salvation, a lucky coincidence of ideas which, without doubt, facilitated the reception of it among the faithful."27 And again, "the male organs of generation are sometimes represented by signs of the same sort, which might properly be called symbols of symbols. One of the most remarkable of these is the Cross in the form of the letter , which thus served as the emblem of creation and generation."28

The famous Crux ansata29 which may be seen on all the monuments of Egypt is what is alluded to by the Prophet Ezekiel,30 and is affirmed by the learned L. A. Crozius to be nothing else than the triple Phallus mentioned by Plutarch.31

We shall now proceed to notice a few of the traces of the phallic worship as were still to be found lingering in some parts of Europe so late as the 18th century, a tenacity of existence by no means surprising if it be considered that of all the human affections none is more dangerous to oppose, none more difficult to eradicate, than habit. Accordingly it will be found that the above superstition has maintained itself in countries where Christianity was already established, and that, bidding defiance to the severe precepts of that pure faith, it successfully resisted for at least seventeen centuries every effort made to extirpate it by the Christian clergy backed by the civil power. Its triumph was, however, by no means complete, for this worship was constrained to yield to circumstances and to use a disguise by adopting the forms and designations peculiar to Christianity, a mask which on the other hand, favoured not a little, its preservation.