634 On the Buddhist Emblem of Architecture. [No. 165. 



describes minutely this completion of initiation : the night-like dark- 

 ness ; the approach to the confines of Death ; and then in the very midst 

 of this darkness, the light revealed to him. In some of the various 

 versions of these mysteries, it is said that the candidate was shrouded 

 in the shudder- cloth of Death, was placed in that narrow home to which 

 we all must go, was raised again, and went forth the new-born, and 

 perfect craftsman. In others, it was represented by the candidate pass- 

 ing through an oval, symbolising that as he entered into this scene of 

 woe, so must he go forth again. Thus was it that we find Death styled 

 in antient writ " the portal of life." It was thus that clefts in trees, 

 and openings in rocks were ever held in veneration among the vulgar 

 of all nations ; passing one's body through them is a regenerating process 

 gone through by Hindoo devotees in the present time, and even in our 

 own land the practice it is said exists in some parts of the country of 

 passing children through such openings to cure them of the rickets. 

 A similar ceremony is the bathing in those khonds, (typical of the 

 opening of the womb,) or still pools, where a river enlarges into a 

 circle, and which is held in India as a regenerating process. 



We find the Apostle Paul referring in a most marked manner to certain 

 appearances in the celebration of this grade, and he too yearns for the 

 time when he shall know perfectly. I allude to the often-quoted chapter 

 the 13th of 1st Corinthians. The word there translated " charity,"* is in 

 the original ayair^ "love," and implies that bond of brotherhood which 

 ever was the watchword of those mysteries which he speaks of in the 2nd 

 verse of the chapter. The whole bent of the chapter is singly this ; it is 

 one of the many allusions he makes to these mysteries, and he says, that 

 although he may be ever so well read in them, and be able to expound 

 them ever so clearly, yet if he is not imbued with that "love," which 

 is the foundation-stone of them all, it profiteth him nothing. And he 

 goes on to say, that in this life we can but know in part, and we pro- 

 phesy (announce) in part ; but that when the end shall arrive, then that 



* The word "charity," in the confined import which we give to it, is little else 

 than tXtrj/JLOOVVr) " alms-giving ;" but it is derived from the Greek yapiQ-iTQQ, 

 which is a most expressive root, implying that union of "mercy, thankfulness, and 

 love," which goes to the composition of that exquisite quality "grace;" a qualify 

 which, whilst it is an attribute characteristic of a God, is still to be discerned in .the 

 tracery of a leaf. 



