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Article HISTORY OF MASONRY. ← Page 5 of 8 →
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History Of Masonry.
Ptolemy Philadelphus succeeded his father in . the throne , and in Solomon ' s chair : and in his second year he carried on the great tower of Pharos , founded by his father , the sixth of the seven-wonders of art , built on an island as a lig ht-house for the port of Alexandria ( whence li g ht-houses in the Mediterranean are called ^ ros ) , a piece of amazing architectureby the care of his Grand Wardens
Deii-, phanes and liisson Sostratus : the father built the Heptastadium or mole , for joining the island to the continent , while the son reared the tower . Philadelphus founded the city Myos Hormus on the Red Sea for the East-India trade , built the temple of the Zephyrian Venus in Crete , Ptclemais in Palestine , and rebuilt the old Kabbah of the
Ammonites , calling it Philadel phia . Nay , he was so accurate an architect , that for a long time all fine Masonry was called Philadelphia ^ or after the stile of Philadel phus . [ Before Christ 24 6 . 3 Ptolemy , the son of Philadelphus , called Euergetes , succeeded , and was the last good old Grand Master in Egypt : his wardens were his two learned librarians , Eratosthenes of
Cyrene , ancl Apollonius of Rhodes . ' The library of Bruchium being nearly full , he erected another at Seraphium , which in time contained 306 , 000 manuscripts ; and Cleopatra afterward added 200 , 000 more from the library of Pergamos , given to her by Mark Anthony . But all this vast library was burnt by the ignorant , stupid , and bigoted Saracenswhen they took the city of Alexandriato the irreparable
, , loss of the learned . It had often been rifled on the revolutions ami commotions that happened in the Roman Empire ; yet was as . often repaired and replenished again with its full number of books , till this its final destruction ; which happened as follows :
[ A . D . 642 . ] When Alexandria was taken and plundered by the Saracens , Johannes Grammaticus , the famous Aristotelian philosopher , being then living at Alexandria , and having much ingratiated himself with Amrus Ebnol As , the general of the Saracen army , and , by reason of his great learning , made himself acceptable to him , he begged of him the royal library ; to this Amrus replied , that it . ' w :-is
not in his power , but was wholly at the disposal of the cali ph , or emperor of the Saracens , to whom he would write about it . The cali ph returned for answer , that if those books contained what was agreeable to the Koran , there was no need of them , for that alone was sufficient of itself for all truths ; but if they contained what disagreed with the Koranthey were not to be endured : therefore he 01 detect
, , that whatsoever the contents of them were , they should all be destroyed . They were accordingly distributed among the public baths , and served as fuel for six months to heat all the baths of Alexandria ; which shews how great the number of them was , and what an inestimable treasure of antient learning was devoted to destruction , for a contemptible quibble generated by barbarous zeal founded on i -
gno rance ! When Egypt became a Roman province , the antient learning and peculiar genius of the natives sunk under the military power and manners of their conquerors ; and was totally extinguished when the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
History Of Masonry.
Ptolemy Philadelphus succeeded his father in . the throne , and in Solomon ' s chair : and in his second year he carried on the great tower of Pharos , founded by his father , the sixth of the seven-wonders of art , built on an island as a lig ht-house for the port of Alexandria ( whence li g ht-houses in the Mediterranean are called ^ ros ) , a piece of amazing architectureby the care of his Grand Wardens
Deii-, phanes and liisson Sostratus : the father built the Heptastadium or mole , for joining the island to the continent , while the son reared the tower . Philadelphus founded the city Myos Hormus on the Red Sea for the East-India trade , built the temple of the Zephyrian Venus in Crete , Ptclemais in Palestine , and rebuilt the old Kabbah of the
Ammonites , calling it Philadel phia . Nay , he was so accurate an architect , that for a long time all fine Masonry was called Philadelphia ^ or after the stile of Philadel phus . [ Before Christ 24 6 . 3 Ptolemy , the son of Philadelphus , called Euergetes , succeeded , and was the last good old Grand Master in Egypt : his wardens were his two learned librarians , Eratosthenes of
Cyrene , ancl Apollonius of Rhodes . ' The library of Bruchium being nearly full , he erected another at Seraphium , which in time contained 306 , 000 manuscripts ; and Cleopatra afterward added 200 , 000 more from the library of Pergamos , given to her by Mark Anthony . But all this vast library was burnt by the ignorant , stupid , and bigoted Saracenswhen they took the city of Alexandriato the irreparable
, , loss of the learned . It had often been rifled on the revolutions ami commotions that happened in the Roman Empire ; yet was as . often repaired and replenished again with its full number of books , till this its final destruction ; which happened as follows :
[ A . D . 642 . ] When Alexandria was taken and plundered by the Saracens , Johannes Grammaticus , the famous Aristotelian philosopher , being then living at Alexandria , and having much ingratiated himself with Amrus Ebnol As , the general of the Saracen army , and , by reason of his great learning , made himself acceptable to him , he begged of him the royal library ; to this Amrus replied , that it . ' w :-is
not in his power , but was wholly at the disposal of the cali ph , or emperor of the Saracens , to whom he would write about it . The cali ph returned for answer , that if those books contained what was agreeable to the Koran , there was no need of them , for that alone was sufficient of itself for all truths ; but if they contained what disagreed with the Koranthey were not to be endured : therefore he 01 detect
, , that whatsoever the contents of them were , they should all be destroyed . They were accordingly distributed among the public baths , and served as fuel for six months to heat all the baths of Alexandria ; which shews how great the number of them was , and what an inestimable treasure of antient learning was devoted to destruction , for a contemptible quibble generated by barbarous zeal founded on i -
gno rance ! When Egypt became a Roman province , the antient learning and peculiar genius of the natives sunk under the military power and manners of their conquerors ; and was totally extinguished when the