273 



was shown to indicate a line of inquiry, by following which much of 

 the obscurity, resting over the earliest monuments and history of 

 western Europe, may be cleared away. In particular, reasons were 

 adduced for believing that the widely different doctrines of Buddhism, 

 originating in Asia, at a period when some intercourse was still 

 maintained between the cognate but widely separated races, were 

 carried westward by missionaries, who, finding the people unpro- 

 vided with a written language, had recourse to symbols, already used 

 in the East, to express their fundamental doctrines. The deity or 

 spirit (Buddha) was designated, as in India, by a wheel or circle ; 

 inorganic matter (Dharma) by another circle, or by a monogram, 

 formed of the initial letters of the elements ; and organic matter 

 (Sangha) by some embryotic form of animal or vegetable life, 

 or by a circle, or an imperfect crescent. The symbol of three 

 single circles is found in both regions : This triad is found in 

 India in the temple of EUora, and other Buddhist temples, and in 

 Scotland on the Kineller stone. In the progress of advancement 

 of the arts these simple forms of symbols were changed for tem- 

 ples, and idols were added by the rich and powerful Buddhists of 

 Asia. 



Among the ruder and more ignorant inhabitants of Scotland, the 

 arrangement of the symbols required to be altered, to suit the people 

 for whom they were intended : Spirit and Matter continued to be 

 represented by two circles, but connected by a belt, and crossed 

 by a bar uniting the extremities of two sceptres, to indicate the 

 supreme power of these (according to the Buddhist creed) co-ordi- 

 nate and all-originating principles ; while organised matter was re- 

 presented by a crescent, flower, a dog-like embryo, or some other 

 rude representation of life. 



The modifications of the serpent figure, and the Buddhist cross or 

 sacred labyrinth, as symbols of the spiritual deity ; and the occur- 

 rence of lions, camels, centaurs, with the honour paid to trees, &c., 

 on the ancient sculptured obelisks of Scotland, were also adduced as 

 proofs of an oriental origin, or connection. 



Reasons were given for the number of these stones in that part of 

 Scotland forming the ancient Pictish kingdom ; of which the inha- 

 bitants, after a temporary profession of Christianity, seemed to have 

 declined from the faith. 



