Classical Theology.—Lxii.

most ancient and undeniable records of established truth , the Books of Moses , open with the account of the beginning of the world , and were composed upwards of 8300 years since . About 900 to 1000 years later , Confucius , the Chinese Philosopher , and Herodotus , the earliest of the heathen historians , whose works have come down to us , flourished .

The Chinese language can scarcely be said to subsist iuan alphabet , its orthography consisting more-in the placing of words than the joining of letters , as each symbol more or less comprises a word , or its part as a syllable . Consequently . as the numeral 2 signifies certain letters , and the numeral 3 signifies certain other

letters when spelt in any language , the Chinese characters are shown to constitute an universal form of communication in the same way as the Arabic figures form an universal table of multiplication . But ages before the Lehey-Lykiny or any of the books of Confucius , the Zend Aoesta had been

compiled , and for more than a century beyond the era of Herodotus , the religion of Zoroaster , king of Bactria , who was the first expounder of the doctrine of magic to the Persians , had been dominantly established throughout Western Asia , that is , from the reian of Cyrus , B . C . 559 . The Pharsees , or as some term them Parsis , from Ears , the old name of Persia , still adhere to their ancient system of religion , as followers of Zoroaster .

It is supposed that the Zend and Parsi , have an origin in common with the language of the Brahmins , while the other old dialect , the Pehlvi of the Magi , is more relatively connected with tbe Chaldaie . The Alcoranns or Allcoran was written in Persia , about the commencement of the ' 7 th century . The language is so soft that Mahomet it is said ( though more likely

for the sake of its cultivation ) assured his followers it would be spoken in Paradise . It appears to be a compound of Parsi and Arabic , and , with the exception of four three-pointed letters , its characters are Arabic .

The most eminent Pundits or Brahmins , learned in the laws , and of unblemished reputation , have produced authorities for some of the decrees inserted in the Hindoo code , from documents written " millions of years" before the time of Adam , which , according to our usual reckoning , must have been 5807 althoughperhapswe ourselves

years ago , , , should fix the diluvian epoch at about B . C . 18 ( 53 only . In either respect we cannot , therefore , but suspect that the very learned priests of India have substituted , or at least mistaken days for years in their interpretations of numerals , belonging to both a long disusedand unintelliible language . And

not-, g withstanding ; we are to conclude that the Hindoos possess dissertations concerning their judicial legislation of more remote date than is to be met with in any other country , proved , beyond doubt , by their having been written in the Sanscrit language , which has not been spoken for many ages throughout

Hindostan , still , as the Pundits have alwaysjbeen well acquainted with that language , the proof , beyond doubt , admits of a disquisition . Yet , even so , there is no disputing the evidence of an extremely remote civilisation of Hindostan . Those who have carefully examined the Hindoo code , manifest their surprise at the sustained minuteness and nicety of its details and distinctions on points of philosophical policy , which appear iu many instances to have escaped the

attention of European administration . Also it is stated that some of its regulations , which evince the utmost sense of refinement , were arrayed in periods of surpassing antiquity ; as , for instance ( mainly resting upon what we have said ) , — " In the Sacred Law Tracts , " says Sir William Jones in his Asiatic Researches ( p . 42 Scode c . xxi . ) " which the Hindoos

, , suppose to have been revealed by Menu some millions of years ago , there is a curious passage on the legal interest of money , and the limited rate of it in different cases , with an exception in regard to adventurers at sea —an exception which the sense of mankind approves , and which commerce absolutely requiresthough it

, was not before the reign of Charles I . that our English jurisprudence fully admitted it in respect to maritime contracts . " The compendium on Hindoo adjudication in the Ayeen Aklery , devised by Akber VI . aud his enlightened vizier Abul Pazel , about A . D . 550 , is considered the first general communication of its

tendencies towards others of a different religion . It is , however , to the renown , as well as by the authority of Hastings , that the most erudite Brahmins of the provinces under his governorship were assembled at Calcutta , A . D . 1771 , subject to his inspection , to compile from their most ancient and reliable authors , sentence by sentence , word for word , a complete code of the Hindoo laws . This truly valuable work so

fully explanatory of the customs , manners , aud policy of India , occupied the assiduous attention of its learned laboures for upwards of two years entirely to accomplish it . But ancient nations , claiming no boast to one iota of such extravagant antiquity , have passed from states of barbarism into empires of supreme civilisationand wealthandpower ; yet the

, , , most magnificent monuments of their commemorated glory are sunk beneath decay and are crumbling into dust ; of the seven wonders of the world ( structures not only of skill , grace , and beauty , but of enormous strength and size ) , the pyramids alone remain . Isov in Indiaevery part of itit is saidthere are to be

, , , found two descriptions of monuments of the highest antiquity , namely , edifices that were consecrated to religion , and fortresses that were erected for the defence and safety of the country . The . general name given by Europeans , to the former , is that of Pagodas . In tlie diversity of their style there is

ample evidence of an architecture explanatory of its gradual developement , the suitable progress of the arts and sciences , and the habits and occupations of a people to which , at different periods , it belonged . At first the Pagodas appear to have been imitations of caverns , or mere excavations made in mountains ; and which were probably nothing more than aboriginal shelters from night dew , excessive heat , and the inclemencies of the air and seasons . Yet almost

m the same breath we are told that the most celebrated , and believed to be the most ancient of any , is the Pagoda , or Hindoo Temple , in the island of Elephanta , a few miles distant from Bombay-This stupendous w ork of manual dexterity and labour , whose high place lies midway up a lofty the

mountain , is hewn out of a solid block of work to extent of nearly one hundred and twenty square feet . Adapted to the support of its roof from the weig ht of the mountain that towers above , massive , but far from inelegant pillars have been left and cut out ol the same rock , at such uniform distances as to present to the spectator a charming appearance ol