profane, when adopted by these the latest cultivators of the Gnosis, to typify their mystic Mete.
In
such a sense the enigmatical motto " Though secret, I am afterwards
known," and the injunctions to silence would be highly appropriate, the
true meaning of the devices being only understood by the " free, equal,
and admitted brother ;" but such an explanation, tempting as it is,
will not stand a closer investigation, for it is based upon a mere
chimera. The figures so laboriously collected by Von Hammer manifest in
everything the spirit of the Cinque Cento and a certain inspiration of
Roman art, for in some the idea has evidently been borrowed from the
Hercules wrapped in his lion's skin, whilst the armour in others is
much too classical in its details to have been of the work of the
Templar times. The astrological symbols, too, so profusely interspersed
are not even as ancient in form as those employed by the Gothic
architects in their sculptured decorations, but exactly correspond
with those found in printed books of the sixteenth century. The Arabic
inscriptions also are in the modern Neskhi, which had not superseded
the Cuiic in the ages in question ; and this circumstance alone
suffices to demolish the whole fabric he has so ingeniously reared. All
these considerations united show that these figures, if not altogether
modern forgeries, were made to serve some purpose in the proceedings of
the alchemists or astrologers in the train of the emperor Rudolph II.,
or perhaps, as certain Masonic emblems denote, they had reference to
the arcana of the Rosicrucians. The latter flourished amazingly in
Germany after the year 1600, before they were merged into the
Freemasons sometime in the next century ; and, seeing that the motives
of these statuettes are evidently borrowed from Florentine bronzes, the
latter explanation is, perhaps, the nearest to the truth At this date
the notions of the Kabala and mysticism of every kind flourished most
vigorously; indeed, the astrology and alchemy of the preceding ages
were simple science conducting its investigations according to the
rules of common sense, when compared to the extravagant theosophy
established by Paracelsus and his disciples.
From
all this we are driven back to the conclusion before attained from
other data, that these mysterious intagli, instead of being early
mediaeval works, are specimens of the earliest
