Myfteriesy Perfonification of Events , Truths , 
I T may obvioufly occur in looking into thefe Memoirs of Antiquities, that it is not 
merely the plain delineation of the fragments of Ancient Seals, which is the 
principal objedl here in view : the pleafure of the refearch into the more remote 
references of the fculptures on them, has been alfo much indulged. 
The more obvious allufions of lymbollical figures are greatly aggrandized, by a 
careful inveitigation of the Archytypes, from whence they have been originally 
derived. 
As many of thefe have been handed down through fucceffive ages, accompanied 
with various illuftration of their primaeval imports; it is one important view of Anti- 
quarian ftudy, to colleft fome of the fcattered rays of light, which fortunately now 
and then occur to cheer the bewildered fancy, while it wanders in the labyrinth of 
oriental metaphor. 
As many of the Catholic monuments in every country, have their embellifh- 
ments borrowed from the more antient fymbols ufed in the religious rites of the 
Gentile world, fo all thefe had their origin in the Temples of Egypt, that wonder- 
ful fource of faience and theology. 
The developement of the hidden analogies, which the antient rites and fymbols 
bore to matter of faft, and to divine truth, of which but imperfefil memorials have 
come down to our times, feem to open a fource of interefting fpeculation. 
The following enquiry may happily lend a key to fome of the mystic doors, 
through which we obtain a glimpfe of the Arcana, which prevailed in the Antient 
myfteries. 
Previoufly, however, te remark the affinity, and concurrence of defign, between 
Emblematical Representation, and Symbolical Description, and a care- 
ful obfervation of the relations which they bear to each other, may aid our refearch 
amid the fcanty annals, which light our dubious way into the Adyta of the primeval 
Temples. 
Some obfervations which fpontaneoufiy arofe from the peculiarity of the fculp- 
tures on one of the Seals already engraved, compared with an elegy on the early 
fate of the Epifcopal Church in Scotland, feem* to promife the wiffied for illuftration, 
and to be particularly favourable to the above purpofe. 
On one of the Seals of the Cathedral deferibed in No. 20, — ft A venerable fe- 
« male reclining on a couch, in a languishing attitude, by ftretching forth her appa- 
“ parently feeble hand, feems pathetically to complain of her declining ftate. By 
« the pale light of a decaying lamp, fhe makes her lamentation to a dejefiled old 
“ man, in e fcarce lefs feeble eftate, in penfive pofture, leaning on his ftafF, and 
u evidently fharing in the female’s woes.’' 
K k Without 
