Dionysian Artificers.*

In later Greek history these sublime ideas were no doubt degraded by the gross sensuality into which the Greeks had fallen , but their original purity is a fact , which no scholar will now dispute . In Rome , the depravity of those who practised the Bacchanalian mysteries was the

cause of great public scandal , and some of the early Christian writers , who knew nothing of their original meaning , were able to draw up a terrible bill of indictment against the decaying civilisation , upon the surface of which these perverted ideas floated like scum . It is to a colony of Greeks ,

settled in Asia Minor , that we are apparently indebted for the transmission of the rites of Bacchus , allied with the scientific truths of Craft Masonry , to modern Europe . These Ionian Greeks were builders , and formed a society for the purposes of their calling . They were called the

Dionysian Artificers , and they gradually spread themselves into Syria , Persia and India . They extended their moral views in conjunction with the art of building to many useful purposes , and to the practice of acts of benevolence . Prom Ionia or Asia Minor these artificers passed to Judea ,

and assisted in the building of the Temple which Solomon reared in honour of the tutelary God of Israel . We cannot , however , agree with our author in the view quoted from Josephus that these artificers introduced the Grecian style of architecture into Judea . Grecian details may

undoubtedly have been used in the construction of the Temple , but its ground p lan was so clearly Egyp tian that we are inclined to the opinion that its main structural features were copied from the great buildings which lined the banks of the Nile . That these artificers taught the mysteries which

were mixed up with Masonry to the Jews , is undoubted , and it is supposed , from references in the great work of Josephus , that the sect of Essenians , of which John the Baptist is said to have been a member , grew out of this

association of the mysteries of Bacchus with the ethical ideas common to the Jew . Christianity itself appears to have been slightly tinged with the Essenian philosophy , and M . Renan has not hesitated to avow his belief that its

divine founder was familiar with the dogmas of the sect . We , while holding that Christianity stands alone , and is indebted to no human system for its sublime teachings , do not deny that its pure morality , and its early theories of communism find their counterpart in the views of the

devout people , who , with John for a spokesman , prepared the way for a higher teaching and broader views of the social and spiritual duties of mankind . It is needless for us to refer here to the pall of darkness which obscured all the light of the ancient world in the second and third

centuries of our era . In the night of the middle ages the teachings of the ancient sages were forgotten , and it was only with the revival of learning that the few remaining fragments of their teachings were gathered together and

reanimated . We here take leave of this mterestmgfragment , which has afforded us a text for these equally fragmentary remarks , and we cannot but regret that the work of Mr . Da Costa is so little known to our brethren and the world .

East, West, And South.

EAST , WEST , AND SOUTH .

BY A WANDERING FREEMASON . I . AFTER an excursion in the White Cloud Mountains ; we passed three days rambling 'mid throngs of people , down narrow interminable streets , over highstepped Btone \ ridges , among crowded shops , glitter of pendant signboards and gilded overhanging- eaves . From

Temple to Temple ; through Theatrical School , Examination Hall and Execution Ground ; with the five hundred Genii ; in the Temple of Horrors ; at the great Clepsydra , and round the city walls ; till wonders almost ceased to excite us , and brain indigestion ensued from whirl of

novelties . On this , the third day of our researches , though the kind forethought of our Mentor ( in the truest sense a guide , philosopher , and friend ) had provided us with substantial luncheon in the "Temple of Longevity , " we were moreover , perplexed with the metaphysical

speculations which much of the lore disclosed to us had suggested . On that morning we had seen what few have gazed upon—the sleeping Buddli ; in the still adytum of an ancient Temple , reverently enshrined amid congenial adornments the figure lay , head resting on one arm in

East, West, And South.

hushed repose , waiting for his next Avatar . Before the gigantic triple-idols which symbolise him as the Eternal Omnipresent , our Mentor had held converse with the aged

priests , aud had sought to make clear to us the grand Philosophy veiled thus in imagery of Past , Present , and Future , crowned with that sublime Ninvana , the loftiest conception of the human soul .

Only last year , in 1874 , was first declared to the European public , by a distinguished Orientalist , how elevated is that old Philosophy ; how undeserving of the obloquy east on it by students who but entered the porch without passing the veil ; how different the subtleties

of its esoteric , from the vulgar superstitions of its exoteric phase . Instead of a gross notion of souls transmigrating from body to body , through Matter ; from man , mayhap , to beasts and herbs , a scientific allegory adapted to common understanding ; we listened , awe-struck , to a time-old

legend of the origin of souls , of strife between Spirit and Matter—Light and Darkness—of a return through probations to pristine purity , a metempsychosis from sphere to sphere , from celestial mission to celestial mission ; of progressive sanctification and of the glorious end—final absorption into Deity . And this was no modern system ,

no fantastic ideal of a sage Gautama ( successor of prior Avatars ) but had been the general creed of Asia , as it was of so-called prehistoric Europe ; whose votaries yet exceed those of any other , taught from the beginning of Time . Again—with different reflections , upon the thirst of the

million for appeals to the lower faculties , and upon the inevitable degradation of all Theosophy when mummified as doctrine of a privileged Priesthood , we had stood beside the rock on which , said a cowled and shaven monk , " Gautama , ' ere his ascension , left the print of his foot

There , scooped in the stone , was the perfect impress of a gigantic foot , perfect to the moulding of the heel , the hollow of the instep , the concaves of the ball and under the toes : a perfect representation . No psychic awe stole over us , nor did any intuition warn to doff our hats or to put

off our shoes , as though we stood on holy ground . And now—the Sun had set : the gloaming spread over the landscape as we emerged from one of the City gates . Not only we , but our bearers , were fatigued ; still oui Mentor directed them not homewards , but urged them on .

On a narrow path , across a level landscape of partiall ysubmerged fields , we descried looming before us a sombre grove of Cypress behind a crumbling wall . We skirted an angle and halted before a huge gateway . A clamp noisome influence pervaded the atmosphere , and at our feet grew

masses of dank weed in foul luxuriance . Soon an iron ring was found , which being pulled provoked in contrast with the outer stillness so sharp a clang , seeming . to

reverberate down endless corridors and in the bowels of the earth , that our nerves , already overtasked , were startled with a nameless fear . No response appeared , and the summons was repeated several times .

No explanation of whither we were going had been given : only boundless confidence in our friend prevented us from expressing a desire to leave this ill-omened spot . Reminiscence of Dante , at the portal of the underworld , with Yirgil by his side , occurred to us .

" Lasciate ogni speransa , voi ch'intratr . " At length a dark postern opened , and a decrepit porter admitted us by the flaring light of a pitch-torch , flourished aloft . As we stepped in and discerned a silent street of

closed one-storied houses , from whose dim lattices and chinks of massive doorways stole stead y glints of light into the weird shadows around , our Mentor turned with solemn aspect , and in subdued tone bade us welcome to

T n E C 1 T X 0 F T HE DEAD Lost in amazement , Ave could answer nothing , and our guide signed to the torchbearer to lead on . We followed up the street , from Avhich dark visions of others spread out at right angles in sepulchral quietude , and across Avhich

our footfalls seemed to echo with unwonted harshness . Of one of the larger houses our guide threw open the door , and disclosed a hall dimly lit by tapers in each corner ; in the centre , a huge sarcophagus whose embroidered coverlet fell

in folds upon the floor : round it stood guards , each leaning on his halberd , motionless and mute , their gaze riveted on the object before them . Banners aud tapestry covered with strange emblems , adorned the Avails and flapped as we entered at the door . A thin spiral streak of smoke rose