oubtful. Referring the
question to Sinologists, I venture to ask whether it does not seem
probable that the present Chinese scheme dates from the lifetime of
Lao-tze, in the sixth century B.C., a period marked, as I have pointed
out, by the growth of Ionian philosophy, one feature of which was the
invention of numerical schemes applied to "divine polities" and ideal
forms of government. Future investigation may, perhaps, prove that "the
powerful mental ferment" alluded to by Huxley, as spreading between the
eighth and ninth centuries B.C., over the whole of the area comprised
between the AEgean and North Hindustan, was caused by the growth and
diffusion of plans of ideal states, which would naturally suggest and lead
to the formation of bands of enthusiasts, who would set out in search of
districts where they could carry out their principles and ideals.

Personally, I am strongly inclined to assign the origin of the Chinese and
the Mexican schemes, which are identical in principle, to the same source,
and to believe that they were carried in opposite directions, at different
periods, by seafarers and colonists, animated by the same purpose.
Favorably established in distant regions, both grew and flourished during
centuries, constituting analogous examples of an immense, submissive,
native population living under a highly perfected, artificial, numerical,
scheme of religious government, preserved intact and enforced by a ruling
caste, who possessed superior knowledge and claimed divine descent.

It is, of course, to Chinese and Japanese scholars and to archaeologists,
some of whom constitute the able staff of the Jesup Expedition, who are
investigating the question of Asiatic contact, that I look for further
information and enlightenment as to prehistoric contact between China and
America.(157)

The foregoing investigation seems to have shown that in all countries
alike, at one period or other, the cross-symbol or swastika expressed
absolutely the same meaning. Primarily the record of a year, which
suggested the division of the heaven into four parts, it had come to
signify the establishment of communal life on a basis of fixed law, order
and harmony. Like the number four itself which, in Pythagorean philosophy,
is identified with wisdom and justice "because it is the first square
number, the product of equals," the cruciform symbols have been the
emblems of justice, equality and brotherhood.

From the dawn of human h