CHAPTER XI. Return to England--John's marriage

THE PRINCESS OF BABYLON.

I. Royal contest for the hand of Formosanta II. The King of Babylon convenes his Council and consults the Oracle III. Royal festival given in honor of the kingly visitors. The bird converses eloquently with Formosanta IV. The beautiful bird is killed by the King of Egypt. Formosanta begins a journey. Aldea elopes with the King of Scythia V. Formosanta visits China and Scythia in search of Amazan VI. The Princess continues her journey VII. Amazan visits Albion VIII. Amazan leaves Albion to visit the land of Saturn IX. Amazan visits Rome X. An unfortunate adventure in Gaul XI. Amazan and Formosanta become reconciled

THE MAN OF FORTY CROWNS.

I. National Poverty II. Disaster of the Man of Forty Crowns III. Conversation with a Geometrician IV. An adventure with a Carmelite V. Audience of the Comptroller General VI. The Man of Forty Crowns marries, becomes a father, and discants upon the monks VII. On taxes paid to a foreign power VIII. On Proportions IX. A great quarrel X. A rascal repulsed XI. The good sense of Mr. Andrew XII. The good supper at Mr. Andrew's

THE HURON; OR, PUPIL OF NATURE.

I. The Huron arrives in France II. The Huron, called the Ingenu, acknowledged by his relatives III. The Huron converted IV. The Huron baptized V. The Huron in love VI. The Huron flies to his mistress, and becomes quite furious VII. The Huron repulses the English XIII. The Huron goes to Court. Sups upon the road with some Huguenots IX. The arrival of the Huron at Versailles. His reception at Court X. The Huron is shut up in the Bastile with a Jansenist XI. How the Huron discloses his genius XII. The Huron's sentiments upon theatrical pieces XIII. The beautiful Miss St. Yves goes to Versailles XIV. Rapid progress of the Huron's intellect XV. The beautiful Miss St. Yves visits M. de St. Pouange XVI. Miss St. Yves consults a Jesuit XVII. The Jesuit triumphs XVIII. Miss St. Yves delivers her lover and a Jansenist XIX. The Huron, the beautiful Miss St. Yves, and their relatives, are convened XX. The death of the beautiful Miss St. Yves and its consequences

MICROMEGAS.

I. A voyage to the planet Saturn, by a native of Sirius II. The conversation between Micromegas and the inhabitant of Saturn III. The voyage of these inhabitants of other worlds IV. What befell them upon this our globe V. The travelers capture a vessel VI. What happened in their intercourse with men

THE WORLD AS IT GOES

THE BLACK AND THE WHITE

MEMNON THE PHILOSOPHER

ANDRÉ DES TOUCHES AT SIAM

BABABEC

THE STUDY OF NATURE.

I. Introduction II. The study of Nature III. Good advice IV. Dialogue upon the soul and other topics

A CONVERSATION WITH A CHINESE PLATO'S DREAM PLEASURE IN HAVING NO PLEASURE AN ADVENTURE IN INDIA JEANNOT AND COLIN THE TRAVELS OF SCARMENTADO THE GOOD BRAMIN THE TWO COMFORTERS ANCIENT FAITH AND FABLE

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Voltaire, by Houdon--_Frontispiece._ Voltaire, at seventy Ancient Writing implements, from Pompeii Voltaire in early manhood The White Bull Apis Silence Amasidia The Witch of Endor The Serpent Nebuchadnezzar Lot and his Family Daniel, Ezekiel & Jeremiah Egyptian Priests Winged Bull The Scape Goat Caravan approaching Babylon The Cup Egyptian Archer The Funeral Pyre Oannes--The Fish God Almona Zadig and the Brigand The Basilisk Zadig and the Queen Cador concealing Astarte The Combats The Hermit Freind and his wayward Son Don Jeronimo Bueno Caracurador Condemned by the Inquisition Epictetus the Slave Grand Entrance to Palace The Phœnix The King of Scythia rescued from the Lion The Shrine at Bassora Consulting the Oracle Religious Wars in Albion The Old Man of the Seven Mountains Kissing an Old Man's Toe Gaiety and Frivolity Preservers of Ancient Customs Dancing a _Tambourin_ Clio, the Muse of History The Tax Collector Barefooted Carmelites Entering the Convent The Rack The Priory Entrance The Huron Identified Baptism of Hercules The Separation The Confessional Father Tout-à-tous The Meeting Death of Miss St. Yves A Medieval Exploring Vessel Micromegas captures a Ship The Blank Book The Spiritual Rulers of Persepolis Burying the Dead in Churches Good and Evil Genii Young Memnon Memnon and the Distressed Ninevite Des Touches and Croutef Boodh supported by Serpents The Fakir The Sphinx The Study of Nature The Poor Clergyman Kwan-yin, Burmese, Buddha, and Chinese Ivory Figure The Birth of Minerva and Eve--Androgynous Deities Bacchus and Ariadne Envy Plato Visiting Seignor Pococurante The "Yawning Oysters" The School at Issoire Jeannot and Colin Religious Emblems Brama, Vishna, and Siva The happy Bigot The two Comforters The Winged Dragon

TAURUS.

The object and significance of ancient Tauric and Phallic worship have been clearly set forth by Dupuis, Payne Knight, and other learned authors, and we have, even at the present day, a survival of the ancient faith, in the Mayday festivals of India and Britain, which were originally instituted to celebrate the entrance of the sun into the zodiacal sign Taurus, at the vernal equinox, when the god Osiris was worshiped in Egypt under the form of a bull called Apis.

"The general devotion of the ancients to the worship of the BULL," says the Rev. Mr. Maurice in his learned work on the _Antiquities of India_, "I have had frequent occasion to remark, and more particularly in the Indian history, by their devotion to it at that period 'when the Bull with his horns opened the Vernal year.' I observed that all nations seem anciently to have vied with each other in celebrating that blissful epoch; and that the moment the sun entered the sign Taurus, were displayed the signals of triumph and the incentives to passion; that memorials of the universal festivity indulged at that season, are to be found in the records and customs of people otherwise the most opposite in manners and most remote in situation;... that the Apis, or Sacred Bull of Egypt, was only the symbol of the sun in the vigor of vernal youth; and that the Bull of Japan, breaking with his horn the mundane egg, was evidently connected with the same bovine species of superstition, founded on the mixture of astronomy and mythology."

"In many of the most ancient temples or India," says Godfrey Higgins in the _Anacalypsis_, "the Bull, as an object of adoration makes a most conspicuous figure. A gigantic image of one protrudes from the front of the temple of _the Great Creator_, called in the language of the country, Jaggernaut, in Orissa. This is the Bull of the Zodiac,--the emblem of the sun when the equinox took place in the first degree of the sign of the Zodiac, Taurus. In consequence of the precession of the equinoxes, the sun at the vernal equinox left Taurus, and took place in Aries, which it has left also for a great number of years, and it now takes place in Aquarius. Thus it keeps receding about one degree in seventy-two years, and about a whole _sign_ in 2,160 years. M. Dupuis has demonstrated that the labors of Hercules are nothing but a history of the passage of the sun through the signs of the zodiac; and that Hercules is the sun in Aries or the Ram, Bacchus the sun in Taurus or the Bull. The adoration of the Bull of the zodiac is to be met with everywhere throughout the world, in the most opposite climes. The examples of it are innumerable and incontrovertable; they admit of no dispute.

"It appears from the book or history of the Exod, that it was on the leaving of Egypt that Moses changed the object of adoration from Taurus to Aries. It appears that the change took place on the mountain of _Sin_, or Nisi, or Bacchus, which was evidently its old name before Moses arrived there. The Israelites were punished for adhering to the old worship, that of the Calf, in opposition to the paschal Lamb, which Moses had substituted--'the Lamb which taketh away the sins of the world,'--in place of the Bull or Calf which took away the sins of the world.

"The planets were in later times all called by names appropriated to the days of the week, which were dedicated by astrologers to the gods who were typified by the Bull: Monday to the horned _Isis_; Tuesday to Mercury, the same as Hermes and Osiris; Wednesday to Woden, Fo, Buddha, and Surya; Thursday or Thor-day, or _Tur_, or Taurus, or Bull-day, to Jove or Jupiter, who, as a Bull, stole Europa; Friday was dedicated to Venus, Ashteroth or beeve-horned Astarte; Saturday to Saturn, identified by Mr. Faber with Moloch and the _Centaur Cronus_ or Taschter; Sunday to the Sun, everywhere typified by Taurus. All these, I think, must have taken their names after the entrance of the Sun into Taurus; and before this date all history and even mythology fails us.

"In ancient collections we often meet with a person in the prime of life killing a young bull. He is generally accompanied with a number of astrological emblems. This Bull was the mediatorial Mithra, slain to make atonement for, and to take away the sins of the world. This was the God Bull, to whom the prayers were addressed which we find in Bryant and Faber, and in which he is expressly called the Mediator. This is the Bull of Persia, which Sir. William Jones and Mr. Faber identify with Buddha or Mahabad. The sacrifice of the Bull, which taketh away the sins of the world, was succeeded by the sacrifice of the Agni or of Fire, by our Indians in, comparatively speaking, modern times; it was closely connected with the two principles spoken of above. While the sun was in Taurus, the Bull was slain as the vicarious sacrifice; when it got into Aries, the Ram or Lamb was substituted.

"M. Dupuis observes, that the lamb was a symbol or mark of initiation into the Christian mysteries, a sort of proof of admission into the societies of the initiated of the lamb, like the private sign of the free-masons. It follows, then, that the mysteries of Christ are the mysteries of the Lamb, and that the mysteries of the Lamb are mysteries of the same nature as those of the Mithraitic Bull to which they succeeded by the effect of the precession of the equinoxes, which substituted the slain _lamb_ for the slain _bull_."--E.

THE WHITE BULL.