It may be remarked that there are many suggestions of history in stamps that are not surcharged. The succession of portraits and other devices in the issues of a country is often elo quent of the march of great events, and there is a touch of pathos in Poland's solitary stamp.
Finally, I wish to call your attention to a few stamps which tell most interesting stones, and which have a touch of mysticism and symbolism, which is not of to-day.
The coat of arms of Mexico has its origin in the distant past. General Lew Wallace says in his historical romance the Fair God: "The site of the city of Tenochtitlan was chosen by the gods. In the south-western border of Lake Tezcuco, one morning in 1300, a wandering tribe of Aztecs saw an eagle perched, with outspread wings, upon a cactus, and holding a serpent in its talons. At a word from their priests, they took possession of the marsh and there stayed their migration and founded the city; such is the tradition. As men love to trace their descent back to some stoned greatness, nations delight to associate the gods with their origin."
Many stamps of Persia bear the lion and the sun, the arms of the country and the insignia of its highest order of nobility. It is the lion of Iran, hold ing in its paw the sceptre of the Khorassan while behind it shines the sun of Darius. There is a legend concerning the latter symbol to the effect that Darius, hunting in the desert, threw his spear at a lion and missed. The beast crouched to spring, when the sun, shining on a talisman on Darius' breast, so overpowered it that it came fawning to his feet and followed him back to the city. And for this reason the sun became part of the arms of the kingdom. But I think we may look further than this and find in it a relic of the ancient fire worship and of oriental pretentions to power over heaven and earth.
How much of Egypt's myths and splendors are here depicted; the temple column called Pompey's pillar, the obelisk of Luxor, the mighty pyramids, last of all the sphynx, that fabled creature with the face of a woman, the body of a tigress and the heart of both. In fancy we can see her, crouched on a rock beside the great highway to Thebes, propounding her fatal riddle to the bewildered passers by, till Oedipus shall come.