Gangler, being introduced into the lofty palace, or hall, of the gods, the roof of which was formed of brilliant gold, beheld, three thrones raised one above another, and upon each throne fat a facred perfonage. Upon his afking which of these was their king, the guide answered, he, who fits on the lowest throne, is the king, his name is HAR, the lofty one; the fecond, JAFNHAR, or equal to the lofty one; he, who fits on the highest throne, is called THRIDI, or the third."* The right reverend editor informs us, that, in the manuscript of the EDDA, preferved at Upsal, there is a reprefentation, or drawing, very rudely executed, of these three thrones, and of the three perfons fitting upon them, before whom Gangler is drawn in a fuppliant posture. "Thefe figures," his lordship adds, "bear fo great a resemblance to the Roman Catholic pictures of the Trinity, that we must not wonder if fome have imagined them to be an allufion to that doctrine, particularly those who suppose it was already known to Plato and fome others among the ancient Pagans.". To this remark I beg permiffion to fubjoin, that though I am very far from conceiving that thefe

Cc 3

EDDA, tranflated by the editor of Mallet's North. Antiq. vol. ii. p. 3.

these thrones have any immediate allusion to the thrones which the pious Daniel faw exalted, (for, fo the orignal words, translated cast down, fhould be rendered,) whereon the Ancient of Days and the eternal Logos fat in heaven to judge mankind, and much farther from drawing any comparifon between the IMMORTAL BEINGS that fat upon the latter, and the deified mortals that were exalted to the former, thrones; yet I may surely contend for the perversion of some ancient tradition, by which the mind of the Scandinavian theologue was impreffed with the idea of a heaven, in which were erected three thrones for as many fovereign gods: I say the perversion of fome ancient tradition, fince it is for a Triad of Deity, the manifest veftige of that nobler doctrine, a Trinity in Unity, that I, in this inftance, alone contend. But, left I fhould appear, amidst these excurfive inquiries into the Pagan Triads, to have altogether loft fight of that nobler doctrine, I fhall, upon this fubject of celeftial thrones, fubmit to the reader a very curious paffage, relative to the belief of the Jews in a triune Deity, which occurs in the fame extenfive note of the Univerfal Hiftory from which I borrowed a former extract on that fubject, and in which the true mean

ing of the paffage in Daniel, just cited, respecting the throne of Deity, is difcuffed. The writers of the Talmud, they affert, have plainly unfolded their real opinion in agitating this queftion: Why is the throne of God, in Daniel, mentioned in the plural number? "After feveral trifling answers, which are there given as the folution of the feveral learned rabbies, one of whom pretends, that the plural implies the thrones of God and David: the last and concluding reply is to the following purpose: That it is blafphemy to set the creature on the throne of the Creator, bleffed for ever; and the whole is clofed with these notable words: If any one can folve this difficulty, let him do it; if not, let him go his way and not attempt it." The meaning, they obferve, is too obvious to need explanation.*

That the vaft continent of America was in the most remote periods vifited, and in part colonized, by the great naval and commercial powers of the ancient world, the Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Carthaginians, who, driven by tempefts, or fome of the various accidents attendant upon the perilous fcience of naviga

* See Ancient Univerfal Hiftory, vol. iii. p. 12. Edit. oct.

tion, has been rendered highly probable by the learned Hornius in his book, on the Origin of the Americans, from various concurring circumstances of affinity, enumerated by him, respecting the language, civil customs, and religious inftitutions, prevailing among those respective nations. The universal adoration of the folar orb by the Americans, and the remarkable fact mentioned by Sir William Jones in the Afiatic Researches, that the first dynasties of Peruvian kings are dignified, exactly as thofe of India are, by the name of the fun and moon,* may also be adduced in evidence that a race, wandering from the neighbourhood of Caucafus, and traverfing the vast deserts of Afia, towards the northeastern extremity, paffed over the chain of iflands, now known to exift between the two continents, and contributed their proportion towards the population of the new world. Whether in Manca, or MANCU, whom the Peruvian traditional books mention as their firft emperor, may be traced, as Hornius afferts, any real veftige of the race of Tartars called MANCHEW, or, in the appellation of Mafateca, one of the four nations

Vide Harnius de Orig. Gent. Americ. p. 105. Edit. o.

tions of New Spain; and, in Massachusetæ, a people of New England, the ancient MAS

SAGETÆ, are discovered; these are points on which, from the uncertainty of general etymology, it would be rafh to form any abfolute decifion. But, on a recent perufal of Acosta's Authentic Hiftory of South America, I could not avoid being ftruck with his account of the dreadful fanguinary facrifices of which both the Peruvians and Mexicans are enormously guilty, and I fhall here infert it, as forming a ftriking and gloomy fimilitude to the bloody facrifices of the old Scythians and Indians, defcribed from Herodotus and Mr. Wilkins in many former pages. That fimilitude is more particularly visible in these two points, the first is, that the victims thus facrificed are prisoners taken in war; the second is, that these are offered up for the preservation of the monarch.*

The ancient Peruvians used to facrifice young children from foure, or fix, yeares old unto tenne; and the greatest parte of thefe facrifices were for the affaires that did concern the Ynca, as in fickness, for his recovery; and, when he went to the warres, for victory. In thefe folemnities they facrificed

• See the chapter on the Scythian facrifices.

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