Classical Theology.—Lxi.

CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . —LXI .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JANUARY 17 , 1863 .

XI . —JlJKO KS ~ £ > JAOTJABY . According to Varro , Juno signifies the earth , and Jupiter the heavens ; by whose union , that is , conjugation by influences , all things are generated . But natural philosophers , known as the Stoics , maintain that by Juno is meant the airand by Jupiter

, fire . The air , as Tully describes it , lying between the earth and the heavens , is consecrated under the name of Juno . Certainly in the Greek there is a close affinity between the words Juno and the air , he goes on to say , because the air is naturally of a cold nature , and can only be warmed by heat ; therefore ,

Juno is properly called the Avife of Jupiter . Her name being also Aeria , signifies that she is the individual principle and embodiment of the air , and , therefore she is styled the goddess of it . The ancient meaning of Juno being bound Avith golden chains , and iron anvils at her feet , appears profoundly this , that

whereas the air purely became inflammable when attached to heat , it Avas to be mingled with the heavier elements , which are thereby specified as earth and water . But this representative allegory evinces another signification ; namely , that air , anvils , aud goldwereas they still arethe . first accessories to

, , , the requirements of life . There is not much difficulty to be overcome in comprehending , that , through the air-blast of the forge , the anvils ivere available for all manner of implements of Avar and husbandry , by which wealth has been mainly acquired , and what is more , the ancients used to convert their gold into

chains and ornaments , for link-money , and the sake of its better security . The want of typographical and even of typical language , whereby clearly to chronicle historical events , soon occasioned notions of unaccountable antiquity to forget their parent posterities , and , in the

course of a feAv generations , vainly and ostentatiously to imagine themselves the descendants of their countries from the commencement of the Avoi'ld . Conformably with this notion , the Egyptians , Phoenicians , Phiygians , and many other established diA'isions of remote population , have each believed

they Avere the first of the human race . It is asserted as a matter of fact , that the Arcadians and Thessalians , prided themselves not a little on being -n-poo-eATjioi Prosceleioi , before the noon . Also that the Athenians thought they were AiroxBovss Autoxtliones , or the people of the land they live inand that they were

orii-, g nated at the same time with the sun . Therefore they asaumed the names of Autocthones and Terreyes Tetteg , Tettegesnce , meaning thereby , they were produced like locusts or grasshoppers , which they conceived to he generated by the sun out of the ground . In devout consideration thereof , they Avorshipped those

insects , and made golden representative ornaments of them for use , and adornment . Positively with reference to the Iliad , and of other Avorks , as of Hyspeshius xadiMenander it became an everywhere received opinion that mankind , through some primordial vivification , Was produced somehow or someAvay , like plants , out of the earth . Thus , literally , more than figuratively , it appears , almost without an exception , that the most

ancient nations have , similarly to the Greeks , styled themselves r-riyeveis , Gegeneis , sons of the earth . Eespectively , therein , may be traced an ambiguous tradition of the scri ptural creation of man : at least , in nearer approximation Avith truth than , during the time of Cadmus and the dissemination of letters , the record of the building of ThebesB . C . 1493 by the Avorkmen

, , , or soldiers , sprung from the jilanted teeth of the serpent encountered and slain by the founder of the city , entitled the King of Sidon . EOAV , although that work of enchantment , for according to idolatrous "history , miraculous event is chronologically set down at about forty years before the five books of Moses

were written , that is to say , B . C . 1452 , there is no trace in the character of the Greek lithography or al phabets of their being older than the ijBLebreAv , nor of the Hebrew being borrowed from the enchorial of the Egyptians , but rather that the Egyptian is more distinctly united Avith the Hebrew than the Phoenicion

and Samaritan , Avhich are in their characters much the same as the Greek . "When the first twelve tables Avere written it is unlikely that they did not exhibit a caligraphy perfectly Judaical , but then it is to be borne in mind that Egypt Avas Mazraim , that is , by Ham . If the Jews derived their name of Hebrcsi

, or were called Hebrews , from Heber , * that patriarch may have been the institutor of the hebraic form of letters and writing , as , ajiparently , they in common are named after him .

"We read of Philobiblins in the time of Adrian , translating into Greek out of the Phoenician , the works of Sanchoniathon , a learned historian , and , a more ancient author than Moses . The erudition of Moses solved the secresy of the sacred mysteries of the priestcraft of Egypt . But how are we to regard pictoricial Avriting more than what is now termed

illustrative , bieroglyphical devices more than what is now called cryptography ? Shall Ave ansAver ambiguously by briefly asking , have not such things been within our OAVU century ? Indeed , mystical representations are not rare , and pages of the test , now generally well known , can be

read off at si ght , in the grouping of a tablature or a painting . But were we to sigillarise by the Ars Sigillaris , and make three images holding a money-bos :, and mount them in a temple , and inform the ignorant that they Avere the three angels that carry the souls to heaven of all who follow after them to put sixpence

into the box , we should be perpetuating the Bull of St . Peter ' s pence . On the other hand should we call them the Charities , and see them there , or a sculpture in the figure of the AvidoAV dropping her mite into a corban , placed at the entrance of some European place of worshipor at the gate of our

, Eoyal Park , or Masonic Lodge , Ave should discern at a glance that Charit y not only covers a " multitude of sins , " but that they Avho " giveth to the poor , lendeth to the Lord , " and furthermore the injunction , " Go and do thou likewise . "

The Eomans in honour of Juno had certain days set apart for acts of charity , ancl their feasts called Charistia , celebrated on the nineteenth of February , during Avhich , as at our great festivals of Christmas and the Charities , they gave largely of their abundance , and distributed presents amongst their friends and relatives .