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 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CA 
 
 ros \ v-v, 
 
 THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 II. 
 
 ITS 
 SIGNIFICATION TO MANASSEH
 
 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 OUR INHERITANCE 
 
 IN 
 
 THE GREAT SEAL 
 
 OF 
 
 "MANASSEH," 
 
 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 ITS 
 
 HISTORY AND HERALDRY; 
 
 AND ITS 
 
 SIGNIFICATION 
 
 UNTO 
 
 "THE GREAT PEOPLE" 
 
 THUS SEALED. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES A. L. TOTTEN. 
 
 Thou hast ordered all things in measure, in number, and weight." Wisdom xi 20. 
 
 NEW HAVEN, CONN. : 
 
 THE OUR RACE PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 1897. 
 
 .
 
 Copyrighted 1882 and 1883 A.D. : 
 
 REVISED 1896 AND 1897; 
 
 Re-copyrighted 1897, 
 
 BV 
 
 CHARLES A. L. TOTTEN. 
 (All rights reserved.)
 
 SfacR 
 
 Annc\ 
 
 5 
 015 
 
 v,?- 
 
 if 
 
 " BECAUSE 
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF MANASSEH, 
 
 HAD AN INHERITANCE AMONG His SONS," 
 
 THIS PARTICULAR VOLUME 
 
 Is DEDICATED TO 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 THE SIGNIFICATION OF 
 
 THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 SHOULD BE OF SPECIAL IMPORT 
 
 UNTO THEM 
 
 AND HE SURE OF BEING TAUGHT 
 
 UNTO FUTURE AMERICAN GENERATIONS 
 
 FROM THEIR BIRTH. 
 
 **** 
 
 **** 
 ****
 
 " Behold her o'er her loyal nest now spread abroad her 
 
 wings, 
 
 As Liberty oer East and West abroad her banner flings. 
 Behold her now upon them bear, her eaglets to the wind, 
 As if 'twere mother country s care, uplifting all mankind. 
 Behold her now soar all abroad, o'er furrowed land and 
 
 sea, 
 A mighty Empire overawed, for Bird of Jove is she ! "
 
 STUDY No. 19 
 
 THE OUR RACE SERIES. 
 
 The Seal of History. 
 
 TOTTECN.
 
 " N(nv are our brcnvs crowned with victorious wreathe '.?, 
 Our bruised Anns hung u p f or monuments." 
 
 Rich. Ill , Act /, See. i. 
 
 '' And none [not one\ of them is without signification" 
 
 J. Cor. xh>. 10.
 
 STUDY NUMBER NINETEEN. 
 
 THE SEAL OF HISTORY: 
 
 (MANASSEH'S) 
 Its Signification. 
 
 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE, ii 
 
 TITLE iii 
 
 DEDICATION, v 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS, ix-x 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xi-xii 
 
 PREFACE, xiii 
 
 INTRODUCTION, . xv-xviii 
 
 SEALS IN GENERAL, 3 
 
 OUR HERALDIC TINCTURES, 15 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 THE METALS, . . 16 THE PLANETS, . . 24 
 
 CORRECT TINCTURES, . 17 THE FLOWERS, . . 24 
 
 THE COLORS, . . 18 UNITED IMPORT, . . 25 
 
 THE GEMS, . . . 19 THE SEVEN TINCTURES, 28 
 
 THIRTEEN BLESSINGS, . 23 AND CORRESPONDENCES, 28 
 
 THE GREAT SEAL. 29 
 
 THE OBVERSE FACE. 37 
 
 THE ARMS. 45 
 
 PAQK. 
 
 THE EAGLE, . . 53 NATIONAL MOTTO, 118 
 
 THE FIELD, ... 80 MOGRAPHY, ARITHMO- 
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON, 81 GRAPHY, . . 129 
 
 THE NUMBER 13, . , 92 THE OLIVE BRANCH, 149 
 
 THE SCROLL, . . 106 OUR NATIONAL FLOWER, 165 
 BUNDLE OF ARROWS, 168 
 THE NATIONAL MACE, 174 
 
 THE ARMS AS A WHOLE, 175
 
 x CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB. 
 
 THE CREST, 179 
 
 PA6K. 
 
 THE GLORY, . . 193 THE CLOUD, . . 199 
 
 THE CONSTELLATION, , . . 202 
 
 THE CREST AS A WHOLE, 213 
 
 THE OBVERSE FACE AS A WHOLE, 219 
 
 Irs NUMERICAL BALANCE, 224 THE NATIONAL NUMBER, 239 
 
 WONDERFUL APPEARANCES AND OMENS, 245 
 
 THE REVERSE FACE, 255 
 
 THE CIRCUMMETRIC CONSTRUCTION OF THE REVERSE FACE, 262 
 
 THE UNFINISHED PYRAMID, 269 
 
 PACK. 
 
 ARGUMENT CONDENSED, 291 PROPOSITIONS PROVED, . 294 
 
 PYRAMID MEASUREMENTS, 292 THE SEARLES DIAGRAM, . 29 . 
 
 THE TRUE MASTABA, . 305 
 
 THE REVERSE CREST, 307 
 
 THE EYE, TRIANGLE AND GLORY, 307 THE CAPSTONE, . 324 
 
 ANNUIT CCEPTIS, 327 
 
 MDCCLXXVI, 337 
 
 NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, 343 
 
 THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS, 344 
 
 THE REVERSE FACE AS A WHOLE, 363 
 
 THE SEAL AS A WHOLE, 367 
 
 OUR RACE. 
 EDITORIALS, 373
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 KKONTISPIECE, (4 illuminations), ii. 
 JOSEPH'S DOUBLE CROSS, . . xii 
 AN EAKLY SEAL, .... 7 
 DEBALLIOL'S SEAL, ... 8 
 THE PKESENT DIE (1885), . . 38 
 A DOUBLE SEAL, . . . .40 
 SKA i. OF SOUTH CAROLINA, . . 41 
 A i: MS OP GREAT BRITAIN, . . 49 
 THE RUSSIAN EAGLE, . . .54 
 Tin-: .KGIS OF AMERICA, . . 55 
 THK MEXICAN QUARTER (Head), 5~ 
 (Tail), 57 
 
 THE BALD-HEADED EAGLE, . . 71 
 WASHINGTON'S SEAL, . . .83 
 FLAG OF THE LIFE GUARD, . . 83 
 THE SELF-RELIANT EAGLE, . . 83 
 r.siTKD STATES BAR CENT (Head), 84 
 
 (Tail). 84 
 
 MARYLAND SILVER COIN (Head), 85 
 " (Tail), 85 
 
 THREE-CENT PIECE (Head), . . 85 
 
 " (Tail), . . 85 
 
 THE EARLY SEAL, .... 86 
 
 CONSTRUCTION OF SHIELD, . . 88 
 
 Kl.E.MKNTS OF THE ESCUTCHEON, . 96 
 
 KI.KMENTS OF OBLONG " . 96 
 
 As ANCIENT SCROLL, . . . 110 
 
 A CASE OF SCROLLS, . . .111 
 
 JEFFERSON'S DESIGN, . . . 118 
 
 A COLONIAL MOTTO, . . . 119 
 
 MOTTO GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, 122 
 
 THE DOUBLE 153, . . .139 
 
 THE MKTICS RATIO, . . .140 
 
 THE OLEA EUROPIKA Twit;, . . 150 
 
 GROWTH, . 150 
 
 STAMENS . 150 
 
 STIGMA, . 150 
 
 DRUPE, . 150 
 
 INSIGNIA OF COLONEL, U. S. A., . 162 
 < >uu NATIONAL FLOWER, . . 166 
 THE BUNDLE OF ARROWS, . . 169 
 AN ANCIENT EMBLEM, . . .181 
 THE PRESIDENT'S SEAL (Cont.), . 184 
 THE SIX-POINTED CREST, . . 186 
 THE CIRCULAR CREST, . . .187 
 A ! 'I:\TALPHATE CREST. . . 187 
 
 THE PANSY CREST, . 
 A PENTALPHATE CREST, 
 A PENTALPHATE CREST, 
 A PENTALPHATE CREST, 
 
 PAGE 
 .188 
 
 .188 
 . 188 
 . 188 
 
 EYE, TRIANGLE, GLORY CREST, . 189 
 STAR OF BETHLEHEM CREST. . 189 
 THE UNION JACK CREST, . . 190 
 THE CROSS OF JOSEPH, . . . 190 
 THE ALTAR CREST, . . .190 
 EAGLE-FORMED CREST, . . .190 
 A SCATTERED CREST, . . . 190 
 A PILE OF 13+1 ..... 191 
 THE TT-TRIANGLE CREST, . . 192 
 THE GLORY OF THE SUN, . . 193 
 THE BLAZING STAR, . . .202 
 SOLOMON'S STAR, .... 204 
 THE PENTAI.PHA AND HUMAN 
 
 FIGURE ...... 210 
 
 THE PYRAMID AND HUMAN 
 
 FIGURE ...... 210 
 
 THE STAR OF MIZRAIM, . . 210 
 
 THE HARMONIOUS CREST, . . 214 
 
 UNBALANCED HERALDRY, . 225 
 
 .225 
 
 " 225 
 
 BALANCED IN POTENCE (by fivei, ~>^ti 
 ANCIENT MEXICAN Com, . . 229 
 THE MANIPULUS, .... 230 
 
 ANCIENT MEXICAN COIN. , . . 230 
 A CRUCIAL TEST ..... 231 
 
 SHIELD AND PENTALPHA, . . 232 
 
 BALANCE IN Six ELEMENTS, . 232 
 
 " " SEVEN " . .233 
 
 " EIGHT " . . 233 
 
 EIGHT ROMAN STANDARDS, . . 234 
 
 THE FRUITFUL OLIVE BRANCH, . 235 
 
 BALANCED IN NINE ELEMENTS, . 236 
 
 LIBERTY TREE FLAG, . . . 236 
 
 DON'T-TREAD-ON-ME FLAG, . . 236 
 
 BALANCED IN ELEVEN ELEMENTS, 237 
 
 " THIRTEEN " (1), 238 
 
 " (2), 238 
 
 " (3), 238 
 
 A ROMAN STANDARD (13's), . . 241 
 THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG, . . 241 
 JOHNSTON'S FLAG, .... 241
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG, 
 
 CONFEDERATE FLAG, 
 
 THIRTEEN A SQUARE NUMBER, 
 " " SPHERICAL " 
 " " CO-ORDINATE " 
 " " CUBICAL " 
 
 THE TRANSPLANTED OLIVE 
 BRANCH, . . 248 
 
 PAGE 
 . 241 
 . 241 
 . 242 
 . 243 
 . 243 
 . 243 
 
 THE UNFINISHED PYRAMID, 
 A GOLDEN CANDLESTICK, 
 THE 13-sTRiNGED HARP, 
 A UNION DEVICE, . 
 BARRY OF THE LIGHT HOR*E. 
 A REVERSE DESIGN (Latimer), 
 
 248 
 
 251 
 259 
 259 
 
 THE REVERSE OUTLINES, . . 263 
 THE REVERSE FACE, . . . 265 
 AN ALTAR TO JEHOVAH, . . 268 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID, . . . 272 
 A RIDDLE SOLVED, . . . 276 
 A GEOGRAPHICAL BENCH-MARK, . 278 
 
 A HOROSCOPE 280 
 
 VERTICAL SECTION, GT. PYR , . 282 
 DIAGONAL . 282 
 
 EQUALITY OF BOUNDARIES, GT. 
 
 PYRAMID 282 
 
 TT-ANGLES, CASING STONE, GT. 
 
 PYRAMID, 282 
 
 EQUALITY OF AREAS, GT. PYR. (1), 282 
 " (2), 282 
 
 (3)1,283 
 
 (3)2, 283 
 
 " (3)3, 283 
 
 PAGE 
 
 EQUATION OF BOUNDARIES, AREAS,283 
 
 HORZ. SEC. GT. PYRAMID, Plate, 285 
 
 VERT. " Go. GAL., SOUTH, " 285 
 
 " " " NORTH, " 285 
 
 THE Boss ON GRANITE LEAP, " 285 
 
 SIDES OF ANTI-CHAMBER, ' 285 
 
 VERT. SEC. GT. PYRAMID, ' 285 
 
 " " KG'SCHAMB., WEST," 285 
 
 " " " NORTH, " 285 
 
 " QU'N'S" WEST, " 285 
 
 " " NORTH, " 285 
 
 ' EAST, " 285 
 
 THE COFFER, ELEVATION, " 285 
 
 PLAN, . . "285 
 
 " KING'S CHAMBER, PLAN, " 285 
 
 THE SEAKLES DIAGRAM, . .296 
 
 THE TRUE MASTABA, . . .805 
 
 KOSCIUSKO'S BANNER, . . . 308 
 
 THE CAP-STONE 310 
 
 THE RADIANT TRIANGLE, . .311 
 
 THE SACRED NAME, . . .312 
 
 ANCIENT MEXICAN COIN (Face), 313 
 
 (End), 313 
 
 A MASONIC JEWEL, . . . 313 
 THE SIGNET OF TRUTH, . . 313 
 A MASONIC EMBLEM, . . . 314 
 THE BREAST-PLATE (Front), . 314 
 (Rear), .314 
 
 THE TEMPLATE OF THE CREST, .317 
 THE ANTITYPICAL CAP-STONE, . 324 
 A DEVICE, CONTINENTAL MONEY, 332 
 BILL. . 333 
 THE MYSTIC TRIANGLE, . . 340 
 
 S R 
 
 AEL
 
 The natural preface to this Study is its preceding- 
 Volume in which we related the facts in chronologi- 
 co-historical order that are now to be interpreted. 
 Without an interpretation of the fullest character the 
 symbolism is in vain: hence the necessity of this 
 Volume. 
 
 Our ancestors chose emblems that were of natural 
 and immediate Signification to them : nevertheless, 
 they labored to evolve such a system of symbology as 
 should be appropriate to the substance of their hopes 
 to wit, to their posterity. 
 
 Thus the Inheritance comes down to US for verifi- 
 cation, and it is our duty quite as much as our pleasant 
 task in this present Study to produce sufficient evi- 
 dence to show not only that they wrought well and 
 wisely, but perchance wiser than they knew. 
 
 They had the spirit of well founded hope rather 
 than that of prophecy, and by virtue of fulfillment we 
 ourselves should be begotten by the spirit of con- 
 viction rather than by that of mere faith for behold, 
 the interpretation is a fulfillment of their hopes, and 
 other patent facts are our evidence that these hopes 
 were founded upon earlier facts, and therefore pro- 
 phetic after all. 
 
 JUNE i, 1897.
 
 "Beginning with the Colonies and coming down to our 
 own time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glorious insignia, it 
 has gathered and stored chiefly this Supreme idea: DIVINE 
 RIGHT OF LIBERTY IN EVERY MAN. Every color means 
 liberty, every emblem means liberty. "
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Great Seal of the United States of America is 
 as consummate a piece of Armorie as any blazonry 
 that has ever been displayed among the nations. All 
 of its elements are homogeneous and, when conceived 
 and realized correctly, their natural harmony is quite 
 above any adverse criticism, whether it be taken from 
 an artistic or an heraldic point of view. In the mean 
 time, its perfect balance and comprehensive symbol- 
 ogy are so natural as to unite the exoteric and eso- 
 teric things involved into a perfect concert of Signifi- 
 cance adapted to all degrees of appreciation. As a 
 matter of fact, it is such a compendium of truth, and 
 so inexhaustible a teacher along all fundamental 
 lines, that to some extent it is always understood at 
 sight. 
 
 We merely anticipate the assent of our readers to 
 these averments, and furthermore, are satisfied that 
 they will rise from the investigation to which we now 
 invite their attention as fully convinced as we our- 
 selves are that this Instrument which we have inher- 
 ited from our ancestors is quite as remarkable from 
 every point of view as if it actually purported to have 
 come to us through direct Revelation unto them. 
 
 In other words, we do not doubt that very many, 
 that indeed, the majority of our companions in
 
 XVI THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 this Study of the Significance of the Great Seal will 
 perceive that its design must have been overruled, 
 literally, by the same all-wise Providence to whom 
 our fathers uniformly and successfully appealed, and 
 that these originators were literally inspired to no 
 small a degree whether they knew it or not ! 
 
 Now we do not claim that they were conscious of 
 inspiration as such, nor yet of the exercise of any 
 extraordinary genius in the premises; quite the con- 
 trary, for the exploitation of the Significance of the 
 Instrument in the light of their own meagre interpre- 
 tations thereof proves conclusively that they wrought 
 far wiser than they themselves knew, albeit, without 
 any error heraldic or otherwise in so far as we can 
 discover even at so late a date in the Victorian Age 
 as this. 
 
 But after all there are no accidents, nor leastwise 
 could the insignia of such a land as this and of so 
 Great a People as Manasseh have been suffered to 
 evolve by chance 1 America is the "New Order of 
 the Ages," and the ideal of her Great Republic (the 
 first-born of a New World and the Heir of the West 
 where Empire rests) cannot fail to have been a prom- 
 inent conception in the mind of Deity from the very 
 Beginning (Deut. xxxii. 8-12; Gen. xlviii. 13-22). 
 
 That in this life and orb there is nothing left to 
 chance is a fundamental tenet of belief with the 
 truly wise; hence from the highest peaks whereon 
 Wisdom builds her eyrie, and from whence she takes 
 her point of view, all things below resolve themselves 
 to order, and all else above aspires unto the type
 
 INTRODUCTION. xvu 
 
 thereof in series infinite for they pass beyond even 
 the Eagle-glance of the human mind. 
 
 To Palmoni only, or to the " Mystic Numberer " 
 himself (Dan. viii. 13), there is no limit; for of his 
 understanding there is no number (Ps. cxlvii. 5.): 
 yet hath he ordered all things else in measure and in 
 number and in weight (Wisdom xi. 20). He created 
 Wisdom and numbered her and poured her upon all 
 His works (Reel. i. 9) double (Job xi. 6), i. <., BAL- 
 ANCED. 
 
 Therefore, it hath been well said of the Cosmos 
 that : " It is a sphere whose center is everywhere and 
 whose surface is nowhere, " in other words, its emblem 
 is the *?r-ratio turning everywhere, the flaming 
 sword (or Word) which is the fundamental element 
 of orderly construction or creation, and it keepeth 
 the way of life (Gen. iii. 24). The cherubim that 
 quarter the Cosmos are accompanied by wheels 
 within wheels, and the spokes thereof are like unto 
 reeds measuring the radii of their outward progress. 
 
 This ratio is revealed in the Tetragrammaton or 
 Mystic Name of the Deity, punctuates the Scriptures, 
 squares the circle of all mundane things, and is nat- 
 urally found upon Manasseh's Heraldry, for the latter 
 is a glowing type of the Golden Age, whose acme is 
 the Millennium itself. But enough all this is set 
 forth in its place, so we desist. 
 
 For it is now our long delayed but thereby greatly 
 
 *7t, pronounced Pi the mathematical symbol for the circum- 
 metric ratio, i. e., that of the circumference to the diameter of a 
 circle, ar = 3. 14159 .
 
 XVlll THE SEAL OP HISTORY. 
 
 enhanced pleasure to present an outline of the teach- 
 ings of this Great Seal to our countrymen. They are 
 now familiar with the facts of its History and Her- 
 aldry; its Significance is the Obverse or "Double" 
 thereof it is last "in order, " that it may be first 
 "in import," for the mere form without the Spirit, 
 was imperfect from the beginning. 
 
 NEW HAVEN, CONN., 
 JUNE i, 1897.
 
 THE GREAT SEAL 
 
 OF 
 
 The United States of America, 
 
 ITS 
 
 SIGNIFICATION FOR MANASSEH.
 
 " There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the 
 world, and none of them is without signification * 
 
 " Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue 
 pray that he may interpret. * * * 
 
 " Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with 
 my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others 
 iJs<?, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.'" 
 
 i Cor. xiv. 10- iq ; compare whole chapter
 
 SEALS IN GENERAL: 
 
 "And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took 
 witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances." JKK. 
 xxxii. 10. 
 
 " Of the Tribe of Manasseh were sealed twelve thousand." 
 REV. vii. 6. 
 
 The significance of a seal in law is that it implies a 
 deliberate and considered act on the part of him who 
 affixes it. " Pliny observes (lib. 33, cap. i) that the 
 use of seals and signets was yet rare at the time of 
 the Trojan war, and that they were then obliged to 
 shut up their letters with several knots. But among 
 the Hebrews they are much more ancient. Judah, 
 the son of Jacob, left his seal as a pledge with Tamar 
 "whom he did not know." We are told in II. Tim- 
 othy ii. 19, that "the foundation of God standeth 
 sure having this seal THE LORD KNOWETH THEM 
 THAT ARE His."f And Job says (chap. ix. 7) that 
 "God * * * sealeth up the stars "\ 
 
 It is a beautiful thought for the children of Ma- 
 nasseh that this All Powerful One, who knoweth 
 his children, saw fit to suffer them, in the day' when 
 
 *See Cruden's Concordance, Appleton's Encyc., Brandt's 
 Encyc., etc., etc., etc. 
 
 f Rom. xii 3-5, I. Cor. x. 17: Ileb. xi 8-12; Eph. ii. 19-22. 
 iCovereth them with clouds.
 
 4 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 he prospered their undertakings, to take from under 
 his seal "A new constellation " still covered with 
 the Cloud of his protection, and led by the Glory of 
 his presence to be their crest and signet. 
 
 The Book of God's decrees and purposes relating 
 to his people was sealed with seven seals.* This was 
 also the stone laid before Joshua (Zech. iii. 9). 
 "Upon one stone shall be seven eyes," or heraldic 
 colors since in Hebrew the word eye is employed 
 as a term for colors (see Num. xi. 7). The combi- 
 nation of this perfect number of colors comprehend- 
 ing all the primary ones is white, or light itself and 
 this was the color of "the terrible crystal" like the 
 firmament above that became the cap-stone of "the 
 great mountain (Ezek. i. 22, see also Isa. xxviii. 16, 
 Acts iv. 1 1). To exhaust each single topic of such a 
 subject as the one in hand would require the space 
 of a volume. The stone of Bethel is "the signet stone 
 of the Almighty." It is the witness of God's promise 
 to the seed of Israel. This stone is now the " Coro- 
 nation Stone " of Great Britain (Ephraim) and is 
 traced back to Bethel through Scone, Tara, and 
 Egypt, whence with the king's daughter (Tephi) it 
 was borne by Jeremiah with the remnant of Judah 
 (see Ezek. chap, xvii and the whole book of Jeremiah). 
 The common people of London have called it "Ja- 
 cob's Stone " ever since it was brought there by 
 Edward, "the Confessor." And none else than this, 
 is what it is (Gen. xxviii., xxxv.), see numerous books 
 upon the "Identity of the Anglo-Saxons with the 
 * Rev. v. i.
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF A SEAL. 5 
 
 Lost Tribes of Israel."* It is observed that sealing in 
 the Scriptures is one of its loftiest symbols of the 
 circumstances of sanctification. "(i) The letter 
 written, or cabinet filled with treasure is every good 
 Christian.f (2) The wax appointed to be sealed is 
 the relenting heart of man, apt to take any impres- 
 sion. J (3) The sealer is the Holy Ghost. (4) The 
 seal itself is the Word of God which being applied to 
 the heart makes an impression upon it. (5) The 
 sealing or impression active, is the act of applying 
 the word of God, whether precept, or promise, by 
 the Holy Ghost within, and the minister without to 
 the hearer. (6) The print or impression passive, or 
 the image of the seal left in the wax, is the knowl- 
 edge, faith, and love of that truth, holiness and hap- 
 piness which God originally hath in himself, and his 
 word from him, and the new man hath the true image 
 thereof in himself. | (7) The use of this sealing is 
 the secrecy and safety of the thing sealed from the eyes 
 of curiosity, and the hands of violence, wherewith 
 strangers or enemies would abuse it. So the children 
 of God are past the censure of the wicked world. ^[ 
 The spouse in the Canticles wishes to be set as such a 
 seal upon her beloved's heart, as a seal upon his arm. "|||| 
 Josephus records, and so do the Scriptures, how 
 
 *See in fact the entire " Our Race Series." 
 
 fll. Cor. iv. 7; Heb. x. 16. 
 
 \ Psa. xxii. 14. 
 
 Eph. i. 13; iv. 30. 
 
 I Eph. iv. 23; Col. iii. 10. 
 * I Cor. ii. 15; iv. 3. 
 
 II Cant. viii. 6.
 
 6 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Thessalonians wrote a letter of friendship to the 
 Jews and claimed them as brethren in Abraham, 
 sealing their letter with the seal of Dan, their father 
 as a testimony. The generic name of the Greeks 
 was Danai and their true origin is as much bathed 
 in mystery as is that of the Tuatha da Danaans of Ire- 
 land, whose prince was married by Jeremiah to 
 Tephi, upon the Lia Fail (Hebrew for the Stone 
 "Wonderful").* Upon that sacred "stone of des- 
 tiny " have all of her descendants (David's line) been 
 successively crowned, down to Queen Victoria herself ! 
 This was "why Dan abode in his ships." His mis- 
 sion was to bear the tender twig (Tephi) to the city 
 of merchants (London) in the land of traffic (Great 
 Britain),! and to assist Jeremiah in fulfilling the lat- 
 ter and important part of his mission "to build and to 
 plant "I against the latter times See full discussion 
 Studies Nos. Three, Four. Five, 'Our Race Series " 
 Each one of the tribes of Israel had its standard, 
 and the patriarch of the tribe wore its signet. The 
 devices upon them were taken from the symbology 
 of the blessings pronounced upon the heads of their 
 fathers. To each of these tribes a certain precious 
 stone was attributed in the breast- plate of the High 
 Priest which with its proper color and duly engraved 
 with its name, also served still further as a distinct- 
 ive tribal mark. || 
 
 * ' Dan the Pioneer of Israel By Col. J C Gawler, 
 Keeper of the Crown Jewels London Tower London. Eng. 
 (Re-printed in Study No. Thirteen). 
 
 f Ezek. xvii. J Jer. i 10. Gen. xlix. ; Deut. xxxiij. 
 
 I Ex.jd. xxviii. 6-15 15-30.
 
 ANCIENT SEALS. 7 
 
 No system of heraldry has ever reached the per- 
 fection of that of ancient Israel, nor among any peo- 
 ples save their modern descendants is the art now so 
 carefully studied. When that art shall again yield 
 back to us all its secrets, and all the meaning of its 
 symbolisms, then at last shall Israel's destiny be seen 
 by all the world its veil withdrawn. It only remain- 
 eth for Joseph to reveal himself unto his brethren ! 
 
 Ancient Roman seals were usually set in a ring, 
 hence their Latin name of annulus. The word bulla 
 has always been used in Europe to designate specifi- 
 cally an impression of a seal made in metal. The 
 edicts of the Roman pontiffs were thus authenticated 
 hence the term Papal Bull. 
 
 p 
 
 The shapes of seals are various. The circular 
 form is common to all periods. The ogive, or spade 
 
 * Hit! la (Lat a boss a bubble, a stud). The publication of 
 apal bulls is called &fulinination. The bull is thus described 
 by Mathew Pans. "Anno Dom. 1257. In bulla dommi Papce 
 stat imago Fault a de.itris crucis in incdio bullce ftgurala, 
 et Petn a suit's tr is It is impressed in lead.
 
 8 
 
 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 form of the escutcheon of heraldry came in with the 
 pointed style of architecture, and in course of time 
 became the shape of religious seals. The oval form 
 is frequent in France in Carlovingian times. 
 
 The size of seals has varied greatly at different 
 periods. From the antiquarian standpoint, generally 
 the smaller and thicker the seal the older it is. 
 Those of the Merovingian kings were hardly more 
 than an inch in diameter. That of Francis the I. of 
 France had a diameter of 4". 
 
 SEAL OF ALEXANDER DE BALLIOL, A.D. 1292. 
 
 "The great seals from the Conquest to Edward
 
 SIZE OF GREAT SEAL. 
 
 II., with many other seals of the same period, give 
 admirable examples of the knightly appointments of 
 the time. The comparatively small seal of Sir 
 Alexander de Balliol, A.D. 1292 [opposite], exem- 
 pli ties, in a characteristic manner, the practice of the 
 early possessors and users of seals in having their 
 figures, armed and mounted, represented drawn from 
 life in those very important and truly interesting 
 works of art " 
 
 The statute of 1782 does not specify the size of the 
 Great Seal. It is probable, however, that the report 
 of Secretary Thomson took this subject into due con- 
 sideration, as several of those of former committees 
 on the Seal had already done, and that the size of 
 the die used by the Government under Secretary 
 Thomson is correct. This gives the proper diame- 
 ter of the Seal as 2^ inches. The proportions (not 
 details) of the obverse face could not be more beauti- 
 fully conceived of than they have already been by 
 the Treasury Department in the Centennial Medal 
 issued at the Philadelphia Mint. Upon the re- 
 verse face of this medal, however, the proportions are 
 not good. Examination will show that its triangu- 
 lar headstone falling from the sky would not fit the 
 structure below, as it is equilateral, while the slope 
 of the Pyramid itself is ^rr-acute. To proportion 
 this central device correctly the height of the Pyra- 
 mid, completed, should be exactly equal to the radius 
 of the seal (ijT), and the length of its square base 
 should be just equal to the side of a square (1.767" + ) 
 whose perimeter equals that of the circular seal
 
 10 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 itself (7.06* + ). These are the wonderful architectu- 
 ral proportions built conspicuously into " the Great 
 Pyramid" the oldest, largest and most mysterious 
 of all pyramids, and the type from which Egypt took 
 "the Pyramid idea." 
 
 Without these proportions we lose all the grand 
 symbolism of that structure and are guilty of charg- 
 ing our National Seal with an imperfect and subor- 
 dinate copy rather than employing the original type 
 itself. Moreover, to ignore the type is to fall into a 
 symbolic lapse not to be tolerated iipon the "per- 
 fect* arms of " dominion '' inherited by so great a 
 People, 
 
 There is another point in this connection which 
 should not be overlooked, and this is that the Great 
 Pyramid stands just back from the edge of a promi- 
 nent bluff. The rocky hill upon which this structure 
 is founded was first terraced off, and then the 
 "socket holes " into \vhich its northern corner stones 
 were partly sunk, were let into their natural rock 
 foundation as closely to the northern edge of the 
 bluff as was consistent with its safety. Below this 
 bluff the sands of Egypt lay exposed. In the repre- 
 sentation therefore of this grand monument, upon 
 our national Seal, not only should its true and mystic 
 mathematical proportions be carefully recognized, 
 but the rocky bluff itself with desert sands below 
 should each be partly shown as evidence that the 
 structure of our polity is founded wisely on a rock.* 
 
 Seals abound among Assyrian and Babylonian 
 
 * Math. vii. 24-27.
 
 MEDIAEVAL SEALS. 11 
 
 remains. The earliest seal known that bears armo- 
 rial devices is that of Arnulphus, Count of Flanders 
 (941). Such seals were not common till the Thir- 
 teenth Century. In the Thirteenth Century it seems 
 that in France at least, pendant seals had displaced 
 the other sort, and they are still very generally used 
 on letters patent, treaties and other important public 
 documents.* But it was during the Twelfth Cen- 
 tury, though the practice was not well established 
 until the Thirteenth, that the contrivance of counter- 
 seals arose. They were first applied to pendant 
 seals, and were sometimes so made that the mottoes 
 interrupted on the obverse were continued on the 
 reverse. 
 
 Such was the virtue of a seal, in the time of 
 Charles I., that it alone was sufficient to make a 
 writing valid and binding, while without it a signa- 
 ture itself was not considered valid. A document 
 was non factum until duly sealed. The old law, as 
 given by Lord Coke was; " Sigillnm est-cera impressa" 
 " a seal is an impression in wax. " Hence it was 
 that, to authenticate an impression of the die made 
 directly upon the paper itself without any wax, 
 wafer, or other adhesive substance, the statute of 
 May 3ist, 1854, was passed by Congress. This law 
 stands as Section 6, upon the Revised Statutes of the 
 United States 1875-8, and refers as much to the 
 
 * The great seals appended in tin boxes to certain legal docu- 
 ments are made of a mixture of 15 parts of Venice turpentine, 
 5 of olive oil, and 8 of wax melted together, and colored with 
 red lead.
 
 i2 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Great Seal as to subordinate ones. The Great Seal 
 is however generally impressed upon a large paper 
 wafer stuck to the document in lieu of wax. 
 
 Personal Seals, worn on signet rings, were much 
 more common in former times than now. Before 
 the day of almost universal writing they were con- 
 sidered necessary as a means of marking a document 
 in lieu of, or in addition to, the signature written 
 thereon by another. The "mark' (x) now made 
 by Indians, and other illiterate people, serves the 
 same purpose as a Seal ; it is, however, as ancient as 
 Jacob, and, as the sign of the cross made above the 
 heads of Ephriam and Manasseh, has always been 
 familiar to the Anglo-Saxon Descendants. 
 
 Many ancient documents were authenticated with 
 great numbers of Seals. Sometimes this was only to 
 give them special importance,* at others it indicated 
 the number of the signers. Thus the instrument 
 setting forth the election of Ladislaus by the Hun- 
 garian estates was stamped with 88 seals, and the 
 Statement of Grievances sent in by the Bohemian 
 Estates, in 1415, to the council of Constance had 350 
 seals affixed. 
 
 Admiral Preble pointedly remarks. f " It is a little 
 singular, that while each and every state has a State 
 seal, recognized as emblazoned with the arms of the 
 State, to authenticate its official documents, there is 
 a prevailing feeling that the states should recognize, 
 by law, no state flag or regimental color, but the 
 
 * Rev. chap. v. 
 
 f Flags. Page 6of), 2d Ed. 1882.
 
 SEALING WAX. 13 
 
 Stars and Stripes, while in fact nearly every state 
 has a regimental color for its volunteer troops, some- 
 times legalized, but oftener with devices originating 
 in the caprice of its owners." 
 
 Sealing wax. The constant employment of sealing 
 as a scriptural symbol looked at from every stand- 
 point shows that an impressionable substance of some 
 kind was well known, and employed. This sub- 
 stance among the Hebrews was probably one whose 
 body was wax itself. The Egyptians used a sort of 
 clay. So did many other ancient Eastern nations. 
 In the time of Job clay would seem to have been 
 employed for this purpose (xxxviii. 14). The Roman 
 creta and maltha were probably not clay or chalk 
 alone; it is thought that wax was mixed with them. 
 The Byzantine emperors sealed in the form of bullx 
 with lead, sometimes with silver, and rarely with 
 gold. The wax most anciently employed was white. 
 When in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries wax was 
 made of various colors, only emperors and kings 
 might seal in red. France employed green wax, on 
 letters to persons of high eminence. This color was 
 introduced into Germany in the Fourteenth Century, 
 and was appropriated by religious houses and cities. 
 Blue seals are very rare. Charles V. of Germany is 
 said to have been the only European monarch who 
 used this color. The Patriarchs of Constantinople 
 and Jerusalem, and the grand masters of the order 
 of Malta, and of the German Teutonic order, sealed 
 in black. Private persons usually employed yett<nv 
 wax. This latter color is the most frequent one
 
 14 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 found upon the public documents of the Twelfth 
 Century. 
 
 Modern "sealing wax" is a composition of shell- 
 lac and other substances added for coloring and per- 
 fuming purposes. Beckmann notices its use on a 
 German letter to London in 1554, and upon others a 
 few years later. The Portuguese had it in common 
 use at this period and are supposed to have intro- 
 duced it from India; Venice and Spain also used it 
 at this time. It was soon well known in Europe 
 under the name of "Spanish wax." As it contains 
 no wax, this name was probably transferred to it 
 from the material formerly used for the same pur- 
 pose (sealing).* 
 
 *The following mixtures are recommended: (i) For red, 6 
 parts shell-lac 4 Venice turpentine, % resin, i% cinnabar; or 4 
 parts bleached lac, i Ven. tur. , 3 Chinese vennit. (2) For 
 yellow, 4 parts lac. 2 Ven. tur., 1^4 resin, % King's yellow. (3) 
 For green, the same except King's yellow % and mineral blue 
 }. (4) For gold, 8 oz. lac 4 oz. Ven. tur. % oz. bronze, % oz. 
 magnesia with oil of tur. and 14 sheetsof gold-leaf. (5) For black, 
 2 parts shell-lac, i part Ivory black, i Ven. tur. The finest red 
 wax comes from India. It melts at 140, and the best impres- 
 sions are obtained by softening it -without ignition by the flame 
 of a candle. Seal engravers obtain their fine proof impressions 
 as follows: The seal is prepared by warming it to as high a 
 temperature as the hand can bear, brushing over its face a thin 
 layer of clean tallow, and with a camel's-hair brush coating this 
 with vermilhon. Some wax is detached from the stick, soft- 
 ened near a candle, and being placed upon a piece of stout 
 paper is gently warmed till soft enough to be stirred and worked 
 up into a conical heap, The seal at about the temperature of 
 the wax. is then quickly stamped upon it with a firm straight 
 blow and moderate pressure.
 
 OUR HERALDIC TINCTURES. 
 
 "But the Birthright was Joseph's." I. CIIROX v. 2. 
 
 " Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because 
 he was the son of his old age, and he made him a Coat of Many 
 Colors." GEN. xxxvii. 3, 
 
 " Every precious stone was thy covering." EZEK. xxviii.i3 
 
 Tinctures in heraldry are of three descriptions 
 Metals, Colors and Furs. Upon the American Coat- 
 of-Arms and Seal there are none of the latter; so in 
 the institutions that the People sanction there are no 
 ern.ined ones. 
 
 Each metal and color in scientific blazonry* is 
 represented by a distinct precious gem, a flower or 
 plant, and by a Heavenly body; and when the arms 
 of sovereigns and states are described by the elder 
 heralds, the tinctures are frequently denoted by the 
 names of these jewels and celestial spheres. 
 
 Both of the metals, Or and Argent (gold and sil- 
 ver), occur upon the Seal. The whole of the Reverse, 
 in fact, is most impressively tinctured, entirely as of 
 these upon an Azure field. 
 
 Of the Heraldic colors the five primary ones are 
 selected in the order of their honor gules, azure, 
 
 * Except the last, least-honorable and seldom-enumerated 
 two, sanguine and tenny.
 
 1 6 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 sable, vert, purpure,* and both of the two unjew- 
 elled and unastronomic ones, sometimes enumerated 
 as tinctures tenny and sanguine are left out. 
 
 From an examination of the table on the opposite 
 page perhaps a more distinct idea can be formed of 
 the charging of our Arms and Seal with their appro- 
 priate tinctures. 
 
 THE METALS. 
 
 The two most precious metals, gold and silver, 
 are frequently mentioned with deep symbolic import 
 in the Holy Scriptures. In the image representing 
 Gentile history gold formed the head and silver the 
 breast f The chief utensils of the Temple and its 
 ritual were of gold and silver. \ It was in silver that 
 the title deeds to "our inheritance" were purchased,! 
 and in gold that the very streets of the New Jerusa- 
 lem are to be paved. || In tones drawn out of silver 
 trumpets were the tribes of Israel collected at the 
 Tabernacle. [" The value of the Gold and the refine- 
 ment of Silver, in their references to the goods and 
 truths of perfect life, constitute their chief import in 
 the science of Symbology. These royal metals are 
 the only ones employed in heraldry, and are both 
 most conspicuously displayed in American embla- 
 zonry. The silver whiteness of the one was an 
 
 * In many treatises on Heraldrj' these five colors are the only 
 ones mentioned. All other tinctures comprised under the gen 
 eral title of " proper" occur as in nature where their blazonry 
 is necessary, but they are outside of the royal galaxy. 
 
 jDan. li. 38. JGen., Levit. , Exod., Num. Jer. xxxii. 9. 
 I Rev. xxi. 21. ^ Num. x. 2.
 
 CORRECT TINCTURES. 
 
 CORRECT TINCTURES FOR THE NATIONAL SEAL. 
 
 
 
 
 CJ 
 
 CORRECT BLAZONRY. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 h 
 
 
 
 
 
 Z 
 
 O 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f/^ 
 
 
 
 X-6 t o 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 S3 
 
 P 
 
 By 
 
 .n c TO ' 
 By - . S _ ^ 
 
 JEWEL. 
 
 COLOR. 
 
 h 
 
 Q 
 
 "1 
 
 H 
 
 Statute. 
 
 Heraldry. 
 
 c u S = 
 S t c g 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 s 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 PC o u = 
 
 
 
 &< 
 
 
 Z, 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 The Field. 
 
 Azure. 
 
 Azure. 
 
 Azure. 
 
 Sa'phire 
 
 Blue. 
 
 
 S3 
 
 2 
 
 Constellation. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Pearl. 
 
 White. 
 
 
 U 
 
 3 
 
 Glory.* 
 
 Or. 
 
 Or. 
 
 Or. 
 
 Topaz. 
 
 Yellow. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sable 
 
 1. e., NK| 
 Hl-nl. nlld 
 
 Diamond, 
 
 Black, 
 
 
 H 
 
 4 
 
 Cloud. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 and 
 
 
 rVnrl. 
 
 White. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Argent. 
 
 (lilies ,-ui.l 
 
 Riihy, 
 
 \Iliethj-l 
 
 I'uri!le. 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 The Field. 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Azure. 
 
 Sa'phire 
 
 Blue. 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Scroll. 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 White. 
 
 Pearl. 
 
 White. 
 
 a 
 
 
 7 
 
 Motto. 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Gold. 
 
 Topaz. 
 
 Yello*. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Henri Htul t;iil 
 
 
 
 
 j* 
 
 
 
 
 
 while. l.d> 
 
 Pearl 
 
 White, 
 
 E 
 
 
 8 
 
 Eagle. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 dark l.rown, 
 Leak yellow, 
 
 Natural < Natu ''> 
 
 (Brown) 
 
 V 
 
 jo 
 
 
 
 
 
 feet yellow, 
 tnlon's black. 
 
 
 Topaz. 
 
 Yellow. 
 
 O 
 
 A 
 
 9 
 
 7l Chief. 
 
 Azure. 
 
 Azure. 
 
 Azure. 
 
 Sa'phire 
 
 Blue. 
 
 V 
 
 X 
 
 e 
 
 10 
 
 ! 7 Pallets. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Pearl. 
 
 White. 
 
 H 
 
 u 
 
 ii 
 
 ^= 6 Pallets. 
 
 Gules. 
 
 Gules. 
 
 Gules. 
 
 Ruby. 
 
 Red. 
 
 
 H 
 
 12 
 
 Z . 26 Leaves. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Vert.t 
 
 1. e., 
 Natural. 
 
 Em'rald 
 
 Green. 
 
 
 
 '3 
 
 = | 13 Olives. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Purpure. 
 
 1. e., 
 Natural. 
 
 Ameth. 
 
 Purple. 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 ~ M 
 f = 13 Flowers. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Natural. 
 
 Pearl. 
 
 White. 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 13 Heads. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 (Or). 
 
 (Or). 
 
 Topaz 
 
 Yellow. 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 : i 13 Shafts. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Pearl. 
 
 White. 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 Brown and 
 
 HIOWII 
 
 Brown 
 
 Hrown 
 
 
 
 '7 
 
 | < 26 Fledges. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 White. 
 (Or.) 
 
 & While. 
 
 (Or.) 
 
 ft White. 
 
 & White. 
 
 (Yellow.) 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 Words. 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Or. 
 
 Topaz. 
 
 Yellow. 
 
 v 
 
 "g 
 
 '9 
 
 Eye. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Pearl. 
 
 White. 
 
 
 in 
 
 20 
 
 Triangle. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Argent. 
 
 Pearl. 
 
 White. 
 
 V 
 
 "o 
 
 21 
 
 Glory. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Or. 
 
 Or. 
 
 Topaz. 
 
 Yellow. 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 22 
 
 Pyramid. 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 White.* 
 
 Pearl. 
 
 White. 
 
 I 
 
 V 
 
 | 
 
 23 
 
 Date. 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Gold. 8 
 
 Topaz. 
 
 Yellow. 
 
 & 
 
 H 
 
 24 
 
 Motto. 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Or. 
 
 Topaz. 
 
 Yello*-. 
 
 jC 
 
 J 
 
 25 
 
 Field. 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper. 
 
 Azure. 
 
 Sa'phire 
 
 Blue. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 26 
 
 Foundation.! 
 
 Silent. 
 
 Proper r.ules. 
 
 Ruby. 
 
 Red. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iAat OizelO. iOr.) 
 
 Wliltlxh. 
 
 Yellow. 
 
 KxtendliiK well down, and out, over, and around the Kaxle. 
 
 t 1 e., Under ahl (it allliwn) Artent. I 1. e., While, ae the white llmeKK.nt-* of Clieo|,. 
 
 | 1. e., The golden date of a "Uolden Age." II RorK, Ked : and SHU. 1 i,ek-i 1 >ell.,w.
 
 18 THE SEAL OP HISTORY. 
 
 emblem of holiness, purity and innocence, of peace 
 and of reward,* the golden yellow of the other, 
 one of wealth, of victory and of eternal rule.f 
 
 THE COLORS. 
 
 The tribe of Joseph was particularly distinguished 
 among the others by its "coat of many colors." The 
 origin of this peculiar tribal distinction was the 
 primary source of that jealousy which eventually re- 
 sulted in its exile, its separation, and its final special 
 blessing. 
 
 Among these many colors heraldry has chosen 
 five in particular that are marked out for its most 
 honorable blazonry these are gules, azure, sable, 
 vert and purpure.J All of them occur upon Man- 
 nasseh's American Coat of Arms, and Seal. The bald- 
 headed eagle brings its own tincture, the dark and 
 hardy brown of its native haunts, into the galaxy of 
 colors; but this coming under the heraldic term of 
 "proper" is not to be strictly enumerated among 
 the heraldic colors as such. Hardiness, courage, 
 valor, success and happiness; perseverance, justice, 
 royalty; theology, might, omnipotence; life, vigor, 
 truth; fruitfulness, imperial sovereignty, are by them 
 implied. || 
 
 *2 Chron. v. 12: Rev. vii. 14. Isa. i. 18; Rev. iv. 4. vii. 9- 
 13, xv. 6, xix. 8-14; Rev. i. 14, ii. 17, xiv. 14. 
 
 fRev. xviii. 16, xiv. 14; Psalm xxi. 3. See Masonic Manuals. 
 
 \ Red. blue, black, green and purple. 
 
 Unless "Tenny" shall cover it. 
 
 \Red, Heraldry, and Nan. ii. 3. Gen. xlix. 12. Psal. 
 Ixviii, 23, Ixiii. 2. Blue, Heraldry Symbology, and Esth. viii.
 
 THE COLORS. 19 
 
 All of these colors were symbolically employed in 
 the decking of the Temple, and throughout the 
 Scriptures, wherever colors can be appropriately 
 used in the figures of exalted imagery, they are lav- 
 ishly introduced. 
 
 So, too, as symbols of temporal prosperity they 
 are made use of continually. Thus in the descrip- 
 tion of the feast made by Ahasuerus at his magnifi- 
 cent palace in Shushan every one of these more gor- 
 geous heraldic colors are referred to.* They are 
 likewise used in their loftiest spiritual meaning in 
 the magnificent regalia of Ancient Free Masonry, f 
 and symbolically in those of every foreign ancient 
 and modern civic and military order. 
 
 THE GEMS. 
 
 The gems of heraldry are likewise most signifi- 
 cantly employed in scriptural symbology. They 
 are very honorably referred to in numerous places, 
 both individually and collectively. 
 
 Six of the seven employed in American blazonry 
 the ruby,f topaz, emerald, sapphire, diamond and 
 amethyst (each one severally engraved, as "with 
 the engraving of a signet," with one of the names of 
 the tribes of Israel), were used upon the wonderful 
 
 15; Ezek. xxiii. 6. Black, Heraldry, etc., and Jer. iv. 28; 
 Rev. vi. 12; Cant. i. 5, v. n. Green, Heraldry, etc., and 
 Psal. xxiii. 2; Cant. i. 16; Jer. xi. 16; Hos. xiv. 8. Purple, 
 Heraldry, etc., and Judg. viii. 26; Prov. xxxi. 22; Ezek. 
 xxvii. 7. Mark xv. 17. Etc. 
 
 *Esth. i. 5, 6. f See Masonic Manuals, etc. 
 
 \ Heb., Odem, Sardius, a ruby.
 
 20 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 breastplate of their great High Priest.* The Pearl, 
 the only remaining gem of American heraldry, is 
 even more significantly employed in the Revelations. 
 Here we are informed that every several gate of the 
 typical "New Jerusalem" was of one Pearl, f and 
 that each of the twelve gates was engraved with the 
 name of one of the twelve tribes. 
 
 Again, five of these seven American gems, the 
 sapphire, emerald, ruby, topaz and amethyst, \ are 
 used in the foundations of the Holy City. Each one of 
 these is likewise there symbolically engraved (but 
 this time with the name of an Apostle). The quad- 
 rangular figure of this city, its cardinal orientation, 
 the regular distribution of its gates, and the pyramidal 
 form of its superstructure, all material tokens of its 
 perfect order and symmetry, are very remarkable 
 when taken in connection with Job xxxviii. 1-7 and 
 31, Rev. ii. i and Ephe. ii. 19-22.! They are still 
 more so when we recall the startling modern discov- 
 eries at the Great Pyramid of Egypt, the success of 
 the arms of Ephraim (Manasseh supporting) in the 
 year 1882, in the land it overshadows, and the syn- 
 
 * Exod. xxviii. 18, xxxix. ii. 
 
 f Rev. xxi. 12, 14, 21. |Also Heb. xi. 10. 
 
 \ Perhaps the remaining two if we could exactly translate 
 the Hebrew of the other seven mentioned. (Diamond). 
 
 See also Masonic Manuals, etc. 
 
 1882. The British occupation of Egypt was fittingly cele- 
 brated by conferring a military medal upon the victors, bear- 
 ing upon its reverse the word " EGYPT" above, the SI-HINX as a 
 central device, and the date " 1882" below!
 
 THE GEMS. $1 
 
 chronological displayment in the land of Manasseh, 
 of this same lofty symbol, so long- concealed, upon 
 the Reverse of the Great Seal (vide "An Important 
 Question"). 
 
 It is certainly not a little strange that the two sons 
 of Joseph brothers "John" and "Jonathan," should 
 each have had his attention in that peculiarly pyram- 
 idal year 1882 drawn back toward the original 
 land of separation. 
 
 There are very strong grounds for believing that 
 further back in human history than the days even of 
 Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, Egypt was "the 
 land of separation." There are strong reasons for 
 believing that this was the land where Noah first 
 settled after leaving the Ark, and out of which, in his 
 agricultural kingdom after his descendants had re- 
 gained their strength, "they journeyed eastward to- 
 wards the plains of vShinar. " There are reasons for 
 believing that the distribution of the earth among 
 the sons of Noah was made in Egypt and that leav- 
 ing the greater part of Ham in possession of his 
 country, Shem and Japhet went to Shinar merely in 
 the carrying out of decrees already made. There 
 are reasons for believing, too, that Nimrod the rebel, 
 the inventor of false times and measures, resisted at 
 Shinar this decree, and essayed to rear, fool like, i:pon 
 the sands, the living contrast to the great monument 
 of Egypt (then either already built upon the rock, or 
 else its architectural plan agreed upon from ante- 
 diluvian designs), and that for doing so confusion of 
 tongue, as well as further separation, cursed his folly.
 
 22 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Certain it is that the Tower of Babel and the 
 Great Pyramid of Egypt are most wonderfully con- 
 trasted in their origin, their idea and their history 
 like as are contrasted in these modern times the two 
 great metric systems of the world, the Metric of the 
 French and the Sacred system of the Anglo-Saxons!* 
 
 " Out of Egypt have I called my son;" we were 
 all called thence, Abram, Israel, Christ. It is the 
 land of origin, yet destined in the end to be one of 
 the three, Israel, Assyria, and Egypt, that survive 
 into Millennial days. 
 
 Nor is it mere coincidence that one each of the 
 two celebrated Obelisks that in Joseph's day graced, 
 like Jachin and Boaz, the entrance to the Temple of 
 On the daughter of whose chief priest was the 
 Egyptian wife of Joseph and our great maternal an- 
 cestor should now in our day have been moved to 
 England and America! 
 
 Precious stones are figuratively used in the Scrip- 
 tures as significant of all the virtues and perfections 
 with which humanity should be adorned. Thus 
 Tyre was once arrayed "in every precious stone," \ 
 among which prominent mention is made of the 
 ruby, topaz, diamond, sapphire and emerald. 
 
 All precious things were blessed upon the head of 
 Joseph, and as we have seen (Vol. I., page 274) have 
 been assumed upon the separate arms of Manasseh's 
 children. 
 
 *See "An Important Question in Metrology, ' by C. A. L. 
 Totten, 1884, Our Race Publishing Company. 
 f Ezek. xxviii. 13. i. e., Tyre's King.
 
 THE BLESSINGS OP JOSEPH. ^ 
 
 THE THIRTEEN BLESSINGS OF JOSEPH. 
 
 " And of Joseph he said, 
 
 " Blessed of the Lord be his land, 
 
 "For the precious things of heaven, 
 
 " For the dew, 
 
 "And for the deep that concheth beneath, 
 
 "And for the precious fruits brought forth by the 
 sun, 
 
 "And for the precious things put forth by the 
 moon, 
 
 "And for the chief things of the ancient moun- 
 tains, 
 
 " And for the precious things of the lasting hills, 
 
 "And for the precious tilings of the earth, 
 
 " And the fullness thereof, 
 
 "And for the goodwill of him that dwelt in the 
 bush: 
 
 " Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, 
 
 "And upon the top of the head of him that was 
 separated from his brethren:" 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock And 
 his horns are like the horns of unicorns: 
 
 "With them he shall push the people Together to 
 the ends of the earth. 
 
 " And they are the ten thousands of EPHRAIM, And 
 they are the thousands of MANASSEH. "* 
 
 *Deut. xxxiii. 13-17. (Paragraph Version).
 
 24 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 THE PLANETS. 
 
 The planets though employed in Heraldry are not 
 alluded to in the Scriptures save once, and here only 
 as condemnatory of their worship,* That they had 
 certain virtues was believed of old. In Medieval 
 times the science of Astrology arose with the renais- 
 sance of Heraldry, and it was natural that both the 
 gems of Alchemy, and the planets of Astrology, should 
 find a recognition in its system of symbology. 
 
 It was particularly with reference to their .colors, 
 however, that these two classes became associated 
 with blazonry. The light of Jupiter like that of the 
 sapphire was blue, that of the Moon like that of the 
 pearl of silvery hue. The golden hue of the Sun 
 found its counterpart in the radiant topaz, Mars was 
 ruby red, Mercury of an amethystine purple. Venus 
 emerald green, and the planet " Diamond," like to 
 pearls of special order, black. It is with talons tipped 
 with black, as it were of adamant that the American 
 Eagle grasps its "gifts." 
 
 THE FLOWERS. 
 
 So too the flowers are honored not only by Her- 
 aldry for their colors and their delicious fragrance, 
 but by the Scriptures as redolent in emblematic teach- 
 ing. The cedar trimmings of the House of God were 
 richly carved with flowers, f likewise its pillars, and 
 
 * II. Kings xxiii. 5 , unless, as some presume, and with no 
 little authority, the reference in Genesis i. 16, is to the Planets 
 in particular, in which case "the stars in their courses" do 
 have influence (Jud. v. 20). 
 
 f I. Kings vi. 18.
 
 THE FLOWERS. 25 
 
 the gold and silver utensils and implements of its 
 worship.* 
 
 The Tabernacle was similarly thus adorned. They 
 were symbolical, and even have a modern language. 
 
 The simile of sweet flowers is beautifully used by 
 Solomon, f and we are all familiar with the quiet 
 grace with which "the lilies of the field," outstrip- 
 ping even Solomon in all his glory, are mentioned by 
 the Saviour. So the cypress and the grape, the olive 
 and the lovely rose of Sharon, are wreathed into the 
 beautiful symbology of the Holy Writ in all their fra- 
 grance. It is promised that "Israel shall grow as 
 the lily," and that "his beauty shall be as the olive 
 tree, and his smile as Lebanon. "J 
 
 "The flowers appear upon the earth," says Solo- 
 mon "it is the time of singing.' Spring clothed in 
 all her perfume and beauties hath returned ! No won- 
 der then, that our Revolutionary forefathers were 
 struck by the Bouquet and its Pointed Motto on the 
 Periodical || that eased their evening hours. 
 
 Flowers have always, in the poet's language, been 
 the stars of earth, and the universe itself is but a 
 bouquet in the hand of the Almighty. 
 
 THEIR UNITED IMPORT AND SIGNIFICANCE. 
 All gems are precious, but each one in some dis- 
 
 *See description of its construction (Ex.. Chron. and Num.). 
 f Cant. v. 13. \ Hos. xiv. 6. 
 Cant. ii. 12. 
 
 \Gent lemon's Magazine, see for discussion under "E 
 Flu rib us I 'num. '
 
 26 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 tinguishing degree ; so every planet to the ancients 
 had its special virtue, every flower its own peculiar 
 beauty and fragrance, and every color its concealed 
 significance. Each tribe of Israel was differently 
 blessed and had its markedly peculiar traits. So 
 each apostle had an individuality that marked his 
 labors and contrasted him with all the rest. 
 
 Manifestly the embellishment of the Temple, the 
 attiring of Tyre, and the magnificent architectural 
 construction of the New Jerusalem, each in precious 
 metals, and in priceless gems, has deep significance. 
 So the decking of the Priests and Tabernacle with 
 their gorgeous colors and symbolic flowers, and the 
 engraving of the names of Israel and of the Apostles 
 upon the jewels has still deeper meaning. 
 
 Among the ancients, this science of symbology 
 the long lost " science of correspondence,"* ran into 
 everything. Into the twelve months, the twelve 
 signs of the Zodiac, the twelve perfect fruits: and 
 so on throughout all Nature and her works this study 
 is deeply analyzed to find the very essence of exis- 
 tence. 
 
 But deeper into mysteries, so deep as these, it 
 seems, at present, almost vain to go; yet all these 
 mysteries are on our Seal waiting but the day of their 
 revealment. What secrets they conceal, what lofty 
 lessons they will then impart, who now can venture 
 to predict? 
 
 Could symbolism be more perfect then than we 
 find it here upon our Seal? All of the seven tinctures 
 
 *See the works of Emanuel Sweden borg.
 
 THE SEVEN TINCTURES. 27 
 
 of Heraldry are charged upon Manasseh's Coat of 
 Arms; 'tis thus like that of Joseph one of many 
 colors many in one, and one out of many. 
 
 In seven tinctures, therefore, do we find our Coat 
 of Many Colors dyed, but sanguine missing, for its 
 introduction was a fraud of old; although accom- 
 plished upon Joseph's coat of arms subsequently to 
 his sale to the Midianites, it was for the purpose of 
 deceit, and merely served a temporary end. There 
 is red in his garments, as if he came from Bozrah 
 and he is a type of Christ who did, but Manasseh 
 and Ephraim and the tribes his followers too for 
 that matter were free from the blood of the Lamb 
 the slaying was done after they were in the lost con- 
 dition, even as the dipping of Joseph's coat in the 
 blood of the kid was done after he had been sold to 
 the Egyptians. It is a beautiful parallel that re- 
 sults from this view of the type Jacob stands for 
 God in the story (which is of course a fact) the kid 
 stands for Christ,* and the coat of many colors, dyed 
 in the blood of Him who saves, covers in reality the 
 entire kingdom of the Ten Tribes who were practi- 
 cally lost before the Crucifixion. 
 
 Seven gems are precious above others to his peo- 
 ple; with all these jewels is his breast-plate decked. 
 Seven planets bend their rays benignantly upon his 
 land; their unbound influence is sweet like that of 
 the Pleiadic group, f Seven flowers symbolically grow 
 upon his favored hillsides ; their bouquet is a per- 
 fumed motto. Seven of the apostles, and seven of 
 the Tribes of Israel have their names pronounced 
 
 Numb. xv. 24. f f Seven Stars.
 
 28 
 
 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 upon him ; that the genius of his institutions may pos- 
 sess the stable and the noble traits which they exem- 
 plified. The seven virtues, typified by all of these, 
 illuminate his way. Thus in the number of perfec- 
 tion, seven times in seven-fold repetition, is his bless- 
 ing couched, and in its fullness may he hope to real- 
 ize it all. 
 
 THE SEVEN TINCTURES AND THEIR SEVERAL CORRESPOND- 
 ENCIES IN AMERICAN HERALDRY.* 
 
 COLOKS. 
 
 GEMS. 
 
 PLANETS. 
 
 PLVNTS. 
 
 VIRTUES. 
 
 TRIBES. 
 
 APOSTLES. 
 
 Yellow. 
 White. 
 Red. 
 
 Topaz. 
 Pearl. 
 Ruby. 
 
 Sun. 
 Moon. 
 Mars. 
 
 Marigold and 
 Cyprus. 
 Lily and 
 White Rose. 
 Gillyflower 
 and Red Rose. 
 
 Charity. 
 Faith. 
 Fortitude. 
 
 Issachar 
 Reuben 
 and all the 
 tribes, f 
 Judah. 
 
 James. 
 Pe'er and 
 all the 
 Apostles. 
 Bartholo- 
 mew. 
 
 Blue. 
 Black. 
 
 Sapphire. 
 Diamond. 
 
 Jupiter. 
 Saturn. 
 
 Violet and 
 Blue Lily. 
 Oak and 
 Olive. 
 
 Justice. 
 Prudence. 
 
 Simeon. $ 
 Gad. 
 
 Andrew. 
 Thomas. 
 
 Green. 
 
 Emerald 
 
 Venus. 
 
 Myrtle and 
 all verdure. 
 
 Hope. 
 
 Zebulon. 
 
 John. 
 
 Purple. 
 
 Amethyst 
 
 Mercury. 
 
 Grape. 
 
 Temp'nce 
 
 Benjamin. 
 
 Matthias. 
 
 * So near as we have been able to make out this intricate 
 matter (for modern Heraldry has greatly mixed up the original 
 significance and correspondence existing between these sym. 
 bolic things), this table gives its arrangement. It is in the 
 assignment of the names of the Apostles and the Tribes that 
 the greatest difficulty occurs: Those interested in this line of 
 work are respectfully referred to an exhaustive treatise, "The 
 Facts, Fancies, Legends and Lore of Nativity." C. A. L. Tot- 
 ten, 1882, Our Race Publishing Company. 
 
 f- Hence (by virtue of Gen. xlviii 5 ; I. Chron. v. i) "Ephraim 
 and the tribes his fellows." 
 
 | Hence (for similar reasons given abovef) Manasseh (Gen, 
 xlviii.
 
 "Just measure and a perfect weight 
 Called by their ancient names." 
 
 " Set me as a Seal upon thine heart, as a Seal upon thine 
 arm." Solomon's Song, viii. 6 
 
 " And he saith unto me, 
 
 " Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the 
 time is at hand." Rev. xxii. 10. 
 
 The possession of a just measure and of a perfect 
 weight lies at the roots of good government, and 
 the science of metrology was honored in Israel by 
 having its standards stored in the very Holiest of its 
 Holy places. The ark of the Covenant was built 
 according to the measure of a laver, 71,464 cubic 
 inches in capacity ; this also was the capacity* of the 
 famous coffer in the King's Chamber of the Great 
 Pyramid. Within this ark there was a pot or "omer" 
 (a four-hundredth of the laver) of manna that is of 
 bread, the staple of physical and the standard of spiritual 
 life ; in it was Aaron's rod, supposed to be a sacred 
 cubit long, and at any rate the measure of measures 
 that had swallowed up all of its rival cubits in Egypt ; 
 and finally therein were stored the two tables of stone 
 which set forth the measure of a perfect life. The 
 chamber itself was metric, and was related to the 
 
 71,250 Earth commensuric cubic inches per Sacred cubit.
 
 30 THE SEAL OP HISTORY. 
 
 King's Chamber, which was circummetric in an 
 intentionally cosmometric monument, and there could 
 have been no accident in either matter. 
 
 Now it is the function of a government "of the 
 people, by the people, and for the people " to see to it 
 that their "units" are earth commensuric, and that 
 they are closely adhered to ; hence we are wont to 
 stamp our weights with a Government Seal, and the 
 relation of an official seal to an official measure is 
 seen to be an intimate one. 
 
 It is not our purpose to repeat here what has al- 
 ready been thoroughly set forth in another volume,* 
 but it is fitting to continue our discussion of the sig- 
 nificance of Manasseh's Seal in a brief consideration 
 of the dimensions which are best suited to realize 
 both the practical and symbolic proportions of the 
 instrument itself, and in making an effort to deter- 
 mine the proportions whereto it should be cut and 
 crystallized for yet future time. 
 
 A perfect financial system can result from none 
 other than a correct commercial one, and it is a sig- 
 nificant fact that the root (} f MN, man, or manna, 
 on which our forefathers fed in the wilderness) of 
 Manasseh's own name (,"} jf *\ , MNSH, Manasseti) 
 is likewise the root (] ) of the maneh (H \ MNH) 
 the 6oth part of a talent, and the 6th part of an 
 Ephah, which has a standard value of '60 shekels of 
 
 * Vide, "An Important Question in Metrology and an 
 earnest word with the English speaking peoples on their ancient 
 weights and measures." Totten, 1884. Our Race Publishing 
 Co., New Haven, Conn., $2 50.
 
 THE GREAT SEAL. 31 
 
 the Sanctuary, or of some $35.436 (Ezek. xlv. 12), and 
 whose cosmic value in "cents" ;'. e. its relation to the 
 lunar year of 354.36 "days" is manifest. 
 
 It is a collateral and remarkable fact that weight 
 and coinage are cosmically related to each other 
 throughout all Israel. Thus the silver coinage of 
 Great Britain is put up at the Mint, and sealed in 
 ^"loo-bags that weigh, and are actually labelled 
 respectively, about 365.25 ounces Troy apiece, while 
 the number of grains in a silver American dollar 
 are put at 412, which is likewise a cosmic, or pyram- 
 idal number of the greatest import. 
 
 The fact is we cannot have "just balances, and a 
 just Ephah, and a just bath " (Ezek. xlv. 10), as con- 
 templated in that final vision of Ezekiel (vide chap- 
 ters xl. to the end of the book, and which is the cog- 
 nate of the closing vision of John in Revelation, 
 chapters xxi.-xxii.) for the millennial and the subse- 
 quent eternal ages, except they are founded upon 
 the very cosmic measures, to which we ourselves, 
 that is our human figures, are literally proportioned. 
 
 Therefore, as Manasseh stands for Peace, or for 
 forgetfulness of all the toils of its attainment, and as 
 his Seal in particular is a type of millennial things, it 
 greatly behooves us who are his literal and lineal 
 descendants, to make our title clear to the mansions 
 that remain for those who are destined to enter into 
 Rest. 
 
 There has always been much confusion as to the 
 proper size of the Great Seal. No dimensions were 
 specified by the first committee. In their first report
 
 $i IHE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 the second committee selected 4* as the proper diam- 
 eter; in their second report, however, they adopted 
 3"; but no particular size was specified by any of 
 those subsequently charged with the consummation of 
 the work. As these two numbers are the only ones 
 that were ever specifically suggested, one of them 
 ought to be selected, and the most appropriate one 
 is to be sought. The original die was actually cut to 
 a diameter of 2^ inches and all subsequent ones, up 
 to 1885, were held to this dimension, except the die 
 of the Great Treaty Seal which oddly measured 44 
 in diameter. The present die, made in 1885, is 3" in 
 diameter, selecting one of the two traditionally pro- 
 posed sizes. 
 
 Thus the very departure from 2^" to 4^", and of late 
 back to 3", shows that the option still remains with 
 the State Department, and that its exercise ought to 
 be governed not only by a deference to the full con- 
 venience of the Engraver, but to whatsoever may 
 add to the import of the Symbology involved. Now 
 by the time the reader shall have perused the present 
 discussion of all the emblems involved in our National 
 Heraldry, we are satisfied that he will agree with us 
 as to the appropriate diameter whereby to realize 
 the deeper significance of this instrument. 
 
 To compass the proportions of the Obverse face 
 alone a single inch would be sufficient, for as a mere 
 sample the design has already been realized quite 
 accurately at the Mint within these dimensions, to 
 wit: in the latest model of the silver "Quarter," 
 the diameter of which is even Jess than an inch (yf).
 
 THE GREAT SEAL. 33 
 
 But there is no urgent necessity for confining our- 
 selves to the minimum, and the dimensions of the 
 Treaty Seal itself (4^"), a waxen impression of which 
 lies before us, are not at all too large for use on a State 
 paper.* Is there a happy medium ? 
 
 The question, now, resolves itself down to one of 
 symbology and of appropriateness; for between 2^ 
 and 4^ inches, both of which dimensions have actu- 
 ally been employed by our Government, the difficul- 
 ties of mere mechanical execution do not obtain. 
 
 It is upon the Reverse face, if anywhere, that we 
 shall find diameter and dimensions defined statute or 
 no statute and there being no statute definition, then 
 of course symbolically, and therefore heraldically. 
 The pyramidal proportions of the Reverse indicate 
 the correct measure of the entire instrument with no 
 uncertain weight. 
 
 The Great Pyramid of Gizeh, as the supreme type 
 of all other pyramids, is of course our own model, for 
 we aim at nothing secondary ; its construction is based 
 upon the 7r-ratio, /'. e., upon that of the circumference 
 to the diameter of the circle 3. 14159+ : 
 
 This will be fully established when v/e come to the 
 discussion of the central emblem of the Reverse face. 
 In the meantime let it be noted, that as the zr-ratio 
 ought to govern every dimension upon the Reverse 
 face, and as this ratio underlies all the mathematical 
 functions of modern science, any dimension for the 
 
 * This is particularly so when we remember that the Great 
 Seals of Nations average much nearer to 6" in diameter than 
 to any other dimension, which size (6") may taken as a maximum.
 
 34 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 diameter of the Great Seal which will bring it (ft) into 
 prominence, no matter how occultly, will lend signifi- 
 cance to the instrument itself. 
 
 Now there is one circle in particular which is unique 
 in all of its dimensions, and that is the one first 
 selected, although we grant, unwittingly, by the 
 second Seal committee, to wit: the circle whose 
 diameter is 4". 
 
 Such a circle has a radius of 2", and its circumfer- 
 ence in lineal units has the same arithmography 
 (12.566370 + ) as its area has in square units (12.566370 
 + ), that is, the circumference of any circle being 
 27rR, and its area being ?rR 2 , it follows that (if R=2) 
 2?rR will equal im or 4^, and that its area nrR 2 
 will equal 7t2 2 or 4?r also. Thus the numerical se- 
 quence is the same in both cases, and this is the one 
 unique circle of all nature Let us have it on our Seal 
 and Square its Circle ! 
 
 We therefore urge the recognition of this particu- 
 lar diameter, 4", as the one which is without compeer 
 in the whole sequence of numbers, for the funda- 
 mental measure of the Great Seal. The State Depart- 
 ment has taken a step towards this in electing 3" for 
 the diameter of the present die,* but in due time a 
 new die will have to be cut, a new set of dies ; for the 
 Reverse face now cries aloud for its statutory recog- 
 nition (vide pp. 199, 200, 201, 204, 214, Study Number 
 Eighteen) which has thus far been defeated. 
 
 With the cutting of this Reverse face, all the func- 
 
 * That is in adopting one of the only two dimensions ever 
 actually proposed but the least appropriate of the two.
 
 THE GREAT SEAL. 35 
 
 tions of TT, which is the key to numerical harmony 
 itself, will be brought (forced, unless we are lax in 
 accepting an opportunity to compass all arithmo- 
 graphic things at once) into our national heraldry, 
 and, by making the diameter of the perfected instru- 
 ment 4*, we shall consummate its symbology; for 
 this diameter is the best and only one that indicates 
 all of the circummetric principles together. 
 
 We Manassites claim that our Constitution solves 
 the complex equation of mere human government 
 to wit : of self government under the laws of Almighty 
 God and we do well, for that was the basis of the 
 Theocracy which Israel erred in abrogating. If then, 
 and so to speak, we square the circle of government, and 
 have a Seal whose most prominent occult emblem is 
 exaltedly circummetric, what could be more appro- 
 priate than to adopt for its ruling dimension that 
 diameter which above all others is unique in terms of 
 if ? A diameter of four inches (4*) is undoubtedly 
 the proper ruling dimension for the Great Seal of 
 the United States of America, and was the first 
 dimension recommended. Let that number be 
 selected and adhered to forever.
 
 " And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave 
 upon it, LIKE the engravings of a Signet, 
 
 HOLINESS TO THE LORD. 
 
 And thou shalt put it on a Blue lace, that it may be upon 
 the Mitre; upon the Forefront of the Mitre it shall be. " 
 
 Exod. xxviii.
 
 THE OBVERSE FACE. 
 
 "Oh glorious group of clustering Stars." Hon. EDWARD J. 
 PRESTON. 
 
 "The way of an Eagle in the air is wonderful." Prov. 
 xxx. 19. 
 
 " Lo! there is a Mighty Realm, by Heaven designed, 
 The last retreat for poor oppressed mankind : 
 Formed with that pomp which marks the hand divine 
 And clothes yon vault where worlds unnumbered shine." 
 Dwight's " Prophecy of America," 1771-74. 
 
 Let us now, however, consider the Signification of 
 the Obverse face. Upon it are displayed the whole 
 of the National Arms and Crest, the entire symbology 
 of which will be best determined by going directly to 
 the detailed examination of these armorial bearings 
 themselves. 
 
 As before mentioned, the Obverse face is the only 
 one that is now employed by the State Department 
 as the Great Seal of the United States. We have 
 inherited this unfortunate custom directly from the 
 Confederation itself under which, in spite of the plain 
 requirements of a law that necessitated so many 
 years to formulate (Law of June 20, 1782), the Ob- 
 verse alone was cut. The reason of this immediate 
 violation of the statute by the Secretary of Congress, 
 cannot be given, as he destroyed all of his notes,
 
 38 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 That a part of the Seal was thus being made to do 
 the duty of the whole, could not have been a matter 
 of general knowledge even at the time when this cus- 
 tom originated. 
 
 This is made manifest from the tenor of the article 
 in the Columbian Magazine (1786) to which we have 
 already referred, and in which, written but four years 
 
 THE PRESENT DIE (1885). 
 
 after its adoption, the whole Seal is described as 
 though then in use, as it clearly should have been. 
 
 It appears, moreover, that the perpetuation of this 
 custom in our day is more than a mere technical ille- 
 gality. Congress would have adopted "armorial 
 bearings " for the New Republic whether a Seal had 
 been required or not. These the Arms and Crest
 
 THE OBVERSE FACE. 39 
 
 have an independent use and existence entirely sepa- 
 rate from their special employment upon the Seal as 
 an instrument. As it happens they were adopted at 
 the same time as the Seal, of which, following the 
 practice of other States, they naturally were made to 
 form an important part. They are displayed upon 
 all state occasions, deck our national monuments and 
 structures, beautify our coins, garnish our military 
 equipments, and educate our people in the history 
 and principles which surround their Origin and 
 Destiny. 
 
 But though stamped from an official die, held in 
 the hands of the Secretary of State himself, they 
 alone cannot by law constitute the National Seal. It 
 is expressly provided that this instrument, used for 
 such special and sacred purposes, shall be further and 
 particularly distinguished by a Reverse by means of 
 which, alone, the Arms and Crest, are fully supple- 
 mented and can become a Seal as such. There is 
 absolutely no reason why this astonishing irregularity 
 should be continued any longer. For the past forty 
 years this matter has been repeatedly brought before 
 the public. In 1856, Lossing, Wells, and Hamilton 
 all called attention to the seal law, and printed it in 
 full, and also noted that the Reverse had not then been 
 cut. 
 
 Why has it not yet been cut? Why is it not cut and 
 used? The writer was informed at the State Depart- 
 ment so long ago as 1883 that a suggestion was made 
 to Secretary Evarts to have this Reverse cut as an 
 act commemorative of his own term of office, but that
 
 40 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 other matters interfered, and the subject, which 
 excited some interest, was allowed to drop. 
 
 It is certainly high time that some official, holding 
 this high State position, should take a step which will 
 complete the Seal, and satisfy the Statute.* This step 
 should be taken as one of duty, and that alone will be 
 sufficiently commemorative of a term of office ! It is 
 not at all to the point, to urge that " as the Reverse 
 has not been cut hitherto, and as a century of laws and 
 treaties have been authenticated without it, we can 
 continue to dispense with its use. " It is a mere ques- 
 tion of law that is now mooted a matter of plain re- 
 quirement, and one that brooks no quibble such as this. 
 
 Nor can it be urged that it is impracticable to 
 employ both faces of the seal, as pendants are no 
 
 July 7, 1883.
 
 THE OBVERSE PACE. 4' 
 
 longer used. Here again it is a mere question of the* 
 law. If this, fairly interpreted, requires a pendant, 
 then, of course, let a pendant be employed. But this 
 does not seem to be at all necessary. Such public 
 documents as require the Great Seal can easily have 
 their faces arranged for a double impression. The 
 whole seal may then be struck at once from a single 
 double die, or from two such dies, and so far as an 
 impression upon paper is concerned, the Seal will 
 be complete. 
 
 The Seal-design of the State of South Carolina 
 affords a case in point; it, too, is dual, but is so cut as 
 to show both faces at once, and thus accommodates the 
 law to the modern custom. 
 
 In ancient and illiterate mediaeval days sealing 
 was a necessary and sufficient form of attestation 
 "sealed and delivered," without a mention of the
 
 42 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 
 signature, was the legal phrase. All this is some 
 what changed to-day, for now the signature is the 
 feature essential to a compact while the Seal is a 
 mere perfunctory [L.S.] not unfrequently made with 
 a pen, and probably legal if made only with the 
 thumb, which, by-the-way, is as personal and inimi- 
 table a "mark " as can be added to a name. 
 
 Armorial devices came into use as Seals during the 
 Crusades, but at last a law of Charles II. required all 
 documents to be signed whether sealed or not: seal- 
 ing, however, has continued in use until the present 
 time, and will doubtless always remain in force in so 
 far as public or official documents are concerned. 
 
 We are assured by all our ancient historians that 
 sealing was not in common use much before the Con- 
 quest. "The method of the Saxons was, for such as 
 could write, to subscribe their names, and, whether 
 they could write or not, to affix thereto the sign of the 
 cross (+ or x ), which custom our illiterate vulgar do for 
 the most part to this day keep up, by signing a cross for 
 their mark ( x ) when unable to write their names. 
 Thus Caedwalla, a Saxon King, honestly avowed his 
 inability to write, and made a cross instead, at the 
 end of one of his charters." All this is most signifi- 
 cant to us who at last have become acquainted with 
 the Origin and Destiny of Our Race, and who recog- 
 nize the right of the humblest member of the House 
 of Joseph to the sign of the cross, or of addition, 
 and multiplication, that was made over the heads of 
 our ancestors, the sons of Joseph at their adoption 
 when the Birthright was conferred upon them.
 
 THE OBVERSE FACE. 43 
 
 "At the Norman conquest new fashions were 
 brought into England; waxen seals were introduced 
 instead of the old English method of writing their 
 names and signing with the sign of the cross. The 
 impressions of these seals were sometimes a knight 
 on horseback, sometimes other devices, but coats of 
 arms were not introduced at all until the time of 
 Richard I. who brought them from the crusades in 
 the Holy Land, where they were first invented as 
 armorial bearings, being painted upon the shields of 
 the knights to distinguish the variety of persons of 
 every Christian nation who resorted thither, and who 
 could not, when clad in complete steel, be otherwise 
 known or ascertained. " 
 
 "In like manner, and for the same unsurmount- 
 able reason, the Normans, a brave, but illiterate 
 nation, at their first settlement in France, used the 
 practice of sealing only, without writing their names: 
 and hence the charter of Edward the Confessor to 
 Westminster Abbey, himself being brought up in 
 Normandy, was witnessed only by his seal, and is 
 generally thought to be the oldest sealed charter of 
 any authenticity in England." 
 
 The Great Seal of the United States consists of 
 three separate parts, which in the order of their 
 importance are the Arms, the Crest, and the Reverse, 
 Both the Arms and Crest are found upon the Obverse 
 face of the instrument; the Reverse stands alone and 
 counterbalances the rest. Strictly speaking, the 
 Reverse is the counter-sigillum of the Arms alone, 
 and the Crest is an independent device. Upon the
 
 44 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Seal, however, it is naturally placed over the Arms, 
 and at the middle chief-point of the Obverse. 
 
 As it is our purpose in this Second Volume to con- 
 sider the Signification of these several parts of the 
 Seal and of their several elements in their natural and 
 logical order, we proceed at once to a discussion of 
 the Arms, which form the main design upon this 
 Obverse face.
 
 THE ARMS. 
 
 " The medal faithful to its charge of fame 
 Through climes and ages bears each form and name." 
 ***** 
 
 " A small Euphrates through the piece is rolled 
 And little eagles wave their wings in gold." 
 
 "Treatise on Coins," Pope. 
 
 Arms in Heraldry, or Armorial Bearings, are the 
 devices borne upon shields or coats of armor. Their 
 origin and use are as early as the naming of the 
 constellations. Heraldry and all that pertains thereto 
 had its primary origin in the East, the land of sym- 
 bolism and allegory, and the whole character of the 
 Bible, the most valued inheritance we have from the 
 original home of the human race, is symbolic. 
 Among the ancient Hebrews this art reached its 
 highest development, and in their typical life, religion 
 laws and institutions, it flowed as a natural stream. 
 The "Science of Correspondence" pervades the 
 entire book of Holy Writ, and vivifies it as the spirit 
 does the body. 
 
 "Symbols," says Miiller, "are evidently coeval 
 with the human race; they result from the union of 
 the soul with the body in man. Nature has im- 
 planted the feeling for them in the human heart." 
 But this is a proof of Inspiration, or rather of a coeval 
 Revelation of what was to be, for there was no ex-
 
 46 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 perience at the dawn to draw on, and the symbols 
 that are coeval with the Race are found to be wrought 
 out into history by the close of Gentile times. 
 
 "But symbolism is not only the most natural and 
 most general, it is the most practically useful of the 
 sciences. God himself, knowing the nature of the 
 creatures formed by Him, has condescended, in the 
 earlier revelations of Himself, to teach by symbols, 
 and the greatest of all teachers taught the multitudes 
 by parables; and 'without a parable,' or symbol, 
 ' spake he not unto them.' " Faber says, "Hence 
 the language of symbolism, being so purely a lan- 
 guage of ideas is, in one respect, more perfect than 
 any ordinary language can be ; it possesses the vari- 
 egated elegance of synonyms without any of the 
 obscurity which arises from the use of ambiguous 
 terms. " And therefore may we add, its province is 
 prophetic and its historic realization is the proof of 
 Inspiration and of a Revelation coeval with the Race. 
 
 It is a most natural consequence that when the dis- 
 pensation of fulfillment succeeded to that of type there 
 should have followed a long period during which 
 darkness and disuse fell upon the art and science of 
 the latter. This is what actually occurred among 
 the Northern nations, coming into the bonds of the 
 new covenant. The Latin church, however, soon 
 re-adopted all the more expressive devices of this 
 ancient art, as far as they related to a symbolic re- 
 ligion, and it is probably due to its influence, once so 
 universal, that in the times of the Crusades we first 
 begin to notice the reappearance, as an hereditary
 
 THE ARMS. 47 
 
 transmission from father to son, of certain distinctive 
 insignia borne as in earlier times, upon their per- 
 sonal Crests, Standards and Escutcheons. 
 
 National heraldry, or the adoption of distinctive 
 emblems by civil communities is however far more 
 ancient than personal, and has not that break in its 
 succession which we notice in the latter. Thus even 
 in Turkey and Persia, where personal heraldry is un- 
 known (and also in our own country where it is still 
 as good as ignored), we find national ensigns of correct 
 heraldic character. 
 
 The Arms of our fraternal nation, Great Britain, 
 or " John Bull," are quite as familiar to Americans 
 as are their own ; and perhaps afford the most magnifi- 
 cent example there is of the pure heraldic art as such. 
 It, of course, is not our purpose to discuss them here, 
 nor is it our province, but they should be noticed at 
 least briefly in connection with our present topic. 
 
 Their structure is unique, and quite as full of 
 Israelitish reference as our own. It will be noticed 
 that they have Supporters; this is not because of any 
 lack of self reliance, but as it were to indicate a right, 
 for Great Britain is " Ephraim," and Ephraim is the 
 "Company of Nations" that in a particular sense 
 represents the Ten Tribes (Ezek. xxxvii. 15-28), her 
 Royal contingent is the Remnant of J udah that escaped 
 in Jeremiah's day. Hence, the Supporters are the 
 Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and the Unicorn of Israel, 
 and the Quarterings bear the Young Lions (seven of 
 them, which remind us of the Heptarchy), and the 
 Harp of David, which stands for Dan and Simeon
 
 48 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 (Ireland and Wales). The Garter is the Zodiac of 
 Jacob's heritage, and the Motto below is that of Ben- 
 jamin, who came in with the Normans. Here, then, 
 are the Ten Tribes personified. 
 
 Now it will be noticed that the Unicorn is chained, 
 while the Great Lion is free and displayed in dexter; 
 this latter is/ar excellence the emblem of Judah, in his 
 inherited dominance over Israel as in David's line. 
 Therefore, the Crest is the crown of essential right, 
 call it divine right, for so it is, and it indicates where 
 the Sceptre belongs (Gen. xlix. 10). Further than 
 this, we now have but little need to elucidate, for the 
 subject demands quite as much space at the hands of 
 an Ephraimite as the specific one \ve have in hand ; 
 but it is interesting to compare the heraldry of these 
 two houses of Joseph, and to note how powerful they 
 both are in their several fields, and how Israelitish. 
 Ephraim's in particular, is that of Israel under the 
 permanent Sceptre of Judah. " Come, therefore," if 
 thou be an enemy to Israel, "and I will advertise thee 
 what this people shall do to thy people in the latter 
 days" (Num. xxiv. 14), and if thou art one with us 
 in the aim to benefit humanity in the mere struggle 
 for existence and betterment, come anyway, for there 
 is much to .set in order. (Vide also Dan. x. 14). 
 
 If inspired, the harmonized Bible taken in its 
 original text will be found to be inerrant, and it will 
 be difficult, if it is not inspired, to find a pair of 
 nations that are better fitted to fulfill its occult antici- 
 pations. For instance, here are the Arms of Eph- 
 raim.
 
 THE ARMS. 
 
 " Nemo me impune lacessit."' 1 
 
 " Judah is a Lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, 
 thou art gone up; he stooped down, he couched as 
 a Lion, and as an old Lion; who shall rouse him up? 
 The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law- 
 giver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Rest-Mil- 
 lenial] come: and unto him [Judah] shall the gather- 
 ing of the people be" (Gen. xlix. 9-10). "Hear, 
 Lord," said Moses, "the voice of Judah, and bring 
 him unto his people; let his hands be sufficient for 
 him ; and be thou an help to him from all his enemies " 
 (Deut. xxxiii. 7). 
 
 " The shout of a King is among them." (Comp. i Thess. iv. 16). 
 
 Hear also what Balaam said of Israel. "God 
 brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were, the
 
 5<3 THE SEAL OF HiSTOkY. 
 
 strength of an Unicorn. Surely there is no enchant- 
 ment against Jacob, neither is there any divination 
 against Israel ; according to this time it shall be said 
 of Jacob and of Israel, 
 
 " What hath God wrought!" 
 
 " Behold the people shall rise up as a Great Lion, 
 and lift up himself as a young Lion : he shall not lie 
 down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of 
 the slain " (Numb, xxiii. 22-24). 
 
 Now Ephraim stands for the Ten-Tribed Kingdom 
 in that he hath the precedence in the Birthright, and 
 is the chosen leader in Israel (Ezek. xxxvii. 16), 
 therefore, as the Lion is both Judah's and Israel's, so 
 also is the Unicorn not only Israel's but Ephraim's. 
 
 " His glory is like the firstling of his Bullock, and 
 his horns are like the horns of Unicorns; with them 
 he shall push the people together to the ends of the 
 earth ; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim " 
 (that \sper one thousand each, to each of Ephraim's 
 ten tribes in the collective sense) "and they are the 
 thousands of Manasseh " (/'. ^., in the same relative 
 sense as a tribe, but for other reasons inheriting the 
 blessing of separation and so of self-government; 
 Deut. xxxiii. 17). 
 
 There is no disputing the heraldry of Israel, nor 
 escaping the conclusion that it is in the possession of 
 Great Britain in an exalted sense. Balak sought in 
 vain to stem the tide of prophecy, for Balaam said, 
 "God brought him out of Egypt; he hath as it were 
 the strength of an Unicorn ; he shall eat up the nations
 
 THE ARMS. 51 
 
 his enemies, and shall break their bones and pierce 
 them through with his arrows. He couched, he lay 
 down as a Lion and as a Great Lion ; who shall stir 
 him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed 
 is he that curseth thee " (Num. xxiv. 8-9). 
 
 The six young Lions represent the six great Col* 
 onies of Britain spoken of by Ezekiel. " The mer- 
 chants of Tarshish with all the young lions thereof " 
 (Ezek. xxxviii. 13) are surely British, and they rule 
 over the land of Traffic, and have their metropolis in 
 the great city of merchants referred to by the same 
 prophet in that wonderful riddle that sets forth the 
 transfer of the Sceptre to the West (Ezek. xvii.).* It 
 is the Lion of the tribe of Judah that floats over Lon- 
 don-Keep, and the Unicorn of John Bull is undoubt- 
 edly the Unicorn of latter-day Israel. 
 
 As we take it for granted that these literal facts are 
 well understood by our own constituents, for whom 
 we chiefly labor, we shall go no further in this line, 
 but invite our friends to note that an analytical dis- 
 cussion of the symbology demands thorough treatment 
 of the same. 
 
 But to return to our specific topic. 
 
 The national arms of the United States are arms 
 of "Dominion," are "Perfect," and are "Abstract." 
 They indicate that its sovereignty is warranted by 
 birthright and regular descent, and that it is of the 
 primary order. Its escutcheon is surcharged with 
 no "Differences;" so in the union of states, they are 
 
 *Vide .Studies Numbers Three, Four and Five, Our Raco 
 Series.
 
 $2 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 all older even than Elder Sons, they are founders, 
 all equal inheritors of every privilege of freemen, 
 one with another. 
 
 In heraldry "differences" are devices borne on an 
 escutcheon to indicate the part of a family to which 
 the bearer belongs. This has been effected by vari- 
 ous methods at present by what are termed bris- 
 ures, marks of filiation, or of cadency ; being small 
 charges placed upon the shield. The Eldest Son bears 
 a label of three points; the second a crescent; 
 the third a mullet ; the fourth a martlet ; the fifth an 
 annulet; the sixth a fleur-de-lis; the seventh a rose; 
 the eighth a cross moline ; the ninth a double quatre- 
 foil. The family of the second son repeats these 
 differences on their own paternal mark of filiation : 
 e. g., the second son's first son bears a crescent en- 
 signed with a label, and so on of the rest. [Brande] 
 As above stated American heraldry has no concern in 
 these subordinate matters; if we be Manasseh, we are 
 an Eldest Son, and our " label ' is a Pentalpha in Ob- 
 verse, and a TC- triangle in Reverse, the one being the 
 emblem of the other. 
 
 In the order of their importance, the various de- 
 vices that, as elementary ones, unite to form our 
 "Coat of Arms," are as follows: The Eagle, The 
 Escutcheon, The Scroll, The Motto, The Olive- 
 branch and the Bundle of Arrows. We shall now 
 examine these six heraldic elements separately.
 
 THE EAGLE. 
 
 1 ' Hail to the land of whirring wings [or overshadowed with 
 wings/. <?., the Eagle's land] that lieth beyond the rivers of 
 Ethiopia." Isa. xviii. i. 
 
 " Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind- 
 Doth the Eagle mount up at thy command, and make her 
 
 nest on high ? 
 
 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, 
 Upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. 
 From thence she seeketh the prey, 
 And her eyes behold afar off. 
 Her young ones also suck up blood ; 
 And where the slain are, there is she." 
 
 Job xxxix. 27-30. 
 
 " The Eagle he was lord above, 
 And Rob was lord below." 
 
 WORDSWORTH (" Rob Roy's Grave"). 
 
 The Eagle first appears in American heraldry upon 
 the flag of Washington's Life Guard, with the shield 
 upon its breast, was incidentally employed by Mr. 
 Barton in one of his early designs for the Seal, but 
 owes its central prominence upon the Arms to Secre- 
 tary Thomson's genius in associating all the best 
 elements into one harmonious whole, whose heraldic 
 accuracy was finally completed by Mr. Barton. 
 
 It will be noticed that the heraldic attitude of the 
 Eagle upon Manasseh's Arms is natural and altogether 
 different from the symbolization of the royal bird
 
 54 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN EAGLE. 
 
 that finds a place upon the standards of Austria- 
 Hungary, Russia, et catera. With us the Eagle is 
 represented without any deformity (it is not a double- 
 headed monstrosity) and with the tips of its wings 
 raised to chief. His aspect too is westward, that is 
 along the Course of Empire. 
 
 The Eagle is an emblem of nationality, and has 
 always been so (Ezek. xvii. 3-7), and its old world 
 flock is gathered together at this minute where the 
 carcass is ; to wit, to watch Turkey (the sick man) in 
 its final throes. This is the great sign of our times 
 and precedes the Restoration of Our Race to its 
 ancient heritage, and anticipates the coming of its 
 King to rule and to fulfill the desire of all nations 
 all this is according to the Prophets modern scorn to 
 the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 " The Eagle, in heraldry, is accounted one of the 
 most noble bearings in armoury; and, according to 
 the learned in this science, ought to be given to none 
 but such as greatly excel in the virtues of generosity 
 and courage. * * * The Eagle on medals [and so
 
 THE EAGLE. $$ 
 
 on dies] according to M. Spanheim, is a symbol 
 of Divinity and Providence. " Why it was stripped 
 of its feathers and then used as the emblem of the 
 Nile, we do not know, but in this form it was one of 
 the most ancient standards of Egypt : but we do know 
 that those who undertake to pluck Manasseh's Eagle, 
 will find their hands full ere its feathers are rumpled ! 
 
 "Though formidable to all birds, yet the Eagle 
 suffers them to build near his regal nest without mo- 
 lestation; particularly the fishing hawk, herons, ct 
 cietera, all of which build in high trees, and in some 
 places so near one another that they appear like a 
 rookery." But ere we go on let us cite a few facts of 
 natural history, as to the bird itself and its connec- 
 tions.
 
 5<$ THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 The Falco in Ornithology is a genus belonging to 
 the order of Accipitres, the characteristics of which 
 are: crooked beak with wax at the base; head thick 
 set with feathers; and tongue cloven or bifid; the 
 Eagle and hawk form the genus. 
 
 The Aquila or Eagle family comprises the strongest 
 and most courageous birds of prey of this great tribe 
 of Falcons; they are/ar excellence the royal bird, and 
 have always been associated with empire and have 
 companioned with royalty from the very earliest 
 times. 
 
 Of this family, the Leucocephalus is the bald or 
 white-headed Eagle ; it is of a brown-ash color with 
 head and tail white ; iris white, over which is a prom- 
 inence covered with yellow skin; bill and cere, or 
 wax, yellow, as are the legs and feet; talons black. 
 
 Lawson says that "Eagles breed very of ten, lay- 
 ing again under their own callow young, whose 
 warmth hatches the eggs. In Behrings Isle they 
 make their nests on the cliffs, nearly six feet wide 
 and one foot thick, and lay two eggs in the beginning 
 of July [July 4, 1776!]. This species inhabits both 
 Europe and America, but is more common in the 
 latter." 
 
 The Tartars esteem the tail feathers of the Eagle 
 as the best they have for pluming their arrows, and 
 so far as we ourselves have been able to count speci- 
 mens, the American or baldheaded Eagle will furnish 
 13 tail feathers apiece. 
 
 And Mexico has inherited this very same emblem 
 (probably via the "lost Atlantis") from the origines
 
 THE EAGLE. 
 
 57 
 
 THE MEXICAN QUARTER. 
 
 whence we ourselves derive it ; from thence she ob- 
 tained her pyramids and mysterious calendar, and 
 much of her traditionary lore. 
 
 These birds are remarkable for the nobleness of 
 their bearing, and for their bold and daring attitude. 
 They are celebrated for their courage, and as their 
 habits are always in correspondence with their or- 
 ganization, nature has endowed them with great 
 strength and powerful wings. 
 
 In American symbol ogy, the Eagle is the proper 
 emblem of the "PEOPLE of the United States," who, 
 speaking with sovereign voice in the Preamble to 
 their Constitution, expressly show themselves to con- 
 stitute the government with power inherent in them- 
 selves alone, to '-ordain and establish" its form.* 
 This sovereign element in our polity, while delega- 
 ting certain rights for certain purposes, as clearly 
 
 * ' ' PKEAMBI.K ; WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in order 
 to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic 
 tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the gen- 
 eral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
 and our posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION 
 for the United States of America."
 
 58 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 retains all others not enumerated in the fundamental 
 law.* 
 
 Concerning this King of Noble Birds, f which is so 
 preeminently our national emblem, it would seem as 
 if little should remain to be said. Its prowess is the 
 theme of every school boy, and the text for every 
 orator upon Declaration-Day. There are, however, 
 very many interesting points concerning its peculiar 
 fitness for the grand central device upon our ' ' Coat 
 of Arms'" and relating to the beauty of its higher 
 symbolism, by which we cannot pass. 
 
 The Eagle is one of the loftiest scriptural emblems 
 of nationality. J Though declared unclean, it is 
 constantly referred to for its courage, || its swiftness, ', 
 its piercing eye,** the safety of its dwelling, ff the 
 yearly renewal of its youth JJ and the remarkable 
 solicitude with which it protects the young eaglets, 
 and teaches them to fly. 
 
 The Eagle was one of the four holiest guardians in 
 the midst and round about the great throne described 
 by John in Revelations iv. There is a striking re- 
 semblance, too, between these four forms, possessing 
 
 *See IX. Amendment. 
 
 f Or&erRaptores, Family Falconidce. Sub-family, Aquil- 
 z'ntz. See Crudeu's Concordance, Masonic Trestle- Board for 
 Commandery, Cooley's Principles of Constitutional Law, 
 Brande's and Appleton's Encyclopedia, etc., etc. 
 
 | Ezek. xvii. 3-7. 
 
 So was the lion, Levit. xi. 13, /. e. , for food. 
 
 || Job xxxix. 29-30. ^f Deut. xxviii. 49. 
 
 ** Job xxxix. 29. ft Job xxxix, 28, 
 
 \\ Psa. ciii. 5.
 
 THE EAGLE. 59 
 
 the attributes of the principal living beings of this 
 world and the quadriform living creatures in the first 
 vision of Ezekiel, " the fourth of which, with eagle- 
 face and wings, flew westward and turned not when it 
 went but went straight forward. " * 
 
 It is said that when the Eagle sees its young ones 
 so well grown as to venture upon flying, it hovers 
 over their nest, flutters with its wings and excites 
 them to imitate it and take up their flight. \ It is 
 also said that when it sees them weary or fearful, it 
 takes them upon its back, and carries them so that 
 the fowlers cannot hurt the young without piercing 
 through the body of the old one. J In allusion to 
 this most beautiful trait we are told that God 
 delivered his people out of Egypt and "bore them 
 upon Eagle's wings!" 
 
 How strange is this so often reiterated reference 
 upon our Great Seal to the escape from the bondage 
 of Egypt to the freedom of the place set apart for 
 us, under the express favor of Divine Providence. 
 
 From the very beginning, we are told, God laid 
 out the boundaries of nations. And is it too great a 
 stretch of faith to think that even at that early day 
 this land beyond "Atlantis" was left desolate and 
 set apart for " the great people " of the latter days? 
 
 " When the Most High divided to the nations their 
 inheritance, 
 
 * Ezek. i. 9. 
 
 j-See Sec. 3, Art. iv. , Const. U. S. 
 {See Sec. 4, Art. iv., Const. U. S, 
 Exod. xix. 4.
 
 60 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 " When He separated the Sons of Adam, 
 
 " He set the boundaries of the people according 
 
 to the number* of the children of Israel, f 
 "For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is 
 
 the lot J of his inheritance. 
 " He found him in a desert land, and in the waste 
 
 howling wilderness; 
 " He led him about, He instructed him, He kept 
 
 him as the apple of His eye. 
 " As an Eagle stirreth up her nest, Flutter eth over her 
 
 young, 
 " Spreadeth forth her wings, Taketh them, beareth 
 
 them on her wings, 
 " So the Lord did lead him And there was no strange 
 
 God with him. 
 "He made him ride on the high places of the 
 
 earth. 
 
 " That he might eat the increase of the fields; 
 " And he made him to suck honey out of the rock, 
 
 and oil out of the flinty rock;|| 
 "Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of 
 
 lambs, 
 " And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, 
 
 with the fat of kidneys of wheat ; 
 " And thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. 
 
 * Thirteen, or even fourteen Tribes, as will be shown later. 
 \ I. e. , Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel. 
 See references under Olive-branch. 
 
 J Heb. = Cord, or measuring-line Zodiac. 
 Or, Heb. , compassed. \ Petroleum !
 
 THE EAGLE. 61 
 
 *' .kejoice, O ye nations with His PEOPLE, for he 
 
 will revenge the blood of his servants. 
 "And will render vengeance to his adversaryies. 
 "And will be merciful unto Ms land, and to His 
 
 PEOPLE. * 
 
 The Eagle is not a bird of carrion even when in a 
 state of absolute want. It eats raw flesh, though 
 not indifferently of all sorts, nor that of any creature 
 which dies of itself, but such only as is fresh and 
 lately killed. It does not prey upon small birds, f 
 Shakespeare says most beautifully, 
 
 " The Eagle suffers little birds to sing."J 
 
 It is a generous bird. It does not devour the whole 
 prey, unless very hungry, but leaves a part of it for 
 other birds which follow. They generally live in 
 pairs, and remain constant to each other through 
 their lives. The male and female are usually seen 
 at a short distance from each other, and seem to have 
 a mutual understanding in their hunting. It is as- 
 serted that one of the two beats the bushes while the 
 other awaits on some rock or neighboring tree, to 
 seize the startled game in its flight. It is not good 
 for man to dwell alone, nor for Manasseh to be with- 
 out his mate; he is a dual tribe, and in the sweetest 
 sense it is here that woman has, and shall increase to 
 have, the full measure of freedom and equality The 
 daughters of Manasseh share the inheritance with 
 their brethren. 
 
 * Deut. xxxii. 8-14, 43. 
 
 fThe other small and independent Republics upon our 
 Continent are safe against American aggression. 
 | Titus Andronicus, Act IV., sc. i.
 
 62 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 While the female is detained in the eyrie by the in- 
 cubation of her eggs, or by the cares required by her 
 young, the male bird hunts alone, and as it is the 
 season when game begins to abound, he easily pro- 
 vides for his own subsistence as well as for that of 
 his companion. The female bird is larger than the 
 male, and seems to possess a loftier species of courage. 
 She lays but two or three eggs every year,* and fre- 
 quently rears only a single Eagle at a time, f It is 
 believed that the Eagle rarely mates a second time, 
 but dwells alone in solitude, near the eyrie made des- 
 olate by the death of its companion. In noble traits 
 like these are not the honest home life of the true 
 republican, and the noble grandeur of the woman of 
 America clearly set forth? 
 
 The Eagle does not permit other birds of prey to 
 gain a tenure in the vicinity of its abode. Thus it 
 has its own peculiar doctrine against foreign encroach- 
 ment, and is unrelenting in its strict enforcement. J 
 
 The Eagle does not even permit its own young to 
 share the domain wherein it is already established. 
 As soon as they are able to provide for themselves, 
 the eaglets seek some other region where in equal 
 freedom they may rule. Thus westward do our sons 
 depart, and in its rugged wilds erect new eyries, 
 
 * These are about 3^" long by 2^" through, of a muddy 
 white color, and are sometimes speckled brown. 
 
 f Some maintain that the Eagle hatches its brood early in 
 March, generally the laying time. 
 
 | Compare with the principles of " the Monroe Doctrine !" 
 
 See the provisions regulating the formation of new States, 
 Sec. 3, Art. IV. Const. U. S.
 
 THE EAGLti. 63 
 
 whence in turn fresh eaglets colonize towards the 
 setting sun. 
 
 The Eagle hath a little eye but a very quick sight, 
 and discerns its prey afar off. It looks into the very 
 sun with open eyes* and rejects as unnatural such of 
 its offspring as will not or cannot do so. f It liveth very 
 long,! and dieth not say some, of sickness nor old 
 age, but of hunger, for its beak becomes at last so 
 hooked that it cannot feed. II 
 
 * ' ' But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and 
 continueth therein, he being not a. forgetful hearer, but a doer 
 of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Gen. Ep. 
 of Jas. i. 25. 
 
 f "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this 
 Union, a republican form of government." Const. 4, Art. IV. 
 
 fit is stated that in the year 1793, a person caught at the 
 Cape of Good Hope, a falcon wearing a collar of gold, upon 
 which was engraved, " This bird in 1610 belonged to James I. 
 King of England." It was consequently upwards of one hun- 
 dred and eighty years old, and still preserved its vigor (Rusch- 
 enberger). They have lived a century in captivity (App. Enc.). 
 
 Astronomers inform us that the Earth itself must suffer 
 this same fate at last. The day will come, when thoroughly 
 exhausted, each element having yielded up to man the total of 
 its energy and virtue, the whole, a darkened, blackened sphere, 
 its sun gone out, must, dead with hunger, move onward through 
 the universe! But farther onward, still, into the eras of eter- 
 nity, Astronomy informs us that this fading sphere, worn out 
 by its attrition with the very ether, food as it were itself unto 
 the universe, will have dwindled to a speck, until at last it shall 
 vanish altogether, back into that which gave it birth, and out 
 of which, with all its strength renewed, this very earth may 
 grow again more perfect than before. 
 
 I See discussion in relation to the Seal and the long life of 
 the Eagle, in Study Number Six, pp. 257-263.
 
 64 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Eagle can endure very long fast- 
 ing, especially when captivity or its maternal cares 
 force it to repose. A common Eagle, taken in a 
 snare, has been known to pass five weeks without 
 taking any aliment, nor appearing enfeebled, except 
 during the last eight days. The capacity of its crop 
 is very considerable, and this pouch may serve as a 
 reservoir of food sufficient for many days. 
 
 So with resource such as hers, America need fear 
 no famine in her borders, and should war encircle 
 her, her reservoirs are full for many days. Her beak 
 indeed may become crooked with age, but while 
 within it she retains the Open Book* she bears 
 to-day, her hunger shall be satisfied with everlasting 
 food. 
 
 It is traditionally said that the Eagle preserves its 
 nest from poison by having therein a precious stone 
 named JEtites.f Without this stone it is thought she 
 cannot lay her eggs. Hence this stone is eagerly 
 sought for, as to possess it is to be assured of safety, 
 and for a nation, of fruitfulness. Surely this 
 precious philter must be within the Eagle nest of 
 MANASSEH, whose population doubles by unparalleled 
 degrees. 
 
 "The Eagle Stone or ^Elites (Greek), Pietrad'aquila 
 
 *See Explanations of Scroll, and Motto, Phiribus Unnm. 
 
 f From aero?, Greek, an Eagle. A term used by Pliny for 
 hollow stones composed of several crusts, one within the other. 
 By Kirwan the name is used to denote those kinds of iron-ore 
 ^clay-iron stone) which are composed of a uniform or globular 
 crust of oxide investing an ochreous kernel Eagle-stone.
 
 THE EAGLE. 65 
 
 (Ital.), is fabulously supposed to be found always in 
 the Eagle's nest. It is of famous traditionary virtue, 
 chiefly as favoring labor; the Eagle being considered 
 as a prolific bird. Matthiolus relates that the Eagle 
 could not hatch its young without it, and that the 
 parent birds went even so far as the Indies in quest 
 of the ^tites. Bausch has an express Latin treatise 
 on this topic." 
 
 Of course, all this is mere superstition, in so far as 
 actual facts are concerned, but it may be far more 
 than fable in the Esoteric sense; for the Stone of 
 Empire is certainly in the Anglo-Saxon nest, and Our 
 Race is more prolific than any other upon earth. We 
 have cited sufficient statistics years ago (Study Num- 
 ber One) upon this topic, and the world admits their 
 force, which now at seven years interval, are statis- 
 tically more potent, and more promising (prophetic) 
 than ever. 
 
 "When in 1776, the thirteen North American col- 
 onies put forth that Declaration of Independence 
 which preluded the birth of a nation, the combined 
 white population inhabiting them did not exceed two 
 and a-half million souls. Yet they had the courage 
 to throw down the gage of battle to a power ' with 
 which,' in Daniel Webster's words, 'for purposes of 
 foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome, in the. 
 height of her glory, was not to be compared ; a power 
 which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe 
 with her possessions and military posts, whose morn- 
 ing drum-beat, following the sun and keeping com- 
 pany with the hours, circles the earth with one con-
 
 66 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 tinuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of 
 England.'* 
 
 "Fourteen years later, the first census of population 
 was taken in the United States, and it was found that 
 within the borders of the young nation, there were 
 not quite four millions of souls. At the expiration 
 of ten years, it appeared upon taking the second cen- 
 sus, that the population was a little more than five 
 and a quarter millions, having increased, between 
 1790 and 1800, at the rate of thirty-five per cent. In 
 1880, the tenth census of what had long been a 
 mighty people, was taken, and the total showed a 
 population of a trifle less than fifty millions.! In 
 other words, the population of the Great Republic in 
 1880, was their population in 1776 multiplied by 
 twenty. Provided the same ratio of increase should 
 be maintained for another century, the mind of man 
 would sink before the effort of imagining what it is 
 possible for the monster republic to be in 1980. It 
 can hardly be expected that the second centenary of 
 the United States will be celebrated by a thousand 
 million human beings, and yet^ such would be the 
 result of multiplying fifty millions by twenty. It is 
 certain that a century hence, no such assemblage of 
 men, speak ing the same language, and amenable to the 
 
 * An Israelitish power, undoubtedly, whose ports close not 
 day or night (Isa. Ix. n). Manasseh shares this honor in a 
 different way. The sunrises on our Eastern States much before 
 it sets on our Western coast; from Quoddy Head to Attu 
 Island is 125! The U. S. center of longitude is miles away 
 into the Pacific Ocean. 6 P.M. Eastport, Me. =9.36 A.M. at Attu. 
 
 fNow in 1897, nearer to seventy-five millions.
 
 THE EAGLE. 67 
 
 same general traditions of feeling, habit and educa- 
 tion, will ever have been gathered together upon the 
 earth, as will then probably occupy the great Western 
 Continent."* 
 
 The scream of the Eagle is rarely heard. Its clar- 
 ion note is that of Liberty awakened to defence. 
 When startled from its eyrie by the approach of those 
 who threaten to invade its sacred quietude, the Eagle 
 rises calling to its mate in harsh, alarming tones, 
 replied to never far away. 
 
 Its flight is most majestic and is accomplished with 
 easy and deliberate motions. When once aloft, and 
 in its native element, it sails along with broad 
 extended wings. According to Audubon it can then 
 ascend until it disappears from view without any 
 apparent motion, and from the greatest height 
 descend upon its quarry with a rapidity which can- 
 not be followed by the eye.f 
 
 * London Telegraph, May 12, 1880. 
 
 f We have a common slang expression in this country that 
 is founded upon fact, to wit, the one based upon the modus 
 operand! vi the Bald-headed Eagle in its attack: its dart upon 
 its quarry, and in fact that of all falcons, is aimed at the head 
 of its victim, and in the case of the Bald-headed Eagle usually 
 results in severing it at the first blow this is " snatrhing bald- 
 headed /" and from it the colloquial slang is derived. Falconry 
 is coming into vogue again both at home and in England. In 
 Vermont there are several estates that arc stocked with birds 
 for the " Falcon Season :" a very full description of them, and 
 of a recent Falcon Hunt upon Lady Beresford's Estate will be 
 found in the New Haven Register of April 25, 1897. Aquila, 
 the Flying Eagle, used to be shown upon our one-cent nickels; 
 but the ideal, to our mind, of the Eagle Swooping, is the
 
 68 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Thus liberty- once on the wing, sustains its flight 
 by means of its own buoyancy and circles on the 
 breeze at home in freedom's own free element, -and 
 thus descending from her dizzy height doth she 
 attack and vanquish every foe. 
 
 The Eagle is a very cleanly bird ; it keeps its nest 
 tidy by the frequent use of an herb called "maiden- 
 hair. " So in the eyrie on the mountains of Manasseh 
 there are herbs enough to purify and keep it cleansed 
 from foulness and corruption.* If we do not use 
 them so much the worse for the eyrie and its neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 Eagles never change their eyrie ; the one they build 
 for their first abode serves them for the remainder of 
 their lives. Nor has the Anglo-Saxon ever yet been 
 dispossessed of a single eyrie with which Our Race has 
 colonized the world. He has not lost even those that 
 he has reared upon the very "gates" of his most 
 bitter enemies, save when by generosity, as in the 
 case of Heligoland, he has relinquished them in 
 time of peace and for quasi family reasons. 
 
 In selecting their abode Eagles prefer the main 
 land. They seldom establish themselves upon nar- 
 row peninsulas, nor on islands unless they are of 
 considerable size. Their eyries are of great extent 
 
 " prow on " view of a " man-cf -war " under full speed. Between 
 an eagle bent on business and a lion under similar circum- 
 stances, there is small choice to the unwary ! 
 
 * See Const. Art. IV., Sees. 2 and 4; Art. VI. ; Amends I , 
 IV., V., State Constitutions, and numberless laws and stat- 
 utes.
 
 THE EAGLE. 69 
 
 and rest most frequently on some flat surface upon 
 the highest and most precipitous rocks. They are 
 built of pieces of wood which are often five or six feet 
 long. But while they have such rude republican 
 exterior, their interior is made soft and warm with a 
 lining of moss and fragrant leaves. The height of 
 this eyrie also increases yearly by continual accumu- 
 lation. 
 
 The feathers of the eagle are mythically said to con- 
 sume all other quills that fall beside them, and against 
 the arms of the American " branch " of the great "un- 
 conquerable " Anglo-Saxon race, what arms of mortal 
 forging shall be found to prosper?* For: 
 
 ' ' The Eternal God is his refuge, 
 
 " And underneath are the everlasting arms!" 
 
 Deut. xxxiii. 2j. 
 
 Between the Eagle and the Dragon, the great enemy 
 of man and human liberty, there is constant enmity, 
 the Eagle seeking to kill it and the dragon, or great 
 serpent, breaking all the Eagle's eggs that it can find. 
 But this warfare between Liberty and every species 
 of oppression is drawing to its close! the Eagle now 
 has his beak within the very vitals of his adversary, 
 chained forever to the rock and far below his own 
 lofty eyrie. 
 
 The Eagle moults every year, and is at such brief 
 seasons of its life extremely weak. So at the period- 
 ical elections, both of the States and of our General 
 
 * " No weapon formed against thee shall prosper," Isa. liv. 
 17. The American Indians are fond of using the tail feathers 
 of the eagle as ornaments for their persons, pipes and weapons.
 
 70 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Government we as a people are proverbially weak. 
 These periods are always ones of public depression, 
 anxiety and danger but they are also our greatest 
 national safeguards since by them alone our future 
 progress is assured. Thus America, like her Eagle 
 guardian, with youth renewed, soon finds her way in 
 the air again as wonderful as ever.* 
 
 Who cannot see in all these traits and truths and 
 in these facts and fables, deep meaning for Ameri- 
 cans! Each one of them conceals a blessing or a 
 warning in disguise, and knowing them is to be fore- 
 armed against such evils as they bode.f 
 
 The American or "Bald-headed " EagleJ is a native 
 to this continent. It is of a uniform deep brown color 
 with white head and tail, its beak is a deep yellow. 
 His color in the early years of life is somewhat light 
 and striped, but after his maturity is fully assured by 
 two or three periods of moulting, his coat acquires 
 its settled hue, which is a compact, imbricated and 
 glossy brown. 
 
 * Prov. xxx. 19. 
 
 f For instance, as the Eagle often lives in what is almost 
 "a rookery," so we have suffered many harpies to feather 
 their nests in our preserves: while it behooves us then, in mat- 
 ters of Statecraft, to let them fish for themselves, it is safe to 
 feed the State first and therefore to secure the first fruits of 
 their prowess and give them the scraps Moral: Foreign (alien) 
 "politicians" are to be watched! /' e. , non-Americans, whether 
 by Birth or by Bent! 
 
 \ Falco Lucocephalns; also called Halicetus Leucocepha- 
 lus (Appleton). Its height is about three feet. The extent of 
 its wings seven feet more or less. It is very generally distrib- 
 uted over the North American Continent.
 
 THE EAGLE. 71 
 
 The unrivalled King of the Air, he is a worthy rep- 
 resentative of the genius of American liberty.* Self- 
 reliant, he needs of heraldry no supporters. Accus- 
 tomed to bear the young upon its wings, and willing 
 to die for them if needs be, he protects himself 
 against the only shaft that threatens to be fatal 
 one fledged with its own moulted feathers by wearing 
 on its breast an escutcheon charged with principles 
 that are invulnerable. 
 
 " So in the Libyan fable it is told 
 That once an Eagle, stricken with a dart, 
 Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, 
 ' With our own feathers, not by others hands 
 Are we now smitten." " 
 ^SCHUYLUS. Fragment 123, Plumptre's Trans. 
 
 * The flight of the Bald-headed Eagle is the swiftest of the 
 family of Aquilinie.
 
 72 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 " So the struck Eagle, stretched upon the plain, 
 No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
 Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, 
 And winged the shaft, that quivered in his heart." 
 BYRON. English Bards and Scotch Reviewers* line 826. 
 
 " Like a young Eagle, who has lent his plume 
 To fledge the. shaft by which he meets his doom ; 
 See their own feathers -pluck' d to wing the dart 
 Which rank corruption destines for their heart." 
 
 THOMAS MOORE, Corruption. 
 
 The Eagle is a glowing emblem of the same Divine 
 Providence* that in so many signal instances pros- 
 pered our undertakings, and as such he is with ad- 
 ditional propriety given the chief place upon our 
 "Coat of Arms."f 
 
 . Thus both the Obverse and the Reverse of our 
 Great Seal are symmetrically balanced in that each is 
 charged and to the same degree with bearings that 
 acknowledge ' ' the one who compassed us about and 
 .so secured our freedom/' 
 
 The Eagle is an Magle till he meets his doom ! 
 
 '' His dying eyes still gaze upon the sun." 
 
 No more than can the leopard change his spots, can he 
 help soaring at the orb of day, and thus ever shall 
 Manasseh, "the great people," whom he represents, 
 look at the Light, forever peer still deeper, and be- 
 yond, into " the perfect Law of Liberty." 
 
 * See Jewels of Commandery, Masonic Trestle-boards, etc. 
 Mythology of the Ancients, Brande's Encyclopedia of Science 
 Literature and Art, etc. 
 
 f Deut. xxxiii. 26-29.
 
 THE EAGLE. 73 
 
 As already noted, the Eagle in our Heraldry stands 
 for "the people," but this being in their executive 
 capacity, it represents the President who confirms the 
 acts of Congress (The Escutcheon) and is the spokes- 
 man of the nation. 
 
 An interesting account of the famous "Storm 
 King " brood of American Eagles appeared in the 
 Vernal Equinoctial Edition of the New York Times 
 this year (1897), from which we excerpt the following. 
 We presume, that, while cadets at West Point, we 
 have often seen members of this famous flock soar- 
 ing above the eyrie where the selected sons of Manas- 
 seh are taught to value what the Eagle, as an em- 
 blem, represents. 
 
 " The famous Storm King brood have had their 
 eyrie in the fastnesses of the Highlands probably for 
 hundreds of years before Hendrik Hudson sailed up 
 the river in his good ship, the Half Moon. They 
 are generally seen in pairs, with hardly ever more 
 than half a dozen together. 
 
 " vStorm King Mountain has been so famed as a 
 breeding place for Eagles that it is sometimes called 
 " Eagles' Nest." The great birds build their nests 
 far up on the unscalable cliffs, out of the way of 
 marauders, either in the shape of man or animals. 
 The wilder and more inaccessible the shelf of rock 
 the more likely it is to contain a nest of Eaglets. 
 Sometimes the nest will be found in some mighty 
 tree, but never in one that is alive, always in one 
 that is dead and fire-scarred (safe!) 
 
 ' ' The law in New York protects the Eagle, and few
 
 74 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 are killed unless they are found marauding, when 
 the law permits them to be killed. There is no law 
 which prevents or forbids their capture alive, yet sel- 
 dom does the hunter venture after them among the 
 Hudson Highlands. The sport is too dangerous, 
 even though a young Eaglet will bring from $40 to 
 $75, and an adult bird several hundred dollars. 
 Sometimes a young Eagle strays from the fastnesses 
 of the mountains and is caught. If treated kindly, 
 it becomes domesticated, and although it always re- 
 tains its propensity to bite with its powerful beak, 
 and strike with its terrible talons, it becomes so at- 
 tached to its master that even when set at liberty, 
 and though it may absent itself for hours, and even 
 days, mating with its own kind, it invariably returns 
 when hungry. A tame Eagle develops none of the 
 thievish traits so common in a tame crow, nor does 
 it become a nuisance to the entire neighborhood, as 
 the crow invariably does. 
 
 . "The Eagles of Storm King have, in a great de- 
 gree, lost their fear of man, if they ever had any. 
 During the shad-fishing season they will approach 
 within a few feet of the fishermen when they are 
 hauling their nets, and are invariably rewarded with 
 a nice, plump fish. When the fishermen are clean- 
 ing fish on shore they will often approach the clean- 
 ing platform and help themselves to the offal that 
 comes from the fish prepared for salting and smok- 
 ing. They have been known to alight on the out- 
 riggers of a fisherman's skiff and become interested 
 observers of the process of hauling a drift net. A
 
 THE EAGLE. 75 
 
 shad handed to the observant bird on the end of a 
 net pole is always appreciated and taken, after which 
 the grateful bird, after a few flutters of the wings, 
 evidently its way of giving thanks, soars away into 
 the fastnesses of the hills, to devour its quarry in 
 solitude or to satisfy the hunger of its voracious pair 
 of eaglets. The shad fishermen are great friends of 
 the Eagles, and would not harm one. 
 
 "The best time to see the Eagles of Storm King 
 Mountain is in the early morning. At the first break 
 of day they are astir, and can be seen on the tongues 
 of rock which jut out into the river at many points 
 of the Highlands, splashing and playing in the water. 
 This can be seen every morning, except when the 
 ice covers the river, and then the great birds seek 
 some air hole, where they perform their ablutions. 
 The water is never too cold for them to wash in. 
 It is a strange trait of this bird that when at liberty 
 it is clean to a nicety, but when kept in captivity in 
 a cage or rack it becomes careless and filthy. The 
 first rays of the morning sun are greeted by the birds 
 with screams and demonstrations of joy. Gathering 
 their powerful pinions underneath them, they mount 
 thousands of feet into the air, screaming with delight 
 and heading straight into the rays of the blazing sun. 
 
 " There is one old Eagle in the Storm King flock 
 which the fishermen have named Harvey Birch, after 
 the hero of J. Fenimore Cooper's tale 'The Spy.' 
 It is claimed that this old Eagle, a male, has been 
 known in the Highlands for nearly, if not quite, a 
 century He is known from a peculiar droop in one
 
 ^6 THE SEAL OP HISTORY. 
 
 of his wings and his habit of flying sideways, and 
 the further fact that he is hoary with age. The bird 
 is supposed to have been shot by woodchoppers many 
 years ago, and to have escaped. He was named 
 Harvey Birch because of his having been seen at in- 
 tervals on the particular mountain near Garrisons* 
 where Enoch Crosby, alias Harvey Birch, the patriot 
 spy of the Revolution, had his cave, and where he 
 used to meet and confer with Washington. That the 
 name was given because there was an analogy be- 
 tween Harvey Birch and the old Eagle the parties 
 who named him do not seem to have thought of, yet 
 it is doubtful if there was ever a man more eagle- 
 eyed and cautious than was Enoch Crosby. 
 
 " Occasionally a deserted Eagle's nest is found by 
 venturesome mountain climbers in the Highlands. 
 They are always large and roomy, built of a super- 
 structure of sticks laid as nearly level as possible, and 
 bound together into a mat by a stray rope yarn, oakum, 
 or the tendrils and long roots of climbing plants. The 
 inside, which is nearly round, is then built up of turf 
 and grasses, and plastered with mud, so that no air 
 can penetrate it. It is then lined with soft material, 
 such as mosses, old rags, or anything of the sort that 
 comes handy to the parent bird, so that the young 
 eaglets will be kept warm. The female bird lays 
 but two eggs, red brown in color, with numerous 
 spots of darker color on the shell. They are odd in 
 shape, being more like a boy's peg-top than anything 
 else, the small end being almost pointed. The 
 
 *Just opposite West Point.
 
 THE EAGLE. 77 
 
 young birds, soon after they are hatched, are left to 
 shift for themselves, learning to fly and seek their 
 food without any help from the parent bird. The 
 nest is destroyed probably because, when the young 
 birds are feathered, the old mother bird thinks 
 they are old enough to shift for themselves. Only 
 when her young are stolen or die before they are old 
 enough to take care of themselves does the old bird 
 abandon the nest without destroying it. "* 
 
 The Eagle is a Fisher, by nature, not necessarily of 
 men, but the type thereof. 
 
 "The mainstay of the Eagles on Storm King is 
 fish which is their regular diet, and when they can- 
 not find an osprey or kingfisher to rob of their prey, 
 the Eagles will sometimes fish for themselves. They 
 largely depend, however, on the prey of the fish- 
 hawk, and wherever one sees an osprey circling in 
 the air he may look out for an Eagle the instant the 
 fishhawk dashes into the water. The moment he 
 rises with his catch the Eagle will swoop underneath 
 and chase the hawk upward until the frightened bird 
 drops his fish, which the Eagle catches before it falls 
 back into its native element. It is only after the 
 Eagle has been satiated that the hawk is allowed to 
 enjoy a meal in peace. f 
 
 * Only the superstructure is destroyed, the foundations con- 
 tinue the Eagle merely cleans house, as when a new legislature 
 or election is in order. It is her way of proroguing Parliament 
 and clearing the benches for an airing before the new arrivals. 
 
 f This is the type of a principle of self protection that it were 
 well to put into practical politics!
 
 78 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 " The Eagle, however, is not averse to astray rat, a 
 cat, a chicken, duck, or other poultry, or occasionally 
 a sucking lambkin. They have even been known to 
 help themselves to a young calf. They are natural 
 robbers, and will as freely rob a chicken hawk as 
 they do the fishhawk. In picking up random prey, 
 however, the Eagle does not always have his own 
 way. A few days ago an Eagle near Garrisons pick- 
 ed up a stray tomcat in the fields, and before he got 
 vary high in the air he discovered that he had made 
 a mistake, as Tom was tearing his very vitals out. 
 The cat began to fight as soon as his astonishment at 
 being picked up so unceremoniously was over, and 
 he bit the Eagle so badly in the neck and throat that 
 the bird tried to drop him. But Tom held on, and 
 with the feathers flying in every direction the Eagle 
 screamed with fear and pain. The fight waxed hot. 
 until the Eagle flew to the ground, when he dropped 
 the cat. Tom scampered away, and the bird, with 
 labored flight, disappeared into the mountains. 
 
 "These Eagles begin to breed in the month of 
 March, and by the middle of May or the early part 
 of June their young are ready to shift for themselves." 
 
 By July 4th they are free ! 
 
 "It is said that Eagles never mate with more than 
 one bird, and if one of a pair of Eagles dies or is 
 killed the other becomes a hermit bird and excessively 
 fierce and rapacious. 
 
 "There is no bird among the Storm King brood 
 but would give the best man in the county a 
 hard fight if put to the test. It has been many years
 
 THE EAGLE. 79 
 
 since there has been any report of their attacking "a. 
 man in that neighborhood. Food is plentiful, and 
 the constant stream of life flowing up and down the 
 river seems to have accustomed the great birds to 
 the sight of man, so that they do not recognize in 
 him an enemy." 
 
 Finally Ben Johnson says "The Eagle challengeth 
 the first place, not that it is the best dish at table, 
 for no one will eat it, but because it is the king of 
 birds." He is the Lion of the sky, the twain are 
 invincible in their own elements. "Pindar the Gre- 
 cian poet and naturalist, speaks of the great Eagle 
 as the chief magistrate of the birds."* 
 
 The great cataract of Niagara was once a favorite 
 resort for this bird, but as food has become scarce 
 and civilization encroached upon its domain it has 
 almost disappeared from the vicinity. In the Alps, 
 in Norway, and even in Ireland, children of four or 
 five years of age have been taken away by the bird, 
 so strong is it and fearless of man himself when 
 reduced to want. This is a species of the Imperial 
 Eagle, a specimen of which was discovered in Amer- 
 ica by M. Audubon and named the Washington 
 Eagle. It is the largest Eagle known except the 
 Imperial of Asiatic stock from whence it is believed 
 to have sprung. We all came from the East, for the 
 Lion, too, is from Arcadia. f 
 
 * Hence it represents the Executive. 
 
 \ As the Lion, therefore, is the King of Beasts he is equal 
 to the task of subduing those of the old world, and as the Eagle 
 is the King of the air he can handle the affairs of this continent
 
 8o THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 We have already pointed out Manasseh's heraldic 
 right to the Eagle which forms a part of his own 
 name (Study Number Eighteen, p. 290) ; this is Lyra, 
 and Nasr Althair, Aquila, "the flying" rather than 
 "the wounded Eagle." The emblem formed a con- 
 spicuous part on Roman standards, and has lately been 
 adopted, instead of the spear-head, on our own army 
 standards : Its wings folded in confidence of victory. 
 
 As the Eagle is the Lectern of Truth, that of 
 America beareth at all points; his beak, his breast, 
 his talons twain are fully occupied, and his wings are 
 used to service. 
 
 THE FIELD. 
 
 The Blue Field of the entire Obverse face of the 
 Seal stands for Justice and represents the third equal 
 element in our national polity, the Judicial Depart- 
 ment. It is the field of the entire symbology. Con- 
 gress (the shield) borne on the eagle's (executive) breast 
 floats in it, and the Crest, a representative of all three 
 reflects the same idea upon the same Blue Field. 
 
 It is to be noticed here that the Obverse face bears 
 two distinct emblems, the Arms, and their synonym 
 the Crest. The background ought to be wholly blue: 
 in the final analysis the Eagle, no less than its repre- 
 sentative Crest, is "in the clear." 
 
 without assistance. In other words there are two sides to the 
 Great Seal of the Earth and we can take care of our own side, 
 and mean to do so. However the principle of arbitration, in 
 spite of Senates will harmonize this matter in its day; so we 
 may work on in confidence.
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 
 
 " And first a SHIELD he fashioned vast and strong with rich 
 adornments * * * Threefold bright gleaming." Iliad. 
 xviii. 539. 
 
 swor ds we draw, 
 Tempered by mercy, spare, but never yield, 
 ' UNION,' our watchword, God HIMSELF our Shield." 
 
 ' ' Who is like unto thee O PEOPLE saved by the Lord the 
 SHIELD of thy help." Deut. xxxiii. 29. 
 
 No one can read the celebrated passage from the 
 i8th book of the " Iliad," in which Homer describes 
 the Shield of Achilles, without becoming struck with 
 its fullness of detail, when compared with the other 
 parts of that warrior's armor. Made by Vulcan, 
 that master of the forge seems to have exhausted 
 every element of correspondence and symbology upon 
 it to give it moral force, as well as to have wrought 
 for him a marvel of secure defense. "With lavish 
 hand he scattered over its entire surface the wonders 
 of his admirable art. He represented the earth, the 
 sky, the sea, the never weary sun, the moon at her 
 full; the constellations also, which crown the heavens, 
 the Pleiades, the Hyades, the bold Orion, and the 
 Bear, too, called by men the Wain, which revolves 
 ever in the same regions of space, looking towards 
 Orion, and at no time has any share in the baths of
 
 82 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 the ocean. " This sounds like a paraphrase of Job, 
 and came thence, we presume, to Homer in Dan's 
 own traditions. 
 
 Thus from the earliest times the Shield has been 
 the most honored of defensive arms. In modern 
 times, though its distinctive use has all but passed 
 away,* its deep significance has continued to remain 
 among all peoples as the emblem of supreme protec- 
 tion. In some form or other, upon the Shield have 
 the pioneers of every race placed their last depen- 
 dence, and with the emblems they were wont to put 
 thereon, for its embellishment, have they wedded it 
 to the root-ideas of every language. The richness 
 of the Scriptures would be sorely robbed were its 
 glowing similes withdrawn, and following the grand 
 old Saxon Race through all its wanderings, blazoned 
 with devices that link its origin to the noblest stock 
 on earth, the veneration for the Shield charged with 
 some lofty Hebrew bearing has done as much to in- 
 spire the race with fearlessness, as have the weapons 
 in its hand of might. 
 
 The Escutcheon of America is her glorious Consti- 
 tution, for that is Manasseh's full defense upon the 
 ground plane of his temporal polity, but the real 
 Shield of Manasseh is the Lord of Hosts. 
 
 We have already discussed its probable source in 
 our Heraldry. Sir John Prestwick may have sug- 
 gested it to Mr. Adams, and he to Secretary Thom- 
 son. There is plenty of circumstantial evidence to 
 
 * Rather broadened and intensified in the forts, iron clads, 
 turrets, pits, battle shields to machine guns, etc.
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 
 
 show that he did so, and some direct testimony (Boil" 
 dmot's) that this was the case. But the suggestion 
 cannot be traced directly back of Mr. Thomson's 
 own design, in so far as the mere emplacement of the 
 Shield upon the breast of the Eagle is concerned, nor 
 its proper and accepted charging to anyone but Mr. 
 Barton, unless we appeal to that archaic origin of 
 all the perfected ideas, which appears upon the Flag 
 of the Washington Life Guard. 
 
 WASHINGTON'S SEAL. 
 
 Now we accept as probable the remote connection 
 between the Flag of our country and the Arms of 
 George Washington, and have already discussed their 
 bearing by association of ideas upon the topic now 
 
 FLAG OK GEORGE WASHINGTON'S LIFE-GUARD.
 
 84 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 in hand (Vol. I., Study Number Eighteen, pp. 30-37). 
 It has been shown in that volume that the indirect 
 suggestion to place the Escutcheon upon the breast of 
 the Eagle may perhaps be traced to the brave little 
 secondary supporter shown upon the Flag of Washing- 
 ton's Body-Guard. 
 
 Our Flag and the Escutcheon cannot fail to bring 
 the Father of Our Country to the minds of those who 
 are posted in the history of all the matters with which 
 we are concerned in this discussion. In Washington's 
 Arms the Stars (5 -pointed), and Bars (gules) are sim- 
 ilar, but in ours their number is varied for obvious 
 reasons, and it is noticeable in this connection that the 
 stars shown upon the Washington Coppers are 5- 
 pointed. Subsquently to their issue (1783-1792) and 
 down to the latest issue of our silver coinage the mint 
 has persisted in using the six-pointed star, but upon 
 the Obverse face of this present issue, which is loaded 
 with references to the number 13, we are glad to see 
 that the 5 -pointed star reappears in its appropriate 
 place and in a scattered Constellation. 
 
 UNITED STATES BAR CENT. 
 
 In the United States Bar Cent made in England in
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 85 
 
 1785 and sent to New York for circulation, the mon- 
 ogram U.S.A. appears upon the Obverse, and the 13 
 separate Bars occupy the entire field of the Reverse, 
 which is not thereby to be regarded as cut up into 25 
 strips. The Shield entire appears as we have already 
 seen upon the New Jersey cent (Vol. I., page 249) 
 
 MARYLAND SILVER COIN. 
 
 It is not inappropriate to invite attention to the 
 alternate paleways, and chevron per paleway, shown 
 upon the Maryland silver coins as early as 1670-1773. 
 
 UNITED STATES SILVER THREE-CENT PIECE. 
 
 Upon the little silver three-cent piece (1851-1873) 
 the Escutcheon is shown, and since the discontinu- 
 ance of that piece of coinage it has reappeared upon 
 the old style "Nickel," or Five-cent piece.
 
 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Barton's own explanation of the Shield is as follows: 
 "The Escutcheon is composed of chief and pale, the 
 two most honorable ordinaries. The thirteen pieces 
 paly represent the several States of the Union, all 
 joined in one solid compact, entire, supporting a chief, 
 which unites the whole' and represents Congress. 
 
 * * The pales in the arms are kept closely united 
 by the chief, and the latter depends on that imion, 
 and the strength resulting from it, for its support, 
 to denote the Confederacy of the United States, and 
 the preservation of their union through Congress. * 
 
 * * The Escutcheon is borne on the breast of an 
 American Eagle, without any other supporter, to de- 
 note that the United States of America ought to rely 
 on their own virtue."
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 87 
 
 In its proper coloring this Escutcheon is beautifully 
 symbolic of our Flag, * save that its new constellation 
 is lifted from the union or chief to the loftier, bluer 
 vault above to form more fittingly our Crest. 
 
 In Scripture God is often called the Shield of his 
 people. "/ am thy Shield" He says to Abraham 
 (Gen. xv. i), " I will protect and defend thee." The 
 Psalmist says: " Thou Lord wilt bless the righteous; 
 with favor wilt thou compass him as with a Shield (Psa. 
 v. 12); At least sixteen times! the Lord is called the 
 SJiield of his chosen people. It is this Shield only that 
 in the deeper, more interior sense, the self reliant 
 Eagle needs to guard its offspring. It is this the 
 Shield of Faith, J that maketh the way of the Eagle in 
 the air so wonderful. " 
 
 An Ordinary, in heraldry, is a portion of the Es- 
 cutcheon comprised between straight and other lines. 
 It is the simplest species of charge, and many of the 
 most ancient escutcheons known contain no other 
 bearing. Primary among the nine honorable ordi- 
 naries stand the chief, and the pale or upright bar. 
 These ordinaries are in their heraldic order as fol- 
 lows: chief, pale, bend, bend sinister, fess, bar, 
 saltier, chevron and cross. 
 
 * For all the beauty and the symbolism of this" the flower 
 flag of land and sea" we can only refer to the grand work of 
 Adm. Geo. H. Preble, "The Flag of the United States, ' 1882 
 Order through Our Race Publishing Co., Price, $5.00. 
 
 fDeut. xxxiii. 29; Psa. iii. 3, xxviii. 7, cxix. 114, cxliv. 2 
 xviii. 35, v. 12; xxxin. 20, lix. n. Ixxxiv. 9, it, etc., etc. 
 
 \ Eph. vi. 1 6. 
 
 jj-Prov. xxx. 19.
 
 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 The general method of charging a Shield such as 
 ours, in heraldry, is to suppose the whole Shield to 
 be first emblazoned argent below the chief, and then 
 the six pales, gules, to be blazoned thereon, so as to 
 equally divide the whole body of the Escutcheon 
 among them all. In heraldic phraseology this would 
 be indicated as, "ARMS: argent, six pallets gules; a 
 chief azure:" But as the pales upon the American 
 Escutcheon represent the thirteen original States, each 
 must enter the Escutcheon equally and not be bla- 
 zoned as upon any other tincture. Hence the statute 
 reads correctly as follows : "ARMS; paleways of thir- 
 teen pieces argent and gules; a chief azure." This 
 implies that they are to be blazoned alternately, first 
 argent then gules, and so on to the end from dexter 
 to sinister a method which, while the result (seven 
 argent and six gules) is the same, has a very much 
 deeper heraldic signification of equality. 
 
 \ 
 
 HfrN 
 
 Thus, upon the American Shield there are thirteen 
 paleways, alternately white and red : from dexter to
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 89 
 
 sinister numbers i, 3, 5, 7, 9 , n, 13 are argent; 
 numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 gules. These bars in 
 the order of their coming into the Confederacy may 
 therefore be assigned to the several States as follows : 
 i New Hampshire, 2 Massachusetts Bay, 3 Rhode 
 Island and Providence Plantations, 4 Connecticut, 
 5 New York, 6 New Jersey, 7 Pennsylvania, 8 Dela- 
 ware, 9 Maryland, 10 Virginia, n North Carolina, 
 12 South Carolina, 13 Georgia. It is to be noticed 
 that this is the order in which the delegates signed 
 the original " Articles of Confederation," and is the 
 geographical order of the colonies from north to 
 south. This is also the order in which "the unani- 
 mous Declaration of Independence " was signed by 
 the delegates of the several colonies ; so, too, it is the 
 order in which, at the close of the Revolution, that 
 Independence was acknowledged by their former 
 Sovereign, King George. In Article I of the Defini- 
 tive Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, made "In 
 the name of the Holy Trinity," the thirteen(i3) orig- 
 inal colonies, severally enumerated in this same geo- 
 graphical order, are acknowledged to be Free and 
 Independent States. 
 
 Following this order, the above States have alter- 
 nately a white or red pale. In it, Pennsylvania, the 
 " Key-Stone State," occupies the honor-fess, nombril, 
 or middle-base points. By groups, the States 
 charge the Shield as follows: Dexter, the New Eng- 
 land States; Centre or honor-fess (or nombril and 
 middle-base points), the Middle States (including 
 Maryland). Sinister, the Southern States. They all
 
 90 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 enter the Escutcheon to the same degree, and form 
 an equal support to the chief above.* 
 
 It will be observed that the greater part of the 
 names attributed to the " points" of the escutcheon 
 in heraldry, are taken from those parts of the human 
 body which the Shield was intended to protect and 
 which it still figuratively represents.! Thus the 
 whole of the " chief," representing Congress, and our 
 Union therein, occupies the three upper, /. e., the 
 dexter, middle and sinister chief (Fr. chef, or head] 
 points. One-third of the escutcheon should be 
 assigned to the Head or chief points, the remaining 
 two-thirds being distributed between the paleways, 
 thus giving to each State -j\ths of the Escutcheon, or 
 a little more than . 05 of the whole. These measures 
 are based upon the square out of which the Shield 
 
 * A chief, is a Fess removed from the head point to that of 
 the head, and is held to be one of the most honorable augmen- 
 tations of heraldry. In forming such a charge as that upon the 
 American Escutcheon each State pale has yielded an equal 
 amount of itself (^ 5 ) and then supports the union (%) thus 
 resulting. 
 
 f The order in which the original 13 States severally came 
 under the present, or Constitutional government, is as follows: 
 i Del., 2 Penn., 3 N. J., 4 Ga., 5 Conn., 6 Mass., 7 Md., 8 S. 
 Car., 9 N. H., 10 Vir., n N. Y., 12 N. Car., 13 R. I.; but as 
 the seal was already then adopted, and had received its import 
 under the confederation, and its use was merely acknowledged, 
 and afterwards ratified under the constitution, this order does 
 not at all appear to be the proper one according to which the 
 pallets and tinctures should be assigned. Moreover unlike the 
 Declaration, Confederation, and Treaty, the Constitution is not 
 a signed but merely a ratified compact.
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 91 
 
 itself is supposed to be shaped after the union of its 
 parts or pales has been effected ; the form of the 
 Shield somewhat modifies the proportions which are 
 more accurate as the Shield approaches the square 
 form. 
 
 It is to be noticed that the colorings of the stripes 
 on the flag, and of the paleways on the Shield, are 
 directly the reverse of each other. In the former, 
 the alternate striping, of red and white, commences 
 and ends with reJ, so that there are seven red and six 
 white stripes; in the latter the tinctures commence 
 and end with argent, and thus there are seven argent 
 (white) and six gules (red) pallets. This interchange 
 of colors between the two is very significant. The 
 assignment of the stripes upon the Flag to the original 
 States naturally follows exactly the same order, from 
 top to bottom, as the assignment we have already 
 determined for the pallets from dexter to sinister, 
 upon the Escutcheon. But from this it also follows 
 that whatever of the emblematical there may be in 
 these colors, red and white, it is all, when we take 
 the two regalia into mutual consideration, assigned to 
 each State alike. 
 
 The Genius of American Liberty goes forth 
 among the nations, not only clothed in the national 
 "Coat of Arms," and "Crested" with its radiant 
 Constellation, but bearing in her hand the Flag 
 beneath whose folds she reaps the victories of peace 
 and war. Valor predominates on her Ensign, while 
 innocence is there to show the nature of her cause. 
 Purity weighs heaviest upon her Shield, to show the
 
 92 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 nature of her institutions, but blended well with har- 
 diness, by which her progress is assured. On both 
 the blue of vigilance, of perseverance and of justice, 
 weigh alike, and prove that in the union of her states 
 each one is brave and innocent, and all are pure and 
 resolute in the pursuit of that of which the price is 
 said to be "eternal vigilance," hence the blue vault 
 itself which is the background of the whole Obverse 
 device is an emblem of Supreme Justice. God is no 
 respecter of persons "All men are born free and 
 equal " this principle is being demonstrated in our 
 land by a slow but sure process. The Field then re- 
 presents the Supreme Court, which is the third ele- 
 ment in our Republican form of government. It 
 must not be forgotten that our Polity is based upon 
 a Trinity in Unity; Executive, Legislative, and Ju- 
 dicial, all independent of each other, and that when 
 these agree the word altereth not. 
 
 THE NUMBER THIRTEEN. 
 
 But the full discussion of the Escutcheon intro- 
 duces an important topic to our consideration, to wit: 
 that of Arithmography or number writing The 
 number 13 is made intentionally prominent by its 
 paleways and the number is one of vast significance 
 to us as the children of Manasseh. 
 
 We are told by Shakespeare that " There is divin- 
 ity in odd numbers;" Virgil long before had divined 
 "That the gods love uneven numbers;" Lover 
 puts it into the well-known verse, " There is luck in
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 93 
 
 odd numbers," and Stephens into the statement 
 that " The best preservatives are odd numbers." 
 
 Be these things as they may, and noting in admis- 
 sion that all things are numbered and that the lowest 
 terms of a quantity are expressed by its root, or 
 prime (all but one necessarily odd) factors, we shall 
 readily perceive that Manasseh's tribal number, ^3, 
 is one of special strength. It is the second of the 
 doubly odd numbers n, 13, 17, etc., and is a heaping 
 full or "bakers' dozen;" u, the first of the doubly 
 odd numbers being a scant measure, although a 
 number that is not without its own special signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 As a matter of fact there is but one even prime- 
 number (2); and as the resolution of a number 
 into its prime factors is necessary in order to obtain 
 a conception of its degree of odd-ness, and of its 
 arithmographic import, it has always been the des- 
 ideratum of mathematicians to obtain a simple rule 
 for determining whether a any number is prime or 
 not. No direct test to which any number under 
 consideration may be subjected in order to find out 
 at once whether it is prime or not has yet been dis- 
 covered; the investigation is a tentative one in each 
 particular case and is performed by resorting first to 
 inspection based upon some of the simpler proper- 
 ties of numbers, and thereafter to actual trial. 
 
 For instance all even numbers are divisible by 2; 
 they end in 2, 4, 6, 8, or o. Triple numbers may be 
 divided by 3; the sum of the digits of such numbers 
 being also divisible by 3 they are easily detected, for
 
 94 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 instance 255 is divisible by 3, because 2 + 5 + 5=12 is 
 divisible by 3. All pentagonal numbers are divisible 
 by 5 ; they end in 5, or o. This is as far as the mere 
 inspection of a number need be carried, for, of 
 course, the non-divisibility of a number by 2, 3, or 
 5, throws out all of the multiples of these numbers. 
 The first step now to be taken is to extract the square 
 root of the number itself to determine the limit. If 
 the root is perfect we have obtained a clue to the 
 factors ; if not, we have discovered their limit. The 
 next step is to try division by each of the odd num- 
 bers between 5 and the limit thus discovered. If 
 none of these prime numbers will divide the given 
 number without a remainder we may regard it as 
 prime itself, i. e., indivisible save by itself and one. 
 As a practical test of the foregoing rule, take the 
 number 4027: Query, is it prime or not, and, if 
 composite, what are its factors? (a) It is not even 
 and therefore is not divisible by 2, (b) the sum of its 
 digits is not triple, hence the number is not a multi- 
 ple of 3; (c) nor is it a pentalphate number, for it does 
 not end in 5, nor in o, hence it is indivisible by 5. 
 4027(63. Extracting, therefore, its square root we 
 find it to be more than 63 and less than 
 123) 427 64. Hence it is not an even square, and 
 ^9 63 is the limit of any tentative process. 
 58 The only odd numbers between 5 and 63 
 (which are not multiples of 2, 3, or 5) are 7, n, 13, 
 
 17, 19, 23, 29, 3i, 37, 4i, 43, 47, 53, 59 and 6l (de- 
 termined by inspection)* and as upon trial none of 
 them will divide the given number without a re- 
 * 49 = 7X7 omitted.
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 95 
 
 rnainder, it is prime. The nearest composite short of 
 4027 is 366x11 = 66x61=4026, and the nearest 
 composite above 4027 is 76x53 = 4028. These two 
 numbers with their multiples are the cog-nates of 
 4027*. 
 
 With these preliminary remarks as to the method 
 of seeking the prime factors of a number let us pro- 
 ceed to a consideration of the great Manassite prime 
 number 13, which appears first in order of mention 
 in the Statute of June 20, 1782, in reference to the 
 number of paleways on the Escutcheon, the number 
 being mentioned again in two other places in the 
 Statute, or three times in all. 
 
 In the first place let it be admitted that the number 
 13 is stamped upon our Heraldry merely because our 
 Revolutionary forefathers wished to symbolize the 
 number of the Colonies that united in disuniting 
 from Ephraim, but let it not be forgotten that it is 
 stamped thereon thirteen times more significantly than 
 even they intended because they wrought wiser than 
 they knew, all of which may be in keeping with the 
 plain fulfillment of prophecy. 
 
 As the engraver must employ horizontal lines to 
 represent the Azure Chief of the Shield, and verti- 
 cal ones to show the color of the six red or Gules 
 Paleways, it will be seen at once that he can accom- 
 plish his object in the simplest way by resorting to 
 multiples of 13. Thus the 13 paleways of the Es- 
 
 *As a fact 4027 is the 558th prime number in the natural 
 series, and has already been discussed for its phenomenal pe- 
 culiarities on pages 182-3 Study Number Fourteen (q. v.)
 
 9^ THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 cutcheon can be shown with 26, or 2x13 vertical 
 lines, and the Chief by 13 horizontal ones or bars. 
 The very colors therefore, are in harmony with the 
 necessities of Heraldic engraving, and are in full 
 cord with an escutcheon consisting of the partici^ar 
 two "ordinaries," chief and pale; all of these hur- 
 monies are wonderful. 
 
 \ 
 
 ELEMENTS OF THE ESCUTCHEON. 
 
 Now as the Escutcheon represents primarily the 
 People of "the United States in Congress assem- 
 bled, " the paleways represent the several States and 
 the Chief Congress itself; thus the elementary analysis 
 by i3's is appropriate even in the solid blue Chief. 
 But in the secondary sense this dual Shield of Manas- 
 seh's dual Tribe is significant of the dual Houses 
 whereby it formulates its Legislative acts, to wit:
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 97 
 
 the Blue Chief is the Senate, while the Paleways 
 stand for the House of Representatives, the former 
 speaking as it were in one voice for the nation as of 
 States, and the latter by the majority (6+1, +6=13) 
 for the usual two great parties into which the People 
 of a Republic find their States popularly arranged. 
 Nevertheless the compactness of the whole gives but 
 one harmonious result in which the minority, how- 
 ever, is always sure of a fair consideration. This 
 even obtains in the Senate itself, wherein each State 
 has two Senators that is, the representation therein 
 is intentionally dual, as though for a dual tribe, which 
 is an essential in Manasseh. But to return to the 
 national number. 
 
 Superstition concerning the number 13 has given 
 it the name of "the feared number," although this 
 is without any adequate reason. It has been sup- 
 posed that there was a fatality connected with the 
 number 13, and that it arose from the fact that the 
 calculated chances of death among 13 different people 
 of various ages were about even in a year; practi- 
 cally the ratio is very much higher, and there have 
 been a number of societies or " i3-clubs," that have 
 fully disproved the reliability of the average ; one of 
 them by a thirty-fourth annual dinner with ranks 
 unbroken. Many have attributed the superstition to 
 the number that sat down at the Last Supper with 
 the Lord, He and the twelve disciples making 13, 
 and He himself leaving the table to suffer, while 
 Judas left it to betray. But it is by no means cer- 
 tain (though probable) that the apostles only were
 
 98 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 present thereat. There were never less than 10 nor 
 more than 20 per lamb at a regular Passover sup- 
 per but that Last Supper was eaten on the eve 
 of the Preparation day and "not on the Feast day." 
 In Jewish circles the number 13 is in traditional 
 and high repute, and so it is in broader Israelitish 
 history. For instance, when Jacob blessed the sons 
 of Joseph he did not hesitate to increase the number 
 of the tribes to 13 (Gen. xlviii.s); the tabernacle was 
 made of 13 kinds of material; there were 13 tablets 
 in the sanctuary; the high priest wore 13 engrav- 
 ings, to wit: the names of the twelve tribes on his 
 breast and of God on his forehead (Exod. xxviii.). 
 The number 13 occurs twice in the tetragramma- 
 ton J=io, H = 5, V=6, H = 5; = 26 = 2xi3: the digi- 
 tal value of Bereshith, the first word in the Bible is 
 13, et ccetera. The number 13 also attracts attention 
 in hermenutics. Rabbi Ishmael introduced 13 rules 
 for the safer study and better understanding of the 
 Bible (Sifra) ; 13 covenants attended the rites of cir- 
 cumcision (Nedarim 31). It is a tradition among the 
 Jews that 13 of the patriarchs were born circumcised ; 
 a boy 13 years old became of age, so far as the invest- 
 ment with religious duties and privileges, and the 
 recognition of his marital rights were concerned; 
 there were 13 letters in the names of the patriarchs 
 (Midrash), and there is not the slightest intimation 
 in ancient Hebrew literature to the effect that the 
 number 13 has a closer relation to death or misfor- 
 tune than any other number, and that consequently 
 it should be shunned.
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 99 
 
 There is no trace of the superstition in the Kab- 
 bala, and in the Talmud on the Canticles it is said, 
 "As the rose has 13 leaves so has the congregation 
 of Israel 13 attributes of divine grace for its protec- 
 tion on all sides" (The Manorah, July, 1895). 
 
 Now the introduction of the letter h into a name, 
 as into that of Abram (Abraham) and Sara (Sarah), 
 was a matter of special honor, of which there are 
 several instances in the Scriptures, and the introduc- 
 tion of h (J^j) which is 5, into the number 13 or 31 
 7 5^ (God) gives us the noticeable sequence of digits, 
 153, which is its full capacity; 5 being the emblem of 
 p<w>er, and the whole array being the strength of an 
 " unbroken net." 
 
 The Saviour appeared in the Temple as a teacher 
 of and a seeker after truth in his i3th year, to wit, 
 when he was "12 years old;" the number is a power- 
 ful one. 
 
 Nevertheless the mystical nature of the number 13 
 goes back to the very dawn of the history of Our 
 Race; and although there were actually 13 tribes in 
 Israel (perhaps, counting Joseph for himself, 14), 
 they are always enumerated as if numbering but 12. 
 There are about 18 such enumerations in the Bible, 
 but in every case one tribe is omitted; generally it is 
 Levi, once Simeon; in Revelation Dan. 
 
 But as a matter of fact the Hebrews had some re- 
 gard for the number 12 as the number of "organic 
 unity," while 13 was associated with revolt, schism, 
 and apastacy; the early Israelites " considered them 
 selves the chosen people and therefore that they never
 
 roo THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 could be disintegrated, hence they clung to the num- 
 ber 12 and discarded 13 " the which was itself an 
 omen or a type, a premonition, or whatsoever else 
 you wish say a prophetic intimation that the final 
 number should be 12, and that one tribe should be 
 omitted from the " baker's dozen " even as it turns 
 out as Manasseh is omitted for his greater inde- 
 pendence and blessing and the security of a double 
 portion unto Joseph. 
 
 There is no doubt that all Israel remained united 
 until the death of Solomon. The kingdom then 
 broke up into two parts; that of Ten-Tribed Israel 
 having its capital at Samaria, and that of the Two- 
 Tribed Kingdom, which retained the Sceptre, re- 
 maining at Jerusalem. The latter consisted of 
 Judah, and temporarily of Benjamin, Levi not being 
 counted in the 12 but cleaving to the Jews. At last 
 " the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold " 
 of Israel and carried them to Media, whence they 
 disappear from Eastern history. * The subsequent 
 captivity of Judah was only temporary, and after 
 seventy years they began to return to Jerusalem, 
 where they remained until Titus destroyed it in 69 
 A.D. They were finally driven away after the de- 
 feat of Bar Cochebar in 135 A.D.f 
 
 Now when the Jews rejected his ministry the 
 Saviour specifically notified them that the kingdom 
 should be taken from them and given to a " Nation " 
 
 * To learn how they reappeared in the West, -vide Studies 
 Three, Four and Five, Our Race Series. 
 
 f Nearly 5 lunar years of years ago, 5 X 3 54- 36= 1771. So.
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 101 
 
 bringing forth the fruits of it, and it is manifest that 
 the Jews understood the intimation to be a transfer 
 to the Ten Tribes, or from their standpoint to the 
 schismatic gentilized and practically lost, or certainly 
 divorced branch, of Israel ; for their prophets had long 
 before asserted, even after its disappearance, that 
 backsliding Israel had justified herself more than 
 treacherous Judah. So they took up stones to slay 
 him. 
 
 It must have been the Ten-tribed Kingdom that 
 the Lord referred to, for it is utterly incongruous 
 with God's methods to suppose the transfer was 
 to be to any particular and unschooled purely hea- 
 then people if s0 t to which? To Rome? the Fourth 
 Empire of Nebuchadnezzar's vision? Impossible: 
 nor to any other Gentile people but to "Daniel's 
 People " (Dan. vii. 27, compare the Daniel Chart) of 
 whom Judah is but an omitted twelfth. So the Lost 
 Sheep of the House of Israel must be found as they 
 are that " Nation." (Vide Study Number One). 
 
 Moreover, we can trace that kingdom, without 
 Geographical, Philological, or Historical lapse, to 
 the Isles afar off in the Angle-land of the earth- 
 even to the Isles of the Gaels, Waels, and An-gaels, 
 and (unless our eyes are blind and our minds shut to 
 the reception of proof, or to the admission of the 
 weight of argument) can trace the practical course of 
 the empire involved, both literal and spiritual, to the 
 strong north-west corner of the earth (vide Studies 
 Numbers One, Three, Four, Five, Nine, et ccetera). 
 
 In this lo-Tribed Western Kingdom Manasseh
 
 102 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 (from his entrance as a Derian completing the Oc- 
 tarchy) was a disturbing element. His trans-Jor- 
 danic half-tribe was- a prominent factor in early days, 
 and his struggle for supremacy dates from Joseph's 
 day. Failing to obtain it, indeed, finding it given to 
 Ephraim by Jacob, and he being as it were an elev- 
 enth tribe among the ten, he eventually became, a 
 Revolutionist in the Islands (in Cromwellian days) 
 and at last a Secessionist here in the New World,* 
 Thus he, the isth Tribe of i3-Tribed "All Israel," 
 cut himself out with hands and established here in 
 America the independent nation which is "that 
 other " that was lost in the eye of prophecy from of old. 
 
 The secret then of the mystery connected with the 
 number 13 is that it is the number of Manasseh's 
 tribe, by actual adoption, and that this i3th tribe was 
 and is the one by which the fullness of Israel is 
 reduced to 12, but whereby the fullness of Joseph 
 is therefore doubled ! No nation upon earth is so 
 marked with this number as the United States of 
 America. 
 
 In the introduction to his work on Arithmography, 
 Dr. Mahan says: ''Thirteen is so amply treated in the 
 body of this work that I will give with little com- 
 ment its most obvious meaning. It is the number of 
 Transgression, and the number of Atonement. The 
 first mention of thirteen in Scripture is in connection 
 with rebellion,! in accordance with which it pervades 
 
 * For much on this important topic, vide "Ye Compact" 
 Leaflet, Number Ixv. , December, 1896, 
 f Gen. xiv. 4,
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 103 
 
 all History as the symbol of separation, disorganiza- 
 tion, revolution. 
 
 " In the form 65 or 5 times 13 * it is the prophetic 
 term of the breaking- or disintegration of Ephraim. f 
 In the form 390, or 30 times 13, it is Ezekiel's sym- 
 bol of Ephraim. ' Note here that Manasseh's num- 
 ber (/. e., the number of his name) is 395 or 3 x 13 x 
 10, +5, or 3x13x5x2, + 5. This is 3, Prophecy, 
 expecting Rebellion or separation (13), according to 
 the Covenant (5), by assurance (2), + power or 
 strength (5) over Ephraim (390)! /'. e., Manasseh (395) 
 has power (5) over Ephraim (390) reserved for his day 
 of separation, etc., etc. 
 
 "The prominent place," says Dr. Mahan, "which 
 I have found this number to hold both in history and 
 in the text of Scripture has been strangely confirmed, 
 to my mind, by the researches of one to whom I 
 should hardly have looked for light on such a subject 
 the great Positivist, Auguste Comte. That prince 
 of modern philosophers came to see in later life that 
 there is a moral meaning in numbers entitled to a 
 place in any complete philosophy of facts, * * 
 One, fzvd, three, in his system are sacred numbers; seven 
 a number of peculiar power." "Above all," in the 
 words of a reviewer, John Stuart Mill, "he has an 
 outrageous partiality for the number Thirteen. 
 Though one of the most inconvenient of all small 
 numbers, he insists on introducing it everywhere." 
 
 *Note that this is the numerical weight of our Constellation ! 
 to wit: thirteen 5- pointed stars: i3X5= 6 5- 
 f Anglo-Saxondom.
 
 104 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 This is certainly an unlocked for witness to the 
 importance of this mystic number! In his article, 
 Westminster Review, July, 1865, Mill further says: 
 " Comte attributes great virtue to the prime numbers, 
 especially to those which are doubly or trebly prime 
 such as thirteen. His views on the subject are car- 
 ried out to such lengths that he counts the letters, 
 the sentences, the chapters of his own productions as 
 scrupulously as the Jews were wont to do with the 
 Holy Scriptures."* Thus strangely do those who 
 essay at independence of all special revelation, resort 
 at length to systems which acknowledge it, for in 
 that the writings of Comte are overruled, in all his 
 thought, by the very rhythm that Inspiration itself 
 puts upon its own works, it is manifest that in so far 
 
 * For samples of practical Arithmography, thus carried out, 
 any one of the Our Race Studies may be examined : See for 
 instance the Title pages, Dedications, Divisions, Subdivisions, 
 et ccetera, of Study Number One, or of this Study (Nineteen) 
 and of its companion volume (Study Number Eighteen) where- 
 in as the titles, sections, etc., the groupings by lines, words, 
 letters, pages, etc., run intentionally in 13*5, i7's, i53's, and 
 other factors appropriate to the topic ; the very " proofs " of this 
 work have been read in "takes" of 13 galleys, etc. ; see as an 
 instance of collateral association, a reference to West Point on 
 page 73 of this volume, the author's class at West Point being 
 that of '73. Examine page 153, etc., etc , in each of the Studies 
 for composite idea collateral to their theme (somehow hidden). 
 We may never before have obtruded upon our readers the fact 
 of our own recognition and employment of Arithmography and 
 will merely say here that its careful use is a powerful monitor 
 and guide to accuracy, as well as the revealer of secrets to 
 those who shall examine what has been arithmographically 
 written. This page for instance is the S Xi3th, behold, there- 
 fore, we have told you a secret (t Cor. xv. 51).
 
 THE ESCUTCHEON. 105 
 
 as he was a philosopher he recognized the strength 
 of number, and groped after it. 
 
 All this is blind evidence as to the potence of 
 Inspiration, a plain recognition of the very principles 
 anticipated in the Scriptures. Auguste Comte will 
 rise up convinced that Jehovah sits upon the circle 
 of the heavens and that the number 13 is separation 
 itself, and the Higher Critics will rise up to confusion. 
 
 Be ye a "separate people" was the command to 
 Israel, /'. e,, a covenant people. Now Jesus Christ is 
 the Covenant in antitype, as His name implies. 
 That name by the way Irjaov? xP lffT ^ ^ s composed 
 of 6 + 7=13 letters, and the numerical value of the 
 Greek words written over his head by Pilate was 5 
 (666 + 777) or 5 x T 3 x XII > *' e -i J 3 x 555 which latter 
 number we shall find to be Manasseh's too. 
 
 In fact the number 13 is microcosmic (i. e., related 
 to man who (according to Bell) has 208 bones=2 x8 
 x 13) and therefore must be macrocosmic or related 
 to the universe, of which man is the exponent, and 
 Manasseh the ideal. We shall show, too, that it is 
 mezocosmic or related to the Pyramid itself. 
 
 But we shall have ample opportunity to discourse 
 upon this number as we progress in our investiga- 
 tions. It is borne upon the escutcheon as on the 
 Flag which in preeminence it represents, and of ali 
 numbers it is the one most peculiar to America, even 
 as it is to Manasseh.
 
 THE SCROLL. 
 
 "And in thy Book all my membei 5 were written when as 
 yet there was none of them." Psa. cxxxix. 16. 
 
 ' ' When the Most High divided to the nations their inheri- 
 tance, when he separated the sons of Adam, He set the 
 bounds of the people according to the number [13] of the chil- 
 dren of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people ; Jacob is 
 the measuring-rod of his inheritance." Deut. xxxii. 8-9. 
 
 "Thine eyes shall behold the land that is very far off."- 
 Isa. xxxiii. 17. 
 
 As stated in Vol. I., Study Eighteen, p. 84, the 
 placing of the Scroll in the beak of the Eagle was 
 Secretary Thomson's idea. The bearing is not only 
 unique but solitary in national heraldry. * and it is 
 certainly as appropriate as unique; for the Eagle 
 ( M )i^ NSr or Neshar] being the Scriptural bearer of 
 the Word, naturally takes the Scroll (Sephar Heb., 
 Biblion Greek) in his beak, and lifts it up (fc$]^, NSa, 
 nasa, from the same root as NSr nes/iar, an eagle, 
 whence [-(j^'j^, M-NSeh, Manasseh). Asa matter of 
 fact Manasseh must exalt the Word. " Per aspera 
 ad astra" he cannot escape his mission nor avoid the 
 toils until he, too, has forgotten them by entering 
 into a permanent covenant with Peace, for He is a 
 
 * The nearest approach to it is in the Arms of Mexico, where 
 the Eagle with its beak bears up the defeated serpent,
 
 THE SCROLL. 107 
 
 prophecy of the millennium and has resisted it 
 hitherto only to his hurt. 
 
 There never was a land on earth so protestant, in 
 its origines, as this; nor another that has fallen so far 
 short of its high calling. Its Pulpit, Press and Poli- 
 tics are now a scalene trinity, no two sides equal, and 
 the two that should be squared for right and truth 
 subservient to the third, which makes policy its 
 measure of government, and the almighty dollar its 
 own sinecure. 
 
 We compass but the minimum of what was prom- 
 ised at our birth. We are bound hand and foot on 
 every side; the old world dragon has belched out 
 upon us the full flood of his enmity so that the per- 
 fect law of liberty is now well nigh drowned. Is it 
 not high time for the new earth to open its mouth 
 and swallow up this flood?* What is the color of our 
 Scroll: White, or Black? 
 
 In the official blazonry of the State Department its 
 tincture is Or (gold) and the motto is lettered there- 
 on in a nondescript neutral tint (see "The Seal of 
 the United States," Dept. of State, 1892). Can this 
 be right? Verily it is fitting to our state to-day, a 
 day in which even the governors of "Old New Eng- 
 land" are seriously contemplating abandoning 
 the proclamation of the yearly and time-honored 
 " fast day " because, forsooth, as one of them states, 
 it has degenerated into a day of sports. Verily we 
 do not know the color of our own Book, and of course 
 we cannot read our title clear to mansions of peace 
 
 *Rev. xii. 15-16.
 
 to8 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 even in this temporal sphere. Our gold is become 
 mere tinsel, and our motto is thus lost by contrast, 
 for its own gold is usurped and its letters are draped 
 in hues of night. 
 
 But God forbid that we should change our statutes 
 before we have at least exhausted their import. 
 General Grant's principle is a safe one : enforce the 
 Law first; that is the best test of its value or worth- 
 lessness. 
 
 This very essential part of the Arms is worthy of 
 our special attention. It is borne in the most honor- 
 able degree in the beak of the eagle, and serves to 
 display the national Motto. Though an unusual 
 position for the Scroll (they generally being placed 
 either below the escutcheon, or over the crest) in 
 heraldry it is, by its exceptional bearing, all the more 
 significant. 
 
 In the statute no reference whatsoever is made to 
 its tincture, and by some it is considered that it should 
 be blazoned red or blue. The silence of the statute, 
 however is significant, and whether intentional or 
 not leads us to believe, from this, and other reasons 
 to follow, that white (argent), is its appropriate tinct- 
 ure. As no color is designated, any color that would 
 harmonize might be appropriate, but to select any 
 particular color would be to exclude all others, which 
 would be unwarranted as the law now stands. This 
 subject has always been a matter of controversy. It 
 was first broached by the editor of the Columbian Mag- 
 azine, in September, 1786. Writing upon the Arms, 
 Crest and Seal of the United States, he remarks as
 
 THE SCROLL. 109 
 
 follows: " As the color of the Scroll is not mentioned 
 it is recommended to be of purple edged with gold, 
 and inscribed with the motto in golden letters." 
 
 Next to white we consider this to be a most impor- 
 tant suggestion, and if the wording of the law is ever 
 to be altered so as to specify any particular one of 
 the primary or heraldic tinctures, we know of none 
 that should stand between it and white in the order 
 of selection. 
 
 Josephus records that the Scrolls from which the 
 LXX. made the celebrated Septuagint version of the 
 scriptures were purple and were inscribed with let- 
 ters of gold. But the question now is: As the law 
 stands, what is the tincture of the Scroll ? In reply to 
 this inquiry we hope to establish the fact that no 
 amendment to the statute is necessary and that white, 
 the harmonious blending of all colors into perfect 
 Light itself, seems to be not only most appropriate, 
 but to come clearly within the heraldic meaning of 
 the law as it now reads. This tincture would harmo- 
 nize perfectly with the variegated background of the 
 Field,* and contrast most aptly with the inevitable 
 gold of the motto itself. It is right here, however, 
 that is raised a seemingly insuperable objection. 
 Gold and silver would then be used the one upon the 
 other, and a fundamental law of the heralds has been 
 that except for extraordinary blazonry " metal shall 
 not be put on metal, nor color upon color." In reply 
 to this objection we may ask if this is not an extraor- 
 dinary occasion ? The Scroll itself has an exceptional 
 
 * In those parts that are near the Cloud broken by the Glory.
 
 no THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 position, and is borne in a noticeably exceptional man- 
 ner; why not then intensify the exception still more, 
 though to do so be to violate this arbitrary "funda- 
 mental law?" Before, however, pursuing our argu- 
 ment further in this direction, let us examine the 
 emblem itself. 
 
 Scrolls were originally the books of the ancients, 
 and in heraldry this device is the emblem of a Book. 
 In former times all books were written upon rolls of 
 linen papyrus, parchment or prepared " ram's skins," 
 and in latter days' when heraldry selected its symbols, 
 the whole record of a life was supposed to be wor- 
 thily transcribed when on his Scroll a knight wrote 
 his motto only. Some of the ancient books were of 
 immense length. For better preservation they were 
 rolled up, and frequently, where of great import, as 
 in prophetic writings, they were sealed and stored
 
 THE SCROLL. 
 
 1 1 i 
 
 away in cases. * The object of these latter precautions 
 was to secure the documents from profane injury. 
 From this practice of rolling these Scrolls is derived 
 the word volume, from the Latin word volvere, to roll. 
 The Scroll borne by the American eagle is an un- 
 sealed one, rolled out, and its sentiments openly dis- 
 played. 
 
 Passing by for a moment its special reference to 
 our nation, we shall anticipate by saying, that this 
 motto will be shown to contain, interiorly, within its 
 own brief compass, the full complement of the " Mes- 
 sage of Good Tidings" to mankind. f The Book, 
 sealed with its seven seals, that no man nor creature 
 could open, save He in whom all tnen are one,\ was 
 Light itself, so that thereon "no man could look" 
 
 * Generally in earthen vessels, thousands of which have been 
 found in ancient tombs. In this way Jeremiah directed the 
 Title deeds of Anathoth should be preserved, and we presume 
 they are, at Tara, Ireland. Vide Study Number Five. 
 
 f Luke ii. 8-20; Rom. xii. 4,5; I. Cor. x. 17; Heb. xi. 12. 
 
 \ Rev. v.
 
 IT2 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 until the seals were broken.* In its higher sense it 
 is this Book, whose unsealed roll the Eagle, ever 
 regarded as the bearer of the Scriptures, f lifts unto 
 the stars. 
 
 Where the statute is thus silent as to tincture, her- 
 aldry can frequently supply the rule upon general 
 principles. But there are cases where the higher 
 laws of symbology and correspondence (though the 
 rules of heraldry be apparently to the contrary not- 
 withstanding) must be allowed the deciding voice. 
 Thus the Scroll should be tinctured white notwith- 
 standing that the Motto is necessarily of gold, or per- 
 haps for just that reason, and by white we mean the 
 "proper" color, not necessarily the heraldic argent, 
 though perforce we use the term. 
 
 As the statute is silent not only upon the tincture 
 of the Scroll, but also upon that of the motto (the 
 thing to be blazoned thereon, and thus the more 
 important of the two), heraldry steps in, and by a 
 special principle decides that the motto shall be bla- 
 zoned gold (or). But heraldry has no other special 
 rule by which the tincture of the Scroll shall be there- 
 after fixed. It has a general rule, however, bearing 
 upon the case, which we will consider later. Mr. T. 
 C. Lukens of Philadelphia, referring to this subject J 
 remarks that the Scroll "might be either red or blue 
 and yet harmonize with the tinctures of the shield. " 
 
 * Hence its silver light and pearl-like value. 
 
 ) Lecterns are usually eagle-shaped, and truth is ever borne 
 on eagles' wings. 
 
 \ See Letter to Admiral Preble. page 691, "Hist, of the 
 Flag," etc.
 
 THE SCROLL. 113 
 
 So far as this mere harmony is concerned, it might 
 also just as appropriately be blazoned white. We 
 presume that as modern heraldry seems to forbid the 
 use of metal upon metal, Mr. Lukens did not propose 
 it, though it is one of the principal colors upon the 
 shield with which he naturally decides it ought to 
 harmonize. Of the two colors, however, that he did 
 propose, red alone is available from his own stand- 
 point because blue would not contrast (/'. e. , "har- 
 monize") with the azure background of the field 
 against which it must find relief! It therefore 
 remains for us to decide between the red thus appar- 
 ently left to personal heraldry as a last resort, and 
 the white demanded by symbology and the ancient 
 science of correspondence. 
 
 Referring to this very topic the arbitrary rule of 
 the later heralds, against "metal upon metal," the 
 editor of the Columbian Magazine, in the article above 
 mentioned, makes some very a propos remarks. " It 
 is not consistent," he says, "with the dignity of an 
 imperial State, that its armorial insignia must neces- 
 sarily be blazoned according to the general rules of 
 blazonry presented by heralds. The most noticeable 
 exception to the fundamental rule in blazonry is in 
 the Arms of Jerusalem, where metal is placed upon 
 metal ! the arms being Argent, a cross potence, or, ' 
 (/'. e . , gold) ' ' between four crosslets of the same. " Surely 
 no higher authority than this is requisite if it be 
 found necessary to amend the statute and to specify 
 a particular tincture. 
 
 But to return to a consideration of the colors pro-
 
 H4 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 posed by Mr. Lukens. We have reduced him to the 
 alternative of selecting red; and to authorize such a 
 selection (as it is a special color), the statute itself 
 must be amended. Now of all the colors upon the 
 Escutcheon, red is the least prominent. " Red, 
 white and blue " enter the Shield in exactly the pro- 
 portions of |f, |f and |f. 
 
 Admiral Preble (see "Flags," p. 755), speaking of 
 these colors in relation to our Flag, remarks as fol- 
 lows: "While red, white and blue have for along 
 time been the ranking order of the colors of British 
 national ensigns, with us, blue the blue of the Union, 
 the firmament of our constellation of stars claims 
 the first place on our colors, red the second, and 
 white the last." 
 
 In one sense this is so, in another, the symbolic, 
 and as a matter of fact, it is somewhat erroneous. 
 Red covers more square inches upon our flag than any 
 other color, white next and blue last. So upon the 
 field of battle, the appropriate home of the flag valor 
 should predominate, be strengthened by innocence, 
 and tempered with justice and mercy. The song 
 "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, " is strictly an 
 army and navy ballad, and its chorus, to our mind, 
 properly enumerates the colors " Three cheers for 
 the red, white and blue " as they are upon the flag, 
 and as their sentiments should be within the soldier's 
 breast. It must be borne in mind, however, as we 
 have elsewhere shown, that these colors enter the 
 Flag and Shield differently, and by so doing, accom- 
 plish a very lofty symbolic purpose.* 
 
 * See remarks on Escutcheon.
 
 THE SCROLL. 115 
 
 But to return to our inquiry. As a matter of fact, 
 when we examine the whole Seal (Arms, Crest and 
 Reverse) blue predominates. 1 1 forms the whole field 
 and background for the other emblems; so heaven 
 protects the union that its color signifies. Upon the 
 Escutcheon, however, with which the Scroll should if 
 possible be made to harmonize, white is undoubtedly 
 the predominating color. This is as it should be. 
 As a shield for a Great People, innocence and purity 
 are far more noble attributes than valor or persever- 
 ance. Indeed, valor and perseverance gain their 
 most essential help from the Innocence and Purity of 
 their cause. Moreover, white, as a scientific fact, 
 comprehends both red and blue together with all 
 other colors. The heraldic prominence that would 
 thus be given to red (valor) should that tincture be 
 taken, by statute, for the Scroll, would be very inap- 
 propriate. Whatever tincture is chosen, it must be 
 remembered that it is to be raised to the most honor- 
 able position in which the Eagle can receive and bear 
 it. In this connection it may be asked, as a matter 
 ot fact, was it our valor, or our innocence that was 
 the primary motor at our Revolution and our Union? 
 In declaring their independence, did not these "thir- 
 teen States in one" expressly "appeal to heaven, 
 relying on the INNOCENCE of their cause " rather than 
 on their own unaided valor? 
 
 The arbitrary rule against " metal upon metal " is 
 ignored, moreover, in the very art from which the 
 science of modern heraldry took its birth and early 
 sustenance. Nothing was more common than the
 
 li6 THE SEAL OP HISTORV. 
 
 laying of gold and silver upon the steel of blades and 
 shields and helmets, and of one upon the other in all 
 cases of mutual ornamentation. In fact, such arbi- 
 trary rules as forbid the use of "metal upon metal " 
 are pronounced in vain when uttered concerning the 
 Arms of an Imperial State. However forcible they 
 may be over the tinctures of personal heraldry, they 
 have no weight beyond that subordinate sphere, and 
 were certainly not in accordance with the symbolic 
 wisdom of Solomon, who said, " a motto fitly spoken 
 is like apples of gold'm pictures of silver."* 
 
 But the higher and more ancient laws of symbology 
 and correspondence determine the case, without 
 appeal, as in favor of white for the Scroll. As it pre- 
 eminently represents the Book of Books whose light 
 is truth itself, so argent, or silver white, likened 
 among gems unto the pearl, among flowers to the 
 lily, and among planets unto the Silvery light of the 
 moon, is beyond all controversy its "proper" color. 
 
 This brings us to our final argument. By a gen- 
 eral lav/ of heraldry, the whole controversy may be 
 closed up and decided without any further appeal to 
 legislation. As the statute is silent on the tincture 
 of the Scroll, a general rule of heraldry steps in and 
 demands that it be blazoned "proper ." The thing to 
 be thus blazoned proper is a book, its correct color is 
 therefore "white." Nor need the placing, on its 
 virgin page, of the national Motto (necessarily golden), 
 be regarded from this standpoint as a violation of 
 
 *I.e., "a word," " a proverb," etc. Prov. xxv. n. See 
 also Cant. i. n., iii. 10, and Psa. Ixviii. 13.
 
 THE SCROLL. 117 
 
 the heraldic ruling in dispute. .The union of the two 
 tinctures is now to be regarded as that of a Golden 
 motto blazoned on a "white" Scroll. This is the 
 necessary and legitimate result of a higher and more 
 general ruling of heraldry which suffers any tincture 
 to be put upon another, " proper," without reference 
 to the combination that results. 
 
 The golden Motto may therefore perhaps be 
 allowed to come directly from the special law of 
 heraldry. Aside from this, however, gold is the only 
 appropriate tincture for the expression of its lofty 
 sentiments. " E Pluribus Unum " is a central text of 
 Christianity, and the radiance of its truth far exceeds 
 that even of the rarest topaz, and its price is far 
 beyond the price of pearls upon the purity of whose 
 tincture it shines appropriately blazoned Or. The 
 more general rule, therefore, by which an emblem 
 whose tincture is not mentioned takes its "proper" 
 or natural color fixes that of the Scroll as properly 
 white. 
 
 Can we recover our innocence? Is it possible for 
 America to cast off the tinctures that conceal her own 
 fair hues and mount ad astro, with the only color in 
 her beak that can reflect the Light without destroying 
 it? The way of an Eagle is on high, and we may 
 not mount, except the volume of our aspirations is 
 enscrolled upon pure white parchment.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 
 
 " As well might the Judas of treason endeavor 
 
 To write his black name on the disk of the sun, 
 As try the bright star-wreath that binds us to sever, 
 And blot the fair legend of ' Many in One.' " 
 
 O. W. HOLMES. 
 
 " Therefore sprang there even of ONE * * * So MANY as 
 the stars of the sky in multitude." Heb. xi. 12. 
 
 "So we, being MANY are ONE body IN Christ, and everyone 
 members one of another." Rom. xii. 5. 
 
 " We being MANY ARE ONE body." I. Cor. x. 17. 
 
 We have already touched briefly upon the singular 
 fitness and the mystic numerical import of this Motto 
 
 with its thirteen letters, its dual interpretation, 
 and its double reference to Manasseh and to all the
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. itg 
 
 thirteen tribes of Israel ; it thus remains to go between 
 the lines and trace out deeper things. 
 
 This now famous national Motto was first proposed 
 for the Arms and Seal by Thomas Jefferson, and was 
 formally adopted by the Committee of 1776. As they 
 took a part of their seal device from the design upon 
 the Continental Silver Dollar and from the design 
 upon one of the Colonial Bills then in circulation, the 
 motto of this same coin and bill " We are One" 
 may have been the primary source of Jefferson's pro- 
 position. The idea of Union was already universal. 
 
 The motto upon the coin and bill was actually before 
 them, a Latin or French rendering was most appro- 
 priate to heraldry, and the change from "We are 
 One," to " We are Many in One," as usually under- 
 stood, but in reality to "One Out of Many,"/, t., 
 made or constructed Out of Many, was a most nat- 
 ural development. Moreover, the Committee of 
 1776 could hardly have been ignorant of this Latin 
 rendering " E Pluribus Unum "which so exactly
 
 126 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 answered their requirements, for there were several 
 familiar sources from whence the mere phraseology 
 itself could have been easily taken. 
 
 Mottoes in heraldry had their origin in the war 
 cries of knights. They were also honorably borne in 
 time of peace, and their sentiment was made a rule 
 of life. The sword of the true knight was ever 
 ready to defend his " Cri de Guerre, " So the Motto of 
 the Great American people, borne in the beak of its 
 symbolic Eagle, is its war cry as well as its lofty 
 guide to higher life. 
 
 It was promised to Israel of old that no weapon 
 formed against it should prosper, and that they should 
 be so powerful that even one should put many to flight.* 
 This was a promise of the strength of many as it were 
 in one! In grateful recollection of this promise, 
 and with confidence therein, may Liberty, though single- 
 handed, ever seek the fray. Ours is a war cry that 
 when uttered in the shrill and clarion Eagle-note, 
 may ever hope to strike dismay into the adversaries 
 of Anglo-Saxon freedom. 
 
 Taken then in this connection, and having also in 
 remembrance the other notable promises to Joseph, 
 and to his two sons, how pointed is the reply of 
 Joshua to this wonderful people who, even when they 
 first entered Canaan, and, finding their lot too straight 
 and narrow for them, had come to him complaining 
 
 * " Five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred put 
 ten thousand to flight." Levit. xxvi. 8; Deut. xxviii. 7, xxxii. 
 30. " One man of you shall chase a thousand! " Josh, xxiii. 
 10. Judges vii. 19-21; I. Sam. xiv. 6.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 121 
 
 that "The hill is not enough for us !" Then "Joshua 
 spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and 
 to Manasseh, saying: Thou art a great people, and 
 hast great power; THOU SHALT NOT HAVE ONE LOT 
 ONLY; but the mountain shall be thine; for it is a 
 wood, and thou shalt cut it down ; and the outgoings 
 of it shall be thine; for thou shalt drive out the 
 Canaanites though they have iron chariots, and though 
 they be strong."* 
 
 Was it not unto the earth itself that Joshua here 
 darkly alluded employing the simile so often else- 
 where used of Joseph's ultimate possession of it, 
 even to "the mountain of Ephraim" whose "deso- 
 late heritages " were assigned to him of old?f Before 
 the Anglo Saxon, have not, everywhere, the woods 
 been cleared away? And has not " He thrust out the 
 enemy from before them," saying in the spirit of 
 Manasseh's own well chosen war cry, "Destroy them !" 
 for ye are many in one ! and add their inheritance to 
 thine? Even the modern Agnostic, Evolutionist, or 
 Infidel can find no fault with this, as they maintain 
 the principle of the "survival of the fittest," and so 
 do \vc from the proper point of view! 
 
 But as to the source from whence this modern 
 Motto came to us: 
 
 Speaking of its derivation, Admiral PrebleJ remarks 
 as follows: "The question from whence our fathers 
 derived the Motto, ' E Pluribus Unum,' is often asked 
 
 * Josh. xvii. 17-18. Isa. ii. 2; Mic. iv. i, etc. 
 
 f Dan. ii. 35. 
 
 \ See page 694, " Hist, of Am. Flag."
 
 122 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 but has never been satisfactorily answered. The 
 motto of the 'Spectator' for August 26, 1711, is 
 ' Exempta Jurat E Pluribus Una' (Hor. 2, Ep. ii. 212) 
 which is the earliest use of it I have found. " 
 
 It was suggested by Dr. Lieber that as at the time 
 of the Revolution the "Gentleman's Magazine" had 
 a popular circulation in the colonies, the Motto may 
 have been adopted from the motto on the title page 
 of that serial. The title to the first volume of the 
 "Gentleman's Magazine," 1731, forty-five years pre- 
 vious to the adoption of the Motto on our arms, has 
 the device of hand grasping a bunch of flowers and 
 the motto " E Pluribus Unum." And on the title 
 page to the first or January number, and all subse- 
 quent numbers after the first, is the motto " Prodesse 
 et Delectare." The title of the magazine says that its 
 contents are collected chiefly from the public papers, 
 by Sylvanus Urban. On the title to the second vol- 
 ume (1732) the two mottoes are united thus: 
 
 Pluribus 
 
 And these united Mottoes are continued on the title 
 pages of the magazine a hundred years later, in 1833, 
 after which they were discontinued. 
 
 A writer in Lippincott's magazine (February, 1868),
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 123 
 
 traces the origin of our Motto to a Latin poem as- 
 cribed to Virgil. He says: "Perhaps in the minds 
 of those who first chose it to express the peculiar 
 character of our government, it had no definite 
 origin. It may have been manufactured for the 
 occasion. Certainly when it was first used in the 
 report of a Committee of Congress, August 7, 1776, 
 as the Epigraph of the public Seal, it was a phrase 
 too familiar or too plain to need explanation or au- 
 thority. But whether remembered, or reinvented on 
 that occasion, almost the exact words occur in a Latin 
 poem called 'Moretum,' ascribed to Virgil, but which 
 is not usually found in his collected works. It is a 
 vivid description of an ancient Italian peasant's morn- 
 ing meal, with incidental suggestions of his mode of 
 life generally. The moretum is a species of pottage 
 made of herbs and cheese, which, with the help of 
 servants, he concocts before dawn ; he grinds up the 
 various materials with a pestle. Then, says the 
 poet: 
 
 ' ' // manus in gyrum; paullatim singula vires 
 
 " Depe rdunt proprias ; color est E PLURIBUS UNUS." 
 
 This poem has been seldom noticed. 
 
 A writer in the " Overland Monthly" says: " In 
 choosing a national Motto they (our fathers) derived 
 it from a modest metrical composition in Latin, writ- 
 ten by John Carey of Philadelphia, entitled 'The 
 Pyramid of Fifteen States, ' in which occur the follow- 
 ing verses : 
 
 " ' Audax inde cohors stellis E PLURIBUS UNUM, 
 Audax pyramidos tollit ad astra caput. '
 
 124 THE SEAL OP" HISTORY. 
 
 " Its title, ' The Pyramid of Fifteen States,' is evi- 
 dence however that this poem was written after the 
 addition of Vermont and Kentucky to the original 
 thirteen, in 1794 or 1795, and the title of the poem 
 was probably suggested by the device on the Reverse 
 of the National Seal:" rather, say we, from the Ken- 
 tucky penny (see Study No. Eighteen, Vol. i, p. 250). 
 
 From all these notes, collected by the Admiral, we 
 would infer that the Motto was at least well known in 
 1776, and from its fitness (whether suggested by the 
 motto of the "Spectator," in 1711, or from the 
 motto and bouquet upon the "Gentleman's Magazine " 
 of 1731 and 1732 to 1833, or manufactured, or re-in- 
 vented for the occasion) was readily grasped by the 
 public sentiment of the day. 
 
 But there is a nobler derivation than any yet sug- 
 gested, for its sentiment at least, and one that we 
 opine may have run somewhere in the minds perhaps 
 of Franklin, Jefferson and Adams. This committee, 
 as we have already seen, was so deeply impressed 
 with the heraldry of Scriptural symbolism, that their 
 final report embodied a most glowing device selected 
 thence from still others that had come before them. 
 From the standpoint that we are holding in this Study 
 we are more inclined to feel that whatever mind 
 su gg est ed it, or from whatsoever intermediate source 
 its Latin wording came, a higher power controlled its 
 ultimate selection, and disposed the minds of this 
 " Great People" to receive it almost as a Birthright. 
 
 We refer to several of the most noted passages in 
 the Bible, where almost the exact phraseology is em-
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 125 
 
 ployed. One of them is particularly remarkable, not 
 only for its use of the expression, but from its Anglo- 
 Israelite sentiments, and from its reference likewise to 
 the stars of heaven so beautifully chosen for our 
 Crest. It occurs in the Epistle of Paul to the He- 
 brews, chapter xi. 8, 12, 21 verses, and we extract 
 from it as follows ; "By faith Abraham, when he was 
 called to go out into a place which he should after 
 receive for an inheritance, obeyed ; and he went out, 
 not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned 
 in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwel- 
 ling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs 
 with him of the same promise ; for he looked for the 
 city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker 
 is God. Through faith also Sara herself received 
 strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a 
 child- when she was past age, because she judged him 
 faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there 
 even of one [and him as good as dead] so many as the 
 stars of the sky in multitude. * * * By faith Jacob when 
 he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph !" 
 
 In this passage St. Paul informs us from whom 
 (i.e., Abraham, the father of the faithful,) "the many " 
 who form his posterity, as from "one," under the 
 councils of a greater "One " are all descended; and 
 to make the reference clearer, he brings Ephraim and 
 Manasseh into the promise by a special mention. 
 
 But let us examine this matter further. When the 
 Lord appeared unto Jacob the second time at Bethel, 
 and blessing him, changed his name to Israel, he said 
 to him: "Be fruitful and multiply, a Nation and a
 
 126 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Company of Nations shall be of thee." Now when later 
 on in the land of Egypt this dying patriarch Israel 
 blessed, by faith in this promise, ' ' both the sons of 
 Joseph," he transmitted intact to them, though they 
 were merely children by adoption, rather than to any 
 of his own sons (for Simeon and Reuben lost their 
 birthright) the whole of this glorious promise.* For 
 he so blessed these children that of MANASSEH should 
 come the " ONE GREAT PEOPLE," and of Ephraim the 
 *' Multitude of Nations. "f 
 
 Joseph and his sons, and indeed all the children of 
 Israel who went into captivity with them in 714 B.c.J 
 have never yet returned to Palestine. The whole 
 Bible testifies to this fact, and Josephus in the first 
 century acknowledges it explicitly. They were "far 
 away, a multitude whom no man could number," 
 when the great sin of Judah and Levi the crucifix- 
 ion was accomplished. In it they had no part, and 
 in its consequences, such as ever since have been lit- 
 erally visited upon the Jews in the Sight of all the 
 Earth, they have no share. On the other hand, 
 "unto the uttermost bounds of the everlasting hills, 
 the blessings of the heavens above and of the deep 
 that lieth under, the blessings of the breast and 
 womb," ever prevailing, are promised to be "upon 
 the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of 
 him who was separate from his brethren." 
 
 *Gen. xlviii. 
 
 fGen. xlviii. 17-20. 
 
 1 717-714 true B.C. 721 B.C., as commonly stated.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 12? 
 
 Called under a new name,* and "in Isaac's"! 
 brought under "a new covenant,"}; Manasseh and 
 Ephraim, the "One People," and the "Company of 
 Nations, " must be found a blessing in the midst of all 
 the earth. Inhabiting the isles of the West and North ; 
 ruled over by the seed of David ; possessing the ends 
 and uttermost parts of the world, with heathen em- 
 pires as their inheritance; possessing the gates of 
 their enemies ; identified by ten thousand other proph- 
 ecies, with customs, laws and institutions clearly 
 Hebrew, with their Bible in every language, open to 
 all nations, yet ignorant of their own descent lost so 
 totally as to be themselves blind even to the rock 
 whence they are hewn, the time of their awakening 
 draweth near ! 
 
 When the long-lost Ark of the Covenant, buried for 
 a purpose, with their title to universal possession 
 sealed and resealed in it, shall be found in Anglo 
 Saxon soil, what human mind can even faintly dream 
 the grandeur of their future ! 
 
 But again, St. Paul writing to the Corinthians, who 
 are most mysteriously of literal Hebrew descent, uses 
 the remarkable expression, " For we being many are 
 
 * Isa. Ixii. 2, 4, context. 
 
 fHeb. xi. 1 8, /. ., Anglo-Saxons or Isaac's Sons. 
 
 |Jer. xxxi. 31 ; Heb. viii. 13, xii. 24. 
 
 It is absolutely hopeless to expect in such a work as this, 
 any satisfactory proofs and references, of and to these FACTS. 
 Let the hearts of those ready to receive the truth, search this 
 for themselves in Anglo-Israel publications, nor fail to start 
 their search in the early issues of this very series of Studies.
 
 128 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 one bodyf* and still further to the Romans, referring 
 to "the new covenant with lost Israel," he says, " so 
 we being many are one body in Christ, and every one 
 members one of another."! 
 
 No more perfect symbol of Union can exist than 
 this, and none is more appropriate to a Christian peo- 
 ple, of Hebrew descent, and certainly identified with 
 the "olive-branched" Manasseh. 
 
 Thus wondrously did the unseen hand of destiny 
 emblazon on his later Coat of Arms and Seal a 
 Motto pregnant with significance. 
 
 It was the seed of "the new covenant," sown 
 deeply in the national heart, ever since it landed and 
 rested its two lobes upon the peninsula of James- 
 town, and on " Plymouth Rock," that silently pre- 
 pared this same Great People to accept it in the day 
 of their foundation. 
 
 It was the Anglo- Israelite Signification of this Motto 
 that determined its adoption, not its Latin dress 
 that was a mere accident, and a subordinate consider- 
 ation. In its earliest American form, as we have 
 already seen, it was sitaply rendered into our mother 
 tongue, " We are One." 
 
 Thus it was the English Bible, warmed at the hearth- 
 stones of our homely ancestral firesides long before 
 our independence had been dreamed of, that had given 
 to our forefathers an appreciation for that loftier 
 epigram of more eternal union "Many in One." 
 From frequent readings of the Scriptures, and from 
 
 *i Cor. x. 17. 
 \ Rom. xii. 3-6.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 129 
 
 every day familiarity with its honored phrases, their 
 minds had been unconsciously prepared to recognize 
 the beauty of this Motto as soon as it was proposed. 
 Probably they had never seen a Latin Bible, and even 
 had they read the Holy Writ familiarly in such a 
 tongue, the Latin rendering of this same sentiment 
 would have been found in different clothing. 
 
 We do not for a moment therefore, advance the 
 theory that they took the Latin motto from a Latin 
 copy of the Scriptures, or even that indeed they 
 thought of it as buried so intensely in the Gospel of 
 Salvation. What we do claim, and conclusively point 
 out, is this: that the grandest idea of Union ever 
 uttered to the human ear is rendered in our English 
 Bibles by the same translation as has ever been the 
 one more familiarly attached to the Motto on our 
 Arms; and that (whether or not remembering its 
 lofty associations), that very Book had silently pre- 
 pared the hearts of this Great People to appreciate 
 its beauty. 
 
 MOGRAPHY AND ARITHMOGRAPHY. 
 
 But in any full discussion of the significance of the 
 mottoes upon the Great Seal, we shall have to deal 
 primarily with the Latin language in which they are 
 all written. It was a dual or numerical language, 
 for the Romans, like the Greeks and Hebrews, used 
 their own letters to indicate numerical values, and 
 we moderns have inherited this method from the 
 Latin language. 
 
 Our readers are supposed to be more or less famil-
 
 130 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 iar with what we still term the Roman system of 
 enumeration. We employ it in chronology, upon 
 inscriptions, in chapter headings, in classification, et 
 catera. Thus we find MDCCLXXVI. for 1776, en- 
 graved upon the base of the Unfinished Pyramid 
 shown on the Reverse face of the Great Seal. It is 
 the Date of its foundation, according to the Roman 
 method, whose further arithmographical application 
 we are now to consider. In the Statute of June 20, 
 1782, this date is specified as "the numerical letters 
 MDCCLXXVI.," thus, Arithmography is recognized. 
 But the difficulty in any such discussion as the one 
 upon which we have embarked, is not only to deter- 
 mine where to begin, but how far to proceed in each 
 direction ; for one must avoid coming short of estab- 
 lishing what may be termed by some ' ' a mere isolated 
 coincidence," and at the same time stop short of over- 
 whelming the mind of the reader with a pleroma of 
 proof. We shall aim to avoid both of these extremes, 
 but must state plainly that such is the oneness or 
 harmony of the Great Seal of the United States of 
 America, that there is not an emblem or motto in its 
 whole concert that is not directly related to the in- 
 strument as a whole, and at the same time severally 
 to all of its parts, and that the governing arithmog- 
 raphy of the design from general to particular is 
 couched in the terms of the very same physical factors 
 of modern science that have already been pointed out 
 as veiled in the numerical language of inspiration 
 itself.* In each case men have wrought wiser than 
 * See News-Leaflet, Ixix.-lxx., April, 1897.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 131 
 
 they knew. There now can be no doubt of this, and 
 consequently Providence alone can have overruled 
 the results, and lo, at the very end of the age permits 
 their interpretation, or revelation, /. e., their discovery 
 and unveiling, in order to beget belief from any who 
 have preserved the seeds of faith in such an age of 
 waning belief as this in which we live. 
 
 And it will therefore be perceived how necessary it 
 was to separate our own discussion of the Great Seal 
 into two parts or volumes. By so doing, we have 
 divided the letter as it were, from the spirit, as much 
 as possible, and recognized the fact that Manasseh 
 himself is a dual tribe, and that his elements as yet 
 are not all " wise" (Matt. xxv. 2). 
 
 In that, therefore, we have first established 
 the actual history of the instrument, and the contem- 
 poraneous interpretation of the fathers according to all 
 the transmitted facts, it follows that whatsoever more 
 than these shall now appear, must be regarded as 
 of a superior degree to what the fathers knew and in- 
 tended ; and if the findings shall appear to be in unique 
 and astonishing relations, we must be allowed to press 
 our contention as to their inspiration as such, and 
 according to degree, and this without the charge of 
 extravagance being raised in the premises since we 
 have forestalled all that by stating all the known facts 
 in Volume I., and are now merely interpreting them. 
 
 Now this subject is one of the mcst mysterious 
 phases of the inspired word of God (/. e., in the origi- 
 nal text), and its mastery lies at the very threshold 
 of the " Highest Criticism " that can be brought to
 
 132 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 bear upon the Scriptures. For, as already pointed 
 out a number of times, and exhaustively introduced 
 in Leaflet Number LXIX.-LXX. (The Digital Values 
 of Genesis i. i) the Languages of Inspiration are dual 
 (numerical as well as literal) and both phases of its 
 significance are involved in its full interpretation. 
 We shall refer here to only a few of the Arithmo- 
 graphic relations which are generic to our own topic 
 which is the Significance of the Seal of Manasseh, the 
 Great People set apart as the Branch of Joseph that 
 ran over the wall. The Romans had but seven let- 
 ters to which, in ordinary Arithmography, they 
 assigned numerical values, to wit : I=i, V=5, X=io, 
 L=5o, C=ioo, D = 5oo, and M=iooo. It will be 
 noticed that they divide naturally into three groups, 
 and a fourth, which sum up 1+5 = 6, 10 + 50=60, 
 100 + 500=600, and 1000 ; that the first 6 sum up to 
 666, the mystical number of Antichrist, and that the 
 sum of the entire alphabet is 1666. 
 
 Now, wherever these letters occur, as for instance 
 in names, inscriptions, mottoes, et cietera, they retain 
 their numerical values, so that by virtue thereof we 
 may count the number of the name or motto in ques- 
 tion. Take for instance: VICARlVs rlLII DE!, 
 " The Vicar* of the Son of God," the motto over the 
 Vatican,! it counts up 112 + 53 + 501=666, which is 
 the number of a man, to wit: Romiith 
 
 * Vicar means Substitute. 
 
 f Some say still embroidered on the Pope's mitre, others that 
 the word embroidered thereon is Chrees, which also is 666 in 
 value.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 133 
 
 manus (^j^)i"*)) or Latinus \areiroZ each of which 
 are 666 in Hebrew and Greek respectively. With this 
 topic in some of its variations, most all of our readers 
 will now perceive themselves to be somewhat famil- 
 iar, and we are ready upon this basis to proceed to a 
 study of the Arithmography, or concealed numerical 
 significance, of our national mottoes, beginning with 
 that of " E Pluribus Unum. " 
 
 Written in numerical Latin this motto is "E pLV- 
 RlnVs VNVM." Hence its value is (50 + 5 + 1+5 = ) 
 61+ (5 +5 + iooo=)ioio, = io7i. 
 
 Now we notice first that this number 1071 is the 
 value of the Greek word Gvyn\rjpovo^.oi t sugklcrono- 
 moi, or "joint-heirs," used by Saint Paul in the Epis- 
 tle to the Romans (viii. 17) to define those who are 
 "many in One," and its harmony with the higher 
 signification of the Motto itself already alluded to 
 above is most remarkable.* 
 
 The number 71 is that of the names John and 
 Jonah, and 1000 is that of the Millennial Reign of 
 Christ ; 7 1 is also the number of the Dove, and is the 
 nearest whole-number-square-root of the famous 
 Pythagorean number 5040 = 2x2520: for 71x71 = 
 5041 :f 71 is also \ of 355, or Shanah whose relation 
 to the 7r-ratio through the fundamental number 113, 
 of a man, Aish, we have frequently pointed out. 
 
 * Compare articles of J. H. Weldon on the Great Seal, in the 
 "International Standard," July, 1885, and of H. A. Powers in 
 Our Rest" of July. 1878. 
 
 f 5040 is likewise the number of Permutations of the first 7 
 numbers, iX2X3X4X5X6X7=54-
 
 134 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Now this relation is direct, for 5 x 72 = 360 of which 
 7 go to make 2520; and 5x73 = 365, which is the 
 Nabonassan year of Menophres, of which 1461 go to 
 make a cycle.* It is the most accurate chronological 
 " measure" known. 
 
 It has been shown in Leaflet Number LXIX.-LXX. 
 (" The Physical Factors Veiled in Genesis i. i ") that 
 El or 31 when raised to the plural, Alohim, and bent 
 upon a circle, is 31415, now in the same way Aish, or 
 113, raised to the plural form Q^'2^, Anashim, men, 
 and bent upon a circle is 31415. Thus "men," who 
 are but little lower than the "angels" (in the subor- 
 dinate sense that the latter are the Alohim or gods) are 
 a parallel creation with perhaps a loftier future ( Ps. 
 viii. 5; Heb. ii. 7, 9). 
 
 Now this very ratio, upon which the heavens and 
 its occupants, and the earth and its own denizens have 
 all been constructed, numbered and measured, has 
 been overruled into all the features of Manasseh's 
 Seal that looks of course towards millennial days 
 alone for its most perfect satisfaction, that is, towards 
 a new order of the ages as a fact rather than a failure, 
 Manasseh is more than a mere type his union is an 
 antitype destined, we believe, to merge or pass into 
 the Day of Rest itself that " remaineth to Israel." 
 
 But as this Motto is the chief one on the Seal of 
 Manasseh, the eagle bearer, whose name is Peace, it 
 behooves us to count the number of his name before 
 we proceed further. It occurs in two forms 
 
 * One-third of which gives a near outside whole number re- 
 lation to the height of the Great Pyramid in English feet.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 135 
 
 -395, and 32= 400, or digitally 355-354, and 1-354 
 respectively, which latter values are at once sugges- 
 tive of the lunar year, while the value 400 is sugges- 
 tive of the digital value (4) of the initial letter itself 
 () of his own name. The usual number 395, is 2 x 3 
 
 x 5 * i3i + 5; or 5 *79=5 (2 x 3 x 13+1), in which the 
 numbers 5 and 13 are as prominent as they are in 
 Manasseh's history and heraldry. The sum of the 
 digits in 395 is 17, one of our most important factors,* 
 while their product is 135, which is but another form 
 of 153 when written on a circle. But we shall point 
 out the application of these facts and factors 5, 13, 17 
 and 153 in their proper places. f 
 
 But let us turn a moment to what we shall have to 
 term the M-ography of our topic. 
 
 The Hebrew letter mem (^=m) which is the initial 
 letter of Manasseh's name is, like himself, and his 
 tribe in the sequence of adoption, the i3th letter in 
 the alphabet. Its significance is that of eldership, 
 number, and many as shown by Dr. John Lamb, in his 
 Hebrew characters derived from Hieroglyphics (Lon- 
 don, 1835). We have already shown that it was the 
 root of the word Tom or Twin (p. 291, Study Num- 
 ber Eighteen). But Manasseh, while an elder in 
 Joseph was a twin, or double in his own tribal organ- 
 ization, which was unique in Israel and consisted of 
 two "half -tribes" that were undoubtedly some- 
 
 *See "Novus Or do Sec lor urn." 
 
 t Meanwhile note this anthmography, Abraham (248=8X31); 
 Isaac (208=2X8X13); Jacob (182 = 2x7X13); Joseph (is6=2X 
 6X13). 31 and 13 being cognates.
 
 136 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 what independent, or divided in partisanship which 
 is the root and safeguard of a Republic. 
 
 His initial letter (M) is a letter that is peculiarly 
 sacred to all languages and religions: it was the sym- 
 bol of a stream, or of stripes as on our flag (MMM) 
 significant in hieroglyphics of waves of water, which 
 is the familiar emblem of Aquarius (M) the "Water 
 Bearer," whom some regard as Manasseh's Sign upon 
 the zodiac. It was primarily an emblem for peoples > 
 nations and tongues, to wit, as before noted of multi- 
 tudes, a Josephetic promise of increase. The letter 
 mem stood for 40, and in later times as a finial for 600, 
 its digital value being 4 or 6. 
 
 There has been an enormous amount of literature 
 written about the letter M, more perhaps than on any 
 other letter. In " Notes and Queries "* (S. C. and L. 
 M. Gould, Manchester, N. H.), it is mentioned 
 that "some student in nomenclature not long since 
 announced a lecture on the Initial M in the Scrip- 
 tures, and that such a lecture, by Mrs. Cora L. V. 
 Tappan, entitled ' The Symbol of the Letter M,' gives 
 some singular information on the letter." 
 
 Mem is the final letter of the Coptic word for the 
 Pyramid (P R M) which was the great emblem of 
 Manasseh's land of birth, and in Coptic signified 
 
 * We enjoy this publication and have taken it for years. It is 
 a liberal collection of all sorts of odd facts. We love the lovers 
 of fair statements and the fair staters of memoranda that are 
 loved and honored by others. If our religious journals (5/ir) 
 had been half as liberal as those who seek the truth fearlessly, 
 Christ's kingdom itself had been here already !
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. Itf 
 
 "the High Place of the Sun," the monument itself 
 being Cosmic, and peculiarly solar in its arithmo- 
 graphic references. The very name of the letter Mem, 
 is our modern abbreviation of the word memorabilia, 
 and is attached, like N. B., to whatsoever should be 
 stored away. And the letter is metric in every sense 
 of the word, since from its ancient hieroglyphic root 
 we derive all such words as meter, metron, metrics, 
 measure, metrology, et ccetera. It is only neces- 
 sary to illustrate this further by alluding to the sen- 
 tence pronounced upon Belshazzar, "Mene,Mene, Tekel 
 [fy/iarsin,"=M.eted out, Measured, Taken away, 
 Upset. 
 
 In the " Materia More Magistratis, " every word 
 begins with M, and in the following Latin enigma, 
 by an unknown author of very ancient date, the let- 
 ter M is concealed : 
 
 Ego sum principium mundi et finis seculorum 
 Ego sum trinus et unus, et tamen non sum Deits. 
 
 We cannot begin to enumerate the mysteries and 
 Kabbala that have been attributed to this famous i3th 
 letter, but before passing to the consideration of the 
 number 13 itself which we shall treat further anon, 
 must call attention to the fact that it is a factor of 
 26, which latter was regarded as the most sacred of 
 the mystical numbers because it was the sum of the 
 digits in the Tetragrammaton or sacred name Jeho- 
 vah: J = io, H = s, V=6, H-5; 10 + 5 + 6 + 5 = 26 = 2 
 x 1 3 . Is also the sum of the digits of Brashith (in the 
 beginning) the first word in Genesis: 2 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 
 + 4=13 (vide Leaflet Number Ixix-lxx). Thirteen is
 
 138 THE SEAL OP HISTORY. 
 
 thus the fundamental number of " Beginning, " and, 
 as Mahan shows, of Regeneration, therefore of New 
 Beginning, so that the number is not only appropri- 
 ate to Manasseh himself but to his selected mottoes, 
 and their meanings, and the structure of his edifice (13 
 x 17), and to his Maker (2x13) who prospered our 
 beginnings (13) in a new order of the ages (17). But 
 here again we must pause lest in yielding to the 
 temptation to feel the weight of the draught from 
 each and every strand of the net we exhaust the 
 patience of our readers. 
 
 But this simile, the net, brings us to the main 
 point in the discussion of this ^-lettered Motto, " E 
 Pluribus Unum," with its six silent and seven signifi- 
 cant figures.* The number of the "great fishes'' 
 (153) caught in the unbroken net (John xxi. 1-12) 
 has been regarded as being of some special numerical 
 significance as well as of the deepest spiritual mean- 
 ing from the very earliest Christian times. "Of the 
 early interpretations, Saint Augustine's is the most 
 ingenious, and looks most like inspiration. He 
 found 153 to be the seventeenth triangular number. 
 That is if we add up all the numerals from one to 
 seventeen inclusively, the sum will be 153. Now 
 seventeen he says is the 10 of the commandment and 
 the 7 of the spirit; it signifies, therefore, those who 
 through the spirit are enabled to fulfill the command- 
 ment. But as 153 is the sum of all numbers from i 
 to 17, it is an expression of all who through the spirit 
 fulfill the commandment; in other words it is the 
 
 * N. B. The majority rules.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 139 
 
 (symbolic) number of the finally redeemed " (Mahan), 
 /". *?., of those who attain to perfect liberty. To our 
 own mind one of the most important numerical asso- 
 ciations connected with the number 153 is derived 
 from the fact that it is made up of the first three odd 
 numbers. These are significant in all of their arrange- 
 ments, which are six, and may be grouped into three 
 pairs, as follows: 153, 513; 135, 531; 351, 315. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable that each of these 
 three pairs of 3-figure arrangements sum up sever- 
 ally to 666, and are significant examples of what has 
 been termed the 4< harmonious break " (vide "Compu- 
 tation of 666"). Anyone of these "breaks" reads 
 153 upon the circumference of a circle, after the 
 manner set forth in volume I. (/. e., Study Number 
 Eighteen, page 292). 
 
 Noting now that woman, Ishah, or nC2^& * s 36 
 2 x 153, we recall the fact (p. 292, Study No. Eighteen, 
 that two i53's may be interlaced upon the circle 
 in the 6-pointed form of what at present may perhaps 
 be considered as that of our established "Crest," and 
 that when diametered apart we have 113 [355. This 
 is the sequence of the first three odd numbers taken 
 in pairs, and is the usual way of expressing the 
 Metius-ratio, to wit, 113) 355 (3. 141592 + . Nor is
 
 140 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 this association of ideas at all far fetched from its 
 cognates, for Eve or her cognate Hovah was 565 = 5 x 
 113), she named her first-born Cain, a measure, from 
 its cognate 355 or Shanah the Lunar year. Thus 666 
 360= (2 x 153), /. ^., 306 or woman : to wit, Eve (565 
 ==5x113) measured or compassed a man (113) even 
 as she supposed "the coming one, "to wit, Jehovah 
 (6561 * 81 x 81) so she called his name Cain (810 = 
 10x81). But with two interlaced i53's on the cir- 
 cumference of a circle the number 5153 f can be read 
 in four different ways and 4x51531=20612. Now 
 
 all of these figures are related, for 20612 : 6561 : : 355 : 
 ii3,a"nd each pair is a 7r-ratio, or the fundamental 
 
 * A cognate of J H V H or 1 565 or 5651. 
 
 t n^fc$ri~ The woman, of which 5153 is but a cognate or 
 
 5315 
 
 admissable caballistic arrangement. 
 
 \ 5X153 = 765 is one of the base measures indicated by the 
 Great Pyramid. 
 
 gNearly; 20612:6561 = 3.141594, is a convenient working 
 TT-ratio, common fractional, undoubtedly employed at Gizeh and 
 used in Genesis; 355:113=3.141592, is another; but mod- 
 ern it is 3.141592, etc., and there is no intent to dispute its accu- 
 racy. The only point raised is the contention that Tt closer than 
 we moderns employ it practically, is as ancient as Genesis and 
 Gizeh, and that Legendre and LaPlace merely rediscovered it ; 
 and the dilemma for the modern infidel is to account for its pre- 
 sence all through the Bible and at Gizeh, and to tell us why it 
 was sealed up in both cases.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 141 
 
 physical factor of construction or creation. For out 
 of the point, to wit, Jod, within the circle came 
 JHVH, the diameter of all things* and from this 
 involving in all directions.tat the Word (DBR = 2o6) 
 came Light (AOR 206-1) from the Father of Light 
 AB-AOR 12-206 which may be read cabalistically 
 20612 upon the bounds of a circle. 
 
 Mr. Skinner in his most interesting lecture upon 
 Free-masonry, Chaldaeism, and Magism (Oct. 13, 
 1880) before the International Institute, pointed out 
 the origin of this number as follows: "The Hebrew 
 word for Light is AOR. The numerical values are 
 respectively A i, O 6, R 200. You will observe that 
 this word is triangular because it has three letters. 
 Place the letters of this word on the circumference 
 of a circle at equal distances, join the letter points 
 by right lines, and we have a triangle in a circle. 
 Now read these letters round this circle according to 
 their number values, and we have R, which is 200, 
 going onto the O, which is 6, we have 206; then we 
 go on to the A and we read 206-1. To complete 
 the meaning of the circle we must proceed to repeat 
 the 2 of the 200 by which the full reading becomes 
 20612, which is the Parker circumference to a circle 
 whose diameter is 6561. * * * Light was the 
 word, the Logos, the Hebrew D B R: that is, God 
 himself intended not to give an idea of God, the ain- 
 Soph or boundless, but of the first manifestation from 
 ain-Soph (that is the incomprehensible or boundless, 
 became comprehensible in bounds) to man, in his 
 * 1565, cognate of 6561 = 81 x 81 ; chai or life = 81. fGen.iii.24.
 
 142 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 creative law. The expressive word, Logos, etc., 
 refers to its Hebrew source, and the Hebrew for 
 word is DBR whose value is 206 as stated ; which as 
 DBRI or 'my word,' is 2061, and this read on a cir- 
 cle is 20612 equally with the word Light," etc. In 
 this connection it may be stated that Bunsen says 
 that the Pyramid was called " AOR," which is Light, 
 and we know it v/as a circummetric structure. 
 
 But to return to the number 153: 
 
 Wordsworth's interpretation is that " 150 is the 50 
 of Jubilee, by the 3 of perfection, and that 153 is the 
 same 150, plus the 3 of perfection; the whole there- 
 fore implies the number of those who attain to the 
 perfect Jubilee, the glorious liberty of the Sons of 
 God."* Dr. Mahan prefers the method by multiples 
 9x17=153, in which case the 17 of "God's people" 
 by the 9 of finality or judgment is 10 times the 15 of 
 the second resurrection plus the 3 of perfection. "All 
 of these interpretations come to the same thing, being 
 merely different shades of the idea of the ' Sons of 
 God,' and if we combine them all we have an image 
 entirely in keeping with the spiritual meaning of the 
 miracle recorded by Saint John." 
 
 The number occurs but this once upon the surface 
 of the Scriptures (to wit, in John xxi.) but it is sig- 
 nificantly hidden in them here and there in appropri- 
 ate places. For instance, "The Net/' TO Sinrvov, 
 in which these "great fishes" were caught, sums up 
 to 1224 = 8x153, the net evidently signifying the 
 church of the Living God ; and in that it was brought 
 
 * Heb. 153.
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 143 
 
 to the shore unbroken, /'. e., landed its draught safely, 
 it indicates the resurrection, and vivifies an active 
 faith. In this connection Dr. Mahan points out that 
 the force of this numerical intention, and of its sig- 
 nificance, "is certainly not diminished when we find 
 out that the arithmography of this very word Fishes, 
 the Ichthyes, so conspicuous among primitive symbols 
 is precisely the same number: ' i224=8x 153. 
 
 Here then, we have the subjects to be caught 
 (fishes) by the "fishers of men," the net, and the 
 draught itself, all in mystic but unmistakable relation 
 to each other. Those caught are undoubtedly the 
 " Sons of God," in Hebrew the Jieni ha Elohim, the 
 sum of which is 153; hence they are typified by the 
 Magdalene, to whom the resurrected Lord first showed 
 himself, TJ MaydaXrjnj, whose numerical value is the 
 same, to wit: 153. The number first appears as a 
 factor in the name that Adam gave his wife, " woman, 
 because she was the mother of all living," to wit: 
 
 I shah n&'N 3 o6==2 x : 53 
 
 Space would fail us even in a special volume, should 
 we attempt to exhaust this topic; we have broached 
 it merely to set forth the hidden relation of the num- 
 ber 153 to Liberty in ail of its phases, and to Election 
 thereunto as such, and thus to show forth the neces- 
 sity of finding this number in our national Arithmog- 
 raphy, and the unique fitness of its appearance 
 when found upon the Great Seal of Manasseh; for 
 his ideal Constitution and Polity is not only the lof- 
 tiest, but the final, human effort to attain the perfect 
 liberty of each member of society, with due respect
 
 144 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 to that of all the rest. In the first place this is fully 
 expressed in the intended meaning of our motto, E 
 Pluribus Unum, "One [formed] Out of Many" for 
 except the many be agreed, unity is of course impos- 
 sible, and unless the One be supreme, the union is in 
 vain. In fact, this Manassite ideal of human liberty is 
 a mere type of that Millennial one whose principle is 
 the same Oneness in Jesus Christ: that is, of the 
 Christian union of many in one body, so as to be 
 Sons of God, or Bern ha Elohim (153), or fishes 8 x 153, 
 and so brought within "the unbroken net," which is 
 8x153. Accordingly, when we re-examine the nu- 
 merical value of the motto, E pLVnIeVs VisrVM 
 107 r, with direct reference to the triangular number 
 of perfect liberty, 153, we find it is a perfect multiple 
 thereof to wit: 7 x 153=1071! Jesus, whose number 
 is 8x111888 being the head-stone or 8th 153 in 
 whom only We are One.* Thus, the 1071 or seven 
 153*8 of the Motto + the one 153 of the cap-stone, are 
 the eight 153*5= 1224 of the net, and of the fishes, 
 which in another sense are the 153 eights, or perfect 
 primary cubes out of which the new beginning of the 
 ages is yet to be created. Dr. Mahan states that 
 " the number 8 in its scriptural use is constantly con- 
 nected with the complementary, or in some cases an- 
 tagonistic 13. * * It is also intimately related to 
 such numbers as 5, 7, 12, 17, 153 and the like." 
 
 This draught was wonderful in every sense, and 
 loaded with 153*8, and it was Peter that drew it to 
 
 * Because He preeminently is the only Begotten "Sou of 
 God," and in reality THE ONE taken out of many brethren
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 145 
 
 the shore, single-handed; Peter here signifying 
 Faith. Now what he drew to the land may be para- 
 phrased or unveiled as follows: 
 
 i. The Net 
 
 1224 = 8X153' 
 
 2. One hundred*^ 
 
 446 \ 
 
 3. Fifty-three * = 
 
 2144 V =23X153 
 
 4. Of great (size) = 
 
 929) 
 
 5. [Fishes] 
 
 1224 - 8XI53J 
 
 31x153 
 39X153 
 
 5967 =39Xi53=3X3X3.Xi3.Xi7. 
 
 The whole account is therefore an astonishment 
 from this mathematical standpoint, and we are not 
 beginning to exhaust it: but enough has been 
 shown to demonstrate to all whose hearts are inclined 
 to wisdom that the admission of one of two things is 
 necessary, to wit : either the writer of this Scripture 
 (and in that case the writers of each and all Scrip- 
 tures) weighed its very letters, or else that in working 
 faithfully he wrought (and they too as he had) wiser 
 than even he himself (or others) knew, and his jots 
 and tittles were overruled, /'. e., "verbally inspired," 
 with all that this implies! The chances against such 
 an arithmographical concert of 153*8 surrounding this 
 literal draught of 153 unintentionally are a netful 
 of 153 infinities to i, and we warn the "Higher 
 Critics," who are ruthlessly attempting to break 
 the unity of Scriptures by their disingenuous 
 verbal cavillings, and faithless doubts as to author- 
 ship and literal truth, that they will only have their 
 
 * These numbers are spelled out in the Greek, so of course 
 the words themselves have these values accorded to their letter 
 values.
 
 146 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 pains for their folly. It would take a skillful kabbal- 
 list a month to write wittingly some of the single 
 arithmographical sentences in the Bible ; are we there- 
 fore to swallow the ignorance of those who (knowing 
 not that the whole volume of the Scriptures is writ- 
 ten in numbers as well as words) would have us 
 believe the Scriptures grew into their present shape 
 by the repeated tinkerings of men no better than 
 (and quite as unfaithful as) themselves ? 
 
 In discussing the prevalence of this number, 153, 
 in the Scriptures, that is its discovery in places where 
 on a posteriori principles we now have a right to ex- 
 pect it, but which we do not believe the writers them- 
 selves were aware of on a priori principles, Dr. 
 Mahan remarks as follows : 
 
 " But the great mass of facts in this volume * have 
 been subjected to a vastly more rigorous test. In 
 testing, for example, the regular recurrence of the 
 number 153 in places of Scripture to which it is 
 appropriate I was led to select about forty passages, 
 most of them very brief, which from their meaning 
 seemed likely to contain it as a factor. These pas- 
 sages being reduced to their arithmetical equivalents, 
 by a process explained in this work " (every Hebrew 
 and Greek letter having a numerical value and all are 
 familiar with Roman numerals!) "we have as a 
 result 40 marked numbers, that is numbers selected 
 for their connection with certain places in Scripture 
 without any previous knowledge of their value in 
 other respects. Now what is the chance that any 
 
 *"Palmoni," and "The Mystic Numerals of Scripture."
 
 THE NATIONAL MOTTO. 147 
 
 one of these, the first for example, should prove on 
 analysis to. be an even multiple of 153 ? Mathemat- 
 ically the chance is T | (/. e. t i in 153). But what is 
 the chance that two of them consecutively should 
 each and both prove the same? It is -r$ff x Tiff- 
 Finally what is the chance that the forty in succession 
 should each and all prove to be the same? It is the frac- 
 tion T i;j multiplied into itself forty times, a fraction 
 which it would be idle to compute, but which on 
 rough estimate might be represented by a denomina- 
 tor of about one hundred ciphers. 
 
 "In other words the chance in favor of the sup- 
 posed result would be as one to a number so vast 
 that practically it may be regarded as infinite. Yet 
 as matter of fact not only the forty marked places 
 referred to, but as many more of the same kind 
 which have occurred incidentally in experimenting 
 upon other numbers have yielded the expected fac- 
 tor, accompanied in most cases by other sacred num- 
 bers equally appropriate to the sense. It may be 
 safely claimed, therefore, that the facts recorded in 
 this volume, with the one great fact that underlies them 
 all, come up squarely to the scientific definition of 
 LAW, the possibility of chance being excluded by a 
 strictly scientific test. 
 
 "And on this ground I venture to invite men of 
 science, as well as men of faith into a new and 
 worthy field of inquiry. If the structure of an insect 
 shows marks of Divine skill which repay the most 
 minute and untiring study, much more will it prove 
 worth our while to look into the minutite of the Word 
 of God.'
 
 148 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Now one of my own honored instructors at West 
 Point, Professor Church, verified these deductions of 
 Dr. Mahan, and I myself have been satisfied that 
 both he and Professor Church were warranted in 
 their surprise. Shall I then, who sat at the feet of 
 that Gamaliel of the old Highlands, stultify my- 
 self at the knees (that do not bend) of the disrupt've 
 Higher Critics of these days, and teach others that 
 the Word of God is the work of mere men's hands ? 
 Nay! I say, rather, "Out upon such infidelity as 
 theirs ;" were I not satisfied that these stupendous 
 facts condemn their methods, I am free to say that I 
 would strive to outdo Mr. Robert Ingersoll in tear- 
 ing down the fraud they preach, and I am freer to 
 maintain that I believe Mr. Ingersoll will rise up jus- 
 tified, perhaps, far beyond their degree of recognition 
 (save when he scorns, from failure to investigate a 
 trifle more faithfully the facts for himself.'} 
 
 Now a perfect number is one which is equal to the 
 sum of all its factors or aliquot parts.* There have 
 been but eight discovered; they all end in and are 
 related to 6 or 8. It is not to be supposed that these 
 are all there are in the infinite possibility of numbers, 
 but it has been shown that 8 as a factor dominates 
 them. Mahan speaks of it as " the most perfect of 
 spiritual numbers, the symbol of life which lives and 
 revives and grows, and is fruitful and multiplies and 
 replenishes all things, which is all in all, and through 
 all, whether in heaven or in earth, in nature or in 
 grace," et ccetera. We shall meet this number and its 
 most significant multiple 888, later on. 
 
 * Hutton's Recreations, vol. i, p. 35.
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH. 
 
 "The Lord called thy name, a green Olive tree, /air, [i. e., 
 decked with flowers] and of goodly/>#z'/." Jer. xi. 16. 
 
 "Thy children like Olive-plants round about thy table." 
 Ps. cxxviii 3. 
 
 "Joseph is a fruitful Bough, even a fruitful Bough by a well ; 
 whose Branches run over the wall." Gen. xlix. 22. 
 
 " He created wisdom and numbered her and poured her 
 upon all his works." Bibliotheca Biblica. 
 
 Preliminary to an Art-Heraldic discussion of this 
 particular emblem, a few words as to its Botanical 
 nature will be in order. (Vide Carpenter). 
 
 Oleinece : The botanic classification of this most im- 
 portant plant is as follows: Sub Kingdom I. Phse- 
 nogamous, Cotyledonous or flowering plants. Class 
 I. Dycotyledonous. Sub class II. Angio Spermous. 
 Division II. Monopetalous, flowers furnished with 
 both sepals and petals, the latter connate. Series II. 
 Hypogynous or Perigynous. XXII. Cohort Genti- 
 anales Oleineae. 
 
 Trees and Shrubs. Leaves opposite, petioled and 
 lanceolate. Simple or rarely imparipinnate, not 
 stipulated, bronze green above and silver whitish 
 below. The Olea is chief of the principal genera to 
 which also the Ash and Lilac belong. Flowers.- 
 white, small, and in clusters, (J) /. '., unigendered,
 
 THE SEAL OF HISTORV. 
 
 (Olea Kuropoea). 
 
 rarely divecious and apetalous, in a raceme or trichot- 
 omous panicle, sometimes fascicled, pedicels opposite. 
 Calyx, monosepalous, 4-lobed or toothed, sometimes 
 obsolete. Corolla, hypogynous of 4 petals united at 
 the base in pairs by filaments, or clearly gamopeta- 
 lous, infundibuliform or sub-campantulate, aetivation 
 valvate, very rarely O. Stamens 2, inverted on the 
 the corolla and alternate with its lobes Anthers, 
 2-celled, introrse, dorsifixed; dehiscence longitudinal. 
 Ovary free, 2-celled, cells alternating with stamens. 
 Style, simple or O. Stigma undivided or 2-fid. Ovules 
 collateral, pendulous from the top of the septum. 
 fruit, a drupe, i -celled and seeded. 
 
 The most useful species of this family is the Olive 
 which has spread from the East throughout the Med- 
 iterranean region. The fixed oil expressed from the
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH. 151 
 
 pericarp of its drupe holds the first place among ali- 
 mentary oils. * The unripe drupe mascerated in brine 
 is eaten, as are those of some exotic species (O. 
 Americana, fragrans, etc.). The bark and leaves of 
 the Olive were formerly used as bitter astringent 
 medicines. f The bark of the common Ash is bitter, 
 and has been proposed as a substitute for quinine. 
 Olive wood is extremely hard, durable and beautiful. 
 It is extensively employed in the more highly orna- 
 mental arts of wood. The flowers of the O. fra- 
 grans are used to scent teas in china. Lilac bark is 
 a renowned febrifuge in certain malarious districts of 
 France. Ash wood is well known as a valuable tim- 
 ber for its lightness, flexibility and strength. It is 
 beautifully veined, has an agreeable odor, and is held 
 in high repute by cabinet makers on account of the 
 fine polish it will take. The wood is of a resinous 
 nature and consequently excellent for burning. 
 
 The Oleinese mostly inhabit the northern hemi- 
 sphere; /. e., temperate and warm regions. Some 
 are, however, tropical, and even extend beyond the 
 Tropic of Capricorn (Olea occurs in New Zealand and 
 South Africa. Notelcea is Australian, and both 
 Chionanthus and Linociera are American). Lilacs 
 are natives of the East, and common enough here to 
 be National. _ 
 
 * It is of no use in painting, because it never dries completely 
 it is an essential oil in the primary sense. As a medicine, it 
 was used by the good Samaritan, and its healing qualities are 
 well known. 
 
 f Decoctions thereof are used as gargles for inflammation of 
 the throat.
 
 152 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 The Olive grows in the East to a height of from 
 forty to fifty feet, but in France it rarely exceeds 
 twenty-five. It is extremely long-lived, and its esti- 
 mation held so high that it has been named "a mine 
 on earth. " 
 
 One tree near Nice, not long since famous for its 
 remarkable size and great longevity, is said to have 
 measured thirty-eight feet in circumference at the 
 bottom of the trunk, and to have been recorded 
 in 1516 as one of the oldest trees in the neigh- 
 borhood. Another celebrated tree at Pescio is said 
 to be 700 years old, and there are plantations sup- 
 posed to have existed since the time of Pliny. In 
 spite of the changing fortunes of Palestine, many of 
 the famous trees that once adorned the Mount of 
 Olives are still in existence. The foliage of the 
 Olive is evergreen. 
 
 It was sacred to Minerva, was the object of a 
 species of worship in Greece, and its destruction pro- 
 hibited under severe penalty. Olive \vreaths were 
 used to crown victors by the Greeks and Romans. 
 This was the highest prize at the Olympic games. 
 Its fruit is of a deep violet color when ripe, but bit- 
 ter and nauseous to the taste. It is replete however, 
 with the bland and nutty-flavored oil (den. about 
 .913*) which is so largely used as a food. This oil 
 may be said to form the butter and cream of Spain 
 and Italy. Olive Oil is made by crushing the fruit 
 to a paste, then pressing it through a woollen bag, 
 
 *A Pyramidal Cognate, since 10 x 913 =9130, and 9130-5- 
 25 = 365.2.
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH 153 
 
 adding hot water as long as any oil is produced. 
 The oil is afterwards skimmed off and put into 
 tubs, barrels and bottles for use. Pickled Olives 
 are prepared from unripe fruit by repeatedly steep- 
 ing them in water, to which quicklime or some 
 other alkaline substance is added to shorten the 
 process. They are afterwards soaked in pure water, 
 then taken out and bottled in salt and water, 
 with or without an aromatic. Spanish Olives differ 
 from French in consequence of being prepared from 
 ripe fruit. 
 
 The Olive tree is one of the earliest and most 
 sacred symbols of Nationality. * When the trees went 
 out to seek for themselves a ruler, they first appealed 
 to the Olive, thus acknowledging its Supremacy.! 
 But the Olive declined to leave its "fatness where- 
 with," it said, "by me they honor God and man." 
 
 In the Scriptures, the two kingdoms of Israel and 
 Judah are repeatedly likened unto its fruitful 
 branches.^ It was preeminently the Name of Him 
 long promised to the human race THE BRANCH. 
 
 Its leaf was the symbol of Peace, || and its fruit that 
 of fatness. [ The Olive-branch is particularly the 
 heraldic device of the Tribe of MANASSEH ** the last 
 
 *Jer. xi. 16. 
 
 f Jotham's Parable," Judges ix. 8-15. 
 JZech. iv. 3-1 1, Rom. xi. 1-36; Rev. xi. 4. 
 Zech. vi. 12. 
 
 | Gen. viii. n. Vide Vol. I (Study Number Eighteen), pp. 
 299-300. .... 153 + i = 154- Query: why + or carry i ? 
 
 [Judges ix. 9. 
 **See Shimeall's Chronology 'Historic and Prophetic.
 
 154 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 made,* by adoption,! and thus the thirteenth]; tribe 
 of Israel. In the prophetic vision of the dying Jacob, 
 Manasseh was seen in the latter days of the then far 
 distant future as " A GREAT PEOPLE, "|| and separated 
 from his brethren.^! 
 
 If Great Britain, or "John Bull," as we familiarly 
 call him, be indeed our brother Ephraim,** as a host 
 of most remarkable evidences and an entire school of 
 modern teachers are now strongly advocating, ff then 
 we, Manasseh, the great, separated, thirteenth tribe, 
 shall find in a more literal rendering of our national 
 Motto " E Pluribus Unum" another hidden allusion 
 beside that already taught us in its thirteen symbolic 
 letters. 
 
 The literal translation of this Motto is "one from 
 many,"/, e., "one taken or selected out of many," 
 /. <?., out of thirteen. This is the legitimate weight of 
 the "Latin preposition, E (from, i. e., separation), with 
 which this remarkable Motto begins. In this con- 
 
 *Gen. xlviii. 14. 
 
 f Gen. xlviii. 5. 
 
 \ Gen. xlviii. 20. 
 
 Rev. vii. 6, and in 21 other places spoken of as a Tribe. 
 
 I Gen. xlviii. 19. 
 
 T[Gen. xlviii. and xlxix. 26. 
 
 ** Ephraim' s Coat of Arms was charged with a Bull. See 
 Shimeall's Chronology. See also Deut. xxxiii. 13-17. The Lion 
 of the tribe of Judah, the Unicorn of Israel, and the Motto of 
 Benjamin are borne upon England's Coat of Arms. 
 
 ff Vide Studies Numbers One, Three, Four, Five, Nine, Our 
 Race Series, and the entire collateral library of Anglo-Israelite 
 Literature. For catalogue, apply to the Our Race Publishing- 
 Company,
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH. 155 
 
 nection we cannot refrain from again repeating the 
 remarkable clause with which the great lawgiver 
 Moses, finally sums up the blessing of Joseph and 
 his two sons: " Let the blessings come upon the head 
 of Joseph (and they are the ten thousands of Eph- 
 raim) and upon the top of the head of him that was sepa- 
 rated from his brethren (and THEY are the thousands 
 of MANASSEH)." 
 
 Truly, indeed, we are a nation whose armorial 
 bearings are rightfully charged with the Olive-branch 
 of Manasseh, with the mystic number 13, so many 
 times repeated upon the Obverse and tLe Reverse of 
 our Seal, and in whose national mottoes, meanings 
 double and triple so mysteriously hide themselves. 
 
 Manasseh was the first-born son of Joseph, then 
 lost to his parents and brethren in the land of Egypt. 
 Having gotten himself prosperity and a wife in this 
 land of his separation and adversity, Joseph had 
 practically forgotten the brethren whose persecutions 
 drove him forth and sold him. 
 
 " MANASSEH!" that is forgetful ness, was the ex- 
 clamation of Joseph as he greeted this earliest son of 
 separation; "for God" said he, "hath made me forget 
 all my toil and all my father s house."* 
 
 Among the Hebrews, the naming of a child 
 was a ceremony of the utmost importance, f 
 The name was always regarded as deeply prophetic 
 of its after life an idea which runs through the cir- 
 cumstances of the naming of all the characters in 
 sacred history. " To give a name is a token of com- 
 
 *Gen. xli. 51. f Luke i.
 
 156 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 mand and authority. The father gives names to his 
 children." Socrates, remarking upon the import of 
 a. name, says: "Those who invented names seem to 
 me to have been conversant with high things. " 
 " It is said that Adam gave a name to all the animals, 
 and to his wife, and that the name he gave th m 
 became their true name. * God changed the name of 
 Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, and of Sarai to 
 Sarah." The names thus given signify respectively, 
 " The father of a multitude of nations," "a soldier 
 of God," " a princess of multitudes." 
 
 This giving of names by God signifies his absolute 
 dominion over all men, and his particular benevo- 
 lence towards those whom he receives more espe- 
 cially into the number of his own. Hence it was that 
 he gave a name even before their birth to some per- 
 sons whom he appointed for great purposes, and who 
 belonged to him in a particular manner; such as to 
 Jedidiah or Solomon, to Jeremiah, to the Messiah, to 
 John the Baptist, etc. 
 
 MANASSEH has been well named ! Surely God hath 
 made him " forget all his toils" the toils that drove 
 him into this wilderness (1620) and his toils towards 
 freedom (1776-83), and to absolute independence 
 (1812-14); an d assuredly too, he hath nationally 
 " forgotten all his father's house." 
 
 The statute which enacts the Great Seal of our 
 country has not been entirely understood. Perhaps 
 it: is not quite explicit enough in some of its details. 
 
 * The Second Adam wjJl re-name all men that accept him.
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH. 157 
 
 This seems particularly to be the case with reference 
 to the Olive-branch. The full wording of the statute 
 here is : "holding in his dexter talon an Olive-branch 
 * * * all proper." It is easy to be seen, that unless 
 extreme care is taken, the greatest latitude is thus 
 allowed to successive artists in the conception of this 
 symbol, and so the lack of symbolic care in this con- 
 nection has led to the greatest confusion. In fact, 
 every conceivable form of branch, and arrangement 
 of. leaves and fruit has been in turn adopted. 
 
 The " Seal commonly used," according to Admiral 
 Preble.,* has fifteen leaves and but two Olives! In 
 the tracing of the Websterian Great Seal (Study Num- 
 ber Eighteen, p. 208), taken from an actual impres- 
 sion officially made by the State Department, it will 
 be noticed that there are seventeen leaves and four 
 olives. The old Seal of the State Department, a sub- 
 ordinate copy of the Great Seal and often used as a 
 "lesser Seal " in lieu of it, had a much larger num- 
 ber of leaves and no fruit! The Olive-branch on 
 the Centennial Seal Medal of 1882, has sixteen leaves 
 and no fruit! And on none of them are flowers de- 
 picted, and the botanic growth of the Oleinae is more 
 often displayed in ignorance than knowledge. 
 
 Now there are but two proper methods of repre- 
 senting the Olive-branch the one is according to its 
 actual botanic growth at the season either of flowers 
 or fruit; the other is according to the symbolic or art 
 idea, in which latter case both fruit and flowers may 
 be depicted together with the leaves. Neither of 
 
 *See page 683, " History of the Flag." Last Ed., 1872.
 
 15&. j -THE-SEAlvOF HISTORY. 
 
 these, methods seem to have -been followed consistent- 
 ly in the representation of this important element of 
 our Arms. Where the botanic method has been 
 attempted, the foliage has been shown as often alter- 
 nate as opposite, the latter only being correct, and 
 the fact that flowers or fruit spring up with every 
 leaf, upon the vigorous Branch, has been universally 
 ignored.* The art or symbolic method has never yet 
 been attempted, though for many reasons, soon to be 
 given, it is manifestly the most suitable. Indeed, it 
 is absolutely necessary that the art-method of arrang- 
 ing the Branch shall be followed in order to secure 
 that artistic balance of the whole obverse face, which is 
 a matter of still more importance; for lack of a pro- 
 per conception of the Olive-branch, this Obverse face, 
 which .'comprises the important Arms and Crest of the 
 nation, is. now left entirely unbalanced. 
 . . Numerical lapses such as this one, which we note 
 in the conception of the Olive-branch, have, however,, 
 marked the history and use of the Great Seal from 
 the very day of its, first promulgation. Hon. A. L. 
 Snowden in his correspondence with Secretary Folger, 
 on the Great Seal Medal of 1882, refers to some of 
 these as follows: " I should not omit to mention an 
 important faqt in connection with the device of the 
 Great Seal, which I came across in investigating the 
 subject, namely, that the present Seal is not in exact 
 conformity with the design adopted by Congress. - . } 
 
 . * Except on the wreaths found at the reverse of certain^ 
 types of our national, .coinage. See "Ring dollar 1 ' of 1852,- 
 Dollar of 1849, " Half cent, ' r8gg, etc. 
 
 '
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH. 159 
 
 " The divergence from the original design is quite 
 marked, and in my judgment very injudicious. On the 
 present* Seal, you will notice that above the eagle's 
 head there are thirteen stars embraced in an oblong 
 or depressed circle, which would seem to indicate 
 that the thirteen original States were to be forever 
 circumscribed, and that no other stars or States could 
 enter within the charmed circle. How different, and 
 how much more suggestive was the original design, 
 which had the thirteen stars emerging from beneath 
 the dark clouds. The beautiful and appropriate sug- 
 gestion which was conveyed was that, as the time 
 advanced, other stars would emerge from behind the 
 clouds, and take their place in the national firma- 
 ment. 
 
 "This was not only beautiful in conception, but 
 prophetic in its application to our nation. This 
 change in the design was doubtless the result of an 
 unappreciative engraver, who imagined the stars 
 would look more artistically arranged if embraced 
 within the lines of a circle. 
 
 "The Reverse of the Seal has also been, to some 
 extent, changed from its original design. In the 
 original, the pyramid was composed of thirteen solid 
 blocks, gradually narrowing to an uncompleted apex. 
 In many of the designs which have been handed 
 down to us, among them that forwarded by Lieut. 
 
 - . * This was the Websterian Seal which, since 1885, has been 
 succeeded by the Frelinghuysen, but the Hon. Mr. Snowden's 
 remarks have the same bearing
 
 160 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Totten,* it will be noticed that each layer, represent- 
 ing a State, is subdivided or broken, and as if com- 
 posed of several pieces cemented together. This was 
 certainly not the original design, which was intended 
 to convey the compact unit of the States, as bound 
 or cemented together in the unfinished National pyr- 
 amid, "f 
 
 As a general rule, all such lapses have been suc- 
 cessively detected, and as our interpretation of the 
 substance shadowed has progressed, they have one 
 by one quietly disappeared from our armorial bear- 
 ings, without any appeal to Congress ever having 
 
 * The erroneous design of the Great Pyramid, referred to 
 above as forwarded by the author, was the only idea he then 
 (1882) had upon the subject. Fortunately (as to its numerous 
 blocks in each layer, although they are correct as to Barton's 
 drawing, and according to fact, but better left out in heraldry), 
 it was not followed in the preparation of the dies for the Medal. 
 It is equally unfortunate, however, that the general proportions 
 of the pyramid as given in the design forwarded, were not fol- 
 lowed, as they were those of the one only great type of pyra- 
 mids, that of Gizeh! The Medal, however, embodies every 
 good point referred to above by Col Snowden, and is subject 
 to but three criticisms, the one with reference to the Olive- 
 branch, and the other noted elsewhere with reference to the 
 proportions cf the pyramid, the arrangement of its foundation, 
 and its descending capstone; and the minor details of the 
 eagle (Vol. I., Study Number Eighteen, pages 169-206). 
 
 f An examination of the illustrations on pages 78-79, Vol. I., 
 Study Number Eighteen, will show that Mr. Barton's idea of 
 the layers was composite ; but the Pyramid upon the old Con- 
 tinental notes, $8, $50, etc., had compact solid blocks. These 
 are the ones we presume Mr. Snowden refers to as " the orig- 
 inal design," for Mr. Barton's idea came thence.
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH. 161 
 
 been necessary. It has not been the fault of the 
 statute, however, but of its readers, that lapses such 
 as these have marred so long our fair escutcheon. 
 
 In this particular phase of national advancement, 
 our coinage has been more of a popular educator than 
 we have ever dreamed. For a hundred years, those 
 charged with the mintage of our coins and medals, 
 have studied the symbology and symmetry of our 
 "Coat of Arms." With them it has not been the 
 making of a single die, in haste to seal a document 
 of law, but of thousands of such dies, until the medal- 
 list, skillful in his art, conceives almost without an 
 error, and as though by instinct, all the beauty in 
 those "Arms." And they by whom these coins are 
 so constantly handled the people unwittingly are 
 taught to recognize, as though by instinct too, the 
 truth from forgery and counterfeit. Thus, as a mat- 
 ter of symmetry and of artistic instinct, the necessity 
 of balance between the Olive-branch and Bundle of 
 arrows carried in the Eagle's talons, was long ago 
 recognized in our coinage, and is very beautifully 
 realized in the present silver pieces. 
 
 Let any one examine these emblems as coined 
 upon a silver dollar, a half dollar, or a quarter, and 
 he will at once notice that the truly educated artist 
 could not resist the art-idea of balance in his work. 
 For lack of space, the number of arrows on these 
 Coins was formerly reduced to three, but it will be 
 noticed that the Olive-branch in every such case 
 was furnished with but three corresponding growths 
 or tufts of foliage. This is particularly noticeable
 
 162 
 
 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 upon the old silver dollar, where the room to 
 work and the character of the work was much 
 better. 
 
 This art balance is, moreover, beautifully shown 
 upon the Gold Eagle of 1797, where five arrows are 
 balanced by five Olive growths, and in the Quarter 
 Eagle of 1834, where the balance is again struck with 
 but three elementary emblems. The fact is, it is a 
 symbolic necessity, as well as the demand of high 
 art, although even in our coinage it was not until 
 quite lately brought to its full beauty by striking 
 the balance between thirteen elements upon each 
 side. 
 
 BALANCED, BUT NOT ACCURATE. The accompany- 
 
 ing illustration, giv- 
 ing the shoulder 
 knot of a " Colo- 
 nel of the line," in 
 the Regular Army, 
 is taken from the 
 official plates (1882) 
 issued at considera- 
 ble expense by the 
 Quartermaster's de- 
 partment. 
 
 It shows the art idea of balance between the bundle 
 and the branch very clearly. It will be noticed that 
 to carry out this idea upon the silver dollar (of 1882) 
 this balance is struck between three elements, each 
 of which is again subordinately resolved into three 
 ultimates, Here the balance is perfect, either as
 
 163 
 
 three against three, or as nine '.against nine; ahd'the 
 'whole device thus has its harmony preserved.* 
 
 The two emblems refer to the same People whose 
 original number the Crest defines, the Paleways re- 
 peat, the Arrows still further analyze, and the Motto 
 itself most significantly conceals. 
 
 Shall then our Coat of Arms, the very type itself of 
 all our coinage, continue thus unbalanced, a subject of 
 well merited art. criticism?- It certainly should not, 
 nor need it hereafter do s6,' unless' those who have 
 been shown aright shall willfully perpetuate an error. 
 
 * Note, however, that the aspect of the Eagle is wrong 
 East instead of West, and the Shield starred ! 
 
 It will, be remembered that the present work was written 
 in 1882-3 A - I) -. at which time (as there is evidence enough to 
 show, vide "Vol. I., Study No. 18, pages 169-264; "International 
 Standard," July, 1885, pages 268-3; "An Important Question in 
 Metrology;" 1884, etc.), we were actively engaged both in sea- 
 son and out, in urging the improvement of our heraldic realiza- 
 tions upon all concerned. Therefore it is not a little gratify- 
 ing now to know at this later date (1897), that these efforts, and 
 those of our numerous companions in the "International In- 
 stitute," were not in vain; for the comparison of the silver 
 coinage (1882) of those and previous days; with that of 1892 
 and subsequent ones (our present silver pieces), will furnish 
 evidence enough that we won the victory along the very lines 
 upon which we were contending, and this not only in the 
 mere matter of improving the beauty of our coinage, but in 
 the far more important one of forcing the' improvement (1885) 
 of the Great Seal Die itself. For we maintain that all of these 
 improvemer ts arose out of the correspondence that we and 
 others of our school of thought had with the State and Treas- 
 ury Departments in 1882 and 1883 (vide, for instance, the 
 Letters displayed at length, in Study Number |8,^pp. 171-204).
 
 164 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 In the science of correspondence and symbology 
 no such glaring art lapses can be tolerated. It is of 
 all sciences that one whose laws are most rigidly 
 fixed, and in whose details there can be allowed no 
 latitude whatever. Nor is there in the case in point, 
 any excuse for such an oversight. The proper charg- 
 ing of the Olive-branch, though somewhat obscure, 
 is easily to^be determined. 
 
 A brief examination into the symbology of the 
 device and its relations to other elements of the Arms 
 would have revealed to the true artist its proper 
 blazonry long ago, in spite of the apparent silence of 
 the statute as to the minor details. 
 
 The Genius of the Republic represented by the 
 duly escutcheoned, mottoed and crested American 
 Eagle, offers to the world Peace in its dexter, and 
 War in its sinister talon. It is clear that these two 
 emblems, the Olive-branch and the Bundle of thirteen 
 Arrows, refer to the same nation, and that the details 
 which are wanting in the one (dexter) are fully sup- 
 plied in the sinister emblem which they must balance. 
 
 The beautiful analogy between the two, the Bundle 
 and the Branch, is most striking. Just as thirteen 
 Arrows united in one Bundle represent America pre- 
 pared for War, so thirteen Olive growths united upon one 
 Branch represent the gift America offers to those 
 with whom she is at Peace.* 
 
 Finally, as Mr. J. H. Weldon pointed out in his ex- 
 cellent article upon our Seal in the International 
 Standard (July, 1885), the putting of "the Olive 
 
 * This topic will be more fully discussed further along, p. 235.
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH. 165 
 
 branch in the right talon of the eagle, and the 
 arrows in the left, plainly illustrates the divine com- 
 mand given to the Israelites, as we find in Deuter- 
 onomy xx. 10-12: "When thou comest nigh unto a 
 city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it, 
 * * * and if it will make no peace with thee, but 
 will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege 
 it." " And here," says Mr. Weldon, "we must not 
 fail to observe that the action of the Americans in 
 making overtures of peace to the mother country, 
 previous to the commencement of the war of inde- 
 pendence (Revolution) was strictly in accordance 
 with the divine precept. " 
 
 OUR NATIONAL FLOWER. 
 
 The National Flower of France is the Fleur de Lis, 
 because it has been borne upon her Coat of Arms for 
 centuries ; that of England is the Rose, and is found
 
 1 66 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 upon the Arms of Britain. For a similar reason the 
 national flower of Scotland is the Thistle, while Ire- 
 land's is the Shamrock. In other words these nations 
 do not have to "choose" a national flower in that 
 Heraldry has selected it* In this sense we of Manasseh 
 have no choice in the matter, but bear the Olive by 
 Statute of June 20, 1782, upon our COAT OF ARMS. 
 
 It is passing strange that, in all the recent contro- 
 versy as to this matter of the selection of a National 
 Flower for the United States, this, the decisive fiat of 
 Heraldry, has not been enunciated ; for, except in 
 our own correspondence with Senator Hawley some 
 years ago, in which we urged the strength of this 
 particular contention for use if necessary against the 
 selection of any other flower should the matter ever 
 come up in Congress as was then threatened, we 
 do not remember to have seen the subject even 
 broached, nor, so far as we know, has Congress ever 
 reopened the matter, as among the numerous other 
 " posey " propositions that have besought its vote. 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the finality of the 
 voice of Heraldry in these premises, nor could there 
 be found in the whole Botanic kingdom a plant more 
 suitable for recognition as the National one of the 
 United States than the Olive, which means Peace. 
 It is indigenous here, and its genus is so broad 
 that species of it grow everywhere: the Olive South 
 and West, the Ash in the North and East, and the 
 lovely Lilac ubiquitously. 
 
 Fortunately we have committed ho national faux 
 
 * Every one knows this and knows 'why.
 
 THE OLIVE BRANCH. 167 
 
 pas in this respect, /. e., as to the disturbance of the 
 fundamental Statute, and now that the "History, 
 Heraldry and Significance of our wonderful Inheri- 
 tance in the Great Seal of the United States," has at 
 last been set in at least primary order we are justified 
 in urging upon all to whom these presents come to 
 enlighten their neighbors on the topic and to turn 
 their attention to these a priori and a fortiori facts. 
 
 We of Manasseh bear the Olive-branch heraldically 
 and by law. To legislate further thereon is unneces- 
 sary; in fact, our "Flower day" is June 2oth, the 
 date on which the Great Seal was adopted, and (by a 
 most fitting coincidence, though never thought of 
 until this very moment *) is the date already selected 
 for the publication of this very Study. 
 
 The Summer solstice of this year is to be signifi- 
 cant to Ephraim also, as thereat, June 2oth, the 
 Victorian celebrations are to begin. It is always an 
 important Pyramidal date, and it is one of the quad- 
 ratures of the Solar year, and in this particular year 
 will be remarkably marked astronomically (astrolog- 
 ically) by having the sun and moon in absolute quad- 
 rature, the sun at 90 true Long, (or 6 h R. A.), and 
 the moon at o Declin. It is noticeable, too, that the 
 "equation of time" this year changes from to + 
 on June i3th which is the anniversary of Secretary 
 Thomson's appointment to control over the Seal dur- 
 ing that final and eventful week (June 13-20, 1782) 
 of its birth. 
 
 * May 16, 1897, as we are reading these pages finally for tbj 
 press,
 
 THE BUNDLE OF ARROWS. 
 
 "The Eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the 
 Everlasting Arms." Deut. xxxiii. 27. 
 
 "But his bow'' (Joseph's) " abode in strength, and the Arms 
 of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God 
 of Jacob." Gen. xlix. 24. 
 
 " No Weapon formed against thee shall prosper." Isa. liv. 
 17- 
 
 " And loud the sinew twanged * * * 
 With deadly speed the eager Arrow sprang 
 
 * * * * it struck : 
 Yet onward still the Arrow drove." II. iv. 119. 
 
 Concerning this elementary device upon our Coat 
 of Arms, first proposed by Secretary Thomson, the 
 statute reads: "and in his sinister a bundle of thir- 
 teen arrows, all proper." 
 
 As a general xule, Arrows in heraldry are blazoned 
 argent, and feathered or. The shaft and head are 
 thus silver (or steel) white, and the feathers of gold. 
 Following this general custom of 
 
 "Silver arrows fledged with gold,"* 
 
 the only official blazonry, that in St. Paul's Chapel, 
 N. Y., is thus tinctured, and is our highest special 
 authority for perpetuating it. The statute is silent 
 as to the direction in which these arrows shall point, 
 save in so far as this may be covered by the words, 
 
 * Compare remarks p. 198, Vol i. Study Number Eighteen
 
 THE BUNDLE OF ARROWS. 
 
 169 
 
 "all proper." They have been universally repre- 
 sented on ihe Arms with "points upward," and out- 
 ward. This is also their "proper " mode of display - 
 ment, as they here represent the war power of the 
 country which is thus shown to be in a state of readi- 
 ness and preparation. 
 
 In the old Seal of the State department which, as 
 we have already seen, is modeled upon the Obverse 
 of the National Seal, the eagle correctly bears its 
 Bundle of Arrows with the points depressed, to signify 
 that in our intercourse with fellow nations, we have 
 no aggressive or hostile intent, and that even in times 
 of actual warfare, the affairs of State-craft should 
 proceed upon the basis of peace and good faith. 
 
 The Bundle of thirteen 
 resents the nation individu- 
 lectively prepared for war. 
 are most appropriately 
 ondary or sinister place 
 of the eagle's talons, 
 fers peace to war. She 
 fruits thereof 
 the right 
 Yet, is she 
 fray: not in- 
 old world, 
 down by over 
 reliant, pos- 
 source, and 
 prospered 
 
 Arrows rep- 
 ally and col- 
 Its weapons 
 given the see- 
 in the grasp 
 America pre- 
 offcrs the 
 to all the world with 
 hand of friendship, 
 prepared for the 
 deed as the nations of the 
 crushed and burdened 
 preparation, but as self 
 sessed of inexhaustible re- 
 as confident in Him who 
 her beginnings. 
 
 The Arrow is preeminently an American weapon.
 
 1 70 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 The aborigines of our continent were universally 
 armed with this deadly shaft, and used it with unerr- 
 ing precision. It is thus peculiarly appropriate as 
 the symbol of our war power. It was also the most 
 expressive and distinctive weapon of the war-god of 
 the Aztecs this deity being always represented with 
 a bundle of them in his hand. 
 
 But the weapon is still more intimately connected 
 with our own traditions as an Anglo-Saxon people. 
 The English archers were the terror of every battle- 
 field of the Middle Ages. It was their distinctive 
 weapon, whose flight in deadly clouds was not to be 
 withstood by any discipline their adversaries could 
 array against it. The Saxon was so expert with this 
 weapon, and drew his powerful bow with so much 
 strength as to penetrate a two-inch oaken board at 
 a distance of over 200 yards. He delivered his arrows 
 too, with wonderful rapidity and accuracy. The test 
 of archery among them was the delivery of at least 
 twelve (13) arrows in a minute, each one of which 
 was to seek its mate and quiver at the center of the 
 mark two hundred and fifty yards away. 
 
 But further back even than the Anglo-Saxon his- 
 tory of Our Race, the Bow-and-arrow was distinctively 
 our. weapon. The little tribe of Benjamin alone pos- 
 sessed "an army of 280,000 mighty men of valor 
 that bare shields and drew the bow."* These men 
 possessed such skill that they could use alike " both 
 the right hand and the left "f with the bow and arrow, 
 and out of Judah came " the Battle-bow " itself !{ 
 
 *II. Chron. xiv. 8. f I. Chron. xii. 2. JZech. x. 4.
 
 THE BUNDLE OF ARROWS. i?l 
 
 But this species of arms- was as familiar to Manas- 
 seh as it was to his father Joseph, hence we read 
 that "The Sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, the 
 half tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to 
 bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with Bow, and 
 skilful in war, were four and forty thousand seven 
 hundred and three score, that went out to the war " 
 (I. Chron. v. 18). 
 
 But again, to us as intimately connected with our 
 ancestral Tribe, the house of Joseph, the Bow and 
 Arrow have peculiar import. In his blessing of 
 Joseph, our father Jacob expressly says that, though 
 " the archers have sorely grieved him and shot at 
 him, and hated him; but his bow abode in strength, 
 and the Arms of his hands were made strong by the 
 hands of the mighty God of Jacob."* 
 
 The prophet Zechariah in his ninth chapter and on- 
 ward through his book, referring to the Golden Age 
 of Israel, speaks similarly of our house. Thus the 
 Lord says unto him, " When I have bent Judah for 
 me, and filled the bow with Ephraim\ * * * the Lord 
 shall be seen over thy sons, O Zion, and his Arrow 
 shall go forth as the lightning !"J 
 
 In their higher symbolism the Arrow is thus the 
 weapon of the Almighty. It is the deadliest spe- 
 cies of missile- weapon, it cannot be withdrawn with- 
 out producing still greater laceration, its barbs hold 
 
 *.Gen. xlix. 23-24, 
 
 f Put for the whole house of Joseph" the Arrow of Israel !' 
 
 JZech. ix. 
 
 Job. vi. 4.
 
 l 1 ?* THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 fast, and every motion works it farther in towards 
 the vital parts. 
 
 The Bible is full of references* to them, and sharp 
 and piercing, they are made ever ready for the per- 
 secutors of God's people. Even in ancient mythology 
 this distinctive weapon of the All-powerful one was 
 fully recognized, and the eagle Bird of Jove held 
 a Bundle of them in his talons. 
 
 Thus, as Americans, and as Anglo-Saxons, as Sons 
 of Manasseh, descendants of the thirteenth tribe of 
 thirteen-tribed Israel, as Sons of Joseph, yea, and 
 loftier yet, as sons too of the living God, the Arrows 
 in the eagle's grasp are rightly borne as emblematic 
 of the war power temporal and spiritual of this 
 " Great People " of the latter days. 
 
 We have already referred to the remarkable col- 
 lection of constellations that presided over the deso- 
 late heritages of America at creation, f These were 
 Capricornus and Sagittarius, with their Decans, 
 Lyra, Ara, Draco; Sagitta, Aquila and Delphinus. 
 Capricornus is the scape-goat, the "lost tribe," so to 
 speak, but our specific emblem is Sagittarius, the 
 Archer, or Manasseh, Joseph's first-born son. The 
 collection is a vivid prophecy of our o\vn heraldry, 
 but its antitype is one phase of the story of the Sa- 
 viour. All this has been amply shown by Dr. Seiss 
 in his "Gospel of the Stars, "J so that we need not 
 
 * Deut. xxxii. 23, 42. II. Sam. xxii. 15. Psa. xviii. 14 ; vii. 13 ; 
 xxi. 12; cxliv. 6, etc. 
 
 f Vide Vol. I., Study Number Eighteen, pp. 286-8 and 305-7. 
 J Now unfortunately " out of print."
 
 THE BUNDLE OF ARROWS. 173 
 
 repeat it here, save to note that the celestial arrow 
 Sagitta is "the shot or killing one, for it appears 
 naked and alone. It has left the bow and is speed- 
 ing to its aim. It is a heavenly one, and He who 
 shoots it is invisible. There is a majesty and mys- 
 tery about it which startles and awes, it is the death- 
 arrow of Almighty justice, which goes forth 
 from the throne against all unrighteousness and 
 sin." But in Manasseh's arms the bundle of arrows 
 is held firm, the arrows are regathered as it were, 
 and the olive branch, which is found in the same 
 cluster of constellations, has precedence. Manas- 
 seh is, in fact, a promise of Peace, and in due time, 
 under the God of Joseph is to become its fulfillment; 
 yet all this not alone, for Ephraim is the Stick of 
 Ten-Tribed Israel, and with Judah in that day is to 
 form one Stick or sceptre under the Righteous King 
 whom God will raise up according to the promises 
 unto the fathers. 
 
 But the Arrow covers a further idea. " There is a 
 spiritual piercing and slaying in the case of those 
 who come to a new life in Christ, akin to the pierc- 
 ing and slaying of Christ himself. Sharp and hurt- 
 ful words are compared to Arrows. And of this 
 character are the words of God as pronounced upon 
 the wicked, judging and condemning them for their 
 sins, bringing them down from their lofty security 
 and hitting out of them the vain imaginings in 
 which they live. Isaiah speaks of this sort of shaft 
 or arrow in the Lord's quiver -the Arrow of the 
 Word the Arrow of conviction of sin, righteousness
 
 i?4 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 and judgment a wounding and killing arrow which 
 enters into men's souls and makes rmmble penitents 
 of them that they may come to life in Christ." 
 
 THE NATIONAL MAGE. 
 
 The Mace of the House of Representatives (U. S. ) 
 was made in 1884, and consists of a bundle of thir- 
 teen Ebony Rods, entwined and bound together with 
 silver bands (Psa. Ixvi. 10; Zech. xiii. 9). The thir- 
 teen ebony sticks are intended to represent the origi- 
 nal States of the Union, and thus to stand for the 
 whole nation (compare Ezek. xxxvii. 16, 17). This 
 bundle of sticks that has thus become one in the 
 hands of Manasseh is surmounted by a globe of sil- 
 ver upon which both hemispheres are traced, while a 
 silver Eagle, with outstretched wings, is perched 
 upon the summit of the globe. 
 
 The Psalmist (ciii. 5) through his prophetic vision 
 saw Israel spreading abroad, mighty, and advanc- 
 ing from pole to pole, and as an Eagle compassing 
 all lands. He beheld, far distant, yet sure, Judah 
 and Israel repentant and joined together as one 
 nation in the land by a new and indissoluble cove- 
 nant, ratified in Zion before the Lord. Israel shall 
 indeed mount like an Eagle and cast off her sins, she 
 shall renew her strength, and be quickened by the 
 Divine Spirit ; then shall she mount aloft, and then 
 shall the earth yield her increase and all things 
 become new.* 
 
 * Compare F. Goss in Banner of Israel, Jan. u, 1893.
 
 THE ARMS AS A WHOLE. 
 
 "And nightly to the listening earth 
 Repeats the story of her birth." 
 
 ADDISON. Ode. 
 
 ' ' Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because 
 he was the son of his old age; and he made him a Coat of Many 
 Colors." Gen. xxxvii. 3. 
 
 As the result of our consideration of the Coat of 
 Arms, its History, its intended Heraldry, its interior 
 Symbolism, and the requirements of high art for its 
 proper realization, we may finally conclude as fol- 
 lows: That in the great Seal Medal of 1882 the 
 general proportions of the device were first realized, 
 and that the whole device lacks but the truly fruitful 
 olive branch of Manasseh, consisting of 13 growths, 
 each of a fruit, a flower, and two leaves, to accomplish 
 all of its deep significance. The official die of the 
 State Department now in use since 1885 grasps this 
 numerical balance fairly well, and at any rate better 
 than any previous attempt at its realization, by plac- 
 ing 13 olives and 13 leaves over against the 13 arrow- 
 heads and 13 fledgings; but when analyzed down to 
 the ultimates it will be seen that the balance is not 
 finally exact, for the fledgings are double, and the 
 olive growth should be so too. The artistic necessity of 
 this balance has already been frequently recognized
 
 1 76 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 upon much of our coinage which takes its symbols 
 directly from the Arms, and upon both the St. Paul 
 Chapel blazonry and on that of the Great Treaty 
 Seal of 1850 to 1864, where this balance was also 
 partially recognized by the 13 olives given to the 
 Branch in each case. 
 
 The Scroll should be tinctured white, this being its 
 "proper" color. As the statute is silent, the gen- 
 eral law and custom governing such cases is that the 
 natural color shall be used that of a book being 
 white, and that particularly of the Sacred One, in 
 which we find the highest meaning to each of our 
 national symbols, being of the purest white, or Light 
 itself. 
 
 The Arrows, barbed or bifid like the olive calyx 
 and the eagle's tongue, should also be blazoned 
 " proper," /'. e., Argent (or steel white), and feathered 
 Or (gold), as in the St. Paul Chapel blazonry, which is 
 the highest special authority we have upon this point, 
 it being also a general custom of heraldry that where 
 no tincture is mentioned, arrows shall be Argent 
 feathered Or.* All of these heraldic features are es- 
 sential to the proper realization of our Arms. 
 
 They are not changes in the law, but are simply 
 interpretations of the statute itself. That they have 
 not been succinctly presented and recognized long 
 ago is because no one heretofore has interested 
 himself upon the subject sufficiently to make it a 
 study. Nevertheless no one can examine the history 
 
 *The only exception to this will be to feather from the 
 eagle itself, in which case white, or brown and white.
 
 THE ARMS AS A WHOLE. 177 
 
 of the Seal as now presented, nor watch the slow de- 
 velopment by which its proper interpretation has 
 been brought about, without becoming convinced 
 that all along the path glimpses of its true light have 
 flashed out, and bear clear evidence to the interpre- 
 tation here advanced. 
 
 Far be it from our purpose in this volume to start 
 a controversy upon such a topic. But there has been 
 lack of interest in it for a hundred years, and our na- 
 tional heraldry has been suffered so to degenerate that 
 its beautiful proportions for a long era were almost 
 entirely lost to sight. The sole object of this volume, 
 therefore, is to present these beauties clearly to the 
 view, and to reach out a hand to save them from fur- 
 ther dishonor. The conclusions we have reached are 
 founded upon facts too strong to fear investigation. 
 
 We have labored upon the fundamental principle 
 that the statute as it now stands, is what we must in- 
 terpret, and that if ITS clear interpretation covers 
 every mooted point, then there is no need of touch- 
 ing it again (as some have thoughtlessly advised) 
 within the halls of Congress. 
 
 The perfect harmony of the "Arms" proper of the 
 United States, is as striking as it is beautiful. In 
 the design ultimately adopted to represent the En- 
 sign lifted upon this continent to the nations of the 
 earth, simplicity is the most apparent feature. 
 
 The appropriateness of the emblem, both as a 
 whole and in each of its several parts, is none the 
 less apparent. No more fitting an emblem for the 
 of Freedom could have been selected.
 
 t?8 THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 Upon the Arms of America the Eagle is fully " oc- 
 cupied." He bears in his beak a Scroll inscribed 
 with the most impressive Motto of Union that man- 
 kind have ever heard. Spreading aloft the wings of 
 his protection, he bears upon his breast the Shield of 
 safety charged with the sentiments and tinctures of 
 our Flag and Freedom. 
 
 With all the blessings of peace he greets the exiled 
 out of every land with the Olive branch, while yet 
 prepared for war he holds the Arrows of perpetual 
 victory full in the sight of those who tyrannize man- 
 kind. 
 
 This is the beauty of symbolism and of heraldry, 
 that in a picture so much can be expressed that to 
 use it as a text whole volumes might be written and 
 yet not exhaust the story. *
 
 THE CREST. 
 
 " A Star for every State and a State for every Star." ROB- 
 ERT C. WINTHROP. Address on Boston Common. 
 
 " Forever singing as they shine 
 The hand that made US is divine." 
 
 ADDISON. Ode. 
 
 "The Lord went before them by day in a Pillar of a Cloud , 
 * and by night in a Pillar of Fire." Exod. xiii: 21. 
 
 "And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the 
 saying. Gen. xxxvii. n. (Compare 9-10). 
 
 In heraldry the Crest was an ornament for the 
 head. It was usually affixed to the helmet, and was 
 a distinctively personal or hereditary device. War- 
 riors among the classical ancients bore insignia pe- 
 culiar to themselves, in this manner. But the idea is 
 a natural one to the human mind, and among the 
 aborigines of our own continent no form of distinc- 
 tive ornament is more common than the headdress 
 which is usually of Eagle's feathers. The earliest 
 instance of the heraldic crest in England is said to 
 be that of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster 
 (about 1280 A. D.). In modern European blazonry 
 the Crest is usually placed upon a wreath, coronet, or 
 cap of maintenance, which surmounts the Coat of 
 Arms, and in character it is not unfrequently a repeti-
 
 i8o THE SEAL OF HISTORV. 
 
 tion of some particular bearing- on the shield itself. 
 Thus the crest of Castile is a castle as by Arms. 
 
 The American Crest, however, instead of being a 
 repetition of the stars that are said to have been pro- 
 posed originally by Sir John Prestwick for emplace- 
 ment upon the chief, and are so shown on the flag of 
 the Washington Life Guard, consists of these stars 
 themselves, removed from it by Mr. Thomson, and 
 raised to the more symbolic place originally proposed 
 by the Committee of 1779. They have no need of 
 resting upon any wreath, or crown, or cap of main- 
 tenance, but float inherently above the brow of 
 Liberty the genius of our people. 
 
 The employment of the heraldic term "mullets,"* 
 in describing 1 the Crest or Constellation upon our 
 Coat of Arms is not correct. A " mullet" in heraldry 
 simply represents the rowel of a spur. In English 
 blazonry it is depicted as of five points; in French, 
 ;is of six.f It is used as the filial distinction of the 
 third son. It has no reference whatsoever to a star, 
 indeed the constellation of thirteen stars is so new to 
 national heraldry that it probably occurred legiti- 
 mately therein for the first time when charged upon 
 the American Flag in 1777 and over our Coat of Arms 
 in 1782. 
 
 * See Preble. Page 694. 
 
 f But the " Mullet," whether French or English, has a small 
 ring or eyelet in its centre, which the " Star" or " Etoile ' does 
 not have, and the "Star" is specifically defined by our Statute 
 as intended not the Mullet, nor are "Mullets" shown upon 
 the flag, nor on Washington's family Arms, from whence all 
 these things really came in so far as our Heraldry is concerned.
 
 THE CREST. 18 1 
 
 The "denominating of the stars over the head of 
 the Eagle as a ' Crest ' " is often objected to by those, 
 who though well versed in ancient and personal her- 
 aldry, are not yet imbued with its inner spirit deeply 
 enough to catch the purer symbolism thus introduced 
 in the " Novus Ordo Sedorum" Speaking of this 
 so called erroneous denomination, Mr. T. C. Lukens, 
 of Philadelphia, in a letter to Admiral Preble, calls 
 it an armoristic lapse. * He says : ' ' They are instead 
 only approximately a Crest, but are not a Crest, ex- 
 cept through great latitude in the use of the term, 
 because they could not be tangibly represented as in 
 nature and attached \.Q the top of a helmet. Theoret- 
 ically, the Crest must be something possible to be 
 represented in apparent solidity in carved or stamped 
 work, which being affixed to the helmet can also be 
 reasonably represented as resting upon the top of the 
 Shield." 
 
 Mr. Lukens seems to have forgotten that the Bible, 
 which is a volume of the very loftiest symbolism, 
 freely employs this perfectly natural emblem, as for 
 
 * See page 691, "The Flag of the United States " Ad- 
 miral Geo. H. Preble. 3d Ed., 1882. Boston, James R. <>s- 
 good & Co.
 
 i8a THE SEAL OF HISTORY. 
 
 instance in the description of that " great wonder in 
 heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon 
 under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve 
 stars " (Rev. xii. i). 
 
 We must differ entirely therefore, with Mr. Lukens 
 on this topic. We require the exercise of no latitude 
 whatever in denominating the Constellation ' ' a Crest. " 
 If represented as in nature, it certainly would require 
 no tangible attachment to the helmet ! The self re- 
 liance, so beautifully realized by the ' ' Eagle without 
 supporters" is made even more explicit in the Crest 
 of Stars above its head. This certainly needs no 
 tangible support ! Its strength to rise into the vault 
 above, higher even than the Eagle's flight itself, 
 comes from Him who " sealeth up the stars "* and 
 puts a crown of them above His own exalted head.f 
 If the stars that form the new American Constella- 
 tion, are simply "mullets," the rowels of so many 
 spurs (!), then let them have shanks and tangible 
 supports, but if they are indeed Stars, as the fathers 
 of our country certainly specified, they need no other 
 than their own inherent power to float above the 
 Shield and Helmet of the nation. Thus in nature do 
 they float and thus above our Shield and Arms the 
 People that they represent move on behind the Pil- 
 lar and the Cloud. \ 
 
 We must here reiterate and intensify the fact of 
 the complete separation of the Arms and Crest upon 
 
 * Job ix. 7. 
 
 f Rev. xii. i. (Comp. xix. 12). 
 
 | Exod. xiii. 21-22; Num. xiv. 14.
 
 THE CREST. 183 
 
 the Obverse face of the Seal. They are two distinct 
 devices cast upon the same field, and for this reason 
 the tincture of the general background is not to be 
 confused with those of the specific backgrounds of 
 each, although they are, of course, the same in 
 general and particular. That of the Crest is clearly 
 defined azure, the stars thereon, the Glory thence 
 pushing back the Cloud and breaking through it. As 
 a single device this Crest, as in the Seal of the Presi- 
 dent of the Confederation, is complete in itself. So 
 are the Arms, which itemize the details of the same 
 bearings. Hence, although the statute is silent as to 
 the field upon which the Arms themselves are 
 blazoned, there ought to be no doubt that it is 
 " properly " to be tinctured as blue azure, just as 
 specified in the cognate Crest. The Eagle rises into 
 the same azure vault that is the habitat of the Stars, 
 the Clouds roll back from each. Both emblems have 
 a blue field, and the two emblems are distinct on 
 such a tincture. 
 
 The Statute defining the Crest of the United 
 States reads as follows: "For the CREST: over the 
 head of the Eagle which appears above the Escutch- 
 eon, a Glory breaking through a Cloud proper, and 
 surrounding thirteen Stars, forming a Constellation, 
 argent, and on an azure field." 
 
 This is essentially as it was proposed by the Com- 
 mittee of 1779 and 1780, from whose device for the 
 Great Seal Mr. Thomson manifestly took it, only 
 adding thereunto the Cloud broken by the Glory, and 
 specifying the azure field.