I am convinced that the Christian Gnostics, with whom the Tertullian type were in constant conflict, really did know much that they claimed, and that had they not been trampled out of the light of day Europe would never have sunk into the melancholy, well-designated Dark Ages. Gnostic emblems have been found abundantly in Ireland: the Pythagorean or Gnostic symbol known as the pentagon or Solomon's seal occurs on British coins,[84] and the Bardic literature of Wales is deeply steeped with a Gnostic mysticism for which historians find it difficult to account. The facts which I shall adduce in the following pages are sufficiently curious to permit the hope that they may lead a few of us to become less self-complacent, and in the words of the author of _Ancient Britain_ relative to aboriginal Britons, "to think more of those primitive ancestors. In some things we have sunk below their level."[85] FOOTNOTES: [39] _Words and Places._ [40] Schliemann, _Mykenæ_. [41] _Cf._ Johnson, W., _Byways in British Archæology_. [42] _The Cromlechs of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire._ [43] _Ancient Britain_, p. 70. [44] Windle, Sir B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 135. [45] Johnston, Rev. James B., _The Place-names of England and Wales_, 1915, p. 321. The Horse-lie-down theory is enunciated by Sir Walter Besant. [46] Preface to _The Place-names of Oxfordshire_. [47] 1915. [48] _Cf._ Bonwick, J., _Irish Druids_, p. 278. [49] Virchow, intro. to Schliemann, _Ilios_ XII. [50] _Cf._ _Brittany_, p. 28. [51] Clodd, Ed., _The Story of Primitive Man_, 9, 18. [52] Sweet, H., _The History of Language_, p. vi. [53] _The Principles of Comparative Philology._ [54] Even after Troy had been discovered by Schliemann, Max Müller maintained his belief that the Siege of Troy was a Sun and Dawn myth. [55] _Alphana_ vient d'_equus_, sans doute, Mais il faut avouer aussi Qu'en venant de là jusqu'ici Il a bien changé sur la route. [56] Westropp, T. J., _Proc. R. Irish Acad._, xxxiv., C., 8, p. 159. [57] Dallas, H. A. [58] Norwood, J. W. [59] Such obvious concoctions of the study as _exsufflicate_, _deracinate_, _incarnadine_, etc., never strike root or survive. [60] Petrie, W. M. F., _The Formation of the Alphabet_, p. 3. [61] _A Book of the Beginnings_, 1, p. 136. [62] _Lectures on the English Language_, 1862, p. 16. [63] Quoted from _ibid._, p. 30. [64] The _Edin_ of the prehistoric British _Dun edin_, now Edinburgh, has been calmly misappropriated to a supposed _Edwin_. [65] _Ancient Britain_, pp. 273, 283. [66] _Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft._ [67] Johnson, W., _Byways in British Archæology_, p. 304. [68] Cloudesley Brereton, in _The Quest_. [69] _Luniolatry_, p. 2. [70] _Ancient Britain_, p. 298.