by all the sects of Greek philosophers, except the Pythagoreans, who rather revered it as an article of faith, than understood it as a discovery of science.
“Thrace was certainly inhabited by a civilized nation at some remote period; for when Philip of Macedon opened the gold mines in that country, he found that they had been worked before with great expense and ingenuity, by a people well versed in mechanics, of whom no memorials whatever are extant.” I think memorials of these people may be found in the Pyramids, Stonehenge, the walls of Tyryns, and the Treasury of Messina.
7. The following extract from Mr. Faber’s work on the Origin of Heathen Idolatry, exhibits a pretty fair proof how very general was the ancient doctrine of the Trinity among the Gentiles:—“Among the Hindoos we have the triad of Brama-Vistnou-Siva, springing from the monad Brahm: and it is acknowledged, that these personages appear upon earth at the commencement of every new world, in the human form of Menu and his three sons. Among the votaries of Buddha we find the self-triplicated Buddha declared to be the same as the Hindoo Trimurti. Among the Buddhic sect of the Jainists, we have the triple Jina, in whom the Trimurti is similarly declared to be incarnate. Among the Chinese, who worship Buddha under the name of Fo, we still find this God mysteriously multiplied into three persons, corresponding with the three sons of Fo-hi, who is evidently Noah. Among the Tartars of the house of Japhet, who carried off into their Northern settlements the same ancient worship, we find evident traces of a similar opinion in the figure of the triple God seated on the Lotos, as exhibited on the famous Siberian medal in the imperial collection at Petersburgh: and if such a mode of representation required to be elucidated, we should have the exposition furnished us in the doctrine of the Jakuthi Tartars, who, according to Strahremberg, are the most numerous people of Siberia: for these idolaters worship a triplicated deity under the three denominations of Artugon, and Sohugo-tangon, and Tangara. This Tartar god is the same even in appellation with the Tanga Tanga of the Peruvians: who, like the other tribes of America, seem plainly to have crossed over from the North-eastern extremity of Siberia. Agreeably to the mystical notion so familiar to the Hindoos, that the self-triplicated great Father yet remained but one in essence, the Peruvians supposed their Tanga-tanga to be one in three, and three in one: and in consequence of the union of Hero worship with the astronomical and material systems of idolatry, they venerated the sun and the air, each under three images and three names. The same opinions equally prevailed throughout the nations which lie to the West of Hindostan. Thus the Persians had their Ormusd, Mithras,[1] and Ahriman: or, as the matter was sometimes represented, their self-triplicating Mithras. The Syrians had their Monimus, Aziz and Ares. The Egyptians had their Emeph, Eicton, and Phtha, The Greeks and Romans had their Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; three in number though one in essence, and all springing from Cronus, a fourth, yet older God. The Canaanites had their Baal-Spalisha or self-triplicated Baal. The Goths had their Odin, Vile, and Ve: who are described as the three sons of Bura, the offspring of the mysterious cow. And the Celts had their three bulls, venerated as the living symbols of the triple Hu or Menu. To the same class we must ascribe the triads of the Orphic and Pythagorean and Platonic schools: each of which must again be identified with the imperial triad of the old Chaldaic or Babylonian philosophy. This last, according to the account which is given of it by Damascius, was a triad shining throughout the whole world, over which presides a Monad.”[2]
