C.) by order of Ptolemy Soter from Sinope, on the
southern shores of the Black Sea, re-erected within that famous
labyrinth which encompassed the banks of Lake Moeris, and destroyed by
the victorious army of Theodosius (A.D. 389), despite the earnest
entreaties of the Egyptian priesthood to spare it, because it was the
emblem of their god and of 'the life to come.' Sometimes, as may be seen
on the breast of an Egyptian mummy in the museum of the London
University, the simple T only is planted on the frustum of a cone; and
sometimes it is represented as springing from a heart; in the first
instance signifying goodness; in the second, hope or expectation of
reward. As in the oldest temples and catacombs of Egypt, so this type
likewise abounds in the ruined cities of Mexico and Central America,
graven as well upon the most ancient cyclopean and polygonal walls as
upon the more modern and perfect examples of masonry; and is displayed
in an equally conspicuous manner upon the breasts of innumerable bronze
statuettes which have been recently disinterred from the cemetery of
Juigalpa (of unknown antiquity) in Nicaragua."
When the Spanish missionaries first set foot upon the soil of America,
in the fifteenth century, they were amazed to find the Cross was as
devoutly worshipped by the red Indians as by themselves, and were in
doubt whether to ascribe the fact to the pious labors of St.
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