Note:  The following material is a scanned-in research resource; it is NOT intended as an exact reproduction of the original volume. Due to computer display variances, page numbers are approximate. Scanned at Phoenixmasonry by Ralph Omholt, PM - June 2007.

The History Of Freemasonry

By

Albert G. Mackey 33°

VOLUME SEVEN

 

PART 4. - SYMBOLISM OF FREEMASONRY

 

CHAPTER                                                                                 PAGE

                                                                                                [Original Volumes  /  This Copy]

3. - Symbolism of Numbers ............................................................ 1733   /  7

4. - Legends and Symbols of Freemasonry .................................. 1755   /  30

 

PART 5. - ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE AND ROYAL ORDER OF SCOTLAND

 

 

1. - The Early History of the Scottish Rite .................................... 1803   /  69

2. - The Original Supreme Council .............................................. 1820   /  84

3. - The Scottish Rite in the United States .................................. 1843   /  97

4. - The Royal Order. of Scotland ................................................ 1908   /  181

 

 

PART 6. - FREEMASONRY IN OTHER COUNTRIES

 

 

1. - British America ...................................................................... 1929   /  214

2. - Mexico .................................................................................... 1942   /  227

3. - Cuba and Porto Rico ............................................................ 1961   /  241

4. - Asia and Cape Colony .......................................................... 1968   /  246

5. - Australasia ........................................................................... 1990   /  266

 

SUPPLEMENT TO DR. MACKEY'S TEXT

BY WILLIAM JAMES HUGHAN ................................................. 2001   /  275

 

 

 

 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 

VOLUME SEVEN

PAGE

Theodore S. Parvin …………………………………………….…. 1744   /  19

York Cathedral ……………………………………………..…..…. 1776   /  48

Apprentice's Pillar, Roslyn Chapel, Edinburgh …….....……. 1808   /  75

H. R. H., the Prince of Wales ……………………………………. 1840   /  94

Plate of Symbols …………………………………………….……. 1872   /  142

Fac-simile of Agreement of Union

of A\A\S\R\ Bodies in U. S. A. ……………………. 1880   /  151

Green Dragon Tavern, Boston, Mass …………………………. 1904   /  176

The Oldest Masonic Minute in Existence ……………………. 1926   /  211

Charles T. McClenachan 1936 Knights Templar-

Columbian Commandery, No. 1, New York City ….... 1968   /  224

Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth ………………………..……. 2000   /  273

 

 

 

P. 1733

 

Chapter III

 

SYMBOLISM OF NUMBERS

 

THE best way, says Lawrie in his preface, "of refuting the calumnies which have been brought against the fraternity of Freemasons is to lay before the public a correct and rational account of the nature, origin, and progress of the institution, that they may be enabled to determine whether or not its principles are, in any shape, connected with the principles of revolutionary anarchy, and whether or not the conduct of its members has ever been similar to the conduct of traitors." And from the publication of such sentiments it must be evident to every Brother's experience that the feeling against Freemasonry, which displayed itself so openly only a few years ago, has assumed a much milder form, if it be not entirely removed.

 

It will not, however, be difficult to account for the dearth of Masonic writers in a preceding age.

 

Before the 18th century symbolical masonry, being limited to the simple ceremonial, needed few illustrations; because, as the science was chiefly operative, the most valuable secrets would be those which had a reference to building, to the scientific ornaments and decorations of each particular style of architecture as it flourished in its own exclusive period; and these mysteries were communicated gradually, as the candidate rose through the different stages of his order or profession.

 

There appears to have been one general principle, which extended itself over every style from the early English to the florid, decorated, and perpendicular, and constituted one of the most ineffable secrets of the Masonic lodges.

 

It is now known to have been the hieroglyphical device styled Vesica Piscis; "which may be traced from the Church of St. John Lateran, and the old St. Peter's at Rome, to the Abbey Church at Bath, which is one of the latest Gothic buildings of any consequence in England.

 

It was formed 1733 by two equal circles cutting each other in the centers, and was held in high veneration, having been invariably adopted by Master Masons in all countries.

 

In bas‑reliefs, which are seen in the most ancient churches, over doorways, it usually circumscribes the figure of our Saviour.

 

It was indeed a principle which pervaded every building dedicated to the Christi6an religion, and has been exclusively attributed to the scientific acquirements of Euclid." (1)

 

Oliver, in Pythagorean Triangle, says: "The secret meetings of master masons, within any particular district, were confined to consultations with each other, which mainly tended to the communication of science, and of improvement in their art.

 

An evident result was seen in the general uniformity of their designs in architecture, with respect both to plan and ornament, yet not without deviations.

 

We may conclude that the craft or mystery of architects and operative masons was involved in secrecy, by which a knowledge of their practice was carefully excluded from the acquirement of all who were not enrolled in their fraternity.

 

Still, it was absolutely necessary, that when they engaged in contracts with bishops or patrons of ecclesiastical buildings, a specification should be made of the component parts, and of the terms by which either contracting party should be rendered conversant with them.

 

A certain nomenclature was then divulged by the master masons for such a purpose, and became in general acceptation in the middle ages." (2)

 

The abstruse calculations which accompanied the sciences of geometry and arithmetic are no longer necessary to Freemasonry as an institution purely speculative; and they were accordingly omitted in the revised system, as it was recommended to the notice of the Fraternity by the Grand Lodge in 1717, and we retain only the beautiful theory of these sciences, with their application to the practice of morality, founded on the power and goodness of T.G.A.O.T.U.

 

It would be an injustice to our Brethren of the last century to believe that they did not entertain a profound veneration for the principles of the Masonic order.

 

But the customs and habits of the people of England, living in that day, differed materially from our own.

 

There were times when conviviality and a love of social harmony prevailed over the more sedate pursuits and investigations of

 

(1) Kerrich in "Archaeol.," vol. vxi., P. 292.

 

(2) Dallaway, "Archit.," p. 410

 

science, in which such an astonishing progress distinguishes the present times.

 

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries London was an atmosphere of clubs, and a society of this kind existed in every street for the peculiar use of its inhabitants, besides those which were exclusively frequented by persons possessing similar tastes or habits of amusement.

 

And it will be no disparagement to masonry if we believe that its private Lodges did not sustain a much higher rank than some of these celebrated meetings, for the Kit‑Cat, the Beefsteak, and other clubs were frequented by the nobility and most celebrated characters of that polished era.

 

It was the organization of Freemasonry that gave it the distinctive character which elevated its pretensions above the common routine of club‑life, and although it is admitted that the members of the latter entertained a strong attachment to their several institutions, yet none were so enthusiastic as those who had enlisted in the pause cause of masonry as we may learn from the few testimonies which remain.

 

A mason of high standing, more than a century ago, thus expresses his feelings respecting the order: "Masonry is the daughter of heaven, and happy are those who embrace her.

 

By it youth is passed over without agitation, the middle age without anxiety, and old age without remorse. Masonry teaches the way to content, a thing almost unknown to the greater part of mankind.

 

In short, its ultimate resort is to enjoy in security the things that are, to reject all meddlers in state affairs or religion, or of a trifling nature; to embrace those of real moment and worthy tendency with fervency and zeal unfeigned, as sure of being unchangeable as ending in happiness.

 

They are rich without riches, intrinsically possessing all desirable good, and have the less to wish for by enjoyment of what they have.

 

Liberty, peace, and tranquillity are the only objects worthy of their diligence and trouble."' (1)

 

"But this, as well as almost all the testimonies of that period to its superior excellence, is confined exclusively to the practice and rewards of Christian morality.

 

"Modern revision has, however, extended the limits of scientific investigation in the order of Freemasonry beyond what was intended by those who decreed that 'the privileges of masonry should no longer be restricted to operative masons, but extend to men of

 

(1) "Pocket Companion," P. 296

 

various professions, provided they were regularly approved and initiated into the order.' And Dr. Hemming and his associates, in the year 1814, thought it expedient to introduce some peculiar disquisitions from the system of Pythagoras on the combinations of the point, the line, the superfice, and the solid, to form rectangular, trilateral, quadrilateral, multilateral figures and the regular bodies, the latter of which, on account of their singularity and the mysterious nature usually ascribed to them, were formerly known by the name of the five Platonic bodies; and they were so highly regarded by the ancient Geometricians that Euclid is said to have composed his celebrated work on the Elements, chiefly for the purpose of displaying some of their most remarkable properties.

 

These disquisitions usually conclude with an explanation of the forty‑seventh problem of Euclid, which is called the Eureka of Pythagoras.

 

"That great philosopher, Pythagoras, who, by the superiority of his mind, infused a new spirit into the science and learning of Greece, and founded the Italic sect, taught his disciples Geometry that they might be able to deduce a reason for all their thoughts and action, and to ascertain correctly the truth or falsehood of any proposition by the unerring process of mathematical demonstration.

 

Thus being enabled to contemplate the reality of things and to detect imposture and deceit, they were pronounced to be on the road to perfect happiness.

 

Such was the discipline and teaching of the Pythagorean Lodges.

 

It is related that when Justin Martyr applied to a learned Pythagorean to be admitted as a candidate for the mysterious dogmata of his philosophy, he was asked whether, as a preliminary step, he had already studied the sciences of Arithmetic, Music, Astronomy, and Geometry, which were esteemed the four divisions of the mathematics; and he was told that it was impossible to understand the perfection of beatitude without them, because they alone are able to abstract the soul from sensibles, and to prepare it for intelligibles.

 

He was further told that in the absence of these sciences no man is able to contemplate what is good.

 

And because the candidate acknowledged his ignorance of them he was refused admission into the society.

 

"Above all other sciences or parts of the mathematics, however, the followers of Pythagoras esteemed the doctrine of Numbers, which they believe to have been revealed to man by the celestial deities.

 

And they pronounced Arithmetic to be the most ancient of all the sciences, because, being naturally first generated, it takes away the rest with itself, but it is not taken away with them.

 

For instance, animal is first in nature before man; for by taking away animal we take away man; but by taking away man we do not take away animal.

 

They considered numbers extending to the decad, to be the cause of the essence of all other things; and therefore esteemed the creation of the world as nothing more than the harmonious enect of a pure arrangement of number.

 

This idea was adopted by Dryden:

 

'From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began; From harmony to harmony, Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man.'

 

Pythagoras had another idea, as we are informed by Censorinus, respecting the creation of the world, and taught that it was fashioned according to the principles of musical proportion; that the seven planets which govern the nativity of mortals have a harmonious motion, and intervals corresponding to musical diastemes, and render various sounds, according to their several distances, so perfectly consonant that they make the sweetest melody, but inaudible to us by reason of the greatness of the noise, which the narrow pasage of our ears is incapable of receiving.'

 

"And further, he esteemed the monad to represent the great and good Creator, under the name of Dis, or Zeus, or Zau; and the duad he referred to as the evil and counteracting principle or daemon, 'surrounded,' as Plutarch expresses it, 'with a mass of matter.' And Porphyry adds, that the monad and duad of Pythagoras seem to have been the same with Plato's peras and apeiron, his finite and infinite in his Philebus; the former of which two only is substantial, that first most simple Being, the cause of unity and the measure of all things.

 

"According to the above doctrine, the monad was esteemed the father of Number, and the duad its mother; whence the universal prejudice in favour of odd numbers, the father being had in greater honour than the mother.

 

Odd numbers being masculine, were conidued perfect, and appicable to the celestial gods, while even numbeers, being female, were considered imperfect, and given to the terrestrial and infernal deities.

 

Virgil has recorded several instances of this predilection in favour of odd numbers. In his eighth Eclogue, he says (thus translated by Dryden):

 

'Around his waxen image first I wind Three woollen fillets of three colours join'd; Thrice bind about his thrice‑devoted head, Which round the sacred altar thrice is led.

 

Unequal numbers please the gods.'

 

"The Eastern nations of the present day appear to reverse this principle.

 

When two young persons are betrothed, the number of letters in each of their names is subtracted the one from the other, and if the remainder be an even number, it is considered a favourable omen, but if it be odd, the inference is that the marriage will be unfortunate.

 

"Every tyro knows that odd numbers are masonic; and if he be ignorant of the reason why 3, 5, 7, and 11, have been adopted as landmarks, let him apply to the Master of his Lodge for information, and he will then be satisfied of the wisdom of the appropriation, because number forms one of the pillars which contribute to the support of scientific masonry, and constitutes an elementary principle of Geometry.

 

Thus, in the celebrated Pythagorean triangle, consisting of ten points, the upper single dot or jod is monad or unity, and represents a point, for Pythagoras considered a point to correspond in proportion to unity; a line to 2; a superfice to 3; a solid to 4; and he deened a point as a monad having position, and the beginning, of all things; a line was thought to correspond with duality, because it was produced by the first motion from indivisible nature, and formed the junction of two points.

 

A superfice was compared to the number three, because it is the first of all causes that are found in figures; for a circle, which is the principal of all round figures, comprises a triad, in centre, space, circumference.

 

But a triangle, which is the first of all rectilineal figures, is included in a ternary, and receives its form according to that number; and was considered by the Pythagoreans to be the author of all sublunary things.

 

The four points at the base of the Pythagorean triangle correspond with a solid or cube, which combines the principles of length, breadth, and thickness, for no solid can have less than four extreme boundary points.

 

"Thus it appears that in applying number to physical things, the system of Pythagoras terminated in a tetrad, while that of Aristotle, by omitting the point, limited the doctrine of magnitude to a triad, viz., line ‑ surface ‑ body.

 

In divine things, however the former philosopher profusely used the number three, because it represented the three principal attributes of the Deity.

 

The first whereof, as we are informed by Cudworth, is infinite with fecundity; the second infinite knowledge and wisdom; and the last active and perceptive power.

 

From which divine attributes the Pythagoreans and Platonists seem to have framed their trinity of archical hypostases, such as have the nature of principles in the universe, and which, though they be apprehended as several distinct substances gradually subordinate to one another yet they many times extend the to Theion so far as to comprehend them all within it.

 

While employed in investigating the curious and unique properties which distinguish many of the digits, we no longer wonder that the inhabitants of the ancient world, in their ignorance of the mysterious secrets of science, and the abstruse doctrine of causes and effects, should have ascribed to the immediate interposition of the Deity those miraculous results which may be produced by an artful combination of particular numbers.

 

Even philosophy was staggered; and the most refined theorists entertained singular fancies, which they were unable to solve without having recourse to supernatural agency.

 

Hence the pseudo‑science of Arithomancy, or divination by numbers, became very prevalent in the ancient world; and was used by Pythagoras as an actual emanation of the Deity.

 

By this means, according to Tzetzes, he not only was able to foretell future events, but reduced the doctrine to a science, governed by specific rules, which he transmitted to posterity in his Book of Prognostics.

 

"The ancients had a kind of onomantic arithmetic, the invention of which was in like manner ascribed to Pythagoras, whether truly or not is of no importance here, in which the letters of the alphabet, the planets, the day of the week, and the twelve zodiacal signs, were assimilated with certain numbers; and thus, by the use of prescribed tables, constructed astrologically according to the aspects, qualities, dignities, and debilities of the planets relatively towards the tweve signs, etc., the adept would authoritatively pronounce an opinion on questions affecting life and death, good and evil fortune, journeys, detection of theft, or the success of an enterprise.

 

It must be confessed, however, that these predictions were not always correct; for the rules laid down in different systems varied so essentially that the wisest magician was frequently puzzled to select an appropiate interpretation.

 

The numeral system has been introduced into the modern practice of astrology, and very important results appear to depend on the trine, quartile, and sextile aspect of the planets in the horoscope.

 

"Something of this sort was used by the Jewish cabalists; and hence one of the rules of their cabala was called gemetria, or numeration, which was chiefly confined to the interpretation of their sacred writings.

 

The letters of the Hebrew language being numerals, and the whole Bible being composed of different combinations of those letters, it was supposed that the correct meaning of difficult passages could only be ascertained by resorting to their numerical value.

 

The Talmudists entertained an opinion that the mystery of numbers was actually taught in their scriptures; because after the idolatrous priests of Baal had accepted the challenge of Elijah, that prophet constructed his altar of twelve stones, corresponding with the twelve tribes of Israel; but they say that when he took this number for the special purpose of conciliating the favor of Jehovah, it was not merely because the sons of Jacob were twelve in number, but because that particular number was supposed to contain a profound and unfathomable mystery.

 

"Divination by numbers was not confined to Jewish or heathen nations, but occupied much attention at different periods of Christianity; and superstitious properties, I am afraid, are still attached to particular numbers, as forming climacterics, or grand climacterics; for the days of a man's life are usually considered to be affected by the septenary year, which, as it is frequently believed, produces considerable changes in both body and mind.

 

But the most remarkable change in a person's life is at the climacteric, or 7 x 7, 49 years; or the grand climacteric, 7 x 9, 63 years; or 9 x 9, 81 years; each of which is conceived to be fraught with a peculiar fatality.

 

And there are numbers of persons, even in the nineteenth century, who contemplate these periods with some degree of terror, and esteem it a relief when they have passed away.

 

"The exalted ideas which were entertained by the ancient poets and philosophers respecting the mysterious properties of numbers,

 

may be estimated from the superstitious uses to which they were made subservient in all countries, whether inhabitants were savages or refined. The former saw that the number of his fingers ended at ten; and this constituted the amount of his knowledge. It formed the standard of all his computations.

 

When a savage, on his warpath, was asked the number of his enemies, if few, he would hold one or more of his fingers; if many, them all.

 

And in whatever manner his ideas of units might be designated, the calculation would always end in ten.

 

Thus, in Homer, Proteus counts his sea‑calves by fives, or in other words by the number of fingers on his hand. Several nations in the wilds of America have to this day no other instruments of calculation. It is another strong presumption of the truth of what I now advance, that all civilized nations count by tens; tens of tens, or hundreds; tens of hundeds, or thousands; and so on, but always from ten to ten.

 

We can discover no reason why this number should be chosen rather than any other for the term of numeration, except the primitive practice of counting by the fingers." (1)

 

"Arithmetical operations," says the Abbe Pluche, "were facilitated and shortened first by the use of counters, and afterwards by figures or chalked letters.

 

Thus the Romans, when they had a mind to express unity, either held up, one finger or chalked the figure I.

 

To express the succeeding numbers they drew II, III, IIII. For the number five they depressed the three middle fingers, and extended the thumb and little finger only, which formed the V. They signified ten by putting two V's, one upon the other, thus X, or by joining them together, which formed X. Then they combined the X, the V, and the I, till they came up to fifty, or five tens, which they expressed by laying the five upon its side. The figure in this posture assumed the form of an L. A hundred was marked with two L's put one upon the other which was subsequently rounded into a C. Five hundred was expressed by LC, and a thousand by CLO.

 

These figures were afterwards changed, the one into D, and the other into CLO, or M. The Greeks and Hebrews employed the letters of the alphabet ranged in order, to express all imaginable numbers.

 

Amongst these sages, the Monad represented the throne of

 

(1) Goguet, "Origin of Laws," vol. iv., P. 216

 

the Omnipotent Deity, placed in the centre of the empyrean, to indicate T.G.A.O.T.U., by whom all things were made and preserved.

 

This disposition was symbolised by the hierogram of a point within a circle or equilateral triangle, to exemplify equally the unity of the divine essence, and His eternity, having neither beginning of years nor end of days.

 

And this deduction appears perfectly reasonable, because the Monad or Point is the original and cause of the entire numeral system, as God is the cause of all things, being the only and great Creator on whom everything depends: for, if there were more all‑powerful Beings than one, none would be independent, nor would all perfection be centred in one individual, 'neither formally by reason of their distinction, nor eminently and virtually, for then one should have power to produce the other, and that nature which is producible is not divine. But all acknomledge God to be absolutely and infinitely perfect, in whom all perfections imaginable, which are simply such, must be contained formally, and all others which imply any mixture of perfection, virtually.' " (1)

 

Sthenidas the Locrian says, "The first god is conceived to be the father both of gods and men, because he is mild to everything which is in subjection to him, and never ceases to govern with providential regard.

 

Nor is he alone satisfied with being the maker of all things, but he is the nourisher, the preceptor of everything beautiful, and the legislator to all things equally.

 

"The universal symbol by which this great Being was designated, viz., the point within a circle, it may be necessary to explain with some degree of minuteness, because it constitutes one of the most important emblems of masonry.

 

One of the earliest heathen philosophers of whom history gives any account was Hermes Trismegistus, and he describes the Maker of the universe as 'an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere, and whose circumference cannot be defined,' because the universe is boundless, and He existed from all eternity.

 

David expressed a similar sentiment when he said, 'Thou art the same, and Thy years will have no end.' We are told that the Persians, when they wished to pay a high respect to the Diety, ascended to the top of a high mountain, and expanding both hands, they prayed to Him in the name of the circle of heaven.

 

(1) Pearson on the Creed, Art. i

 

In like manner, the Jews entertained a belief that 'the heaven of heavens could not contain Him.' The Romans placed a circular target as a symbol of the Deity, because, as in the circumference there is but one point at its centre, and can be no more, so in the whole circumference of the universe there can be only one perfect and powerful God; nor is it possible there should be another.

 

"I have received a suggestion from a very intelligent brother respecting this symbol, which merits consideration.

 

He says: When the W.M. elect enters into the obligation of an Installed Master, the brethren form a circle round him, he being in the centre; and in this situation he is said to be the representative of Solomon, the son of David.

 

Now, as this is unquestionably a Christian degree, I understand this son David to be a figurative expression for the Redeemer of mankind.

 

The W. M. is then specially intrusted with the Holy Scriptures and invested with a jewel which is emblematical thereof, and it then becomes his duty to exhort his brethren to search those Scriptures, because they contain the words of eternal life, and testify to the divinity of Christ.

 

Searching implies something lost; and our ancient brethren, the early Christians, after they had lost, by an untimely death, their Lord and Master, remembered that while assembled together in Lodge here below, He promised, that when two or three were gathered together in His name, He would be in the midst of them; and cheered by the recollection, they were naturally led to hope that He would always be found in the centre of their circle, whenever regularly assembled together in a just and perfect Lodge dedicated to God and holy St. John.

 

In like manner, we are reminded by that sacred symbol that He is always in the midst of us ‑ that His all‑seeing eye is always upon us, and therefore exhorted to discharge our duty towards Him and our fellow‑creatures with freedom, fervency, and zeal. (1)

 

"The Monad, amongst the Grecian philosophers, was a symbol of the hermaphrodite deity, or junction of the sexes, because it partakes of two natures.

 

In a mysterious passage of the Yajur Veda, Brahma is spoken of, after his emanation from the golden egg, as experiencing fear at being alone in the universe; he therefore willed the existence of another and instantly became masculo‑feminine.

 

(1) This refers to the Ancient Method of installing a worshipful Master. (W.R.S.)

 

The two sexes thus existing in one god mere immediately, by another act of volition, divided in twain, and became man and wife.

 

This tradition seems to bave found its way into Greece; for the Androgyne of Plato is but another version of this Oriental myth.

 

If the Monad be added to an odd number, it makes it even, and if to an even number, it makes it odd.

 

Hence it was called Jupiter, because it stands at the head of gods and men; and also Vesta or Fire, because like the point within a circle, it is seated in the midst of the world.

 

It was also cadled the Throne of Jupiter, from the great power which the centre has in the universe being able to restrain its general circular motion, as if the custody of the Maker of all things were constituted therein

 

"Plutarch tells us that Numa built a temple in an orbicular form for the preservation of the sacred fire; intending by the fashion of the edifice to shadow out, not so much the earth as the whole universe; in the centre of which the Pythagoreans placed Fire, which they called Vesta and Unity.

 

The Persians worshipped the circumference, but it could only refer to the apparent course of the sun in the firmament, which is the boundary of common observation; for the real circumference is far beyond the comprehension of finite man.

 

And the sun, under the symbol of a point within a circle, was the great object of worship amongst the Dionysian artists who built the Temple of Solomon.

 

"The Monad further signified Chaos, the father of life, substance, the cause of Truth, reason, and the receptacle of all things.

 

Also in greater and lesser it signified equal; in intention and remission, middle; in multitude, mean; in time, now, the present, because it consists in one part of time which is always present. (1) The cabalists considered that the first eternal principle is magical, and like a hidden fire, is eternally known in its colours, in the figure, in the wisdom of God, as in a looking‑glass.

 

The magical centre of the first principle is fire, which is as a spirit, without palpable substance."

 

"The learned Aben Ezra, on the 11th chapter of Daniel, says that the number one is in a manner the cause of all numbers, and it is besides a complete number; it causes multiplication and remainder, but does not admit of either itself.

 

And in another place he says,

 

(1) "Macrob. in somn.," 1. i., s. 6

 

 

THEODORE S. PARVIN
 

 

'Numbers are founded on the unit one.' The sage Latif observes the same.

 

According to Euclid, in his second definition of the seventh book, numbers are formed of many units; but unity being indivisible, has no composition, nor is it a number, but the fountain and mother of all numbers.

 

Being the cause of all numbers, they are formed by a plurality of units.

 

Thus 2 is twice 1; 3 is three units, etc.; so that all numbers require the Monad, where it exists by itself without requiring any other.

 

All which is to be considered of the first cause; for as one is no number, but the cause and beginning of number, so the First Cause has no affinity to creatures, but is the cause and beginning of them; they all stand in need of Him, and He requires assistance from none. He is all in all, and all are included in Him in the most simple unity.

 

The Jewish Rabbins agree that He is One, and there is no unity like His in the universe; the nearest idea that we can form of Him is symbolized by the unit or figure one. (1)

 

The Pythagoreans say, 'the Monad is the principle of all things.

 

From the Monad came the indeterminate duad, as matters subjected to the cause. Monad, from the Monad and indeterminate duad; Numbers, from numbers; Points, points; Lines, from lines; Superfices, from superfices; Solids, from these solid Bodies, whose elements are four, Fire, Water, Air, Earth; of all which, transmuted, and totally changed, the World consists.' (2)

 

But Freemasonry has a peculiar preference for the monad, which produces some very striking and remarkable coincidences in every nation under the sun.

 

In an old ritual of the Fellow‑Craft's degree, used about the middle of the last century, we find the following passage in reference equally to the first step of the winding staircase, the Point, and the letter G: 'God, the great Architect of the Universe, whom it is at all times our duty to worship and obey.' In a ritual still more ancient, the same meaning is rather differently expressed, viz., 'the Grand Architect and Contriver of the Universe ; or He that was taken up to the topmost pinnacle of the Holy Temple.' (3)

 

"This acknowledgment of the divine unity, or point within either a circle or a triangle, was common to all the systems of Spurious Freemasonry that ever existed, from India and Japan to the extremest

 

(1) Manasseh ben Israel, "Concil.," vol., P. 105.

 

(2) "Laert in vit Pyth.

 

(3) Oliver

 

West, including the Goths, the Celts, and the aborigines of America.

 

All acknowledge the unity of T.G.A.O.T.U., whether involved in the deepest ignorance, or refined by civilization and a knowledge of philosophy and science.

 

The sages of Greece, through a series of wire‑drawn reasoning, came to the same conclusion as the uninformed savages of Britain, Scandinavia, Mexico, or Peru. (1)

 

"Zoroaster is sublime in his description of the Deity; but he had enjoyed the advantage of associating with the learned Jews at Babylon and from them, doubtless, he had acquired his knowledge. He taught that 'God is the first: incorruptible, eternal, unmade, indivisible, not like anything, the author of all good, the wisest of the wise, the father of justice, self‑taught and absolutely perfect.' An‑aximenes, the follower of Thales, like his master, was a bold and subtle reasoner, and called everything by its proper name.

 

He denominated the one God Zeus, by which he intended to intimate that, like the air we breathe, He is infinite, omnipresent, and eternal.

 

The Emperor Trajan, in a conversation with the Rabbi Joshua, hearing the latter say, that 'God is everywhere present,' observed, 'I should like to see Him.' 'God's presence is indeed everywhere,' replied Joshua, 'but He cannot be seen; no mortal eye can behold His glory.' The Emperor insisted.

 

'Well,' said Joshua, 'suppose we try first to look at one of His ambassadors.' The Emperor consented.

 

The Rabbi took him into the open at noonday, and bid him look at the sun in his meridian splendor.

 

'I cannot ‑ the light dazzles me.' 'Thou art unable,' said Joshua, 'to endure the light of His creatures, and canst thou expect to behold the resplendent glory of the Creator? Would not such a sight annihilate you ?' (2)

 

"Xenophanes, the principal leader of the Aleatic sect, entertained the same belief; and described that Great Being, whom they all admitted to be incomprehensible, as 'incorporeal, in substance, and figure globular; and in no respect similar to man.

 

That He is all sight and hearing, but does not breathe.

 

That He is all things; the mind and wisdom; not generate, but eternal, impassible, and immutable.' Parmenides held that 'the principle of all things is one; but that it is immovable.' Sophocles assures us that in his time, the belief in one God, who made heaven and earth, was prevalent among those who had been initiated into the Greater mysteries.

 

(1) Oliver.

 

(2) Goodhugh's "Lectures on Bibliographical Literature."

 

"Socrates and his pupil Plato maintained the same opinion.

 

By the name of God,' said they, 'we mean the parent of the world; the builder of the soul; the maker of heaven and earth; whom it is difficult to know by reason of His incredible power; and if known, it is impossible to clothe our knowledge in words.' Anaxagoras contended for the supreme government of one God, but acknowledged that he was unable to comprehend his nature.

 

His pupil, Euripides, however, was more fortunate, for he discovered the omnipresence of the Deity; and confessed it by asking whether it is possible to confine Him within the wall of a temple built with hands? Protagoras was banished by the Athenians for impiety in declaring that 'he knew nothing of the gods, because in so short a life it was impossible to acquire a knowledge of them.'

 

"Zeno taught the unity and eternity, of the Deity.

 

Plutarch, learned in all the rites and doctrines of the Spurious Freemasonry of Egypt and Greece, expresses himself plainly on this point in his treatise of Isis and Osiris.

 

Atistides believed and taught his disciples that 'Jove made all existing things, in the earth, the heavens, or the sea."'

 

Thus was the doctrine of the Monad or unity, the first point in the Pythagorean Triangle, carried out in these early ages, and among an idolatrous people; for however they might worship an indefinite number of intelligences, they had discrimination enough to perceive that there could be only one Being of unbounded power, because a duplication of such beings would circumscribe the potency of each individual, and destroy his omnipotence and immutability. "It was idle," says Bryant, "in the ancients to make a disquisition about the identity of any god, as compared with another; and to adjudge him to Jupiter rather than to Mars, to Venus rather than Diana.

 

According to Diodorus, some think that Osiris is Serapis; others that he is Dionysus; others still, that he is Pluto; many take him for Zeus or Jupiter, and not a few for Pan."

 

"The twofold reason of diversity and inequality, and of everything that is divisible in mutation, and exists sometimes one way, sometimes another, the Pythagoreans called Duad, for the nature of the Duad in particular things is such.

 

These reasons were not confined to the Italic sect, but other philosophers also have left certain unitive powers which comprise all things in the universe; and amongst them there are certain reasons of quality, dissimilitude, and diversity.

 

Now these reasons, that the way of teaching might be more perspicuous, they called by the names of Monad and Duad, but it is all one amongst them if they be called biform, or equaliform, or diversiform." (1)

 

From such definitions and principles it will not be difficult to see that the Duad was sufficiently comprehensive to admit of a vast number of references; and therefore the prolific fancy of poets and philosophers assigned to it a variety of remarkable qualities.

 

Being even it was esteemed an unlucky number, and dedicated to the malignant genii and the infernal deities, because it conveyed to the mind ideas of darkness, delusion, versatility, and unsteady conduct." (2) For this reason, the Pythagoreans spoke of two kinds of pleasure, "whereof that which indulgeth to the belly and to lasciviousness, by profusion of wealth, they compared to the murderous songs of the Syrens; the other, which consists in things honest and just, comprising all the necessary indulgences of life, is quite as attractive as the former, and does not bring repentance in its train." (3) The Duad was considered indefinite and indeterminate, because no perfect figure can be made from two points only, which, if united, would merely become a right line; whence a notion was originated that it is defective in its principles, and superfluous in its application to the sciences.

 

It signified also misfortune, from a general belief in its unpropitious qualities; and discord, because in music that which renders dissonances grating, is, that the sounds which form them, instead of uniting to produce harmony, are heard each by itself as two distinct sounds, though produced at one and the same time.

 

Brand tells us (4) that there is a little history extant of the unfortunate reigns of William II., Henry II., Edward II., Richard II., Charles II., and James II., entitled "Numerus Infaustus in the preface to which the author says, "Such of the kings of Enghnd as were the Second of any name, proved very unfortunate princes."

 

"The number two was referred to Juno, because she was the sister and wife of Jove; (5) and hence the Duad became a symbol of marriage. On this subject Hierocles says two things are necessary to all men in order to pass through life in a becoming manner, viz., the aid of kindred, and synmpathetic benevolence.

 

But we cannot

 

(1) Porp., "Hist. Phil.," p. 32 (2) Porph., "Vit. Pyth.," p. 84 (3) Ibid., p. 25 (4) "Pop. Ant,," vol. iii., p. 145 (5) Mart. Capel., "Eulog. in somn. Scrip."

 

find anything more sympathetic than a wife, nor anything more kindred than children, both of which are afforded by marriage.

 

And to produce these two beneficial effects, Callicratides gives the following excellent advice: 'Wedlock should be coadapted to the peculiar tone of the soul, so that the husband and wife may not only accord with each other in prosperous, but also in adverse, fortune.

 

It is requisite, therefore, that the husband should be the regulator, master, and preceptor of his wife.

 

The regulator, indeed, in paying diligent attention to her affairs; but the master, in governing and exercising authority over her; and the preceptor in teaching her such things as are fit for her to know.'

 

"But how unfortunate soever the Duad may have been esteemed as a general principle, it was not devoid of its share of beneficent properties to balance against those that were malignant or forbidding. 'The two principles,' said the Paracelsic Lectures of Continental Masonry, 'are not always at strife, but sometimes in league with each other, to produce good.

 

Thus death and anguish are the cause of Fire, but fire is the cause of Life.

 

To the abyss it gives song and fierceness, else there would be no mobility.

 

To the Light ‑ World, essence, else there would be no production but an eternal Arcanum.

 

To the world it gives both essence and springing, whence it becomes the cause of all things.' The Duad was defined by the Pythagoreans, 'the only principle of purity; yet not even, nor evenly even, nor unevenly even, nor evenly uneven.' It was an emblem of fortitude and courage, and taught that as a man ought to do no wrong, neither ought he to suffer any, without due sense and modest resentment of it; and therefore, according to Plutarch, the 'Ephori laid a mulct upon Sciraphidas, because he tamely submitted to many injuries and affronts, concluding him perfectly insensible to his own interest, as he did not boldly and honestly vindicate his reputation from the wrongs and aspersion which had been cast upon it; under the impression that he would be equally dull and listless in the defence of his country, if it should be attacked by a hostile invader.'

 

"The Duad was elevated by the ancient philosophers of the Italic sect into a symbol of justice, because of its two equal parts.

 

Hence Archytas, who was a follower of Pythagoras, says, 'The manners and pursuits of the citizens should be deeply tinctured with justice; for this will cause them to be sufficient to themselves,

 

and will be the means of distributing to each of them that which is due to him according to his desert.

 

For thus also the sun, moving in a circle through the zodiac, distributes to everything on the earth, generation, nutriment, and an appropriate portion of life: administering, as if it were a just and equitable legislation, the excellent temperature of the seasons.' (1)

 

"It signified also science, because the demonstration of an unknown number or fact is produced from syllogistic reasonings on some other number or fact which is known; and this is deducible by the aid of science.

 

It was further considered as a symbol of the soul, which is said to be divided into two parts, the rational and the irrational; the latter being subdivided into the irascible and the appetitive.

 

The rational part enables us to arrive at the truth by contemplation and judgment; while the irrational uniformly impels the soul to evil.

 

And it signifies Opinion, which must be either true or false; and Harmony, whence the ancients introduced music at their banquets along with wine; that by its harmonious order and soothing effect it might prove an antidote to the latter, which being drank intemperately, renders both mind and body imbecile."

 

"The Pythagorean philosophy," says Reuchlin, (2) "taught that the Monad and Duad were a symbol of the principles of the universe for when we make inquiry into the causes and origin of all things what sooner occurs than one or two ? That which we first behold with our eyes is the same, and not another; that which we first conceive in our mind is Identity and Alterity ‑ one and two.

 

Alcmaeon affirmed two to be many, which, he said, were contrarieties, yet unconfined and indefinite, as white and black, sweet and bitter, good and evil, great and small.

 

These multiplicitous diversities the Pythagoreans designed by the number Ten, as proceeding from the Duad; viz, finite and infinite, even and odd, one and many, right and left, male and female, steadfast and moved, straight and crooked, light and darkness, square and oblong.

 

These pairs are two, and therefore contrary; they are reduced all into ten, that being the most perfect number, as containing more kinds of numeration than the rest; even, odd; square, cube; long, plain ; the first uncompounded, and first cornpounded, than which nothing is more absolute,

 

(1) "Fragments" of Archytas, p. 16.

 

(2) "A. Cabal.," I., ii., P. 2.

 

since in ten proportions four cubic numbers are consummated, of which all things consist."

 

"Categories, reducible in two, Substance and Accident, both springing from one essence; for ten so loves two, that from one it proceeds to two, and by it reverts into one.

 

The first Ternary is of one and two, not compounded but consistent; one having no position, makes no composition; an unit, whilst an unit, hath no position, nor a point whilst a point.

 

There being nothing before on, we rightly say, one is first; two is not compounded of numbers, but a coordination of units only.

 

It is therefore the first number, being the first multitude; not commensurable by any number, but by a unit, the common measure of all number; for one, two, is nothing but two; so that the multitude which is called Triad, arithmeticians term the first number uncompounded, the Duad being not an uncompounded number, but rather not compounded." (1)

 

"The Chinese philosophers entertained similar fancies about the color of blue, which is formed by a mixture of red and black.

 

This color, they say, 'being the color of heaven, represents the active and passive principle reunited in one; the male and female, the obscure and brilliant.

 

All corporeal beings are produced by inapprehensible nature, emanating from blue, which forms the origin of all subtile natures.' In the science of astrology, which was very prevalent half a century ago, the signs were invested with significant colors.

 

Thus it was said that Taurus was designated by white mixed with citron; Aries and Gemini, by white and red; Cancer, green and russet ; Leo, red and green; Virgo, black speckled with blue; Libra, black or dark crimson; Scorpio, brown ; Sagittarius, yellow or green; Capricorn, black or russet; Aquarius, a sky color or blue; and Pisces by a brilliant white."

 

"Nor were the Jews destitute of a respect for the number two which was indeed inculcated in the Mosaical writings.

 

Thus while the clean beasts were admitted into the ark of Noah by sevens, the unclean ones were allowed to enter by pairs.

 

The angels that were deputed to destroy Sodom were two; Lot had two daughters; the sons of Isaac and the daughters of Laban were each two in, number, as were also the sons of Joseph.

 

Moses was directed to make two

 

(1) Colebrook, "Philosophy of the Hindus," p. 21

 

cherubim; the Onyx‑stones of remembrance on the high‑priest's shoulders were two, to symbolize the Sun and Moon, as Josephus says; but Beda thinks they were emblematical of the faith and practice of the patriarchs and prophets, while others suppose, with greater probability, that the high‑priest bore them on his shoulders to prefigure the manner in which Christ was to bear the sins of His people.

 

The Jewish offerings were frequently directed to be by pairs; as two lambs, two pigeons, two turtles, two kids, etc.

 

The wawe loaves were two; and the shewbread was placed on the table in two rows; the sliver trumpets to direct the march of the Israelites in the wilderness were the same number."

 

"Again, Joshua erected two monuments on passing the river Jordan, one in the bed of the river, and the other on its banks; the temples of Solomon and of Gaza were each supported on two pillars; Jeroboam made two golden calves, and set them up at Dan and Bethel; there were two witnesses against Naboth, as the Mosaic law required in cases affecting human life; and two bears were sent to vindicate the character of Elisha.

 

In the case of Naaman the Syrian, we find the use of this number fully exemplified in the two mules' burden of earth ‑ two young men of the sons of the prophets ‑ two talents ‑ two changes of garments ‑ two servants, etc.

 

In the visions of Daniel the ram had two horns; and in Zachariah we have two olive‑trees, two anointed ones, and two staves called Beauty and Bands, an emblem of brotherhood.

 

Similar coincidences might be found in the Gospels, but the detail would be tedious, and the result without utility, as far as regards Freemasonry." (1)

 

"In our system, the principle of the duad is plainly enunciated (although two is not esteemed a masonic number) in the two Pillars of the porch of Solomon's Temple, which were placed in that situation by the wise and judicious monarch, to commemorate the remarkable pillar of a cloud and of fire; the former of which proved a light and guide to the Israelites in their escape from their Egyptian oppression; the other represents the cloud which proved the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in their attempt to follow them through the depths of the Red Sea.

 

Our noble and illustrious Grand Master placed them in this conspicuous situation, that

 

(1) Oliver

 

the Jews might have that memorable event in their recollection, both in going in and coming out from divine worship."

 

In the spurious Freemasonry of some ancient nations, this principle of duality was extended to support the doctrine of a good and evil power, who possessed almost equal government in this lower world; and the prospeity or decadence of a nation was supposed to be produced by the superiority of one or other of these beings, which, however, was esteemed, in most cases, accidental.

 

In Persia the doctrine attained its climax.

 

Oromases was Light, and Ahriman, Darkness.

 

Hyde says, "The Magi did not look upon the two principles as co‑eternal, but believed that light was eternal, and that darkness was produced in time; (1) and the origin of this evil principle they account for in this manner: Light can produce nothing but light, and can never be the origin of evil; how then was evil produced ? Light, they say, produced several beings, all of them spiritual, luminous, and powerful; but their chief, whose name was Ahriman, had an evil thought contrary to the light.

 

He doubted, and by that doubting he became dark.

 

From hence proceeded all evils, dissension, malice, and everything also of a contrary nature to the light.

 

These two principles made war upon one another, till at last peace was concluded, upon condition that the lower world should be in subjection to Ahriman for seven thousand years; after which space of time, he is to surrender back the world to the Light."

 

(2)

 

In countries where the two principles were represented by two serpents, the solstitial colures were described under these symbols. Thus in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, two serpents intersecting each other at right angles, upon a globe, denoted the earth.

 

These rectangular intersections were at the solstitial points. (3) The Teutonic Masonry of the last century thus explained the two principles of Light and Darkness: "From the eternal centre is made the eternal substantiality as a body or weakness, being a sinking down, and the spirit is a springing up, whence comes motion, penetration, and multiplication; and when the spirit created the substantiality into an image, breathing the spirit of the Trinity into it, the whole essences, even all forms of nature, the power of Light and Darkness.,

 

(1) Darkness is the absence of light, cold is the absence of heat. ‑ EDITOR. (2) Hyde, " Rel. Ant. Pers.," c. ix., p. 163 (2) Jablonski, "Panth. Eg.," I., i., c. 4, cited by Deane, p. 73.

 

and the whole eternity, it instantly blossomed and became the paradise or angelical world.

 

In the Darkness is the genetrix, in the Light is the wisdom: the first imaged by devils, the other by angels, as a similitude of the whole eternal being, to speak as a creature.

 

And Lucifer, imaging beyond the meekness of the Trinity, kindled in himself the matrix of Fire, and that of nature becoming corporeal, then was the second form of the matrix, viz., the meekness of the substantiality enkindled, whence water originated, out of which was made an heaven to captivate the fire, and of that Fire and Water came the Stars."

 

P. 1754

 

 

 

Chapter IV

 

LEGENDS AND SYMBOLS IN THE SEVERAL DEGREES OF MASONRY

 

 

MOST Masonic writers of recent date have assumed that Speculative Masonry was founded upon the legends and symbols of antiquity.

 

Dr. A.G. Mackey, in the preface to his valuable work on Symbolism of Freemasonry, says: "Of the various modes of communicating instruction to the uninformed, the Masonic student is particularly interested in two; namely, the instruction by legends, and that by symbols.

 

It is to these two, almost exclusively, that he is indebted for all that he knows, and for all that he can know, of the philosophic system which is taught in the institution.

 

All its mysteries and is dogmas, which constitute its philosophy, are intrusted, for communication, to the neophyte, sometimes to one, sometimes to the other of these two methods of instruction, and sometimes to both of them combined.

 

The Freemason has no way of reaching any of the esoteric teachings of the Order except through the medium of a legend or a symbol."

 

It is greatly to be regretted that the most important legends of Masonry are so communicated and represented, when the degrees are conferred, as to impress upon the minds of the candidates the realisms, rather than the "allegories," which were originally designed as "veils" to conceal the "moral principles" of the system, and which are also "illustrated by symbols."

 

Legends have no documentary evidence of the truthfulness of the narrative or any authenticity.

 

Such are the legends in the Masonic degrees.

 

There is no authenticity whatever for the statements or representations.

 

In fact, strict adherence to authentic history as contained in the "Great Light" of Masonry itself, contradicts the details of all the Masonic legends; hence we arrive at the truthfulness of the allegorical system, which was originally designed to teach the morality contained in the Institution.

 

The first three degrees of Freemasonry are in themselves allegorical, representing certain important principles in their enumeration.

 

First, the introduction into Masonic Life and Light.

 

Secondly, the progress during life in instruction ‑ the life‑work ‑ education in all branches of useful knowledge.

 

Thirdly, the decadence, death, and final disposition of the body, its resurrection, and the immortality of the soul.

 

In each of these degrees symbolisms are introduced, teaching important truths, which are calculated to impress upon the mind the value of the great moral principles thus visibly represented.

 

Step by step, as the candidate advances in each degree, he learns the value of the gradation in moral lessons, by which his future life is to be guided.

 

All of these are primarily referable to his first declaration of "Faith in God," "Hope in Immortality," and "Charity or Love to all Mankind."

 

In these we recognize the several "duties" incumbent upon all men, which were inculcated in every system of morality taught by the ancient patriarchs and philosophers ‑ our duty to God, our duty to ourselves, and our duty to all men.

 

In these are found the realisms of Masonry, and not in our legends and allegoies, by which they are veiled and concealed.

 

Of what value to us, at the present day, are the representations of the manner in which the Craftsmen and Apprentices were distributed when the Temple of Solomon was under construction ? Or when and how they recoved their wages? Every step, from the first admission of a candidate to the ante‑room of a regularly constituted lodge, until he has become an obligated Mason, has its moral lesson.

 

His preparation, admission, and subsequent progress is marked by a lesson, which it is intended shall be carefully studied by the candidate for his future guidance in life.

 

The following sections of that degree are lessons, explanatory and instructive, in the art of Masonry.

 

The first section of the second and third degrees are similar to that of the first; and the following sections are strictly instructive and allegorical.

 

The instructions in all three of these degrees is by symbols and emblematical representations.

 

The science of symbolism is perhaps as old as any other science ‑ the learning of the ancient world was originally conveyed by symbolism.

 

At the present day philosophy treats only on abstract propositions.

 

Freemasonry, however, retaining its traditions, continues the ancient method as the best means of imparting its moral lessons ‑ by symbols ‑ which word, derived from the Greek; means to compare one thing by another.

 

This method of instruction, or "object teaching," is employed in schools at the present day.

 

It is the language of poetry.

 

The "legend" is a spoken symbol and is employed in Masonic teaching, in some countries is an acted drama, in others it is merely recited or react; in both, it is designed to convey to the mind important moral truths.

 

It is the province of the initiated candidate to investigate these symbols and allegories to draw out from them the philosophies and moral lesson concealed by them.

 

It has been well said that "Freemasonry is the Science of Morality, veiled in Allegory, and illustrated by Symbols." We personally do not claim for Freemasonry the title of a science, but we do insist that it comprehends all true philosophy.

 

Its fundamental principle is a belief in God, without which there can be neither morality or philosophy.

 

The second principle taught in Masonry is the immortality of the soul; and the third principle is the resurrection of the body.

 

These constitute the philosophy of Freemasonry.

 

It is upon these principles that all the ancient religions were founded.

 

In the belief of all the ancients in a Deity, we find a multiplicity of gods; yet, in all of them, there was a chief god, who was so far above all the others as to constitute a distinct Deity.

 

Most of these ancient religions contemplated a Triune God.

 

"The rites of that science which is now received under the appellation of Freemasonry, were exercised in the Antediluvian World; revived by Noah after the flood; practised by mankind at the building of Babel, conveniences for which were undoubtedly contrived in the interior of that celebrated edifice; and at the dispersion spread with every settlement, already deteriorated by the gradual innovations of the Cabiric Priests and modelled into a form, the great outlines of which are distinctly to be traced in the mysteries of every heathen Nation, exhibiting the shattered remains of one true system whence they were all derived.

 

The rites of idolatry were indeed strikingly similar and generally deduced from parallel practices, previously used by the true Masons; for idolatry was an imitative system, and all its ceremonies and doctrines were founded on the general principles of the patriarchal religion.

 

If the patriarch united in his own person the three offices of king, priest, and prophet, the secret assemblies of idolatry were also governed by a Triad, consisting of three supreme offices; if primitive Masonry was a system of Light, the initiated heathen equally paid divine honors to the Sun, as the source of light, by circumambulating in the course of that Sutninary, during the ceremony of initiation." (1)

 

Sammes, in his Britannia, (2) says: "The Mysteries of the Cabiric rites were accounted so sacred and powerful that whosoever was initiated in them, immediately secured, as they thought, some extraordinary gifts of holiness, and that in all their dangers they had a present remedy and expedient about them to deliver and rescue them; but that which most affected the Pnwnicians was a confidence they had that those religious ceremonies preserved them from dangers by sea; therefore it is no wonder that, arriving in Britain, they taught the inhabitants that worship to which they held themselves most obliged for their safety."

 

In the above extract from Oliver reference is made to the rite of circumambulation.

 

Every Mason will recognize that rite as an essential one in every degree of Masonry, both ancient and those degrees invented since 1717. Pythagoras required his initiates to pass three years in silence and darkness before admission to the mysteries. In all the ancient rites of the Orient the candidate was conducted by devious ways over many rough and rugged paths, and encountered various obstacles, and had to pass through the cold air, and water, the fire, and at last the earth, which four elements were symbols of purification, and lustrations by these were requisite before the postulant could receive the higher mysteries and become an epopt.

 

"The uniformity of practice which attended the progress of error in different nations is truly astonishing. They equally used the Ambrosice Petrae as vehicles of regeneration; they shrouded their rites under the impenetrable mask of secresy; they possessed the same mode of instruction by symbols, allegory, and fable; the same repugnance to committing their abstruse secrets to writing; the same system of morality; the same attachment to amulets, telesmans, and perhaps Magic; and equally inculcated the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments, which were alike pantomimically exhibited during the initiations."(3)

 

(1) Oliver's "Signs and Symbols," pp. 4, 5.

 

(2) Ibid., p. 55.

 

(3) Ibid., p. 5

 

"The old Asiatic style, so highly figurative, seems, by what we find of its remains in the prophetic language of the sacred writers, to have been evidently fashioned to the mode of the ancient hieroglyphics; for, as in hieroglyphic writing, the sun, moon, and stars were used to represent States and empires, kings, queens, and nobility, their eclipse and extinction, temporary disasters, or entire overthrow, fire and flood, desolation by war and famine, plants or animals, the qualities of particular persons, etc.; so, in like manner, the holy prophets call kings and empires by the names of the neavenly luminaries; their misfortunes and overthrow are represented by eclipses and extinction; stars falling from the firmament are employed to denote the destruction of the nobility; thunder and tempestuous winds, hostile invasions; lions, bears, leopards, goats, or high trees, leaders of armies, conquerors, and founders of empires; royal dignity is described by purple or a crown; iniquity by spotted garments; error and misery by an intoxicating draught; a warrior by a sword or bow; a powerful man by a gigantic stature; and a judge by balance, weights, and measures. In a word the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hieroglyphic." (1)

 

Pythagoras expressed his mystical system by symbols which were explained to the initiated and were not comprehended by the rest of the world. His secrets were forbidden to be committed to writing and were communicated orally as ineffable mysteries. The Pythagoreans conversed with each other mostly by the sign language; instruction by symbols was found useful in impressing on the mind the most comprehensive truths, and it is said was adopted from Masonry into all the mystic associations: " The most ancient and such as were contemporary with, and disciples of Pythagoras, did not compose their writings intelligibly, in a common vulgar style, familiar to every one, as if they endeavored to dictate things readily perceptible by the hearer, but consonant to the silence decreed by Pythagoras, concerning divine mysteries, which it is not lawful to speak of before those who were not initiated; and therefore clouded both their mutual discourses and writings by symbols; which, if not expounded by those that proposed them, by a regular interpretation appear to the hearers like old wives' proverbs, trivial and foolish; but, being rightly explained, and instead

 

(1) Warburton's "Divine Legation," B. IV., s. iv

 

of dark rendered lucid and conspicuous to the vulgar, they discovered an admirable sense, no less than the divine oracles of Pythian Apollo; and give a divine inspiration to the Philologists that understand them." (1)

 

The Druids used hieroglyphics which, with much reluctance, were communicated even to their initiates themselves. These symbols were imitated from natural objects. Of a man of enlarged mind it was said, "he is an oak," an irresolute and wavering person was an " Aspen‑leaf," one who was deceitful was a " Reed." (2) The Druids used geometrical figures as lines, angles, squares, and perpendiculars as symbols. They did not use enclosed temples, as being thought by them inconsistent with the dignity and majesty of the gods; they did not employ carved images to represent deities, but employed the rude undressed stones, such as they found in the hills or on sides of mountains, which were erected in their circles for worship, which were marked out by rudse stone pillars surrounding an altar placed in the centre. They also constructed of similar stones long passages between two rows of such stones. Some of these passages were miles in extent.

 

In Egypt, in all probability, originated those passages, where we find the remains of them as sphinxes, obelisks, and catacombs, all of which no doubt were erected for the observance of their mystic rites. Clement of Alexandria says: " Sphynxes were erected in front of temples and places of initiation, to denote that all sacred truth is enfolded in enigmatical fables and allegories." (3)

 

In the Egyptian mysteries the candidate was instructed in this as an ineffable secret, that the mysteries were received from Adam, Seth, Enoch; and in the last degree the postulant, after the completion of his initiation, was called, from the name of the Deity, AL‑OM‑JAH; pronounced Allhawmiyah. In India, the completed initiate was instructed in the great word, A.U.M., pronounced OME (o long); we thus see that the same word was used in Egypt as the second word. It has been supposed by some that these were initials of three certain names of Deity, viz. .‑ Agni, Fire; Ushas, Dawn; and Mitra, Mid‑ day Sun, all of them referring to " Light" in its different degrees of intensity. In the higher degrees in Freemasonry these letters appear, having a deep significance, which we

 

(1) Stanley's "Life of Pythagoras," B. IV., ch. i.

 

(2) Davis. "Celt. Res.," p. 207.

 

(3) Clement of Alexandria, Lib. V., ch. iv

 

are not at liberty here to say more of. We may here quote from Dr. Oliver: "It is an extraordinary fact that there is scarcely a single ceremony in Freemasonry but we find its corresponding rite in one or other of the idolatrous mysteries; and the coincidence can only be accounted for by supposing that these mysteries were derived from Masonry. Yet, however they might assimilate in ceremonial observances, an essential difference existed in the fundamental principles of the respective institutions. The primitive veneration for Light accompanied the career of Masonry from the creation to the present day, and will attend its course until time expires in eternity; but in the mysteries of idolatry this veneration soon yielded its empire over men's minds, and fell before the claims of darkness; for a false worship would naturally be productive of impure feelings and vicious propensities." It is true, indeed, that the first Egyptians worshipped ON (A. U. N. in Hebrew, but pronounced Own) as the chief deity, who was supposed to be the eternal Light; and hence he was referred to the Sun as its great source and emanation. Thus it was said that God dwelt in the Light, his Virtue in the Sun, and his Wisdom in the Moon. But this worship was soon debased by superstitious practices. The idolaters degenerated into an adoration of Serpents and Scorpions, and other representatives of the evil spirit; and, amidst the same profession of a profound reverence for Light, became most unaccountably enamoured of Darkness; and a Temple near Memphis was dedicated to Hecate Scotia, (1) which was styled the Lord of the Creation, and in some respects deemed oracular. The superstition of Egypt which gave divine honors to Darkness spread throughout the world of idolatry, upon the principle that Darkness of Night, which existed in Chaos before the Creation of Light, was of superior antiquity. They therefore gave precedence to Night; and hence to signify the revolving of the earth they said a night and a day. Even the Jews began their time with the evening or commencement of darkness, as in Genesis i. 2, 3. Moses said God created Light out of Darkness. (I Kings viii. 1 2, 2; Chron. vi. I; Psalms xviii.

 

9.) Darkness was considered the incomprehensible Veil of Deity.

 

In the Orphic Fragments Night is celebrated as the parent of

 

(1) "Diod. Sic. ," B.I., ch. vii

 

gods and men and the origin of all things. In all the rites of initiation. Darkness was saluted with three distinct acclamations; hence we may see that before the Aspirant could participate in the "higher mysteries" he was placed in a coffin, bed or pastos, or was subjected to confinement for a period of time, in seclusion and darkness for reflection, which custom is still employed in some secret societies. This was a representation of the symbolic death of the mysteries; when he was released from that ceremony, it was to indicate his deliverance, and represented the act of regeneration or being born again, or bezels raised from the dead.

 

We learn from Clement of Alexandria that in the formulary of one who had been initiated he was taught to say, "I have descended into the bed‑chamber." Dr. Oliver says: "The ceremony here alluded to was, doubtless, the same as the descent into Hades; and I am inclined to think that when the Aspirant entered into the Mystic Cell, he was directed to lay himself down upon the bed, which shadowed out the tomb or coffin of the Great Father. This process was equivalent to his entering into the infernal ship; and while stretched upon the holy couch, in imitation of his figurative deceased prototype, he was said to be wrapped in the deep sleep of death. His resurrection from the bed was his restoraztion to life, or his regeneration into a new world; and it was virtually the same as his return from Hades, or his emergence from the gloomy cavern, or his liberation from the womb of the ship‑goddess." (1)

 

The time required for this ceremony or imitation of death was generally for the space of three days and nights; but was varied in different localities. Nine days in Great Britain were required for the solitary confinement. In Greece three times nine days. In Persia it extended to fifty days and nights of darkness, want of rest and fasting. The remains in Great Britain of the places where the ceremonies were observed by the Ancient Druids are very numerous and well known at the present day, and have been referred to in a former part of this sketch. Among these are the remains of the celebrated Kit's Cotti House, near Maidstone. "This was a dark chamber of probation, for Kit is no other than Ked, or Ceridwen, the British Ceres; and Cotti or Cetti meant an Ark or Chest; and hence the compound word referred to the Ark of the diluvian god

 

(1) Fab. Paz. Idol in Oliver's "Signs and Symbols," p. 79

 

Noah, whose mysterious Rites were celebrated in Britain; and Ceridwen was either the consort of Noah, or the Ark itself symbolically the great Mother of Mankind. The peculiar names which these monuments still retain throughout the kingdom, are a decisive proof that they were appropriated, almost exclusively, to this purpose." (1)

 

Near a village in Somersetshire called Stanton Drew, or Druid Stones, there are the evidences of a rude structure which originally consisted of three circles of stones and an Adytune or a Pastos. There were various other similar structures in different parts of Britain, evidences of the prevalence of these ceremonies, religious in their character.

 

The initiation into the mysteries was a most important part of the religious worship; and all those who held any important place as priest or legislator, must pass through all their religious ceremonies, as indispensable preliminaries to their advancement, by the solitary confinement in the darkened Pastas. "The religionists of those days considered initiation as necessary as the Christians do baptism." (2)

 

We have referred, in a former page, to the several steps in the progress of initiation in the mysteries of the several degrees in Freemasonry, and that all of these were symbols by which the various principles sought to be inculcated were thus illustrated.

 

Each individual item was emphasized as the candidate progressed; when he was prepared in the ante‑room, viz., his raiment, which should always be pure white, to represent that he was a candidate, from the Latin candidus, which means white. The peculiar arrangement of this raiment, in each degree, is explained in the lecture appertaining to each, as also the Zennaar (3) which accompanies the raiment of each degree, which is in Freemasonry denominated a Cable‑tow. The different degrees require a different disposal of this cable‑tow; in each there is a distinct symbolism, known only to the initiated. The candidate thus prepared is in darkness as to what he is to encounter, ignorant of what will be revealed to him in his progress in

 

(1) Oliver, "Signs and Symbols," p. 80.

 

(2) Warburton, "Divine Legation," B. II., s. iv.

 

(3) The Zennaar in Hindostan was a cord composed of nine threads twisted into a knot at the end, and hanging from the left shoulder to the right hip. The Masonic scarf takes the place of the Zennaar

 

the various steps of his initiation; he is to be regenerated, born again into a new world of mysteries; as he was originally born into the world of physical light, so now he is to be born again into the moral and intellectual Light of Freemasonry. The following preliminary steps are purely ritualistic, and each Mason who has passed through them can for himself apply the symbols to their appropriate significations. It would be well for us just here to call to mind what has been said by others on this method of instruction in the Church. In the Explanation of the Symbolism of the Mass, Bishop England said that in every ceremony we must look for three meanings. " The first, the literal, natural, and it may be said, the original meaning; the second, the figurative or emblematic signification; and thirdly, the pious or religious meaning; frequently the last two will be found the same; sometimes all three will be found combined." Bro. A. G. Mackey, in quoting the above extract from the " Churchman," makes the following just comment: "The Roman Catholic Church is, perhaps, the only contemporaneous institution which continues to cultivate, in any degree, the beautiful system of symbolism. But that which, in the Catholic Church, is, in a great measure, incidental, and the fruit of development, is, in Freemasonry, the very life‑blood and soul of the institution, born with it at its birth, or rather, the germ from which the tree has sprung, and still giving it support, nourishment, and even existence. Withdraw from Freemasonry its symbolism, and you take from the body its soul, leaving behind nothing but a lifeless mass of effete matter, fitted only for a rapid decay." (1)

 

The candidate, after his admission to the lodge‑room, follows the ancient custom of all the mysteries in a perambulation, which is a symbol of the Sun in his annual course through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, as also his diurnal course from east to west by way of the south. The candidates in the mysteries were said to as imitate the Sun and follow his beneficent example." This symbolism referred to the custom of Pythagoras, who required his candidates to pass three years in silence and in darkness. The various obstructions met with in this "circumambulation" were in imitation of those encountered in the Ancient Mysteries, but of quite a different character, as in the Ancient Mysteries these obstructions were

 

(1)

 

Mackey, "Symbolism of Freemasonry," p. 74

 

to severely test the courage and persistence of the candidate, and often resulted in the death of the individual; and in some of their underground passages which have been explored in modern times, evidences have been discovered that many persons thus lost their lives.

 

After the most solemn and impressive ceremonies, whereby the postulant becomes a Mason, he is brought to Light in Masonry by a symbolism, faint indeed, but highly significant of a great event in the history of creation. All that follows is instruction in the science and morals of Masonry. Each degree in Masonry is divided into "Sections"

 

‑ the first section is always the Rite of Initiation. The other sections are for the instruction of the Neophyte, the second section being a rehearsal of the various steps in the first section, and exoteric reasons for these. The following sections contain the morals and dogmas in the several different degrees appertaining to each. In the Fellow‑Craft's degree the second section is a pure allegorical representation; no Intelligent Mason can for a moment accept it other than an Allegory. As such there is nothing more impressive than the important lessons in each part of the representations. The American Rite differs from all others in the arrangement and number of the steps, and in some particulars there are other differences along the whole line. That this legend of the second degree is an allegory we have simply to consult the only history of King Solomon's Temple as found in the "Great Light" and we will find that there was no possibility of adapting our Masonic ritual to that structure. In the sixth chapter of the First Book of Kings we read: "The door for the Middle Chamber was in the right side of the house; and they went up with winding stairs into the Middle Chamber and out of the Middle Chamber into the third." Dr. Mackey, in commenting on this passage, says: (1) "Out of this slender Material has been constructed an Allegory, which if properly considered, in its symbolical relations, will be found to be of surpassing beauty. But it is only as a symbol that we can regard this whole tradition; for the historical facts alike forbid us for a moment to suppose that the legend as it is rehearsed in the second degree of Masonry is anything more than a magnificent philosophical myth."

 

(1) "Symbolism of Freemasonry," p. 215

 

In addition to what Dr. Mackey has said, we would say that the middle and third chamber mentioned in the text referred to were the chambers on the north and south sides of the Temple mentioned in the same chapter of First Kings and fifth and sixth verses: Fifth, "And against the wall of the house, he built chambers round about, the walls of the house about, of the temple and the oracle; (1) and made chambers round about." Sixth, "The nethermost chamber five cubits broad, and the middle six cubits broad, and the third seven cubits broad: for without of the house he made narrowed rests round about that ghe beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house."

 

Then followed in the eighth verse, same chapter, as to where the door was to these three tiers of chambers, in the "right side of the house," viz., at the east end, inside of the porch or vestibule. We take occasion at this place to say that in all of our rituals our lodge‑rooms are diametrically opposite in their Orientation" to that of the Temple, which it is supposed we copy, viz.: the east of a Masonic lodge‑room is at the end opposite to the "entrance." Now the entrance to the Temple was at the east end, and the if "Oracle," or Holy of Holies, was at the west end, where we now place the presiding officer, and all Masonic bodies claim it to be the "East" or "Orient."

 

The situation of Solomon's Temple, on Mount Moriah, on the eastern side of the City of Jerusalem, now occupied by several mosques of the Mohammedan worship, the central building being the mosque of Omar; the topography of that part of the city militates against every legend and myth in our Masonic rituals in all the various rites, and thus is destroyed any attempt at realism in our degrees, which many very excellent Brethren still adhere to in their firm belief in the "Masonry of the Temple." We again refer to Dr.

 

Mackey for his comments on this point: "Let us inquire into the true design of this legend and learn the lesson of symbolism which it is intended to teach. In the investigation of the true meaning of every Masonic symbol and allegory, we must be governed by the single principle that the whole design of Freemasonry as a speculative science, is the investigation of divine truth. To this great object everything is subsidiary The Mason is from the moment

 

(1) Sanctum Sanctorum.

 

of his initiation as an Entered Apprentice, to the time at which he receives the full fruition of Masonic light, an investigator

 

‑ a laborer in the quarry and the temple ‑ whose reward is the Truth. All the ceremonies and traditions of the order tend to this ultimate design. Is there light to be asked for? It is the intellectual light of wisdom and truth. Is there a word to be sought ? That word is the symbol of Truth. Is there a loss of something that has been promised ? That loss is typical of the failure of Man, in the infirmity of his nature, to discover divine truth. Is there a substitute to be appointed for that loss ? It is an allegory, which teaches us that in this world, man can only approximate to the full conception of truth."

 

(1)

 

The proper lesson in the Allegory of the Fellow‑Craft's degree is to teach the Seeker after Truth that the intellectual faculties must be cultivated and educated by a regular course of instruction in the liberal arts and sciences. In the Entered Apprentice degree the candidate has been instructed in the moral and fundamental principles so essentially necessary for the proper and due performance of his several duties in life, to God, his neighbor, and himself.

 

All Speculative Masonry must be philosophical. No man can become truly a Speculative Mason without a knowledge of the liberal arts and sciences. It is in the second degree that the postulant learns of Operative and Speculative Masonry, and these two divisions are simply described in the lecture. The candidate must apply himself diligently to those seven arts and sciences enumerated and symbolized by the seven steps in order to appreciate Speculative Freemasonry. Does anyone imagine that the eighty thousand craftsmen at the building of the Temple were instructed in those seven liberal arts and sciences? That there was among them all, or in that day anyone, who understood the mechanics of the heavens or who did believe that the Sun was the center of the solar system, and that the Earth was in annual revolution around the sun, and diurnal rotation on its own axis? And yet these two principles are the foundation of astronomy.

 

In our rituals of the United States, the winding stairs are divided into three sets of odd numbers. The ancient temples were all approached by steps, odd in number; and Vitruvius, the most ancient

 

(1) Mackey, "Symbolism of Freemasonry," p. 216.

 

writer on architecture, assigns the reason to be that, commencing with the right foot at the bottom, the worshipper would find the same foot foremost when he entered the temple, which was considered a fortunate omen. Dr. Mackey thinks, however, that Masonry derives the use of odd numbers from Pythagoras, in whose system of philosophy it plays an important part, and in which odd numbers were considered as more perfect than even ones. Tracing boards of the 18th century show only five steps, delineated, and in some there are seven. The lectures used in England in the commencement of the present century, according to Preston, make as many as thirtyeight, in sums of one, three, five, seven, nine, and eleven.

 

After the union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813, Dr. Hemming, the Senior Grand Warden, in his new lectures corrected the error in having an even number (38), by striking out the eleven. In the United States these numbers were changed to three, five, and seven, making fifteen. Like all intellectual acquirements there must be a gradual increase in knowledge. The postulant at his approach to the ascending scale of knowledge is primarily instructed in the lessons of the three steps; having acquired these, he advances to the next ascent of five, wherein he is instructed in the human senses, so essentially necessary for the apprehension of all physical knowledge of the objective world. Now, inasmuch as the comfort and happiness of mankind is greatly added to in the best methods of construction of our dwellings, as also all public structures, the science of building is taught by showing the fundamental principles of architecture as illustrated in the five Orders derived from the three original Orders of the Greeks. In the next steps the candidate rises to the highest position of intellectual cultivation in the liberal arts and sciences. Having attained to this elevation, he is entitled to his reward, which is denominated "wages." Here is introduced another allegory, which is derived from a scriptural passage, and is designed to prove the value of a secret pass‑word, all of our Masonic degrees, which is to distinguish a friend from a foe, and by which is proved the right of a member to admission to the lodge, and should always be given before opening the lodge, and by every member or visitor before admission. This is often entirely neglected in some jurisdictions

 

King Solomon's Temple as a Masonic Symbol.

 

Prior to 1860 ‑ many writers on Masonry held to the opinion that Speculative Masonry dates its origin from the building of King Solomon's temple by Jewish and Tyrian artisans, and, no doubt, general assent was given to the proposition; but subsequent authorities in Masonic history do not now concur therein.

 

Speculative philosophy existed prior to the construction of the Temple, but we may conjecture that in the formation of the rituals of the three degrees of Symbolic Masonry, the authors took the Temple and its construction as symbols, whereby the instructions in the moral principles, which formed the foundation of Speculative Masonry, were conveyed to the initiates. The very spirit of all of our lectures proves conclusively that when they were formulated they were designed to teach pure trinitarian Christianity, and while the Jewish scriptures did forecast the intermediary of a Christos, as all the ancient heathen mysteries did also, yet Jesus Christ as shown and demonstrated in the writings of the New Testament, was not understood by the Jewish writers of the Old Testament, nor by but very few of that faith since. The first three degrees taken in connection with the Holy Royal Arch, as they have always been with our Brethren of England, certainly show pure Christianity, as taught throughout the writings of the New Testament scriptures. It is possible that the investigations which for many years have engaged the earnest and serious attention of students of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of London, may result in determining the period when our Masonic lectures were definitely formulated. We know historically that, commencing with the formation v the Grand Lodge, of England in 1717, the separation of Masonic "Work" into distinct degrees did not occur earlier than 1719.(1) From that date, those who aided in the progressive movement were, first, Dr. Anderson and Dr. Desaguliers; by whom, principally, the "work" was divided into the three degrees of Apprentice, Fellow of the Craft, and Master; second, Entick, by whom, perhaps, the lectures of the degrees were first clearly divided; the third one who made important and valuable improvements in the lectures was Hutchinson; and about the same period Dunckerly made many additions and subsequently

 

(1) Chaps. xxxiii.‑xxxvi., Part II. of this work

 

united with Hutchinson, in the improvement of the work and lectures of the three degrees. The fourth attempt to improve the lectures was by William Preston. He entered the door of Masonry in a Lodge of the Ancients, but subsequently became a member of a Lodge of the Moderns. Preston's lectures recommended themselves at once to the more literary class of Masons, and toward the close of the 18th century were the prevailing lectures, and were introduced into all the English working lodges in the Colonies except in Pennsylvania, where we have understood the work and lectures of the ancients continued to prevail and are more or less the work and lectures of the present day.

 

When the two rival Grand Lodges of England united in 1813 and became the "United Grand Lodge," Dr. Hemming, the Senior Grand Warden of the new Grand Lodge, was intrusted with the work of preparing a new set of lectures and arranging the floor work of the three degrees and reconciling any discrepancies. This was the last change in the English work and lectures in England. About the close of the 18th century in the last decade Thomas Smith Webb, who became very conspicuous as a Masonic scholar in the northern part of the United States, made many changes in the work and lectures of all the several degrees in Masonry as far as they had been introduced into the country.

 

Jeremy L. Cross, of Vermont, became his scholar, and about 1816 he too " took a hand" at the lectures and made changes in Webb's work; so that now, in all the States of the Union except, as before said, in Pennsylvania, the Webb‑Preston work and lectures prevail.

 

The first section in all the degrees in Masonry is the initiatory rite. So soon as the candidate in any degree has been obligated he is essentially a Mason of that degree, and as such is entitled to all the secrets and mysteries appertaining to that degree; hence every following section in any degree comprises instructions and explanations of the several steps in the initiatory section of the degree.

 

In the third degree, the second section is a dramatical representation of the "Legend." To ordinary minds, unaccustomed to allegorical representations, it is received as a true representation of a real occurrence. Scholars who have critically examined and compared all the circumstances of the allegorical representation, are well satisfied that such an occurrence could not have happened in the locality represented. The situation of the Temple and the surrounding topographical features all forbid any such circunistances as are related in the Legend. Hence we must assume that our authors of the legend intended it to be the culminating Symbol of Ancient Craft Masonry. In that legend is carried out to its ultimate extent the grand idea which prevailed and dominated every one of the Ancient Mysteries of the Oriental religious rites, and when we carefully "read between the lines" we learn how very near to the fundamental principles of "Christianity" all of those religious rites approached, even in their ignorance of what Dr. Oliver and Dr. Mackey have denominated "true Masonry." True Masonry, as originally designed, was intended to be strictly "Trinitarian Christianity," and every step taken in Masonry prior to the organization of the Grand Lodge of England, in 1717, was Christian, and no one could be a Mason who was not such, and was true to "Mother Church," as all the Ancient Manuscripts prove, and in some Grand Lodges in Europe this test is still required and a Jew or an infidel is excluded. Perhaps the change made in this direction, after 1717, admitting only those who professed a belief in God as being the only test of eligibility, has done good, by spreading abroad all the valuable principles involved in our several lectures, founded, as they all are, upon Faith in God, and having no other dogma. To this end was the legend of the third degree invented, and the secret mysteries of the whole of Masonry are concealed in the substitute when properly interpreted, as that should be, and not as now generally explained, which has no meaning whatever. When properly explained, it agrees precisely with that for which it was substituted. (1)

 

Notwithstanding the conclusion reached by Dr. Mackey in the Chapter XXXI. referred to, we do not fully agree with him, but believe that the origin of the Mysteries involved in the third degree were invented some time subsequent to the organization in 1717; and that, perhaps, Chevalier Ramsay may have been the author, or, with the priests in the College at Clermont, have concocted those secrets, and invented the Royal Arch degree, which he brought with him into England, and endeavored to introduce into the work of the Grand Lodge of England. We know that the degree was finally introduced into the work of the "Ancients" of

 

(1) See in this work ch. xxxi., p. 290 et sequiter

 

Dermott, and subsequently, by Dunckerly, into the old Grand Lodge of England, of which he was a very conspicuous and distinguished member. Through him the third degree was so altered that to obtain the original essential secrets of that degree it became requisite to take the Royal Arch degree. Now, in the Ancient and Accepted Rite the degree of "Mason of the Royal Arch," which is essentially the same as the Ramsay degree, is so nearly like the English Royal Arch degree that we may say they are both from the same original source. Everyone who is familiar with these several degrees must confess there is a family likeness, and they all concur, in their essential features, in demonstrating that the religious elements are the same. (1)

 

In reference to the occult science in India, we take the following extract from Louis Jacolliot, as translated by Willard L. Felt:

 

"Remember my Son, that there is only one God, the Sovereign Master and Principal of all things, and that the Brahmins should worship him in secret; but learn also that this is a mystery, which should never be revealed to the vulgar herd: ‑ otherwise great harm may befall you. [Words spoken by the Brahmins upon receiving a candidate for initiation according to Vrihaspati.]

 

This triangular arrangement of the great name, AUM, recognized as the WORD in the higher Mysteries in India, as the One God referred to in the above extract, represents the Triune God of all the Ancient Mysteries of the Oriental religions.

 

Under the head of Freemasonry, Chapter II., page 484, Dr. Mackay says:

 

"Krause gives ample proof that the Colleges of Artificers made use of symbols derived from the implements and usages of their craft. We need not be surprised at this, for the symbolic idea was, as we know, largely cultivated by the ancients. Their mythology, which was their religion, was made up out of a great system of symbolism. Sabaism, their first worship, was altogether symbolic,

 

(1) See in this work ch. xxii., pp. 135 to 139; also ch. xxxvi., p. 178

 

and out of their primitive adoration of the simple forces of nature, by degrees and with the advancement of civilization, was developed a multiplicity of deities, every one of which could be traced for his origin to the impersonation of a symbol. It would, indeed, be strange if, with such an education, the various craftsmen had failed to have imbued their trades with that same symbolic spirit which was infused into all their religious rites and their public and private acts."

 

In plates 1 and 2 (pages 1718 and 1720) we have shown a very few of the symbols used by the Ancients in their mythologies, and which are copied from Calmet, and herewith is a short description of each.

 

Figure 1, plate 1, is an Indian representation of Vishnu, the second person of the Trimurti ‑ the semblance of the God, is seated on a lotus‑plant having four arms, and in each hand a peculiar emblem is displayed. The stem is supported by Vishnu, represented as an immense turtle. A huge serpent encircles the pillar; the gods hold the tail part and the daityas or demons hold the opposite end. By pulling the serpent alternately the sea was converted into milk, and then into butter, and from this was obtained the Amrita or water of life which was drank by the Immortals.

 

Figure 2 represents Brahma seated on a lotus flower after the deluge. Calmet supposes it to represent Noah and his three sons. The connection between numbers one and two may be seen in the conch shells shown in the hands, and the chains of pearls around the necks.

 

Figure 4 represents the Sun‑God and Deus Lunus.

 

Figures 3, 5, and 6 are different forms of Nergal. The word Ner‑Gal divides into two parts: Ner signifies light, or luminary, etc., and gal signifies to roll, revolve, a revolution, a circuit, the two together implies the revolving or returning light. If this be truly descriptive of Nergal, there is nothing improbable in considering the cock as allusive to it, since the vigilance of the cock is well known, and that he gives due notice of the very earliest reappearance of light morning after morning. There are different senses in which lightt may be taken, besides its reference to natural light.

 

"1st. Deliverance from any singular danger, or distress. Esth. Viii. 16.

 

" 2dly. Posterity; a son, or successor. I Kings xi. 36; 2 Chron. cxi. 7.

 

" 3dly. Resurrection, or something very like it. Job xxxiii. 28, 30; Psalm xcvii. II."

 

In the figures 3, 5, and 6 there is no allusion to the first of these principles, but they have a strong reference to the second, Posterity, and the idea of fecundity is expressed in the adaptation of the figure of a cock, which signifies the returning of light. In figure 5, which is taken from a gem in the Gallery at Florence, Italy, two cocks are yoked to the car of Cupid, and driven by one Cupid and led by another; and not merely as if harnessed to a common car, but as if they had been in a race and had come off victorious; as the driving Cupid carries a palm‑branch, which is the reward of victory, obtained by these his emblematical coursers.

 

In figure 3 we have a car with a cock standing in the attitude of crowing and flapping his wings; which is the custom of this bird on certain occasions. The star shown is the Star of Venus, and distinguishes this equipage as the consecrated vehicle of that supreme goddess of love and beauty. At a short distance in the background sits Hymen, the god of marriage and conjugality; his torch brightly blazing; at his feet is a cock crowing, etc., in a manner and attitude very like the other; and with precisely the same allusions. The indication of this allegory is the influence of Venus and Hymen, the genial powers of vitality, on the renovation of life, in human posterity.

 

As the extinction of lamps, or torches, indicated utter desolation, deprivation of children and misery, so on the contrary we are led to imply the joy of connubial engagements.

 

The figure 6 represents a cock holding in his bill two ears of corn; he is attended by Mercury, having a Caduceus in one hand, and a bag of money tithe other. This gem has puzzled the learned. Montfaucon (1) E says: "To see Mercury with a cock is common enough; but to see him walking before a cock larger than himself, is what I have never noticed, except in this representation. It may denote that the greatest of the qualities of Mercury is vigilance. The cock holding the corn in his bill, may, perhaps, mean

 

(1) Vol. i.. pp. 123, 128

 

that vigilance only can produce plenty of the productions necessary to the support of life." Ancient Mythology adopted various representations of the human form.

 

Figure 7 is an Abraxas, taken from Montfaucon. It represents a man with two faces having on his head the bushel or sacred Calathus, two wings are on his shoulders and two wings on his hips, and a scorpion's tail and a staff in each hand.

 

Figure 8 evidently represents Neptune.

 

Figure 9 represents Ashtaroth or Astarte, which is the same as Venus. She holds a long cross in her hand and has the sacred Calathus on her head. This is a Medal of Zidon, which was a city of great antiquity; St. Ambrose, in writing to Symmachus, implies that Venus is the Metrane of Persia, and though worshipped under different names yet is constantly the same power. In this connection we must enlarge somewhat upon the names of Ashtaroth, Astarte, and Venus, as in the description of several of the following figures the subject will be better understood.

 

Venus represented with a dove is referred to Askelon, and yet we know that Egypt had her Venus and dove, as shown in a medal when she stands with a staff in one hand and a dove supported by the other hand extended. This medal was struck in Tentyra, a city of Egypt. This shows that the worship of the dove was very prevalent in these countries. The etymology of Askelon is derived from weight, or balance, shekel.

 

Another origin is suggested; Ash in Hebrew denotes fire; Kel denotes activity, briskness, and heat, even to wasting; lun denotes to reside, to stay, to remain. These ideas combined, mean, "the residence, or station, of fire, in activity or heating." To explain this the following Hindoo story is found in Aszatic Researches, vol. iv., p. 168, which agrees with this etymology. "The Puranas relate that, Sami Rami, in the shape of a dove, came and abode at Asc'halanorthan, which is obviously Askelon; here Samiramis was born, according to Diodorus Siculus, and here she was nursed by doves. She was, says he, the daughter of Derketos. Here, say the Indian Puranas, she made her first appearance. Now, by doves, we are to understand priestesses; by her birth, the institution or establishment of her worship, as daughter, i.e., immediate successor or offspring of Derketas. Sami is the Hindoo word for fire, and Rama signifies the fir‑tree; 'Sthan is station, residence, dwelling. By uniting these ideas, we find they also signify 'the residences,' 'Sthan, of fire, Sami, in perfect conformity to the Hebrew name, as above explained." (1)

 

Figure 10 represents Dagon, properly Dag‑Aun. We must anticipate the description of this figure by reference to another figure, not shown, viz.. There is a gem in the Florentine Gallery which is probably of Grecian workmanship; it shows the progress of those variations by which in process of time Art relinquished the truly ancient representation of Dagon. This figure exhibits a union of the human and fishy parts; but this union is contrary to the original idea of the emblem, which was that of a person coming out of a fish, not making a part of the fish, but issuing from it. (As will be seen in figure 10.) Shall I be thought fanciful in referring the figures of this plate to traditional memorials of Noah, his wife, and three sons? All of them having human upper parts, but piscine lower parts; i.e., all of them originally considered as having issued from a fish; though by lapse of time the import of that allegorical representation was forgot.

 

N.B. The original Merman and Mermaid of our heraldry supporters. (2) In figure 10, instead of the male and female, and three children, all having piscine lower parts, there is one person allied to a fish; but this one person has four arms, or governing powers.

 

Now I take the fact to be this: when the male personage was used as a type of the event commemorated in this emblem, then the original allusion was to Noah and his three sons; but when a female personage was used, as an emblem of the very same event, then the allusion was to the wife of Noah. On the same principle genealogies were reckoned, and are still in the East, only by the male sex; we have no genealogy by women in Scripture; but this rule was departed from, speciali gratia, when the universal mother of the second race of mankind was to be commemorated. Vide figure 2 for the picture of a man with four heads and four arms, that is, four governing powers, Mental and Corporal; or in this Indian emblem, the four states and conditions of life, or the four castes and distinctions among the inhabitants, which castes are, on the Indian system, equally attributable to Noah as the father, or to his wife as the mother of succeeding generations. The four bearded heads may be those of the four fathers of mankind united into one; signifying legislative government,

 

(1) Calmet, Fragment 269, p. 373.

 

(2) Ibid., p.133                                                               

 

 

YORK CATHEDRAL
 

 

morals, etc. The four arms to the female figure, No. 10, may signify executive government. Still they represent government in some manner or other; and wherefore four? unless four persons had originally their respective departments in conducting the general welfare of the community, their descendants.

 

Figure 10, plate 2, is from Maurice's History of India. (1) It represents a female, crowned, having four arms, each holding its proper symbol, coming out of a great fish; as if this great fish was casting forth this personage, after the tempestuous ocean was calmed, the evil demon destroyed, and the verdant meadows were again clothed with cheerful herbage, as appears in the background of the original.

 

This emblem is called in Indian one of the appearances of Avartas of Vishnu.

 

There is an ancient fable that Oannes, who was said to be half a man and half a fish, came to Babylon and taught several Arts; and afterward returned to the sea . . . there were several of these Oannes . . . the namer of one was Odacon, i.e., o Dagon [the Dagon]. Berosus, speaking of Oannes, says he had the body and head of a fish; and above the head of the fish he had a human head, and below the tail of the fish he had human feet. This is the true figure of Dagon, who was the God of the Philistines, i.e., the most of the inhabitants of Palestine, long prior to the time when Joshua led the children of Israel across the river Jordan and took possession of the whole country and divided it among the twelve tribes. Etymologists say that Dagon was Saturn; others say he was Jupiter; others say Venus, whom the Egyptians worshipped under the form of a fish; because in Typhon's war against the gods, Venus concealed herself under this shape. (2) Diodorus Siculus says, (3) that at Askelon the goddess Derceto, or Atagatis, was worshipped under the figure of a woman, with the lower parts of a fish (see figure 18, plate 2), and Lucian, de Dea Syr: describes that goddess, or Venus, as being adored under this form.

 

There is an ancient fable, that Oannes, a creature half man, half fish, rose out of the Red Sea, and came to Babylon, where he taught men several arts, and then returned again to the sea. Apollodorus reports that four such Oannes, in several ages, had arisen out of the Red Sea, and that the name of one of them was Odacon: whence the

 

(1) Plate VII., p. 507, per Calmet, vol. iii., p. 183.

 

(2) Ovid, " Met.," lib. v., fab. 5 (3) Lib. ii., p. 65

 

learned Selden derives Dagon. (1) The worship of Dagon continued in Palestine until the change in the mythology of early days to the Greek nomenclature, after the days of Alexander the Great. The temple of Dagon was pulled down by Sampson at Gaza. The Philistines deposited the ark in the temple of Dagon at Azoth.

 

Figure II, plate II, represents Succoth Benoth, and is a companion to the Deity Nergal; which the Babylonians selected as their favorite object of worship (2 Kings xvii. 30).

 

This representation is evidently Venus rising from the sea, attended by Tritons, who regard her with veneration and triumph united; but this is not the original Venus; it is the story poetically treated, varied by the looser imagination of the Greeks, from the ancient emblem; retaining the idea, but changing the figures, etc., as seen they did in Dagon, and as they were accustomed to do in all their Deities; from whence the Egyptians, etc., thought them impious; and indeed their images became hereby altogether desecrated. To this incident of Venus rising from the Sea ought to be referred all that the poets have written on the birth of the goddess of beauty from the briny wave, from the froth or foam of the sea, etc., of which enough may easily be met with among the classic writers, Greek or Latin.

 

The Hebrew word Succoth is usually rendered booths, i.e., temporary residences, as tents, etc. The Rabbins translate it "tents of the young women": it is literally "the tabernacles of the daughters, or young women," that is, "if benoth be taken as the name of a female idol, from Bench to build up, procreate children, then the words will express, The tabernacles sacred to the productive powers feminine."

 

The dove, when used as an insignia or as a token, referred primarily to the dove at the deluge; and the double‑faced Jason referred primarily to Noah; who looked backward on one world, ended, and forward on another, beginning. In the illustrations connected with Succoth Benoth the head of Venus on one side of a medal with a dove for its reverse, and a head of Janus with a dove also for its reverse, must originally have referred to the same event; and this event was what the figure of Derketos, who was the Syrian goddess, commemorated; in other words, Venus rising from the Sea.

 

(1) Calmet's Dictionary Dagon

 

Derketos issuing from a fish; 1st, Noah, as the great progenitor of mankind, restored to light and life; 2dly, the prolific powers again in exercise, to 3dly, the revival of human posterity, etc., after a temporary residence in that floating womb of mankind, the ark of preservatlon. (1)

 

The composition of a woman with the form of a fish is seen in a medal of Marseilles representing Atergatis, Derketos, the Syrian goddess Venus. Marseilles was settled by a colony of Phoenicians from Syria. They, like the Men of Babylon, carried their country worship and gods with them to their distant settlement. (2)

 

In figure 12 is a representation of the eighth Avatar of Vishnu, in which he represents the Good Black Shepherd treading upon the head of the Serpent Calanach. The promise made to Adam and Eve when they were turned out of the garden of Eden, was that their seed should bruise the head of the Serpent. Now, this figure of Vishnu, the second person of the Indian Trimurti, was called Krishna ‑ the Anointed one ‑ and some have thought that this myth was to illustrate the promise made to Adam and Eve, as above stated.

 

Figure 13 is a representation of Ashtaroth, the same as Astarte or Venus. The horns are not united to form a crescent as in other pictures but are more natural; around the beautiful head are the Seven stars by three and four, and two figures of lightning to show her authority as regent of night. (3)

 

Figure 14 represents another form of Abraxas which has more emblems than figure 7.

 

This figure has on its head the lotos; it has four wings; and connected with each wing an arm; and in each of its four hands different destructive emblems. It has on its feet what might be taken for a third pair of wings; but these are very imperfect, if they be wings.

 

Figure 15 is Dea Luna or Deus Lunus. This represents a man with a Phrygian bonnet on his head, clothed in a short dress, a sword in his right hand, in his left a man's head, which he has recently cut off from the body lying by him, whose flowing blood spirts upward. Marcrobius says "the Moon was both male and female;" and adds one particular from Philocorus, that the male sex sacrificed to him in the female habit, and the female sex in the

 

(1) Calmet, vol. ii., p. 283.

 

(2) Ibid p. 234.

 

(3) Ibid., p. 375

 

male habit. Though Spartian speaks of Carhoe as a place famous for the worship of Lunus, the reader must not think this worship was confined to that place and to Mesopotamia; for it was spread all over the East. This worship was established in Phoenicia long before the empire of Caracalla; a medal published by Vaillant hath Antoninus Pius on one side and the god Lunus on the others with his Syrian cap on, and holding a spear with a great star on one side of him, and a crescent, which signifies the moon, on the other. The medal was struck at Gaba, near Caesarea in Palestine, by the borders of Phoenicia. (1)

 

Figure 16 represents the Egyptian Venus. This medal was struck in Tentyra, a city of Egypt, as appears by the legend upon it. Strabo mentions a temple of Venus at Tentyra. This is a reverse of a medal of Adrian; it represents Venus holding her dove in one hand, in the other a staff. On the whole, this has a strong similitude to medals of Askelon, and shows that the worship of the dove was very prevalent in these countries, and in their respective adjacencies. (2)

 

Figure 17 is a representation of a four‑horned goat, which is said to be from Spain, with two upright and two lateral horns. This animal was alive in London about 1769. It is a symbol of the goat of Mendes.

 

Figure 18 represents the figure of a woman united to the form of a fish, and is similar in composition and shape of Atergatis‑Derketos, the Syrian goddess.

 

Figures 19 and 20 represent two appearances of Baal. They are human heads with symbols of an ox added to them.

 

Observe in No. 19 the stars which accompany the head; if these stars, or if a single star, be referred to the Deity it accompanies, then we see how easily the Israelites might "take up the Star of their God" (Amos v. 26), i.e., portrayed on medals, or small figures, whether images or coins, etc., carried about them; and secured from detection by their smallness and readiness of concealment. This figure has the bull's or cow's horns and ears on its head.

 

No. 20 has only the ears of a bull or cow; but has on its head a garland of vine‑leaves and grapes, whereby it is allied to Bacchus; with two apples on the front of the head, whereby it is allied to

 

(1) Calmet, vol. ii., p. 375.

 

(2) Ibid., P 374

 

Ceres, or to Pomona, i.e., it indicates a fruit‑bearing divinity, perhaps Isis fructifera (1)

 

We have selected the foregoing examples of the very earliest symbols employed by the Ancient Nations to express their ideas of the Deities whom they worshipped; these all coalesce at last in the Sun and Moon. What was Fortune ? Baal Gad, the Luna Dea which presided over favorable times; where then is the wonder that the Israelites should be tempted to solicit favorable seasons from this goddess, instead of entreating them from the Lord ? as he

 

complains; or that they should offer propitiatory incense to the queen of heaven? (Jer. xliv. 17) or that the question be asked,

 

Can any of the deities of the heathen give rain? which is so necessary to fertility; and an act of true divinity alone. We see, too, how Gad and Meni terminate in the Sun and Moon. (2)

 

We now revert to quite a different class of symbols, which we find prevailed in Egypt, Persia, Assyria, and was employed by the Almighty himself when he revealed his worship to the children of Israel. We allude to the Cherubim. The first authentic reference which we have in history we find in Genesis, ch. iii., v. 24, and in Exodus, ch.

 

xxv., vs. 18, 19, and 20, which we quote, viz.: "And thou shalt make two Cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, on the two ends of the Mercy Seat. And make one Cherub on the one end, and the other Cherub on the other end; even of the Mercy Seat (3) shall ye make the Cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the Cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the Mercy Seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the Mercy Seat shall the faces of the Cherubim be."

 

It would seem from the directions here given by the Almighty to Moses, that the cherubic form was well known to him, from his familiarity with the Cherubim so common in Egypt. We must therefore look to the Cherubim of Egypt to understand the subject and appreciate the Cherubim of the first Ark of the Covenant carried by the children of Israel in their forty years of "Wanderings in the Wilderness," and into the "land of Promise" and the great Miracle wrought by it in the midst of the river Jordan. (Joshua, ch. iii., vs. 15, 16, 17.)

 

(1) Calmet, vol. ii., p. 122. 2 (2) Ibid., p. 124 (3) Another rendering may be, "of the matter of the Mercy Seat."

 

In all the different nations, where the cherubic forms were employed, they were compound animals. The various authors on this subject have employed many articles.

 

Mr. Parkhurst, in his Dictionary, uses no less than sixty; and M. Calmet has many pages and numerous illustrations, some of which we will use. In these articles Calmet proceeds by giving a description of the various parts, separately entering into the compound animal.

 

1. He first takes the Cherubim described in the Bible, of their heads or countenances.

 

Each Cherub has four: 1st, that of a man; 2d, that of a lion; 3d, that of an ox; 4th, that of an eagle. In what manner were they placed ? Were they four heads attached to four necks rising from the trunk of the body; or four faces attached to one head ? He thinks they were four faces attached to one head.

 

II. Of their bodies, i.e., from the neck downward. This was human., the "likeness of a man," which extended below the navel and to the lower rim of the stomach.

 

III. Of their wizzgs. Ezekiel describes them as having four wings; Isaiah describes the Seraph as having six wings, viz.: two on the head, two on the shoulders, and two on the flanks.

 

IV. Of their arms. The translations say hands, but certainly imply arms at length; their number was four, one on each side.

 

V. The lower part. It must have been 1st, either human thighs, legs, and feet to which was appended at the posteriors the body and hind legs of an ox; or, rather, 2d, the body and four legs of an ox, out of which the human part seemed to rise, so that all below the rim of the belly was in the form of an ox, and all above that was human.

 

VI. Their services, or, what they appeared to do. The vision seen by Ezekiel, and also by Isaiah, was the resemblance of a movable throne or chariot, of prodigious dimensions, on which the sovereign was supposed to sit; that the wheels were annexed to it in much the same manner as to the royal traveling or military thrones of the Persian Kings; and that the four Cherubims occupied the places of four horses to draw this capacious machine.

 

Did our limits permit, we could extend this examination into the subject of the Cherubim with great profit; but our object will have been obtained if we can succeed in showing how almost universal was the idea of compounding different animals into one for the purpose of illustrating the general ideas of the different attributes of their deities among all the nations of antiquity.

 

We copy from Calmet's Dictionary the following description of the Cherub.

 

CHERUB ‑ derived from the Chaldee, signifies as a child, from the adverb ki; as, and rabia, a young man, a child; otherwise, as multiplying, or as combating, from rahab, or abundance, or multitude of knowledge; from tab, a multitude, and Nacar, to know, otherwise, in Hebrew, rahar signifies to grow great, to nourish, to bring up; in Syriac, to labour.

 

This term in Hebrew is sometimes taken for a calf or an ox. Ezekiel i. 10 mentions the face of a Cherub, as synonymous to the face of ar ox. The word Cherub in Syriac and in Chaldee signifies to till or plough, which is the work of oxen. Cherub also signifies strong and powerful, possessing the strength of an ox. Grotius says the Cherubim were figures like a calf. Bochart thinks they were nearly the figure of an ox. So does Spencer. Josephus says they were extraordinary creatures of a figure unknown to mankind. Clemens of Alexandria believes that the Egyptians imitated the Cherubim of the Hebrews in their Sphinxes and hieroglyphical Animals. (1)

 

The descriptions, in various parts of Scripture, of the Cherubim differ, but agree in a figure composed of various creatures except in the first description in Exodus. The others an ox, a lion, a man, and an eagle, as in Ezekiel i. 5, and x. 2. Those placed in the Temple by Solomon were probably similar to these. (I Kings vi. 23.) We can readily see that those on the Original Ark could not have been like those in the Temple, for there evidently was but one head on each one from the expression "and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the Cherubim be." (Ex. xxv. 20.) There could only be one head and face to each of the two Cherubim.

 

Calmet's own conclusion on this difficult question is as follows:

 

"So great obscurity has hitherto overwhelmed this figurative representation, notwithstanding it has been the theme of many very learned men, that I cannot flatter myself with succeeding at once in explaining it. I think, however, that this opens a new way for

 

(1) Calmet Dictionary, Cherub

 

attaining some conception of its real forms; and I feel some satisfaction in the idea that these symbols were not unknown in kingdoms and countries independent of Judea."

 

The Cherubic or compound form was common to most of the nations of the Orient. In Egypt, the sphynx and other examples are extant at the present day; in Assyria, all the Temples had such compound figures at their entrances, and we show some of these in figures 21, 22, 23, 24.

 

If In regard to these Cherubic forms, there were two extreme opinions: 1st. That it pleased God to compose the Jewish religious rites, ceremonies, and symbols, of materials as unlike as possible to those of the countries around them, especially of Egypt, in order to establish a total dissimilarity, and to exclude idolatry. 2d. That a close resemblance, especially to Egyptian manners, was established, in order to accommodate the services to the temper and habits of a people who had been used to such in Egypt. This was the hypothesis of the learned Spencer. The truth, I apprehend, lies between these opinions.

 

"The Jews considered the Cherubim as of the utmost important under the Levitical priesthood; yet they have lost their true representation. If the flame placed to keep the way to the tree of life was a Cherub, then this emblem is extremely ancient. Mr.

 

Parkhurst finds resemblance to this symbol in the West Indies; in the Temple of Elephanta, in the East Indies; in Diana; in Proserpine; in Rhadigust, an ancient German idol; in Mithras, a Persian Deity; in the gryphon, or griffion, of Cochin‑China; in Yahuthana Nasr, Arabian idols resembling a lion and an eagle; and in many other parts of the world. The opinion of this writer seems to be sufficiently established to warrant the inference, that this emblem was not borrowed by the Jewish ritual from Egypt only, but was known among many other nations in its principle at least." (1)

 

When we reflect that at the very earliest ages, when religious rites were new among all the nations of the earth, it does seem probable that they all derived their ideas from one original stock; and in time the varieties of manners and customs, and also following these, the methods of worshipping their gods with the same central and general ideas; the variations were like branches of an original

 

(1) Calmet.

 

stock. The fact that in the vast number of cherubic forms, found in any part of the original heathen and idolatrous world, the common symbols have a great likeness to those symbols used by the Jewish people and described in the Jewish sacred books.

 

The Cross.

 

When the Cross became a symbol is lost in the remotest antiquity, and there is no mention of it, historically, at any period, or to the country, or the people who were the first to make use of it as a symbol; nevertheless, it is found at a very early period, by which certain forms have been recognized by certain names having specific meanings.

 

There are principal forms of the cross which are used as symbols, and others frequently employed in ornamentation having no special signification There are a great many forms of the cross. Among these we call attention to the Swastika which is the usual form of the Swastika, or Svastika, a symbol which has recently excited very much attention among archaeologists. In 1894, the Smithsonian publication contained a very lengthy paper of 221 pages, giving the most complete history with full illustrations and examples of this symbol by Professor Thomas Wilson, Curator Department of Prehistoric Anthropology, U.S. National Museum. He says: "The swastica has been called by different names in different countries, though nearly all countries have in later years accepted the ancient Sanskrit name of Swastika; and this name is recommended as the most definite and certain, being now the most general and, indeed, almost universal. It was formerly spelled s‑u‑a‑s‑t‑i‑c‑a and s‑w‑a‑s‑t‑i‑k‑a, but the later spelling, both English and French, is s‑w‑a‑s‑t‑i‑k‑a. The definition and etymology of the word is thus given in Littre's French Dictionary:

 

"' Svastica, or Swastika, a mystic figure used by several (East) Indian sects.'

 

"It was equally well known to the Brahmans as to the Buddhists. Most of the rock inscriptions in the Buddhist caverns in the West of India are preceded or followed by the holy (sarramentelle) sign of the Swastika. (Eugene Burnouf, Me Lotus de la tonne loi; Paris, 1852, p. 625.) It was seen on the vases and pottery of Rhodes (Cyprus) and Etruria.

 

"Etymology: A Sanskrit word signifying happiness, pleasure, good luck. It is composed of Sa (equivalent of Greek ev), 'good,' and asti, 'being,' 'good being,' with the suffix ka (Greek Ka, Latin co)."

 

In the Revue a'Ethnographie (IV., 1885, p. 329), Mr. Dumoution gives the following analysis of the Sanskrit swastika:

 

"Su, radical, signifying goad, well, excellent, or suvidas, prosperity.

 

"Asti, third person, singular, indicative present of the verb as, to be, which is sum in Latin.

 

"Ha, suffix forming the substantive."

 

The Century Dictionary says, Swastika ‑ [Sanskrit, lit., "of good fortune." Svasti (su,, well, + astz; being), welfare], Same as fylfot.

 

Compare crux ansata and gammadion. (1)

 

In Ilizos (p. 347), Max Muller says:

 

"Ethnologically, svastika is derived from svasti and svasti from su, 'well,' and as, 'to be.' Svasti occurs frequently in the Veda, both as a noun in a sense of happiness, and as an adverb in the sense of 'well' or 'hail!' It corresponds to the Greek xxxxx. The derivation swastika is of later date, and it always means an auspicious sign, such as are found most frequently among Buddhists and Jainas

 

(1) Smithsonian Report, 1894, p. 769

 

M. Eugene Burnouf defines the Mark Swastika as follows:

 

"A monogrammatic sign of four branches, of which the ends are curved (or bent) at right angles, the name signifying, literally, the sign of benediction, or good augury."

 

The foregoing explanations relate only to the present accepted name "Swastika."

 

The sign Swastika must have existed long before the name was given to it. It must have been in existence long before the Buddhist religion or the Sanskrit language.

 

In Great Britain the common name given to the Swastika from Anglo‑Saxon times by those who had no knowledge whence it came, or that it came from any other than their own country, was Fylfot, said to have been derived from the Anglo‑Saxon fower fot meaning four‑footed, or many‑footed. (1)

 

"Many theories have been presented concerning the symbolism of the Swastika, its relation to ancient deities and its representation of certain qualities. In the estimation of certain writers it has been respectively the emblem of Zeus, of Baal, of the Sun, of the sungod, of the sun‑chariot, of Agni the fire‑god, of Indra the rain‑god, of the Sky, of the sky‑god, and finally the deity of all deities, the Great God, the Maker and Ruler of the Universe. It has also/been held to symbolize light or the god of light, of the forked lightning, and of water. It is believed by some to have been the oldest Aryan symbol. In the estimation of others it represents Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, Creator, Preserver, Destroyer. It appears in the footprints of Buddha, engraved upon the solid rock on the Mountains of India. It stood for the Jupiter Tonans and Pluvius of the Latins, and the Thor of the Scandinavians. In the latter case it has been considered ‑ erroneously, however ‑ a variety of the Thor hammer. In the opinion of at least one author it had an intimate relation to the Lotus sign of Egypt and Persia. Some authors have attributed a phallic meaning to it; others have recognized it as representing the generative principle of mankind, making it the symbol of the female. Its appearance on the person of certain goddesses, Artemis, Hera, Demeter, Astarte, and the Chaldean Nana, the leaden goddess from Hissarlik, has caused it to be claimed as a sign of fecundity." (2)

 

(1) R. P. Greg per Smithsonian Report, 1894, p. 769.

 

(2) Smithsonian Report, 1894, p. 771.

 

Commenting upon the theories of the various writers quoted, Professor Wilson says:

 

"In forming the foregoing theories their authors have been largely controlled by the alleged fact of the substitution and permutation of the Swastika sign on various objects with recognized symbols of these different deities. The claims of these theorists are somewhat clouded in obscurity and lost in the antiquity of the subject. What seems to have been at all times an attribute of the Swastika is its character as a charm or amulet, as a sign of benediction, blessing, long life, good fortune, good luck. This character has continued into modern times, and while the Swastika is recognized as a holy and sacred symbol by at least one Buddhistic religious sect, it is still used by the common people of India, China, and Japan as a sign of long life, good wishes, and good fortune.

 

"

 

Whatever else the sign Swastika may have stood for, and however many meanings it may have had, it was always oSamental. It may have been used with any or all of the above significations, but it was always ornamental as well.

 

"Dr. Schliemann found many specimens of Swastika in his excavation at the site of ancient Troy on the hill of Hissarlik. They were mostly on spindle whorls. . . . He appealed to Professor Max Muller for an explanation, who, in reply, wrote an elaborate description, which Dr. Schliemann published in Ilios."

 

He commences with a protest against the word Swastika being applied generally to the sign Swastika, because it may prejudice the reader or the public in favor of its Indian origin. He says:

 

"I do not like the use of the word Swastika outside of India. It is a word of Indian origin and has its history and definite meaning in India. . . . The occurrence of such crosses in different parts of the world may or may not point to a common origin, but if they are once called Swastika the vulgas profanum will at once jump to the conclusion that they all come from India, and it will take some time to weed out such prejudice.

 

"Very little is known of Indian art before the third century B.C., the period when the Buddhist sovereigns began their public buildings.

 

"The name Svastika, however, can be traced (in India) a little farther back. It occurs as the name of a particular sign in the old grammar of Panani, about a century earlier.

 

Certain compounds are mentioned there in which the last word is karma, 'ear.' one of the signs for marking cattle was the Svastika, and what Pinani teaches in his grammar is that when the compound is formed, saastika‑karna, i.e., having the ear marked with a sign of a Svastika, the final a of Svastika is not to be lengthened, while it is lengthened in other compounds, such as datra‑karna, i.e., having the ear marked with the sign of a sickle."

 

"It (the Swastika) occurs often at the beginning of Buddhist inscriptions, on Buddhist coins, and in Buddhist manuscripts. Historically, the Svastika is first attested on a coin of Krananda, supposing Krananda to be the same king as Xandrames, the predecessor of Sandrokyptos, whose reign came to an end in 315 B.C. (See Thomas on the identity of Xandrames and Krananda.) The paleographic evidence, however, seems rather against so early a date.

 

"In the foot‑prints of Buddha the Buddhists recognize no less than sixty‑five auspicious signs, the first of them being the Svastika; the fourth is the Suavastzka, or that with the arms turned to the left; the third, the Nandydvarta, is a mere development of the Svastika. Among the Jainas the Svastzka was the sign of their Seventh Jina, Suparsva."

 

"In the later Sanskrit literature, Svastika retains the meaning of an auspicious mark; thus we see in the Ramayana, that Bharata selects a ship marked with the sign of the Svastika. Varapamihira in the Brihat‑samhita mentions certain buildings called Savastika and Nandyavarta, but their outline does not correspond very

 

exactly with the form of the sign. Some Sthupas, however, are said to have been built on the plan of the Svastika.... Originally, Svastika may have been intended for no more than two lines crossing each other, or a cross. Thus we find it used in later times referring to a woman covering her breast with crossed arms, Svahastasvastika‑stanti, and likewise with reference to persons sitting cross‑legged." (1)

 

Max Muller continues:

 

"Quite another question is, why the sign should have an auspicious meaning, and why in Sanscrit it should have been called Svastika. The similarity between the group of letters sv in the ancient Indian alphabet, and the sign of Svastika is not very striking, and seems purely accidental.

 

"A remark of yours [Schliemann] (Troy, p. 38) that the Svastika resembles a wheel in motion, the direction of the motion being indicated by the crampons, contains a useful hint, which has been confirmed by some important observations of Mr. Thomas, the distinguished Oriental numismatist, who has called attention to the fact that in the long list of the recognized devices of the twenty four Jaina Tirthankaras the sun is absent, but that while the eighth Tirthankara has the sign of the half‑moon, the seventh Tirthankara is marked with the

 

(1) Smithsonian Report, 1894, p. 772

 

Svastika, i.e., the sun. Here, then, we have clear indications that the Svastika, with the hands pointing in the right direction, was originally a symbol of the sun, perhaps of the vernal sun as opposed to the autumnal sun, Suavastika, and, therefore, a natural symbol of light, life, health, and wealth.

 

"But, while from these indications we are justified in supposing that among the Aryan nations the Svastika may have been an old emblem of the sun, there are other indications to show that in other parts of the world the same or a similar emblem was used to indicate the earth. Mr. Beal . . . has shown . . . that the simple (+) occurs as a sign for earth in certain ideographic groups. It was probably intended to indicate the four quarters ‑ north, south, east, west ‑

 

or, it may be, more generally, extension in length and breadth.

 

"That the cross is used as a sign for 'four' in the Bactro‑Pali inscriptions (Max Muller, Chips fram a German workshop, Vol. II., p. 298) is well known; but the fact that the same sign has the same power elsewhere, as, for instance, in the Hieratic numerals, does not prove by any means that the one figure was derived from the other. We forget too easily that what was possible in one place was possible also in the other places; and the morale we extend our researches, the more we shall learn that the chapter of accidents is larger than we imagine." (1)

 

In the Smithsonian Report (Annual) for 1897 we find an article by Marquis De Nadaillac on the "Unity of the Human Species," who, in concluding one part of the subject, says: (2)

 

"The accumulated proof renders it incontestable that the funeral rite of cleaning the bones and coloring them red was practised in different countries widely separated by sea or desert. Thucydides says the history of a people is to be sought in their tombs. In the cases cited, the tomb has responded and has thrown a clear light on the earliest origin of the rite, and at the same time on the common origin of man. A question arising from these facts is, whether they relate to religious or funeral rites. But this is comparatively of small importance. It was surely a custom of the unknown ancestors of these peoples, transmitted from generation to generation. These facts do not allow us to say that primitive life was everywhere the same, nor that if the productions of men are everywhere the same, they are always to satisfy the same needs. In the strange rite that we have recounted, a rite which has required much thought and multiplied cares and which one can believe was strange to barbarous and nomadic races, it is not a question of similar needs growing out of similar creations. In order to find a solution it is necessary to

 

(1) Smithsonian Report, 1894, p. 773.

 

(2) Ibid., 1898, pp. 563 to 569

 

seek higher and farther; it is the identity of the genius of man in all times and in all regions that should be inquired of, and it is only there that it can be found. (1)

 

"The mysterious Swastika sign born in undefined regions and rapidly extended over the entire world, goes to support this hypothesis. We will seek the lessons it teaches.

 

"For a long time the Swastika (the croix gammee, a Greek cross, with arms bent to the right at right angles) has been regarded as an Aryan sign, even the Aryan sign par excellence. From this, or from its apparent place of origin, the name Indian (East Indian) has been given it; a name difficult at present to maintain because of the daily discoveries of its diffusion or spread among absolute strangers to the Aryan race. (2)

 

"It appears from the researches made during late years that the origin even of the Swastika sign appears to be contested. Thus we read in the work of Count Goblet d'Alviella, (3) one of those who has best studied the question:

 

"'The croix gammee (Swastika) appears from prehistoric times among the peoples originating in the valley of the Danube, who have respectively colonized the Troad and the north of Italy. It extends with the products of this antique culture, on one side, among the Greeks, Etruscans, Latins, Gauls, Germans, British, and Scandinavians; on the other side, to Asia Minor, Persia, the Indies, and to China and Japan.'

 

"Such is also the opinion of M. Salomon Reinach. (4) According to him the sign of the Swastika already represented in the city of Hissarlik, prior, according to all probabilities, to the thirteenth century

 

(1) J. McGuire, Classification and Development of Primitive Implements. "Amer.

 

Anthrop.," July, 1896.

 

(2) The literature upon the Swastika has increased in late years until it has become a library. In 1889 Count Goblet d'Alviella made a communication to the Royal Academy of Belgium entitled "La croix gammee, or Swastika." It has since been enlarged and published under the title "La migration des Symboles," Paris, 1891. An English translation appeared with an introduction and note by Sir G. Birdwood. Among recent publications were those of Michael Zmigrodzki. "Zur Geschichte der Swatika," Brunswick, 1890, and Thomas Wilson, "The Swastika," Washington, 1896. Eminent savants in all countries have been occupied with the question of its origin and signification, but it appears, nevertheless, that it is not yet entirely cleared, for Dr.

 

Brinton writes: "It is easy to read into barbaric scratches the thoughts of later times, and we must acknowledge that something more than the figure itself is needed to prove its symbolic sense." (3) La migration des Symboles. "Revue des deux Mondes," May 12, 1889.

 

(4) Le mirage oriental. " L'Anthropologie," 1895

 

B.C., did not penetrate the Indies until after that period.(1) He continues that one does not find the symbol in Egypt, (2) nor in Phoenicia, nor Assyria; while, on the other hand, it is frequent in northern Italy, in the valley of the Danube, in Thrace, in Greece, and on the western shores of Asia Minor. Thence comes his conclusions that we should seek in Europe for its origin. (3)

 

"I do not pretend to contradict this, but the first discovery of the Swastika on the hill of Hissarlik determines that this was not its place of origin. When came this mysterious sign which we see at Troy ? To what rite does it belong ? Where did it originate ? These are questions we would like to have answered. In the present state of our knowledge, the question is insoluble. One point excites my interest, that is the long persistence of the Swastika and its rapid diffusion throughout such different regions. I see in this an important argument in favor of the unity of the human species. This argument should be further presented and such facts produced as justify it.

 

"An infant, the child of a savage, might amuse himself by tracing in the sand or on stone, or on the first object that came under his hand, squares and circles and crosses, and lines, making all imaginable angles; with progress the child can reproduce the images of his mind, the scenes that strike him most, even to bizarre figures which are due only to his imagination. He will not produce a sign as complicated as the Swastika unless he has it or has had it before his eye, or unless it shall have been transmitted to him by his ancestors. It is puerile to explain its presence in so many and such widely separated regions by the theory of the identity of the psychologic state among human races which have the same rudimentary culture

 

(1) M. Reinach afterward recognized that the Swastika mentioned by Goblet d'Alviella on certain ingots of silver in the form of dominoes, serving as money, and also those with inscriptions in honor of Acoka, belonged to the third century B.C. ‑ "L'Anthropologie," 894, p. 248.

 

(2) Flinders Petrie has found at Naukratis certain vases ornamented with the Swastika (Third Memoir Egyptian Exploration Fund), but this pottery appears to have been imported from Caria or from Cyprus. Stuffs ornamented with the same sign have also been discovered at Panopolis, Upper Egypt, but these have been attributed to Greek workmen who were numerous at Coptos, a neighboring village where Clermont Ganneau has recently discovered a Greek inscription. ‑ "Acad. des Inscriptions," March 5, 1897 (Forrer, "Die Graber und Textilfunde von Achmin Panopolis ").

 

(3) "As for India, everything induces the belief that the Swastika was there introduced from Greece, from the Caucasus, or from Asia Minor, by routes as yet unknown." ‑ Goblet d'Alviella. " La migration des symboles," p. 107

 

"The mysterious Swastika (1) figured on the idols and spindle whorls (2) of the ancient Dardania, on the diadem of the daughters of Priam, and on the numberless objects from the early cities on the hill of Hissarlik, (3) in the sacred temples of India as on the bas relief of Ibriz, attributed to the Hittites, (4) on Celtic funeral urns, and on the hut urns of Albano or Corneto, a curious imitation of the habitations of the living wherein they have piously deposited the ashes of the dead. (5)

 

"We see the Swastika on the balustrades of the porticos of the temple of Athena at Pergamos, on the sculptured ceiling of the Treasury at Orchomenos, on the vases of Milo and Athena, those of Bologna, the ancient Felsina of the Etruscans, (6) of Caere (Cervetri), (7) Cumes, (8) Cyprus, (9) and on the pottery gathered at Konigswalde on the Oder; on a golden fibula of the Museum of the Vatican, and a copper fibula of the Royal Museum of Copenhagen.

 

"It is encountered in the most ancient paintings of the catacombs of Rome, on the tunic of the Bon Pasteur, (10) and on the archbishop's chair of St. Ambrose at Milan, where it is associated with

 

(1) Sometimes the arms of the Swastika turn to the left, to which Professor Max Muller says has been given the name Suavastika. (Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi reports that while studying an ancient Sanscrit philosophy, in the British Museum library, he found the word Suavastika in connection with Swastika ‑ T. W.) (2) The number of these objects casts a doubt upon their use as spindle whorls only.

 

They have been religious objects, a sort of ex‑voto, for example.

 

(3) Schliemann, "Ilios," Figs. 1873, 1911, and others.

 

(4) S. Reinach, Le mirage oriental. "Anthropologie," 1893.

 

(5) Dennis, "Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria," vol. i., p. 69; vol. ii., p. 457. Dennis regards these urns as anterior to the Etruscan civilization. See also " Annali Dell' Inst.

 

Romano," 1871, pp. 239, 279. Professor H. W. Haynes, of Boston, is of opinion that these belong to the " Iron Age " (Nation, January 24, 1889). Professor Heilbig, " Guide to the Collection of Classic Antiquities in Rome," vol. ii., p. 267; Pigorini, "Bulletino Ethnologia Italiana," vol. xii., p. 262; Chantre, "Necropoles Halstattiennes de Italie et de l'Autriche, Materiaux," vol. xviii., pp. 3, 4.

 

(6) Gozzadini, " Scavi Archaeologici," Plate IV.

 

(7) In a tomb at Caere there has been found a golden fibula with engraved Swastika Greffi, "Monumenti di Caere," Plate VI., No. 1.

 

(8) At Cumes has been found the sign (Swastika) on pottery, buried at great depth, which mark the establishment of sepulchres at the most ancient periods, beneath the tombs of the Hellenic epoch, they in turn being under those of the Roman epoch. Alex Bertrand ("Arch. celtique et gauloise," p. 45).

 

(9) "Cesnola, Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs and Temples," Plates XLIV. and XLVII.

 

(10) Roller, "Les Catacombes de Rome," Plates Vl., X.. XXXII., XXXIX., LIV., LXXXVII., XCIV

 

the Latin cross and the monogram of Christ; on the ancient sacred books of Persia, as well as on the coins of Arsacides and the Sassanides; on the most ancient Christian monuments of Scotland and Ireland, often accompanied with Ogam inscriptions; (1) on the Scandinavian runic books; in the Halstattien sepulchres of San Margarether or de Rovische, (2) and in the necropolis of Koban.(3)

 

"Schliemann found it at Tiryns and at Mycenae; (4) Cartailhac in the citanias, those strange fortified towns of Portugal, some of which date from Neolithic times; (5) Chantre in the tombs in Caucasus, (6) and the Russian archaeologists on the bronze objects from their country in the Museum of Moscow.

 

"The Swastika has been found in France, in the Tumuli (mounds) of Haguenau, engraved on the cinctures of bronze. (7) It is perpetuated on objects posterior or strange to the Roman domination. For example, on those taken in the Frankish tombs opened at Colombe (Loire‑et‑Cher), on a funeral stele at the Museum of Toulouse, on a vase at the Museum of Rouen, (8) on the tinctures, Gallo‑Roman or Merovingian, near La Fere. (9) The Swastika also is found on a Celto‑Roman altar erected at Ambloganna, in England by a Dacian legion in honor of Zeus or Jupiter. (10) on the right and left are two circles, rayed after the fashion of stars, which Gaidoz believes to be a representation of the sun. (11) The Laplanders still engrave the Swastika on their drums intended to be used in Magic rites.

 

"The Chinese decorate with it their standards, instruments of music, and their cannon.

 

(12)

 

"The Japanese employ it as a mark on their pottery, and the

 

(1) Dr. Graves, Bishop of Limerick, "Proceedings Roy. Irish Acad." Ludvig Muller reports the same.

 

(2) "Materiaux," 1884, pp. 137, 139, 466, and Fig. 84.

 

(3) Ibid., 1888, p. 352.

 

(4) "Mycene," p. 193.

 

(5) "L'Espagne et le Portugal prehistoriques," Figs. 410‑412. Recently M. da Veiga has recognized the Swastika in the compartments of a mosaic found in Algarve. " L'Anthropologie," 1891, p. 222.

 

(6) M. Chantre assimilates these burials to those of Villanoba, Halstatt, and Bismen tovia in upper Italy. " Materiaux," 1881, pp. 164, 165.

 

(7) De Mortillet, " Album prehistorique," pp. 98, 99, 100.

 

(8) Ibid., Figs. 1247, 1257.

 

(9) Moreau, "Album de Caranada." (10) Goblet d'Alviella, " La migration des symboles," p. 65.

 

(11) "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et la migration des symboles." (12) The Letter of Gordon to Schliemann. " Ilios," p. 352.

 

Hindus paint it in red on their houses at the beginning of the New Year, and make it with flour or sacred rice upon a table or stand when entering a house or church as a sign of good luck or good wishes, or the occasion of a Wedding or fete. (1)

 

"The diffusion of a sign so complicated as the Swastika throughout all time and in all countries is something to be remarked, and of which we should recognize the importance. Our astonishment is doubled when we find the same symbol among the Ashantes on the Western coast of Africa, (2) and see it figured in America among the most ancient civilization of which we have any knowledge. By what migration has it crossed the Atlantic, by what migrations has it penetrated such distant countries and appeared among races of men so different ? And if, as we believe, all these representations are due to an indigenous art, either Indian or African, where did they obtain their model ? Our ignorance on these points is complete, and the most we can do is to give a resume of the principal known facts.

 

"The Swastika has been found engraved on a shell from a mound in Tennessee which contained thirty‑two human burials, (3) on plates (five) of copper from the mounds of Chillicothe, Ohio, (4) a stone hatchet from Pemberton, N. J., on an Arkansas vase in the National Museum, on a silver ornament, the authenticity of which appears incontestable, and which was shown in 1887 at the reunion at the Association Fransaise at Toulouse. (5)

 

"Nordenskiold cites numerous examples of the Swastika, now engraved in straight lines, other times indicated by dots, among the

 

(1) It has been contended by some persons that the triskelion was an evolution from or to the Swastika ‑ the triskelion of three human legs bent at the knee and joined at the thigh. It is found on the Lycian coins about 480 B.C., and thence was carried by Agathocles to Sicily. (Barclay Head, "Coins of the Ancients," Plate XXXV.) It is also found on a vase from Agrigentum. (Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," Plate XLII.) Newton explains how the symbol (triskelion) is found on the arms of Sicily, and also those of the Isle of Man. ("Athenaeum," September, 1892.) The Duke of Athol, proprietary of the Isle of Man, sold in 1765 his right to the Crown of England, but because he had been its sovereign he kept the triskelion in his coat of arms.

 

(2) "It is not possible to admit," says Count Goblet d'Alviella ("Migration des symboles," p. 108), "that this has been spontaneously conceived and executed. Of all a priori hypotheses, this is certainly the most difficult to accept." (3) "Third Annual Report," Bureau of Ethnology, Fig. 140.

 

(4) "Twelfth Annual Report," Bureau of Ethnology. Other similar discoveries have been made in Ohio.

 

(5) "Comptes rendus," i., p. 284

 

cave dwellers of Mesa Verde, and the same is done by Max Mullet in Yucatan and Paraguay, while other savants have found it among the Huacas of Peru and among savage tribes of Brazil, where the triangular pieces of pottery, sometimes bearing the mysterious Swastika sign, often form the only dress of the women. (1)

 

"We find it in the paintings of the Navajos (2) and on the ornaments of the Pueblo Indians, while the Sac Indians of the Southwest wear it on their collars and garters on occasion of their religious fetes, although it is not possible that they should know the sense which is attached to it, (3) and the Wolpis paint it on their dance rattles. (4)

 

"I have omitted to treat of numerous figurines ornamented with the Swastika in the hope to find an explanation of this mysterious symbol. We find it engraved on a figure of Buddha in the United States National Museum, (5) on the base of a bronze Buddha from Japan, and on a vase in the Kunsthistorische Museum of Vienna where it figures on the breast of Apollo. (6) Astarte bears it on her arms and shoulders, (7) Adonis on his arms, a follower of Aphrodite, on her robe, (8) a centaur from Cyprus on his right shoulder. (9) In a rude representation of Apollo directing the car of the sun it is found on the wheels of the chariot. (10) A female statue in lead found at Troy wears a triangular covering over the ulva, the center of which bears a Swastikas Numerous cinctures or girdles worn by women bore this same Swastika sign. Does this not indicate that it may have been regarded as an emblem of the generative forces of nature ?

 

"But we will not venture further in our researches for the signification of a sign so obscure as is the Swastika. Probably (and the figurines just mentioned give this hypothesis a semblance of

 

(1) Wilson, Swastika, "Report U. S. Nat. Mus.," 1894, Plate XVIII.

 

(2) Ibid., Plate XVII.

 

(3) Ibid., Plates XV. and XVI. (Nevertheless these Indians recognize it as a sign of good luck and give it a corresponding name. ‑ T. W.) (4) "Rev. d'Ethnographie," 1885, No. 1.

 

(5) Wilson, 1. c., Plate 1.

 

(6) Goblet d'Alviella, 1. c., Plate 1.

 

(7) "Bul. Soc. d'Anth.," 1888, p. 676.

 

(8) This statuette was found in 1887 in a Greek tomb. "Bul. Soc. d'Anth.," 1888, p. 677 (9) Cesnola, "Salaminia," p. 243.

 

(10) Ibid.

 

(11) Schliemann, "Ilios," Fig. 226.

 

truth) it was a religious emblem, an amulet consecrated by the varied superstitions of man, as is the hand with the fingers raised a survival of an ancient Chaldean symbol which is worn to‑day by the Italians, as is the little pig by the Parisians. (1) Was it dedicated to the living sun; to Zeus or Baal; to Astarte or to Aphrodite; to Agni, the god of fire; or to Indra, the god of rain; or, still further, to Vishnu or to Siva, the Hindu representatives of creation and destruction ? All these hypotheses are possible; more than this, all of them are probable, for the signification of Swastika has singularly varied according to the time and to tradition. (2) Those persons who in the actual state of our knowledge pretend to formulate general conclusions are sadly in error.

 

"I approach the end of my task. By the side of the similarity of the anatomic structure of man in all times and of all races, I have sought to place the similarity of his genius, as proved by the identity of his conceptions. The ossuaries which contain the remains of his predecessors, the custom of coloring his bones red after they had been denuded of their flesh, the mysterious sign to which we have given the name Swastika, and other conceptions, other almost universal creations, which it would be easy to add, all tend toward the confirmation of the knowledge given to us by the earliest arms, the first tools and implements of flint, and the most ancient pottery. We believe it impossible to misapprehend or mistake the multiplied proofs that flow from modern researches, all of which affirm with an irrefutable eloquence the unity of the human species."

 

Among the very ancient symbols of the Orient we find the Pentalpha, or five‑pointed star. In one of the illustrations in the Iconographic Encycpoedia of the late Professor Baird, President of the Smithsonian Institution, who succeeded Professor Henry, we observe that the Pentalpha occupies the most conspicuous place. That picture represents the universe, viz., the great celestial serpent forms a circle having the tail in its mouth, at the top; diametrically opposite, at the bottom the serpent twists the body in a large coil; upon this coil is a huge tortoise; on the back of the tortoise stand

 

(1) W. W. Rockhill ("Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet," 1891‑92) cites the Tibetan who had a Swastika tattooed on his hand.

 

(2) Sewell ("Indian Antiquary," July, 1881) presents innumerable hypotheses to which the Swastika has given rise. To cite but one: Mr. Cunningham, a distinguished savant, believes the Swastika to have been a monogram.

 

four elephants occupying the four cardinal points; on these elephants rests the earth, which is flat on the bottom and hemispherical on the top; above the earth are represented concentrically the seven heavenly spheres; immediately above the uppermost sphere, and suspended from the junction of the tail and mouth of the serpent, is the Pentalpha.

 

The Pentalpha has been so called, because the five (pence) points each represented the Greek letter Alpha (A). It was called Hygeia or symbol of health by Pythagoras.

 

We refer our readers to Book IV., Chapter IV., pages 1755 to 1783 ‑ and especially on pages 1781 to 1783 ‑ wherein we have shown the connection between some of the symbols now employed in our modern Masonic system, with those of the remotest antiquity, and have made frequent references to Dr. Mackey and to his predecessor, Dr. Oliver, from whose works on symbolism we have freely quoted such passages as would demonstrate our subject.

 

The writer of this treatise on Symbolism has endeavored to place before the reader the intimate relation between all the forms of language, as displayed by man, from the earliest ages, in the crudest efforts to convey his ideas to others, down to the perfected forms of animal life, as displayed in the unnatural compositions in the cherubim, which was shown first to Moses, and subsequently to the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah, as described in the text.

 

We can give no further explanations than those taken from ancient writers, as, down to the present day, they are as mysterious as they have always been in every age of the world, like the image of the veiled Isis in her temple on the island Philae in Egypt, with the following inscription: " I am that which was, which is, and which is to come, and no mortal hath lifted my veil."

 

P. 1802

 

 

 

PART FIVE

 

ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE

 

ROYAL ORDER OF SCOTLAND

 

 

 

ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE

 

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE SCOTTISH RITE

 

IN Chapter LI of this work will be found a "History of Christian Knighthood," and in the following chapter, LII, "Knight Templarism in America." In pages 1332 to 1336, Chapter LI, is given the history of the suppression of the "Templar Order," the death of the last Grand Master, Jacques De Molay, and the dispersion of the "Order."

 

There is no need to repeat in this place the account of the destruction of the greatest of the three great military orders, the "Poor Fellow‑soldiers of Christ and Solomon's Temple" as they officially described themselves. On March 11, 1314, the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burned to death in Paris, declaring with his last breath that the confessions wrung from him and other knights by torture were untrue, and that the order was innocent. The Papal Bull, issued by Clement V. the year before, had suppressed the order and transferred its estates to the Knights Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, for centuries the bitter foes of the Templars. The Templars who escaped the cruelty of the French King, Philip the Fair, fled to other countries.

 

From this period until the invention of printing there was a slow but gradual increase in learning, which was mostly confined to the priesthood; very few, even of the nobility, could read or write; hence they employed as chaplains the learned class of the clergy, who conducted all of their business affairs, and became domesticated in their families.

 

After the invention of movable type and the increase of books, "learning" became more popular, and by the political changes in the kingdoms of Europe there were important improvements in science and the arts brought about, so that from the close of the 14th century to the death of Charles II. of England, very important events had taken place and an entire revolution of society had occurred, growing out of the "Reformation" in religion. The great fire in London ‑ although a local affair ‑ had its effects upon other parts of Europe. The reconstruction of the city of London ‑ and particularly of the religious edifices ‑ produced a revolution in architecture under the supervision of Sir Christopher Wren, who was appointed by Charles II. as superintendent of all the public buildings after the great fire. Under the sanction of the King, Wren visited the continent and became familiar with the classic orders of architecture, of which there were few examples in England. There is no doubt that the great cathedral of St. Paul's in London, in its order of architecture, was a copy of St. Peter's in Rome.

 

Sir Christopher Wren has often been called by Masonic writers a Grand Master of Masons, but there is no evidence whatever that he was even an Apprentice Mason when he became the government architect or " Superintendent."

 

Lessing, the German critic, goes so far as to describe Wren as the inventor of Speculative Masonry, but later investigators affirm that while Inigo Jones, the great architect of so many noble buildings in England, is claimed to have held a place in the Masonic order, yet Sir Christopher Wren is only mentioned in a professional capacity.

 

As the first code of Masonic laws and the first items of Masonic history were published by authority, it may justly be inferred that the triumvirate of compilers had no knowledge of his having ever been a member of the Society. The English Freemasons of the period of the so‑called revival of 1717 seemed to have found no reason to believe in Wren's connection with the Society. Wren was one of the most eminent men of the time, "a prodigy of universal science," President of the Royal Society, the builder of the new cathedral of St. Paul's, London, and numerous colleges and other buildings, and, more than all, the rebuilder of London after the Great Fire, and it would be strange that the initiation or affiliation of such a distinguished man as the King's Architect should have been forgotten by the lodges of Masons subsisting when the revival of 1717 took place.

 

The invention of new degrees was continuous, in the countries of Europej during the middle portion of the 18th century, but most of them were worked to a limited extent only and soon passed into oblivion. The three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason were the source from whence this prolific development of degrees sprang, and these three degrees were selected, with twenty‑two others, to compose a Rite which was destined to retain its vitality, and to spread its influence, throughout the world. This Rite was known as the "Ancient and Accepted Rite."

 

There have been various accounts of the manner in which these degrees were selected and arranged in the so‑called "Rite of Perfection." The most reasonable statement is as follows:

 

The Chevalier de Bonneville established a chapter of twenty‑five degrees of the so‑ called High Degrees in the College of Jesuits of Clermont, in Paris, in 1754. The adherents and followers of the House of the Stuarts had made the College of Clermont their asylum, they being mostly Scotchmen. One of these degrees being the "Scottish Master," the new Body organized in Charleston, S.C., in 1801, gave the name of "Scottish Rite" to these degrees, which name ever since that time has characterized the Rite all over the world, of which more anon. The name previously given to these degrees was the "Rite of Perfection," or the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

 

The Marquis de Lernais carried these degrees to Berlin in 1758 and they were introduced into and adopted by the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes. The Rite was revived in Paris that year under the authority of the "Council of Emperors of the East and West." In consequence of the interference of the Jesuits, who, finding that their former efforts had not succeeded in finally suppressing the Rite, again forced themselves into the Rite and "sowed seeds of dissension," the result was that a new organization was formed called the "Council of the Knights of the East;" and as a consequence a rivalry sprung up between these two bodies and the Grand Orient of France. In 1781, however, both of these bodies became incorporated with that Grand Body which held the Rite of Perfection within itself.

 

In 1762 it is asserted that Frederick the Great, who had taken under his patronage all of Masonry in Germany, formed and promulgated what have been known ever since then as the Grand Constitutions of 1762.

 

The "Rite of Perfection," which for a quarter of a century, with many struggles, had not fully accomplished the work proposed for it by its authors, was improved, it is said, by Frederick himself, by a reorganization and reconstruction which placed it on a higher standard in its philosophy and in its teachings; that eight other degrees were added to it, and the name was changed to "The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry," and that the Grand Constitutions of 1786 were ratified and signed by Frederick in Berlin, in May of that year.

 

By these Constitutions of 1786, Frederick the Great resigned the authority he had held from 1762 as Grand Commander of the Order of Princes of the Royal Secret, and Supreme Chief of the Scottish Rite or of Perfection. His Masonic prerogatives were by the same document deposited with a council for each nation, to be composed of Sovereign Grand Inspectors‑General of the Thirty‑Third and last degree of legitimate Freemasonry, limited in numbers to that of the years of Christ on earth.

 

The Grand Constitutions formed in 1762 were ratified in Bordeaux, October 25th of that year, and were proclaimed as the governing laws for all the several Bodies of the "Rite of Perfection" over the two Hemispheres.

 

Prior to this, in 1761, Stephen Morin was invested with power by the Grand Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret in Paris, on the 27th of August, 1761, to carry the "Rite of Perfection" to America. He received a Patent, as his credential, of which the following is a copy:

 

Morin's Patent.

 

To the glory of the G. A. O. T. U., etc., and by the good will of H. S. H. the very illustrious Brother Louis de Bourbon, Count de Clermont, Prince of the Blood Royal, Grand Master and Protector of all Lodges.

 

At the Orient of a most enlightened place where reign Peace, Silence, and Concord, Anno Lucis 5761, and according to the common style, 27th August, 1761.

 

Lux ex tenebris. Unitas, concordia fratrum.

 

We the undersigned, Substitutes General of the Royal Art, Grand Wardens and Officers of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem, established at the Orient of Paris; and we, Sovereign Grand Masters of the Grand Council of the Lodges of France, under the sacred and mysterious numbers, declare, certify, and decree to all the very dear Bros., Knights, and Princes scattered throughout the two hemispheres, that being assembled by order of the Substitute General, President of the Grand Council, a request was communicated to us by the worshipful Bro. Lacorne, Substitute of our very illustrious G. M., Knight and Prince Mason, and was read in due form.

 

Whereas our dear Bro. Stephen Morin, Grand Perfect Elect (G. elu parfait) and Past Sublime Master, Prince Mason, Knight and Sublime Prince of all orders of the Masonry of Perfection, member of the Royal Lodge of the "Trinity," etc., being about to depart for America, desires to be able to work with regularity for the advantage and aggrandisement of the Royal Art in all its perfection, may it please the Sovereign Grand Council and Grand Lodge to grant him letters of constitution. On the report which has been made to us, and knowing the eminent qualifications of Bro. S. Morin, we have, without hesitation, accorded him this slight gratification in return for the services which he has always rendered this Order, and the continuation of which is guaranteed to us by his zeal.

 

For this cause and for other good reasons, whilst approving and confirming the very dear Brother Morin in his designs, and wishing to confer on him some mark of our gratitude, we have, by consent, constituted and invested him, and do by these presents constitute and invest him, and give full and entire power to the said Bro. Stephen Morin, whose signature is in the margin of these presents, to form and establish a Lodge in order to admit to and multiply the Royal Order of Masons in all the perfect and sublime degrees; to take measures that the statutes and regulations of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge, general or special, be kept and observed, and to never admit therein any but true and legitimate brothers of sublime Masonry.

 

To rule and govern all the members who shall compose his said Lodge, which he may establish in the four quarters of the world wherever he may arrive or shall sojourn, under the title of Lodge of St. John, and surnamed In Perfect Harmony; "we give him power to choose such officers as he may please to aid him in ruling his Lodge, whom we command and enjoin to obey and respect him; do ordain and command all Masters of regular Lodges of whatsoever dignity, scattered over the surface of land and sea, do pray and enjoin them in the name of the Royal Order, and in the presence of our very illustrious G. M., to acknowledge in like manner as we recognise our very dear Bro.

 

Stephen Morin as Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Perfect Harmony, and we depute him in his quality of our Grand Inspector in all parts of the New World to reform the observance of our laws in general, etc., and by these presents do constitute our very dear Bro. Stephen Morin our G. M. Inspector, authorising and empowering him to establish perfect and sublime Masonry in all parts of the world, etc., etc.

 

We pray, consequently, all brothers in general to render to the said Stephen Morin such assistance and succour as may be in their power, requiring them to do the same to all the brothers who shall be members of his Lodge, and whom he has admitted and constituted, shall admit or constitute in future to the sublime degree of perfection which we grant him, with full and entire power to create Inspectors in all places where the sublime degrees shall not already be established, knowing well his great acquirement and capacity.

 

In witness whereof we have given him these presents, signed by the Substitute‑ General of the Order, Grand Commander of the Black and White Eagle, Sovereign Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, and Chief of the Eminent Degree of the Royal Art, and by us, Grand Inspectors, Sublime Officers of the Grand Council and of the Grand Lodge established in this capital, and have sealed them with the Grand Seal of our illustrious G. M. His Serene Highness, and with that of our Grand Lodge and Sovereign Grand Council. Given at the G. O. of Paris, in the year of light, 5761, or according to the Vulgar Era, 27th August, 1761. (Signed) Chaillon de Jonville, Substitute‑General, W. M. of the first lodge in France called "St. Thomas," Chief of the Eminent Degrees, Commander and Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret. Bro. the Prince de Rohan, Master of the Grand Lodge "Intelligence," Sovereign Prince of Masonry. Lacorne, Substitute of the Grand Master, W. Dep. M. of Lodge "Trinity," Grand Perfect Elect, Knight and Prince Mason. Savalette de Bucheley, Grand Keeper of the Seals, Grand Elect, Grand Knight and Prince Mason. Taupin, etc., Prince Mason, Brest‑dela‑Chaussee, etc., W.

 

M. of the Lodge "Exactitude," Grand Elect Perfect Master, Knight Prince Mason. Count de Choiseul, etc., Prince Mason Boucher de Lenoncourt, etc., W. M. of the Lodge "Virtue," Prince Mason.

 

By order of the Grand Lodge. Daubertin, Grand Elect Perfect Master and Knight Prince Mason, W. M. of the Lodge "Saint Alphonse," Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge and of the Sublime Council of Prince Masons in France, etc.

 

 

APPRENTICE’S PILLAR

Roslyn Chapel, Edinburgh
 

 

The first soil which Morin touched on his mission to America was San Domingo, and afterward, on his arrival at Kingston, Jamaica, he appointed Henry Francken a Deputy Inspector‑General Later on other appointments were made by him to this office, and these Deputies he supplied with copies of the Grand Constitutions, which had been adopted in 1762. Soon after his appointment Francken visited the North American Colonies, where he gave an appointment of Deputy Inspector‑General to Moses M.

 

Hayes, at Boston, Mass.

 

Francken established under his commission from Morin a lodge at Albany, N. Y. This was a Lodge of Perfection of the 14th Degree. On December 20, 1767, he conferred the degree of Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, the 25th Degree of the Rite, on several Brethren of the order. This lodge seems not to have prospered, and was nearly forgotten when in 1822 Giles Fonda Gates, one of the most active Brethren of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, discovered the original Warrant, together with some patents of the Brethren of the body, and its books of record.

 

This was, no doubt, the very first body of the "Rite of Perfection" ever planted on the Continent of North America, and there were, doubtless, several such bodies in the Islands of the West Indies.

 

Those Masons who have progressed beyond the Blue Lodge degrees, and are familiar with the Capitular and Cryptic Rites, as also the degrees of the Commandery and those of the A.'. A.'. A.'. S.'. R.'. can readily perceive how Thomas Smith Webb was able to manufacture the degrees attributed to him, after his residence in Albany, and his connection with the Masons of that city

 

(1) The date is not known, but it must have been between 1762 and 1767

 

Brother Da Costa was made Deputy Inspector‑General for South Carolina by Hayes in 1781; he also appointed Solomon Bush Deputy for Pennsylvania, and B. M. Spitzer Deputy for Georgia.

 

Da Costa established in Charleston in 1783 a Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection.

 

A Council of Princes of Jerusalem was duly constituted in Charleston, and Meyers, Spitzer, and Frost were present and installed the Officers. The Council of Knights Kadosh was organized in Philadelphia in 1796 by refugees from San Domingo. When France again assumed authority over San Domingo, these Brethren returned home and the council became dormant if not entirely extinct.

 

In New York City a chapter of Rose Croix (18th Degree) was established in 1797, the Grand Constitution of 1786 and the ritual of the eight added degrees having been received in Charleston at that time. The bodies already established in Charleston accepted the new regime and adopted the new degrees, and in 1801 a convention was held and preliminary steps inaugurated to form a Supreme Council of the 33d and Last Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

 

The name of this new body was "The Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors‑ General of the Thirty‑third and Last Degree for the United States of America." It was formed and organized by John Mitchell and Frederic Dalcho, and during the year the full number of members, nine, was admitted.

 

This new body recognized the Constitutions of 1762, the Secret Constitutions, and the much‑discussed Constitutions of 1786.

 

These latter constitutions are believed to have been approved and ratified by Frederick the Great of Prussia, as Supreme Head and Governor of the Rite, and, as already stated, provide for the government of the Rite, after his death, by a council in each nation. Although these constitutions claim to have been recognized as the Supreme Law of the Rite in 1786, they were not published till 1832, when a French version appeared. A Latin text was published two years afterward which, while agreeing with the French book in essentials, differs in many of the details. It may be broadly stated that the Latin version is more precise, more complete, more in legal form, and, hence, some students have arrived at the conclusion that the Latin constitutions, thus written in a language universally understood, were the original, while the French version was really an adaptation for the use of the Brethren in France.

 

But the question whether the French or Latin text is the original is a mere trifle of little importance compared with another vital one, namely: "Were the Constitutions of 1786 ever seen or sanctioned by Frederick the Great? Were they not forged in Charleston ? Those who asserted the falseness of the constitutions made no attempt to demonstrate the commission of forgery at Charleston, but confined themselves to denying that they were ever sanctioned Dy Frederick. The reasons alleged for this opinion were that in 1786 Frederick was mentally and physically incapacitated for business, and, furthermore, that the names subscribed to the Latin version were fictitious. The injurious suspicions as to the veracity of numerous Masonic statements, caused by the injudicious zeal and the uncritical methods of many Masonic writers, led to the general acceptance of the belief that the constitutions as contained in the Latin version were like many of the stories invented by the arch‑impostor, Cagliostro, and others, simply stupid forgeries by men ignorant or careless of historical facts and historical probahilities. This belief, it may be repeated, was held not only by men not affiliated to any Masonic order, but by many Masons of good standing. It was reserved for an American Mason, of the highest degree, Brother Albert Pike, to refute this theory. That eminent Mason, in his Historical Inquiry, showed from documents of the period that in 1786 Frederick the Great, while undoubtedly suffering from physical ailments, was still in the habit of attending to business. Brother Pike likewise showed that the names appended to the Constitution of 1786 were those of men who were connected with the Court of Berlin. The result of his investigations, after an extensive and impartial study of all accessible sources of information, was to the effect that the aforesaid constitutions were drawn up at Berlin and duly ratified by Frederick in the year assigned to them. As such they were recognized by the Southern Supreme Council. This refers to the Latin version of the constitutions. Another student of the history of the Rite considers the French version the original, and this is the version which is recognized by the Northern Supreme Council.

 

Without quoting at length from Bro. Pike's Historical Inquiry, it may be advisable to give some of his conclusions. He shows that when Francken in 1767 introduced the Rite into the American Colonies it was generally understood that the supreme governing power was in Berlin, and that in 1770 the Lodge of Perfection at Albany was directed to transmit reports to Berlin, while, still earlier, a tracing‑board made by one of its members displays the double eagle of Prussia as a symbol of the head of the order.

 

Moreover, in 1785, the Lodge of Perfection at Philadelphia drew up an address to be presented to Frederick as head of the order.

 

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of 33d, the title of which heads this chapter, like all the so‑called Scottish Masonry, has nothing whatever to do with the Grand Lodge of Scotland. No portion of it, except perhaps the Royal Order of Scotland, ever originated in Scotland, nor were any of these so‑called Scottish degrees at any time practiced in Scotland. Gould, in his history, applies the word Scots as distinguished from Scottish to show these additions to Freemasonry made on the Continent. These so‑called Scottish or Scots degrees seem to have originated about the year 1740 in France. The statement that Irish chapters existed in Paris from 1739, holding their constitutions from the Grand Chapter of Dublin, cannot be accepted. There is no evidence to support it, and Masonic authorities reject it, holding that a much later date must be assigned to all these Irish degrees. Nor must we confuse the "Orient de Bouillon" with these so‑called Scots Masons, for that was simply a Grand Lodge established in Luxemburg, years afterward.

 

What these Scots lodges taught nobody knows and nobody need care. Rituals exist in lamentable profusion, but unfortunately they do not agree. They are, however, all permeated with one notion, the absurdity of which will show the absurdity of the system.

 

They state that some Scottish crusaders found in a vault the long‑lost ineffable word, and that in their search they worked "with the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other." This expression is taken from the Hebrew account of the building of the Second Temple of Zerubbabel, and while natural enough as applied to builders; is quite out of place in the case of men rummaging in some subterranean passage. The story of the "long lost, ineffable word" we meet with in the Arabian Nights, where we learn that the knowledge of it made Solomon, the King of Genii, able to perform all kinds of marvels.

 

The Arabian Nighfs is the fit place for the story. It must be remembered, too, that the temple that the Crusaders saw was not Solomon's nor Zerubbabel's, but Herod's, erected a little before the birth of Christ.

 

At any rate, relying on this fable, the Scots Master claimed to be in possession of the true secrets of Freemasonry, the true history and the real designs of the order. He claimed also to be in every way superior to the Master Mason, and to hold various peculiar privileges.

 

In utter contempt for the great principle on which Freemasonry is founded, the perfect equality of all its members with a governing body elective and representative, the Scots Masters claimed to rank before the W.M. of any lodge even when they were only present as visitors. They claimed the right to wear a distinctive dress and to remain covered even in a Master's Lodge. They claimed to impart the secrets of the E.A., F.C., and W. M. degrees, personally and either with or without ceremony as the whim seized them. They would not, if they were members of a lodge, permit anyone but other Scots Masons to sit in judgment upon them. Matters became still worse when the Scots Lodges were "grafted on the ordinary Lodges," and increased in number and in arrogance. In these cases the W.M., instead of being elected by the lodge, was nominated by the Scots Lodge, and as was inevitable, he was almost always one of themselves. All questions of ritual and doctrine were decided by the Scots Lodge, all the finances were managed by the Scots Lodge, in fact all the governing powers were usurped by the Scots Lodge. Nay, the Scots Lodge went so far as to arrogate to itself all the powers of a Grand Lodge, and as such to issue Warrants of Constitution. From the exercise of these powers arose the so‑called Scots Mother Lodges which became so numerous in France, each Mother Lodge claiming and exercising the right of granting constitutions and warrants to other lodges, and of developing systems of degrees peculiar to themselves, and worked in chapters all independent of each other.

 

France, it has been said, was the inventor of all these novelties, and the most important of its Scots Mother Lodges was the one established in Marseilles in 1751 under the title of St. John of Scotland. To give it some ground for calling itself Scots, it professed to he founded by a traveling Scotsman, and proceeded to grant warrants to a large number of lodges in France and elsewhere. From it descended another so‑called Mother Lodge, the Mother Lodge of the county of Venaissin, with its seat at Avignon, which in turn became the mother of the Scottish Philosophic Rite. In all these new systems not only was the true original and beautiful simplicity of the Craft overlaid and disfigured by foolish legends and childish ceremonies, but to quote Br. Gould, "the governing power is autocratic and irresponsible, a hierarchy is formed, the highest class rules all the others, and directs the lower classes without appeal from those below it." France, we have seen, may be considered as the inventor of what a German historian of Masonry calls "the lying fictions" of the so‑called High Degrees, and in the 18th century, as in the present, set the fashion to Europe. The arch impostor Balsamo, who called himself the Count Cagliostro, was in the height of his reputation, preaching the doctrines of his Egyptian Masonry, of which he made himself the Grand Cophta; his dupes were persons of the highest rank, and speedily a flood of imbecile mysticism overwhelmed most of the lodges on the Continent of Europe. From France it spread to Germany, and the name of its introducer into the Empire is given as a Count von Schmettau. In Berlin the members of the lodge entitled the Three Globes erected a Scots Lodge in 1741, Hamburg followed with a Scots Lodge or two in 1744, and the Saxon city of Leipzig in 1747, and the Free City of Frankfort followed suit in 1753. It is stated that between 1742 and 1764 no fewer than forty‑seven such lodges were erected in Germany. These Scots Lodges, however, were soon absorbed by the Clermont system with its low chapter degrees, which system in its turn was absorbed by the Templar system of "Strict Observance." Even now, some of these Scots Lodges, according to Mr. Gould, form the basis of the German Grand Lodge Systems, styled the "Inner Orient."

 

To France and to the Scots Lodges in France must be assigned the manufacture of those new degrees which connected the Scots Masons with the Knights Templars and thus gave life to the whole system of Templarism. It was an age of disbelief and credulity, of sensuality and mysticism, of the hardest common‑sense and the wildest tomfoolery. It was an age of unrest, of decay, and a longing for a new birth, and the teachings of history were scorned, and every fable ‑ the more improbable the better ‑ was eagerly accepted, till men really believed that there was some foundation for the legend that the Military and Religious Order of the Temple, in spite of its having perished in fire and blood, had in some unknown way, preserved a germ of vitality for some four hundred years. In 1741 a degree called the Kadosh degree, representing the Vengeance of the Templars, was invented by the Masons of Lyons, and henceforth all the new rites of French origin contain Knightly and almost all Templar degrees, the connection being in all instances formed by some of the Scots degrees. The German Handbook enumerates over sixty‑eight such degrees in various rites, and it is probable this list could be extended. The name Scottish, too, is assumed by many rites to designate the whole system, for instance the Scottish Philosophic Rite. The above‑ mentioned system of the chapters of Clermont was a Templar continuation of the Scots degrees, and grew into the so‑called Emperors of the East and West, and finally developed into the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite 33d."

 

It was on the Continent of Europe that these innovations on the simple ceremonies and beneficial doctrines of the Craft spread out most luxuriantly. Under the assumption that the Scots lodges could issue warrants of constitutions, whole swarms of irresponsible lodges were formed, in which the principles of the Craft were little considered. From this period may be dated the enmity of the Church and the Kings of Europe to any association that bore the name or claimed any affiliation with the Freemasons. There is no doubt that most of these lodges became political centers of social and political conspirators. In the hierarchy of these rites, each class is self‑elected, and thus admits only those it pleases, while the lower classes have no voice in the management of their affairs or in the election of their rulers.

 

Our limits will not permit any very extended reference to the varied changes in these so‑called is High Degrees "prior to the full establishment of the Ancient and Accepted Rite; but we must mention the most important events, that the reader may appreciate the subsequent and final establishment of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which took its origin, as such, in Charleston, S.C., in 1801, and the formation of the very first "Supreme Council of Grand Inspectors General of the 33d degree, in South Carolina," with Colonel John Mitchell Sov. Grand Commander.

 

From all the authorities which have been examined, in respect to the Chapter of Clermont, the system of Masonry therein practiced gives no definite information. Thory, who wrote sixty years subsequently, states that Chevalier de Bonneville founded a chapter on November 24, 1754. Brother Gould, in his history of this chapter, denies the statement of Thory, that Von Hund took the Templar degrees in that chapter, as he had left France for the last time in 1743, or eleven years previously, and erected his first Templar Chapter in Unwurde in 1751.

 

Thory also says: "The Chapter was based on the three degrees of Freemasonry, and the Scots or St. Andrew degree, and worked three higher, 5d, the Knight of the Eagle or Select Master; 6d, the Illustrious Knight or Templar; 7d, the Sublime Illustrious Knight."

 

The Chevalier de Bonneville, mentioned above, is probably the same person as the Count de Bonneville who founded in 1760 a lodge in the Nouvelle France, near Paris, which is described as being brilliantly conducted and frequented by persons of high rank. The difference in the titles given to Bonneville can be explained by the old French system by which a younger son was styled Chevalier until by the death of older members of the family he attained the higher rank of Count, and such deaths may have occurred between the two dates of 1754 and 1760. Not much information can be found respecting the doings of this lodge created by M. de Bonneville, and it is probable that Kloss's opinion of it referring to the "Emperors of the East and West" is the nearest to the truth. As to the "Emperors of the East and West," an account will be given later.

 

While the history of the Rite, as far as France is concerned, is obscure, its history in Germany is more important.

 

We will now briefly state the Masonic affairs of Germany in connection with this "Chapter of Clermont." In 1742 the members of the "Three Globes" erected the Scots Lodge "Union" to work the fourth or Scots degree. The Baron Von Printzen was, in 1750‑54 and 1757‑61, W.M. of the Mother‑Lodge "Three Globes" of Berlin; i.e., he was ex‑officio Grand Master of all the lodges of is "Three Globes." In 1757 the French Marquis Gabriel Tilly de Lernais came to Berlin as a prisoner of war, and in 1758, with Printzen, founded a chapter of the three Clermont degrees, grafted upon the Mother‑ Lodge of the "Three Globes," and the Scots Lodge "Union." On June 10, 1760, this chapter constituted the chapter "Sun" at Rostock; and on July 19, 1760, took the title of "Premier Grand Chapter of Clermont in Germany." Philip Samuel Rosa was appointed to travel over the north of Germany, to bring the lodges under the control of the "Three Globes" and to institute chapters. A fourth chapter was constituted by Rosa at Stettin, March, 1762; he then, subsequently, instituted eight others, in different cities, until in June, 1763, his career was terminated by being expelled from the Craft; his successor, Schubart, instituted the last and fifteenth German chapter of Clermont, at Magdeburg, November 27, 1763.

 

It has been thought by some writers that the name of Clermont was derived from the College of Jesuits of that name. Brother Gould, however, does not concur therewith, and says: "I am unable to believe that the Jesuits could have consented to glorify the Knights Templars, nor can I see anything new in these degrees, being, as they were, merely amplifications and rearrangements of previous ones. I prefer to consider the title a delicate compliment to the Duke of Clermont. Grand Master of French Masonry from 1743 to 1770. (1)

 

Inasmuch as the "Knights of the East" was a body of "improved" Masonry about that period, it becomes proper to give some account of that organization, and we are again indebted to Brother Gould above all other authors for his very impartial examination into the history of not only this particular body, but also in that connection all of those systems which flooded the Continent about the middle of the 18th century and toward the close of it.

 

The only real attempt to arrive at the facts, in regard to this early system, was made by Dr. Kloss. Other writers had overlooked the separate existence of Masons, who were called "Sovereign Princes of Masonry," "either confusing them with certain special degrees of other systems, or treating them as an offshoot of the Emperors of the East and West." Even the usually diffuse Handbuch is excessively meager in the information which it supplies. Yet if Kloss's extensive and minute researches are to be given their just weight, it is to the rivalry between the Knights and the Emperors that must be attributed the sorrowful picture of discord presented by the Grand Lodge of France, 1760‑80.

 

(1) Gould, vol v., p. 95

 

In 1754 the Grand Lodge of the members of the Chapter of Clermont had been founded, and in the following year the Grand Lodge of France acknowledged the privileges which were claimed to be possessed by the so‑called Scottish Masons. This action may probably have been with a desire to counterbalance the influence of the Chapter of Clermont. This chapter seems to have been decidedly of an aristocratic order, and to have enrolled as its members only the high nobility, members of the Court circle, high officers in the military and other professions reserved to nobles, while all less favored individuals were refused admission to it. It was a period in French history when the lower noblesse, and the noblesse of the robe, as the highest lawyers or judges were entitled, as distinguished from the noblesse of the sword, the designation of the old feudal nobility, with its military traditions, were striving to obtain great influence and higher recognition in the social hierarchy. It was from this class of the lower nobility and less highly placed officials that the association of "Knights of the East, Princes and Sovereigns of Masonry" was formed in 1756. Its separate subdivision took the name of colleges, each of which bore the name of its president. The chief college was that of Valois of Paris. If this college followed the usage of its fellow colleges, Valois must have been a man who as yet remains undiscovered. Under these circumstances, it is more probable that the name is taken from the province of the Valois, adjoining the Isle of France, in which Paris is situated, and which gave its name to the royal family that sat on the throne of France from Francis I. to Henry III. Be this as it may, some names of these Knights of the East survive, and they clearly show that the association was recruited mainly from the lower nobility and the upper middle class.

 

The occurrence of a name like Baron Tschadi is no objection to this view. In the first place, the name shows he was not a Frenchman, and in the second place the title baron was that reserved to the richer members of the mercantile or financial class.

 

The statutes of the Rite are elaborate; one article provides that the position of Sovereign shall be held for the space of one year by each member in turn. Another article, No. 7, decrees that the Knights of the East are the born princes of the complete order, just as the Scottish Masters are the Grand Superiors of the Masonic Order. The next article lays down the doctrine that if a Knight of the East comes in his travels to a place where no lodge of the Rite exists, he may dispense the light of the first six degrees to a Master Mason. The term "first six degrees" implies that the degrees were more than that number, and that therefore there were at least seven degrees beyond that of Master, or ten degrees in all, thus working three degrees higher than the Chapter of Clermont.

 

The dominant position of the College of Valois in the Knights of the East was lost in 1762, as the result of an intestine quarrel. Its place evas taken by a Sovereign Council of the Knights of the East, of which the following officers of the Grand Lodge of France were members: The Grand Keeper of the Seal, Brest de la Chaussee; the President, one of the Wardens; the Grand Orator, the Secretary General and the Grand Secretary. The prime mover of this resolution is said to have been a Parisian tailor named Poilet, but this is improbable, as in 1764 we find a Poilet acting as a leading member of the rival Emperors, and his humble profession would certainly have excluded a tailor from the aristocratic Emperors. There is reason, however, to believe that from this period the aristocratic Emperors of the East and West lost much of their influence in Grand Lodge, while the lower class Knights gained power. The old rivalry still went on and in 1766 the Knights sustained a defeat from the Emperors and many of their members were expelled. The Sovereign Council of the Knights of the East retaliated by a circular in which it requested all lodges to cease working Templar degrees. The Knights evidently did not do so. The Emperors of the East and West, as they were an offshoot and continuation of the Chapter of Clermont, certainly did so.

 

The quarrels of the Emperors and the Knights continued and grew more bitter, till it became necessary in 1767 for the Government to issue an edict dissolving the Grand Lodge. From that the Knights of the East, as a body, sank into insignificance.

 

P. 1819

 

 

                                                             CHAPTER II  

 

THE ORIGINAL SUPREME COUNCIL

 

THE very first Supreme Council of which we have any knowledge whatever, either by tradition or history, was the one organized by John Mitchell, Frederic Dalcho, Emanuel De La Motta, Abraham Alexander, Major T. B. Bowen, and Israel Delieben, at Charleston, S. C., May 31, 1801. This was a transformation of the former in "Rite of Perfection," or Ancient and Accepted Rite.

 

The Brethren who constituted this new Rite were all members of the several Constituent Bodies, which derived their Masonic life, and constituted authority from Morin through his Deputies duly appointed by him to propagate the Rite on the American Continent, or more extensively the Western Hemisphere.

 

The pedigree is as follows: Morin commissioned Francken, and Francken commissioned Moses M. Hayes; Moses M. Hayes commissioned Barend M. Spitzer, and the latter, on April 2, 1795, commissioned John Mitchell as Deputy Inspector‑ General, reciting in his patent of commission that he does so by authority of the Convention of Inspectors held in Philadelphia, June 5, 1781. This new Rite, which came into the world apparently fully developed, was really a transformation of the Rite of Perfection.

 

To show conclusively as to when the Supreme Council of the 33d and last degree was organized, we are permitted to furnish herewith a fac‑simile copy of the "Register" of the several bodies of the A.'. A.'. A.'. S.'. R.'. which met in the city of Charleston, S. C., in 1802. The original is in the Archives of the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction in Washington, D. C

 

ANNUAL REGISTER OF THE BRETHREH WHO COMPOSE THE SUBLIME GRAND LODGE OF PERFECTIONW OF SOUTH‑CAROLINA,

 

ESTABLISHED AT CHARLESTON, ANNO LUCIS 5783 ALSO, THE LIST OF THE OFFICERS OF THE GRAND COUNCIL OF PRINCES OF JERUSALEM: OFFICERS OF THE SOVEREIGN CHAPTER OF ROSE CROIX DE HERODEN; OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE GRAND CONSISTORY,

 

AND GRAND INSPECTORS GENERAL OF THE 33d DEGREE,

 

Hoc maxime officii, ut quisque masume opis indigeat, ita ei potissumum opitulari.

 

TULL

 

REGISTER FOR THE YEAR 5802.

 

CHARLESTON (SOUTH CAROLINA) PRINTED BY T.B. BOWEN, NO 3, BROAD‑STREET

 

BY THE GLORY OF THE GRAND ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE

 

Officers of the SUBLIME GRAND LODGE of PERFECTION of South Carolina

 

Sublime Grand Master

 

FREDERICH DALCHO, native of Maryland, Doctor of Medicine, Member of the Medical Society of South Carolina, Honoury Member of the Chemical and Medical Societies of Philadelphia, and one of the Physicians of the Charleton Dispensary, &c. &c. aged 32 years,

 

R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d degree, and Lieutenant Grand Commander for the United States.

 

(4)

 

Sublime Deputy Grand Master.

 

JOSEPH JAPAN, native of Montargisa en Gatinois, Planter of Saint Domingo, aged 43 years, Master of the Lodge la Candeur, N. 12, Past Sublime Grand Master, R.' *.'. K.H.

 

‑ P. R. S.

 

Sublime Senior Grand Warden.

 

ISAAC AULD, native of Pennsylvania, Doctor of Medicine, Member of the Medical Society of South‑Carolina, Honorary Member of the Medical and Chemical Societies of Philadelphia. and one of the Physicians of the Charlston Dispensary. &c. aged 32 years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d degree.

 

Sublime Junior Grand Warden

 

WILLIAM PORTER, native of Ireland, Commission Merchant, aged 37 years, Prince of Jerusalem.

 

(5)

 

Grand Orator and Keeper of Seals.

 

JAMES MOULTRIE, native of South Carolina. Doctor of Medicine Port Physician, Vice‑ President of the Medical Society of South‑Carolina, and one of the Physicians of the Charleston Dispensary, &c. aged 38 years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d degree.

 

Sublime Grand Treasurer.

 

JAMES ALLISON native of North Britain, Cooper, aged 46 years, R.' *.'.

 

Sublime Grand Secretary.

 

JOHN PETER PROYS, native of Hanovser. Accountant, aged 33 years, Prince of Jerusalem.

 

Grand Master of Ceremonies.

 

ALEXANDER PLACIDE, native of Bourdeaux, Manager of the Charleston Theatre, agent 45 years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S.

 

(6)

 

Captain of the Guards

 

PlERRE RIGAUD, native of Nantz, Planter of Saint‑Domingo, aged 31 years, R.' *.'.

 

K.H. ‑ P. R. S.

 

Grand Tyler.

 

DAVID LABAT, native of Hamburgh, Storekeeper, aged 42 years, Perfection.

 

Members

 

JOHN MITCHELL, native of Ireland, Justice of the Quorum and Notary Public, late a Lieutenant‑Colonel in the American Army, Member of the Cincinnati; and Past Sublime Grand, Master, aged 60 years. R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d Degree and Grand Commander for the United States.

 

THOMAS BARTHOLOMEW BOWEN, native of Ireland, Printer, late a Major in the American Army and Member of the Cincinnati; Past Sublime Grand‑Master, aged 60

 

(7)

 

years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d Degree and Ill.

 

Grand Master of Cereomies.

 

ARAHAM SASPORTAR, native of Bourdeaux, Merchant, ageds 56years, R.' *.'. Knight of the Sun.

 

PIERRE BOUYSSOU, native of Cape Francois, Plantet, late Captain of Gendarmerie, and Orator of the Lodge la Candeur, aged 48 years. R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S

 

ISRAEL DELIEBEN, native of Bohema, Commission Merchant, aged 61 years, R.' *.'.

 

K.H. ‑ P. R. S. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d degree.

 

MICHEL FRONTY, native of Saint‑ Martial, en Limodn, Doctor of Medicine, aged 50 years.

 

R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S.

 

EMANUEL DE LA MOTTA, Native of Santa Croix, Commission Merchant and Auctioner, aged 42 years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the B.

 

Empire

 

(8)

 

ROBERT L'ALLEMAND, native of Post Republican, Planter of St Domingo, aged 53 years R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S.

 

JOSEPH BEE, native of South Carolina, Planter, aged 56 years R.' *.'. ‑ Grand Pontiff.

 

ETIENNE DUBARRY, native of Jarbes, en Bigore, Planter of St Domingo, aged 49 years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S..

 

PETER SMITH, native of South‑Carolina, Factor, aged 53 years, Prince of Jerusalem.

 

JOSEPH CLARET, native of Narbonne, Master of Lodge No. 45, aged 36 years, R.' *.'.

 

SOLOMON HARBY, native of London, Commission merchant and Auctioneer, aged 40 years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S..

 

JEAN ANDRE PELLETANT, native of Planter of St. Domingo aged years, R.' *.'.

 

THOMAS BAKER, native of England Insurance

 

(9)

 

Broker, aged 27 years, Secret Master.

 

JEAN REIGNE, native of Castillon, near Bourdeaux, aged 30 years . R.' *.'.

 

JOSEPH DICKINSON, native of South Carolina, Inspector of Exports, late a Captain of Infantry, aged 33 years, Intimate Secretary.

 

JEAN JACQUES THOMAS, native of London,. Merchant, aged 42 years, R.' *.'.

 

JACOB DELEON, native of Jamaica, Commission Merchant and Auctioneer, aged 38 years, Intendant of the Building.

 

JEAN DESBEAUX, native of Buzet, Cooper, aged 37 years, R.' *.'.

 

FRANCIS LOUVRIER SAINT MARY, native of Nevers, aged 39 years, Intimate Secretary.

 

PIERRE JOSEPH MORE, native of Fonttaine, en Franche Comte, Surgeon, aged 50 years, Knight of the East and West

 

(10)

 

JEREMIAH WILCOX, native of Rhodes Island, Painter; aged 33 years, Provost and Judge.

 

GEORGE ESTILLET, native of New Orleans, aged 28 years, Intimate Secretary.

 

ISAAC CANTER, naiive of Santa Croix, Auctioneer, aged 33 years, Knight of the East.

 

JOHN HINCKLEY MITCHEL, native of South Carolina, Justice of the Peace, and Notary Public, aged 33 years, Secret Master.

 

WILLIAM ALEXANDER, native of South‑Carolina, Factor, aged 26 years, Secret Master.

 

LEWIS T. RAYNAL, native of South Carolina, Accountant, aged 24 years, Elected of Nine.

 

JOHN BANKS, native of England, Accountant, aged 30 years, Intimate Secretary.

 

MORRIS GOLDSMITH, native of

 

(11)

 

London. Merchant, aged 21 years, Secret Master.

 

JOHN BILLEAUD, native of Saint Sezaire, en Xaintonge, aged 30 years, Elected of Fifteen.

 

THOMAS NAPIER, native of North‑Britain, Merchant aged 30 years, Knight of the East.

 

EMANUEL CANTOR, native of Santa Croix, Merchant, aged 30 years, Intimate Secretary.

 

Honorary Members

 

His Royal Highness CHARLES, Hereditary Prince of the Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Duke of Sudermania, Heir of Norway, Duke of Sleswick, Holitein, Stormarric and Dittmarche, Count of Oldenburg and Delmeahorst. Grand Admiral of Sweden, Vicar of Solomon of the 7th and 9th Province, and National Grand Master of the Kingdom of Sweden,

 

R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S.

 

(12)

 

Count ALEXANDER FRANCOIS AUGUSTE DE GRASSE, native of Verfailles, Planter of Saint Domingo, aged 36 years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S.. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d degree, Grand Commander for the French West Indies, and Representative of the Sublime Grand Lodge of South‑Carolina in and to the Sublime Lodge in Saint Domingo.

 

JEAN BAPTISTE MARIE DELAHQGUE, native of Paris, Planer of Saint Domingo, aged 58 years, R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S..Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d degree, and Lieutenant Grand Commander for the French West Indies.

 

JOHN SUCKLEY, native of London, Merchant of Saint Domingo, aged 24 years, R.' *.'.

 

K.H. ‑ P. R. S.

 

NICOLAS SAMSON PANEL, native of Normandy, Merchant of Porto Rico, aged 28 years, R.' *.'.

 

JONATHAN BAYARD SMITH, native

 

(13)

 

of Pennsylvania, aged 50 years, late Grand Master of the State of Pennsylvania, R.' *.'.

 

K.H. ‑ P. R. S.

 

SAMUEL MYERS, native of New York, Merchant of Virginia, aged 43 years, R.' *.'. K.H.

 

‑ P. R. S..

 

MOSES MICHAEL HAYES, native of Merchant, of Boston R.' *.'. K.H. ‑ P. R. S.

 

ADDRESS:

 

TO DOCTOR FREDERICK DALCHO,

 

East‑ Bay

 

Charleston, (South Carolina)

 

The Sublime Grand Lodge, meets at the Ineffable Lodge Room, Meeting‑Street, every other Saturday evening at six o'clock, from the Autumnal to the Vernal Equinox, and on the first Saturday in every month at Seven o'clock, in the evening, from the Vernal to the Autumnal Equinox.

 

(15) (XV ‑ & XVI)

 

BY THE GLORY OF THE GRAND ARCHITECT OF THE UNlVERSE.

 

LUX E TENEBRUS

 

HEALTH, STABILlTY AND POWER,

 

Officers of the Grand Council of Princes of Jersalem, in South Carolina A.L. 5802.

 

ILL. Bro.: Col~ JOHN MITCHELL ‑ Most Equitable

 

DR. FREDERlCK DALCHO ‑ Senior Most Enlightened

 

DR. ISAAC AULD ‑ Junior Most Enlightened

 

ABRAHAM ALEXANDER ‑ K.D.

 

SOLOMON HARBY ‑ Grand Orator and Keeper of the Seals

 

ISRAEL DELlEBIN ‑ Grand Treasurer

 

JOSEPH BEE ‑ Grand Secretary.

 

ALEXANDER PLACIDE ‑ Master of Ceremonies

 

(16)

 

Representative in St Domingo

 

AUGUSTUS DE GRASSE ‑ K. H ‑ P. R. S. Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d Degree.

 

Conventions are held on the first Sundays of February, May, August and November, at 12 oclock, M. at the Ineffable Lodge Room.

 

(17)

 

XVIII.

 

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST HOLY AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY.

 

SS.

 

 

 

 

 

SS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SS.

 

Officers of the Sovereign Chapter of Rose Croix de Hereden, in South Carolina, A.D.

 

1802

 

BRO. COL . JOHN MITCHELL ‑ E. M. Perfect Soverign.

 

Dr. FREDERICK DALCHO ‑ M.E.P. Senior Warden

 

DR. ISAAC AULD ‑ M.E.P. Junior Warden

 

EMANUEL DE LA MOTTA Grand Treasurer

 

ABRAHAM ALEXANDER Grand Secretary

 

Major T.B. BOWEN Grand Master of Ceremonies.

 

Grant Tyler (vacant)

 

(18)

 

Assemblages of the Knights are held in the Ineffable Lodge Room at Meridian, on the day of the Annual Feast,

 

Shrove Tuesday, Tuesday after Easter, the day of Ascension, the day of Penticost, all Saints day and the two festivals of St John.

 

(19)

 

AD GLORIAM DEI

 

Knights of K. H. and Members of the Grand Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret in South Carolina, A. L. 5802.

 

COL. JOHN MITCHELL ‑ T. Ill. Grand Commader.

 

DR. FREDERICK DALCHO ‑ T. E Lieutenant Grand Commander.

 

JOSEPH JAHAN ‑ T. L Lieutenant Grand Commander.

 

DR. JAMES MOULTRIE ‑ Minister of State and Grand Orator

 

DR. MICHAEL FRONTY ‑ Grand Chancellor

 

EMANUEL DE LA MOTTA ‑ Grand Treasurer

 

ABRAHAM ALEXANDER ‑ Grand Secretary

 

PIERRE BOUYSSOU ‑ Grand Master Architect and Engineer

 

DR. ISAAC AULD ‑ Physician General

 

ISRAEL DELIEBEN ‑ Keeper of the Seals and Archives

 

MAJOR T. B. BOWEN ‑ Grand Master of Ceremonies

 

PIERRE RIGAUD ‑ Captain of the Guards

 

(20)

 

(S. Tyler vacant)

 

(J. Tyler vacant)

 

SOLOMON HARBY ETIENE DUBARRY ROBERT L ALLEMAND.

 

ALEXANDER PLACIDE MOSES C. LEVY

 

Representative in St. Domingo.

 

AUGUSTUS DE GRASSE ‑ K. H ‑ P. R. S.

 

Sov. Grand Inspector General of the 33d Degree.

 

Consistories are held at M. at the Ineffable Lodge Room, on the 21st March, 25th June.

 

21st September and 27th December

 

( 21)

 

(XVII

 

‑

 

to ‑ XXXIII inc) Universi Terrarum Orbis Architectonis gloris ab ingentis.

 

DEUS MEUMQUE JUS.

 

ORDO AB CHAO.

 

Supreme Council of Grand Inspectors General of the 33d degree, in South‑Carolina.

 

COLONEL JOHN MITCHEL ‑ Sov. Grand Commander.

 

DR. FREDERICK DALCHO ‑ Lieutenant Grand Commander.

 

EMANUEL DE LA MOTTA ‑ Ill. Treasurer General of the the H. Empire.

 

 

HIS MAJESTY, KING EDWARD VII.

P.G.M. And Protector of Masons of England
 

 

ABRAHAM ALEXANDER ‑ Ill. Secretary General of the H. Empire.

 

MAJOR T. B. BOWEN ‑ Ill Grand Master of Ceremonies.

 

ISRAEL DELIEBEN ‑ Sov. Grand Inspector General.

 

(22)

 

DR. ISAAC AULD ‑ Sov; Grand Inspector General

 

MOSES C LEVY ‑ Sov. Grand Inspector General.

 

DR. JAMES MOULTRIE ‑ Sov. Grand Inspector General.

 

Ill. Capt. of the Life Guards (vacant)

 

(23)

 

Representative in Saint Domingo

 

AUGUSTUS DE GRASSE ‑ Sov. Grand Commander for the French West Indies

 

Councils are held at the house of the Grand Commander at Meridian, every third new Moon, reckoning from the new Moon in May.

 

P. 1842

 

 

 

CHAPTER III

 

THE SCOTTISH RITE IN THE UNITED STATES

 

COUNCIL of Princes of Jerusalem was duly constituted in Charleston, February 20, 1788, and Brothers Joseph Meyers, Behrend M. Spitzer, and A. Forst installed the Officers.

 

Notwithstanding that in planting the Scottish Rite, or, as it was then known, the "Rite of Perfection," in many States, by the appointment of Inspectors, who had only received what was at that early date recognized as the 25th Degree or "Prince of the Royal Secret," the Rite was only worked in Charleston. In consequence of the zeal of the Brethren in that city and their devotion to the Rite, we owe the foundation of the first bodies, as shown in the fac‑similes given, the last one being the "Supreme Council of the 33d and last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Mother‑Supreme Council of the World." A council of Knights Kadosh was organized in Philadelphia in 1796, by Masons who were refugees from San Domingo, during the negro insurrection on that island. This body soon ceased to exist, in consequence of the return of the Brethren to that island very soon after its organization

 

In New York, in 1797, a chapter of Rose Croix was instituted.

 

In 1792 it is said a Lodge of Perfection was formed at Baltimore, Md., by Henry Wilmans. (1) There is no certainty as to his authority for such establishment. Brother Edward T. Schultz gives a list of seventy‑six members. There was also a Lodge of Perfection at Albany, N.Y., which was in accord with the symbolic lodge, and at one time had the same Brother for Master; and we notice also that the symbolic lodges in Philadelphia were in union with the Lodge of Perfection in that city. (2)

 

(1) "History of Masonry," by Edw. T. Schultz, vol. vi., p. 1555.

 

(2) There is an old volume in the archives of the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, which contains the history of "Sublime Free‑Masonry in the United States of America. Being a Collection of all the Official Documents which have appeared on both sides of the question with Notes and an Appendix. By Joseph McCosh, Charleston, S. C., 1823."

 

A circular, which we give in part below, was issued by the Supreme Council at Charleston (adopted October 10, 1802), under date of December 4, 1802, and copies were sent to every Grand Lodge then in existence in the United States and also in other countries.

 

"Circular"

 

"As Society improved, and as discoveries of old records were made, the numbers of our degrees were increased, until, in progress of time, the system became complete.

 

"From such of our records as are authentic, we are informed of the establishment of the Sublime and Ineffable degrees of Masonry in Scotland, France, and Prussia, immediately after the crusades. But from some circumstances, which to us are unknown, after the year 4658 they fell into neglect until the year 5744, when a nobleman from Scotland visited France and re‑established the Lodge of Perfection in Bordeaux.

 

"In 5761 the Lodges and Councils of the Supreme degrees being extended throughout the Continent of Europe, his Majesty the King of Prussia, as Grand Commander of the Order of Prince of the Royal Secret, was acknowledged by all the Craft as the head of the Sublime and Ineffable degrees of Masonry throughout the two hemispheres. His Royal Highness Charles, Hereditary Prince of the Swedes, Goths, and Vandals, Duke of Sudermania, Heir of Norway, was, and still continues the Grand Commander and protector of the Sublime Masons in Sweden; and his Royal Highness Louis of Bourbon, Prince of the Blood, Duke de Chartres, and the Cardinal Prince and Bishop of Rouen, were at the head of these degrees in France.

 

"On the 25th of October, 5762, the Grand Masonic Constitutions were finally ratified in Berlin and proclaimed for the government of all the Lodges of Sublime and Perfect Masons, Chapters, Councils, Colleges, and Consistories of the Royal and Military art of Free‑Masonry, over the surface of the two hemispheres. There are Secret Constitutions, which have existed from time immemorial, and are alluded to in these instruments.

 

"In the same year the Constitutions were transmitted to our illustrious Brother, Stephen Morin, who had been Appointed (1) on the 27th of August, 5761, Inspector‑General over all Lodges in the new World, by the Grand Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret convened in Paris, at which presided the King of Prussia Deputy, 'Chaillon de Joinville, substitute General of the Order, Right Worshipful Master of the first Lodge in France, called St. Anthony's, Chief of the Eminent degrees, Commander and Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret,' etc.

 

"The following Illustrious Brethren were also present: The Brother Prince of Rouen, Master of the Grand Intelligence Lodge and Sovereign Prince of Masonry, etc.

 

"La Coine, substitute of the Grand Master, Rignt Worshipful Master of the Trinity Lodge, Grand Elect, Perfect, Knight and Prince of Masons.

 

"Maximillian de St. Simon, Senior Grand Warden, Grand Elect, Perfect and Knight and Prince of Masons.

 

"Savalette de Buchelay, Grand Keeper of the Seals, Grand Elect, Perfect Knight and Prince of Masons.

 

"Duke de Choiseuil, Right Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Children of Glory, Grand, Elect, Perfect Master, Knight and Prince of Masons.

 

"Topin, Grand Embassador from his Serene Highness, Grand, Elect, Perfect Master, Knight and Prince of Masons.

 

"Boucher de Lenoncour, Right Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Virtue, Grand, Elect, Perfect Master, Knight and Prince of Masons.

 

"Brest de la Chausee, Right Worshipful Master of the Exactitude Lodge, Grand, Elect, Perfect Master, Knight and Prince of Masons. The Seals of the Order were affixed and the Patent countersigned by

 

"Daubertiny, Grand, Elect, Perfect Master, Knight and Prince of Masons, Right Worshipful Master of the Lodge of St. Alphonso, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge and Sublime Council of Princes of Masons, etc.

 

"When Brother Morin arrived in St. Domingo, he, agreeably to his patent, appointed a Deputy Inspector General for North

 

(1) A copy of his commission is in the archives of the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, and is given in chapter i of A.A.S.R

 

America. This high Honor was conferred on Brother M. M. Hayes, with the power of appointing others, where necessary. Brother Morin also appointed Brother Frankin Deputy Inspector‑General of Jamaica and the British Leeward Islands, and Brother Colonel Provest for the Windward Islands and the British Army.

 

"Brother Hayes appointed Brother Isaac Da Costa Deputy Inspector General for the State of South Carolina, who, in the year 5783, established the Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection in Charleston. After Brother Da Costa's death, Brother Joseph Myers was appointed Deputy Inspector‑General for his State, by Bro. Hayes, who, also, had previously appointed Brother Colonel Solomon Bush Dep. Insp. Gen. for the State of Pennsylvania, and Bro. Barend M. Spitzer to the same rank for Georgia, which was confirmed by a Convention of Inspectors when convened in Philadelphia, on the 15th of June, 5781.

 

"On the 1st of May, 5786, the Grand Constitutions of the Thirty‑Third Degree, called the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, was ratified by his Majesty the King of Prussia, who as Grand Commander of the Order of Prince of the Royal Secret, possessed the Sovereign Masonic power over all the Craft. In the New Constitution this Power was conferred on a Supreme Council of Nine Brethren in each nation, who possess all the Masonic prerogatives in their own district that his Majesty individually possessed, and are Sovereigns of Masonry.

 

"On the 20th of Feb., 5788, the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem was opened in this City (Charleston, S. C.), at which were present Bros. J;. Myers, D.I.G. for South Carolina, B.M. Spitzer, D.I.G. for Georgia, and A. Forst, D.I.G. for Virginia. Soon after the opening of the Council, a letter was addressed to his Royal Highness, the Duke of Orleans, on the subject, requesting certain records from the Archives of the Society in France, which in his answer through Col. Shee, his Secretary, he very politely promised to transmit, but which the commencement of the French Revolution most unfortunately prevented.

 

"On the 2d of Aug., 5795, Brother Colonel John Mitchell, late Dep. Quarter Master Genl. in the Armies of the United States, was made a Dep. Ins. Genl. for this State by Bro. Spitzer, who acted in consequence of Bro. Myers' removal out of the Country.

 

"Bro. Mitchell was restricted from acting until after Bro. Spitzer's death, which took place in the succeeding year.

 

"As many Brethren of eminent degrees had arrived from Foreign parts, consistories of Princes of the R. S. were occasionally held, for initiations and other purposes.

 

"On the 31st of May, 5801, the Supreme Council of the Thirty‑third degree for the United States of America was opened with the high honors of Masonry, by Brothers John Mitchell and Frederick Dalcho, Sov: Gr: Insp: Genl:; and in the course of the present year the whole number of Grand Inspectors General was completed, agreeably to the Grand Constitutions.

 

"On the 21st of January, 5802, a Warrant of Constitution passed the Seal of the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem for the establishment of a Master Mark Mason's Lodge in this City (Charleston, S. C.).

 

"On the 21st of February, 5802, Our Illustrious Brother, Count Alexandre Francois Auguste Degrasse, Deputy Inspector General, was appointed by the Supreme Council a Grand Inspector General, and Grand Commander of the French West‑Indies; and our Illustrious Brother, Jean Baptiste Marie De La Hougue, Dep. Insp. Genl., was also received as an Insp. Genl. and appointed Lieut. Grand Commander of the same Islands.

 

"Oon the 4th of December, 5802, a Warrant of Constitution passed the seal of the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem, for the establishment of a Sublime Grand Lodge in Savannah, Georgia

 

THE NAMES OF THE MASONIC DEGREES ARE AS FOLLOWS, VIZ.:

 

1st degree, called Entered Apprentice.

 

2nd Fellow Craft

 

 

3rd Master Mason

 

4th

 

"

 

Secret Master 5th

 

"

 

 

 

"

 

Perfect Master 6th

 

"

 

 

 

"

 

Intimate Secretary 7th

 

"

 

 

 

"

 

Provost and Judge 8th

 

"

 

 

 

"

 

Intendent of the Building 9th