Esau were each _forty years_ old
when they married.[179:8] _Forty days_ were fulfilled for the embalming
of Jacob.[179:9] The spies were _forty days_ in search of the land of
Canaan.[179:10] The Israelites wandered _forty years_ in the
wilderness.[179:11] The land "had rest" _forty years_ on three
occasions.[179:12] The land was delivered into the hand of the
Philistines _forty years_.[179:13] Eli judged Israel _forty
years_.[179:14] King David reigned _forty years_.[179:15]

King Solomon reigned _forty years_.[180:1] Goliath presented himself
_forty days_.[180:2] The rain was upon the earth _forty days_ at the
time of the deluge.[180:3] And, as we saw above, Moses was on the mount
_forty days_ and _forty nights_ on each occasion.[180:4] Can anything be
more mythological than this?

The number forty was used by the ancients in constructing temples. There
were _forty_ pillars around the temple of Chilminar, in Persia; the
temple at Baalbec had _forty_ pillars; on the frontiers of China, in
Tartary, there is to be seen the "Temple of the _forty_ pillars."
_Forty_ is one of the most common numbers in the Druidical temples, and
in the plan of the temple of Ezekiel, the four oblong buildings in the
middle of the courts have each _forty_ pillars.[180:5] Most temples of
antiquity were imitative--were microcosms of the Celestial Templum--and
on this account they were surrounded with pillars recording
_astronomical_ subjects, and intended both to do honor to these
subjects, and to keep them in perpetual remembrance. In the Abury
temples were to be seen the cycles of 650-608-600-60-40-30-19-12,
etc.[180:6]

FOOTNOTES:

[175:1] Matthew, iv. 1-11.

[175:2] See Lardner's Works, vol. viii. p. 491.

[175:3] Words of the Rev. E. Garbett, M. A., in a sermon preached before
the University of Oxford, England.

[175:4] The Bishop of Manchester (England), in the "Manchester Examiner
and Times."

[175:5] See Lillie's Buddhism, p. 100.

[176:1] Pp. 44 and 172, 173.

[176:2] Translated by Prof. Samuel Beal.

[176:3] See also Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 38, 39. Beal: Hist. Buddha,
pp. xxviii., xxix., and 190, and Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. xvii.

[177:1] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 240.

[177:2] Chambers's Encyclo. art. "Zoroaster."

[177:3] See Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 200.

[177:4] Life and Relig. of the Hindoos, p. 134.

[177:5] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 341.

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