of a Mem final (which is the numerical character of 600) in this word לםרבה lmrbe, ad multiplicandum, where this Mem final is in the second place, there being no other example in the whole text of the Holy Scripture where-ever a final letter is placed only at the end of the words. This numerical character of 600 in this situation might allude to the periods of 600 years of the Patriarchs, which were to terminate at the accomplishment of the prophecy, which is the epocha, from whence we do at present compute the years of Jesus Christ.”[1]
On this prophecy Mr. Faber says, “In this extraordinary poem, he (Virgil) celebrates the expected birth of a wonderful child, who was destined to put an end to the age of iron, and to introduce a new age of gold, (precisely the idea of Isaiah).
“The last period sung by the Sibylline prophetess, is now arrived; and the grand series of ages, that series which recurs again and again in the course of one mundane revolution, begins afresh. Now the Virgin Astrea returns from heaven; and the primeval reign of Saturn recommences; now a new race descends from the celestial realms of holiness. Do thou, Lucina, smile propitious on the birth of a boy, who will bring to a close the present age of iron, and introduce, throughout the whole world, a new age of gold. Then shall the herds no longer dread the fury of the lion, nor shall the poison of the serpent any longer be formidable: every venomous animal and every deleterious plant shall perish together. The fields shall be yellow with corn, the grape shall hang in ruddy clusters from the bramble, and honey shall distil spontaneously from the rugged oak. The universal globe shall enjoy the blessings of peace, secure under the mild sway of its new and divine sovereign.”[2]
Many of our divines have been much astonished at the coincidence between the prophecy of the heathen Sibyl and that of Isaiah; the difficulty I flatter myself I shall now be able to remove, by shewing that it related to the system of cycles, which Mons. Cassini detected in the Siamese manuscript.
I shall now proceed to prove that the period of 600 years, or the Neros alluded to by Cassini, which has been well described by the most celebrated astronomers as the finest period that ever was invented, and which Josephus says was handed down from the patriarchs who lived before the flood, is the foundation of the astronomical periods of the Indians, and is probably the age or mundane revolution alluded to by Virgil. On the subject of this fine cycle, and the important consequences deduced by Mons. Bailly from the knowledge of it by the ancients, my Celtic Druids may be consulted. There my reader will see proofs that it was probably the invention of a period long prior to any thing which we have been accustomed to contemplate as founded on historical records.
In Sect. III. M. Cassini has shewn that there was among the Siamese a very important epocha in the year 544 before Christ. This is the æra fixed for the second Buddha according to the Brahmins. He has also pointed out another epocha, 638 years after the birth of Jesus Christ; these my reader will please to retain in recollection. The æra of Buddha is calculated from his death, that of Christ from his birth, and this should always be remembered.
The following observations shew Mons. Cassini was of opinion, that these Siamese periods had some connexion with Pythagoras; he says,
“This Siamese Epocha (of 543 or 544 B. C.) is in the time of Pythagoras, whose dogmata were conformable to those which the Indians have at present, and which these people had already in the time of Alexander the Great, as Onesicritus, sent by Alexander himself to treat with the Indian philosophers, testified unto them, according to the report of Strabo, Lib. xv.”[3] Cassini
