Obeliscus Aegyptiacus

[...of] dignity’s prerogatives, so apt and congruent, that the ancient Hieromystae of Memphis seem, in its elaboration and arrangement, to have looked even then toward these very things with wondrous allusions of symbols; for if we look somewhat more deeply into the hidden things of this Obelisk with a more perspicacious eye of the mind, nothing will appear to us other than a certain secret sacrament of a more divine Nature, involved everywhere with sublime senses of mysteries and everywhere fecund: so that, consequently, by masses of this kind, the mystics of ancient times not without reason alluded, with a wondrous felicity and skill of genius, both to the efflux of the supreme Craftsman, or supramundane spirit, working all in all in the administration of created things; and to the governance of the political World, to be established according to the archetype of the supramundane spirit. If, indeed, we pursue these ideal concepts according to the analogy intended by the ancients, we shall find that this soul of the World is suited to no one more aptly and fittingly than to YOU, O most wise Pontiff, who, as you act as the vicar of the divine Deity on Earth, so also, with the fullness of power handed down to YOU by GOD diffused into the fourfold regions of the World, what else do you do? Than by a participated irradiation of celestial charisms, not only to animate all the members of the Church militant, but also to make them fecund with the fruits of good works most abundantly; nay, beyond the paths of the Sun and Moon, with the keys of the Empyrean realm divinely granted to YOU, do you alone on Earth open and close the gates? What else does that Seira among the hieroglyphic marks—that is, the concatenated nexus of the three Worlds—express, if not the encyclopedia of Your truly celestial virtues, which I could explain most amply in this place, if the world did not already know it, or if YOUR incomparable modesty did not restrain my eager pen.