[83] "The Gnostic movement began long before the Christian era (what its original historical impulse was we do not know), and only one aspect of it, and that from a strictly limited point of view, has been treated by ecclesiastical historians."--Lamplugh, Rev. F., _The Gnosis of the Light_, 1918, p. 10.
[84] Holmes, Rice, _Ancient Britain_, p. 295.
Upon the Syrian sea the people live, Who style themselves Phoenicians, These were the first great founders of the world-- Founders of cities and of mighty states-- Who showed a path through seas before unknown. In the first ages, when the sons of men Knew not which way to turn them, they assigned To each his first department; they bestowed Of land a portion and of sea a lot, And sent each wandering tribe far off to share A different soil and climate. Hence arose The great diversity, so plainly seen, 'Mid nations widely severed. --DYONYSIUS of Susiana, A.D. 300.
It is a modern axiom that the ancient belief expressed in the above extract has no foundation in fact, and that the Phoenicians, however far-spread may have been their commercial enterprise, never extended their voyages beyond the Pillars of Hercules. It is conceded that it would be easy to demonstrate in Britain the elaborate machinery of sun-worship, if only it could be shown that there were at any time intimate and direct relations between Britain and Phoenicia. The historical evidence, such as it is, of this once-supposed connection, having been weighed and found wanting, the present teaching is thus expressed: "But what of the Phoenicians, and where do they come in? It is a cruel thing to say to a generation which can ill afford to part with any fragment of its diminished archæological patrimony; but it must be said without reserve or qualification: the Phoenicians do not come in at all."[86]
But before bidding a final and irrevocable adieu to Tyre and Tarshish, one is entitled to inquire whence and how Phoenician or Hebrew words and place-names reached this country, particularly on the western coasts. The cold-shouldering of Oriental words has not extinguished their existence, and although these changelings may no longer find an honoured home in our Dictionaries, the terms themselves have survived the ignominy of their expulsion and are as virile to-day as hitherto.