they are both synonymous with the Zodiac. I fear, however, this "decision would more embroil the fray;" and I shall not therefore permit it to detain me longer from entering upon my, disquisition.

I. Caius Julius Cæsar-Gad-Aries.

THOUGH Sir William Drummond's professed object is to prove only that the standards of the twelve tribes were taken from the Zodiacal signs, "he keeps the word of promise to the ear, and breaks it to the faith" his arguments undoubtedly identify the Patriarchs themselves, with these signs.

Gad is shown to be Aries from his name, from the traditions, and from two expres

sions in Scripture, Gen. xlix, 19, and Deut. xxxiii, 21.

Gad originally signified a troop.

"The

sign Aries is called Princeps Zodiaci,

Ductor Exercitus, Dux Gregis, Princeps Signorum," &c.' "Aries is the symbol of the Sun, who, after having descended to, and returned from the lower hemisphere, contends for his place in the upper hemisphere; and the ancients accordingly represent him as struggling against the constellations; which they typified by a ram butting with his horns." He was, as it were, the troop; and Gad was a troop; therefore Gad was Aries.

Similar arguments prove the identity of Cæsar with Aries. The name Cæsar (says Zuerius in his notes to Suetonius) is

1

6

derived from the Arabic Casara, frangere,' to make war against, to conquer, to fight, as the Ram fights with the Constellations. I might say, Cæsar contended for his place,

⚫ Edipus Judaicus, page 30.

and the Ram contends for his place, therefore Cæsar is the Ram; but I do not rest on this argument: I am most anxious to show, that I place no dependence on any unnatural derivation, or forced coincidences. I shall therefore consider the evidence that Cæsar was Aries, from his whole name taken together; and the identity will then appear, even from this first proof, incontrovertible.

"Caius Julius Cæsar was the son of Lucius and Aurelia." These words properly understood, afford the most decisive proof, that the first historical Emperor of Rome was the sign of the Ram.

We are informed by the late venerable, and learned Jacob Bryant, in his catalogue

of the radicals of the Ammonian language, that the words Lux, Luceo, Lucidus, &c. are all derived from Auxos or El Uc, one of the names of the Sun. Lucius is evidently derived from Lux, and originally referred to the Solar Deity, the universal object of idolatrous worship.

Aurelia is derived from Aur

Light, and

El, the Sun. The word Aurelia signifies butterfly, which is well known to be the emblem, not only of the soul leaving the body, but of the Sun breaking from the dreariness of winter, and renewing the life and beauty of nature in the spring. What then can be the offspring of Lucius, and Aurelia; or the offspring of the great Sun, at the period when it emerges from the dominion of winter, but Cæsar, the sign Aries?