108 



towards the four * opposite points of tlie compass, in correspon- 

 dence with the positions of the tribes which they typified, formed 

 the terrestrial chariot of the Cherubim of the ark, upon which 

 rode the Lord of the Israelitish host ; so the Deity was seated, 

 sublime above tlie constellations, and principally the signs of the 

 bull, and those others, which, corresponding with them four in their 

 appearance, occupied the four quarterly stations in the zodiacal 

 belt. In drawing this analogy between the 2d, the 5th, the 8th, 

 and the 1 1th signs of the zodiac, and the figures which went to 

 the composition of the Cherubim, a serious objection Avill occur ; 

 that, although we have among the signs the bull, the lion, and a 

 man, there is nothing to correspond with the fourth face of the 

 eagle : the following considerations, however, Avill not only recon- 

 cile this variance, but afford a new proof of the hypothesis ; ope- 

 rating tiius with that double force, in its favour, which a seemingly 

 fatal objection, converted into an argument from the other side, 

 must necessarily possess. 



The fourth sign of the zodiac, of which we now speak, is the 

 scorpion, or in some antient spheres the serpent ; we shall find it 

 proved that, in several compound figures of various mythologies, 

 which seem plainly to be borrowed from the Cherubim of the Jews, 

 or, together with this latter, from some source common to both, 

 the serpent was usually a part of the compound. The god Cronus 

 " was -f- a dragon, which had the bestial heads of a bull and a 

 " lion, and the human face ; and whose shoulders were furnished 

 *' with the golden wings of a bird :" and, among instances of com- 



* Mede ubi sup. 



t Faber orig. &c. v. 1 . p. 4-30, and 450. See also Parkluirst's Diet, on the word Cherub, 



