e/mars] Likewise denotes gold at the bottom, but attended
with a great proportion of a sharp corrosive, sometimes amounting to a
half of the whole, whence half the character expresses acrimony; which,
accordingly, both alchemists and physicians observe of iron, and hence
that common opinion of the adepts that the aurum vivum, or gold of the
philosophers, is contained in iron, and that the universal medicine is
rather to be sought in this metal than in gold itself.

[Symbol: jupiter] Denotes half the matter of tin to be silver, the other
a crude corrosive acid, which is accordingly confirmed by the assayers;
tin proving almost as fixed as silver in the cupel, and discovering a
large quantity of crude sulphur well known to the alchemists.

[Symbol: saturn] Denotes almost the whole to be corrosive, but retaining
some resemblance with silver, which the artists very well know holds
true of lead.

[Symbol: earth] Denotes a chaos--world, or one thing which includes all:
this is the character of antimony, wherein is found gold, with plenty of
an arsenical corrosive.

The symbols, or at least some of them, may be traced even in the Chinese
characters for gold, silver, &c.

The connection of Egypt with India shortly after the Christian era is
distinctly indicated in the works of Apuleius. He lived in the early
part of the second century after Christ, and was educated first at
Carthage, then renowned as a school of literature. He then travelled
extensively in Greece, Asia, and Egypt, and became initiated into many
religious fraternities and an adept in their mysteries. He was admitted
a priest of the order of AEsculapius, and describes the ceremony of the
offering of the first-fruits by the priests of Isis, when the navigation
opened in spring. The vessel, which was to be set adrift upon the ocean
freighted with the offering, was splendidly decorated and covered with
hieroglyphics, and after having been "_purified with a lighted torch, an
egg, and sulphur_," was allowed to sail away into the unknown as a
sacrifice to procure the safety of the convoy of ships which would soon
after start upon their voyage. These rites were of great antiquity.

He speaks, in his first tale, of a witch who, by means of her magic
charms, made not only her fellow-countrymen love her, but "_the Indians
even_," and in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, his robes
"bore pictures of Indian serpents."

From what I have now laid before you, in