By the Rev. W. F. Short. 



187 



seems to bring* us very near to some rather eccentric phases of what 

 is called modern thought, and doubtless the mind of man generally 

 works in a circle (some would say, perhaps, a spiral), and a real 

 knowledge of the doctrines held under many forms by the different 

 sects of gnostics would probably lead us back to very early forms of 

 Oriental mysticism, and at the same time give a clue to many lines 

 of speculation which we think purely modern : but unfortunately 

 no one has, it seems to me, ever done more than scratch the outside 

 of the system. The writers of their own time, Clement of 

 Alexandria, Epiphanius, Hippolitus, look upon them, apparently, as 

 heretics, renegades, professing to hold the only true Christian 

 doctrine. Modern writers are generally content to class them as 

 sun or nature worshippers, a very vague and inadequate definition. 

 They claimed, certainly, to have understood the inner meaning of 

 Christianity, and they worshipped the sun in a sense, but rather as 

 the Egyptian priests did, as the symbol of an unknowable power, 

 than as a god in itself. Whatever the real secret is, it is to be 

 found, I believe, in the inscriptions on their gems. These are 

 numberless, and comparatively very few have been made out, so 

 that there is, as Dr. Birch, of the British Museum, once told me, a 

 grand field of research open to any archaeologist, who, with some 

 notion of comparative mythology, &c, plenty of time, and good 

 eyes, would undertake a task which would be really of immense 

 value in this age of expanded, perhaps often misdirected, thought. 

 (I once hoped to have done something in this way myself, but 

 my eyes have unfortunately failed me, and time is wanting.) 



To return to the amulets, Basileides of Alexandria, the best 

 known leader of the sects, living about 130 A.D., invented a 

 monstrous form as a visible representation of the unknown divine, 

 namely, a human figure armed, with a cock's head, and serpents for 

 legs. Here, probably, the head implied perfect wakefulness ; the 

 armed body, strength ; the shield protection ; the serpents, subtlety 

 and wisdom, while the whip has been, unfortunately, in all ages the 

 Egyptian type of sovereignty. 



Numberless gems are found with this figure upon them, and, 

 accompanied often by the mystic name of Abrasax, also invented by 



