SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.
A,CHaOLOGIC,
Neology ; or a Treatise on the Origin, Progress, and Symbolical Import of the Beefed Structures of the most Eminent Nations and Ages of the World. By John Dudley, M.A., Vicar of Humberston and of Sileby, Leicestershire, Ste • Risiaynoas. PHYSIC, Notes on the Epidemic Cholera. By R. Hartley Kennedy, M.D., ftc., late Physician- General and President Of the Medical Board, Bombay Smith, Elder, and Cu. MISCELLANE0158,
Camp and Barrack-Room ; or the British Army As It Is. By a late Staff-Sergeant
of the Thirteenth Light Infantry Chapman and Hall. Papers on Literature and Art. By S. Margaret Fuller, Author of *. A Summer on the Lakes," " Woman in the Nineteenth Century," &c. In two volumes. Wiley and Putnam. Pasilogia an Essay towards the Formation of a System of Universal Language, both written and vocal ; with suggestions for its dissemination throughout the world : including a succinct review of the principal systems of similar character heretofore published. By the Reverend Edward Groves....Orr and Co. ; .4141lashan, Dublin.
MR. DUDLEY'S NAOLOG Y.
Now Parliament is closed, the more exciting and absorbing questions of the day are allowed to repose awhile in peace, and there is some chance of a few readers' turning with pleasure to subjects so remote from every- day interest as this of naology. Those who have any taste for antiquity will find the present work both amusing and suggestive. The inter- pretation of symbols is at all times open to the charges of being at once vague and arbitrary ; and the extreme length to which it has been pushed, and the idle though ingenious subtleties to which it has given birth, have very naturally discredited the whole subject in the estimation of many. The essence of a symbol is the indication of a meaning through some thing of which the meaning is one of the attributes : thus a lion was by the Egyptians used as the symbol of wakefulness, because he was supposed to sleep with his eyes open. But this one example will suffice to show the arbitrary nature of symbols, and the difficulty of deciding upon the meaning originally intended : why should not the lion repre- sent majesty, strength, courage, and ferocity, as well as wakefulness ? In many cases all we have to guide us is the figure, which we presume to be a symbol, but of what it is symbolical we have no hint. On the other hand, men are apt to see profound symbolical meanings in things which had never any purpose, but sometimes were the result of mere inability in the artist. Such, for example, is the imperfection of Egyptian sculpture, in which the legs are joined to each other, and the arms are not " made out " from the body : this Hegel interprets as a symbol of the idea that man is not a distinct, concrete individual, but that he is indissolubly con- nected with the infinite !
Into such perilous interpretations as these, Mr. Dudley has wisely ab- stained from pursuing the subject. Indeed, he is utterly unacquainted with the German writers ; a point which, though injurious to the com- pleteness of his work, yet saves it from a great quantity of discussion, and perhaps extravagance.' Mr. Dudley seems a quiet, patient inquirer, neither seduced by the temptation into which the Tractarians have fallen, of reading symbols in every ornament of a church, nor alarmed by their extravagances into the opposite opinion, that there is nothing symbolical in church architecture. He has written a very sober and ingenious book, containing some curious information, and some very questionable posi- tions. It exhibits a good deal of reading; but the . erudition is not co- pious enough for the subject. For example, the discussion of the ques- tion respecting the pyramids cannot now be carried on upon the simple authorities of Clarke and Jablonski. Mr. Dudley was bound to have learned something of the results of modern investigations; particularly those of Lepsius, who has thrown a new light on the matter.
Mr. Dudley's theory is briefly this. Symbols have been used in all ages and nations; and confining himself to those employed in the con- struction of temples, be finds that in each epoch such symbols were chosen as were significant of the world or universe, as it was then con- ceived. Different gradations in the extent and variety in the forms of sacred structures are observable through successive ages, until we come to the Christian churches of Europe. The reason why our churches bear their present form, and why those of ancient nations were so diffe- rent, will be found in the endeavour to render them symbols of the divine presence, by bearing a resemblance to the great and proper symbol, the world. Adam, when in Paradise, "would have no idea of any other place of the divine abidance than in the adjacent country, and would presume that the garden was the abode of God." After the expulsion=
"When the families, increasing in numbers, migrated far and wide from the first holy hill, they would find it expedient to use other like eminences as the symbols of the true hill of thegarden; till at length, from continued usage, high hills would generally be termed and symbolically regarded as the abodes of the Deity. That the popular belief and symbolical import of particular hills and high places did become such even with the servants of the true God, the au- thorities sufficiently show. • • "The increasing population of the earth compelled men to migrate widely from the place of their birth, and made them know, ere many ages had passed, that the earth was of wide extent, and that it did not bear the form of a mountain, as had been at first imagined; and that the spirit of the Deity was not abiding in hills only, but was extant in other parts of the creation also. The symbol, the hill, was deemed to be inadequate, and another sought. Relinquishing that primal idea, that the world was the hill of the garden, the next likely to be en- tertained was the idea that it was an extended plain, the hill of the garden being central and preeminent. Some of the most ancient authorities of Holy Writ give this ides of the surface of the earth."
This idea of a mount as the abode of the Deity, is then successively traced to India and Greece, where it was equally accepted as the fitting symbol. The Himalayas have one mountain named Merit, which is supposed to be the abode of gods and blessed spirits. Its summit, inacces- sible to human foot, is, on that account, supposed to be the abode of the gods, the paradise of bliss. Indeed, this idea is so naturally suggested to the mind, that we wonder Mr. Dudley should have hesitated a moment as to whether the Greeks derived it from Egypt or India : why not sup- pose it indigenous ? This fancy of deriving everything in Greece from the East is a serious obstacle to the settlement of many historical ques- tions, and is now beginning to be given up by the beat scholars. Having collected together his evidence that the heathens regarded the world as God, (a point on which we beg entirely to dissent,) he says, " any structure bearing that form might jestly be regarded as-a symbol of the Deity, indicative of his person and his presence. This import of the symbol appears to have caused the conviction and assurance that all sacred structures ought of necessity to be constructed of such form. It appears that this opinion prevailed with the faithful worshipers of the true God, as also with the idolaters separating or dissenting from the true worship. The actual importance of form may be inferred from the directions given by the Deity for the construction of the tabernacle of the Israelites in the wilderness, and for the form of the magnificent temple built by King Solomon. These instructions show that the use of proper symbols receives the divine approbation." He then proceeds to apply his theory to the explanation of the various altars and high places, sacred stones and pillars, sacred towers, cave-temples, temples, idols, churches, and ornaments of churches, of which we have examples or re- cords. And we must give him credit for the manner in which he has done this, although we cannot always yield him our assent. Wherever his proofs are drawn from etymology, we feel that suspicion which is irre- sistible after having seen etymology so ludicrously and extravagantly ap- plied as it has been at all times; and sometimes also we object to the nature of his evidence, even when he regards it as most positive : e. g. quoting a passage from /Eschylus and saying, " that it proves beyond the possi- bility of doubt or denial, that in the age of Danaus, that is en the earltest times of the inhabitancy of Greece, the tower occupied, at least occasionally, the place on the top of the taphas or barrow." Now what evidence is this ? To prove it to have reference to the times of Danaus you must prove that Eschylus was over-scrupulous as to couleur locale ; whereas the presumption is decidedly contrary. Eschy- Ins described the temples as they existed in his time; he did not trouble himself to ascertain how they were constructed in the fabulous epoch of Danaus.
Among the curious bits of information here are two that can be easily eitracted.
A HINT TO SHAKSPERIAN COMMENTATORS.
One of the persons in Shakspere's tragedy of Cymbeline, speaking of an inter- ment, says, " Nay, Cailwal, we must lay his head to the East; my father has a reason for it." The commentators offer no remark on this passage; and yet it is important, since it refers to the general practice as to the position of the corpse, observed in all burials. Conjecture will, perhaps, satisfy any doubt by suggesting the opinion that this position is given for the same reason as churches are built with direction to the East; so that as the worshipers in churches turn towards the rising San of light and righteousness in prayer, so may the dead at the re- surrection turn their faces with reverence toward the great Judge when he comes -in majesty and power. It seems that any other position implies a humble ad- mission of unworthiness to meet his face. In the beginning of the eighteenth -Century an interment was made in which the head was placed on the North, the feet turned to the South, as a testimony of penitence and humiliation.
SYMBOL OF THE CAPITAL Of PILLARS.
Tke nymplues lotus, or Egyptian water-lily, is an aquatic plant, growingein kAnmdance in the waters of theNile' and in most of the rivers of warm climates, particularly in places where the plant is not exposed to a very strong current. The plant has the peculiar aptitude of suiting its growth to the increasing depth of the water, so that the leaves and flowers usually maintain their place on the surface. On this account it has been taken as the symbol of the earth extant above the waters at the creation of the world. The exposition of the symbol is as follows. The flower represents the universe, consisting of the earth and the heavenly bodies, of which the pistil is the Merit, or Mesomphaloa of the earth; the anthers are the heivenly bodies, the planets, and other stars; the petals of the flowers are the countries surrounding the Merit. • • This symbol of the lotus has most assuredly led to the invention of the capitals of the pillars of all the orders of architecture: all of them bear forms which more or less closely resemble the umbel or tulip shape of the lotus.
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