,O'M. 
that their devotions are dire&ted. This indeed ods commen- 
taries on the gayatri uniformly confirm. See Sur 
Sir W. Jones fays that the gayatri is s called et “ Mother 
of the Vedas."’ This we apprehend is to be taken inductively ; 
the Vedas proceeded from .Brahma, or from his fakti or 
coequal power or confort Sarafwati, who is named Savitri, as 
is alfo both the gayatri and the fun. In the conclufion of 
the preface to the Inftitutes of Menu, is a tranflation, the 
words in Italics being thofe immediately of the text. «* The 
many panegyrics on the gayatri, the mother, as it is called, 
of the Vedas, prove the au Bae (Menu) to have adored, 
not the vifible material fun, but that divine and i incom arably 
greater light, age illumines all, delights all, from which all 
proceed, to whic and which alone can irradiate 
(not our vifual pa merely, but our fouls and) our en 
leds. efe may be confidered as the words of the 
venerable text in,the Indian eee 
nother tranflation occurs in the laft volume of his works, 
in which he feems to have intended making the tranflation as 
literal as poffible 
e ga tri. or holieft verfe of the Vedas: Let us 
a the fupremacy of that divine fun, the godhead, w 
illumines all, who recreates all, f all proceed, to 
whom all muft return; w rect our und 
ftanding aright in our progrefs toward his h ‘és 
following paraphrafe or commentary, 1s by a learned 
ahman named Rh: » of i honourable Paneas 
io] 
2 
me 
@ 
the creator, eoeaeds ae, of a 
edas anal 
tains it, and that 
olebr es de learned pretident 
of the 
Vitwamites, ie fa oh om it 
x and View a This new ad excellent 
es of Flee OQ fplendid playful Sun! is offered by us 
a: ratified by this my f{peech; approach this 
ali ~ mind, = fond man feeks a woman. May tha 
Sun who contemplates, and looks into, all worlds, be our 
3 
& 
protector. 
es ae us "fay i on the adorable light of the divine ruler— 
vitri).— guide our intelle@s. Defirous of food, we 
eit the sift a the fplendid fun okie, who fhould be 
ftudioufly worfhipped. Venerable men guided by the under- 
ftanding, falute the divine fun (Savitri) with oblations and 
pa 
my fteri 
FPN IWR ithe, con derived ome of its myftic 
fhould be eacet fo very profound, or why it fhould be kept 
fecret ; for its expofition, unconneted with the idea of my{- 
tery, does not feem like ly to have the effedt, fo dreaded by 
priefts, of ‘ guiding the intelleets” of the sauleeade to the 
difcovery of truth. 
We have thus offered, under one article, what we wifhed 
to fay on thofe two myfterious words Om and Gayatri. 
However puerile fuch myfticifms may appear to a certain 
clafs of philofophers, it cannot be otherwife than interefting 
to thofe inquifitive as to the varieties and coincidences in the 
human mind, to trace them among remote people and back 
to remote ages received with myfterious awe by 
millions of intelligent beings, cannot be wholly undeferving 
the {crutiny of philofophy ; ~ where the wileft of refine 
people diftant from, and unco 
n the part of tho 3 = have more time = inclination ; 
devote - fuch points, than we profefs to 
al a ne the letter equivalent ay A is the initial, 
moft lettered nations, it 
the ; Den, and afterwards of Chitece. and as fuch 
was engraved on the tombs of the early Chriftians, to dif- 
tinguifh them from thofe of idolaters. ‘Thus we find the 
com » yie arly the cone hyllsble found in queftion. 
vitial ‘and ao ee have thus, 
teriou us wit any people. con 
tains the i paparaie letters, and the word accordingly i is laand 
tor gees Secret, hidden, myflerious. e os have an oc~ 
Bla entitle . cia hugs a Saftra, aa 28 en pane 
The ae or fi 
{eure God, is maintained. 
The fimilarity of the languages of the Arabians and He- 
brews, and the common origin of the law of thofe people, 
ead us to expect a like fimilarity i in their notions, as to th 
myfterious import of certain letters. Such notions were, 
and are, of extenfive prevalence among them e have 
ready fhewn the myfticifms of the Hindoos touching firft and 
laft letters, their * triliteral nee able,’’ their ¢ tri- 
verbal phrafe,’? &c. triunities. h the Arabs and Jews 
the alphabetic initial is the initial and final, the firft and the 
~ like the alpha an reeke, of one their 
es of God, and is BAL Sages as | ere fan@tiity. It 
affage in 
