them until they acquire such a degree of magnitude as to burst it open
and release themselves, after which, like other aquatic weeds, they take
root wherever the current deposits them. This plant, therefore, being
thus productive of itself, and vegetating from its own matrix, without
being fostered in the earth, was naturally adopted as the symbol of the
productive power of the waters, upon which the creative spirit of the
Creator operated in giving life and vegetation to matter. We accordingly
find it employed in every part of the Northern hemisphere, where the
symbolical religion improperly called idolatry does or did prevail.
The sacred images of the Tartars, Japanese, and Indians are almost all
placed upon it, of which numerous instances occur in the publication of
Kaempfer, Sonnerat, etc: The Brama of India is represented sitting upon
a lotus throne, and the figures upon the Isaic table hold the stem of
this plant, surmounted by the seed vessel in one hand, and the cross
representing the male organs in the other: thus signifying the universal
power, both active and passive, attributed to that goddess."(19)

19) Symbolism of Ancient Art.

The lotus is the most sacred and the most significant symbol connected
with the sacred mysteries of the East. Upon this subject, Maurice
observes that there is no plant which has received such a degree of
honor as has the lotus. It was the consecrated symbol of the Great
Mother who had brought forth the fecundative energies, female and male.
Not only throughout the Northern hemisphere was it everywhere held
in profound veneration, but among the modern Egyptians it is still
worshipped as symbolical of the Great First Cause. The lotus was the
emblem venerated in the solemn celebration of the Mysteries of Eleusis
in Greece and the Phiditia in Carthage.

In referring to the degree of homage paid to the lotus by the ancients,
Higgins says: "And we shall find in the sequel that it still continues
to receive the respect, if not the adoration, of a great part of the
Christian world, unconscious, perhaps, of the original reason of
their conduct." It is a significant fact that in nearly all the
sacred paintings of the Christians in the galleries throughout Europe,
especially those of the Annunciation, a lily is always to be observed.
In later ages as the original significance of the lotus was lost, any
lily came to be substituted. Godfrey Higgins is sure that although the
priests