corn in the hand of Virgo marks the season of harvest. The precession of the equinoctial points has now removed the figures and the stars they belong to out of their proper places; but such was their meaning when they were in them.

Royalty and government were from the earliest times distinguished by symbolical insignia. A kingdom was always supposed to be attended with power and glory. The glory of empire was signified by a crown with points resembling rays of light, and adorned with orbs, as the heaven is studded with stars. Sometimes it was signified by horns, which are a natural crown to animals; as we see in the figure of Alexander upon some ancient coins. The power of empire was denoted by a rod or sceptre. A rod was given to Moses for the exercising of a miraculous power; whence was derived the magical wand of enchanters; and he is figured with horns to denote the glory which attended him when he came down from the presence of God. In the Iliad of Homer, the priest of Apollo, who comes to the Greeks to ransom his captive daughter, is distinguished by a sceptre in his hand, and a crown upon his head; which is called spa oo, the crown of the God, because the glory of the priest was supposed to be de

rived from the deity he represented. So long as monarchy prevailed, the sceptre of kings was a single rod: but when Brutus first formed a republic at Rome, he changed the regal sceptre into a bundle of rods, or faggot of sticks, with an ax in the middle, to signify that the power in this case was not derived from heaven, but from the multitude of the people, as peers in empire; who were accordingly flattered with majesty from that time forward; till monarchy returned, and then they were as extravagant the other way,

"Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet."

Virgil plainly understands the bundle of rods as the ensign of popular power, by opposing to it the majesty of monarchy..

Non populi fasces, non pupura Regum.

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GEORG. II. 495.

The metaphysical objects of the mind, such as the virtues, the vices, the properties and qualities of things, were represented of old with great ingenuity for moral instruction. We have a good specimen of this kind in the emblematical figure of Time, which, for any thing we know, may be almost as ancient as time itself. He was figured by the artists of Greece as an old man, running on tiptoes, with wings at

his feet, a razor, or a scythe, in his right hand, a lock of hair on his forehead, and his head bald behind of all which particulars the signification is too well known to need a comment. Justice with her sword and scales; Fortune with her feet upon a rolling sphere, and her eyes hood-winked; Vengeance with her whip; Envy with her snakes; Pleasure with her enchanted cup; Hope with her anchor; Death with his dart and hour-glass; and innumerable others of the same class, shew what delight men have always taken in painting their ideas after various ways under the images of visible forms, to give substance and force to their thoughts: and painters are but indifferently furnished for their profession without a competent knowledge of these things. The poetical figure called prosopopæia, or, personification, from whence all these devices are borrowed, is no where so frequently used, nor with so much sublimity, as in the holy scripture: of which the learned auth or De Sacra Poesi has selected many fine examples.

The enigmatical method of Pythagoras is well known; who was so fond of teaching by signs, that he made use of the letter Y to signify the two different roads of vice and virtue, to one of which young men give the preference,

when the age of trial brings them to the point where the way of life divides itself into these two. Certain moral precepts are preserved, which are called the symbols of Pythagoras*. He advises not to keep animals with crooked claws; by which he means, that we should not take into our houses and make companions of persons who are fierce and cruel in their nature; such as another author calls θηρια ανθρωπομορφα wild beasts in the shape of men.

The law of the Hebrews appointed the purity of their diet as a pattern and admonition to purity of conversation: after the example of which (for Pythagoras was a Syrian) he bids 15 θνησιμαίων απεχεθαι, to abstain from all such as die of themselves. He orders, not to stop upon a journey to cut wood; that is, not to turn aside after things impertinent to the end and purpose of our life. Also, never to make any libation to the Gods from a vine which has not been pruned: meaning, that no offering would 'be acceptable but from the fruits of a severe and well-ordered life. He pronounced it a base action to wipe away sweat with a sword; that is, to take away by force and violence what another hath earned by his labour. The lite

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* These symbols are printed with Hierocles on the Golden Verses, and are commented upon by Gyraldus.

ral sense of which symbol will not be understood, but by those who know, that the ancients used a flat instrument like the blade of a knife, with the edge of which they wiped away sweat from the skin, and cleared it of the water, &c. after the use of the bath. It was another of his sayings, that it is a foolish action to read a poem to a beast, to communicate what is excellent to a stupid ignorant person: which is the same for sense with that figurative prohibition in the gospel, not to give a holy thing to a dog, nor to cast pearls before swine. To these symbols of Pythagoras the hieroglyphic philosophy of Egypt was nearly related, which Pierius hath taken great pains to interpret; and also the fables of Esop, which teach prudence and wisdom, and shew the colours of vice and virtue, from the instincts of animals.

Sacraments and ceremonies in religion are significant actions, which all nations and all ages have observed in their worship; and the church still retains them: though these latter times (and this unhappy country in particular) have produced a spurious race of Christians, who have thrown off sacraments and ceremonies all together; as if they had consulted with some evil spirit of a beggarly taste. Priests and singers in our church wear a white linen gar

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