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GOLD AND GEMS.
309
of Israel daily marched round the walls of Jericho for 7 days; and Elisha bade Naaman wash in Jordan 7 times; and under the Levitical law every 7th day, and 7th month, and 7th year, was sabbatical, and a succession of 7 sabbatical years was followed by the year of Jubilee, which brought the sab­batical cycle to completion. Hence, as Josephus distinctly states, the candle­stick of the tabernacle of Moses was 7-branched; and in the Book of Revelation the churches of Asia, &c, are 7; and there are 7 Christian virtues, and 7 deadly sins; and 7 sorrows of Mary; and 7 journeys of Christ; and 7 divisions of the Christian day; and 7 champions of Christendom. Likewise 7 wise men of Greece; and 7 sleepers; and 7 wonders of the world; and 7 metals; and 7 precious stones; and 7 notes of music; and 7 nails in a horse shoe; and 7 cuts and guards in fencing. The 12-fold signs through which the sun passes in a solar year made the number 12 divine. Therefore the sons of Jacob are 12; and there were 12 loaves of shewbread, which Josephus explicitly states "denoted the year, as distinguished into so many months;" and 12 brazen lions, as supporters of the "molten sea" of Solomon's temple; and 12 lions on ths steps of Solomon's throne; and in the Book of Revelations the New Jerusalem has 12 foundations and 12 gates; and the "Tree of Life" 12 manner of fruits; and the woman clothed with the sun and moon is crowned with 13 stars, It is to be noted also that there were 12 tables of the Roman law; and that 12 fasces were carried before the decemviri who administered them; and that on the 1st of March each year the 12 Salii, or "dancing" priests of Mars, arrayed in embroidered tunics, perambulated the streets of Rome, bearing the 12 ancilia or shields dedicated the temple of Quirinus by Numa, as the palladium of the eternal city. It has never before been suspected, but they were certainly a zodiacal palladium; and I find that the embroidery on the cloaks of the Salii, as seen on an ancient gem, commonly figured in dic­tionaries of Roman antiquities {vide Rich], represents the sea-horse of Aquarius, and another symbolical figure which is not specifically zodical is certainly con-stellationary. The "fratres Arvales" were also 12. The palladium of British liberty is a jury of 12 good men and true; and of old every English archer went into battle with 12 arrows in his belt, whence the saying:—"Every English archer carries [the lives of] 12 Scotchmen under his girdle." The right number of spokes in a cart-wheel is 12; and the hosiers' sign of a ram or lamb hanging from either a 12-spoked wheel, or a wheel with revolving legs for its spokes, is nothing but a similitude of the circle of the zodiac, with the sign of the ram represented in enlarged proportion, and naturalistically. Great reverence and awe also attaches to the occult power of the multiple of 7 by 12, that is to the number 84, which is still largely affected by the Hindus and Jainas, and in certain relations even by the Mahomedans of India. From the ear iest traditions of the Hindus, the chaurasi, or group of 84 villages, as a reduplication of the 84 constellations of the heavens, and analogous to our hundred or '• cantred," has existed as one of the larger divisions of the land in Rajputana, the l'anjab, and parts of the Xorth-West Provinces. The 84 constellations are also represented by the chaurasi necklace of 84 beads, and by chaurasi palaces of 84 windows or columns, and in various other forms. The number 360 is also especially sacred among the Hindus, and Jainas, and Buddhists, because it is a multiple of.the number of the 12 months of the year by the number (30) of the days of a solar month. Is it reasonable, then, to doubt that the number of the stones of Aaron's breastplate was suggested by the 12-fold signs of the zodiac; and that it was in fact the zodiacal palladium of Israel. But why he (the Chairman) had gone into the matter at such great length was because he most strongly desired to recover the long lost threads of traditional symbolism in the ornamental arts of the Caucasian races. He did not forget what the followers of Geothe were always saying about art being its own self-sufficient end, and independent of all moral aim. But in reviewing the subject historically, he found that the highest principle