When therefore, veil'd in facred rites, the MYSTERIES of the ELEMENTS are folemnized; and, crowned with holy fymbols, the PONTIFF lifts his ROD to HEAVEN, directing your view to that ETERNAL ORDER which regulates the whole; Oft you have heard the facred hymns, refponfive to the inftructive voice of Nature, foftened in recording the varied influence of the Lunar fphere,

and the afpiring halleluiah fwell with exalted triumph:

When, bending towards the Rifing Sun, we celebrate his unrivalled everlasting reign.

Soon as the foft music of the morning hymn is heard within,
and with the choral fymphony the fanctuary rings,

let the feraphic founds infpire an holy awe.

The harmony of the elements fwells the facred fong;
the gates of light are opened; the fountains of living water are disclosed;
the ætherial fire is kindled;

the incenfe of our folemn adorations afcends before the throne;
and the holy anthem echoes from every trembling shrine.

HAIL! SPRING of LIGHT and DAY,
BRIGHT IMAGE of the SUPREME!
which quickens every element,

and gives them to fpread the vital animation round.

Behold! the Altar raised,

to announce the diffufive bleffings that beam from yon Solar Sphere, . receives our aspirations towards an INFLUENCE MORE INEFFABLY DIVINE; and bears its aweful record

-O! INCOMPREHENSIBLE BEING!-to THEE!
Whose Power hath hung that fplendid Orb on high,
Whofe WISDOм hath ordained its various virtues,

Whofe GOODNESS gave reviving Nature to triumph in his rays.

While all the elements acknowledge the Sun
to be their Guardian, their Inspirer, and their Lord,
we accord in the univerfal harmony, and proclaim
the fovereign energies of that vital Fire!

Prime Agent of Heaven! the glory of creation!

by which its whole perfection and beauty is unfolded to our view.
But, O! how high-

how infinitely exalted o'er all created excellence,

how transcendently divine!

The INVISIBLE ATTRIBUTES of DEITY.

The Sun's brightest blaze of power, wherein most of goodness and of wisdom shincs, is but a feeble beam,

inadequate to exprefs the incommunicable GLORIES of the MOST HIGH: -They only can in filence be adored.

That DIVINE AGENCY, which no eye can see,

no thought can comprehend,

it is our fublime aim, in the folemnities of the temple, to celebrate and explore.

C. Cordiner pinx"

Peter Mazell Scalp?

REVERSE OF FORRES PILLAR.

Published as the Act directs. April 1,1788.by P.Mazell Engraver N° 32, James Street, Covent Garden.

CALEDONIAN and EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS

Compared, &c.

NCE more we fhall have recourfe to Oriental symbols for an illuftration of fome of those on Calledonian monuments. For correfponding fymbols of fuch unaccountable resemblance are to be observed on these, that if they have not (by some been derived from thofe of Egypt, it appears altogether inexplicable how fo regular and repeated a fimilarity could have ever taken place.

THE attitudes and attributes of human figures and domeftic animals, as engaged in the common concerns of a paftoral life, or in the exercifes and expreffion of warlike atchievement, may be common to all countries. On the refemblance of thefe, therefore, no great dependance could be given.

But in the peculiarities of defign, and refemblance to the correfponding archetypes, of the figures felected for the annexed plate, there is a more furprifing conformity, and the combinations are out of the ufual courfe of nature, and can have little reference as real pictures to the common concerns of life. Their import must then be fymbolical, and their meaning taken from more remote allufions to the ideas of which they are memorials, and to the inftruction and knowledge which they convey.

WE fhall not here extend our enquiry far into the original derivation of fymbols; as they proceeded from a deep and enlightened philofophy, which penetrated far into the relations which fubfift between the material and intellectual world, and made choice of the most expreffive characters whereby their fublime conceptions could be conveyed. But there is fome rational pleasure in obferving the general outlines of the manner of applying thefe hieroglyphicks and fymbols, which through the early æras of human improvement were the only record of Divine Truth, and left memorials of the fublime communications which they involved, that commanded the ve neration of the learned in every age.

THE eagle as among the most celebrated of fymbols, and by the quotations produced from the best authorities on the fubject, the applications of it proceeded from these fpeculations. The eagle often afcending above the clouds, and pervading the higher regions of the air; and looking down from thofe heights invifible, through the extenfive vifion of his piercing eye, diftinctly difcerns whatever is interefting in this lower world. Hence became an expreffive fymbol of that eye of Divine obfervation, which as from on high beholds all things.

IT feems to have been the influence which the fun had over the whole body of waters-attracting and directing their courfe. This primary deduction of philofophy, applied alfo in a metaphorical manner to that ineffable energy of which the fun was the fymbol, actuating and governing the material universe.

THIS fymbol would hold a diftinguished place among thofe abraxas or amulets, which, in their original application, were given on initiation, and contained an infcription which none could read but those to whom the divine communications were given at the fame time. These were held as memorials of high efleem, and preserved with care as fomething facred; and from that venerable origin, came in the progrefs of traditionary learning, to be fo valued in Caledonia, as to obtain a diftinguifhed place among the hieroglyphical monuments. That of the plate is taken from the obelifk in Rofs-fhire, of which a reprefentation is given in the firft Number; and the correfpondence of form and defign, is fo remarkable that it could hardly be overlooked.

THE CATHOLIC lamb is copied from the roof of the Chapter-houfe at Plufardine Abbey. The CALEDONIAN lion, &c. is taken from a defk in the Kirk of Cullen. And alfo the rank of figures at the bottom of the plate.

On the monument erected over Sir Thomas Bromley, anno M.D.LXXXVII, in Weftminfter-Abbey, chofen one of the Privy Council by Queen Elizabeth, celebrated for fidelity, equity, magnanimity, fingular virtue, and generofity of foul.

IT is obfervable, that on the frize of the cornice, and on the bafes of the columns, there are inscriptions, which every obferver must see exactly correfpond with the sym. bols here chofen to fupply their place. The three characteristicks offered to view in that confpicuous manner, are

Juftitia & Equitate.

Labore & Industria.
Studio & Diligentia.

Confilio, Pietate, ac Jurisprudentia Infignis.

In this manner our forefathers complimented the dead, and bore record to the virtues by which they were diftinguifhed: but I only offer this elucidation of their import, from the infcriptions on a monument of a corefponding age, as one of the jufteft measures of interpretation to which we can have recourfe; although what is implied, or couched under; thefe ymbolic figures, is fo generally understood, they hardly were in need of such illuftration.

These remarks on the nature of fymbols are only the opening of the vestibule of a GOTHIC PALACE, in which we shall hereafter wander with romantic entertainment and instructive pleasure.

WHILE the author was yet meditating the illuftration of these symbols, it pleased Almighty God to terminate his researches here below. The above was copied from fome of his original fcrolls which he had noted down when contemplating the prefent plate. It is impoffible for us to make the defcription more complete; but what is given will in fome degree unfold the intention of the author, and enable those who delight in such studies, to follow out the ideas to a greater length.