SACRKD ISLES, IN THE WEST. 1^7 



POLES, the god himself, in heaven; but says that his idol, or muriii, was 

 in the .elysian , fi«Wsi withf ; tl^e pther her^^ The word idol, in Greeks 

 originally signified an etn^n^tion or form, like murtti t and of. course it 

 signified also a spedlre or^apparition : andthg Gr^^X'^ and Romans seldom 

 or ever made use. of it, to signify t|ie S(tatue ,Qf a deity ; and it was used 

 in that sense exclusively by eeclesi^stipai writers. 



' . ' .' i.n>ii/Xl 70ff ,; .. -;-■ - 



No divine honours in India are oaid to a statue but after the perform- 



ance of three ceremonies. Tjiey give it first a suitable dress then it is 



consecrated, by forcing, the deity, to cpme.dpwn into it, by ce^itain spells 



or carmina; then the, officiating priest worships it. The same ceremonies 



were equally performed by the Gr^4^ and J^mans, and other idolatrous 



nations in the west. 



The Hindu f ctYt the sordi' kii^ other '6minRt\ons,murttis, because; 

 according to scripture, they are after the image and resemblance 6-f the 

 Supreme Being ; yet they assert that they are really portions of the di- 

 vine essence. This was the do6l'nne of the Greeks mid Roinans ; Am- 

 ma est Deus, I am God; I ain Brahme : and all their deities did ultimately 

 resolve themselves into the Suprehie Being, as asserted by the ■■Hindus] 

 because they were emanations from him. Macrobius shows, thatali 

 tM deities resolved themselves ultimately into the sun; and this "ii^ 

 exa6lly the do6lrine of the Hindus ^ who add, with Plato, ■(') fhaf th^ 

 Sto?/''i^*W^ mb'st perfe(5t mwr^/f; or image of the Supreme Being.' 

 *l*hd ii^fe^idf deities resblve themselves into the three superior ovks\ 

 and these; ultimately, into th^ sun; for all emanations are may a, ge- 

 nerally rendered by illusion, hut often also applicable to contingent 



i^) Maciiob. in somu. StivicN. Lib, 1. c. 2° 



