ly
identical with the system of a modern pack of cards, the origin of which
is unknown, but is also the same as the Mexican year cycle (see p. 297).
Vestiges of sevenfold organization are traceable in the appointment by
Constantine, of "seven ministers of the palace" who exercised "sacred"
functions about the person of the emperor, and the division of all Gaul
into seven provinces placed under the governorship of the Vicar of the
Seven Provinces. In conclusion I venture to point out that the
four-storied amphitheatre of Vespasian (A.D. 71), the Pantheon of Agrippa
(A.D. 23) and the Mausoleum of Hadrian (A.D. 138) appear to have a
cosmical character, the first having been planned to hold the entire
population of Rome, around a central space in which, originally, the
circling chariot simulated the circuit of the celestial "plaustrum" or
"carro"=chariot, the Latin name given to Ursa Major.

While, on public festivals, the amphitheatre must have appeared as a
synopsis of the whole empire and may also have been originally used for
nocturnal, religious or political assemblages, the great Pantheon
enclosing the images of twelve deities, may well have been a conscious
attempt to represent the all-embracing Cosmos of Egyptian and Greek
philosophy, the framed view of the heaven, seen through the central
opening in the dome, being the symbol of the "hidden and invisible god,"
of the initiated. To Hadrian, who visited Egypt twice and was undoubtedly
acquainted with the idea of Plato's Cosmos or Theos, the idea of building
a great circular structure in the centre of which he would be laid to
rest, would naturally have suggested itself. Passing from a consideration
of the buildings which, with the pyramids, appear to be among the grandest
exponents of natural philosophy and religion ever reared by the hand of
man, and clearly appear to have been planned under the direct influence of
Egyptian and Greek philosophy, let us briefly glance at the mode in which
the identical fundamental scheme was perpetuated among some northern
peoples.

ANCIENT IRELAND, BRITAIN AND WALES.

It is a remarkable fact that, in ancient Ireland, we find distinct traces
of a state, founded on the same crystallized artificial system that has
been found at the basis of the most ancient civilizations of the world.
"There is really no authentic history of Ireland before the introduction
of Christianity into the country, but there are some genuine traditions
which