Oratio in theatro Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis ex Harveii Instituto, habita die Octob. XVIII, an. MDCCC [electronic resource]

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polystellam, in later times, might have been designe to e sonisy th attributes of thei supreme Iupiter, et the Elements

os the Roman reat God Dii Consentesu, en ut o tWelve were Elements Vesta, Vulcan and Apollo, ire and Light; Νeptune and Iupiter, ater audinain Juno, ercvry and Minerva, Air Diana a d Ceres, Eartim Diana representing that element by iis animal productions,' a Ceres by the vegetable. The rema ining two Consentes, Venus an Mars implied separalely, Generation and Destruction, and joinu Nature, O the mutuat operationis the ster te . For Nature, is no more manthe roWth and procession fieristia letodios, o that Rule of the Deity accordinito whicli ali hings proceed, unde his immediate impulse and the incessant inspectionis his providenoe. But o mi any further instances, si Omiseopte Whos mythologies ure familia to very one and noto anticipat in his place Whato hali aveo submit respecting thos of thermore remote, I here content myself,itti declaring the ui porto this Essay, hicli scio hew: heres re the Elements erereseri e to by early nations and likewis to expla in What was undet stood os the Deit by the means of them, and by what misconstruction they beeam Objects of worship. Froni,hicli exposition I trus it Wil appenr, that as the Elemenis, O principies of good ordo sortiter 3 estatilis ted among the Jews, eretype or hadow of good hings to come in the fame way

mence thos stranget accoutred figures of the Ephesian Diana, lagrave in

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INTRODUCTION.

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with his Creator a Minen, and an ecam obnoxious to Sin, expiato macrifice were institute is Divine Command prefigurative Os a more complete atonement , he were aste ward disfigured by an human additions, hicli, -evergros and vain, mus neverthelessi considere a attempts, Onthe par os man, t a proacho God expressin a sense falienation, in deterioration os man' nature, and a ope os restitution this sense of exclusion rom in presence and

favor of the Deity, was adde the sear of excision a dueri sin, an a was actuali experience in the Flood, wit a partialexception his, MIen state an merite punishment have been implied is no directi acknowledged in ever sacre rite of tho Gentile orid, inithei Sacrifices and eremontes, intho abies of hesi Poets, and the devices of thei Sculptors, whicli a s had thes origi in Religiones It is a very triliingWοο of the firs of these notion enteriaine by the Greelis, toomit so the present an other idolatrous eοΡle, that the Symbo os estoratio plaee in the hand of their Hercules,

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was the triplo ruit, the ruit alni supposedo have been cap te os conserrinilise, by hicli an sell. I his, a tho

Greelis reported was tot gathere in the arden os themosperides, in Eden os hos Pagans. t was by the means ossucti Sculptures a these, that ari nations expressed their Religiolis ope. In developing the mea ning of them, e cantrace illi tolerable learness, the vie the took of the irst histor of manliinc, and with it me progressis error. Τhis histor in the immediate Ostdiluvian ages, as reserved by traditions. Mitch it was asterwards desiguest should beperpetua te by symbols. The stor of the illars of Seth, though a mere fiction, shews ut least that orat tradition could not wholt be dependedopon, and that something more Iastinghecam very oon destra te. Therars histories, heresere,,ould bo unded down more or les salthfully, in proportionis themeans os commemoratin them were perspicuous Orcili conceived Τho early use os Alphabetic Character can by nomeans e insereed rom this 'sesiona ha the se of symbolsprecede thaco letters, and that the serme were ovise notearlier than the dispersionis Babel, may be concluded stomsevera considerations. Τhe longevit os man besore the ood, rendered writte record Iess necessa , in illos times. The useos a written character ould have te to the sorminia standardsor language, hicli might have interserea missi the mercisul dispensation os the Almight in the dispersion Andithe observation o learne men have hewn that si primitivo sornis os letters were but me abridge representations of things. Sotthatthe precise perio at whicli Symbols were invented seenis to be

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more trul expressed than actualty intende is Diodorus, when e thus assirme os inarticulat speech: At in timewhen speech was indistinc an confused confound 9, the is degrees expressed theniselves in a more articulate manner, unda potnte symbolsci represent the objecis unde consideration, by whicli means they ere able to Xplain theniselves intelligibly.V. Tho us os symbias heresere, avebis to letters the abuse of them produce Idolat . In tra cing the Ialter, We must considor in principat objecis a that time to e recorded, whiclidoubuess, ere, the natur of the Deit an his command s, therevelations os his presence, hi judgemenis, an his promises: hecause, thea piness, man depende on a correctanowledgeos these, an On regulatin his conduci accordingIy. In theseconis place W may resume, that the selection os symbolswould he ad stom natura objecis, a the mos evident and intelligibio. Τhus the natur of the Deit as a spirit, mighthave been symboli sed by Winil, his presene by re, his udgements and mercies by Water, an his promise by earin an iis fruits. The origina tradition os the spiritis God movinion the watersis chaos, and of ali ining beinterea ted by his,ord, when e uid- Letinere se, an it was,' Would have fusenished probatile occasion sor the adoption of the first mentioned symbol. It is allowed by the est commentators that the lossos in Schechinali, that visibi sign os the presence of the

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Doity, induce an early respect sor sola light ascit supposod substitute Helice in Origin f the worship uid to the sunand the heavenly luminaries. The catastrophe of the floοd rendor in neu suppositio credibie, and the recollection of thostate filis in Eden, and of the virtve attributedo it Duila, Would have supplied the last. Nox in orde aster these important Opics, the dependatice osman pon his Creator, and the particula histo of thos wholia experience his wra in or his mercy, were subjecis to interestinito be orgoiten. The escape, a se froni in generaldestructio by Water, hos se me reneWersis the humata race, tho depositaries of early revelations sciences an uris, Wasdeeme necessar to e recorde l. pon reserring again tonatural objecis, it a b conceived that i the Elements wore adopte to commemorate thelowers of the Deity thei physicaleffecis combinod illi thos primis symbols, ould ais repre- seni his dea ings,ith manliind. Hetice the Element an their Properties, assumed in a secondar senseri record the numberos ales an Females preserved in the Flood, ould perpetuateboth tho memor of the renewers of the huma race, and the Great Firs Caus to whom their sufety was tot ascribed. heVer symbias, heresere, hici recorde the attributes of the Deity, furnished the means also os commemorating the existenceo Founder an Benefactors Helice hen the Orme were revere ced the lalter artook of the hon ursisai them, an aver imperfeci remed Was provide so this confusion by the creationis an inserior ordor os deities unde the ille osmeroes.

In proo of this, sud that in the sabulous histor O AEgypti

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as reported by Diodorus, me sam deifie Elements were sedio denote two different et os objecis Aster enumerating thofirs cause of Creation, accordinit me opinion of the AEgyptians, amely the Sun and Μοοn, operatin by thei eight

paris, hicli,ereisue Elements and three easons that author describes the personification os in chies of thes principies undortho tities of Osiris andosis, and the lenient unde thos os Iupiter, Hephaestus, Ceres, Oceanus an Athene, hich heternis the principat deities. mutis me of these, e adiis, ereonly mortes dei fied an a re accorditigi included in the num-hor of their ight eroes, whichisere the Sun, Saturn, heu, Iupiter, Iuno, Hephaestus, Vesta undinermes . Some of these, though personifiei Elemenis, ere reported' have been Κings of AEgypt Where it appears that an occasional reseretice of thesam emblem to two distinc Objecis recorded by it, roduced a very absurd confusion man weli minking person theexamination of these intricate subles may appea useles and unprofitable. But in proportion to the confusion apparent in ever early agan tradition the learnes uni consistenc os in Pentateuch hec me subjec os admiration. . The more vident also must itio that the author of the Pentateuch id nothorro stom hos traditions and the greater the necessib sorhicheing divinet assisted. It is remartia te, that in the enumeration os these Iements

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throughout the reater par os Asia The Divine Spirit modi move the chaotio uid, is dolabiles the occuli mea ning of that figure orshimed in themast in a sitiing ostiire, o the

Lotus, an torme Boud h. In hat ar of Asia inis representation irs obta ined, or at What time, I Williso presume toasti . In India, certaint besere the dispossession os the Aborigines by the Bra limitis, ho superinduced thei later rivalworshis os the elementi Earin, ater a ad ire, hich constituto thoir celebrated Triad. The earlier Worstiti I reser o, pr valle at a remote period in Ceylon, o Whicti Viscount Valentia has presented a very curious tradition in the rs volume of his traveis:- ΤWO Di rema inod the wori os Brachma in thehighes region and the worii os Wind in the lowest.' Vol. I. P. 488. Appendix Doubiless, with allusion to the Peninsula os India norinward, and theos an os Ceylon in the solith, an to the distinct worshis prevalling in acti os them. I leave it to the orio talis to consider, hether the Persian w dBavio, denotin Wind may have any connection ire the Indian Deity Bovio, ut tho coinci dono os ibat word witti the Phoeniciun Baau, Βααυ, whicli as sal to e tho is of the wind κολπία, is ver stri ing, and the wor κολπία has been wellexi lained by Bochari, to e vimi-Iah spiritus rentus oris

jeci, rustinito this etymologynos the Indian Idol, anda tholice infer, that a notion os Spirit must also e included. In ibis I

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shali e supporte by a resereno to the opinion os other con- temporar nations. he AEgyptians, more ingeniolis in their devices than the Aborigines os India, expressed the ternat Spirit on the ron os thei temptes by ings extende uorOssthe tympanum, by Whicli the conveyed an idea os uir or Wind, a me ea res sensibi illustration os a spiritual objeci. hepillar ilia supported the architrave, ere compose of hundies of reed and Other quati planis, to denote he rimevat water ove whicli stat Spirit moded accordingly the Greelis, who horrowed rom me aegyptians, ave me nam Os αετος, Eugle t in tympanum of thei temples that hiri heing the wingo emblem os mei supreme Iupiter buta hali presently have to observe thut the Deity ad condoscendet to mali his PreSeuce nown by a luminous appos rance. Is in pyramides figure mere re os Bud haud resere nee t flume, et jointi considere With the num os that Ido , it ould have implied the luminous appea rance of spirit. For ibis reason in aegyptians

Ρ. 23, thus symbolising the reseuce and the Essence of the

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Deity, whicli the could no separate ' and such were proba lytho Termini se ui in Greec by the Pelasgi. The similarib of the conica beaps formerly respected in disserent aris of the wοrid, t this pyramidat figure s Boudii,