mankind, at geographically different centres of origins, compelled of necessity, in ages anterior to alphabetical record, to express their ideas by pictures, figurative or symbolical). It is that man's mind has always conceived, everywhere, in the same method, everything that relates to him; because the inability in which his intelligence is circumscribed, to figure to his " mind's eye" existence distinct from his own, constrains him to revolve, in the pictorial or sculptural delineation of his thoughts, within the same circle of ideas; and, ergo, the figurative representations of his ideas must ever be, in all ages and countries, the reflex of the same hypotheses, material or metaphysical. May not the emblem of the Serpent and Egg, as well in the New as in the Old World, have originated from a similar organic law, without thereby establishing intercourse? Is not your Serpent a "rattle-snake," and, ergo, purely American? Are not Egyptian Serpents all purely Nilotic? The metaphysical idea of the Cosmogonical Serpent may be one and the same; but does not the zoological diversity of representation prove that America, 3000 years ago, could have had no possible intercourse with Egypt, Phoenicia; or, vice versa ?

"Such being the only values attached to serpents and eggs in Egyptian hieroglyphics, it is arduous to speculate, whether an esoteric significance did or did not exist between those emblems in the, to us, unknown Cosmogony of the Theban and Memphite Colleges. I too could derive inferences and deduce analogies between the attributes of the God Knuphis, or the God Ptha, and the "Mundane Egg," recorded by Eusebius, Iamblichus, and a wilderness of classical authorities, but I fear with no satisfactory result. It is, however, due to my friend Mr. Bonomi, (although I doubt the antiquity claimed for the conjectural similitude of the oval, or the early introduction of this myth into Egypt,) to cite his language on this subject. Speaking of the colossal statue of Rameses Sesostris, at Metraheni, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Literature, London, June 1845, he observes, 'There is one more consideration connected with the hieroglyphics of the great oval of the belt, though not affecting the preceding argument; it is the oval or egg which occurs between the figure of Ptha and the staff, of which the usual signification is Son or Child, but which, by a kind of two-fold use or meaning, common in the details of sculpture of this period, (the 18th or 19th Dynasty, say, B. C. 1500 or 1200,) I am inclined to believe, refers also to the myth or doctrine preserved in the writings of the Greek authors, as belonging to Vulcan, and said to be derived from Egypt, viz., the doctrine of the Mundane Egg. Now, although in no Egyptian sculpture of the remote period of

this statue, has there been found any allusion to this doctrine, it is most distinctly hinted at in one of the age of the Ptolomies; and I am inclined to think it was imported from the East by Sesostris, where, in confirmation of its existence at a very remote period, I would quote the existence of those egg-shaped basaltic stones, embossed with various devices and covered with cuneatic inscriptions, which are brought from some of the ancient cities of Mesopotamia.'

"In respect to your final inquiry, I may observe that I can produce nothing from the hieroglyphics to connect, directly, phallic worship with the solar emblem of the Serpent. In Semitic tongues, the same root signifies Serpent and Phallus: both in different senses are solar emblems. (Refer to DULAURE, Des Divinités Génératrices ou Le Culle du Phallus chez les Anciens et les Modernes," and LANCI Paralipomeni della Sagra Scrittura.')"

6

(L.)

THE early writers exhaust language in endeavors to express the lofty character and attributes, and the superlative power and dignity, of this great Unity, the highest conception of which man is capable. He is spoken of, in the sacred books of the Hindus, as the "Almighty, infinite, eternal, incomprehensible, self-existent Being; he who sees everything, though never seen; he who is not to be compassed by description; he from whom the universe proceeds; who rules supreme, the light of all lights; whose power is too infinite to be imagined, is BRAHM, the One Being, True and Unknown."-(Coleman's Hind. Mythology, p. 1.)

supreme

The God of Gods of the Hindus was less frequently expressed by the name BRAHм, than by the mystical syllable O'M, which corresponded to the Hebrew JEHOVAH. Strange as the remark may seem to most minds, it is nevertheless true, "that the fundamental principles of the Hindu religion were those of pure Monotheism, the worship of one supreme and only God." Brahm was regarded as too mighty to be named; and, while his symbolized or personified attributes were adored in gorgeous temples, not one was erected to him. The holiest verse of the Vedas is paraphrased as follows:

"Perfect truth; perfect happiness; without equal; immortal; absolute unity; whom neither speech can describe, nor mind comprehend ; all-pervading; all-transcending; delighted with his own boundless intelligence, not limited by space or time; without feet, moving swiftly;

without hands, grasping all worlds; without ears, all-hearing, understanding all; without cause, the first of all causes; all-ruling ;, all-powerful; the Creator, Preserver, Transformer of all things; such is the Great One, Brahm!"

The character and power of KNEPH are indicated in terms no less lofty and comprehensive than those applied to the omnipotent Brahm. He is described in the ancient Hermetic books, as the "first God, immovable in the solitude of his Unity, the fountain of all things, the root of all primary, intelligible, existing forms, the God of Gods, before the etherial and empyrean Gods and the celestial."-(Iamblichus, sec. viii. c. 2, 3. Cory's Frag. p. 283; Eusebius, Præp. Evang. lib. iii. p. 174.)

"The religion of the Scandinavian nations," says Mallet, "taught the existence of a 'supreme God, master of the universe, to whom all things were submissive and obedient.' The ancient Icelandic mythology calls him the author of every thing that existeth; the Eternal, the ancient, the living, the awful Being, the searcher into concealed things, the Being that never changeth.' This religion attributed to this Supreme Deity an infinite power, a boundless knowledge, an incorruptible justice,' and forbade its followers to represent him under any corporeal form. They were not even to think of confining him within enclosures of walls, but were taught that it was only in woods and consecrated forests they could serve him properly. There he seemed to reign in silence, and make himself felt by the respect which he inspired. It was an injurious extravagance to attribute to this deity a human figure, to erect statues to him, to suppose him of any sex, or to represent him by images. From this Supreme God had sprung (as if by emanations of his divinity) an infinite number of subaltern deities and genii, of which every part of the visible world was the seat and temple."―(Northern Antiquities, c. iv.)

Perhaps the relations which what we call the heathen world understood to exist between the Supreme Unity and the inferior Gods or Demiurgic Powers, cannot be better explained than by the following fragments from the Zoroastrian Oracles.

"For in the whole world shineth a TRIAD, over which a MONAD rules."

"All things are governed in the bosoms of this TRIAD."

"The FATHER mingled every spirit from this TRIAD."

"All things are the progeny of one fire;

The FATHER perfected all things and delivered them over

To the SECOND MIND, whom all nations of men call the first."*

*Cory's Anct. Frag., the Chaldæan Oracles.

Zeno, of Cyprus, taught the Unity of the Supreme Being, and that the names of the other deities of his countrymen were only symbols of his different attributes. That throughout nature there are two eternal qualities; the one active, the other passive; the former a pure, subtle ether, the divine spirit; the latter entirely inert, until united with the first. That the divine spirit, acting upon matter, produced fire, air, water, and earth; or, in other words, separated the elements from each other, etc.

(M.)

TEZCATLIPOCA. This divinity occupies the most conspicuous place in the Mexican Pantheon, and is entitled to a more extended notice than could be accorded in the text. He was essentially the first God in the mythological system of Mexico, in which he appears under a great variety of aspects; occupying a position corresponding to the Odin of Scandinavia, the Zeus of Greece, and the Brahma of India. "He was," says Boturini, "the representative of Divine Providence, the first God of the Indians; and the esteem in which he was held gives us to understand that these Gentiles acknowledged the government of the world by a Divine Wisdom, which has its seat in the heavens, and whose care extends to all things human."—(Idea de Una Nueva Historia General, etc., p. 11.) Sahagun observes that "he was held to be the true and invisible God, pervading heaven, earth, and hell. They say he alone is to be recognised in the government of the world; that he alone is able to give prosperity and riches, and to take them away; that he is the dispenser of fame, dignities, and honors. For these reasons they fear and reverence him, because they hold that his hand raises up and puts down." (Historia de Nueva Espania, lib. i. cap. 3.) And Herrara, equally explicit, says, "The Mexicans confessed a supreme God, the Lord, and framer of the Universe; and he was the principal object which they adored, looking up to heaven, calling him creator of heaven and earth, the wonderful, with other epithets of great excellence." And Torquemada, describing the adoration paid to Tezcatlipoca, exclaims; "quien de los que saben algo de historia, y leen in ella los errores de los antiguos, no dira que esta es Jupiter tan celebrado de todos ellos ?" "" Who, at all conversant with history, and who reads therein the errors of the ancients, will not say this was Jupiter, so celebrated by them all?"

Like the other deities of Mexico, he bore a multitude of names, allu

sive to his various attributes. The name by which he was best known was Tezcatlipoca, which is compounded of Tezcatepec, the name of a mountain upon which he is said first to have manifested himself to man, tlil, dark, and poca, smoke. The explanation of this designation is best given in the accompanying engraving and explanation from the Codex Vaticanus.

FIG. 44. TEZCATLIPOCA, THE FIRST GOD OF MEXICO.

"Tezcatlipoca, here represented, was one of their most potent deities; they say he once appeared on the top of a mountain called Tezcatepec, which signifies the Mountain of Mirrors. They paid him great reverence and adoration, and addressed him, in their prayers, with the appellation of Titlalahuan, which means, ' Lord whose servants we are.' They paint in his hands a sort of weapon (the xiuatlatli), together with a shield and quiver of arrows, and at his feet a serpent and a heap of fire, denoting that he is the creator of the elements. They believe him likewise to be the originator of wars. The old people say that those who entered where his idol stood, fell on their faces, and thus adored him; and that they took a little earth from the ground, which they swallowed with the greatest reverence, and addressed him, 'Lord,, since we are thy servants, grant us that which we may need.'"

The small curved outlines surrounding the central figure are the signs