1865.] 139 « [Lesley. 



symbol A, A, with its variants, and the water-symbol M, -, in its two 

 postures, the horizontal and the vertical, constituted the original nu- 

 cleus of the alphabet; to which were added subsequently compound 

 symbols, such as X, Y, 0, K, Q, the intense or explicit water-symbol 

 S, and the organic letters <p, ^i 4'- 



14. That the ship- and mountain-symbols were variously modified, 

 and, for a curious but perfectly explainable reason, compounded, in- 

 terfused, confused, and interchanged ; whereas the water-symbol, for 

 an equally plain reason, was kept simple and separate from the other 

 two, and stands out clearly as the key element in all the compound 

 symbols, whether literal or architectural. 



15. That the unpronounceable AUM of the Brahmins is the moun- 

 tain-ship-water symbol, pure and simple. 



16. That the 9 of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the sign of life, or 

 of divinity, or rather of regeneration to immortality, is the same ship- 

 water-mountain symbol. 



17. That the Egyptian box-capital and lotus-leaved-base column, 

 was the architectural analogue of the same symbol; because classical 

 and beautiful in the Taboric, Tauric, or Doric style of Greece; and 

 exists still in the Norman column, with its box-capital surrounded 

 by water-demons, and in all parts and details of the Gothic cathedral 

 building, the whole of which is a nave or ship. 



18. That the tonsure of initiation, the papal tiara, the ducal 

 crown, the university cap, and many of the more curious female 

 head-dresses practised by barbarous tribes, represent the same triple 

 symbol. 



19. That circumcism is not to be explained except as a practical 

 way of rendering the arkite symbol permanent in that part of the 

 human body adopted as primal by the phallic mythology; which, fol- 

 lowing arkism, accepted its phraseology, and applied its symbolik to 

 a more philosophical train of ideas suggested by tne generative powers 

 of nature and the mysteries of child-birth. 



20. That the serpent-worship mythology must be regarded as a 

 one-sided arkism, due to an exaggerated reverence for the water 

 powers, better represented by the serpent than by any other object of 

 living nature. The serpent- and egg-symbol, especially in its form 

 of the serpent, column and egg, or serpent, altar and bread, is per- 

 fectly arkite. 



21. That the Yezidee, or devil-worship, was but a modification of 

 ophism, and was represented in arkism by the worship of the croco- 

 dile, and other amphibious or marine monsters, by the legends of 



