ble to claim the
serious attention of every intelligent being. Who can withhold anxiety
from an enquiry into the reality of the fact, as a fundamental part
of religion in every nation at some period of its history--or dare to
affect indifference as to the origin and meaning of so portentous and
horrible a rite? It will be our study to be as brief as possible in
conveying the information respecting both, which every man ought to
possess, who values correct opinions respecting the moral condition of
our nature. First, then, as to the universality of the practice.
This is of course to be ascertained from testimony. And perhaps on no
subject in the history of mankind, is there a more decided agreement
in the assertions of different witnesses. We shall run over the
various nations of the earth, of whom we have any thing like
satisfactory evidence. Here we avail ourselves of the labours of
several authors, as Dr Jenkin, De Paauw, Mr Bryant, Mr Parkhurst, Dr
Magee, and others. We commence with the Egyptians, of whom alone, we
believe, any doubt as to their being implicated in the practice has
been entertained. Thus Dr Forster, in his Observations on Cook's
Second Voyage, excepts them from his remark that all the ancient
nations sacrificed men, saying that where-ever it is affirmed in old
writers that these people were addicted to it, we are to understand
them as alluding to the Arabian shepherds, who at one time subdued
Egypt. Such _was_ the opinion of the writer of this note, but more
attentive enquiry has induced him, in this instance, to disregard
the distinction. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch, quoted by Dr Magee,
mention their sacrificing red-haired men at the tomb of Osiris; and
from other sources, it appears that they had a custom of sacrificing
a virgin to the river Nile, by flinging her into its stream. The
Phoenicians, Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, and other neighbouring
people, were in the habit of sacrificing their children to their
idols, especially Moloch, on certain, calamities, and for various
reasons. See on this head some of the commentators on Scripture, as
Ainsworth on Levit. 18th, and still more particularly, consult Selecta
Sacra Braunii, a work formerly referred to. The Ethiopians, according
to the Romance of Heliodorus, admitted to be good authority as to
manners, &c. sacrificed their children to the sun and moon. The
Scythians, as related in the curious description given of them by
Herodotus, in Melp