Page:The Cry of Nature.pdf/170

 (24.) "But the Bramins deny that any ſuch perſon as Brimha exiſted, which we have reaſon to believe is the truth, as Brimha, in the Shanſcritta language, allegorically ſignifies wiſdom, one of the principal attributes of the ſupreme divinity." Preface to Dow's Hiſt. of Hindoſtan.

It has ever indeed been cuſtomary to attribute to the gods the more early efforts of legiſlation, and the firſt lawgivers have in all countries been confounded with that from which their precepts were derived.

"Puto enim triumviros iſtos poeſeos Orphæa, Mufæum, Linum non fuiſſe ſed eſſe nomina ab antiqua Phœnicum lingua