of the VOLUSPA, above quoted; and the fame doctrine is very confpi cuous in the following ftanzas from the fame piece †. . "THEN" (i. e. after the death of the Gods, and the conflagration of the world) "we fee emerge from the bofom of the waves, an earth cloathed with a moft lovely verdure. The floods retire: the "eagle foars wherefoever he lifts, and feizes his fifhy 66 prey on the tops of the mountains. "The fields produce their fruits without culture; "misfortunes are banished from the world. Balder " and his brother, thofe warrior Gods, return to inhabit the ruined palaces of Odin. Do ye conceive what will then come to pass? . "The Gods affemble in the fields of Ida; they * difcourfe together concerning the heavenly palaces, "whofe ruins are before them: they recollect their "former conversations, and the ancient difcourfes of « Odin. "A palace more refplendant than the Sun rises to view; it is adorned with a roof of gold: there the "affemblies of good men, fhall inhabit; and give "themselves up to joy and pleasure, throughout all "ages." The diftance between Scandinavia and thofe countries where the Stoic philosophy prevailed, is certainly great, and must have been greater ftill in former ages than the pre fent, when commerce and books lend wings to opinions, and diffuse them in afhort time thro' the world. On the other hand, the fyftem now under confideration is not fuch as Vid. Bartholin, ubi fupra, p. 596. where the original and a literal Latin Verfion may be feen: our French author has only felected fome of the ftanzas, which he has taken the liberty to transpose. Hoder. T. all all men would arrive at by meer dint of reflection. It appears then probable, that all thofe who adopted it, must have had it from the fame. hands; namely, from the eaftern philofophers, and more particularly from the Perfians. And hiftory affords a fanction to this conjecture. We know that the Scandinavians came from fome 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 refpects the fame 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) fhould continue till the laft day; and that then the Good Principle fhould be re-united to the fupreme God, from whom it had firft iffued: the Evil fhould be overcome and fubdued; darkness fhould be deftroyed, and the world, purified by an univerfal conflagration, fhould become a luminous and fhining abode, into which Evil fhould never more be permitted to enter. (Vid. Brücker Hift. Crit. Philof. Vol. I. Lib. 2. c. 3.) Arts, Scienees and Philofophy have heretofore taken their flight from eaft to weft. The doctrine of the renovation of the world was current among fome 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 verfes attributed to that ancient bard. The Greeks and Romans had also fome idea of it; but the greateft part of them did not adopt the whole compleat fyftem, but were content to detach from it, what regarded the conflagration of the world, in order to augment the confufed and incoherent mafs of their own religious opinions. I must not finish this note, without justifying the length of it: one word word will be fufficient. 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 now, ἐσ are reserved 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 fhall pass away with "a great noife, and the elements fhall melt with fer"vent heat, and the earth alfo, and the works that "are therein fhall be burnt up." (Ver. 10.) "Ne❝vertheless we look for new heavens and a new earth, “wherein dwelleth righteoufnefs." (Ver. 13.) "THEN" (i. e. in the laft day) "fhall many be "offended, and fhall betray one another, and shall hate one another." (Mat. ch. xxiv. ver. 10.) "And because iniquity fhall abound, the love of many "fhall wax cold." (Ver. 12.) "But in those days, after that tribulation, the Sun "fhall be darkened, and the Moon fhall not give her light; and the Stars of heaven fhall fall, and the 66 powers that are in heaven shall be fhaken." (Mark, ch. xiii. ver. 24, 25.) "And there fhall be figns in the Sun and in the "Moon and in the Stars; and upon the earth diftrefs "of nations with perplexity; the fea and waves, roar"ing; mens hearts failing them for fear." (Luke, ch. xxi. ver. 25, 26.) The Apocalypfe adds other circumftances 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 "fcrowl 7 fcrowl when it is rolled together; and every moun*tain and ifland were moved out of their places.' (Rev. ch. vi. ver. 12, 13, 14.): ¿ not, "And there was war in heaven; Michael and his Angels fought, against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels; and prevailed neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great Dragon was caft 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 caft out with him. And I heard a loud voice faying in heaven, Now is come falvation and ftrength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Chrift: for "the accufer of our brethren is caft down, which accufed them before our God day and night!" (Rev. ch. xii. ver. 7, 8, 9, 10.) "And I faw an Angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomlefs 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 Jefus, and for the Word of God. ... . And they lived and reigned with Chrift a thousand years." (Ibid. ch. *x. ver. 1, 2, 4.) સ્પંદ ἐσ "And I faw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were paffed away, and there was no more fea. . . . And God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there fhall be no more death, neither forrow, nor crying; neither fhall 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 glafs. . . . . And the city had no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon to fhine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it... And there fhall in no wife enter into it any thing "that defileth."" (ibid. ch. xxi. ver. 1, 4, 18, 23, 27.) કેટ VOL. II. N After "THEN the Mafter, he who governs all things, "iffues forth with great power from his habitations on high, to render his divine judgments, and to pronounce his fentences. He terminates all diffe"rences, and eflablishes the facred deftinies, which << will remain to eternity." 66 The defcription which the EDDA gives of the place of torment, bears a ftriking refemblance to what we meet with in the religious books of the ancient Perfians. "HELL (fay they) is on the fhore of a fœtid stink"ing river, whofe waters are black as pitch, and cold as ice; in these float the fouls of the damned. The "fmoak afcends in vaft rolls from this dark gulf: and 46 Vid, Keyfl, p. 123. Vid. Bartholin, p. 599. the |