Solomon speaks of the “silver cord.” It is the bond between the mortal and the everlasting: when it is loosed then the soul is released and regains the music of the spheres. Sir Walter Raleigh writes:-- “My soul like quiet palmer Travelleth toward the land of heaven, Over the silver mountains Whence spring the nectar fountains.” In the Paradise of the Brahmins, Brahma has his being in the heart of a silver rose (Tamura Pua); that is, in the heart of all fragrance, sweetness, beauty, purity, and joy there is God. * * * * * In its opposite symbolism white means lack of courage and sometimes deceitfulness--_e.g._ “whited sepulchres.” CHAPTER VIII THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLACK “Upon all the glory shall be a defence.”--ISAIAH. Although science does not now consider black as a colour, yet it is still considered so by the public and was considered so by the ancients. To them it was the colour of mystery and of the mysterious ways and wisdom of God. In Egypt, Kneph the Creative Mind was sometimes addressed as “Thrice unknown darkness transcending all intellectual perception,” for certainly the wisdom of God is beyond the comprehension of human intellect. One of our modern mystics, Henry Vaughan, seems to arrive at the same thought when he says, “There is in God a deep and dazzling darkness”; meaning that the mysteries of God are unfathomable but glorious. Black was considered the colour of wisdom, and Milton, who is so accurate in his symbolism, uses it as such:-- “Goddess staid and holy, Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight; And therefore to our weaker view O’erlaid with black, staid wisdom’s hue.” Black also symbolised eternity; thus Night, the mother of all things, was sometimes portrayed by the Greeks in a starry veil, holding two children--one white and the other black--to symbolise Time and Eternity. Osiris and also Horus are sometimes painted white and sometimes black, to show that they manifested themselves in time though they were eternal. Black also meant silence--the things that are not to be revealed to everyone--the thoughts that lie too deep for tears--the innermost and most sacred experiences of life. It is not that we ought to be selfish with our knowledge--far otherwise:-- “Give all thou canst; high heaven rejects the lore Of nicely-calculated less or more.”[20] [20] Wordsworth, “Within King’s College Chapel.” It is that certain experiences can only be comprehended by a person having similar experiences. In olden times a black rose was used as the symbol of the silence of an initiate, such a silence as that comprehended by St Paul when speaking of the man who was caught up into heaven and heard[21] unspeakable things which it is not lawful for any man to utter. The great promise[22] to every initiate is, “I will give thee the treasures of darkness.” [21] 2 Corinthians xii. 4. [22] Isaiah xlv. 3.