(of
France) a superb volume of pictures of the Indian gods, in
which the ladder is represented with the souls of men
ascending it."[45:7]

In several of the Egyptian sculptures also, the Transmigration of Souls
is represented by the ascending and descending of souls from heaven to
earth, _on a flight of steps_, and, as the souls of wicked men were
supposed to enter pigs and other animals, therefore pigs, monkeys, &c.,
are to be seen on the steps, descending from heaven.[45:8]

"And he dreamed, _and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and
the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God
ascending and descending on it_."

These are the words of the sacred text. Can anything be more
convincing? It continues thus:

"And Jacob awoke out of his sleep . . . and he was afraid, and
said . . . this is none other but the house of God, _and this
is the gate of heaven_."

Here we have "the gate of heaven," mentioned by Origen in describing the
_Metempsychosis_.

According to the ancients, the _top_ of this ladder was supposed to
reach _the throne_ of _the most high God_. This corresponds exactly with
the vision of Jacob. The ladder which he is made to see reached unto
heaven, _and the Lord stood above it._[46:1]

"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the _stone_
that he had put for his pillow, _and set it up for a pillar,
and poured oil upon the top of it_."[46:2]

This concluding portion to the story has evidently an allusion to
_Phallic_[46:3] worship. There is scarcely a nation of antiquity which
did not set up these stones (as emblems of the reproductive power of
nature) and worship them. Dr. Oort, speaking of this, says:

Few forms of worship were so universal in ancient times as the homage
paid to sacred stones. In the history of the religion of even the most
civilized peoples, such as the Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, Arabs and
Germans, we find traces of this form of worship.[46:4] The ancient
_Druids_ of Britain also worshiped sacred stones, which were _set up on
end_.[46:5]

Pausanias, an eminent Greek historian, says:

"The _Hermiac_ statue, which they venerate in Cyllene above
other _symbols_, is an erect _Phallus_ on a pedestal."[46:6]

This was nothing more than a smooth, oblong _stone_, set erect on a flat
one.[46:7]

The learned Dr. Ginsburg, in his "Life of Levita," alludes to the
ancient mode of worship offer