ned and
metaphysical system of dogmas, which were handed down from age to
age, and from one tribe to another, as the primeval creed and
possession of the enlightened race. Among them in the West, as
well as in the remote East, the doctrine of metempsychosis held a
conspicuous place, implying belief in an after state of rewards and
punishment, and a moral government of the world. With it was
connected the notion that the material universe had undergone, and
was destined to undergo, a repetition of catastrophes by fire and
water; and after each destruction, to be renewed in fresh beauty,
when a golden age was again to commence, destined in a fated time
to corruption and decay. The emanation of all beings from the soul
of the universe, and their refusion in it, which were tenets
closely connected with this system of dogmas, border on a species
of Pantheism, and are liable to all the difficulties attendant upon
that doctrine.

"Among most of the Indo-European nations, the conservation of
religious dogmas, patriarchal tradition, and national poetry, was
confided, not to accidental reminiscences and popular recitations,
but to a distinct order of persons, who were venerated as mediators
between the invisible powers and their fellow mortals, as the
depositories of sacred lore, and interpreters of the will of the
gods, expressed of old to the first men, and handed down, either
orally in divine poems, or preserved in a sacred literature, known
only to the initiated. In most instances they were an hereditary
caste, Druids, Brahmans, or Magi.

"Among the Allophylian nations, on the other hand a rude and
sensual superstition prevailed, which ascribed life and mysterious
powers to the inanimate objects. The religion of fetisses, of
charms, and spells and talismans, was in the hands not of a learned
caste, the twice-born sons of Brama, but of shamans or sorcerers,
who, by feigning swoons and convulsions, by horrible cries and
yells, by cutting themselves with knives, by whirling and
contortions, assumed the appearance of something preternatural and
portentous, and impressed the multitude with the belief that they
were possessed by demons. Of this latter description were the
wizards of the Finns and Lappes, the angekoks of the Esquimaux; and
such are