[272] “There is a sect of Hindus, by far the most numerous of any, who, attempting to reconcile the two systems, tell us, in their allegorical style, that Parvati and Mahadeva found their concurrence essential to the perfection of their offspring, and that Vishnu, at the request of the goddess, effected a reconciliation between them; hence the navel of Vishnu, by which they mean the os tincæ, is worshipped as one and the same with the sacred Yoni.”
[273] She “made use of the same artifice the old woman, called Baubo, did to put Ceres in good humour, and showed him the prototype of the Lotos. Mahadeva smiled and relented; but on the condition that they should instantly leave the country.”
[274] “But such is the confusion and uncertainty of the Hindu records, that one is really afraid of forming any opinion whatever” (Wilford).
[275] Sir John Malcolm, vol. i. p. 270.
[276] Thomson.
[277] “When history fails in accounting for foreign extraction of any people, or where it is manifestly mistaken, how can this extraction be more rationally inferred and determined, or that mistake rectified, than from the analogy of languages? And is not this at once sufficiently conclusive, if nothing else was left them?” (Eugene Aram).
[278] “The merchants of Magadha formed not only a particular class, but also a particular tribe. It seems that they were bold, enterprising, and, at the same time, cautious and circumspect; hence they are said to be merchants by the fathers’, and warriors by the mothers’ side, according to Mr. Colebrook’s account of the Hindu classes” (Asiat. Res. ix. p. 79).
[279] See A Dissertation on the Antiquity, Origin, and Design of the principal Pyramids of Egypt, etc. etc.
[280] Mersennus writes thus:—“I find that the cubit (upon which a learned Jewish writer, which I received by the favour of the illustrious Hugenius, Knight of the Order of St. Michael, supposes the dimensions of the temple were formed) answers to 23¼ of our inches; so that it wants ¾ of an inch of two of our feet, and contains two Roman feet and two digits, and a grain, which is ¼ of a digit.” The Paris foot, with which Mersennus compared this cubit, is equal to 168⁄1000 of the English foot, according to Mr. Greaves; and consequently is to the Roman foot as 1068 to 967. In the same proportion, reciprocally, are 23¼ and 2568⁄100. That cubit, therefore, is equal to 2568⁄100 unciæ of the Roman foot, and consequently falls within the middle of the limits 2557⁄100 and 79⁄100, with which we have just circumscribed the sacred cubit: so that I suspect this cubit was taken from some authentic model, preserved in a secret manner from the knowledge of the Christians (Sir Isaac Newton).
[281] “And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall; and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door: and he said unto me, Go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in, and saw; and, behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about” (Ezekiel).