truest, inmost self. Let all mankind cherish lofty ideals, love the light, desire the light, summon the light in its daily aspirations, and lo, the light is there, illumining the world-the inner world-for ever. Chantecler does not know when this day will dawn, but - it will come 'some day'-and meanwhile-to work !'" CHAPTER VII KING SOLOMON "Man is not dust, man is not dust, I say! A lightning substance through his being runs ; Hold in their centre still the parent flame; His centre-stores the light from which he came. "Man is not flesh, man is not flesh, but fire! The flame that mothers him eludes his eyes. Flashing and thrilling close behind the screen, THE ancients supposed that the soul consisted of four elements, fire, air, earth, and water; and that these, when united, took the form of fire and became flame. This heavenly composition was scattered like seed among men and animals, where it became mingled in various proportions with earth, and its purity more or less alloyed and impaired. It was believed that after death the impurities of matter were purged away by immersing the soul in water, ventilating it in the currents of the wind, or refining it by fire. The Supreme Spirit was idealised as im maculate fire and symbolised as a pure and elemental flame burning in infinitude. Among the Chinese, this infinite One was regarded as a fixed point of dazzling luminosity, around which circled. in the supremest glory of motion the souls of those who had successfully passed through the ordeals of earth and had adequately purified their corporeal grossness.1 In the preceding chapter an illustration was given of the head of an Eagle associated with the cosmic Flame. This spiritual Fire of the Universe is shown herewith as 1 H. A. Giles, Religions of Ancient China, p. 48. the goal of ascent, and in figs. 350-353 it appears as one of the Ways. The letters IHS forming the centre of fig. 355 prove Jesus Christ to have been identified with the Fire of Life, and the contraction mark surmounting the 356 357 358 monogram IHS shows that these letters were correctly understood and employed in their original meaning IHSOUS, not in their modern misinterpreted sense (Jesus (S)alvator H(ominum). From Flame as the symbol of Spirit, to the Sun, the Centre and Sustainer of the material Universe, the Primal 359 360 S 361 Source and Origin in whose light and warmth creation lives and moves and has its being, is less than a step. In the Sun emblems here reproduced the solar features are not clumsily executed, but prove upon close scrutiny to be supplementary symbols. Three small circles of perfection form the Face of fig. 359. The Heart of fig. 360 is the symbol of Love, and if fig. 361 be turned upside down, there is revealed the sign of the cross. The S of Spiritus is attached to fig. 361 and this S also appears in the centres of figs. 362, 364 and 365. Into the face of fig. 362 the deviser has ingeniously introduced the crescent moon, and the alternating sharp and twisting rays of fig. 366 probably denote respectively the piercing beams of Light and the flaming fires of Love. The centre of fig. 367 is not the conventional IHS, but reads Y HS, Y being the initial of Yesha, an equivalent of Jesous. This letter Y is sometimes found in the form of a separate symbol and is of vast antiquity. It is reverenced in China, where it is known as the Great Unit or the Great Term, and its three limbs are said to denote Three-in-One and One-in-Three.' Fig. 368 is composed of three equal crosses, fig. 369 is associated with the Circle of Perfection, figs. 370 and 371 are hallowed by the cross, and the tail of fig. 373 is woven into the S of Spiritus. 1 H. A. Giles, Religions of Ancient China. |