On The Geometrical And Other. Symbols.

[ " ] " ] , which was the symbol of life among the Greeks . . . . . We often see this symbol on Etruscan ornamental borders : there are several such in the Museum of the Yatican , occuring as the Tau and as the lignam-yoni , —that is , alternately upright and reversed . "

By turning up Eawlinson's "Herodotus , " vol . iv . p . 5 S , it may be seen that there are Egyptian sculptures which show that the Greek cross , as it is called , as well as the St . Andrew's , was frequently used , both amongst Asiatics and Africans , in the time of the ancient Egyptians . Sometimes it was worn as a necklacejust as it still is among Christian

, nations ; sometimes like a star , or order , on the breast ; sometimes in a series , or alternating with a circle , in oruamenting dresses . Among the Scythian warriors , dresses were thus ornamented ; just as the Thibetan Grand Lama ' s dress , according to Hue's " Thibet , " is bordered with crosses to this day . " The

Vaishnavas of India , " says Higgings , in his Anacalypsis , vol . i . p . 223 , "have a sacred jar which they mark with crosses , and with interlaced triangles . The vestment of the priests of Horus is covered with these crosses . This is the same as the dress of the Lama of Thibet . These are the sectarian marks of

the Jains . " He also notes ( p . 519 ) that " on the ruins of Mundore may be seen various mystic emblems , as the quatre-feuille , the cross , the mystic triangle , triangle within a triangle , & e . " The Greek cross was used as a staff sjnnbol in ancient Egypt : see plate 9 , from the Bembine Table ,

in "War burton's Divine Legation of Moses ; " vol . ii . p . 235 ; which contains a mummy dressed figure , with what has been called the staff of power , having a cross proper ( not the mere Tau ) , surmounted by the head of a dove , which , iu Egypt , as among Christians , appears to have been indicative of the divine , oracular spirit , so that Egyptian priestesses , in whom the oracle was invoked , were called doves , as those filled with the Spirit among ancient Christians also were .

The cross , indeed , as Maurice , in his Indian Antiquities , vol . ii . p . 350 , remarks , " was one of the most usual symbols among the hieroglyhics of Egypt and India . " In Montfaucon ( Ant . Exp ., vol . ii . pi , 49 ) , may be seen several medals of Anubis , or Noubis , where he is called X and T , probably also mystically

indicative of the St . Andrew's Cross and the Cruxansata . It is remarkable , too , that the Tartars call the St . Andrew ' s Cross , or at least the Eree-masonic V , lama , from the Scythian lamb a hand ; and thus it became the name of their high priest , —perhaps , I may suggestfrom his laying on hands in blessing .

, Higgins , in speaking of this says : — " In Irish , Luam signifies the head of the Church . It is singular that the name of Lama , in the language of Tartary , thus signifies the cross ; and the Bogdoi , who conquered China in 1644 , always called the cross Lama . The X , or ten , was said to refer to the ten fingers of the

two hands , as a perfect number . " Higgins , from his propensity to twist everything to the disadvantage of Christianity , and to the advantage of his own often erroneous theoretical ideas , is not much to be trusted , to be sure , on such a subject ; but he only contributes , in this case , a little towards evidence which unquestionably proves , quite independently of him , that the cross has been an almost universal symbol , which is found recorded even in the

far "West , on the temple sculptures of ancient America no less than on those of ancient India in the far East , as well as on those of ancient Egypt , between these two extreme and opposite hemispheres of the world . "We may , therefore , I dare say , safely enough make use of the immense research displayed in the

Anacalypsis here a little farther on this subject . Eigure 14 , in Higgins's plates , is a representation of Indra crucified ; his hands and feet nailed to the cross , as in Christian crucifixes ; but the body , legs , and arms , are covered with , or made up of , leaves ; the whole looking like a head , hands , and feet , stuck

on to a leafy cruciform body , and nailed to a cross . Such crosses , he says , are to be seen iu Nepaul , especially at the corners of roads and on eminences . Indra is said to have been crucified by the keepers of the Hindu Garden of Paradise for robbing it ( of a flower , was it not ?) . The cross is put up at Thibet to point the way ; and Lamas , I may here observe , are , as it were , crosses , pointing the way to salvation , according to Buddhist principles , —that is , the way to

Nirvana , which is believed by the Buddhists to be the grand fountain head of all salvation ; and , in fact , equivalent to the attainment of bliss , by ' crucifying " the flesh , or becoming " dead in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit . " * " The cross , " says Higgins , " denoted , among the Egyptians , Druids , and

others , eternal life : it was also the form of the phallus , and hence the sign of the proereative pewer , in renovation or reiterated succession of life : hence the cross came to be regarded as significant of eternally renovating life . " There is , doubtless , some truth here ; . but this passage affords merely a gross and

fallacious idea of that " eternal life" of the second birth , or regeneration , whether according to Hieropkants or according to Christians , with which , as I shall afterwards endeavour to show , the cross and various other geometrical symbols are most significantly connected in meaningand even in form .

, So deeply impressed with the symbolical meaning of the cross do the ancient Indians appear to have been , that some of the temples are said to be built on a cruciform plan , just as Christian churches are .

There is one way by which it might be said that the cross , as a symbol , may be supposed to have originated in India , although I shall hereafter show quite a different reason for it . The devotees of Siva , the "destroyer , " as he has mystically been called , marked their foreheads with a horizontal bar or line ,

while the devotees of "Vishnu , the " preserver , " marked theirs with a perpendicular line ; and there were devotees of both Siva and Vishnu , whose mark was one , therefore , composed of both lines ; thus completing the cross , either as the tau , T or in what is called its Greek form , - | - as a mark upon their

foreheads . It is very questionable , however , whether such an origin would account for the mysterious and extraordinary prevalence of the cross , as a symbol , throughout the whole world . Reference to the tau or the cross as a mark on the forehead reminds me of " Ezekiel's visions of God , " iu which he saw " what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark , every man in the chambers of his imagery , " and " every man his censer in his hand ,