The pentacle has been accorded great potency, and used extensively to keep off witches and all sorts of evil influences, including the devil himself, and hence it has served purposes very similar to those to which the horseshoe has often been put. Aubrey says that it was formerly used by the Greek Christians, as the sign of the cross is now, “at the beginning of letters or books for good luck’s sake,”[551]—something which old John Evelyn was wont to do in his works, and as Southey placed the puzzling monogram,[552] meant, perhaps, to have similar significance on the title-page of his book, “The Doctor.” One is found in the western window of the south aisle of Westminster Abbey, which, doubtless, the black monks, as they chanted in the choir, often looked on with superstitious emotion. It may be seen on many a cradle and threshold at the present day in the Fatherland. The readers of Goethe’s great work will remember that Dr. Faust had one on his threshold, and that, when he began to perceive that there was something decidedly suspicious about the character of the “poodle,” he remarked that “Für solche halbe Höllenbrut Ist Salomonis Schlüssel gut.” How Mephistopheles himself got in was afterward explained by his showing that one of the angles of the “Drudenfuss” was left open. [Illustration: FIG. 29.—HYGEIA, A SYMBOL OF HEALTH.] Disciples of the Samian sage, cabalistic[553] Jews and Arabians, and others, especially Gnostics, long viewed the pentacle as a symbol of health, and made use of it as an amulet, calling it Hygeia, the name of the goddess of health. It was so called, and to some extent, likely for a similar reason, regarded as a sacred symbol of health, because it could be resolved, it was believed, into the Greek letters which form the word Hygeia; and these were placed one on each point of the figure.[554] It was accepted, in fact, as a sort of rebus of the name of the celebrated daughter of Æsculapius. The scholarly and ingenious reader may be able to trace, more or less definitely, this reputed similarity. It is an interesting feature of what is certainly a very remarkable figure. FOOTNOTES [1] That scholarly old writer, Ashmole, well says: “What some light braines may esteem as foolish toyes, deeper judgments can and will value as sound and serious matter.” Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 1652. [2] Ecclesiasticus, xxxix, 1. [3] Natural History, xxi. [4] Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology, p. 197. London, 1844. [5] A Dictionary of Terms in Art. London, 1854. [6] _Ibid._ Article, “Attribute.” [7] History of the Egyptian Religion, p. 219. London, 1882. [8] Royal Masonic Cyclopædia. London, 1877. [9] The Greek form of the name is Asclepios or Asklepios, Ἀσκληπιὸς. The Latin form being the one in general use, I will adhere to it in this essay. [10] Itinerary of Greece (translation), vol. iii, p. 23. [11] Iliad, xi. [12] Ch. xxxviii, v. 3.