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The Antiquity Of Masonry.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MASONRY .
REPRINTED FROM " THE NEW ENGLAND FREEMASON . " An Address delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , at the Quarterly Communication , 8 th September 1875 , by lt . W . Charles Levi Woodbury , Past Deputy Grand Master .
Continued from page 389 . Thus also of the decorations known as the egg and tongue mouldings . The tools of the ancient Egyptian artisans have been found , and resemble in shape those in use at this day . The mallet and the wedge were found in the Pyramids , and Bnrton also found one in a tomb , with a basket of drills , chisels , bows , Ac , that had lain there
perhaps twenty centuries before Cambyses invaded Egypt . The working dress of the Egyptian Mason of the old times consisted of the apron , similar to what it now is ; judging from the paintings yet extant , this , with a pair of sandals , constituted his entire working dress in hot weather . My knowledge of Egyptian lore does not enable mo to affirm with
confidence the inference which may strike some of my readers ; but it is singular that several of the numerous Egyptian kings , whose statues have been preserved , wear the apron without their royal robes . In the list of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum , published by Sharpe , No . 61 is the statue of the King Pthamon Miothph , Son of Ramises 2 nd , whose date is about 1120 B . C ., whose
only clothing is a short apron ; this figure is given , ch . 2 , sect . 46 , in the history of Egypt by tho same author . A cast from his tomb also shows him wearing a similar apron . No . 26 , of tho same list , is the statue of King Oimenepthah , 2 nd , wearing no clothing but sandals and the apron . A cast from his tomb , also in tho museum , shows the apron under a transparent gauze robe . Elsewhere I have
seen drawings of two Royal figures at the portal of some temple or tomb wearing the apron alone ; but I do not recall the place where they are found . As everything of this sort was symbolic in Egypt , we may speculate whether the apron so worn without tho usual royal robes , by a king , the head of the priestly caste , did not indicate an initiation , undescribed by antiquarians , into the arcana of
the sacred sculptors , draughtsmen and Masons who pertained to this caste . * The method of work has remained much tho same ; tho Egyptian broached work was as perfect as it is now . The chisel draft on the cyclopcan stones in tho Temple foundations at Jerusalem is just as on a dressed stone of to-day .
Another class of proofs of descent are found in the mystic designs of the old masters , carved on their slabs or constructed in their edifices , which are still in use . Layard , the explorer of the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon , was astonished to find tho figure known as the Greek honeysuckle perfectly designed and used there ; thence it passed into the architecture of ancient Greece , thence into Western
Europe , and through modern church architecture to the present . It is of common use now , in its identical original form , both in Protestant and Catholic churches . What a proof of the tenacity with which the conventional clings in tho Craft , where Zoroastian , Chaldee , Pagan and Christian temples , in a succession of twenty-six hundred years , inherit and transmit the same mystic symbols alike to
innovators and successors ! Students also have traced and written many learned works , showing how certain mystic emblems of a faith , so early as almost to be prehistorical in its origin , have been transmitted , such as dome , pinnacle , and spire , through all successive eras to the present age ; and although their symbolic meaning has occulted from the general public , not merely retaining but gaining
favour as new appliances render the art more capable of executing such designs with brilliancy . What traveller has not paused to gaze on the spires of Cologne and Strasbnrg , or to admire tho domes of St . Peter , St . Sophia , St . Isaac , St . Paul , the latter tho glorious work of our modern accepted Grand Master , Wren . The round towers of Ireland and tho needle of Cleopatra bear witness like
these to the continuity of the conventional in the Masonic art . The mystic lesson derived from the form of the church , mosque , or temple in all ages , and held esoteric , is another link . Another curious instance of the conventional perversion of a symbol is in the brazen pillars which stood before the door of the Temple of Solomon . They are reproduced by the latter Phoenicians in the
pillars of Hercules , which stood at the port of the Mediterranean ; hut at this day , in Phoenician-settled Spain , they are borne on the reverse of the silver dollar . Thus that which was once a symbol of life , the mystic basis of religion , has , among tho profane , sunk to represent a mere dollar ' s worth of earth . Truly , Solomon ' s successors are wiser than kings .
Considering the vast and varied knowledge on antique remains gathered by modern discoverers , wo are justified to anticipate that ere long it will be demonstrated that conventional Masonic art was so allied with theology in ancient times that every part of a temple tanght a special lesson of its own ; that form and symbol gave every atone a signification as perfect as a hieroglyphic character : and an
initiate could read intelligibly the ideas embodied by the architect Mason in the building of Egyptian and Semitic temples as if they were written in the common language of the country . In those days there were sermons in stone , and the Champollin of art bearing the key is not many generations distant . Much of symhology , in the
course of its long descent aud many migrations , has become so conventional a part of art that the original meaning has grown very obscure . Where the religion of a country has fundamentally changed , the forms and decorations of the temples , because they are symbolic , sometimes become modified to suit the change ; but still , as Masonry is one art , they largely retain the impress of the past . Of this , did * Tho royal apron , described by Wilkinson as being part of the Hoyal dress , bears a striking similarity to the style of apron worn by Grand Masters . From hia inscription it wast worn as the Grand Master wears his .
The Antiquity Of Masonry.
time allow , I could give many illustrations . So , also , inventions in the beauty of design have occasionally modified , bnt I think never obliterated , tho conventional aspect of religious symbology . Egypt , Greece and Borne still are three radiant lights of the Masonic studio . For the burnt aud buried Babylon , for tho desolate Jerusalem , for the moulded Semitic architecture of Tyre , of the plains , and of the
mountains , we hold our Lodge of sorrow , and cheer our longing souls with tho faintest xelics of their golden glovy . In putting forth my propositions , I feel that some will bo appalled at the length of time included in the subject , aud will hardly realise that many other parts of our civilisation can bo traced clearly , descending from prototypes as distant as Greek Masonry from our
era . Modern scholars and divines readily admit that tho metaphysics of Aristotle , of Plato , and of that branch of Platonism that mingled with the Chaldean and Zoroastian metaphysics in the school of Alexandria , are at the root of all present divisions and diversities in schools of theology . Modem science has reasoned its way from
observation and proof , until now it declares the doctrines taught by Democritus , three centuries before our era , include the highest known expression of the cosmic theory of matter . Pythagoras , who brought into Europe from Egypt the helio-centrio theory of the universe , after a long obsenrity , has his merits again recognised , and Enclid is of equal authority now as when ho prepared his geometry .
Three of the four books religions of tho world are more than seventeen centuries old . In literature , the drama aud oratory , wo look to the classic ages for models . In tho practical arts , those which yet depend on hand-skill , rather than on machinery , had then the habitudes they now have , joined to even greater skill . Tho goldsmith , the metal worker , the gom engraver , tho sculptor and stone cutter , tho
shipwright , the harness-maker and the hand-loom weaver , plied their trades and their art , descended generation by generation through their apprentices , moving from one centre of trade and wealth to another , in accordance with tho laws of prosperity which governs civilization . Figure weaving and the India shawl are older than tho days of Abraham , and the hand-loom , in its pristine form , is still used to weave tho latter . The potter's wheel is still unimproved . The
ship of to-day bears on her stern tho carved lares and symbols which her prototypes bore in the days of Pagan Rome . The fashionable jewellery of to-day is copied from Etruscan and Egyptian models . The fine arts revel in tho goddesses , nymphs and Cupids of Greek design . Some of the mummies of Egypt reveal teeth plugged with gold as well as if an American dentist had tried his torturing tools on them . My limits forbid more illustrations of the conventional ruts other artisans have lived and died in for more than sixty generations .
The present sum of human knowledge has been longer in accumulating than tho records of history bear witness . Even the few arts which are of modern origin , with rare exceptions , lean for support on more ancient arts . What reason is there to withhold from the Craft of Masonry the same inferences of a descent from the ancient Craft which is so readily accorded to other arts ? Research into architecture would furnish further illustrations of the descent of this
art , important in my view because tho conventional images in art are the highest evidence of its continuous transmission . Wo must deal with the past from such materials as time , war and fanaticism have spared to come down to us . Masonry is replete with the actual relics of its ancient work . These attest for themselves . In the vnlgar sense , except a few papyri snatched from Egyptian tombs , they are
now no extant no written records of those days which are original . There is no Jewish or Christian MS . extant earlier than the fourth , perhaps than the seventh , century in the date of its writing . Tho conjecture as to the accuracy of a copy is sadly complicated if it is the copy of copies many times removed from the original ; but if copies of various known dates agree in the text , it is held proof
of an authentic line of descent , although the entire chain of copies back to the original is not produced or accounted for . The rocks last longer than parchment or paper ; and chisel marks endure better than ink . The memory of man' expands little over seventy years ; beyond that , written records or stone records alike rest on reasonable conjecture for proof of authenticity . The dead generations cannot bo
gathered from tho valley of dry bones aud paraded as witnesses j you must interrogate the relics of their works and abide the reasonable inferences deduced from them . Eastern art did not fall with Egypt , Babylon or Rome . Tho light of earlier times had not faded away when the energy of the Arab followers of Mahomet revived its flick , ering beams for nine centuries more . Upon these sources Europe
drew for knowledge and skill in art , science and philosophy—certainly till the eloso of the fifteenth century . Oriental philosophy again interwove its metaphysics into European theology . Even tho Crusaders , poor soldiers of the cross , learned not only war and art from their adversaries , but were charged with returning with their creeds imbued with more than one emanation from Eastern
mysticism . Anderson , a hundred and fifty years ago , claimed they also brought Freemasonry from the East . Masonry , which had decayed in Europe with the eclipse of Roman civilisation , became illumined by association with Saracenic skill , invented and perfected the Gothic art , and gradually , through Fraternities of trained Masons , spread it over Europe .
In the practical hands of tho Master Mnsons it grew in grace and beauty , until it entirely superseded the debased Roman styles , and became the devotional art of mediroval times , symbolising the mystic ideas of the dominant religion in those sublime cathedrals , still the objects of religious art . The organisation of the Craft resembled that of the Egyptian aud Greek of yore . The masters were practical as well as scientific ia architecture ; tho Fellow Craft had the samn
manual skill , but inferior attainments , in the higher parts of the profession ; the apprentice was glorious as usual over his modest progress . Their initiations and signs bound them into a close fraternity of grades . At York Minster , A . D . 1370 , their contracts with the Chapter provided none should work on the chapel withont the common consent of the Master and keepers of the work ( Wardens ?) and Master Masons . Their Mason marks are yet extant . The secrets of their
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Antiquity Of Masonry.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MASONRY .
REPRINTED FROM " THE NEW ENGLAND FREEMASON . " An Address delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , at the Quarterly Communication , 8 th September 1875 , by lt . W . Charles Levi Woodbury , Past Deputy Grand Master .
Continued from page 389 . Thus also of the decorations known as the egg and tongue mouldings . The tools of the ancient Egyptian artisans have been found , and resemble in shape those in use at this day . The mallet and the wedge were found in the Pyramids , and Bnrton also found one in a tomb , with a basket of drills , chisels , bows , Ac , that had lain there
perhaps twenty centuries before Cambyses invaded Egypt . The working dress of the Egyptian Mason of the old times consisted of the apron , similar to what it now is ; judging from the paintings yet extant , this , with a pair of sandals , constituted his entire working dress in hot weather . My knowledge of Egyptian lore does not enable mo to affirm with
confidence the inference which may strike some of my readers ; but it is singular that several of the numerous Egyptian kings , whose statues have been preserved , wear the apron without their royal robes . In the list of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum , published by Sharpe , No . 61 is the statue of the King Pthamon Miothph , Son of Ramises 2 nd , whose date is about 1120 B . C ., whose
only clothing is a short apron ; this figure is given , ch . 2 , sect . 46 , in the history of Egypt by tho same author . A cast from his tomb also shows him wearing a similar apron . No . 26 , of tho same list , is the statue of King Oimenepthah , 2 nd , wearing no clothing but sandals and the apron . A cast from his tomb , also in tho museum , shows the apron under a transparent gauze robe . Elsewhere I have
seen drawings of two Royal figures at the portal of some temple or tomb wearing the apron alone ; but I do not recall the place where they are found . As everything of this sort was symbolic in Egypt , we may speculate whether the apron so worn without tho usual royal robes , by a king , the head of the priestly caste , did not indicate an initiation , undescribed by antiquarians , into the arcana of
the sacred sculptors , draughtsmen and Masons who pertained to this caste . * The method of work has remained much tho same ; tho Egyptian broached work was as perfect as it is now . The chisel draft on the cyclopcan stones in tho Temple foundations at Jerusalem is just as on a dressed stone of to-day .
Another class of proofs of descent are found in the mystic designs of the old masters , carved on their slabs or constructed in their edifices , which are still in use . Layard , the explorer of the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon , was astonished to find tho figure known as the Greek honeysuckle perfectly designed and used there ; thence it passed into the architecture of ancient Greece , thence into Western
Europe , and through modern church architecture to the present . It is of common use now , in its identical original form , both in Protestant and Catholic churches . What a proof of the tenacity with which the conventional clings in tho Craft , where Zoroastian , Chaldee , Pagan and Christian temples , in a succession of twenty-six hundred years , inherit and transmit the same mystic symbols alike to
innovators and successors ! Students also have traced and written many learned works , showing how certain mystic emblems of a faith , so early as almost to be prehistorical in its origin , have been transmitted , such as dome , pinnacle , and spire , through all successive eras to the present age ; and although their symbolic meaning has occulted from the general public , not merely retaining but gaining
favour as new appliances render the art more capable of executing such designs with brilliancy . What traveller has not paused to gaze on the spires of Cologne and Strasbnrg , or to admire tho domes of St . Peter , St . Sophia , St . Isaac , St . Paul , the latter tho glorious work of our modern accepted Grand Master , Wren . The round towers of Ireland and tho needle of Cleopatra bear witness like
these to the continuity of the conventional in the Masonic art . The mystic lesson derived from the form of the church , mosque , or temple in all ages , and held esoteric , is another link . Another curious instance of the conventional perversion of a symbol is in the brazen pillars which stood before the door of the Temple of Solomon . They are reproduced by the latter Phoenicians in the
pillars of Hercules , which stood at the port of the Mediterranean ; hut at this day , in Phoenician-settled Spain , they are borne on the reverse of the silver dollar . Thus that which was once a symbol of life , the mystic basis of religion , has , among tho profane , sunk to represent a mere dollar ' s worth of earth . Truly , Solomon ' s successors are wiser than kings .
Considering the vast and varied knowledge on antique remains gathered by modern discoverers , wo are justified to anticipate that ere long it will be demonstrated that conventional Masonic art was so allied with theology in ancient times that every part of a temple tanght a special lesson of its own ; that form and symbol gave every atone a signification as perfect as a hieroglyphic character : and an
initiate could read intelligibly the ideas embodied by the architect Mason in the building of Egyptian and Semitic temples as if they were written in the common language of the country . In those days there were sermons in stone , and the Champollin of art bearing the key is not many generations distant . Much of symhology , in the
course of its long descent aud many migrations , has become so conventional a part of art that the original meaning has grown very obscure . Where the religion of a country has fundamentally changed , the forms and decorations of the temples , because they are symbolic , sometimes become modified to suit the change ; but still , as Masonry is one art , they largely retain the impress of the past . Of this , did * Tho royal apron , described by Wilkinson as being part of the Hoyal dress , bears a striking similarity to the style of apron worn by Grand Masters . From hia inscription it wast worn as the Grand Master wears his .
The Antiquity Of Masonry.
time allow , I could give many illustrations . So , also , inventions in the beauty of design have occasionally modified , bnt I think never obliterated , tho conventional aspect of religious symbology . Egypt , Greece and Borne still are three radiant lights of the Masonic studio . For the burnt aud buried Babylon , for tho desolate Jerusalem , for the moulded Semitic architecture of Tyre , of the plains , and of the
mountains , we hold our Lodge of sorrow , and cheer our longing souls with tho faintest xelics of their golden glovy . In putting forth my propositions , I feel that some will bo appalled at the length of time included in the subject , aud will hardly realise that many other parts of our civilisation can bo traced clearly , descending from prototypes as distant as Greek Masonry from our
era . Modern scholars and divines readily admit that tho metaphysics of Aristotle , of Plato , and of that branch of Platonism that mingled with the Chaldean and Zoroastian metaphysics in the school of Alexandria , are at the root of all present divisions and diversities in schools of theology . Modem science has reasoned its way from
observation and proof , until now it declares the doctrines taught by Democritus , three centuries before our era , include the highest known expression of the cosmic theory of matter . Pythagoras , who brought into Europe from Egypt the helio-centrio theory of the universe , after a long obsenrity , has his merits again recognised , and Enclid is of equal authority now as when ho prepared his geometry .
Three of the four books religions of tho world are more than seventeen centuries old . In literature , the drama aud oratory , wo look to the classic ages for models . In tho practical arts , those which yet depend on hand-skill , rather than on machinery , had then the habitudes they now have , joined to even greater skill . Tho goldsmith , the metal worker , the gom engraver , tho sculptor and stone cutter , tho
shipwright , the harness-maker and the hand-loom weaver , plied their trades and their art , descended generation by generation through their apprentices , moving from one centre of trade and wealth to another , in accordance with tho laws of prosperity which governs civilization . Figure weaving and the India shawl are older than tho days of Abraham , and the hand-loom , in its pristine form , is still used to weave tho latter . The potter's wheel is still unimproved . The
ship of to-day bears on her stern tho carved lares and symbols which her prototypes bore in the days of Pagan Rome . The fashionable jewellery of to-day is copied from Etruscan and Egyptian models . The fine arts revel in tho goddesses , nymphs and Cupids of Greek design . Some of the mummies of Egypt reveal teeth plugged with gold as well as if an American dentist had tried his torturing tools on them . My limits forbid more illustrations of the conventional ruts other artisans have lived and died in for more than sixty generations .
The present sum of human knowledge has been longer in accumulating than tho records of history bear witness . Even the few arts which are of modern origin , with rare exceptions , lean for support on more ancient arts . What reason is there to withhold from the Craft of Masonry the same inferences of a descent from the ancient Craft which is so readily accorded to other arts ? Research into architecture would furnish further illustrations of the descent of this
art , important in my view because tho conventional images in art are the highest evidence of its continuous transmission . Wo must deal with the past from such materials as time , war and fanaticism have spared to come down to us . Masonry is replete with the actual relics of its ancient work . These attest for themselves . In the vnlgar sense , except a few papyri snatched from Egyptian tombs , they are
now no extant no written records of those days which are original . There is no Jewish or Christian MS . extant earlier than the fourth , perhaps than the seventh , century in the date of its writing . Tho conjecture as to the accuracy of a copy is sadly complicated if it is the copy of copies many times removed from the original ; but if copies of various known dates agree in the text , it is held proof
of an authentic line of descent , although the entire chain of copies back to the original is not produced or accounted for . The rocks last longer than parchment or paper ; and chisel marks endure better than ink . The memory of man' expands little over seventy years ; beyond that , written records or stone records alike rest on reasonable conjecture for proof of authenticity . The dead generations cannot bo
gathered from tho valley of dry bones aud paraded as witnesses j you must interrogate the relics of their works and abide the reasonable inferences deduced from them . Eastern art did not fall with Egypt , Babylon or Rome . Tho light of earlier times had not faded away when the energy of the Arab followers of Mahomet revived its flick , ering beams for nine centuries more . Upon these sources Europe
drew for knowledge and skill in art , science and philosophy—certainly till the eloso of the fifteenth century . Oriental philosophy again interwove its metaphysics into European theology . Even tho Crusaders , poor soldiers of the cross , learned not only war and art from their adversaries , but were charged with returning with their creeds imbued with more than one emanation from Eastern
mysticism . Anderson , a hundred and fifty years ago , claimed they also brought Freemasonry from the East . Masonry , which had decayed in Europe with the eclipse of Roman civilisation , became illumined by association with Saracenic skill , invented and perfected the Gothic art , and gradually , through Fraternities of trained Masons , spread it over Europe .
In the practical hands of tho Master Mnsons it grew in grace and beauty , until it entirely superseded the debased Roman styles , and became the devotional art of mediroval times , symbolising the mystic ideas of the dominant religion in those sublime cathedrals , still the objects of religious art . The organisation of the Craft resembled that of the Egyptian aud Greek of yore . The masters were practical as well as scientific ia architecture ; tho Fellow Craft had the samn
manual skill , but inferior attainments , in the higher parts of the profession ; the apprentice was glorious as usual over his modest progress . Their initiations and signs bound them into a close fraternity of grades . At York Minster , A . D . 1370 , their contracts with the Chapter provided none should work on the chapel withont the common consent of the Master and keepers of the work ( Wardens ?) and Master Masons . Their Mason marks are yet extant . The secrets of their