all men would arrive at by meer dint of reflection. It appears then probable, that all those who adopted it, must have had it from the same hands; namely, from the eastern philosophers, and more particularly from the Perfians. And history affords a fanction to this conjecture. We know that the Scandinavians came from some country of Afia. ZENO, who was born in Cyprus, of Phænician parents, borrowed in all probability the principal tenets of his doctrine from the philofophers of the east. This doctrine was in many respects the same with that of the Magi. ZOROASTRE had taught that the conflict between Oromafdes and Arimanes; (i. e. Light and Darkness, the Good and Evil Principle) should continue till the last day; and that then the Good Principle should be re-united to the supreme God, from whom it had first issued: the Evil should be overcome and fubdued; darkness should be destroyed, and the world, purified by an universal conflagration, should become a luminous and shining abode, into which Evil should never more be permitted to enter. (Vid. Brücker Hift. Crit. Philof. Vol. I. Lib. 2. c. 3.) Arts, Sciences and Philosophy have heretofore taken their flight from east to west. The doctrine of the renovation of the world was current among some of the Celtic nations long ere ODIN migrated from Afiatic Scythia into the north. ORPHEUS had taught it among the Thracians, according to Plutarch and Clemens Alexandrinus; and we find traces of it in verses attributed to that ancient bard. The Greeks and Romans had also some idea of it; but the greatest part of them did not adopt the whole compleat system, but were content to detach from it, what regarded the conflagration of the world, in order to augment the confused and incoherent mass of their own religious opinions. I must not finish this note, without justifying the length of it: one word word will be sufficient. Some of the points of doctrine which I have been displaying after the EDDA, have been confea crated by Revelation.Here follow fome of the principal passages : "BUT the heavens and the earth which are nows " are referved unto fire against the day of judgment " and perdition of ungodly men." (2 Pet. ch. iii. ver. 7.) "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the " night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with " a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fer"vent heat, and the earth also, and the works that " are therein shall be burnt up." (Ver. 10.) "Ne"vertheless we look for new heavens and a new earth, " wherein dwelleth righteousness." (Ver. 13.) "THEN" (i. e. in the last day) " shall many be " offended, and shall betray one another, and shall "hate one another." (Mat. ch. xxiv. ver. 10.) "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many " shall wax cold." (Ver. 12.) "But in those days, after that tribulation, the Sun " shall be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her "light: and the Stars of heaven shall fall, and the 66 powers that are in heaven shall be shaken." (Mark, ch. xiii. ver. 24, 25.) " And there shall be signs in the Sun and in the "Moon and in the Stars; and upon the earth distress " of nations with perplexity; the fea and waves roar" ing; mens hearts failing them for fear." (Luke, ch. xxi. ver. 25, 26.) The Apocalypse adds other circumstances to the above defcription. " AND lo!" (i. e. in the terrible day of the anger of the Lord) " there was a great earthquake: and the "Sun became black as fackcloth of hair, and the "Moon became as blood; and the Stars of heaven " fell unto the earth. And the heaven departed as a " scrowk 7 scrowl when it is rolled together; and every moun"tain and island were moved out of their places." (Rev. ch. vi. ver. 12, 13, 14.) " And there was war in heaven; Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon: and the "Dragon fought and his Angels; and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great Dragon was cast out, " that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was caft out " into the earth, and his Angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice faying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Chrift: for "the accuser of our brethren is caft down, which " accused them before our God day and night!" (Rev. ch. xii. ver. 7, 8, 9, 10.) " And I saw an Angel come down from heaven, "having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand: and he laid hold on the Dragon, " that old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, "and bound him..... And I faw the fouls of them "that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God. And they lived and ... " reigned with Christ a thousand years." (Ibid. ch. xx. ver. 1, 2, 4.) "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for "the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, " and there was no more fea.... And God shall wipe ८८ away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no " more death, neither forrow, nor crying; neither " shall there be any more pain..... And the building " of the wall of it was of jafper; and the city was " pure gold, like unto clear glass..... And the city " had no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon to "shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it.... "And there shall in no wife enter into it any thing " that defileth." (Ibid. ch. xxi. ver. 1, 4, 18, 23, 27.) : VOL. II. N After After these general observations, nothing more remains but to clear up some particular passages of the last fable of the EDDA. (A) "In the Hall cal" led Brymer."] Brymer, according to the strict etymology of the word, means a Hall very hot; as Okolm doés a place inaccessible to cold. The miseries of the last day are to commence by a very long and fevere winter. The windows and doors of hell ftood open towards the north. We fee plainly that all this must have been imagined and invented in a cold climate. The ancient Scandinavians were more frank and honeft than some of their descendants; than the famous RUDBECK, for example; who seems to have been tempted to put off his own country for the feat of the Terrestrial Paradife *. (B) "Torments the " bodies who are sent in "thither."] Before this stanza of the VOLUSPA, Bartholin has given another, † which deferves to be produced. "THEN the Master, he who governs all things, " issues forth with great power from his habitations on high, to render his divine judgments, and to " pronounce his sentences. He terminates all differences, and establishes the sacred deftinies, which *" will remain to eternity." The description which the EDDA gives of the place of torment, bears a striking resemblance to what we meet with in the religious books of the ancient Perfians. "HELL (say they) is on the shore of a fœtid stink"ing river, whose waters are black as pitch, and cold as ice; in these float the fouls of the damned. The " fioak afcends in vast rolls from this dark gulf: and Vid, Keyfl, p. 123, † Vid. Bartholin, p. 599. " the the infide of it is full of Scorpions and Serpents." Vid. Hyde de Relig. vet. Perf. p. 399, & 404. (c) "After the death " of the Gods.") In the new earth, which was to fucceed that which we inhabit, there were to be again subaltern divinities to govern it; and men to people it. This, in general, is what the EDDA means to tell us: although the circumstances of the relation are darkly and allegorically delivered : yet not so obscurely, but that one eafily fees it was the idea of the northern philosophers, as well as of the stoics, that the world was to be renovated, and spring forth again more perfect and more beautiful. This is what is expressed here with regard to the Sun and Moon. Lif signifies life; which is a farther proof, that by the fable of these two human beings who are to furvive the destruction of the world, these northern philosophers * meant to say that there still exifted in the earth a vivifying principle and feed, proper to repair the loss of Les Celtes. Fr. Orig. the former inhabitants. It is certain that all these different forms of expreffion were understood by these ancient people in their true sense; viz.only as figurative modes of speech, and ornaments of discourse; and therefore, we, who in reading their works, continually lofe fight of this circumstance, are in reality authors of many of those absurdities, which we fancy we discover in them. (D) "Among the peo"ple by oral tradition."] This passage may possibly start a question, Whether the doctrines here displayed were peculiar to the northern nations, or embraced by the other 'Go'thic and' Celtic tribes ? My opinion is, that the latter had adopted at least most of the principal points: and that they all derived, their religious tenets from the same source. It is very probable, as the Abbé Banier sensibly observes, "That "the |