fus, and before the empire of Alexander and the Persians, nay, he says, that there was at that time a Greek translation from whence the philofophers borrowed, that Pythagoras was acquainted with it, as alfo Socrates and Plato."-Eufe. pre, xiii. 2.

Many things recorded in the hiftory of Mofes, are obfervable in the fable of Bacchus: if we fuppofe him, according to the fiction of fome authors, to have been born in Egypt, to have been immediately exposed to perish in an ark committed to the waters; that he was of a beautiful form, and educated in Arabia; that he was a renowned warrior, and had women in his camp. That Orpheus calls Bacchus Man, for Mofes, fays he was a lawgiver, and imputes to him wana Jequos a twofold law, as it were the two tables. That he was called bicornis, which word has been taken, improperly, to fignify what happened to Mofes when his face fhone.

That ferpents were used in the mysteries of Bacchus, and that a dog always accompanied him, as Caleb, (which word in Hebrew fignifies a dog) was attendant on Mofes. In Euripides, Bacchus is reprefented as having produced water from a rock after striking it with his Thyrfus; and the earth is faid to have

have yielded milk, wine and honey wherefoever he travelled. Add, that Nonnus relates, that Bacchus having touched the rivers Orontes and Hydafpes at different times with his Thyrfus, paffed on dry land thro' the midst of them; that having caft his stick intwined with ivy on the ground, it crept like a ferpent: that while the Indians were involved in darkness, the attendants of Bacchus enjoyed the light. The learned Bochart fays, after having made many obfervations to this purpose, "Ex mirabile illo concentu vel cæcis apparebit prifcos Fabularum architectos e fcriptoribus facris multa effe mutuatos"

SKETCH

SKETCH VII.

WHY MOSES DID NOT TEACH NATU RAL PHILOSOPHY OR ASTRONOMY.

SEEING that Mofes must undoubtedly have learned (among other branches of useful knowledge which he certainly taught) the science of aftronomy, why did he not inftruct his disciples in this also the solution of which question is easily deducible from the following reafons.

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From the first feeble attempts of genius to cultivate a science, which in its present improved ftate, of all others, tends moft to raife in the mind the noblest ideas of the fupreme Being, originated idolatry and fuperftition. Sirius, and other conftellations, became the objects of religious worship, under various forms and representations, which multiplied without end; and it is extremely probable, that to avoid fuch inconfiderate and

impious

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impious folly, with which vulgar and illite rate minds are at all times apt to be infected; Mofes thought it highly expedient to avoid introducing, or cultivating any theory which might have the fmaileft tendency to renew their former attachment to idolatry. The adoration of the Hoft of Heaven being at all times, even according to the precepts of Noah, cftimated a most heinous crime, they would not have diftinguished between obferving their phænomena, and worshipping them as divinities; and it is worthy of observation, that at those times, when a favourable opportunity offered, when peace and an exemption from the toils of war, when providence feemed most to favour them, and diffufive happiness shed her favours in abundance round them; nay, at that very aufpicious time, when Solomon reigned in all the pomp of regal glory when the reputation of his wisdom became famous to all the admiring world in those most profperous times, they paid not the fmalleft attention to the study of aftronomy, or any other fcience. In the days of their distress, in their captivity, when limited in their enjoyments, and reftrained in their pursuits, fubject to the wanton controul and capricious humours of def

potic conquerors, who were themselves but the momentary and precarious ufurpers of arbitrary power, it can never be fuppofed, that the Jews had either the inclination or the power to purfue the ftudy of fcience, which they had neglected in more favourable moments. They were ever, in all fituations, a ftubborn, refractory, and perverse genera`tion; a people, who in defpite of every expedient, however wifely planned, to cultivate the worship of the true God, often turned afide to the worship of idols; fo ineffectual were repeated threatnings, rewards and punishments to influence their ignorant and wavering minds.

Another reafon may alfo be affigned to illuftrate this point: The fagacious mind of Mofes, even without the fpirit of prophecy, which he eminently poffeffed, might have prognofticated, that theories, which to a perfon of his fuperior underftanding, might at that time have appeared extremely defective and unfatisfactory, would, in fucceeding generations, have been intirely exploded, and a more intelligible hypothefis invented. Unlefs, therefore, God had revealed to him a fyftem of philofophy, all that he could have faid on fuch fubjects from his own reafon, backed