-
Articles/Ads
Article SIGNS AND SYMBOLS.' ← Page 5 of 8 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Signs And Symbols.'
is adorned with a very costly collar ; but that indeed is not the principal object that commands our attention . The most remarkable thing is the Egg , which he pushes with his horns , as he gripes it between his fore feet . This Bull is placed on the summit of a rock , and the Egg floats in some water , which is enclosed within the hollow space of it . The Egg represents the Chaos ; and what follows is the illustration which the doctors of Japan have iven of this hieroglhic . The whole worldat
g yp , the time of the Chaos , was enclosed within this Egg , which swain upon the surface of the waters . The Moon hy virtue of her Light and her other influences , attracted from the bottom of these waters a terrestrial substance , which was insensibly converted to a Rock , and by that means the Egg rested upon it . The Bull , observing this Egg , broke the Shell of it , by goring it with his horns , and so created the world , and by his breath formed the human species . This fable may in some measure be
reconciled with truth , hy supposing that an ancient tradition had preserved amongst the Japanese , some idea of the creation of the world ; hut that being led into an error , in process of time , hy the ambiguous meaning of the name of the Bull , which in the Hebrew language is attributed to the Deity , they ascribed the creation of the world to this animal , instead of the Supreme Being . " Againin the system of Zoroasteras we are informed bPlutarch ;
, , y " Oromazes having withdrawn himself to as great a distance from the sphere of Arimanius , as the sun is from the earth , beautified the heavens with stars and constellations . He created afterwards four-and-twenty other genii , and put them into an Egg ( the earth ) , hut Arimanius and his genii brake through this shining egg , and immediately evil was blended with good . " Aristophanes says ,
" First of all was Chaos and Night , dark Erebus and gloomy Tartarus , There was no earth , nor air , nor heaven , till dusky Night By the wind ' s power en the wide b ;; som cf Erebus , brought forth an E"g , Of which was liatch'd the gcd of love , when time began , ' " & c . ° To the same purpose Hyginus , according to Faber , " has preserved a curious tradition respecting the Assyrian A ' enus , in which the arkite Dove and the mundane Egg make a very conspicuous appearance . An Egg of wonderful magnitude was reported to have fallen from heaven
into the river Euphrates , and to have been rolled by fishes to the bank . Upon it sat doves ; and out of it was at length produced that A enus , who was afterwards styled the Syrian goddess . " The Rev . Doctor thinks that the same emblem bore a further reference to the Deluge . " In the Orphic mysteries , the doctrine was promulgated that the Sun was produced from an Egg , which floating on the ocean was tossed about h y the -waves , until he burst forth in full splendour , endowed with
power to triplicate himself by his own unassisted energies . Here is a direct reference to Noah and his three sons ; as well as to the three appearances of the Sun , in his rising , southing , and setting . In the hymns attributed to Orpheus , at one time Venus , ' the universal parent of gods and men is said to have been horn from an Egg ; and at another , Cupid is produced from the same symbol . In both these instances , the Egg represents the Ark of Noahwhichwhile floating on the ab
con-, , yss , thned every living creature , and was in effect , a world in itself . And this reference was not attended with any violent or improbable stretch of conjecture , for it was a tenet even to the Jewish creed that the earth was founded on the floods , and as it was known to the gentile world that the Ark had floated on the waters of the Deluge , the Earth and the Ark
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Signs And Symbols.'
is adorned with a very costly collar ; but that indeed is not the principal object that commands our attention . The most remarkable thing is the Egg , which he pushes with his horns , as he gripes it between his fore feet . This Bull is placed on the summit of a rock , and the Egg floats in some water , which is enclosed within the hollow space of it . The Egg represents the Chaos ; and what follows is the illustration which the doctors of Japan have iven of this hieroglhic . The whole worldat
g yp , the time of the Chaos , was enclosed within this Egg , which swain upon the surface of the waters . The Moon hy virtue of her Light and her other influences , attracted from the bottom of these waters a terrestrial substance , which was insensibly converted to a Rock , and by that means the Egg rested upon it . The Bull , observing this Egg , broke the Shell of it , by goring it with his horns , and so created the world , and by his breath formed the human species . This fable may in some measure be
reconciled with truth , hy supposing that an ancient tradition had preserved amongst the Japanese , some idea of the creation of the world ; hut that being led into an error , in process of time , hy the ambiguous meaning of the name of the Bull , which in the Hebrew language is attributed to the Deity , they ascribed the creation of the world to this animal , instead of the Supreme Being . " Againin the system of Zoroasteras we are informed bPlutarch ;
, , y " Oromazes having withdrawn himself to as great a distance from the sphere of Arimanius , as the sun is from the earth , beautified the heavens with stars and constellations . He created afterwards four-and-twenty other genii , and put them into an Egg ( the earth ) , hut Arimanius and his genii brake through this shining egg , and immediately evil was blended with good . " Aristophanes says ,
" First of all was Chaos and Night , dark Erebus and gloomy Tartarus , There was no earth , nor air , nor heaven , till dusky Night By the wind ' s power en the wide b ;; som cf Erebus , brought forth an E"g , Of which was liatch'd the gcd of love , when time began , ' " & c . ° To the same purpose Hyginus , according to Faber , " has preserved a curious tradition respecting the Assyrian A ' enus , in which the arkite Dove and the mundane Egg make a very conspicuous appearance . An Egg of wonderful magnitude was reported to have fallen from heaven
into the river Euphrates , and to have been rolled by fishes to the bank . Upon it sat doves ; and out of it was at length produced that A enus , who was afterwards styled the Syrian goddess . " The Rev . Doctor thinks that the same emblem bore a further reference to the Deluge . " In the Orphic mysteries , the doctrine was promulgated that the Sun was produced from an Egg , which floating on the ocean was tossed about h y the -waves , until he burst forth in full splendour , endowed with
power to triplicate himself by his own unassisted energies . Here is a direct reference to Noah and his three sons ; as well as to the three appearances of the Sun , in his rising , southing , and setting . In the hymns attributed to Orpheus , at one time Venus , ' the universal parent of gods and men is said to have been horn from an Egg ; and at another , Cupid is produced from the same symbol . In both these instances , the Egg represents the Ark of Noahwhichwhile floating on the ab
con-, , yss , thned every living creature , and was in effect , a world in itself . And this reference was not attended with any violent or improbable stretch of conjecture , for it was a tenet even to the Jewish creed that the earth was founded on the floods , and as it was known to the gentile world that the Ark had floated on the waters of the Deluge , the Earth and the Ark