Indian Triad, Brahma, Vf/inu, 

 and Mahddeva, or Siva, who are three forms of one 

 and the fame Godhead : thus the principal divinity of 

 the Greeks and Latians, whom they called Zeus and 

 Jupiter, with irregular inflexions Bios and Jovis, was 

 not merely Fulminator, the Thunderer, but, like the 

 deftroying power of India, Magnus Divus, UUor, Ge- 

 nitor ; like the preferving power, Conjervaior, So;i>, 

 Opitulus, Altor, Kuminus ; and like the creating power, 

 the Giver of Life ; an attribute which I mention here 



on 



