TWO EXAMPLES OF SYMBOLISM. 19 



the image of the intelligible God ; and even Copernicus believed 

 that the movements of each planet were regulated by the soul of 

 an in-dwelling angel. 



The sun, as the visible and familiar source of life and move- 

 ment, was venerated by all the civilised races of antiquity who 

 taught that the solar activity was controlled by a hidden, a 

 supreme power ; as by Ra or by Apollo, or as by the Gaulish god 

 who carried the rayed wheel upon his shoulder. 



Let me refer for a moment to the Fylfot as an Aryan sign of 

 energy, centred sometimes by the moon, shown as a crescent, and 

 sometimes by the sun, shown as the duplex. (Fig. i.) 



It was natural for Patristic writers to remember the words of 

 the prophet Malachi, and to call Christ the Sun of Righteousness, 

 since He had proclaimed Himself the Light of the World ; and 

 in Christian art the duplex, which originally stood for the two 

 paths of one and the same celestial object, was employed to 

 signify the double nature of the offspring of God and man. 



As an auspicious decoration the use of the duplex can be 

 followed from Roman times, first by pagan and then by Christian 

 Gaul, as shown by M. Barriere-Flavy. It was adopted as a 

 Christian device by Byzantine artists, and ultimately by those of 

 Ireland and Scandinavia. 



At this point it will be convenient to define terms. A symbol 

 stands for an abstract idea, an emblem denotes a concrete thing, 

 an attribute occurs in apposition with the person it qualifies ; for 

 example, in a presentment of the Blessed Virgin, the lily that she 

 holds in her hand, or that flowers by her side, is her attribute. 

 When the lily appears alone, if it represents the Queen of Heaven, 

 it is her emblem, but if it indicates Purity it is a symbol. The 

 latter term, however, since it can be used in the forms symbolise 

 and symbolism is, from this convenience, gradually superseding 

 the other. 



It is easy to go too far in the pursuit of symbolism to see 

 more in signs and tokens than they ever meant. Besides, every 

 symbol comes at last into the hands of the professional artificer 

 whose taste leads him to subordinate all things to a decorative 



