of symbols. Equally with the Chaldeans the Egyptian priests
should have regarded the Corona as a symbolical revelation of the Deity
whose usual manifestation they recognised in the Sun, and accordingly we
find them employing a symbol which is almost as perfect a representation
of the Corona of minimum as that which the Assyrians adopted." Another
curious point commented upon by Maunder is that the Assyrians frequently
insert the figure of their Deity within the ring, and attach thereto a
kilt-like dress. Even when they show the ring without the figure the
"kilt," as it may be called, is still there, indicating that it is not
simply a garment worn by the figure, but an integral part of the
symbol. This "kilt" is represented as pleated, and the resemblance of
the pleatings to the polar rays shown in Trouvelot's drawing of the
Corona, is "practically perfect." On this point Maunder adds:--"If this
be a mere chance coincidence, it seems to me a most extraordinary one."
He concludes by saying that these symbols, so frequently met with, and
so clearly designed to indicate the presence of the Deity, "are, in
their origin, drawings of the solar Corona, as seen at the Sun-spot
minimum, and as such are the earliest eclipse representations which have
been preserved to us."

I give these ideas for what they are worth; they are very ingeniously
worked out, and though the argument is not conclusive, yet I do think
that there is enough in it to be worth attention.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 23: Less certain is the allusion in Amos v. 8:--"Seek him
that ... maketh the day dark with night."]

[Footnote 24: _Annales_, A.M., 3213, p. 45. Folio Ed.]

[Footnote 25: _Minor Prophets_, p. 217.]

[Footnote 26: _Athenaeum_, May 18, 1867.]

[Footnote 27: After all, do the circumstances necessarily presuppose
a "miracle"? Hezekiah had only asked for a "sign." In 2 Chron.
xxxii. 31 the word "wonder" is applied to the event.]

[Footnote 28: Hence the word "Tropic," from [Greek: trepo] (I turn).]

[Footnote 29: Homer, _Odyssey_, vol. ii. p. 255. Clarendon Press
Series.]

[Footnote 30: _Life of Pherecydes_, sec. 6.]

[Footnote 31: _Life of Anaximander_, sec. 3.]

[Footnote 32: Du Halde's "_China_," 3rd edition, 1741, vol. iii.
p. 86.]

[Footnote 33: Paper by W. Hunter in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. v.,
p. 190. The Benares Observatory is described by Sir R. Barker in