Oxford English Prize Essay for 1821: The Study of Modern History. By D. K. SANDFORD ............ Remarks on the different Methods of Ploughing adopted Conjecturæ in Horat. Od. iii. et Epist. i. G. B. .............. 120 ADVERSARIA LITERARIA, No. xxix.-Epitaphe de Bonaparte.-Domine salvum pour les Grecs insurgés.- Ludovico XVIII, Galliæ Regi, in festis Baptismalibus Regii Burdigalæ Ducis.-H. Stephens's Reading of a Passage in Euripides.-The Arak Atsa Root Notice of a Vindication of 1 John v, 7. from the Objec- An Inquiry into the Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology. Part Iv. By R. P. KNIGHT................ 213 On the Origin, Progress, Prevalence, and Decline of Idolatry. Part VI. By the Rev. G. TOWNSEND .... 229 African Fragments. No. 11. By J. GREY JACKSON Memoir on the Antiquity of the Zodiacs of Esneh and Critique on Mr. BELLAMY'S New Translation of the Bible 283 Cambridge Prize Poems for 1821.-Maria Scotorum Regina. Exilev äμa oπoudάlwv. -Porsonian Prize 322 Notice of Professor COUSIN'S Edition of the two first books of Proclus on the Parmenides of Plato .................... 336 Nuga. Fragment of Thucydides.-On the quantity of Cedrinus. Specimens of the Bathos in Virgil.—Errors in the Orthography of Classical Names.—Misquotations. -Specimens of Bombast.-Grecisms in English Writers 382 Place the Oblong Zodiac of Dendera opposite page 251. ORIGIN, PROGRESS, PREVALENCE, AND BY THE REV. GEORGE TOWNSEND. PART V. [Continued from No. XLVI. p. 341.] SECTION VII.-Origin of Oracles. IT The Levitical law was not a collection of arbitrary and posi- Α giver, and the early patriarchal notions. Such books as Burder's Oriental Customs; Harmer's Observations; Ward's History of the Hindoos, &c. &c. abound with the most ample confirmation of this fact. To mention only a few out of many, the Hindoos give permission to a husband to marry a second wife, if the first prove barren; wives are chosen from the branches of their own families who may live at a distance, rather than from among strangers, with whom they may have contracted habits of friendship; a goat is frequently permitted to run wild, as if consecrated; the first-born are often devoted to their gods. The Hindoo laws relating to personal cleanliness are nearly, sometimes exactly, similar to those prescribed by Moses. Like the Hebrew Nazarites, the Hindoos offer their hair; and many other minor, as well as more important coincidences, may be added. Stronger evidence than these instances afford, to prove the early identity between the Patriarchal and Mosaic Religion, is found in the singular fact, that the ancient Egyptians had so many enactments among them similar to those afterwards appointed by Moses; so many indeed, that Dr. Spencer wrote his celebrated treatise De Legibus Hebræorum, to prove that the Israelites borrowed from the Egyptians: I need not observe that Spencer's reasoning has been long known to be fallacious. Unless too there were some decided resemblance between the Patriarchal religion, and the worship of the surrounding idolatrous nations, on what "known principle of the human mind," to use the celebrated expression of Mr. Gibbon, can we account for the frequent lapses of the Jews into idolatry? Even immediately after their deliverance from the Red Sea, when that most stupendous miracle, the parting of the waters, was still fresh im their memory, we find they complied with the invitations of the first idolatrous tribe they came near, and sacrificed to Baal Meon. To express his abhorrence of their crime, Moses changed: the word into Baal Peor; and Mr. Faber has certainly given us a most ingenious solution of the reasons which influenced the newly delivered Israelites to comply with this worship. He proves that the traditional religion was the same, and the Jews were only led to comply with the idolatrous additions which had been made to the original patriarchal ritual, in consequence of their agreeing in opinion with the idolaters, on the several points of faith, common to both religions. I shall close this paragraph with one additional proof, deduced from the narrative of Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzclarence. The plan of the temple of Solomon was the same as that of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. In his progress through India, Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzclarence |