Vaux.] 47b [May 17, 



Report of the Secretary of State and correspondence in relation to the 

 Affairs of the Independent State of the Congo. Washingtofi, 188(>. 



Rapport du Couiite d'Etudes sur la question du Congo (Sociele Beige 

 des Ingenieurs, etc.)- Bruxelles, 1886. 



Rapport de la Commission Administrative de la Sociele Beige des In- 

 genieurs, etc., a I'assemblee generale sur la question du Congo. Brux- 

 elles, 1886. 



Resultats de I'Exploration scientifique faite au Congo, par M. Edouard 

 Dupont en Juillet— Decembre, 1887. Bruxelles, 1888. 



Resultats geologiques de I'exploration de I'Etat Independant du Congo, 

 par M. Edouard Dupont. Bruxelles, 1888. 



Systeme monetaire (Departement des Finances de I'Etat Independant 

 du Congo). Bruxelles, 1887. 



Trafic des Spirltueux dans le Haut Congo. (Departement des Finances, 

 etc.) Bruxelles, 1887. 



United States Consular Reports. No. 54, July, 1885 ; No. 56, August, 

 1885. Washington, 1885. 



The First Ascent of the Kassai, * * by C. S. L. Bateman. London, 

 1889. 



L' Association Congolaise et Africaiue de la Croix Rouge par un de 

 ses membres. Bruxelles, 1889. 



The Congo Railway * * * Brussells, 1889. 



Some Thovrjlds on the, Sun and Cross Symbols. 



By Richard Vaux. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society, May 17, 1SS9.) 



Symlkols were the characters of original language. The alphabets of 

 all written languages are composed of signs. 



To express a thought, a form was necessary. To think was a human 

 faculty. It marked man as the highest type of created beings. A thought 

 was the result of an impression on the mind, made from a sense, or by 

 sensation, througli some object, or a consequent corelative emanation. 



To find a form that would embody the mind's impression was solved in 

 a sign, or symbol. The mental, or reasoning process, by which this re- 

 sult was reached is not possible of explanation. We know that the senses 

 conveyed to the mind a cognizable impression, and tlien the mind oper- 

 ated. This process is called reasoning. 



The sign was made to represent an impression on the consciousness. 

 TJiis sign, or symbol, is either the impression produced by natural olyects, 

 or it is an expression of a revelation, crystallized on that impression. 



