limbs of Osiris were said to have been deposited, could not greatly exceed the size of an ordinary footstool: the arks in which the votaries of the Celtic Ket were occasionally inclosed, must have been such as might contain, probably in a very compressed state, the body of a man.

Pausanias, when he made his minute and accurate survey of Greece, saw among the numerous sacred objects at the city of Olympia, an ark or chest known by the name of Cypselis. It was made of cedar, decorated with numerous figures of animals. Some of them were of gold, some of ivory, some were carved out of the cedar itself. In this ark Cypselus, king of Corinth, when an infant, had been concealed, at a time when the Bacchidæ (female Bacchants) sought to tear him in pieces. It may be imagined that in this ark the infant might receive a commodious lodgment; it was most probably of considerable size, for besides the animals on the outside, there were inscriptions written in the ancient boustrophedon or returning manner, (from which lines were called turnings or verses,) accompanying figures illustrative of the heroic histories of Greece in times anterior to the establishment of the pantheon of Jupiter, and consequently during the prevalence of the Celtic system. Why the ark should have afforded a safe asylum for the infant, will be seen from the following history.

Ericthonius was a personage said in the language of fabulous history to have been produced from the blood of the Gorgons, and taken from the earth by the goddess Pallas, who enfolded him with two snakes, and gave him the power of dispensing good or evil to man at will. The goddess placed the child in a sacred ark, and committed it to the custody of three sisters, Aglauros, Herse, and Pandroso, with a strict injunction not to meddle with it in any manner. The two latter violated the engagement; they opened and looked into the ark. At the sight of Ericthonius they

m Pausan. lib. v. c. 17, s. 2, & c. 18.

n

Euripidis Ion, v. 999.

became distraught, and threw themselves headlong down from the steepest part of the rock of the Acropolis, where the ark had been placed under their care.°

The like fate befel a Greek named Eurypylus. Cassandra, the daughter of king Priam, put into his hands a sacred ark, which had been given by Jupiter to her ancestor Dardanus. The Greek, curiously desirous of knowing the contents, removed the cover of the ark, as the Trojan prophetess malignantly expected, and beheld the idol of Bacchus inclosed in it. The man was instantly deprived of his reason; and could not obtain relief until he had found persons to offer human victims on an altar, and had there deposited the ark, regarded thenceforth as awfully sacred, and actually containing a mighty god.P The offering of human victims in this case accords with the presumed Celticism of the Trojan Cassandra; and these examples show that the safety of Cypselus was ensured by the dread of the terrible mischiefs likely to ensue on the impious inspection into sacred arks.

The accounts given of these arks speak as though human forms were inclosed within them; as might be inferred from the manner in which Ericthonius and Bacchus are mentioned. It has been observed, that during the ages in which the Celtic religion prevailed, images, or idols bearing the human form, were not used, for that such representations of the Deity were not then allowed. It must therefore be agreed, that the personages above-named were not exhibited in any other manner than by significant symbols. Bacchus, for instance, was commonly represented by the ivy, a plant held sacred in his worship as the symbol of virescence and vigorous life. When, therefore, the Grecian antiquary writes as though Ericthonius and Bacchus were exhibited in their arks in a human form, he uses terms rather in accordance with the practice of the times, than with truth and accuracy. When images were admitted into general use, the ark was

• Pausan. lib. i. c. 18, s. 2. p Ibid. lib. vii. c. 19, s. 3.

superseded, as already stated, by the cabinet, called a shrine, with opening upright valves or doors instead of the horizontal lid or cover, which, when placed on a table or other platform, and opened, exhibited the image of the god; but it appears from the statement of the Christian Father Clement of Alexandria, that images never found place in the sacred ark, even in the Christian era in which he lived, but that the contents consisted only of symbolical articles.

The zealous Advocate for the religion of the Gospel seems to have known well the usual contents of these sacred arks; for the Christians, not being awed by the pretended sanctity of those fabrics intended to be secret mysteries, would not hesitate to look into them whenever an opportunity occurred. The Advocate, regarding with indignant scorn the contents of these arks, recites them in terms as follow: "Are they not,” says he, “sprigs of sesamis, and little pyramids, and wool elaborately wrought, a cake with many knobs, handfuls of salt, together with a snake, used in the orgies of Bacchus ? Are they not pomegranates? Are they not little hearts, little rods, sprigs of ivy, sweet cakes, and heads of poppies? These," says the scornful Advocate, "are their sacred things." The Analyst of Ancient Mythology admits that such things as these here recited, were the usual garniture of the sacred arks; but he shows, that every article had its peculiar symbolical meaning, and might have been available to good effects: but it is evident that much study must have been practised, before such effects could have wrought upon the minds of the pagan votaries; the excess of meaning rendered, as it ever must, the import of the many symbols utterly inefficient. The study of the symbols was never undertaken ; their use was unknown, and they appeared to be really useless and even ridiculous; the banter of the Christian Advocate became irresistible, and the pagan, ashamed of his

a Clem. Alexand. Admon. ad Gent. p. 14. A.

old mythology, gave heed to the evidences of truth, and became a convert to the Christian faith.

This effect ensuing from the argument of the Christian Advocate, affords a useful warning in regard to the use of symbols; it shews that when the symbols are numerous they become uninstructive, and even injurious to the interests of truth. Of the articles, the usual furniture of the sacred arks of the pagans, it must be observed, that every one of them had a symbolical meaning calculated to afford the most valuable instruction; the whole rightly understood would have formed a most excellent lecture in natural religion,—would have taught the same truths as man is invited to seek and secure by a pious attention given to the works of the Creator. This will be sufficiently evident from the authorities and observations of the learned and ingenious Bryant, who shews that idolatry depended entirely on the symbolical use of natural objects. Had idolaters confined themselves within that limit, they had not been transgressors of the divine law: but when they bowed before the symbol, it soon became a god; then they trod the paths of error. The Reformers of the sixteenth century, aware of this tendency of the use of symbols, proscribed them altogether; destroying that which might be valuably useful, because it had been abused. True religion is most assuredly spiritual; but there are few who can become spiritual without the aid of objects of sense, and therefore the use of symbols, when confined within proper bounds, will ever be approved by the true friend of man. The same may be said of the application of heathen structures to the purposes of Christian worship. All of them were symbolical: but when it is shewn that they all received their symbolical forms by a regular descent from the primal and patriarchal altar, in form most probably the same as the altar raised by the Deity for the use of man when he planted the Garden of Eden, the forms of the sacred structures of even the heathen may be said to have

had a divine origin. This fully justifies the adoption of the forms of heathen sacred structures, and the application of even heathen symbols, to purposes altogether and purely Christian. After these remarks, digressive perhaps, but not altogether foreign to the subject, the attention is again invited to the history of the sacred arks of heathenism.

The religion of the Celts, better known as the religion of the Druids, was, during the ages which preceded the age of recorded history, the form which idolatry bore in almost all, if not actually in all parts of the world. Rites performed in caves formed a part of the religious duties of that mode of religion; and the use of the kist-vaen or sacred ark was inseparable from, and indispensably necessary to, the performance of some of the most solemn mysteries. The many different names by which that sacred article was known afford the most ample confirmation of this position, for the difference of names can only have been owing to the use of the ark in different and distant countries and ages. The learned Bryant recites many of these names; and proves, by authorities adduced, that the sacred fabric was known by the names of larnax, cibotus, cypselis, baris, bëotus, theba, and argus. These names are stated because the celebrity of the sacred ark gave names to the places where they were set up and reverenced, or rather worshipped. The province of Greece named Beotia, or the country of the bëotus or ark, was thus designated, because the bëotus was there held in special reverence. The cities of Thebes and Argos were so named, because a theba and an argus was there set up and held in especial reverence.

The word baris, one of the names given to these sacred arks, is a form given, says the mythologist, to the Hebrew

berith, a word signifying an ark. This became the name Berytus, a city of Phoenicia, in which an ark of great fame was kept. It commemorated the act of Venus rising from the waters at that place. This goddess was a personi