readily lent itself. As to whether the
Initiated of the ancients did or did not know of the circulation of the
blood and the functions of the arterial system, we must remain in doubt,
for both their well known method of concealing their knowledge and also
the absence of texts which may yet be discovered by the industry of
modern exploration teach us to hold our judgment in suspense.

Again, seeing the importance which the symbolical Tree played in the
Simonian System, it may be that there was an esoteric teaching in the
school, which pointed out correspondences in the human body for mystical
purposes, as has been the custom for long ages in India in the Science
of Yoga. In the human body are _at least_ two "Trees," the nervous, and
vascular systems. The former has its "root" above in the cerebrum, the
latter has its roots in the heart. Along the trunks and branches run
currents of "nervous ether" and "life" respectively, and the Science of
Yoga teaches its disciples to use both of these forces for mystical
purposes. It is highly probable also that the Gnostics taught the same
processes to their pupils, as we know for a fact that the Neo-Platonists
inculcated like practices. From these considerations, then, it may be
supposed that Simon was not so ignorant of the real laws of the
circulation of the blood as might otherwise be imagined; and as to the
nourishment of the embryo, modern authorities are at loggerheads, the
majority, however, inclining to the opinion of Simon, that the foetus
is nourished through the umbilical cord.[132]

The last point of importance to detain us, before passing on to a notice
on the magical practices ascribed to Simon, is the allegorical use made
by the Simonians of Scripture. Here again we have little to do with the
details reported, but only with the idea. It was a common belief of the
sages of antiquity that the mythological part of the sacred writings of
the nations were to be understood in an allegorical fashion. Not to
speak of India, we have the Neo-Platonic School with its analogetical
methods of interpretation, and the mention of a work of Porphyry in
which an allegorical interpretation of the _Iliad_ was attempted.
Allegorical shows of a similar nature also were enacted in the Lesser
Mysteries and explained in the Greater, as Julian tells us in the
_Mother of the Gods_,[133] and Plutarch on the _Cessation of
Oracles_.[134]

Much evidence could be adduced that this was a widesprea