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Article TO THE EDITOR. ← Page 2 of 4 →
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To The Editor.
It is remarkable , that these philosophers , in every age and every nation ^ distinguished themselves by the appellation which in all ages signifies a Mason . It is true that every Fellow-craft , before he obtained the dignity of a Master-mason , must have made great proficiency in grammar , logic , rhetoric , arithmetic , geometry , music , and astronomy . The Masons had long confined all the sciences within the limits of
their own fraternity , till they admitted amongst them those travelling Greek philosophers who visited Egypt in search of knowledge . —¦ They indeed were not very scrupulous in pursuing the means of obtaining science by any sacrifice , nor less nice or conscientious in divulging those secrets which were under the strongest obligation imparted to them .
Euclid first made public all he had learned of geometry ; the higher part of the mathematics he had not acquired . The application of this science to the measurement of land , building , and various other arts , was so obvious , that many ingenious Greeks availed themselves of it , to the no small detriment of the Masons . This , as it was the first , was the severest blow our society ever felt . Some of them to this day assertand seriously toothat the
extraor-, , dinary death of this apostate was a judgment on him for the breach of his obligation ; an eagle , mistaking his bald head for a stone , having dropped a tortoise oh it to crush the shell . Pythagoras resided more years in Egypt than any other Grecian philosopher . On his return he enjoined a three years inviolable
silence on all his pupils . He revealed to his countrymen several of the secrets of Masons , viz . the seven different tints of the colorific principle ; the seven tones in music , and the true system of astronomy , which placed the sun in the centre ; the eight revolving planets with their attendants ; the advent of comets , from one system to another , of which each star is a central sun . Not being furnished with instruments capable of discovering the
two most distant planets beyond the orbit of Saturn , his astronomy was turned into ridicule , by a people whose natural frivolity gave them a disgust to strong thinking , and whose vanity precluded close and severe examination of imported erudition . His school fell into disrepute , and he himself into neglect , though one of the best informed , and perhaps the wisest , of all their philosophers .
Aristotle studied grammar , logic , rhetoric , natural pmlosophy , metaphysics , and some other sciences among the Egyptian Masons . He conveyed a fund of knowledge to mankind which lie had no right to communicate . Much indeed of what he learned he has misplaced and disfigured in his writings . He has misrepresented some of their finest sentiments , not so much for want of judgment as taste ; partly perhaps to amuse his readersand partlfrom vanity .
, y Of all the Grecian philosophers who visited Egypt , and had the honour of being admitecl among the Masons ( which l ? y the way they carefully concealed ) , the most disingenuous was Plato . The sciences of theology , ethics , and metaphysics , were his peculiar favourites .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To The Editor.
It is remarkable , that these philosophers , in every age and every nation ^ distinguished themselves by the appellation which in all ages signifies a Mason . It is true that every Fellow-craft , before he obtained the dignity of a Master-mason , must have made great proficiency in grammar , logic , rhetoric , arithmetic , geometry , music , and astronomy . The Masons had long confined all the sciences within the limits of
their own fraternity , till they admitted amongst them those travelling Greek philosophers who visited Egypt in search of knowledge . —¦ They indeed were not very scrupulous in pursuing the means of obtaining science by any sacrifice , nor less nice or conscientious in divulging those secrets which were under the strongest obligation imparted to them .
Euclid first made public all he had learned of geometry ; the higher part of the mathematics he had not acquired . The application of this science to the measurement of land , building , and various other arts , was so obvious , that many ingenious Greeks availed themselves of it , to the no small detriment of the Masons . This , as it was the first , was the severest blow our society ever felt . Some of them to this day assertand seriously toothat the
extraor-, , dinary death of this apostate was a judgment on him for the breach of his obligation ; an eagle , mistaking his bald head for a stone , having dropped a tortoise oh it to crush the shell . Pythagoras resided more years in Egypt than any other Grecian philosopher . On his return he enjoined a three years inviolable
silence on all his pupils . He revealed to his countrymen several of the secrets of Masons , viz . the seven different tints of the colorific principle ; the seven tones in music , and the true system of astronomy , which placed the sun in the centre ; the eight revolving planets with their attendants ; the advent of comets , from one system to another , of which each star is a central sun . Not being furnished with instruments capable of discovering the
two most distant planets beyond the orbit of Saturn , his astronomy was turned into ridicule , by a people whose natural frivolity gave them a disgust to strong thinking , and whose vanity precluded close and severe examination of imported erudition . His school fell into disrepute , and he himself into neglect , though one of the best informed , and perhaps the wisest , of all their philosophers .
Aristotle studied grammar , logic , rhetoric , natural pmlosophy , metaphysics , and some other sciences among the Egyptian Masons . He conveyed a fund of knowledge to mankind which lie had no right to communicate . Much indeed of what he learned he has misplaced and disfigured in his writings . He has misrepresented some of their finest sentiments , not so much for want of judgment as taste ; partly perhaps to amuse his readersand partlfrom vanity .
, y Of all the Grecian philosophers who visited Egypt , and had the honour of being admitecl among the Masons ( which l ? y the way they carefully concealed ) , the most disingenuous was Plato . The sciences of theology , ethics , and metaphysics , were his peculiar favourites .