202 
symbols of the fleshly receptacle of the 
human soul, among the Greeks, as well 
as the Egyptians; and the illustration 
was adopted by the scriptural writers 
and fathers of the church. In this sense 
the body is called “ a vessel” in scrip- 
ture; and the same symbolic style is 
beautifully employed in a mystic passage 
of Solomon: “ Ere the silver cord be 
loosed, or the golden nowt be broken, 
or the pitcher (the vase or AMPHORA) 
be broken at the rounrain; or the 
WHEEL broken at the cistern.” It may 
be as well to remark here, that the 
WHEEL was a common symbol in the 
Egyptian temples; to the rounTain 
and cistern we shall advert presently. 
The above sublimely mysterious passage 
concludes; “then shall the ropy re- 
turn unto dust, as it was, and the spirit 
return unto God that gave it.” It is 
probable that the sow: was an emblem 
of the female or recipient frame; the 
Amphora, or urn, of the male: but 
whether this be so or not, it is certain 
that the Egyptians represented the body 
by cynocephalic vases: and the latter 
are often seen painted in the tombs of 
the kings, and elsewhere, in an upright 
position beneath the couch or Thala- 
mus, on which the dead body or mummy 
is pourtrayed as reclining. The uprizht 
vase, or amphora_ probably, meant ani- 
mated body : in this sense wine is often 
employed by scriptural authorities to 
imply the srrrir: and the reclined vase, 
as is seen on Athenian medals, either 
in Charon’s boat or elsewhere, symbo- 
lized life departed, or the spirit poured 
out. 
AND THERE THE BEES MAKE HONEY. 
—The bee, among the _hieroglyphies 
(wherein that insect is often pourtrayed 
"as standing on a bowl, while the image 
of the Ibis, or watery principle, is repre- 
sented as surmounting two long beams) 
implied creative or active spirit. From 
the complexion of many scriptural pas- 
Sages, it is not improbable that in the 
universal symbolic language of the 
world’s youth, fragments of which are 
perpetually turned up in_ exploring 
the soil of antient history, dutter and 
honey were emblems, the one of the 
sensual or animal, the other of the 
spiritual or mental principle. Thus 
Isaiah prophecies: “ Butter and honey 
shall be eat.’ And Jacob predicts, 
of Judah ;” his teeth shall be white 
with milk. So Creeshna is fabled in 
a Hindoo tradition, on opening his 
mouth, to exhibit his feeth all white with 
milk, and composing a representation. of 
The Cave of the Nymphs. 
[Apr. I, 
the universe. The.intention of this ex- 
travagant fable is, doubtless, to repre- 
sent the mouth of the creative Creeshna. 
as a divine oracular cave, in which the 
teeth correspond with the Pythagorian 
doctrine of sacred and archetypal num- 
bers; and, indeed, the entrances of 
many Hindoo and Japanese temples (see 
Raffles’ Jaya) are composed of the 
mouth of an immense Gorgon head. 
Milk mixed with honey and water (mul- 
sum) was always a prominent appendage 
and offering of the most antient sacri- 
ficial rites. 
WITHIN, MOREOVER, ARE LONG STONE 
BEAMS, — These are decided attestations 
of all Cyclopean fabrics. That in this 
case, as Porrnyry indicates, they im- 
plied the osserous frame-work of the 
human body,is corroborated by the fable 
of Deucaleon’s stones becoming men: 
and the allusion here has probably a di- 
luvial reference; ON THEM THE NYMPHS 
WEAVE PURPLE GARMENTS, WONDERFUL. 
TO sEE. There can be little doubt 
that garments here meant the flesh : 
It is acommon metaphor to this day. 
St. Jude uses the phrase “ garments of 
the flesh ;’ and on the PortLanp Vase, 
the disembodied Spirit is represent- 
ed leaving his fleshly garment at the 
gate of Hades, death. It is remarked 
that the occupation of weaving assigned 
here to the Naiads would be anoma- 
lous, were they not the three Marine 
Cabire, who were also the three parce 
or fates, and were in fact, in Egypt, re- 
presentatives of the weaving season. 
AND WITHIN ARE WATERS PERPETU- 
ALLY FLOwING.—'Though the running 
waters of the holy cave (and lustral 
water, be it remarked, was used in all 
the antient rites) may, in a limited and 
material sense, have indicated, as Por- 
phyry says, the seas and rivers of the 
globe; they had, also, doubtless, a deeper 
and more consecrated import... They 
implied, in the universal sacRED LAN- 
GuaGE of the patriarchal hierarchy, pu- 
rification and celestial instruction; and 
they are constantly used in this sense 
by the prophets, who in all cases rigo- 
rously adhered to its peculiar imagery 
and conventional terms. So that splen- 
did chapter of Isaiah, the fifty-fifth, (the 
frame of which appears to be an InrTIA- 
TORY LECTURE), commences—“ Ho ! 
eyery one that thirsteth! come ye to 
the living waters; and these waters 
are in the same chapter compared to 
the “ word.”? Again, in Zechariah, the 
prediction of the diffusion of the “ word” 
is described as “a fountain to be cH 
or 
