[93] At the very lowest part of the skirt there are appended golden pomegranates and bells and flower-work, symbols of earth and water: the flower patterns of earth because they grow and flower out of it, the pomegranate or flowing fruit, of water, the name preserving its derivation from “flowing,” while the bells shew forth the harmony and concord and unison of the parts of the universe.
[94] The order in which the parts are arranged is also admirable. At the very top is what he calls the breastpiece in which are placed the stones, a copy of heaven because heaven also is at the top. Then under it the full-length skirt, dark blue right through because the air also is black and occupies the second position below the heaven, and the flower-work and pomegranates at the extremities because to earth and water is allotted the lowest place in the universe.
[95] Such is the form in which the sacred vesture was designed, a copy of the universe, a piece of work of marvellous beauty to the eye and the mind. To the eye it presents a most amazing appearance transcending any woven work that we possess in variety and costliness, to the mind the philosophical conceptions which its parts suggest.
[96] For it expresses the wish first that the high priest should have in evidence upon him an image of the All, that so by constantly contemplating it he should render his own life worthy of the sum of things, secondly that in performing his holy office he should have the whole universe as his fellow-ministrant. And very right and fit it is that he who is consecrated to the Father of the world should take with him also that Father’s son, the universe, for the service of the Creator and Begetter.
[97] There is also a third truth symbolized by the holy vesture which must not be passed over in silence. Among the other nations the priests are accustomed to offer prayers and sacrifices for their kinsmen and friends and fellow-countrymen only, but the high priest of the Jews makes prayers and gives thanks not only on behalf of the whole human race but also for the parts of nature, earth, water, air, fire. For he holds the world to be, as in very truth it is, his country, and in its behalf he is wont to propitiate the Ruler with supplication and intercession, beseeching Him to make His creature a partaker of His own kindly and merciful nature.