372 Oh Egypt and the Nile 



Plutarch afTerts, that the priefts of Egypt called the Sun their Lord'and 

 King ; and their three Gods refolve themfelves ultimately into Him alone r 

 Osiris was the Sun 5 Horus was the Suns and fo, I fuppofe, was Typhon* 

 or the power of deJlruSlion by heat } tliough Plutarch fays gravely, that fuch, 

 as maintained that opinion, were not worthy to be heard. The cafe was nearly 

 the fame in ancient India $ but there is no fubject, on which the modern 

 Brdhmens are more referved -, for, when they are clofely interrogated on the 

 title of De'va, or God, which their mofl facred books give to the Sun, they 

 avoid a direct anfwer, have recourfe to evafions, and often contradict one 

 another and themfelves : they confefs, however, unanimoufly, that the Sun 

 is an emblem, or image, of their three great deities jointly and individually* 

 that is, of Brahm, or the Supreme One, who alone exifls really and abfolutely $ 

 the three male divinities themfelves being only Maya, or illufion.. The body 

 of the Sun they confider as Maya j but, fince he is the molt glorious and 

 active emblem of God, they refpett him as an object of high veneration » 

 All this mull appear very myfterious; but it flows from the principal tenet 

 of the Vkdantis, that the only being, which has abfolute and real exigence, 

 is the divine fpirit, infinitely wife, infinitely benign, and infinitely powerful^ 

 expanded through the univerfe, not merely as the foul of the world, but as the 

 provident ruler of it> fending forth rays or emanations from his own effence, 

 which are the pure vital fouls of all animated creatures, . whether moveable- or 

 immoveable ; that is (as we. mould exprefs ourfelves) both animals and vegeta- 

 bles, and which he calls back to himfelf according to certain laws eftablifhed 

 by his unlimited wifdom : though Brahma be neuter in the character of the 

 Molt High One, yet, in that of Supreme Ruler, Mz is named Para me'swa- 

 ra 5 but through the infinite veneration, to which He is entitled, the Hindus 

 meditate on Him with filent adoration, and offer prayers and facrifice only to 

 the higher emanations from Him. In a mode incomprehenfible to inferiour 



