90 ESSAY ON THE 



As'burgk, As-hitry, came to point out the west ; and the western countries 

 were denominated by the Greeks ^ Hesperia Sec The Goths having con- 

 quered the JVhite Island^ and finding no deities Hving there, placed very 

 properly at a great distance, out of the reach of persons too curious and 

 inquisitive, this abode of the gods, toward the east, from which quarter 

 they came. Thus Asbury, or ^/^j-^ar^^ designated the east with them. 



In Sanscrit, puh,pura or pur, puri, signify a building to live in, also an 

 assemblage of such buildings, a village, a town. Beu, pen, in JVelsfi^ 

 signify the same ; peu is also written peues, and in Sanscrit we have pus^ 

 before certain consonants. Pur and purih answer to burig, byrigj and 

 burh in Gothic: the Greeks 5?Lidpyrgos. 



The divines of Tibet, according to P. GioRcr, place a paradise in fno. 

 west, in a certain world, where Hopameh, or the Supreme Being, re- 

 sides alone. This place is coeval with the world, and is without end. 

 This is the JFhite Island, which escapes the general devastations of the 

 world, both by fire and water, but will ultimately be destroyed and anni- 

 hilated with the rest of the creation. Some are of opinion, however, 

 that the JVhite Island will survive the general wreck, because they con- 

 ceive that the Supreme Being must have a place to exist in ; otherwise 

 He would exist no where, and of course would not exist at all. This 

 ideay peculiar only to a few, is in general reprobated as heterodox. Ho- 

 pameh is the same with Cenresi, according to P. GioRGr, cdiWed Justus 

 judex, Dharma-rdja, in Sa?iscrit, one of the two forms of Yama, and 

 an emanation of Vishnu, or in other words Vishnu in the chara6ter, and 

 with the title of king of justice. The cabalists among the Jezvs place 

 the abode of the Divine Majesty in the west: and the Essenians placed 



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