186 



" On Gnostic Amulets" 



Roman style seems to have arisen, but whereas the large majority 

 of antique gems now extant are Roman, it is obvious that to 

 speak of any style as peculiarly Roman is likely to be a misnomer. 

 We may fancy that we may detect in one gem the severe treat- 

 ment of the so-called Consular age, in another the boldness of the 

 Augustan, in another, again, the softness of the temporary revival 

 of the art under Hadrian ; but really when, throughout the immense 

 empire every freed man and many slaves too, carried their own 

 signet, and some at least wore engraved rings on every joint of 

 every finger, there was room for every variety of style, every degree 

 of skill. 



But, as I have said, the profusion of intaglios, while it made the 

 fortune of the dealers, was the ruin of the art. A showy ring stone, 

 defaced by some hideous caricature of a well-known statue, looked 

 better at a distance on the finger than some exquisite engraving on 

 plain sard ; and if an amulet was required, unless the magic formula 

 prescribed some special material, a common pebble, rudely scratched 

 with the words of a charm, or some mystic name or figure, was as 

 efficacious as the most costly gem, so that those who desired orna- 

 ment, or those that desired protection, were, as a rule, equally careless 

 of the execution of the work. 



And it happened that just at the time of the degradation of the 

 art a curious impulse was given to the fabrication and sale of 

 amulets by the rise and spread (I must not say the beginning) of 

 the many sects of gnostics. Every member of these sects — and 

 they were very numerous — seems to have carried one of these stones 

 which answered a three-fold purpose : as an amulet it protected its 

 owner from various accidents and diseases ; as a secret token or pass 

 it made him known to his brethren in other cities or countries, and 

 entitled him to their help and hospitality ; as a charm, buried with 

 his dead body, it passed the soul through all the lower stages of 

 incorporeal existence, till it reached and became part of the Eternal 

 fulness, that central and vital force, which was, as I conceive, the 

 only Godhead which the true leaders of this mysterious movement 

 really recognized. This notion of a central and vital force, per- 

 meating and influencing all nature, yet impersonal and unknowable, 



