Where authentic history
is silent on the subject, the material relics of past and long since
forgotten races are not wanting to confirm and strengthen this
supposition. Diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or less
artistically, according to the progress achieved in civilization at the
period, on the ruined walls of temples and palaces, on natural rocks and
sepulchral galleries, on the hoariest monoliths and the rudest statuary;
on coins, medals, and vases of every description; and, in not a few
instances, are preserved in the architectural proportions of
subterranean as well as superterranean structures, of tumuli as well as
fanes. The extraordinary sanctity attaching to the symbol, in every age
and under every variety of circumstance, justified any expenditure
incurred in its fabrication or embellishment; hence the most persistent
labor, the most consummate ingenuity, were lavished upon it. Populations
of essentially different culture, tastes, and pursuits--the
highly-civilized and the demi-civilized, the settled and nomadic--vied
with each other in their efforts to extend the knowledge of its
exceptional import and virtue among their latest posterities.
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