651 lines
32 KiB
Plaintext
651 lines
32 KiB
Plaintext
10 page printout
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VIII.
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ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
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[NOTE: This essay appeared in New York, 1818, with an
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anonymous preface of which I quote the opening paragraph: "This
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tract is a chapter belonging to the Third Part of the "Age of
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Reason," as will be seen by the references made in it to preceding
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articles, as forming part of the same work. It was culled from the
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writings of Mr. Paine after his death, and published in a mutilated
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state by Mrs. Bonneville, his executrix. Passages having a
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reference to the Christian religion she erased, with a view no
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doubt of accommodating the work to the prejudices of bigotry.
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These, however, have been restored from the original manuscript,
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except a few lines which were rendered illegible." Madame
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Bonneville published this fragment in New York, 1810 (with the
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omissions I point out) as a pamphlet. -- Dr. Robinet (Danton-
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Emigre, p. 7) says erroneously that Paine was a Freemason; but an
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eminent member of that Fraternity in London, Mr. George Briggs,
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after reading this essay, which I submitted to him, tells me that
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"his general outline, remarks, and comments, are fairly true."
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Paine's intimacy in Paris with Nicolas de Bonneville and Charles
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Frangois Dupuis, whose writings are replete with masonic
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speculations, sufficiently explain his interest in the subject. --
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Editor.]
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IT is always understood that Free-Masons have a secret which
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they carefully conceal; but from every thing that can be collected
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from their own accounts of Masonry, their real secret is no other
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than their origin, which but few of them understand; and those who
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do, envelope it in mystery.
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The Society of Masons are distinguished into three classes or
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degrees. 1st. The Entered Apprentice. 2d. The Fellow Craft. 3d. The
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Master Mason.
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The Entered Apprentice knows but little more of Masonry than
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the use of signs and tokens, and certain steps and words by which
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Masons can recognize each other without being discovered by a
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person who is not a Mason. The Fellow Craft is not much better
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instructed in Masonry, than the Entered Apprentice. It is only in
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the Master Mason's Lodge, that whatever knowledge remains of the
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origin of Masonry is preserved and concealed.
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In 1730, Samuel Pritchard, member of a constituted lodge in
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England, published a treatise entitled Masonry Dissected; and made
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oath before the Lord Mayor of London that it was a true copy.
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"Samuel Pritchard maketh oath that the copy hereunto annexed is a
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true and genuine copy in every particular." In his work he has
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given the catechism or examination, in question and answer, of the
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Apprentices, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason. There was no
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difficulty in doing this, as it is mere form.
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In his introduction he says, the original institution of
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Masonry consisted in the foundation of the liberal arts and
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sciences, but more especially in Geometry, for at the building of
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the tower of Babel, the art and mystery of Masonry was first
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introduced, and from thence handed down by Euclid, a worthy and
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
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excellent mathematician of the Egyptians; and he communicated it to
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Hiram, the Master Mason concerned in building Solomon's Temple in
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Jerusalem."
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Besides the absurdity of deriving Masonry from the building of
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Babel, where, according to the story, the confusion of languages
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prevented the builders understanding each other, and consequently
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of communicating any knowledge they had, there is a glaring
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contradiction in point of chronology in the account he gives.
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Solomon's Temple was built and dedicated 1004 years before the
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christian era; and Euclid, as may be seen in the tables of
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chronology, lived 277 before the same era. It was therefore
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impossible that Euclid could communicate any thing to Hiram, since
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Euclid did not live till 700 years after the time of Hiram.
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In 1783, Captain George Smith, inspector of the Royal
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Artillery Academy at Woolwich, in England, and Provincial Grand
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Master of Masonry for the county of Kent, published a treatise
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entitled, The Use and Abuse of Free-Masonry.
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In his chapter of the antiquity of Masonry, he makes it to be
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coeval with creation, "when," says he, "the sovereign architect
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raised on Masonic principles the beauteous globe, and commanded the
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master science, Geometry, to lay the planetary world, and to
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regulate by its laws the whole stupendous system in just unerring
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proportion, rolling round the central sun."
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"But," continues he, "I am not at liberty publicly to undraw
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the curtain, and openly to descant on this head; it is sacred, and
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ever will remain so; those who are honored with the trust will not
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reveal it, and those who are ignorant of it cannot betray it." By
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this last part of the phrase, Smith means the two inferior classes,
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the Fellow Craft and the Entered Apprentice, for he says in the
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next page of his work, "It is not every one that is barely
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initiated into Free-Masonry that is entrusted with all the
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mysteries thereto belonging; they are not attainable as things of
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course, nor by every capacity."
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The learned, but unfortunate Doctor Dodd, Grand Chaplain of
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Masonry, in his oration at the dedication of Free-Mason's Hall,
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London, traces Masonry through a variety of stages. Masons, says
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he, are well informed from their own private and interior records
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that the building of Solomon's Temple is an important era, from
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whence they derive many mysteries of their art. "Now (says he,) be
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it remembered that this great event took place above 1000 years
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before the Christian era, and consequently more than a century
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before Homer, the first of the Grecian Poets, wrote; and above five
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centuries before Pythagoras brought from the east his sublime
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system of truly masonic instruction to illuminate. our western
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world. But, remote as this period is, we date not from thence the
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commencement of our art. For though it might owe to the wise and
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glorious King of Israel some of its many mystic forms and
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hieroglyphic ceremonies, yet certainly the art itself is coeval
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with man, the great subject of it. "We trace," continues he, "its
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footsteps in the most distant, the most remote ages and nations of
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the world. We find it among the first and most celebrated
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
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civilizers of the East. We deduce it regularly from the first
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astronomers on the plains of Chaldea, to the wise and mystic kings
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and priests of Egypt, the sages of Greece, and the philosophers of
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Rome."
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From these reports and declarations of Masons of the highest
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order in the institution, we see that Masonry, without publicly
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declaring so, lays claim to some divine communication from the
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creator, in a manner different from, and unconnected with, the book
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which the christians call the bible; and the natural result from
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this is, that Masonry is derived from some very ancient religion,
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wholly independent of and unconnected with that book.
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To come then at once to the point, Masonry (as I shall show
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from the customs, ceremonies, hieroglyphics, and chronology of
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Masonry) is derived and is the remains of the religion of the
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ancient Druids; who, like the Magi of Persia and the Priests of
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Heliopolis in Egypt, were Priests of the Sun. They paid worship to
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this great luminary, as the great visible agent of a great
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invisible first cause whom they styled " Time without limits."
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[NOTE: Zarvan-Akarana. This personification of Boundless Time,
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though a part of Parsee Theology, seems to be a later monotheistic
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dogma, based on perversions of the Zendavesta. See Haug's "Religion
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of the Parsees." -- Editor.]
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The christian religion and Masonry have one and the same
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common origin: both are derived from the worship of the Sun. The
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difference between their origin is, that the christian religion is
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a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom
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they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same
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adoration which was originally paid to the Sun, as I have shown in
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the chapter on the origin of the Christian religion. [NOTE:
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Referring to an unpublished portion of the work of which this
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chapter forms a part. -- American Editor, 1819 [This paragraph is
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omitted from the pamphlet copyrighted by Madame Bonneville in 1810,
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as also is the last sentence of the next paragraph. -- Editor.]
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In Masonry many of the ceremonies of the Druids are preserved
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in their original state, at least without any parody. With them the
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Sun is still the Sun; and his image, in the form of the sun is the
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great emblematical ornament of Masonic Lodges and Masonic dresses.
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It is the central figure on their aprons, and they wear it also
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pendant on the breast in their lodges, and in their processions. It
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has the figure of a man, as at the head of the sun, as Christ is
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always represented.
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At what period of antiquity, or in what nation, this religion
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was first established, is lost in the labyrinth of unrecorded time.
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It is generally ascribed to the ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians
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and Chaldeans, and reduced afterwards to a system regulated by the
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apparent progress of the sun through the twelve signs of Zodiac by
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Zoroaster the law giver of Persia, from whence Pythagoras brought
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it into Greece. It is to these matters Dr. Dodd refers in the
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passage already quoted from his oration.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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3
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ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
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The worship of the Sun as the great visible agent of a great
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invisible first cause, "Time without limits," spread itself over a
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considerable part of Asia and Africa, from thence to Greece and
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Rome, through all ancient Gaul, and into Britain and Ireland.
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Smith, in his chapter on the antiquity of Masonry in Britain,
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says, that "notwithstanding the obscurity which envelopes Masonic
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history in that country, various circumstances contribute to prove
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that Free-Masonry was introduced into Britain about 1030 Years
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before Christ." It cannot be Masonry in its present state that
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Smith here alludes to. The Druids flourished in Britain at the
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period he speaks of, and it is from them that Masonry is descended.
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Smith has put the child in the place of the parent.
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It sometimes happens, as well in writing as in conversation,
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that a person lets slip an expression that serves to unravel what
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he intends to conceal, and this is the case with Smith, for in the
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same chapter he says, "The Druids, when they committed any thing to
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writing, used the Greek alphabet, and I am bold to assert that the
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most perfect remains of the Druids' rites and ceremonies are
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preserved in the customs and ceremonies of the Masons that are to
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be found existing among mankind." "My brethren" says he, "may be
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able to trace them with greater exactness than I am at liberty to
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explain to the public."
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This is a confession from a Master Mason, without intending it
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to be so understood by the public, that Masonry is the remains of
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the religion of the Druids; the reasons for the Masons keeping this
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a secret I shall explain in the course of this work.
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As the study and contemplation of the Creator [is] in the
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works of the creation, the Sun, as the great visible agent of that
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Being, was the visible object of the adoration of Druids; all their
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religious rites and ceremonies had reference to the apparent
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progress of the Sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and his
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influence upon the earth. The Masons adopt the same practices. The
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roof of their Temples or Lodges is ornamented with a Sun, and the
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floor is a representation of the variegated face of the earth
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either by carpeting or Mosaic work.
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Free Masons Hall, in Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
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London, is a magnificent building, and cost upwards of 12,000
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pounds sterling. Smith, in speaking of this building, says (page
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152,) "The roof of this magnificent Hall is in all probability the
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highest piece of finished architecture in Europe. In the center of
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this roof, a most resplendent Sun is represented in burnished gold,
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surrounded with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, with their
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respective characters;
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Aries Libra
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Taurus Scorpio
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Gemini Sagittarius
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Cancer Capricorns
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Leo Aquarius
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Virgo Pisces
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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4
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ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
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After giving this description, he says, "The emblematical
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meaning of the Sun is well known to the enlightened and inquisitive
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Free-Mason; and as the real Sun is situated in the center of the
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universe, so the emblematical Sun is the center of real Masonry. We
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all know (continues he) that the Sun is the fountain of light, the
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source of the seasons, the cause of the vicissitudes of day and
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night, the parent of vegetation, the friend of man; hence the
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scientific Free-Mason only knows the reason why the Sun is placed
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in the center of this beautiful hall."
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The Masons, in order to protect themselves from the
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persecution of the christian church, have always spoken in a
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mystical manner of the figure of the Sun in their Lodges, or, like
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the astronomer Lalande, who is a Mason, been silent upon the
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subject. It is their secret, especially in Catholic countries,
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because the figure of the Sun is the expressive criterion that
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denotes they are descended from the Druids, and that wise, elegant,
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philosophical religion, was the faith opposite to the faith of the
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gloomy Christian church. [NOTE: This sentence is omitted in Madame
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Bonneville's publication. -- Editor.]
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The Lodges of the Masons, if built for the purpose, are
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constructed in a manner to correspond with the apparent motion of
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the Sun. They are situated East and West. [NOTE: The Freemason's
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Hall in London, which Paine has correctly described, is situated
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North and South, the exigencies of the space having been too strong
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for Masonic orthodoxy. Though nominally eastward the Master stands
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at the South. -- Editor.] The master's place is always in the East.
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In the examination of an Entered Apprentice, the Master, among many
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other questions, asks him,
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Q. How is the lodge situated?
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A. East and West.
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Q. Why so?
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A. Because all churches and chapels are, or ought to be
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so."
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This answer, which is mere catechismal form, is not an answer
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to the question. It does no more than remove the question a point
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further, which is, why ought all churches and chapels to be so? But
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as the Entered Apprentice is not initiated into the druidical
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mysteries of Masonry, he is not asked any questions a direct answer
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to which would lead thereto.
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Q. Where stands your Master?
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A. In the East.
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Q. Why so?
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A. As the Sun rises in the East and opens the day, so the
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Master stands in the East, (with his right hand upon
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his left breast, being a sign, and the square about
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his neck,) to open the Lodge, and set his men at work.
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Q. Where stand your Wardens?
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A. In the West.
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Q. What is their business?
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A. As the Sun sets in the West to close the day, so the
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Wardens stand in the West, (with their right hands
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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5
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ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
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upon their left breasts, being a sign, and the level
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and plumb rule about their necks,) to close the Lodge,
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and dismiss the men from labor, paying them their
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wages."
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Here the name of the Sun is mentioned, but it is proper to
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observe that in this place it has reference only to labor or to the
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time of labor, and not to any religious druidical rite or ceremony,
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as it would have with respect to the situation of Lodges East and
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West. I have already observed in the chapter on the origin of the
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christian religion, that the situation of churches East and West is
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taken from the worship of the Sun, which rises in the east, and has
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not the least reference to the person called Jesus Christ. The
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christians never bury their dead on the North side of a church;
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[NOTE: In many parts of Northern Europe the North was supposed to
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be the region of demons. Executed criminals were buried on the
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north side of churches. -- Editor.] and a Mason's Lodge always has,
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or is supposed to have, three windows which are called fixed
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lights, to distinguish them from the moveable lights of the Sun and
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the Moon. The Master asks the Entered Apprentice,
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Q. How are they (the fixed lights) situated?
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A. East, West, and South.
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Q. What are their uses?
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A. To light the men to and from their work.
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Q. Why are there no lights in the North?
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A. Because the Sun darts no rays from thence."
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This, among numerous other instances, shows that the christian
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religion and Masonry have one and the same common origin, the
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ancient worship of the Sun.
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The high festival of the Masons is on the day they call St.
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John's day; but every enlightened Mason must know that holding
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their festival on this day has no reference to the person called
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St. John, and that it is only to disguise the true cause of holding
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it on this day, that they call the day by that name. As there were
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Masons, or at least Druids, many centuries before the time of St.
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John, if such person ever existed, the holding their festival on
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this day must refer to some cause totally unconnected with John.
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The case is, that the day called St. John's day, is the 24th
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of June, and is what is called Midsummer-day. The sun is then
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arrived at the summer solstice; and, with respect to his meridional
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altitude, or height at high noon, appears for some days to be of
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the same height. The astronomical longest day, like the shortest
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day, is not every year, on account of leap year, on the same
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numerical day, and therefore the 24th of June is always taken for
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Midsummer-day; and it is in honor of the sun, which has then
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arrived at his greatest height in our hemisphere, and not any thing
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with respect to St. John, that this annual festival of the Masons,
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taken from the Druids, is celebrated on Midsummer-day.
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Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin,
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and this is the case with respect to a custom still practiced in
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Ireland, where the Druids flourished at the time they flourished in
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Britain. On the eve of Saint John's day, that is, on the eve of
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
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6
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ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
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Midsummer-day, the Irish light fires on the tops of the hills. This
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can have no reference to St. John; but it has emblematical
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reference to the sun, which on that day is at his highest summer
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elevation, and might in common language be said to have arrived at
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the top of the hill.
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As to what Masons, and books of Masonry, tell us of Solomon's
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Temple at Jerusalem, it is no wise improbable that some Masonic
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ceremonies may have been derived from the building of that temple,
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for the worship of the Sun was in practice many centuries before
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the Temple existed, or before the Israelites came out of Egypt. And
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we learn from the history of the Jewish Kings, 2 Kings xxii. xxiii.
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that the worship of the Sun was performed by the Jews in that
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Temple. It is, however, much to be doubted if it was done with the
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same scientific purity and religious morality with which it was
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performed by the Druids, who, by all accounts that historically
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remain of them, were a wise, learned, and moral class of men. The
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Jews, on the contrary, were ignorant of astronomy, and of science
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in general, and if a religion founded upon astronomy fell into
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their hands, it is almost certain it would be corrupted. We do not
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read in the history of the Jews, whether in the Bible or elsewhere,
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that they were the inventors or the improvers of any one art or
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science. Even in the building of this temple, the Jews did not know
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how to square and frame the timber for beginning and carrying on
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the work, and Solomon was obliged to send to Hiram, King of Tyre
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(Zidon) to procure workmen; "for thou knowest, (says Solomon to
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Hiram, i Kings v. 6.) that there is not among us any that can skill
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to hew timber like unto the Zidonians." This temple was more
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properly Hiram's Temple than Solomon's, and if the Masons derive
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any thing from the building of it, they owe it to the Zidonians and
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not to the Jews. -- But to return to the worship of the Sun in this
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Temple.
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It is said, 2 Kings xxiii. 5, "And [king Josiah] put down all
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the idolatrous priests ... that burned incense unto ... the sun,
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the moon, the planets, and all the host of heaven." And it is said
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at the 11th verse: "And he took away the horses that the kings of
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Judah had given to the Sun, at the entering in of the house of the
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Lord, ... and burned the chariots of the Sun with fire"; verse 13,
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"And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the
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right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of
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Israel had builded for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians"
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(the very people that built the temple) "did the king defile."
|
||
|
||
Besides these things, the description that Josephus gives of
|
||
the decorations of this Temple, resembles on a large scale those of
|
||
a Mason's Lodge. He says that the distribution of the several parts
|
||
of the Temple of the Jews represented all nature, particularly the
|
||
parts most apparent of it, as the sun, the moon, the planets, the
|
||
zodiac, the earth, the elements; and that the system of the world
|
||
was retraced there by numerous ingenious emblems. These, in all
|
||
probability, are, what Josiah, in his ignorance, calls the
|
||
abominations of the Zidonians. [NOTE by PAINE: Smith, in speaking
|
||
of a Lodge, says, when the Lodge is revealed to an entering Mason,
|
||
it discovers to him a representation of the World; in which, from
|
||
the wonders of nature, we are led to contemplate her great
|
||
original, and worship him from his mighty works; and we are thereby
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
7
|
||
|
||
ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
|
||
|
||
also moved to exercise those moral and social virtues which become
|
||
mankind as the servants of the great Architect of the world. --
|
||
Author.] Every thing, however, drawn from this Temple [NOTE by
|
||
PAINE: It may not be improper here to observe, that the law called
|
||
the law of Moses could not have been in existence at the time of
|
||
building this Temple. Here is the likeness of things in heaven
|
||
above and in earth beneath. And we read in I Kings vi., vii., that
|
||
Solomon made cherubs and cherubims, that he carved all the walls of
|
||
the house round about with cherubims, and palm-trees, and open
|
||
flowers, and that he made a molten sea, placed on twelve oxen, and
|
||
the ledges of it were ornamented with lions, oxen, and cherubims:
|
||
all this is contrary to the law called the law of Moses. --
|
||
Author.] and applied to Masonry, still refers to the worship of the
|
||
Sun, however corrupted or misunderstood by the Jews, and
|
||
consequently to the religion of the Druids.
|
||
|
||
Another circumstance, which shows that Masonry is derived from
|
||
some ancient system, prior to and unconnected with the christian
|
||
religion, is the chronology, or method of counting time, used by
|
||
the Masons in the records of their Lodges. They make no use of what
|
||
is called the christian era; and they reckon their months
|
||
numerically, as the ancient Egyptians did, and as the Quakers do
|
||
now. I have by me, a record of a French Lodge, at the time the late
|
||
Duke of Orleans, then Duke de Chartres, was Grand Master of Masonry
|
||
in France. It begins as follows: "Le trentieme jour du sixieme mois
|
||
de l'an de la V.L. cinq mille sept cent soixante treize;" that is,
|
||
the thirteenth day of the sixth month of the year of the Venerable
|
||
Lodge, five thousand seven hundred and seventy-three. By what I
|
||
observe in English books of Masonry, the English Masons use the
|
||
initials A.L. and not V.L. By A.L. they mean in the year of Light,
|
||
as the Christians by A.D. mean in the year of our Lord. But A.L.
|
||
like V.L. refers to the same chronological era, that is, to the
|
||
supposed time of the creation. [NOTE: V.L. are the initials of
|
||
Vraie Lumiere, true light; and A.L. of Anne Lucis, in the year of
|
||
light. This and the three preceding sentences (of the text) are
|
||
suppressed in Madame Bonneville's pamphlet, 1810. -- Editor.] In
|
||
the chapter on the origin of the Christian religion, I have shown
|
||
that the Cosmogony, that is, the account of the creation with which
|
||
the book of Genesis opens, has been taken and mutilated from the
|
||
Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster, and was fixed as a preface to the Bible
|
||
after the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon, and that the
|
||
Robbins of the Jews do not hold their account in Genesis to be a
|
||
fact, but mere allegory. The six thousand years in the Zend-Avesta,
|
||
is changed or interpolated into six days in the account of Genesis.
|
||
The Masons appear to have chosen the same period, and perhaps to
|
||
avoid the suspicion and persecution of the Church, have adopted the
|
||
era of the world, as the era of Masonry. The V.L. of the French,
|
||
and A.L. of the English Mason, answer to the A.M. Anno Mundi, or
|
||
year of the world.
|
||
|
||
Though the Masons have taken many of their ceremonies and
|
||
hieroglyphics from the ancient Egyptians, it is certain they have
|
||
not taken their chronology from thence. If they had, the church
|
||
would soon have sent them to the stake; as the chronology of the
|
||
Egyptians, like that of the Chinese, goes many thousand years
|
||
beyond the Bible chronology.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
8
|
||
|
||
ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
|
||
|
||
The religion of the Druids, as before said, was the same as
|
||
the religion of the ancient Egyptians. The priests of Egypt were
|
||
the professors and teachers of science, and were styled priests of
|
||
Heliopolis, that is, of the City of the Sun. The Druids in Europe,
|
||
who were the same order of men, have their name from the Teutonic
|
||
or ancient German language; the German being anciently called
|
||
Teutones. The word Druid signifies a wise man. [NOTE: German drud,
|
||
wizard. Cf. Milton's line: "The star-led wizards haste with odours
|
||
sweet." The word Druid has also been derived from Greek ####;, an
|
||
oak; Celtic 'deru,' an oak and 'ndd,' lord; British 'deruidhon,'
|
||
very wise men; Heb. 'derussim,' contemplators; etc. -- Editor.] In
|
||
Persia they were called Magi, which signifies the same thing.
|
||
|
||
Egypt," says Smith, "from whence we derive many of our
|
||
mysteries, has always borne a distinguished rank in history, and
|
||
was once celebrated above all others for its antiquities, learning,
|
||
opulence, and fertility. In their system, their principal hero-
|
||
gods, Osiris and Isis, theologically represented the Supreme Being
|
||
and universal Nature; and physically the two great celestial
|
||
luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, by whose influence all nature was
|
||
actuated." "The experienced brethren of the society, [says Smith in
|
||
a note to this passage] are well informed what affinity these
|
||
symbols bear to Masonry, and why they are used in all Masonic
|
||
Lodges." In speaking of the apparel of the Masons in their Lodges,
|
||
part of which, as we see in their public processions, is a white
|
||
leather apron, he says, "the Druids were apparelled in white at the
|
||
time of their sacrifices and solemn offices. The Egyptian priests
|
||
of Osiris wore snow-white cotton. The Grecian and most other
|
||
priests wore white garments. As Masons, we regard the principles of
|
||
those 'who were the first worshipers of the true God,' imitate
|
||
their apparel, and assume the badge of innocence."
|
||
|
||
"The Egyptians," continues Smith, "in the earliest ages
|
||
constituted a great number of Lodges, but with assiduous care kept
|
||
their secrets of Masonry from all strangers. These secrets have
|
||
been imperfectly handed down to us by oral tradition only, and
|
||
ought to be kept undiscovered to the laborers, craftsmen, and
|
||
apprentices, till by good behavior and long study they become
|
||
better acquainted in geometry and the liberal arts, and thereby
|
||
qualified for Masters and Wardens, which is seldom or never the
|
||
case with English Masons."
|
||
|
||
Under the head of Free-Masonry, written by the astronomer
|
||
Lalande, in the French Encyclopedia, I expected from his great
|
||
knowledge in astronomy, to have found much information on the
|
||
origin of Masonry; for what connection can there be between any
|
||
institution and the Sun and twelve signs of the Zodiac, if there be
|
||
not something in that institution, or in its origin, that has
|
||
reference to astronomy? Every thing used as an hieroglyphic has
|
||
reference to the subject and purpose for which it is used; and we
|
||
are not to suppose the Free-Masons, among whom are many very
|
||
learned and scientific men, to be such idiots as to make use of
|
||
astronomical signs without some astronomical purpose. But I was
|
||
much disappointed in my expectation from Lalande. In speaking of
|
||
the origin of Masonry, he says, "L'orgine de la maconnerie se Perd,
|
||
comme tant d'autres, dans l'obscurite des termps;" That is, the
|
||
origin of Masonry, like many others, loses itself in the obscurity
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
9
|
||
|
||
ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY.
|
||
|
||
of time. When I came to this expression, I supposed Lalande a
|
||
Mason, and on enquiry found he was. This passing over saved him
|
||
from the embarrassment which Masons are under respecting the
|
||
disclosure of their origin, and which they are sworn to conceal.
|
||
There is a society of Masons in Dublin who take the name of Druids;
|
||
these Masons must be supposed to have a reason for taking that
|
||
name.
|
||
|
||
I come now to speak of the cause of secrecy used by the
|
||
Masons.
|
||
|
||
The natural source of secrecy is fear. When any new religion
|
||
over-runs a former religion, the professors of the new become the
|
||
persecutors of the old. We see this in all instances that history
|
||
brings before us. When Hilkiah the priest and Shaphan the scribe,
|
||
in the reign of King Josiah, found, or pretended to find, the law,
|
||
called the law of Moses, a thousand years after the time of Moses,
|
||
(and it does not appear from 2 Kings, xxii., xxiii., that such a
|
||
law was ever practiced or known before the time of Josiah), he
|
||
established that law as a national religion, and put all the
|
||
priests of the Sun to death. When the christian religion over-ran
|
||
the Jewish religion, the Jews were the continual subject of
|
||
persecution in all christian countries. When the Protestant
|
||
religion in England over-ran the Roman Catholic religion, it was
|
||
made death for a Catholic priest to be found in England. As this
|
||
has been the case in all the instances we have any knowledge of, we
|
||
are obliged to admit it with respect to the case in question, and
|
||
that when the christian religion over-ran the religion of the
|
||
Druids in Italy, ancient Gaul, Britain, and Ireland, the Druids
|
||
became the subject of persecution. This would naturally and
|
||
necessarily oblige such of them as remained attached to their
|
||
original religion to meet in secret, and under the strongest
|
||
injunctions of secrecy. Their safety depended upon it. A false
|
||
brother might expose the lives of many of them to destruction; and
|
||
from the remains of the religion of the Druids, thus preserved,
|
||
arose the institution which, to avoid the name of Druid, took that
|
||
of Mason, and practiced under this new name the rites and
|
||
ceremonies of Druids.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
|
||
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
||
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
10
|
||
|