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.

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THE WHITE BULL.