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"I apprehend the word 'Sin' came to mean Lion when the Lion was the emblem of the Sun at his summer solstice, when he was in his glory, and the Bull and the 'Man' were the signs of the Sun at the Equinoxes, and the Eagle at the winter solstice."—Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 292.

Figure 23 (see opposite page) is an Egyptian bas-relief, of which the explanation is the following: A is the Egyptian Eve trampling the Dragon (the goddess Neith, or Minerva); B, a Crocodile; C, Gorgon's head; D, Hawk (wisdom); E, feathers (soul).

"The first and strongest conviction which will flash on the mind of every ripe antiquary, whilst surveying the long series of Mexican and Toltecan monuments preserved in these various works, is the similarity which the ancient monuments of New Spain bear to the monumental records of Ancient Egypt. Whilst surveying them, the glance falls with familiar recognition on similar graduated pyramids, on similar marks of the same primeval Ophite worship, on vestiges of the same Triune and Solar Deity, on planispheres and temples, on idols and sculptures, some of rude and some of finished workmanship, often presenting the most striking affinities with the Egyptian."-Stephens' and Catherwood's Incidents of Travel in Central America.

Egyptian Deified Figure.

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The Tables of Stone.

CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.

THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND.

:

T is astonishing how much of the Egyptian and the Indian symbolism of very early ages passed into the usages of Christian times. Thus the high cap and the hooked staff of the god became the bishop's mitre and crosier; the term nun is purely Egyptian, and bore its present meaning; the erect oval, symbol of the

Female Principle of Nature, became the Vesica Piscis, and a frame for Divine Things; the Crux-Ansata, testifying the union of the Male and Female Principle in the most obvious

THE BLACK STONE AT MECCA.

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manner, and denoting fecundity and abundance as borne in the god's hand, is transformed, by a simple inversion, into the Orb surmounted by the Cross, and the ensign of royalty." Refer to The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 72.

9 9

Fig. 31.

is said that the figure of Venus is seen to this day engraved upon it, with a crescent." The very Caaba itself was at first an idolatrous temple, where the Arabians worshiped "Al-Uza"-that is, Venus. See Bobovius, Dr. Hyde Parker, and others, for particulars regarding the Arabian and Syrian Venus. She is the "Uraniæcorniculatæ sacrum" (Selden, De Venere Syriaca). The "Ihrâm is a sacred habit, which consists only of two woollen wrappers; one closed about the middle of devotees, to cover," &c., "and the other thrown over their shoulders." Refer to observations about Noah, later in our book; Sale's Discourse, p. 121; Pococke's India in Greece, vol. ii. part i. p. 218. The Temple of Venus at Cyprus was the Temple of Venus-Urania. "No woman entered this temple" (Sale's Koran, chap. vii. p. 119; note, p. 149). Accordingly, Anna Commena and Glycas (in Renald. De Mah.) say that "the Mahometans do worship Venus." Several of the Arabian idols were no more than large, rude stones (Sale's Discourse, p. 20; Koran, chap. v. p. 82). The stone at Mecca is black. The crypts, the subterranean churches and chambers, the choirs, and the labyrinths, were all intended to enshrine (as it were) and to conceal the central object of worship, or this sacred

"stone." The pillar of Sueno, near Forres, in Scotland, is an obelisk. These obelisks were all astrological gnomons, or "pins," to the imitative stellar mazes, or to the "fateful charts" in the "letter-written" skies. The astronomical "stalls," or "stables," were the many "sections" into which the "hosts" of the starry sky were distributed by the Chaldæans. The Decumens (or tenths), into which the ecliptic was divided, had also another name, which was Ashre, from the Hebrew particle as, or ash, which means "fiery," or "FIRE." The Romans displayed reverence for the ideas connected with these sacred stones. Cambyses, in Egypt, left the obelisks or single magic stones. The Linghams in India were left untouched by the Mohammedan conquerors. The modern Romans have a phallus or lingha in front of almost all their churches. There is an obelisk, altered to suit Christian ideas (and surmounted in most instances in modern times by a cross), in front of every church in Rome. There are few churchyards in England without a phallus or obelisk. On the top is usually now fixed a dial. In former times, when the obeliscar form was adopted for ornaments of all sorts, it was one of the various kinds of Christian acceptable cross which was placed on the summit. We have the single stone of memorial surviving yet in the Fire-Towers (Round Towers of Ireland). This phallus, upright, or "pin of stone," is found in every Gilgal or Druidical Circle. It is the boundarystone or terminus, the parish mark-stone; it stands on every motehill; lastly (and chiefly), this stone survives in the stone in the coronation chair at Westminster (of which more hereafter), and also in the famous "London Stone," or the palladium, in Cannon Street, City of London: which stone is said to be "London's fate"—which we hope it is not to be in the unprosperous sense.

The letter "S," among the Gnostics, with its grimmer or

THE LETTERS "S" AND "Z.”

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harsher brother (or sister) "Z," was called the "reprobate," or "malignant," letter. Of this portentous sigma (or sign) "S" (the angular and not serpentine "S" is the grinding or bass "S"-the letter "Z"), Dionysius the Halicarnassian says as follows: that "the letter 'S' makes a noise more brutal than human. Therefore the ancients used it very sparingly" ("IIepì ovvbes;" see, also, sect. 14 of Origin and Progress of Language, vol. ii. p. 233).

Notwithstanding the contentions of opposing antiquaries, and the usually received ideas that the "Irish Round Towers" were of Christian, and not heathen, origin, the following book, turning up very unexpectedly, seems to settle the question in favour of O'Brien, and of those who urge the incredibly ancient devotion of the Round Towers to a heathen myth-fire-worship, in fact.

"John O'Daly, 9 Anglesea Street, Dublin. Catalogue of Rare and Curious Books, No. 10, October 1855, Item 105: De Antiquitate Turrum Belanorum Pagana Kerriensi, et de Architecturâ non Campanilis Ecclesiastica, T. D. Corcagiensi, Hiberno. Small 4to, old calf, with numerous woodcut engravings of Round Towers interspersed through the text. 10l. Lovanii, 1610." The bookseller adds: “I never saw another copy of this curious old book." This book-which there is no doubt is genuine-would seem finally to settle the question as to the character of these Irish Round Towers, which are not Christian belfries, as Dr. George Petrie, and others sharing his erroneous beliefs, persistently assure us, but heathen Lithoi, or obelisks, in the sense of all those referred to in other parts of this work. They were raised in the early religions, as the objects of a universal worship. All antiquaries know of what object the phallus stands as the symbolical representation. It needs not to be more particular here.