190 



u On Gnostic Amulets" 



symbolism. I show one gem only, representing the bull, emblem 

 of the earth, springing out upon her yearly course through the realms 

 of air. As these are generally represented by the moon and stars on 

 the field of the gem, one is at once reminded of " the cow jumping 

 over the moon/' Indeed, the whole of that venerable rhyme might 

 be explained in a strictly gnostic sense. 



I have said enough to show that to class the gnostics— as is done 

 by so many Church historians— as Christian heretics is as misleading 

 as it would be to call them Greek, or Indian, or Persian, in their 

 religion. They professed, evidently, to sit apart, judging all creeds, 

 and taking from each what fitted most symmetrically into their 

 own esoteric belief. But what that faith was, whether indeed there 

 was any continuous thread of deeper knowledge concealed under 

 their strange emblems, and interminable lists of angels and spirits 

 &c, I think is still a secret; and I believe it would be well worth 

 the trouble if some well skilled in archaeology would try to unravel 

 it. What their speculations and their claims to purer and higher 

 knowledge led to may be read in Clement and Epiphanius, &c. 

 Only, it should be, in fairness, remembered, that these and others 

 are at once uncritical and bitterly hostile, and accusations almost as 

 startling and horrible were brought against the early Christians. 

 The tendency now-a-days is rather the other way, a sign, perhaps, 

 o£ what 1 have already hinted at, that the cycle of that particular 

 form of anti-Christian mysticism has nearly come round again, and 

 that these, to us, new forms of hostility, aiming at resolving 

 Christianity into its supposed elements, rather than denying it 

 altogether, must be met by the wider learning and moderation of 

 Christian divines. 



