book in this, that it gives an idea of all the others. The date

of the Vedas, twenty-five to thirty centuries before our era, and their contents, show that all the reveries of the Greek metaphy- sicians came from India. After the Vedas come the Shasters, to the number of six. They treat of theology and science. Then, to the number of eight, come the Pouranas, which treat of mythol- ogy and history. The book entitled Manava-Dharma-Shastra con- tains the laws of the first reformer Menou.
After the sacred books of the Hindoos come those of the Per- sians, the Sadder and the Zend-Avesta, the religious code of the Bactrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Modes. They contain the doctrine of Zoroaster. The Boun-Dehesch, the book of Genesis of the Parsees, successors of the ancient Persians, is a compila- tion of the ancient laws of the Magi. After these come the five books of Hermes, the priest-king of Egypt, founder of the castes, who lived about 3370 B. 0. Then the Taote-King and Gliou-King of the Chinese, the first of which contains the metaphysical doc- trines of Lao-Tseu, and the second the sublimely moral doctrines of Kong-Tseu (Confucius.) Then, in point of time, may be ranked our Bible, the Old Testament of which contains the cos- mogony of the Jews and Christians, and the laws of Moses, with a history of the Hebrew people, and the New Testament of which contains the Gospels of evangelical morality, peace, and charity of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity. The Koran of Ma- homet, containing the precepts and doctrine transmitted by him to his followers, would necessarily follow, to make the list com- plete.
Egypt is the only country which possessed a complete code of doctrines of great antiquity. Clement of Alexandria has trans- mitted to us a curious detail of forty-two volumes which were
25
886 GENERAL HISTOKT OF FBEBMASONRT.
carried in the processions of Isis. " The chief, or singer," says he, " carries an instrument symbolical of music, and two books of Mercury (Hermes), one of them containing the hymns of the gods, and the other the list of the kings. After him comes the horoscopist, observer of the seasons, carrying a palm-branch and a time-piece symbolic of astrology. He has to know by heart the four books of Mercury (Hermes), which treat of astrology : the first of which treats of the order of the planets, the second of the ising and setting of the sun and moon, and the third and fourth of their movements in their orbits, and the aspects of the stars. Then comes the sacred writer, having some feathers stuck into his hair, and in his hand a book, an ink-bottle, and a reed for writing, according to the manners of the Arabs. This officer has to understand the language of the hieroglyphics, the description of the universe, the courses of the sun, moon, and planets, the division of Egypt into thirty-six districts, the course of the Nile, the sacred ornaments, the holy places, etc. Then comes the stole- bearer, who carries the gaugfe of justice, or measure of the Nile, and a chalice for libations, together with ten volumes containing the sacrifices, the hymns, the prayers, the oflFerings, and ceremo- nies of the feasts. Finally appears the prophet, carrying in his bosom, but exposed, a pitcher. He is followed by those who carry the bread, as at the marriage feast of Cana. This prophet, in his position as keeper of the mysteries, must know by heart the ten volumes which treat of the laws, of the gods, and of all the discipline of the priests, etc., which are outside of the forty- two volumes. Thirty-six are known by these persons, and the other six, treating of medicine, of the construction of the human frame, of sickness, of medicaments, and of surgical instruments, belong to the pastophores,
4. — Gosmoffonies.
The recital of the creation of the world, as it is expressed in Genesis, is to be found almost literally in the ancient cosmogonies, and more particularly in those of the Chaldeans and Persians, proving that the Jews but borrowed it from these people. That our readers may judge for themselves, we here give a faithful translation — much more faithful than that which we have from the Grreek and Latin :
" In the beginning, the gods (Blohim) created (hara) the heav- ens and the earth. And the earth was confused and desert, and darkness was upon its face. And the wind (or the spirit) of the ffl|ds acted upon the face of the waters. And the gods said : Let tnWlght be I and the light was ; and he saw that the light was good, and he separated it from the darkness, And he called the
NOTES. 387
light day and the darkness tdght ; and the night and the morning were a first day.
" And the gods said : Let the void (ragia) be (made) in the middle of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters ; and the gods made the void, separating the waters which are under the void, and he gave to the void the name of heavens; and the night and the morning were a second day.
" And the go is said : Let the waters under the heavens collect themselves intc one place, and let the- dry earth appear. That was so, ai^ he gave the name of earth to the shallows and the name of sea to the body of waters ; and he said : Let the earth produce vegetables with their seeds ; and the night and the morn- ing were a third day, etc.
''And the fourth day he made the bodies of light (the sun and the moon) for to separate the day from the night, and to serve as signs to the times, to the days and to the years. At the fifth day he made the reptiles of the water, the birds and the fishes. At the sixth day the gods made the reptiles of the earth, the four-footed and wild animals, and he said : malee man to owr image and to owr likeness ; and he created (ba/ra) man to his image, and he it created to his image, and he them created (bora') male and female ; and he rested himself at the seventh day.
" Now, it rained not upon the earth, but an abundant moisture arose from the earth, and sprinkled all its surface.
''And he had planted the garden of Eden (anteriorly or to the East) ; he there placed man. At the middle of the garden was the tree of life and the tree of the science of good and evil. And from the garden of Eden went forth a river which divided into four streams, called Phison, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.
"And Jehouh the gods sai,d : It is not good that man should be alone, and he sent him a sleep, during which he withdrew from him a rib, of which he built the woman," etc.
If such a recital as this was presented to us by the Brahmins or the Lamas, it would be curious to hear our doctors censure these anomalies. What a strange condition of physics, they would say, to suppose that light existed before the sun was created, before the stars, and independently of them', and, what is more offensive to reason, to say that there was a night and a morning, when the night and the morning were nothing but the appearance or disappearance of that body of light which makes the day.
We quite agree with our doctors on this subject, and can no more than they control these anomalies; but because the account resists the laws of sober reason, we must turn to the consideration of the allegorical explanation of it. The reader is, no doubt, surprised with this translation of the creative gods; nevertheless, such is the value of the text, in the view of all grammarians. But why this plural Koverniug the singular? Because the Jew translator, pressed by two
388 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONjiY.
contradictory authorities, had no other way of relieving his embar- rassment. The law of Moses prescribed but an only God, while ihe cosmogonies, not alone of the Chaldeans, but of nearly all' known na- tions; attributed to the secondary gods, and not to the one great God, the creation of the world. The Jewish translator had not courage enough to reject a word sacred to law and usage. Among the Egyptians these Blohim were the deacons, and, among the Persians and Chaldeans, the geni of the months and the planets, as we are informed by the Phenecian author Sanchoniathon.
Now observe how the Vedas, the sacred books of thf Hindoos, account for the creation of the world.
" In the beginning there was an only God, self-created and self- sustaining. After having passed an eternity in the contemplation of his own being, he desired to exhibit his perfections beyond himself, and created the matter of the world. The four elements having been produced, but, as ' yet, in a confused condition, he blew upon the waters and they became inflated like an immense bubble in the form of an egg, and which, developing, became the vault and orb o^ heaven which surround the world. Then, having made the earth and the bodies of living beings, this God, essence of movement, to animate these bodies, distributed among them a portion of his own being, and this portion, as the soul of all that respire, being a fraction of the universal soul, can not perish, but must pass successively into divers bodies. Of all the forms of living beings, that which pleased the Divine Being most was the form of man, as approaching the nearest to his own perfections ; so that when a man, by an absolute abnegation of sense (reason) becomes absorbed in the contemplation of himself, he attains to the dis- covery of the deity, and actually becomes divine. Among the incarnation of this species which God has already clothed, the most solemn and holy was him who appeared in the twenty-eighth century in Kachemire, under the name of Bhudda, to teach the doctrine of the new birth and the renunciation of self." And the book, retracing the subsequent history of Bhudda, continues to say : . _
" That he was born from the right side of a virgin of the blood royal, who, in becoming a mother, did not cease to be a virgin. That the king of the country, disquieted by his birth, wished to destroy him, and therefore massacred all the male children born at that time ; but that he, saved by shepherds, took refuge in the desert, where he remained until he had attained his thirtieth year, when he commenced his career of enlightening man and casting out devils. That he performed a number of the most astoni.shing miracles ; spent himself by fasting and self-denial the most severe ; and that, in dying, he left to his disciples a book which contained his doctrine " — a doctrine which is summed up in the following passages :
^
xl
I
•J
NOTES. 389
"He who • abandons his father and mother to follow rae, says Bhudda, becomes a perfect Samaneen (celestial man).
" He who practices my precepts to the fourth degree of perfec- tion acquires the faculty of flyiog through the air, of moving heaven and earth, and of prolonging or shortening his life.
" The Samaneen despises riches ; he uses but the most simple necessaries ; he mortifies the body ; his passions are mute ; he de sires nothing, is attached to nothing ; he meditates my doctrine, he patiently sufiFers injuries ; he bears no hate toward his neighbor.
" Heaven and earth shall perish, says Bhudda ; despising, then, your body, composed as it is of four perishable elements, think of nothing but your immortal soul.
" Hearken not to the promptings of the flesh ; the passions pro- duce fear and vexation. Subdue the passions, and you will anni- hilate fear and vexation.
'' He who dies without embracing my religion, says Bhudda, returns among men until he does practice it."
The Vedas of the Hindoos which contain these accounts of the creation, and the incarnation and doctrine of a deified man, are believed to have existed at least three thousand years before the Christian era; and this doctrine, presenting, as it does, the most striking analogy to that of Christ, as we ^nd the latter in the gospels, was spread throughout the eastern world more than a thousand years before Jesus Christ appeared upon the earth. In reading these passages does it not seem more probable that the teachings of Christ have come to us rather through Hindoo than Hebrew writings?
5. — Symbols.
From that moment when the eyes of the people who cultivated the earth were directed toward the heavens, the necessity of ob- servinff the stars, of distinguishing them singly or in groups, and of naming them properly, in order to designate them clearly, be- came apparent. Now this object, seemingly so simple, was really very difficult; for the celestial bodies, being nearly identical in form, offered no special characteristic whereby to distinguish them by name ; this on the one hand, while, on the other, the language of these people, from its very poverty of words, had no expressions for new and metaphysical ideas. But the ordinary spring to genius, necessity, surmounted these difficulties. Having remarked that, in the annual revolution of the earth, the periodical appear- ance and renewal, of terrestrial products became constantly asso- ciated with the rising and setting of certain stars, and their position relatively with the sun, a fundamental form of comparison was established, which, by a purely natural mechanism, connected in thought those terrestri'al and celestial objects which were connected in fait; and, applying to represent them the like signs, they gave
390 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASOyRT.
to the stars singly, and to the groups which they formed, the names of the terrestrial objects to which they responded.
Thus, the Ethiopian of Thebes, called the constellation of inun- dation, or water-flow, that under which the Nile began to rise ; the constellation of the ox or bull, that under which'he began to till the earth ; the constellation of the Kon, that under which that animal, driven from the desert by thirst, showed himself upon the banks of the river ; the constellation of ripe corn, the virffin har- vester, which brought the return of the harvest ; the constellation of flocks and herds, or the ram, that under which these precious animals gave birth to their young ; and, in this manner, the first part of the difficulty was removed.
As to the other part, man had remarked in the beings around him qualities distinct and peculiar to each species. By a primary operation he selected the name of this quality to designate the being it distinguished; and, by a secondary operation, he found an ingenious means of generalizing these characteristics, in applying the name thus invented to all things which presented similar traits or actions, and thus he enriched his language with an enduring metaphor.
Thus the same Ethiopian, having observed that the return of the inundation or overflow of the Nile constantly corresponded with the appearance of a very beautiful star, which at this time was always to be seen in the direction of the head-waters of that river, and which seemed to warn the laborer to prepare for its overflow, he likened this action to that animal which, by its timely barking, warns of approaching danger, and he called this con- stellation the dog, the barker (Sirius). In like manner he named, from the movement of the crab, the constellation cancer, which marks that point in the heavens when the sun, having attained the tropical limit of his course, returns by a backward and side- ward movement similar to the motion of that animal. By the title of wild goat he distinguished the constellation capricornus, which marks the point at which the sun, having attained the greatest altitude in his course, pauses, and, as it were, grips the height, as the wild goat grips the surface of the giddy height to prevent his fall. By the title of the balance, he distinguished the constella- tion libra, which marks the period when, as to time, day and night are equally divided or balanced ; and by the name of the scorpion, he distinguished that constellation which marks the period when certain winds carry the burning sand across the plain, and causa it to strike with a stinging pain, resembling the stroke of a scor- pion. And in this manner, also, was applied the name of rings, rounds, or serpents to that form by which was expressed an orbit, circle, or complete revolution of the planets, whether taken singly or in groups, according to their connection with the operations of the field and cultivation of the earth, and the analogies that each
NOTES. 891
nation found presented by their agricultural labors, and the peou- liarities of their soil and climate.
From this process, it resulted that the inferior and terrestrial beingsbecame intimately associated with the superior and celestial; and this association each day gained strength from similar consti- tution of language and mechanism of mind. Using this natural metaphor, they said : The bull scatters upon the earth at his coming (spring-time) the seeds of fertility; he returns with abun- dance and the creation of plants. The ram delivers the heavens from the evils of winter ; he saves the world from the serpent (emblem of the rainy season), and he brings back the reign of good (the joyful summer-time). The scorpion cast his venom upon the earth, and scattered sickness and death, etc., and thus of all similar appearances.
This language, then understood by all the world, presented nothing inconvenient ; but, by the lapse of time, when the calendar had been regulated, and it became no longer necessary for the people to observe the heavens, the motive that prompted these expressions was lost, and their allegorical sense being suppressed, their use became a stumbling-block to the understanding of the people. Habituated to join symbols to their models, this misun- derstanding caused them to confound them. Then these same animals, which in thought had been placed in the heavens, in fact returned to earth, but clothed in the livery of the stars, and im- posed themselves upon the people, as possessing the influences attributed to them by their sponsors; and the people, believing themselves within sight and hearing now of their gods, readily addressed to them their prayers. They demanded of the animal ram an abundance of the influences which attended the appearance of the celestial ram ; they prayed the scorpion no more to scatter his vcDoni, entailing sickness and death, upon the earth; they rev- erenced the crab of the sea, the scarabaeus of the mud, the fishes of the river ; and, by a series of enchanting but vicious analogies, they lost themselves in a labyrinth of consequent absurdities.
Here we behold the origin of that antique and fanciful worship of animals, and how, by the progress of ideas, the characteristics of divinity passing to the most vile brutes, was fashioned that vast, complicated, and learned theological system which, beginning on the banks of the Nile, was carried from country to country by commerce, w.-ir, and conquest, and invaded all the ancient world and which, modified by time, circumstances and prejudices, yet exhibits itself among hundreds of peoples, and exists as the in- timate and secret basis of the theology of even those who scorn- fully reject it.
In the projection of 'he celestial sphere, as traced by the as- t.'onoinor priests of that time, the zodiac and the constellations, disposed circularly, presented their halves in diametrical opposition.
392 GENERAL HISTOltf OF FRBBMASONET.
The hemisphere of winter is the antipodes of that of summer — adverse, opposed, contrary they stood toward each other. From a metaphorical and necessary, this position passed into a moral sense; and to angels were opposed adverse angels, who, having revolted, were oast out, and became their enemies. In this manner, from being simply an astronomical history, the account and repre- sentation of the constellations came to be a political history. Heaven was a country subject to and wherein events transpired s upon the earth. And as at that period monarchy was the pre- vailing style of government upon the earth, a similar style must obtain in the heavens; and of the hemisphere of summer, empire of light, and heat, and joy, and peopled with white angels, it was apparent the sun was king — a brilliant, intelligent, and good crea- tor ; so, opposed to summer was the hemisphere of winter, that underground empire of darkness, cold, and sadness, peopled with black angels, giants, and demons, and having for ruler the prince of darkness, who was , recognized by the different peoples by the name of that sign whose appearance was attended with most of evil among them. In Egypt this was from at first the scorpion, being the first sign of the zodiac after the balance, and, for a long time, chief of the signs of winter. Afterward it was the bear, or the polar ass, called Typhon, otherwise Deluge, by reason of the cold rains which inundated the earth during the rule of this constella- tion. In Persia, at a later time, it was the serpent, who, under trhe name of Ahrimane, formed the basis of the system of Zoroaster; and it is this same serpent who, among the Jews and the Chris- tians, tempted Eve, the celestial virgin, and brought sin into the world, as also the serpent of the cross, and which, in both cases, is the emblem of Satan.
6. — Hiram, of the Freemasons.
The long history of Hiram, the architect of Solomon's temple, which forms the basis of the degree of master mason, is repre- sented by most authors, and in all the lectures which prevail in the lodges in France and elsewhere, as a fact, and not as an alle- gorical fiction, while in all the higher degrees it is positively re- cognized as the former. A very limited knowledge of the history of primitive worships and mysteries is necessary to enable any person to recognize in the master mason Hiram, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mithras of the Persians, the Bacchus of the Greeks, the Atys of the Phrygians, of which these people celebrated the passion, death and resurrection, as Christians celebrate to-day that of Jesus Christ. Otherwise this is the eternal and unvarying type of all the religions which have succeeded each other upon the earth. In an astronomical connection, Hiram is the representative of the sun, the symbol, of his apparent progress, which, appearing at the south gate, so to speak, is smote downward and more down
KOTES. 393
ward as lie advances toward the west, which passing, he is imme- diately vanquished and put to death hy darkness, represented, in following the same allegory, by the spirits of evil; but, returning, he rises again, conqueror and resurrected.
7. — The Angels.
The names of the angels and of the months, such as Gabriel and Michael, Yar and Nisan (March and April), etc., as we are informed by the Talmud, were brought from Babylon by the Jews. Beausobre, in his Sistory of the Mcmfcheans, (vol. 2, p. 624,) proves that the saints of the calendar are imitations of the three hundred and sixty-five angels of the Persians ; and Jamblicus, in his Egyptian Mysteries, (sec. 2, chap, 3,) speaks of the angels, arch- angels, and seraphims, etc, like a true Christian Catholid
8. — The majestic Monuments of the Hindoos.
The most celebrated Hindoo temples, cut in the bosom of the solid rocks, are to be seen in the vicinity of Bombay and in the island of Ceylon. That of Elora is considered the most curious. No one can regard without astonishment a whole mountain of por- phyry, covering nearly six miles of superficial measurement, con- verted into a mysterious succession of halls, chambers, anticham- bers, vestibules, courts, saloons, etc. In the midst of -these apart- ments is the great temple of Elora, a single apartment of five hundred feet in circumference, hollowed out of the solid granite. Its side galleries are supported by sculptured pillars ; its walls are polished, and cut into which are forty-four niches extending from floor to dome, and in which stand forty-four gigantic statues of Hindoo divinities. But the monument of all others the most pro- digious in Hindostan is the temple of Kailaca, cut in the solid rock, and without roof or dome, cut open to the heavens. In the vicinity of this temple there are ten or a dozen similar but much smaller sanctuaries. At Dhoumar, in the province of Malva, may be counted seventy of these temples, the circuit of which compose what may be called a troglodyte city. Upon the coast of Coro- mandel, not far from Madras, there are a series of labors of the same kind not less remarkable.
9. — Bhudda, (Bood, Boudd.)
This is the name that the Hindoos have given to the seven re- ligious legislators who have successively revived and reformed the laws and doctrines of their first civilizer of this name, and of whose existence there remains no account, except in the traditions of fab- ulous time. Of these seven reformers the four last alone are known
394 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
by their doctrines, wliioli are contained in the sacred books of the Brahmins, called Vedas, or Vedam. These are Bhudda-Shauca- sam, whose doctrine is found in the Bhagavat-Ghita, and who lived between the years 3200 and 3100 B. C. Bhudda Gronagom, who appeared 1366 years B. C. Bhudda-Gaspa, who appeared 1027 years B. 0. ; and Bhudda-Somana- Gautama, who lived 557 years B. C. A final Bhudda is to appear five thousand years after the death of the last named.
All these reformers are considered by the Brahmins to have been incarnations of the Supreme Being, and as such they are adored by eastern people under different names. Among the Chinese, for example, Bhudda becomes Fot and Fota. that people having neither h nor d in their language.
10.— ^Ae Ma^i.
The Asiatic rendering of this word signifies consecrated man, a man devoted to the worship of God, exactly as the Hebrew Naza- rene or Hindoo Samaneen; consequently the word magic originally signified the practice of worship, and magi those who devoted themselves to science and worship.
11. — Temple of Bel, or Tower of Babel.
By consent of the best authors and the geography of Strabo and Berose, there existed a Babel or Babylon — that is to say, a palace or temple — consecrated to (the sun) Bel, titulary god uf this country, from whom it received its name of Babylonia, and whose temple, according to ancient Asiatic usage, was the rallying point, the goal of pilgrjmage, the metropolis of all the people who sub- mitted to his laws ; and, at the same time, this temple was the asylum, the fortress of the priests, the astronomical studio of this astrological judiciary, who were celebrated and who rendered famous the name of Chaldean in far-distant ages of the past.
According to Philo, the Phehician, as cited by Josephus, the foundation of this temple, or tower of Babel (Belus), was laid between the years 3195 and 3190 B. C. The oriental name of Babel for Babylonia signifies a court; and there existed from that time a primitive court or palace,- which that wonderful woman, Semiramis, surrounded with her vast constructions when she con- ceived the project of building a great commercial and military city, even that Babylon which she surrounded with immense walls and fortifications, and which she ornamented with castles, palaces, temples, and bridges, and in the midst of which caused to be erected for the priests that famous tower or pyramid called the Tower of Babel.
This opinion is supported by Ktesias, who, in speaking on this
NOTES ■ 395
subject, says: "When Ninus attacked Balylonia, the city of Bab- ylon, which at present exists, was not then built." The same his- torian states "that Semiramis, inspired by her love of grandeur, and desirous of surpassing the glory of the kings who preceded her, conceived, between the years 1195 and 1180 B. C, the project of building in Babylonia an extraordinary city. For this purpose she gathered from all parts a multitude of architects and artists of all kinds, and she provided great sums of money and all the necessary materials; then, having made in the extent of her empire a levy of two millions of men, she employed them to form the surroundings of the city by constructing a wall of three hundred and sixty stadia (about twenty miles) in length, flanked with many towers, and leaving the river Euphrates to flow through the midst of the inclosure.
This assemblage of, men, levied under the laws of statute labor, of divers colors, clothing, habits, worships, and language, presented a strange spectacle. More than eighty dialects were spoken in the vast empire of Semiramis ; and the assembling of bodies of men, each -of whom spoke one of these dialects, naturally engendered that confusion which, when these men came to close quarters in -the building of the tower, naturally might and probably did in- crease to a degree most inconvenient, and hence the real source of the vicious origin the Jews have given to the word Babel, or Babylon.
In the account which Herodotus gives of the war of Kyrus against Babylon, he says: "But after the subversion of Nineveh she became the capital of Assyria." And then, from ocular evi- dence, he describes this immense city, the extent and dimensions of its walls and fortifications, the direction of its streets, the palace of the king, and the great temple of Bel ; and, jn describing the latter, he says : " The center of the city is remarkable for the temple of Jupiter Belus, which actually yet exists. (Herodotus wrote 480 years B. 0.) It is square, regularly built, and its court is fastened by gates of brass. Each square of the inclosure is two stadia in length (about two hundred yards). In the middle of this inclosure is to be seen a massive tower, one stadium on each square of its base, and one stadium in height." Thus, then, the temple of Belus in Babylon was a strong place, a sort of citadel, resembling the temple of the sun at Balbek, and most of the other temples of the ancients, who, for the better security of the priests and the sacred treasures which had been gathered within their temples, protected them by high and strong outer walls. "Upon this tower," continues Herodotus, "there is erected a second, upon the second a third, and others above that to the number in all of eight, each being proportionately smaller in its dimensions than the other, and giving to all the appearance, when viewed from a distance, of a pyramid. In the highest of these towers is a chapel ;
396 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
in this chapel a great hed, well furnished ; and near this hed a table, the surface of which is gold." What was the object of this singu- lar edifice? What could it be but an astronomical observatory? This chapel, in the highest tower, elevated to a height of nearly fif- teen hundred feet above the surface of the earth, served the astron- omer priests as a look-out from which to observe the solar system, and to learn exactly the movements of the heavenly bodies. The golden table, upon which was no doubt traced a map of the solar system, enabled them to direct their studies, and the well-furnished bed served for repose when wearied by observation and close appli- cation of mind. No other furniture was necessary, and no other was there. Astronomy was the important mystery which they guarded with jealous care, since it was the basis of that theocratic, religious, and political power which enabled the priests, by predic- tions of eclipses and other solar actions, to astonish both kings and people, and lead them to believe that they held immediate com- munication with the gods.
Behold, then, what was the object of that famous tower of Babel, the hearthstone of that Chaldean science vaunted by the most ancient Greeks as being, even in their time, very ancient. And yet this grand and simple monument, as described by the perverted historians of the Jews, has given birth in modern times, as well as in what we call ancient, to the most singular, extra- ordinary, and grossly-stupid accounts of its origin and of it« object.
12. — Ecbdtana, Babylon, Persepolis.
Of the immense citadel of the palace of the king of the Medes, Ecbatana, which was seven hundred yards in outer extent, noth- ing, remains but rubbish, in vast quantities, to indicate palace, eit- ' adel, or capital of the Median people ; while an enormous quantity of ruins, heaped about in the most frightful confusion, mark to- day the spot where Babylon, the city of palaces, once stood. Ranks of columns, separated by ravines, mark the streets ; while masses of rubbish show where once stood the grandest edifices. In the plain where once stood the city of Persepolis, and which extended behind Tschil-Minar, nothing remain to mark the great- est architectural conceptions of any age, but ruins of column and wall, pillar and porch, heaped in undistinguishable confusion. The most important ruins are upon the terraces of the mountain of Rachmed, upon the locality where stood the palace of the kings of Persia, and upon the flank of that mountain there appear many funereal monuments of the Persian kings, such as that of Darius, son of Hystaspe, and of Xerxes. Under the terraces which sup- port the palace of Persepolis, there extend vast subterranean pas- sages, of which it is impossible to verify the destination, purpose, or extent, but which, in the opinion of the Arabs, conducted to
NOTES. 897
the mountain of sepulture, nearly six leagues distant, and in which may be found the four royal tombs, out in the rook to the height of one hundred feet, and which are believed to be those of Darius Nothus, Artaxerxes I, Oohus, and Artaxerxes II, or Memnon.
13. — The Caves or Retreats of Mithra.
Zoroaster, according to Justinius, composed in the cave or grotto of Mithra, which he inhabited for twenty years, a great armillary sphere to aid him in the study of the heavenly bodies. Accord- ing to Celsus, it was after this model that the Persians, in the ceremonies of Mithra, represented the double movement of the fixed stars and the planets, with the passage of the soul in the celestial circles or spheres. To describe the properties or attri- butes of the planets, they exhibited a scale or ladder composed of seven steps, or stages, with an eighth at the upper extremity. The first step was composed of lead, and indicated Saturn ; the second, of tin, denoted Venus ; the third, of copper, denoted Ju- piter ; the fourth, of iron, denoted Mars ; the fifth, of divers metals, denoted Mercury ; the sixth, of silver, denoted the moon ; the seventh, of gold, denoted the sun, then the highest heaven. Without doubt this was the ladder of Jacob's dream, and upon which he saw angels ascending and descending ; and yet all these Egyptian and Chaldean ideas and allegories existed centuries be- fore Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. From thence comes the custom of consecrating caves to the celebration of the mysteries, a custom that we find among the Christians of the first centuries ; and from thence have Plato and Pythagoras designated the world as a cave or cavern.
In the mysteries of the ceremonies of Mithrj, as they subse- quently became developed, we find all the principal ceremonies • observed in administering the rites and sacraments of the Chris- tian church, even to the slap on the ear given by the bishop in " confirmation." The priests of Mithra promised their initiates, through confession and baptism, remission of their sins, and a life of happiness and delight instead of pain and torment. They also celebrated the oblation of bread, the image of the resurrec- tion ; and, finally, their baptism of infants, application of extreme unction, confession of sins, celebration of the mass (the mysteries), and many other practices analogous to those of the Christian re ligion, all proving that what we have to-day as religious ceremo- nies are but the modified prolongation of religious opinions and practices which prevailed centuries before our era.
14. — In the throat of a Bull.
This is the bull of the zodiac, which sometimes, by the preces- sion of the equinoxes, has oaqupied the place of the ram. This
398 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
is the bull that we find represented in India as opening an egg with his horn, and who already had opened the age of creation, that is, the vernal equinox. This is the bull Apis, adored by the Egyptians, as subsequently the Israelites adored the golden calf. The bull or ox of the Apocalypse, with his wings, symbolic of his celestial nature, has a similar origin ; while the lamb of Grod, im- molated as the bull of Mithra, for the salvation of the world, is nothing more than an emblem of the sun in the sign of the celes- tial ram, which in an after age opened, in his turn, the vernal equinox, and was moved to deliver the world from the reign of evil enjoyed by the serpent or great adder, mother of winter and emblem of Ahrimane, the evil spirit or Satan of the Persians. It will be observed that the contemporaneous worship of the sign Taurtis by the Egyptians, Persians and Japanese, indicates a com- munion of ideas among these peoples at this time ; and of this worship there has descended to us nothing but the May festival of the fat ox, crowned with flowers.
15. — Zoroaster.
The religious legislator called Zoroaster by the Grreek*, and Zerdast or Zerdust by the Orientals, was born, according to He- rodotus, about 1250, and according to other authors between 1400 and 1300 B. C., in Aderbijan (ancient Media). He commenced to promulgate his doctrine at Bactria, the capital of the kingdom of the Bactrians, about the year 1220 B. C., after a "retreat," according to Pliny, of twenty years' duration. He propagated a new system of theology, which he pretended, according to the custom of the time among men of his profession, to be the only true theology, and revealed of God. Zoroaster, according to the recital of the Parsees, perished with many of the magi, in the last battle fought at Ninus by the king Keshtasy, one of his numerous disciples, who wished to convert his subjects and the neighboring kings.
According to Anquetil Duperron, the principal collection of the ti;aditions of the Parsees concerning Zoroaster is the book entitled Zerdust-Narnah, which, they say, was translated from the ancient Pehlevic idiom into the modern Persian by Zerdust- Behram, scribe and Persian priest, about the year 1176 of our era.
Theodore of Mopsuestus, in his work concerning the magi of Persia, explains the doctrine of Zoroaster in the following remark- able passage : " He is one of those who believes in the existence of two gods — one good, the other evil. He names them Oromaze and Ahrimane, and has said that one is best represented by light, and the other by darkness. The Persians maintained that Oro- maze was formed from light the most pure, and Ahrimane from darkness the most obscure Oromaze made six other good gods
I
I
aoTEs. 399
like liiinself, and Abrimane six wicked ones like himself. Oro- maze then made twenty -four gods, which he placed in an egg ; but Ahrimane, after making twenty-foar evil gods, broke the egg, and thus caused that blending of good and evil which exists in the world.
Theopompus believes, in accordance with the magii books, that one of these gods ruled three thousand years, during which the other is deposed ; the succeeding three, thousand years they fight and reign equally ; but finally the evil one has to succumb, and is forever destroyed.
In reducing these allegories to their natural and simple sense, it is apparent that Zoroaster, after his physico-astronomical med- itations, considered the world, or the universe, governed by two principles or powers — the one of production, the other of destruc- tion ; that the first governed during the six thousand parts, or six months of summer, or from the vernal equinox to that of Libra, and the second during the six thousand parts or six months of winter, or from Libra to Aries. This division of each sign of the zodiac into a thousand parte is found among the Chaldeans ; and Anqnetil, who has happily explained the allegory, speaks, in more than one place, of the twelve thousand of Zoroaster as of the twelve months of the year.
The egg is, as is well known, the emblem of the world among the Egyptians ; the twenty-four gods are the twelve months divided into quinzainei, or fortnights — the 'one of increase, the other of decrease — a usage that is found among the Hindoos as also among the Bomans, and the result is that the whole system of Zoroaster wag nothing but a system of astronomy and astrology, like all other ancient systems ; and that its disciples, notwithstanding this fact, received and applied this system, especially among the Jews, for moral and political purposes, and this application led to the most singular consequences, and resulted in a system entirely new.
16. — Zend-Avetta.
This sacred book of the Persians was mostly written in immense and very complicated characters, and covered twelve thousand skins of parchment, manu&ctured from the hides of oxen.
17. — The Temple of Amman.
The construction of this celebrated temple, according to Herod- otus, took place between the years 2400 and 2300 B. C, and its ruins may be found in the oasis of the Lybian desert. Alexander the Great visited this temple, and caused himself to be proclaimed, by its oracle, son of Jupiter Memnon.
400 GBNERAL HISTORY OF rRBBMASONRT.
18. — Ethiopia, then a powerful State.
During many centuries Egypt was governed by the Ethiopian sacerdotal caste, of Arab origin, which was replaced by the caste of warriors. This revolution was brought about by Menos I, king of the first Pharuonic dynasty, and took place, ucoording to some authors, nearly 6000 years B. 0. Monos is said to have built ancient Thebes, then the capital of the country.
In the earliest known times Egypt consisted but of the Thoban country. At that time IVIiddle Egypt and the Delta composed a part of the Mediterranean gulf. The Nile, carrving in its over- flows an enormous quantity of mud, in time filled up that portion of the gulf into which it emptied, and eventually created an im- mense tract of swampy land, which, by the aid of man, seconded by nature, was drained, and formed what then became known as Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis, and Lower Egypt or the Delta.
19. — Egt/pt in OmMzaUon.
The chronology of Egyptian history, according to DiodoruB, Manethon, and Herodotus, the last of whom visited Kgypt 460 years B. C., is as follows :
B. C. 13300.— From this date until the year 4600 B. 0., when the zodiac was constructed and set up in the temple of ISsneh, there occurred four periods, to the first of which is ascribed the rei^n of the gods, to the seooAd the first historic period, during which Egypt was inhiibited by a barbarous people, and was con- fined to the Theban country, or Upper Kgypt ; to the third, the second historic period, during which began to be formed the states and kingdoms, of which there were thirty, forty, or more, and the colleges of the priests were established ; and to Ihe fourth, the third historic period, when tho different states were (ionsolidated into three larj^e kingdoms, comprising Upper Egypt, or tiio Theban country, Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis, and Lower Egypt, or the Delta. To this latter period belongs tho construction of tho temple of Esnch, and the establiHhmont of the worship of tho bull Aphis, symbolical of Tawrus or the sun, which at this time began to mark the vernal equinox. Subsequent to this period there luigned a series of unknown kings, eighteen of them being Egyp- tians.
B. C. .3360. — Hermes, priest king, observes the star Aldebaran.
B. C. 2454. — The sun enters the ram,' and from this date Arim
' liy the jiroccHxion of tho equinoxes, allowing 71 ynm for each dogroo (ind 50 seconds for each year, it )■ estimated that 2180 years are required fr/r ilie Biin to paHS through a zodiacal sign. Thus, in the your 4r)80 13. C, ihat body having entered Tawui, it was not until t/io year 24515 that he pjiHSfid through that sign, and ontored Ariel in 2454. FVotn that time until llie year li2y B. C, the latter sign marked the vernal equinox.
s
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becomes tTie constellatioii of the vernal equinox, and the worship of the ram begins.
B. C. 2400.— Foundation of the temple of Ammon in the desert of Lybia.
B. C. 2400 to 2300.— Constmetion of the monuments of Kamafc and the avenue of the Bams.
B. C. 2056. — Construction of the sodiac of Denderah.
B. C. 1810.— Invasion of the kingdom of Memphis (Middle Egypt) by the pastoral Arabs, presumed to be the tribes of Tamoud. Madian, Amalek, etc.
B. C. 1800. — The pastoral Arabs found Heliopolis.
B. C. 1556. — Tethmos expels the Arabs.
B. C. 1500. — Foundation of the new Memphis.
B. C. 1450. — ^Be-union of all Egypt under one monarchy.
B. C. 1430. — Construction of I^ke Moeris.
B. C. 1420. — Construction of the cities of Bamasses and He- roopolis, by the Hebrews.
B. C. 14iO. — Under the king Amenophis the Hebrews are driven out of Egypt, and, under the direction of Moses, whom they elect as their chief, they are organized into a nation.
B. C. 1390 to 1350. — Beign and conquests of Sesostris.
B. C. 10 SO. — Bamsinite orders the conBtruction of the great obelisk at Heliopolis.
B. C. 974. — Sesach, king of Egypt, ransoms Jerusalem.
B. C. 790. — ^During the past two buadred years a succession of obscure kings governed Egypt, and their reign ends with the capture of Thebes by the Carthaginians.
B. C. 750. — .Seva, the Kushite, or Ethiopian, invaded Egypt, and reigned with justice and wisdom for nearly twenty-five years.
B. C. 722. — Sethon, priest of the temple of Vulcan, governs Sgjft, now fallen into anarchy.
Between Menes and Sethon three hundred and forty-one kings in succession governed Egypt. After him a series of kii^ ruled whose names are all known.
20. — Pyramids of Ghizza.
" During twenty years." says Herodotus, '■ one hundred thousand men worked daily to build the great pyramid or tomb of the king Cheops, who, like all Egyptians, attached much importance to the constmetion of his eternal home." The eight pyramids which surround ancient Memphis, the principal seat of the mysteries of Isb and Osiris, communicated with the twelve temples which are found in this vast city. Of this group of pyramids, three are particularly distinguished, which are the largest in Egypt as they were the last which vere constructed. At Meroe, the ancient seat of the priests of Egypt, are to be seen a group of twenty- four pyramids, the magnificence and imposing simplicity of which 26
402 GBNBKAL HISTOEY OP FKBBMASONRY.
exhibit a degree of elegance very superior to the pyramids of Ghizza. ■ In Ethiopia, at Nouri, may be seen a group of thirty-five pyramids ; at Dhibbel-el-Barkal, capital of Ethiopia, another group of seventeen • and at Dhel-Bellal, the remains of a group of forty pyramids.
21. — Hermes.
The Egyptian priests inform us that Hermes, in dying, said: ' Until now I have been exiled from my true country, to which I am about to return. Shed no tears for me. I return to that celestial country whither all must repair in their turn. There is God. This life is but a death." (See Chalcidius in Timaeum.) Now this doctrine is precisely that of the ancient Bhuddists or Samaneens, who believed that at certain periods impersonations of deity would be sent to earth to reform man, withdraw him from vice, and teach him the way of salvation. With such a dogma spread over India, Egypt, Persia, and Judea, we can easily perceive how readily its believers could accredit the appearance of such an impersonation did he appear at the proper time.
22.— Si/bik.
This was the ancient name signifying prophetess, given by the Greeks and Romans to those women to whom were attributed knowledge of the future and divine inspiration. Many temples had their sybil or oracle ; for, wherever the priests had established their colleges, they found it necessary to engage these persons, to strengthen their power and augment their influence among the people. The vital or physical force to which we give the name of animal magnetism was better known to the magi priests of Chaldea and Egypt than it is at present among us. It was to the study and application of this occult science to which the priests owed much of their great reputation ; for they enriched their astronomical knowledge with the addition of botanical, medical, chemical, and anatomical knowledge, from the revelations made to them by their sybils.
The Essenian priests, who were intimately connected with an- other sect, called Therapeutes, resident in Egypt, and who formed the connecting link between .the Egyptians and the Hebrews, as the Essenians continued the affiliation between the Jews and the Christians, without doubt initiated Jesus Christ, who was educated by them, into this sublime science, and thus can we explain how he wrought many of the miracles attributed to him in the Scrip- tures.
The sybils of antiquity who were most celebrated were those of Ionia and Italy. It is said that this last, to whom are given different names, came to Rome in the reign of Tarquin the elder, and sold him the books (Sybilline leaves), in which were written
4
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NOTES. 403
the future of Rome and that he deposited them in the capitol, confiding their eare to two priests named Ihirmmrs, whose number was subsequently increased to fifteen. Therein were found, it is said, some very useful revelations. The Sybiiline leaves were destroyed at the burning of the capitol, which took place in the time of Scylla. The senate, immediately upon the loss becoming known, sent into the cities of Italy and Greece to gather up such of the predictions of the Sybils as could be found, for the purpose of making a new collection ; but this afforded an opportunity to fabricate many, and from that cause the Sybiiline books fell into disrepute. The last collection was burnt in the year 399, by Stilicon, general of the Arcadians.
2S. — The Avenues of Thebes.
At Karnak, a village that is built upon the west bank of the Nile, may be seen the most imposing monuments at present extant, where once stood ancient Thebes. The approach to these monu- ments, in coming from Luxor, is announced by the remains of a flagstone pavement which unite the edifices of Karnak with those of Luxor. This avenue, more than a mile long, was once deco- rated, on the right hand and on the left, with one thousand two hundred sphinxes and six hundred rams, cut in granite, and con- ducted to a magnificent temple, from which two other ranks of sphinxes reached to the greater and lesser temples at the south, the ceilings of which were supported by some hundreds of columns, seventy feet in height.
24. — Subterranean Cities.
In ancient Egypt there were entire cities under ground which have been discovered during the past centuries, and accounts of them imparted to us. A chain of limestone which borders the Nile, protected the works of these subterranean cities, and the tumulary marvels hidden in the necropoli of Thebes and Memphis equal the sunlit masterpieces of Egyptian art which rest upon the banks of that river.
The underground passage of the great pyramid, not far from Memphis, communicates with immense inclosures; wherein may be found delicious gardens, where priests and priestesses reside with their families, including all the population necessary for the service of the mysteries. These subterranean residences and their sur- roundings, which are nearly six miles in circumference, communicate with the seven other pyramids and the twelve temples which en- viron the city.
25. — Jehovah.
This word, as here spelled, is unknown to any Asiatic Jew or aboriginal Arab. Its origin even among Europeans, who have
404 GENERAL HISTORY Off FREEMASONRY.
sanctified it, is neither clear nor authentic. When transcribed into the letters of the Arab alphabet, the sound of the four letters which express the name is iahouah, or ya-ho-wa-hoh. Doctor Robert Walton, one of the most learned and rational biblists who has written .upon this matter, expressly objects to the pronunciation Jehovah, as unknown to the ancients. He states that " the editors of the Bible have had the audacity to falsify even the manuscripts in this particular; as, for instance, in the eighth Psalm, when Jeremiah says that he will read the name of the Lord in a certain manner, the editors have put the word Jehovah, when the manu- script obliges Frobenius to give the word Jao."
It appears that it was the German theologians, the first disciples of the Eabbius, who gave involuntary place to this reading, by their j and u.
The Greek, Philo, translator of the Phenician, Sanchoniathon, concurs with Diodorus of Sicily, Strabo, and other authorities, when he says that the god of the Hebrews was called Jeno, as we learn from Eusebius, in his "Evangelical Preparation." It is evident, then, that the Hebrews never knew this pretended name, so emphatically styled Jehovah by our poets and theologians ; and they have to pronounce it as the Arabs of to-day, iehouh, signifying to he, the essence, existence, the principle of life. Their word jehouh, therefore, is equivalent to our paraphrase Him who is hirmelf, the Existing Being.
If the word jehouh had been deprived, according to the genius of the Greek language, of the two A letters, it would have remained jou, base of you-piter, or jou-pater (jou, generator, essence of life). You-piter (Jupiter) was regarded by the Egyptians, according to Manethon, a priest of Memphis, as the father, the generator of living beings. The god of Moses, Jehouh or Jehovah, and whom he called the soul of the world, is no other than the You-piter of the Egyptians.
2Q.—Tyre.
According to the chronology of Herodotus, there was a temple founded to the Phenician Hercules (the sun) in the year 2760 B. C, at ancient Jyre, upon the rock facing the island upon which the city stood some thirteen hundred years afterward. The ancient city destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in the. year 572 B. C, was re- built a few yedrs after by the remnant of the Tyrian people.
27. — The Jews Driven from Egypt.
According to Manethon, the Egyptian priest prievously quoted, " the ancestors of the Jewish people were a mixture of divers classes of men, among which were even Egyptian priests, who, from causes of impurity, canonical defilement, and especially for leprosy, were
S0TE8. 405
by command of an oraole, expelled from Egypt by a king named Amenophis."
In Exodus it is stated that many strangers followed Israel out of Egypt.
28.— 2%e Pentateuch.
A crowd of circumstances tend to prove that Moses was not the author of the Pentateuch, as these books have come to us. Hel- kiah, the high priest, who, under the reign of the young king Jo- siah, made this king of eight years old, and also the Jewish people, believe that he had found the book of the law in the temple of the Lord, is,^ in the seuse that he collected and arranged these books and prefaced them with a cosmogony, the real author of them as they were presented to the Jewish king, priests, and people. About this time, it will be noticed, the Jews had generally abandoned the worship of the true God for the worship of Baal (the Belus or sun of the Chaldeans), and the high priest conceived the project of re- animating the national spirit by resuscitating the laws of Moses, comprised in the four books containing the precepts, command-, ments, prohibitions, rites, and ordimmees which ■ constitute that law. It was the mode then to have cosmogonies explanatory of the origin of all things, as well of nations as of the world itself, and each people had their sacred books, commencing with a cosmogony. The Greeks had that of Hosiod, the Persians that of Zoroaster, the Phenicians that of Sanchoniathon, the Hindoos had their Vedas and Pourauas, and the Egyptians had the five books of Hermes. Helkiah de.sired to give to the Jewish people a book that would serve as their standard, aud, so to speak, to promote national con- cord, he believed it necessary to arrange a cosmogony. Both by nature and education Helkiah was peculiarly fitted for this work; his people, originally Chaldean, had preserved many traditions, and, like hi.s ugoiit, Jeremiah, he had a political preference for Chaldean tradition. He therefore adopted, with modifications, the Babylon- ish cosmogony. Here we observe the true source of the remarkable reseiiiblauLe which the historian Josephus, as also all the ancient Christian fathers, have noticed between the first twelve chapters of Geuesis and the Chaldean antiquities of Berose.
There is another portion of the Jewish history no more worthy of oredcui'c, as it is given in subsequent books; this is what is called ihe Book of Judges, covering from 1651 to 1080 B. C, and the Book of Joshua, which afford us so vague a record of the history of this time, when contrasted with the exact details of the Books of Kings, that we (;au not determine but that, previous to the appear- ance of the high priest, or prophet, Elias, the history of the Jews is broken, dissolved; that all is uncertain and confused, and that their annals really go back no further than 1131 B. C. So much is this the case that it is impossible to determine within twenty or
406 GENERAL HISTOKY OF FREEMASONRY. '
thirty years when Moses died, and that it is only permitted by a reasonable calculation of probabilities to fix the date of that event at from 1450 to 1420 B. C.
From this condition of their history, it naturally results that if the Jews had no exact notions of the time which elapsed between Moses and Elias, nor of the time of the sojourn in Egypt — for nothing is clear in this regard — how could they pretend to have better knowledge of the time previous to their existence as a people in Egypt, or, more anterior far, the time when no nation existed, or about the time man was created, of which no testimony existed, but of which their Genesis give us the recital of events as if the writer had the process passing before him? The Jews say that this was a revelation made by God direct to their prophet Moses. We reply that many nations have held to like language — the Egyptian, the Phenician, the Chaldean, and the Persian peoples all have equally had the history of the creation revealed to their prophets. In our day the Hindoos have presented to our missionaries their Vedas and -Pouranas, with some pretensions to an antiquity more remote than Genesis or any other of the books attributed to Moses. It is true that our learned biblists reject, or at least contest the authenticity of these books ; but the Brahmins, retorting, use our own arguments, and contest the authenticity of our Bible.
The most convincing proof that the author of the Hebrew Genesis drew his cosmogony from that of the Chaldeans is afforded us by the recital of the details that we therein find of the deluge, in comparing it with the text of two fragments, the one of Alex- ander Polyhistor, a learned compiler of the time of Scylla, and the other that of Abydene, another compiler, who, Eusebius has in- formed us, consulted the monuments of the Modes and the As- syrians. That which the Hebrew Genesis recounts of Noah, or Noe, these authors recount of Zisuthrus ; and it is plain that the history, from the beginning of the deluge to the account of the rainbow, is purely Chaldean ; that is to say, that chapters 6 to 11, inclusive, are taken from the legends of the priests of that nation, of an infinitely remote period of time. *"
These texts upon the deluge would afford matter for a volume of commentaries, but we will confine our remarks to what will be necessary for sensible men. The three recitals mentioned are a tissue of moral and physical impossibilities; but here simple good sense does not suffice; it is necessary to be initiated into the astrological doctrine of the ancients to interpret the language employed, and to know that the deluges of the Hebrews, Chal- deans, Greeks, Persians and Hindoos, as having destroyed the world under Noah, Ogyzes, Inachus, Zisuthrus, or Satyavrata, are one and the same physico-astronomical event which is repeated every year, and concerning which the principal wonder is the me- taphorical language in which it is expressed.
NOTES. 407
In that language the great circle of the heavens is called mun- dus, of which the analogue mondola also signifies, in the Sanscrit, a circle, and of which the orhis of the Latins is the synonym. The revolution by the sun of this circle composed the year of twelve months, and was called orhis, the world, the celestial circle. Consequently, every twelve months the world was finished and the world was begun, the world was destroyed and the world was re newed. The time of this remarkable event varied, according to the usage of the peoples in commencing their year with the solstices or the equinoxes. In Egypt the year began with the solstice of summer. At this time the Nile exhibited the first symptoms of its annual overflow, and in forty days thereafter the water covers all the land of Egypt to the depth of five cubits. This was then, as it is now, for that low-lying country, an ocean, a deluge most de- structive in the early times, and before the people, becoming nu- merous and more intelligent, had drained the swamps, and with dykes defended themselves from the effects of this overflow. Ex- perience proved to them that a group of stars occupied the heavens coincident with the first symptoms of the rise, and this group they called the ship or bark, as it indicated that now they must be ready to embark; another group was called the dog, and the appearance of which indicated that the flow had attained its greatest height ; a third was called the crow, a fourth the dove, a fifth the laborer, and, not far from him, was the virgin harvester. All these persons Trho figured in the deluge of Noah and Zisuthrus are also in the celestial sphere, which was a true table or calendar, of which the two texts from which we have quoted furnish a description more or less faithful.
The most remarkable difference between the Chaldean and the Hebrew recital is, that the one preserves the astrologico-mytho- logical character, while the other is turned into a sense and toward an object exclusively moral. In fact, according to the Hebrew version — of which there are in the text more than a hundred verses, and so well known that it is not necessary here to quote them — the human race, having become perverted, "giants," the progeny of the "sons of God" and "daughters of men," exercised all sorts of violence. Then God repents having made man. He speaks; he deliberates upon this subject, and finally he concludes to ex- terminate the whole race, not only of man, but, by the manner of their destruction, necessarily of every living thing upon the earth. One man, however, he is content to save, because he is a just man and worthy of preservation. To this man God makes known his design; he announces the coming deluge; "he directs him how to build a ship, etc. When the deluge has destroyed all else, this man, being saved, offers up a sacrifice of clean animals, according to the law of Moses, as announced by him to the Hebrews in the wilder- ness God is so greatly propitiated by this that he promises to
408 GBNEKAL HISTOET OP FaBEMASONEY.
make no more deluges ; he imparts to Noah his blessing, some pre- cepts, and an abridgment of the law of Moses ; he enters into am alliance with all living beings, and, as a sign of this alliance, he invents the rainbow, etc. All this is represented in other parts of the text with some contradictions, viz. : it rained forty days — the waters remained one hundred and fifty days, when the winds blew and the rain ceased. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains are visible, and, forty days afterward, a dove was ent forth, but returns, having found no place whereon to rest her foot, etc.
What is this recital but a moral drama ; such a lesson in conduct as might be given to the people by a religious legislator — u- priest?
29. — The Prodigies of Moses.
Moses, or rather Moushah, according to the true pronunciation, conceived the project of becoming ruler of and legislator fer the Hebrew people, and this design he executed with means appro- priate to the circumstances and a force of character very remark- able. His people, ignorant and superstitious as they have always been, and as were the wandering tribes of the Arabs, believed in inagic — a belief that even yet obtains in the East. Moses is said to have executed miracles and prodigies ; that is, he produced natural phenomena which the priests of Egypt, by long study and happy chance, discovered the means of executing. It is impos- sible to account by natural means for the miracles which Moses is said to have performed; but it is plain that the writers who described them exaggerated and corrupted the facts, with the de- sign of magnifying the acts of their prophet, priest, and king
30. — Dogma of an Only God.
The Jews, the Christians, and the Mussulmans, founding thfiir belief upon the same books, all admit the existence of a first man, who ruined the whole human race by eating iin apple. The prin- cipal difference between them consists in this, that after having admitted one indivisible Grod, the Christians divided the same into three persons, each of whom they maintained was a Grod entirs and complete, without ceasing to form, with the others, an iden- tical whole. And they maintained, further, that this being who filled the universe, assumed the form of an individual man, with a body composed of like perishable materials, without ceasing to be immortal, eternal, and infinite. The Mussulmans, who can not comprehend these mysteries, notwithstanding they believe .in the mission of their prophet, rsject the Christian doctrine as the fruit of an unsound mind ; and among the Christian's themselve 3 the disagreement widens by as much as the problems upon which thoj
NOTES. 409
diflFer is impossible of demonstration, and inaccessible to the ap- preach of common sense and human reason.
Thus, while they admit that God is an incomprehensihle and unknown being, they nevertheless dispute as to bis essence, the oauses_ of his actions, and his attributes ; admitting his transform- ation into a human body to be an enigma beyond their compre- hension, they dispute about the confusion or the distinction of the two natures, upon the change of substance, or transubstantiation, the real or fancied presence, and upon the manner of the incarna- tion, etc.; and from these differences innumerable sects have sprung up, and, to the extent of two or three hundred, have become extinct, while two or three hundred others yet exist. The Bible, which is the common authority of all these sects, in substance, says that God (after having passed an eternity doing nothing) conceived the design of producing the world out of nothing; and, having accomplished this labor and completed his creation in six days, he rested upon the seventh; that having, as the crowning part of his creation, made a pair of human beings, the first of their kind, he placed them in a garden very delicious, to the end that they might be perfectly happy, but prohibiting them, however, from eating a certain fruit which he placed within easy reach of their hands ; that this first pair having disobeyed this prohibition, all their kind, none of which were yet born, were condemned to expiate a fault which, as they had no existence, they could not commit ; that after having allowed the human race to be thus condemned during four or five thousand years, this God of mercy, goodness, and justice proposed to his only begot- ten yet co-existent and well-beloved son to assume the form of a man, by being born of a woman upon the earth, to the end that he should suffer death to save man from eternal death ; that hav- ing accomplished these things, and thus saved all men who had existed upon the earth, from the fall of the first pair until his death, this only-begotten son, co-existent with the Father, or- dained, at his last supper upon earth, a plan by which those who should be born after his death might be saved, and for this pur- pose he instituted a sacrament, named after that event, and by which a little bread is said to compose the body of this sacrificed God, and be endowed, for the benefit of its consumer, with all the efficacy of the real body, and become the oblation or atone- ment for the sins of future men.
Now, is it not enough to upset all ideas of justice or reason to admit that a God, just and holy, should have condemned the whole human race because a man and a woman, four or five thou- sand years before, ate an apple? Was there ever a tyrant who made the children suffer for their parents' crimes? What mau can atone for the crimes of another man ?
The following picture, extracted from their sacred books, proves,
410 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
in fact, that it is not God who has made man to his image, but, upon the contrary, it is man who has made God to that image and in that likeness which most satisfies himself and suits his purposes.
The God of the Israelites, their Jehouh, or Jehovah, as Moses distinguished the You-piter of the Egyptians, is, if we judge from the manner in which he is represented in the Bible, a despot, a revengefal God, and exterminator of the peoples. The human race was perverted, and he repents of having created the species, he speaks, he deliberates, he decides upon a violent means of de- stroying all that has life, thus involving not only the offending race, but all others in a common death; he has pity upon but a single family of man, which he saves. After the execution of this decision, this same God, who then had entered into an alliance with all the living, is stated to have said to the Hebrew people (See Exodus, chap, xxvi): " I will not ex,terminate the Canaanites before your face in one single year, for fear that the country should be reduced to a desert." It will be observed that his reason for exterminating the Canaanites at all was, that he is said to have promised their land to the Hebrews. Subsequently this same God, through the mouth of their prophet Samuel, ordered the Jews to exterminate all the people of Amalek, sparing neither man, woman, child, or beast for food or burden; and why? Be- cause, four hundred years previously, the Amalekites opposed the passage of the Hebrews through their country. Then the same God, furious at the temerity of five thousand persons who look upon the ark of the covenant, strikes them all dead. Elsewhere this same God, among many other trifling acts, dictates to Moses the wood with which he shall make the ark ; he has interviews with the prophets, speaking to them in their chambers, and re- penting one day of what he ordered done the day previous. This is the God of the Jews. But where are the witnesses and proofs of these things which are alleged and reasserted in the Old Tes- tament? There are none.
Now, observe what are the qualities of the God of the Chris- tians. This God was at first a God of peace, goi-dness, and char- ity. Christ exhibits him to us as a being the most holy and perfect, and, at the same time, as the most affectionate father of all mankind ; but Christ dies, and immediately the priests, who preach what they call Christ's doctrine, change God into a despot, burning with revenge for man's incorrigible wickedness. While assuming to be the successors of Christ, unlike him they preach neither liberty, toleration, nor peace ; but, in his name, and with the emblem of his death upraised in their hands, they have led crusades against Arianism, Manicheanism, and Protestantism, under the assertion that the peoples who defended and indulged these doctrines were heretics, and, consequently, accursed of God. It is
NOTES. 411
in tte name of their God that the aboriginal people of America have been exterminated, Mexico and Peru have been conquered, and their inhabitants destroyed ; that Africa has been devastated, and its inhabitants sold like beasts ; and, in the same name, that the priests of the " Holy Inquisition" persecuted the sects of the Christian church in Europe until nearly a million of persons were destroyed, over thirty thousand of whom were roasted to death;
Now take the Koran, and see what is the god of the Mussul- mans. Their god, as created by Mahomet, his prophet, and called Allah, is, according to the holy books of Islamism, a god opposed in many things to the god of the Jews and the Christians. This god, they say, after having sent twenty-four thousand prophets to the nations which had become idolatrous, finally sent a last prophet, the most perfect of all, Mahomet, upon whom should be impressed the salutation of peace. Then, in order that the infidel should not change the divine word, supreme clemency itself traced the leaves of the Koran, and thus it became immortal, uncreated, eternal as the source from which it emanated ; page by page and leaf by leaf, as it was composed, was it sent by the angel Gabriel to the prophet, and was entirely delivered to him in twenty-four thousand nocturnal visits. These visits were announced by a cold sweat seizing upon the prophet. That in the vision of a night he reached the nineteenth heaven, seated upon the back of the animal Barak, half horse and half woman ; that, owing to the gift of miracles, he reached the sun without protection from the intensity of his light, made trees grow with a single word, filled cisterns with water, split the disk of the moon in two ; and, charged with the commission of God, sword in hand, Mahomet propagated a re- ligion the most worthy of God by reason of its sublimity, and the most suitable for man by reason of its simplicity, since it con- sists of but nine points, viz.: 1. To profess the oneness of God. 2. To recognize Mahomet for his only prophet. 3. To pray five times a day. 4. To fast one month in the year. 5. To go to Mecca once in a lifetime. 6. To give the tenth of your property to the faithful. 7. To drink no wine, 8. To eat no pork. 9. To make continual war upon the infidels. By practicing these pre- cepts during life, all Mussulmans would, like himself, enjoy this world with great satisfaction, and at their death, also, like him, become apostles and martyse, whose souls, borne in the balance of their works, and absolved by the two black angels, after having traversed hell, by crossing that bridge which is straight as a hair and sharp as a saber, would be received into a place the most de- licious—a land flowing with milk and honey— where, embalmed with all the perfumes of India and Araby, chaste virgins, celestial houris, would minister constantly to their pleasure, and, with them, sontinue forever young.
Here we behold the god Allah af the Ishmaelites, and the para-
412 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
dise promised to the believers of his prophet aud those who obey his laws, the first precept of which is murder and war. It is under the banner of this doctrine that, during twelve centuries, its fanatical partisans have spread the horrors of war and carnage among the neighboring nations. It is Islamism that has plunged the people of Asia, once flourishing and intelligent, into the realm of barbarism and ignorance.
It is thus that these self-styled prophets and priests of God have elevated themselves into doctors of the peoples, and opened the ways of wickedness and iniquity. Attaching merit to prac- tices inconsequent and, in fact, ridiculous, their virtue consists in gesticulating in certain postures, in the expression of certain words, in articulating certain names, in eating and drinking certain kinds of food and drink, .and refraining from others. How low are man's ideas of the most elevated of beings ! It would seem, in hearkening to the priests of these different religions, that their god, whimsical and capricious, eats and drinks like a man-", that, in turn, he loves and hates, casts down and uplifts ; that, weak as wicked, he nurses his hate ; that, contradictory as perfidious, he sets snares for the unwary ; that, after permitting evil, he punishes it; that, foreseeing crime, he permits it; that, a venal judge, he is propitiated by bribes ; that, an imprudent despot, he makes laws which he immediately revokes; that, ferocious tyrant, he holds or confers his favors without a cause, and bends but to the strength of meanness I
Now that we have seen, as exhibited by their priests and prophets, the God of the Jews, of the Christians, and the Mussul- mans, let us examine him who is revered by Freemasons. Here is their idea of a Supreme Being. Prom at first they have called him the Grand Architect of the Universe, regarding the universe as that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and^ conformably to this idea, they comprehend under this denomination a universal and eternal intelligence, gifted with all power, all science, all love; ruling the worlds and the beings which compose the universe by regular and uniform laws to the close of their existence. It is this God, that they reverence as the Only Master, who is seen and made manifest in all the wonders of his works,, which they behold amazed; and, as the author and father of all men, he gives to all intelligence and life. Thus regarding the Supreme Being, the religion of Masonry can be but a summary of human wisdom — of all those perfections the practice of which render man nearly divine ; and it is, in a word, that universal morality which attaches to the inhabitants of every country — to the man of every worship. This morality is more extended and more universal than that of any national religion, for these, always exclusive, class those who do not believe nor worship at their shrines as unbelievers, as idolaters, schismatics, sectarians, and
1
1
KOTBg. 41i
mfidels, wldle Masomj sees no'^ng in relisionisK of ewetj load Imt iMetkrea, to vhom she opens her teapie s^si adnits dem, to be tber^ia freed from tbe pn^adiees of t^nr e«mtij or the errocs of the religion of their Others, hj Igarniag to lore one another, and Dj sn-r^n eaeh other. Beanag on hi^ h^ torth, die wooM hare it shed its pcre beans to enlighten and not to destioj ; bat vMle ahe flies from error At neiihez hates nor peraeeues : h^- oljeet beii^ in fine, to bknd the whole &bu1j of nan into one band of brothers, vnited by torej seienee, and l3.bor. This bong the true Maanie doetzine, it beeanes aeeeaeary that Koaonry should v^ea its temples to ^ rcien — to the few a to the M-^hanmedan, to the adoier of Bhaiida or Fot as to the adoirer of God i:i Christ; and this witLo^- seeking to idcntiff iiMlf with the rites of anj of these rel^ioni^B, or to follow tlie standard to sa^ an adoptiaga, Fr^^Bij^'jcrT ean seleet front th^ best doe- trines, and eoU froal their eoimwandmaBtig all diat e'>aforBES to the rule i)S Jber existenee; that is, cLe praetke of mkitertal moraK^.
Zl.—Tke Wonk^ of the Slan.
T^B wor^p of the stin has gtren to the JefwisL sad Bomaa Gatholie -priests lite ttmsnre, whidi repreaentB the dkk of the sun, of wUeh the stole is the xodiae, and the ehaplefs are zh& emblec-s of &e stars and planets; the miter of the poati^ t'zfizhir with the ercrrler and mantle, are diose of Osris ; and the eiiss, the ■ysteries of whieh are extolled without bdng nnderstood by the prieste. 15 tbe cross of Serapis, traced by the hand of die ]%fptiaa priests upon ti-^ir symbolie plan of the world, whieh, pacing by the equinoxes and the bofneg becomes the emblem of ttie lesnr- leetion and a fiitore ]i&.
3S. — ThREmamaa.
TMs rdigioas and phokeophie ^et, of which Christ had been a member, was composed of leATsed Jews who lired in the form of a soeie^ similar to that »f Pythagoras. Ljtc of labor, sobriety, lore of tnzh. the absence of all oaths, MeHtj, lore of peace, hor- ror of jialemee, complete equality in all social relationa. propertf in common, (of which ihi first Oiristiaa eaaasaaatj of Jem^em aSbids an example.) or. at t> e least, disinterested aid afforded to those members who were in need; in gencraL lore to God and man, made manifest by intense hoMSty— th«e were tie principles whieh distinguished the Eseenians. It was in i: wkbrated philosophical sect tnit. among nam'jers of andetit traditi&ns. ttit of a fiitnre aarior — a crreat "mediator who woald reestablish the nation in ail its andent glory— was eonserred and prineipallT propagated. This piedietion was founded ai follows :
414 GENERAL HISTORY OF FRBEMASONRT.
Aftei- the Assyrians had destroyed the kingdom of Samaria, some prudent persons, foreseeing the same destiny for Jerusalem, predicted and announced it, and their predictions had all the ap- pearance of prophecies. The hierophants, in their enthusiasm, had conceived a kingly liberator, who would reestablish the nation in its ancient glory, and the Hebrew people again become a powerful people, conquering and to conquer, with Jerusalem the capital of an empire, coextensive with the whole earth.
Events having realii^ed the first of these predictions, viz., the ruin of Jerusalem, the people attached to the second much more implicit belief than accorded with the event; and the afiBicted Jews looked with an impatience corresponding with their need for the coming of that victorious king and liberator who should re- build the nation fashioned by Moses and reestablish the empire of David.
Otherwise, the sacred mythological traditions of the previous time had spread over all Asia an entirely analogous dogma. They had spoken of a Great Mediator, a final Judge, a future Savior, who, as God, king, and legislator, "should bring the golden age to earth, deliver his empire from evil, and render to man the reign of blessing, peace, and happiness. These ideas found place in the hearts of the people the more as they became oppressed by successive devastation and saddened by the barbarism of their despotic governments; and this conformity between, the oracles of other nations and the prophets of their own excited the attention of the Jews. There is little doubt that those prophets had been artful enough to calculate their events after the manner employed in the pagan mysteries; for in Judea general attention had been attracted to the coming of a final savior, when a singular circum- stance determined the period of his advent.
It was written in the sacred books of the Chaldeans and Persians that the world, composed of a total revolution of twelve thousand,^ was divided into two partial revolutions, one of which, the age and reign of good, terminated at the close of the first six thousand, and the other, the age and reign of evil, terminated at the close of the second six thousand- By these recitals, the first authors had extended the annual revolution of the celestial orbit called the world, and the two systematic periods of each year, vi^., winter and summer, each divided into six thousand parts. These expressions, in which the thousands were taken in the sense of years, instead of parts, and the whole taken in a literal rather than in an astrological sense, together with the fact that in these latter days the Jews were unhappily situated, sub-
^ This, it will be remembered by the reader, was the division of the zodiao of Zoroaster into twelve thousands, or twelve months, of a thousand parts each.
HOTBS. 41a
ject to and severely taxed by th« Roman power, induced them to believe that tb« age of evil was about to dose, and be succeeded by the age of good.
Xow, in the calculations of the Jews, thev commenced to count their first six thousand years from their (fiotitious> creation of the world. This time was certainly about to close, and this co- incidence produced an imitation in the minds of leadin'' men among them. They talked of nothing but the approaching'' time; they interrogated the hierophants and their mystic books; they expected the advent daily of that restorer of their ancient great- ness. Jesus Christ, educated among the Essenians, appear^ and preaches his doctrine. It is not satisiiictory to diose in power; he is arrested, tried, condemned, executed. After his death, his dis^nples and partisans, deprived of their chief bv an incident, true, without doubu gave place by their recitals to "a rumor which gradually grew into a history, and immediately all the circumstances of the mythological traditions have place, and afford as a system authentic and complete, and which we can not doubt.
These mythologioil traditions sot forth that, "In the btyuming a looMON and a man haTing, by their disobedience and consequent /ofl, inbxvluced sin into the world,'" (T.tke an ancient celestial globe, and follow the explanation.) Here we perceive the :istro- nomical &ot that the v-rgiu harvester and the cowherd (^Bootes"*. occupyin^j positions obliquely to the equinox of autumn, seem to deliver the heavens to tie constellation of winter, and, failing under the horixon, introduces into the world the geuius of evil, Ahrimane. symbolized by the constellation of the seipemL
The traditious continue : - That the woman, haviuir fallen, se- duced the man; " .-ind, in fact, the riryui, descending first, see-a-.s to drag Boo;'!! toward her. " That the woman, kaldiiiy Aum, pre- senfi Aij* mitk /irmiU brnm/i/ml to luok igwH and good to eat, and which impart the knowledge of good and evil ;" and, in fact, the riiyiN hoLls in her hand a branch of firuit, which she seems to be extending toward Bootes, while the bough or branch, emblem of autumn, placed in the xodiac of Mithra upon the frontier of winter and of summer, seems to open the door and bestow science, which is the key of good and evil.
The traditions continue ; " That this oomple Jiad been ch^is-td Jjrom tk* ixiist^jl ^^rd'em, and that a cherubim, with a flaming sword, had been placed at the gate to keep them from returning;''" and. in fact, when the viiytit and .Bootes fall under the horiion. P'erf-tits rises upcu the other side, with a sword in his hand. ;3i;a seemingly chases them from the heaven of summer, the garden and reign of fruits jnd flowers^
The f^.i'^.itions continue: "That of this virgin would be born — put forth a shoot — an in&nt who would crush the head of the serpent, anJ who would deliver the world fivm sin;"' and Dy
416 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
this figure they ■ designated the movement of the sun, -which, in fact, at the time of the summer solstice — at the precise moment when the magi of the Persians cast the horoscope of the new year — is found resting in the bosom of the virgin and obliquely with the eastern horizon, and which, on this account, was symbol- ized in their astrological pictures under^ the form of a suckling infant resting in the bosom of a virgin, and became afterward, at the equinox of spring-time, the ram or lamb, conqueror of the constellation of the serpent, which at this time disappears from the heavens.'
These mythological traditions further state : " That in his in- fancy, this restorer, of divine or celestial nature, lived humble, ob- scure, cast down, and indigent;" and thus may be seen the sun of winter low in the horizon, and the first of these four ages or seasons, winter, a time of consequent obscurity, want, fasting, and privations. Further : " That, put to death by wicked ones, he was gloriously resurrected ; that he went up from hell to heaven, where he reigns eternally;" and thus they retraced the way of the sun, who, closing his career at the solstice of winter, while Typhon ruled and the angels rebelled, he seems to be put to death by them, but immediately after reappearing, he mounts toward the vault of heaven, where he remains.
Finally, these traditions, in citing the astrological and myste- rious names of this infant, say that he was sometimes called Oris — that is to say, the preserver — and sometimes Msus. Can a closer analogy be traced between the leading features of two accounts of any event which has ever had place than this which we have just recounted, when compared with the Scriptures detailing the birth, life, and death of Christ?
Like Osiris, Adonis, or Mithra, Christ came upon the earth to destroy death and darkness, and, like them, he was born on the 25th of December. This is the solstice of winter, the moment when the sun passes from the inferior to the superior signs ; a.id, in the cosmogony of the ancients, he enters Taurus ; but, by reasoo of the precession of the equinoxes, he began, about the year 330 before the birth of Christ, to enter by the sign of the ram or lamb, and through which he opened the year effectually at the time when Christ appeared preaching his doctrine in Judea. Thus Christ calls himself the lamb who removeth the sins of the world.
With the sphere of Coronelli in his hand, let the reader now observe what takes place at the time of the birth of Christ.
On the 25th December, to a minute, the sun is at Capricorn, in
1 In the explanation of the Persian sphere spoken of by Ben-Ezra, in the Foetical Heaven of Blaen, p. 71, occurs this sentence: "The first square rep- resents this beautiful virgin with long hair, seated on a lounge, with two swords in one hand, suckling an infant, called Jesus by some nations and Christ in Greek."
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HOTBS. 417
the stable of ^geus, son of the sun; at the highest meridianal point IS the ass of Bacchus and the crib or manger ; behind him IS the water hearer or cherubim ; before him is the eaale of St. John. In the superior hemisphere is the bull and the celestial Koh; in the east the virffin reposes, holding an infant in her arms, and under her feet is the dragon. Near her is Bootes, the foster- father of Horus, and near him Janus, with his key in his hand and mounted upon his ship— chief of the twelve months Janus appears ; and upon the same line, toward the horizon, is the star i}t>.phen. The lamb is couching, and in front of him is that con- stellation composed of three beautiful stars which Christian astron- omers call the Maffi.
This is the condition on the 25th December in the astronomical cosmogony. In the Christian cosmogony, upon the 25th Decem- ber, at the same moment, Christ is born of a virgin, in a stable, between an ox and an ass; he is laid in a manger, and is. called Jesus, because he is to deliver his people ; then an angel appears, who announces the birth of Christ, whom he styles Lord; on the eighth day he is called Savior ; near Jesus and his mother is the foster-father Joseph, the carpenter. Upon the next day is cele- brated the feast of St. Stephen by the Catholic church, and upon the day following that of St. John the Evangelist, whom the sacred books represented accompanied by an eagle. Peter, chief of the twelve apostles (months), is represented carrying the keys of heaven, and, afterward Jesus is known as the Lamb of God who redeems the world. The analogy, it will be observed, is striking. Let us complete it.
No sooner is Christ born than three kings, or magi, guided by the star in the East, come to salute and bring him presents, which, according to immemorial usage were consecrated to the sun. Three months after the solstice of winter occurs the solstice of summer, viz.: on the 25th of March. At this instant the sun triumphs, and day and night becomes of equal length. At the moment when Gabriel, upon this day, salutes Mary, in the Chris- tian cosmogony, Osiris, in the Egyptian, was reputed to salute the moon, to the end that she might fructify the earth. On the 24th of June, feast of St. John, and precise period of the solstice of summer, St. John the Baptist should have baptized Christ to fit him for his work. This St. John — the Latin Janua means gate or door — has his peer in the St. John of the 27th of December, whose feast opens the solstice of winter. Here it is plain that the St. Johns are no other than the Janua inferi and Janua cceli of the Romans, the doors to the inferior and superior places. These are, in fact, the two precise points when the sun, having arrived at the culminations of his ascending and descending courses, pass from the superior signs into the inferior, and from the latter return into the former.
27
418 OBNERAL HISTORY OIT FRBBMASONRY,
Wg come to the death of Christ. Following the Evangelists, it took place on Good or Holy Friday ; and he arose three days after- nrard. From the 25th December, the sun having entered the su- perior signs, remains insensible to our horizon until the 21st March. Well, at that instant, upon the 25th March, when he crossed the line, was celebrated by the Jews the feast of the Passover ; for then this feast was not as it is to-day, a moveable one; on the contrary, 't occurred invariably at the instant of the vernal equinox. Now equinox signifies equal days as nights; for during the three days which elapse from the 21st to the 25th March, the nights over all the earth are of equal length with the days — before the 21st the nights are longer ; afterward they are shorter. The same phenom- enon occurs at the autumnal equinox, At these two periods of the year the equator is found perpendicularly under the sun.
Now what is the result of this examination? That the disciples of Christ have surrounded his birth, life, and death witli miracles wliich never took place, but which are, rather, symbolized under Holar appearances. That the doctrine of Christ, which is a sum- mary and code of all the truths which were known at this period, is similar to that of the Essenian school from which he graduated, iiK it is similar to that of the hierophants of Egypt and the gym- nosiipliists of India. In a word, that the Christian religion came nut from the mysteries of initiation ; and that the creation, the gods, the angels, the occurrences, dogmas, and ceremonies, such as we find thoni in the sacred books, are nothing but resombluucoN, more or l(^^« f'aitliful, of the ancient gods, angels, dogmas, and cferomonies of ilie Brahmins, the magi, and the Egyptian priests.
During the first three centuries of our era the Christian religion existed but in anarchy and chaos. Opinions as fanciful as ridi- culous divided those who assumed the direction of it, and their opin- ions were sustained by their supporters with fervor, and an abid- ing faith that caused the destruction of myriads, because they wen; based upon traditions equally as ancient and equally as sacred as those which were offered to replace them. After throe hundred years the government became associated with one of these sects, and made its doctrines the religion of the State, to the exclusion of all the others ; and these, consequently, became heresies and their holders heretics, to be cursed and destroyed by the dominant party.
33 . — Christianity,
This religion, having gone forth out of Judea, spread rapidly upon tlie earth. At first propagated by men whoso only object was to reform and simplify the worship of natuiii, ami to make uuivaisal morality the basis of that worship, by blotting out for- Bvci the numerous and horrible sacrifices which every-where iu-
NOTES. 419
undated the altars with blood, under a solar allegory they exhibited a single victim, worthy of divinity, immolated each year for the preservation and regeneration of nature. This religion was sub- sequently perpetuated by priests, who altered its simple and natural forms, and substituted therefor certain mysteries, ceremonies, and above all, assumed a sacerdotal power totally unknown to its first ministers, the disciples of Christ, whose only power consisted in appeals to the consciences of men. In its primitive condition, this religion formed the allegorical complement to the worship of nature — a worship which of itself was at first nothing more than a grand and beautiful allegory.
In the earlier times, and after the death of Christ, the priests of his religion were strangers to all thought of human dominion. Entirely animated by that idea to which he gave expression in the words, " He who devotes himself most diligently to my service here shall be greatest in my kingdom hereafter," they were humble, modest, charitable, and constant in their endeavors to imbue those to whom they preached with a similar spirit. Their early meetings were devoid of either parade or show, being nothing but sponta- neous reunions of all the Christians resident in any certain locality. A pure and simple morality marked their religious enthusiasm, and excited even the admiration of their persecutors. They shared every thing in common — ^property, joys, and sorrows. In the silence of night they met in secret to teach and pray. The agapes, or fra- ternal repasts, terminated these meetings, in which differences of social rank and position were e&ced by the belief of a paternal divinity being present. It was thus that Christianity prepared two changes which gradually found place in the manners and customs of all those countries into which this religion extended. Women obtained the rank and importance to which, as the mothers of families, they are justly entitled; and the slaves, -as participants at the agapes, were gradually elevated above that oppression under which one half of the whole human race, anterior to the advent of Christianity, had bowed itself.
34. — The Mysteries of Christianity.
At the beginning Christianity was an initiation similar to that of the pagans. None "w^ere admitted but upon certain determined conditions, and, these conditions complied with, they were received and a complete knowledge of the doctrine and mysteries conveyed to them in three degrees of instruction. The initiates were, con- sequently, divided into three classes : The first class was composed of the hearers, the second of the catechumens, or those who, having taken the first degree, were in possession of the rudiments of the Christian doctrine, and the third class was composed oi the faithful. The hearers constituted the novices who, prepared by certain prae-
■420 GBNEEAL HISTORY OF FBKEMASONRY.
tices, and after having listened and assented to certain instructions, were initiated into the rudimentary degree, and brought to a knowl- edge of a part of the degrees of Christianity. Having attained, in this manner, to the condition of a catechumen, the initiate, having purified himself by the practice of certain ordinances, was baptized, or initiated into the degree of divine generation; and subsequently a knowledge of the mysteries of Christianity, viz., the incarnation, nativity, passion, death, and resurrection, were conveyed to him, and this instruction composed his initiation into the class of the faithful. The mysteries were divided into two parts ; the first part was called the mass of the catechumens, and corresponded to the low mass of the Catholic Church of the present day, and the second part was called the mass of the faithful, corresponding to the high mass of the same church. Of these mysteries the celebration of the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, beyond all others, was held as the most inviolable secret, and known only to the faithful. All the mysteries and ceremonies which constituted the early Christiai worship are to be found in the worship of Mithra, or solar worship, and the celebration of these mysteries was likewise called the mast.
35. — Eleusis, Athens.
Of all the magnificent monuments which ornamented " beautiful Athens," among those possessing any merit there now remains but the ruins of the Pantheon, the temples of Jupiter, Olympus, The- seus, the Winds, and Victory ; the theaters of Bacchus and Heroduo Atticus ; the gate of Adrian, and the Erechtheum.
36. — The Temple' of Balbek.
Balbek signifies city of Baal, or city of the sun, and corresponds with the Greek term Heliopolis. Of this ancient city time has spared but the ruina of a few temples, which may be seen at some distance from anti-Libanus. Of these two are very remarkable, being, in their dimensions, colossal, and erected with huge stones which surpass in the extent of their superficial measurement any thing to be found among the monolithic works of Egypt ; while, scattered about may be found the remains of masterpieces of ma- sonic art.
37 — The Temple of Tadmor (^Palmyra).
The edifices of Palmyra surpass in beauty and grandeur even those of Heliopolis. According to the historian, Josephus, this city was founded by Solomon, who gave it the name of Tadmor, or city of Palnis. It is situated in the desert of Arabia, between Syria and the Euphrates. Having fallen into the possession of the Romans, it was considerably aggrandized by them, under the roign of the Emperor Aurelian (275 A. D.), who ordered the colleges
I
NOTES. 421
3f Soman architects to construct therein, among other monuments, many temples of such surpassing beauty and colossal dimensions, that they exceeded all of that character which had ever been erected in previous time.
From the remains of the temple of Helios it is apparent that it was supported by four hundred and sixty-four columns, of fifty feet high, which sustained the long galleries and porches on either side to the extent of seven hundred feet. Other columns, each composed of a single block of marble, were arranged in four ranks and formed superb avenues. Westwardly is found another temple, which is connected with that which has been described by a long street of columns, making, as it were, a continuous temple, or two temples connected by a colonnade, which it is evident, contained in all one thousand four hundred and fifty columns of from forty to fifty feet high each, something over a hundred of which yet exist in more or less perfection, and brokenly mark the outlines of this magnificent work of art. These ruins have been known to European travelers since 1691.
38. — Jcmvs.
When the worship of idols was abandoned and that of Christ erected upon its ruins, many of the pagan divinities were appro- priated by the priests of Christianity, and became saints, more or less distinguished, in the Christian calendar. For instance, Dio-- nysius merged into St. Denis, and Bacchus into St. Demetrius. Ctf Perpetua and Felicitas were made St. Perpetua and St. Feli- . city. Saints Eogation, Donatian, Floris and Lucius, also St. Apollonacius, were all of pagan origin. Of Janus, with his double ftce and bearing the keys, significant of the duty assigned him by the Bomans — that of opening the inferior and superior places, otherwise opening and closing the year — the Christians made that St. John who represents the summer solsticial feast, which the pagans celebrated on the 24th of June, and that other St. John, who represents the winter solsticial feast, which the pagans cele- brated on the 25th of December. To favor the mechanism of the new dispensation, two Saints John, instead of one Janus, became necessary ; and thus was a saint provided for the members of the corporation."! of Roman builders, when, forsaking paganism, they attached themselves to and became members of the Christian re ligion. Hitherto, and as pagans, these colleges had invariably celebrated those feasts, in common with all ancient peoples ; and the transition from a pagan to a Christian festival was, as we have shown, made remarkably easy. It was this motive that induced the Fraternity to adopt the Saints John as patron saints, and not, as is generally supposed and declared, because they were the fore- runner and best beloved of Christ.
422 eEHBKAL HISIOBT 01 FBEEUASOKBT.
APPENDIX.
Rkcapitulatioh Is the introduction to this, onr work, we went back to the first ages of the haman race, to the eonrce of all reli^ons, to the origin of hieroglyphics and ejmboU, and to the mysteries of an- tiquity, because not only were many of the truths of the sciences which were cultivated in those mysteries transmitted to the college)! of Boman builders, but because they were intimately connected with architecture, and, in that manner, allied to the history of the human race. Subsequently, in unfolding before the reader the history of the Masonic institation in so tnccinct a manner as we have done, we paused, in the recital, but at that period of its de- velopment in England when the colleges of architects and builders were established and conaolidated with a particular character, and, pure and intact, their original privileges and freedom were guar- anteed to them. In our statementA concerning the foundation of this institution, and in those concerning its organizatioo. itg object, its labors, its vicissitudes, and it« days of glory, we were forced to pass by all that does not really belong to its history ; for this condition we religiously engaged to comply with when we began this our task. Adhering to this condition has been, we believe, as well our merit as our salvation ; for, anlike most authors who have entered this field of investigation, we have not been befogged by the obsi-urity that must ever attend a search for the origin of Freemasonry among the Hindoos, Persians, or Egrptian?, , nor have we rendered our history ridiculous by onia- mentation borrowed from the historj, manner:, or enf.tomn of these pe is commonly done by those who have heretofore produced what they are plea:-':d to offer us as the veritable history of ancient Free
APPENDIX. 42S
Mksonry. The K>»d that w« h»T« fo)loir«d was in psrt »lr«jtdy opened bj Ya»Qj historians, und i« pursuiuj: it, as we h»T* indi- cated, it led us to the cradle of this institiitioa; but until now, «ttd it is with some degree of pride we make the assertion, no author hefbre us has ewr had the courage to approach this vast subject, and in ti«ating it historieallj. deliTer it Atom the bodj of that enehantmeut with which they have, on the contrary, sought to envelope it.
In pr»seuting, for the first time in a history of Froouissonry. the works of this sinculsr assooistion, and in enumeratiui: the most remarkable monuments erected by them, from their founda- tion to the sixtoeuth couturv, we have ooustautly followed the course of time and eTents. We hare accompanied the oo'.lecos of coustructors, the free corporvnious. and the Freemasons, into which the fbrmer sui.w*si\oA- merged, through and across centuries, revolutions. inTasious, and int«rnational wars : we have trsvorsod the ashes of ancient oitios and nations, the remains of thrones and of empires, to the more calm era of the middle .tees, when an. and that crMtive spirit of the human mind elevated towards the hei»veM of i;.-: hopes and desires those sublime edifices consecrated and fi»r«T«r the admiration ot" posterity. We have evoko.i from thwr tombs not only the philosophers auvl civilisors of the ancient peoples which have passed ftv>m earth, and the s.ii:vs who have enlightened them, hut also the statesmen, the warriors, the philos- ophers who have made Freemasonry their boast and their pride, and whom, in its turn. Freemasonry has rendered iilustrioiis.
The epitome of the w\>rships and mysteries with which we have closed our hisjory. accompanied by the list of the philosophers. reformers, and loungers of this worship and those mvsterfes, from the highest antiquity, proves conclusively th:;t India is the eradle of the human rsoe, and source of all the religions of the world ; while, at the same time, those worships and mysjeries present us with a curi>ius museum where are ft>un«i arranged, so to say, ia chrouological and exact orJer. the doctrines, ideas, and institutioTis of centuries, and among which we discern the origin of what we now esiimate as our most uselkl te.-ioh'.ngs In the notes which serve to explain and illustrate these n.ysuries we have extended i>ur quctation^ and rejections, to the end that
424 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Freemasons would have an opportunity of comparing the religious ideas which they may possess with those which were held by the men who for thousands of years have preceded them ; and also for the purpose of accounting to them for the very evident connec- tion which they must see exists between Freemasonry and these ancient religious beliefs and mysteries.
This examination will demonstrate to them that, because the luembers composing the colleges of builders were initiated into the mysteries of Greece or of Egypt, and introduced into the new institution certain forms and doctrines borrowed from these mys- teries, it is not therefore necessary to conclude that the.se colleges of builders became the successors of the hierophants of Egypt or the gymnosophists of India. If certain truths have been con- served and transmitted to us by these colleges, they otherwise have no peculiar merit, for the Greek and Hebrew philosophers, as also the primitive Christians, have likewise propagated and transmitted such truths and many ceremonies. We repeat, there- fore, that which we have more than once already asserted, that the ancient initiation was instruction in all the then known sci- ence and philosophy, while that which was practiced in the colleges was confined mainly, if not entirely, to the study and the secreta of all the branches of architecture.
Moral architecture, or Modern Freemasonry, the issue of the Masonic corporations of Britain, is, without doubt, more closely allied by its object to the ancient initiations than was that prac- ticed among the colleges of builders; but it can never become a sdhool of science and philosophy, seeing that science and philosophy have become the common attainment of all who are now situated and disposed to their study. While, however, this position is happily denied it, Freemasonry should be grander, mor£ sublime, than any form of ancient mysteries, inasmuch as while they were exclusive and confined to classes and peoples, it may embrace the whole race of man, and transform that race into a society of brothers, united by love, science, and labor. It is to such an object every phase of the Freemasonry of to-day should tend, and for the ac- complishment of which each of its initiates should solemnly engage his efforts and influence.
APPENDIX. 426
The Commandments of the Ancient Sages, as contrasted with the Precepts of Modern Freemasonry.
Having thus retraced the general history of Freemasonry, we do not consider our task completed unless we furnish, for the benefit of our younger, and, mayhap, some of our older brethren, a list of the commandments of the wise men of the past ages, and contrast th'e same with what is known to us as the precepts of Mod- ern Freemasonry. These precepts, being based upon morality and virtue, it is the study of the one and the practice of the other that will render a Mason's life irreproachable. The good of hu- manity being the principal object of Masonry, disinterestedness is one of the first virtues imposed upon its members ; for this is the source of justice and benevolence.
To contribute to the happiness of others ; to be humble without degradation ; to abjure all sentiments of hate and vengeance ; to exhibit magnanimity and liberality without ostentation or dissi- pation ; to be the enemy of vice ; to render homage to wisdom and virtue; to respect innocence; to be constant and patient in adversity and modest in prosperity, to avoid all irregularity which may stain the soul or dishonor the body : such are the precepts which, when followed, will make of every Freemason a good citizen, a faithful husbapd, a tender father, submissive son, and true brother.
Commandments of the Ancient Saoes.
1. God is eternal wisdom, omnipotence, immutable and supreme intelligence.
2. By the practice of virtue, honor thyself Thy religion should be to do good as a pleasure, and not as a duty. In observing their precepts, become the friend of the wise. Thy soul being immortal, do nothing to dishonor it. Cease not to make war upon vice.
3. Do to others that which thou wouldst desire them to do to thyself. In submitting to fortune, thou but followest the light ot the wise.
4. Thou shouldst honor thy parents and aged persons. Thou shouldst enlighten the young and protect children.
5. Thou shouldst cherish thy wife and little ones. Thou jhouldst love thy country and obey her laws.
426 8E5EEAL HI8T0ET OF FBEBMASONBT.
6. Thy friend being to thee as a second self, see that thoa bringest no misfortune upon him. Thou shouldst regard his memory as thou wouldst his life.
7. Thou shouldst shun false friendships, avoid all excesses, and fear to stain thy good name.
8. Thou shouldst subdue thine own passions and utilize the passions of others. Be indulgent to error.
9. Hear much, speak little, and weigh well that which thou gpeakest.
10. Forget injuries ; render good for evil, and abuse not power or authority intrusted to thee.
11. Thou shouldst learn the nature of man, to the end that thou learnest thine own nature.
12. Seek the truth. Be just. Avoid idleness.
Precepts op Modern Febemasonet.
1. Be just ; because equity sustains the human race.
2. Be good ; because goodness enchains all hearts.
3. Be indulgent; because, feeble thyself, thou shouldst bear with the feebleness of others.
4. Be kind ; because kindness secures affection.
5. Be grateful ; because gratitude is the food that nourishes liberality.
6. Be modest; because pride is offensive to your fellow-beings.
7. Pardon injuries; because vengeance perpetuates hate.
8. Bender good for evil ; because in this way you will rise su- perior to the evil-doer and make him your friend.
9. Be forbearing, temperate, chaste ; because voluptuousness, intemperance, and sensuality are destructive of thy existence, and will render it miserable.
10. Be a citizen; because thy country is necessary for thy security, thy happiness, and thy well-being.
11. Defend thy country with thy life; because it is her who secures thee in thy property, and in the possession of all tho^e beings dear to thy heart; but never forget that humanity has rights.
12. If thy country wrong thee — if she refiise thee happiness, and suffer thee to be oppressed — leave her in silence ; but never trouble her. Support adversity with resignation.
428 EEMAEKS ON THE VIEWS OF BEO. EEBOU),
REMARKS on the Views maintained by Bro. Rebold, as exhibited in his J^otes to his EpitoTne of the Wor- ships and Mysteries of the Ancient Eastern World.
Is his explanation of the origin of ChristianUy, in Note 32, Bro. Heboid has adopted views not in accordance with the belief of ChriBtians, as comprised in the Nicene Creed. He would lead us to believe that the accepted legends concerning the birth and deatb of Jesus can be ex- plained by astronomical data, and that no miraculous intervention need attach to those occurrences — ^that his birth was but the birth of any man; his death that of one who had offended the laws of his country, and his life, at least during the term of his itinerant pastorship, alone worthy of our admiration, as fruitful with preaching the most acceptable to mankind, because expressive of all that can ennoble the human race. In this regard, the translation and publication of some of Bro. Heboid's "Notes" have given ofiFense, and a few of those who have felt tbemselves offended by Bro. Heboid's views being introduced into a history of Free- masonry, have expressed their dissatisfaction in some of the Masonic newspapers of the country, as also their desire that the circulation and sale of the " General Hittory of Freemasonry in Europe" should be sup- pressed by aU who think with them, as a book dangerous to the Church and subversive of the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.
To all such brethren, and we believe few but Freemasons purchase this book, we would respectfblly recommend the fact that the incidental allusions in it, expressive of its author's reU^ons beliel^ can do no harm to those who do not believe as he does, and certainly they can not be regarded as hurtfiil to any other person. If Bro. Rebold has discovered what he conceives to be the true meaning of certain legends, express- ions, and assertions contained in the Scriptures, and denies the existence of miracles, he but asserts his own individuality without depriving any other brother of that condition, and at the same time, as a historian, he takes his position among the members of that advanced school who, as to miracles, argue as foUows:
"It is an absolute rule of criticism to deny a place in history to nar- ratives of miraculous circumstances; nor is this owing to a metaphys-
IN NOTES TO WOE8HIP8 AND MY8TEEIBS. 429
ioal Bystem, but i8 simply the dictation of observation No miracle hai ever been really proved. All the pretended miracles near enough to be examined are referable to illusion or imposture. If a single miracia had ever been proved, we could not reject those of ancient history; for/ admitting that very many of the last vrere false, vre might still believe that some of them were true. But it is not so. Discussion and exam- ination are fatal to miracles at the present day, and therefore we are authorized to believe that those miracles which date many centuries back, and regarding which there are no means of framing a contradictory debate, are also without reality. Iri other words, miracles only exist when people believe in them. The supernatural is but another term for faith. Catholicism, in yet maintaining that it possesses miraculous pow- ers, subjects itself to the influence of this law. The miracles of which it boasts never occur where they would be most effective. Why should not this fact be brought more prominently forward ? A miracle at Paiis, London, or New York, for instance, performed to the satisfaction of learned men, would put an end to all doubt. But, alas for miracles I such a thing never happens. A miracle never takes place before skeptical or incredulous people, who are the most in need of such a convincing proof of the supernatural. Credulity on the part of the witnesses is the essen- tial condition of a miracle."
There is not a solitary exception to the rule that miracles are never produced before those who are able or permitted to discuss and criticise them. Cicero, with his usual good sense and penetration, asks, in his De Divinatione, "Since when has this secret force disappeared? Has it not been since men have become less credulous?"
In support of the reality of miraculous agency, appeal is made to phe- nomena outside of natural laws, such, for instance, as the creation of man. This creation, it has been said, could only have been compassed by the direct intervention of God ; and why could not this intervention b' universe? Without at all entering upon the domain of theology, it is easy to show how defective is this argument. It is equivalent to main- taining that every thing which does not happen in the ordinary condi- tions of nature, every thing that can not be explained by science, or per- formed by man upon scientific or philosophic principles, is a miracle, or, in other words, a direct intervention of Deity. While we heartily ac- knowledge that God may be permanently in. every thing, particularly in every thing that lives, we deny the reality of the supernatural until we are cognizant of a demonstrated fact of this nature. In far distant epochs there occurred without doubt phenomena which, on the same scale at least, are not repeated in the world of to-day. But there was at the time they happened a cause for those phenomena. In geological forma-
430 EEMABKS OK THE VIEWS OP BEO. EEBOLD,
tion may be met a great number of minerals and precions stones which nature seems no longer to produce. Tet they have all been artificially produced by manufacturers of minerals and precious stones. If life can not be artificially produced, it is because the reproductions of the condi- tions in which life commenced (if it may be said ever to have commenced) are beyond human knowledge to attain. The formation of humanity, if we think of it as a sudden, instantaneous thing, is of all things in the world the most shocking and absurd ; but if it is viewed as the result of a long continued progress, lasting through incalculable ages, it maintains its place in general analogies without losing its mystery. The laws of natural life are not applicable to embryotic life. The embryo develops all its organs one after another. It creates no more, because it is no longer at the creative age ; just as language is no longer invented, be- cause there is no more to invent.
But why continue an argument wherein the adversary but begs the question? We ask for a proven miracle, and are told that such took place anterior to history. Certainly if any proof were wanting of the necessity of belief in the supernatural to certain conditions of the soul, it would be found in the fact that many minds gifted in all other points with due penetration have reposed their entire faith in an argument as desperate as this.
The objectors to Bro. Eebold's views are further content to reject what nearly all of its readers have acknowledged to be the most reasonable and apparently correct history of the origin of Freemasonry that has ever been published, because, in those "Notes," he evinces a disbelief in the accepted legends of the origin of Christianity. In view of this condition, Bro. R. may exclaim as did John Huss on sight of an old woman whom he observesd perspiring under the weight of a faggot she was dragging to his stake, "O sancta simplicitas I" Let these good brothers repress their breath and their heat, however, for, according to a beautiful expression of Scripture, Ood U not in the wind, nor in the fire. If the annoyance which they have e^"- perienced, in reading what they object to, proved instrumental in aiding the cause of truth, there would be something of consolation in it But Truth is not for the angry or passionate man She reserves herself for those who, free from partisan feeling, from persistent affections, and enduring hates, seek her vrith entire liberty, and with no mental reser- vation referring to human affairs. These problems form only one of the innumerable questions with which the world is crowded and which the curious are fond of studying; and their introduction into Notes explana- tory of the Mysteries and Worships of Antiquity is certainly not im- proper. No one should be offended by the announcement of a mere theoretical opinion. Those who would guard their faith as a treasure can defend it very easily by ignoring all works written in an opposing
IN KOTES TO WCESHIPS AND MY8TBBIE8. 431
spirit The timid would do better by dispensing with reading alto- gether.
In writing the works which he has produced, Bro. Bebold, it must be acknowledged, has been influenced by a desire to find the truth, and to make the events of the past of Freemasonry known with the greatest possible exactness. In doing so we do him but justice to believe he had no thought of shocking the religious preferences of any one. He has written with no desire to proselytize, except for truth, and evidently in the conviction that every concession made to the scruples of those who bad written on this subject before him was a derogation from the dig- nity and culture of truth. It can at once be seen that, when conducted in such a spirit, any writer must sink his individuality in his composi- tions.
The first principle of the critical school is the allowance, in matters of faith, of all that is needed, and the adaptation of belie& to individual wants. Why should we concern ourselves about things over which no one has any control? If any person should adopt the principles of Bro. Rebold, as evinced in his "Notes," it is because that person has the mental tendency and the culture adapted to those principles ; and all that Bro. R. or any brother might write during the term of their natural lives conld not impart this tendency and this culture to those who do not nat- urally possess them. Philosophy differs from faith in this: that faith is believed to operate by itself, independently of the intelligence ac- quired from dogmas. Bro. Kebold, on the contrary, holds that truth only possesses value when the order of its ideas is comprehended. He does not consider himself obliged to maintain silence in regard to those opinions which may not be in accord with the belief of some of his readers. He makes no sacrifices to the exigencies of differing orthodox- ies, but, instead of attacking them, he evidently does not allow them to influence him in any manner. To use his own language (at pp. 423-4), he has "extended his quotations and reflections to the end that Free- masons would have an opportunity of comparing the religious ideas which they may possess with those which were held by the men who, for thousands of years, have preceded them; and also for the purpose of accounting to them for the very evident connection which they must see exists between Freemasonry and these ancient religious beliefs and mysteries" which those quotations and 'reflections merely serve to il- lustrate.
The men who believe Bro. Rebold has offended in the first instance, and his American translator in the second, evidently are unfamiliar with the speculative tendencies of Freemasonry, and do not comprehend that such tendencies lead to the study of that which those men believe should nof be questioned. They would repel, yea, excommunicate thoso
432 Tty-MARKS OS THE VIEW8 OF BEO. KEBOLD.
who dare to think outside of the acc^ted groove of their own thoughts. The Heavenly Father, upon the contrary, only excommunicates Qie self- ish and narrow-minded. The spirit of liberty in the realm of thongh^ like the wind, bloweth where it Usteth. Theory is not practice. Do those who freely speak when they believe duty dictates equal, after all, in merit, those who in secret cherish and restaiin the doubts taiown only to God?
In the language of an eloquent modem writer,* we say " Peace, then, in the name of God! Let Ihe different orders of men live and pass their days, not in doing injustice to their own proper spirits by making con- cessions, but in mutually supporting each other. It is well known what follows when orthodoxy succeeds in overpowering free thought and sci- ence. Stupidity and mediocriiy are the bane of certain Proteetant countries where, under the pretense of maintaining the spirit of Chris- tiaaity, art, science, and freedom of opinion are degraded. Lncretia of Rome and Saint Theresa, Aristophanes and Socrates, Voltaire and Fran- cis of Assisgi, Kaphael and Saint Vincent de Paul, all enjoyed to an equal degree the right of existence in the world, and humanity would have been lessened had a single one of their individual elements been wantmg." J. F. R
* Smeet Benan aatbor of the ** Origtns of CbxistiAaitTt'' etc