Italy, axd india. 267 



Secondly ; in the myftical and elevated character of 

 Pan, as a perfonification of the Univerfe, according- to 

 the notion of Lord Bacon, there arifes a fort of fimili- 

 tude between him and Criflina, conhdered as Ndrdyan. 

 The Grecian God plays divinely on his reed, to exprefs, 

 we are told, ethereal harmony. He has his attendant 

 Nymphs of the paftures and the dairy. His face is as 

 radiant as the (Ivy, and his head illumined with the 

 horns of a crefcent; whilfl his lower extremities are 

 deformed and fhaggy, as a fymbol of the vegetables 

 which the earth produces, and of the beafts who roam 

 over the face of it. Now we may compare this portrait 

 partly with the general character of Criflina, the Shep- 

 herd God, and partly with the delcription in the 

 Bhdgavat, of the Divine Spirit exhibited in the form of 

 this Univerfal World ; to which we may add the fol- 

 lowing ftory from the fame extraordinary poem. The 

 Nymphs had complained to Yafodd, that the child 

 Criflina had been drinking their curds and milk. On 

 being reproved by his folter-mother for this indifcre- 

 tion, he requelted her to examine his mouth; in which, 

 to her juft amazement, fhe beheld the whole univerfe 

 in all its plenitude of magnificence. 



We muit not be furprifed at finding, on a clofe ex-* 

 animation, that the characters of all the Pagan Deities, 

 male and female, melt into each other, and at laft into 

 one or two; for it feems a well-founded opinion, that 

 the whole crowd of gods and goddefTes in ancient Rome^ 

 and modern Vdrdnes^mt&n only the powers of Nature* 

 and principally thofe of the Sun, exprefied in a variety 

 of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful names* 



Thus have I attempted to trace, imperfectly at pre- 4 

 fentj for want of ampler materials, but with a confi- 



U 2 dencc 



