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LECTURE IV.

SYMBOLA ELEMENTORUM VEL SEMINA RERUM.

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'Signs are either to represent or resemble things, or only to intimate and suggest them to the mind. And our ideas being the signs of what is intended or supposed therein, are in such sort and so far right as they do either represent or resemble the object of thought, or as they do at least intimate it to the mind, by virtue of some natural connection or proper appointment.”

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THE Symbol, under the idea of its entire alphabetical unity, and perpendicularity of stroke or bar, as exemplified in Coelbren y Beirdd, inherently represents man, in his 'mynediad uniongyrchawl,' as the first person, the pronoun par excellence, the prenomination, the supreme head or ruling power, in contradistinction to the general horizontal or zig-zag attitude of the brute creation, and signifies an upright, dependent yet independent quality, as far as regards dignity of creation and destiny, the elements of intelligence, and the instincts of forethought, whether as a poetical, a religious, or judicial agent in the scale of druidism. Hence the traditional adaptation of the sign or expression to an unique aspect or condition of the mind, as 'fawr,' ego magnus, I the great; y f | fawr,' ego ipse magnus, I myself the great

one-to him who egotistically arrogates, right or wrong, a superabundance of any authority or personal importance, as proud man, dressed in a little brief authority."

or,

Unigol wyf a syth

O fewn Drywyddiaeth.

Apart am I, and erect,

Within the circle of druidism.

66 man,

SYMBOL II.

"Set thine house in order."

THE Symbol conveys to my mind an idea of protection to man (on the authority of the first axiom) from the inclemency of the weather, on account of the projecting ledges jutting out from the summit of the wall, and encircling him, so to speak, with arms or wings of defence, and thereby representing the To, or to, a roof with its gable-end, against arimate or inanimate aggressors—either from the heavens above or the blasts of the plain, when thus reposing beneath the shelter offered. Hence, by a process of natural induction peculiar to the divine originality of Eden and the Adamitic dispensation of the language, this emblematical shelter became resolvable into that of residence-in fine, a Ty, or ty, a house, and thereby originated the name and exact sound of the antediluvian Noachidic Coelbrennic character, which, in its turn, has given birth to and assumed, in cycles of ages, a variety of shapes, and, in the majority of cases, an analogy of pronunciation adapted to the euphonic caprice of nations. Compare this character with those of other nations.

Thus did other nations, on a similar principle of original copyism or adaptation, borrow and improve their incorporated Grecian or Hebrew nomenclature from its forced or apparent resemblance between the shape of the letters and the natural form of the object so denominated, as the following samples must for the present suffice: Aleph, elyf, cattle; beth, a house=bwth, a hut; gimel, or, more phonetically correct, gamal=gamyll, a male camel, gamell, a female camel; daleth, a door or leaf=dalen, a leaf, or dalaeth, foliage, or the Arabic dal; wav, a hook or plug; caph caf, a cave; ain=cnaen, the eye, bud, or shoot of a nut; and so forth. I have heard several distinct pronunciations of ain by different Jewish nations: I therefore fixed upon cnaen, not merely from the comparative identity of sound, but also from the inborn resemblance it bears to its own interpretation.

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THE third druidical symbol, I, sometimes found impressed on our British prehistoric coins, and invariably affixed to the periodical programmes of bardic congresses, contains three strokes or bars, one perpendicular in the centre, and two oblique lines, one on either side. What can these druidical hieroglyphics of an Asian, Egyptian, or European type or tendency signify? They must have some recondite intelligible meaning or other. The solution of this enigma has not hitherto been, philosophically or otherwise, grappled with, as far as my scanty reading of Cimbric literature enables me to judge. I venture, therefore, though unsupported by bardic authorities and despite the reticence of unrevealed documents, to hazard, in all the humility of an inquirer after the mysteries and revelations of truth, an opinion of my own. I pretend not to the elaborate researches of a Belzoni, a Layard, or a Rawlinson, in this new field of labor. failure than no attempt, or never turn, never spin."

"Better a

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In the central perpendicular line, according to the definition already given, I detect the Penderwydd or President of the Druidical Institute, in his quality of Un Benaeth or one supreme head of unus præest,' or pontifex maximus and focus of intelligence, as a representative centre of Noachidic divine unity. And in the diverging lines I discover two other graduated emanations of the triadic institute, represented by an imputed less effulgent imagery of humanity in the deviating persons of the Penbardd, or chief presiding bard, and the Pen Ofydd, or chief ovate, and reflecting the halo of their alliance by a distinct yet inseparable union, as Arwyddion or armorial bearers, to the Penderwydd. Each of these divisional supporters do not aver, much less infringe upon, according to the unfathomable law of Unbenaeth, the equality of official rights or privileges of the other, inasmuch as the radiating lines of demarcation do not touch or trench upon the prerogatives of each other from any real or imaginative point of contact.

These lines or rays of light, I apprehend, maintain a separate, an individual, an indivisible ideality or existence of their own, as, 'Pelydrau goleuni,' or 'radii luminis, a 'tria juncta in uno' of primary elements: in fact, a celestial alliance of uniformity,

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conformity, and substantiality, in luminous life and action, in regard to the favored numerical doctrine of Three,' as, 'Dechreuad pob peth neu Creawdwr anian 'the' Principium omnium rerum vel Creator naturæ '—or the Princeps omnium' the 'Divina potestas' of a later school, as well as in reference to its varied prefiguration in the druidical economy. Hence the Apollonic Patera, or Gaulic priests of Bel, the Bel-ig Peithorau of Prydain, became, in their turn, the sacred expounders, in unison with those of Israel, of an organized Oeddsyddaw' of creation, i. e., literally, a condition of past, present, and future,' and corresponding, if I am not much mistaken, to what a scholiast represents the ternarius numerus of Aristotle and Plutarch to signify, namely, a "Princeps omnium continens in se, Principium -medium et finem," in connection with the power imputed to the superior and inferior divinities.

Again do we find this symbolical number or trigeir of the bard appropriated to the Triphed Athrawl,' or professorial tripod, as symbolical of awen, anianeg, a moeseg, a poetical genius by the beirdd, natural philosophy by the ovyddion, and metaphysics by the derwyddon; which high order of teaching has been classified by the bards as the druidical Tri-goleuad-byd,' or the tria lumina mundi, the three metaphorical illuminations of the world in contradistinction to the natural, as the Huan, the Llun or Lleuad, and the Ser, or sun, moon, and stars.

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Again, we read of gwyddoriaethau damcanawl,' or the theoretical sciences being enumerated as three in genus, namely, anianyddiaeth or physics, mesuroniaeth or mathematics, aniandduwiaeth or physico-theology. Hence the prophetic bardic announcement of 'gwyn ei fyd' or happiness assigned to him who would be able to unravel this symbolical mystery by adapting it to some triadic formulæ or other, by a trigeir or heniaeth gysefin,' i. e., per tria verba in antiquissimâ linguâ, by means of three expressions or ideas in the original tongue.

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Gwyn ei fyd y geneu yn rhwydd gyfeistrin "A lefaro trigeir o'r heniaeth gysefin."

The ternarius numerus is also exemplified when the druids, dressed in white surplices, dedicated, at the yew and oak surrounding lakes of adoration, consecration, and the sequestered flowery grove of Ior, triple offerings of garments of white wool, linen, and victuals, in honor of the unknown god. The ceremonial of the lake lasted three days, amid the enthusiastic accompaniments of song, harp, and bardic recitations. Hence, Virgil—

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Again, we have triplicates of another order, as the Gleiniau Nadroedd, the Ova Anquinum of Pliny, which were little glass balls, chaplets, or bead-rolls, about the thickness of a finger, in ceremonial use among the institute, and were of various colors, as green, white, and blue; some of the equidistant larger ones contained the three combined colors, and thereby seemed in uniformity with all their teachings to signify a separation as well as an amalgamated union of three orders of druidism. The 'glain' were considered efficacious in occasioning success and happiness to such as conformed themselves to certain rules and regulations, and to those who chose to wear these badges of sacredness about their persons. The Roman naturalist of that day was not unconscious of this talismanic quality or secret virtue imputed to them; nor does it appear that this pagan practice has even now become obsolete in another credulous order of faith-inculcating imitators. Three other favourite colors were also found intermingled with the ritual of the grave, when the assembled mourners either "clad themselves in arms and clothing of blue, red, and white colors, and mounted on big beautiful horses."

"Gwedi Gwrm, a choch, a chain,
"A gorweddawr mawr minrein.”

Moreover, this triadic doctrine was, on similar principles of imitative action, diffused and applied throughout the regions of the East and West.

It is an indisputable historic fact that, inter alia scientiarum elementa, plagiarised and adapted to Hellenic institutions, without its proper weight of acknowledgement, "Pythagoras borrowed from them (the druids) his doctrine about numbers, to the mystical energy of which he ascribes the formation of all things.'

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Compare also the Jewish doctors of law, the magi of Persia, the priests of Egypt, the gymnosophists of India, and sophists of Chaldæa, Babylon, and Nineveh, as seen in Layard.

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This doctrine was also applied to the characteristic agencies and power of Iaupetur, Nafdon, and Plaautwn, as in 'Jovis trifidum fulmen,' in Neptuni tridens,' in Plutonis canis triceps." Hence, also, the expressions, Parcæ tres,' 'Furiæ tres,' the bronzed tripod of Apollo,' the 'statues of the three Sybils near the rostra in the forum,' the tria nomina Diana et Apollinis.

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Not to multiply instances, this doctrine was in force among the Jews even to the Apostolic age: hence the TpTOS Oupavos, the third heaven, equivalent to the material heavens or celestial fluid of the triads, in reference to which Solomon, in his sublime prayer to God, says "the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee," who was the alpha and omega of eternity without date, of duration without limit, of futurity without end.

Hence the Cimmerian and Ptolemaic systems of astronomical

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