ices of the cursers gradually hushed, and the
mind of man, asserting its prerogative, was active again with new and
regenerated power. The history of civilisation must needs count by
centuries, and it took ages to effect the transition. From our present
lofty and unprejudiced height, from that height at which modern art
strives to emulate that of antiquity, it may not be wholly uninstructive
to look back towards the first trembling attempts of the early Christian
people.

It would appear that the first attempts of the early Christians were of
a symbolical and allegorical kind. The same figures, with little or no
variation, were constantly repeated to express ideas which, whilst they
led the thoughts of the believer into the channel which to him appeared
most satisfactory, were mere forms, and void of meaning to pagan eyes.
Chief amongst these was the Cross, but without the body of Christ
affixed to it. The crucifix is an invention of the seventh century. In
the beginning, the Cross did not expose the Christians to suspicion, for
it was known to many religions of antiquity. The nations of Egypt adored
the cross as a sign of their salvation, since they placed it in the
hands of one of their idols as a key to the annual flux of the Nile. The
Persian worshippers of Mithras considered the cross a sacred symbol.
When pagan persecution finally discovered the exclusive and peculiar
signification of the sign amongst the Christians, the latter ingeniously
contrived forms of the cross translatable by the eyes of the elect
alone. To these, the image of a flying bird was a cross; the human
figure in a swimming attitude was the same thing, and so also the
cross-trees of a sailing ship; the letters Alpha and Omega are seen
frequently engraved at the extremities of these disguised emblems in
remembrance of Revelation, i. 8. Doves, ships, lyres, anchors, fishes
and fishermen, are recommended by Clemens Alexandrinus, as the most
fitting objects for Christians to contemplate, and for representation on
seals. Amongst other symbols we find the seven-branched chandelier,
though originally a Jewish sign, employed as a type of our Saviour, who
calls himself (John, viii. 12.) the "light of the world." A wreath of
flowers was expressive of the crown of life. A pair of scales, in
remembrance of the last judgment, and a house, have been occasionally
discovered on ancient grave-stones; and once, a simple _curriculum_ has
been traced with the pole t