Book IL).

The learned authoress of the "Perfect Way" writes : —

"That the time of the rising of this Celestial Virgin, and
of the rehabilitation of truth by the Woman-Messias of the
Interpretation is near at hand, they who watch the ' times ' and
the 'heavens' may know by more than one token. To name
but one : the sign Leo, which upon the celestial chart precedes
the ascension of the \Yoman, going before her as her herald,
is the sign of the present head of the Catholic Church (Pope
Leo). When assuming that title, he declared his office to be
that of the ' Lion of the tribe of Jndah,' the domicile of the Sun,
the tribe appointed to produce the Christ. To the ascension
of this constellation, preparing, as it were, the way of the Divine
Virgin, the prophecy of Israel in Genesis refers : —

"'Judah is a strong Lion; my son thou art gone up. The
sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah till the coming of
the messenger — or Shiloh — the expectation of the nations.'

" And not only does the chief bishop of the Church bear the
significant name of the ' Lion,' but he is also the Thirteenth of
that name, and Thirteen is the number of the Woman, and of the
Lunar cycle, the number of Isis and of the Microcosm. It is
the number which indicates the fulness of all things, and the
consummation of the Divine Marriage, ' the at-one-ment of Man
and God.' Moreover, the Arms of Leo XIII. represent a Tree
on a mount between two triune lilies, and in the dexter chief
point a blazing star, with the motto ^ Lumen in ccelo.' What
is this tree but the Tree of Life ; these Lilies but the Lilies of
the new annunciation — of the Ave which is to reverse the curse
of Eva 1 AVhat star is this, if not the star of the second advent %
For the signs of the Zodiac, or of the ' Wheel of Life,' as the
name signifies, are not arbitrary, they are the words of God
traced on the planisphere by the finger of God, and first expressed
in intelligible hieroglyphics by men of the Age of Saturn, who
knew the truth and held the Key of the Mysteries. The wheel

1 82 CYMBELINE.

of the Zodiac thus constituted the earliest Bible; for on it is
traced the universal history of the whole humanity " (" The
Perfect "Way,"' pp. 174, 175, Kingsford).

" Only when the Naros, or Cycle of the Six Days shall again
reach their seventh day, ^vill ' the Lord of the Seventh,' whom
the Latins adored with unveiled heads under the name of
Septlmanius, return, and the veil of illusion of Maya be taken
away. The anticipation of the seventh day of the renewed
Arcadia, the Seven Days' Festival of Liberty and Peace was held
by the Greeks under the name of the Kroiiia, and by the Latins
under that of the Saturnalia. This redemptive Sabbath is spoken
of in the Gospel as the ' harvest of the end of the Avorld,' when
Satui'n, or Sator (the Sower), as Lord of the Harvest, 'shall
return again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him ' " (p. 172,
" Perfect Way ").

lam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna,
lam nova progenies ccelo dimittitiir alto.

(Virgil, " Eclog.," iv.)

" At the opening of the year the constellation of the Celestial
Virgil, Astrsea, Isis, or Ceres, is in ascension. She has beneath
her feet in the lower horizon the sign Python or Typhon, of the
Dragon of the Tree of the Hesperides, who rises after her, aiming
his fangs at her heel."

Sir Tobie Matthew seems undoubtedly to have enjoyed the
entire and unbounded confidence of Bacon. Indeed he is the
only writer whose letters give us a clue to the real authorship
of Shakespeare, if we may so put it. It is Sir Tobie Matthew
who writes : " The most prodigious wit that ever I knew, of my
nation and of this side of the sea, is of your Lordship's name,
though he be known by another." It is to Sir Tobie Matthew
that Bacon writes : he has put the works of the alphabet into
frame. This word ^^ frame" immediately recalls page 36 of the
Distribution Preface, where Bacon, writing of the tyjies and
platforms of the uncompleted Fourth Part of his " Instauration,"
says: "For it came into our mind, that in Mathkmatics the

CYMBELINE. 183

frame standing, the Demonstration inferred is facile and per-
spicuous." It appears from the following that Bacon consulted
Sir Tobie Matthew on his works : —

" My Instauration I reserve for our conference ; it sleeps not.
Those works of the Alphabet are in my opinion of less use to you
where you are now, than at Paris ; and therefore I conceived
that you had sent me a kind of tacit countermand of your
former request."

The following curious manuscript * has been found, pointing to
the date 1640 (the date of the "Advancement of Learning,"
translated by Wats). It is worthy note we find a " Fosthumus"
in the last play of the Folio "Cymbeline," in context with a
book — " a rare one " — which is a mystery as to meaning.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION

OF A CURIOUS MANUSCRIPT

In the Collection of the Rev. Dr Neligan, with Extracts.

THE MANUSCRIPT IS ENTITLED

A TRUE HISTORICALL RELATION

OF THE CONVERSION OF

SIR TOBIE MATTHEWS

TO THE HOLIE CATHOLIC FAYTH,

With the Antecedents and Consequents thereof,
To a deare Friend.

This highly curious Manuscript consists of three separate
treatises, and is dated 8th 7ber, 1640. It is signed by Sir
Tobie Matthew himself in two places, viz., at the end of the
history of his conversion, where it also bears the name of several
witnesses in their own autographs ; and again after the treatise
called " Fosthumus, or the Survivoior" to which Sir T. Matthew
has likewise affixed his seal in red wax.

* Published by Mr Smith in his little work upon the authorship of the
plays.

1 84 CYMBELINE.

- We are tlicii presented with " Posthumus, or the Surnvour," a
treatise which occupies twenty-one pages ; and from page 22
to the end, page 59, we have the " Five-and-twenty Considera-
tions" alluded to, dated 1641, and apparently "signed, James
Louth." At the end of '' Posthumus, or the Snrvivour," is the follow-
ing, in the autograph of Sir Tobie Matthew, and an impression
of his seal in red wax : —

" Signed by me in London, as in
j-e presence of Almighty God, for
most certainly and intirely
true ; upon ye 8tli day of 7bcr.

1640.

" ToBiE Matthew."

The seal bears a Lion Rampant in the first and fourth quarters,
and three Chevrons in the second and third.

Then follows the attestation by witnesses, in a different writing,
and their autograph signatures.

The name of Posthumus suggests something born or pub-
lished Posthumously, that is, after the death of the Father or Author.
Sir Tobie Matthews was Bacon's most bosom friend, indeed the
only friend to whom he seems to have unclasped the secret book
of his very soul. Sir Tobie Matthews seems to have been one of
Bacon's literary executors. At any rate, in the play of " Cym-
beline," we find Posthumus Leonatus presented to us in the
following scene in cormection with some hook, — a rare one, suggested
as some terminal revelation : —

A hook ? 0 rare one !
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nohler than that it covers : let thy effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers.
As good as promise.

CYMBELINE. 185

\Rcads. ] ' ' When as a Hem's whelp shall, to himself imknoion, withoibt seeking
find, and be embraced by apiece of tender air ; and when from a, stately cedar
shall be lopped branches, which, being dead many years, shall after revive, he
jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his
miseries, Britain he fortunxite, and flourish in peace and plenty."

Of course the Lion's Whelp is a reference to the "Lion's
Whelp " of the House of Judah, and is evidently connected with
the sign Leo — the Lion, or Separating. In "Cymbeline" the
Father of Leonatus is introduced as Sicilius Leonatus, a name
which takes us at once to Sicily and to Leontes, King of Sicily, in
the "Winter's Tale." "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah" (Rev.