Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Mysteries Of The Early Ages As Connected Wirh Religion.
ON THE MYSTERIES OE THE EATfcLY AGES AS CONNECTED "WITH RELIGION .
It has been generally supposed , that all religious mysteries originated in Egypt ; but , however much they may have been promoted there , as is proved by the pyramids and the immense temples existing
at this day , there is every reason to believe that they were derived from India . The priests of that country , who were known to the Greeks by the name of Gymnosophists ( from their being very slightly clothed ) , were renowned at an early age for their wisdom and advancement in science . The figures so vast and gigantic , at present seen in the caverns of Ellora , and in various subterranean excavations
throughout that extensive peninsula , attest the existence of a religion mixed up with Allegories and Symbols ; a proof of which is seen in their idol , with three heads and four arms annexed to the same body , representing a Trinity , composed of Brama , the Creator ; Siva , the Destroyer ; and Vishnu , the protecting Deity , emblematic of the
Eternal Being who maintains every part of nature by annihilating and constantly renewing its various members . Mention has likewise been made of an enormous statue , half male and half female , having on the right breast an image of the sun , and on the left , that of the moon ; both of which symbols belong to the earliest ages . It was from India that other nations have derived the idea of an Eternal
and All-powerful Deity , as well as the doctrine of the immortality of the soul ; of rewards and punishments in a future state : and of the metempsychosis , according to which the soul had to pass through various stages of existence before it was sufficiently purified for the enjoyment of felicity . These tenets were introduced into Magna Graocia , at Crotona , in Italy , by Pythagoras ( died mo . 497 ) , and who is said to have imbibed them from the Brahmins .
These having been a particular class of the people , it soon became apparent that everything they taught , if involved in a system of VOT ,. IT . * TA
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Mysteries Of The Early Ages As Connected Wirh Religion.
ON THE MYSTERIES OE THE EATfcLY AGES AS CONNECTED "WITH RELIGION .
It has been generally supposed , that all religious mysteries originated in Egypt ; but , however much they may have been promoted there , as is proved by the pyramids and the immense temples existing
at this day , there is every reason to believe that they were derived from India . The priests of that country , who were known to the Greeks by the name of Gymnosophists ( from their being very slightly clothed ) , were renowned at an early age for their wisdom and advancement in science . The figures so vast and gigantic , at present seen in the caverns of Ellora , and in various subterranean excavations
throughout that extensive peninsula , attest the existence of a religion mixed up with Allegories and Symbols ; a proof of which is seen in their idol , with three heads and four arms annexed to the same body , representing a Trinity , composed of Brama , the Creator ; Siva , the Destroyer ; and Vishnu , the protecting Deity , emblematic of the
Eternal Being who maintains every part of nature by annihilating and constantly renewing its various members . Mention has likewise been made of an enormous statue , half male and half female , having on the right breast an image of the sun , and on the left , that of the moon ; both of which symbols belong to the earliest ages . It was from India that other nations have derived the idea of an Eternal
and All-powerful Deity , as well as the doctrine of the immortality of the soul ; of rewards and punishments in a future state : and of the metempsychosis , according to which the soul had to pass through various stages of existence before it was sufficiently purified for the enjoyment of felicity . These tenets were introduced into Magna Graocia , at Crotona , in Italy , by Pythagoras ( died mo . 497 ) , and who is said to have imbibed them from the Brahmins .
These having been a particular class of the people , it soon became apparent that everything they taught , if involved in a system of VOT ,. IT . * TA