the great father at their commencement, and to his
invention, or revival, or return from Hades, at their conclusion."--_Origin
of Pagan Idolatry,_ vol. iv. b. iv. ch. v. p. 384--But this Arkite
theory, as it is called, has not met with the general approbation of
subsequent writers.

[173] Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence, situated in a westerly
direction from that Mount Moriah on which the temple of Solomon was built.
It was originally a hillock of notable eminence, but has, in modern times,
been greatly reduced by the excavations made in it for the construction of
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Buckingham, in his Palestine, p. 283,
says, "The present rock, called Calvary, and enclosed within the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre, bears marks, in every part that is naked, of its
having been a round nodule of rock standing above the common level of the
surface."

[174] Dr. Beard, in the art. "Golgotha," in Kitto's Encyc. of Bib. Lit.,
reasons in a similar method as to the place of the crucifixion, and
supposing that the soldiers, from the fear of a popular tumult, would
hurry Jesus to the most convenient spot for execution, says, "Then the
road to Joppa or Damascus would be most convenient, and no spot in the
vicinity would probably be so suitable as the slight rounded elevation
which bore the name of Calvary."

[175] Some have supposed that it was so called because it was the place of
public execution. _Gulgoleth_ in Hebrew, or _gogultho_ in Syriac, means _a
skull_.

[176] Quoted in Oliver, _Landmarks_, vol. i. p. 587, note.

[177] Oliver's idea (_Landmarks_, ii. 149) that _cassia_ has, since the
year 1730, been corrupted into _acacia_, is contrary to all etymological
experience. Words are corrupted, not by lengthening, but by abbreviating
them. The uneducated and the careless are always prone to cut off a
syllable, not to add a new one.

[178] And yet I have been surprised by seeing, once or twice, the word
"Cassia" adopted as the name of a lodge. "Cinnamon" or "sandal wood" would
have been as appropriate, for any masonic meaning or symbolism.

[179] Eclog. ii. 49.

"Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens,
Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi:
Tum casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis,
Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia, caltha."

[180] Exod. xxx. 24, Ezek. xxvii. 9, and Ps. xlv. 8.

[181] Oliver, it is true, says, that "there is not the smallest trace of
any tree