Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Historical Enquiry Into The Funereal Ceremonies Of The Various Nations Of The World*
period had not proved himself the victor in long and dangerous trials , was retained within the interior of temples , in which he could not acquire the knowledge of any mystery , and which he never quitted ; the hell of the Greeks ivas consequently only an imitation of the practices of initiation , as it reached the understandings of men enveloped in all the fables of tradition and error . Among Masonsfunereal rites are yet more ticularlconsecrated .
, par y They form a part of their ritual , and great importance is attached to them , as they must become a monument of the losses of the Order , and at the same time a standard of the attachment borne to the deceased . The proceeding is either by honours paid to the departed at his grave . or by a display of pomp in the interior of their Lodges . The respect due to the dead is invariabl y found among all nations , which have attained that real civilizationin which reliion and morality sanctif
, g y industry , the sciences , and the arts . Abundant historical facts , and the repeated testimony of architecture and sculpture , verify this assertion . In ancient Egypt , that old and deplorable land of Misraim , entire subterranean cities , restored to light in subsequent ages , have revealed to us the reality of a worship aud adoration paid by a people now no more .
Immense excavations extend beneath the calcareous chain ivhich borders the Nile , and the tumulary marvels of the Necropolis of Thebes and Memphis , equal the chefs-d ' oeuvre illuminated by the beams of the sun on the lovely banks of that river . Even the Pyramids , those colossal monuments of architecture , are temples erected to death ; these enormous works , mountains raised by the hand of man , bear aloft , even to their summits , the sorrow and regrets of those who constructed them , and who
enclosed within these vast sepulchres the bodies of their benefactors , whose foreheads had once been encircled by the crown , on the sacred bandeau . In our own days the members of the Institute , who were the peaceful companions of the French army in the east , and the researches of Burckhardt , Banks , Belzoni , Salt and Calliard , have enriched the learned world ivith fresh discoveries , and our illustrious brother the Count de La Bordehas admirably explored the tombs hollowed in the solid rock
, throughout the space of a square league . These monuments , dedicated to sorrow , of great elevation and extreme depth , enriched within and without by all the treasures of architecture , recall to the beholder , whose daring foot may rarely have pressed the soil of Egypt , the magnificence and piety of those , who ivere its inhabitants in the time of the Pharoahs .
throughout Assyria and Persia , similar sentiments have everywhere left the same vestiges . At Ecbatana , Babylon , and Persepolis , crumbling palaces are buried beneath a vigorous vegetation , the Mausoleum alone still rears its head , and eloquently proclaims to the present generation the virtues of the past . When the empire itself has ceased to be , when dynasties are extinct , the tomb , which only has preserved its honours and its voice , reveals to us a double destruction , —that of the men and of the nation .
Throughout Asia Minor the same respect for the remains of mortal men may be observed . The tumulus of Achilles still crowns Cape Sigseum , on the plain where once ivas Troy ; whilst the pomp of Artemisia ' s grief in Caria has immortalized her name and that of Mausolus . In Greece the same spirit may be traced . The Eleusis of Attica Avas the daughter and the heritage of the Isis of Misraiin . Everything tends to prove that the Athenians attributed a very just importance to the duty of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Historical Enquiry Into The Funereal Ceremonies Of The Various Nations Of The World*
period had not proved himself the victor in long and dangerous trials , was retained within the interior of temples , in which he could not acquire the knowledge of any mystery , and which he never quitted ; the hell of the Greeks ivas consequently only an imitation of the practices of initiation , as it reached the understandings of men enveloped in all the fables of tradition and error . Among Masonsfunereal rites are yet more ticularlconsecrated .
, par y They form a part of their ritual , and great importance is attached to them , as they must become a monument of the losses of the Order , and at the same time a standard of the attachment borne to the deceased . The proceeding is either by honours paid to the departed at his grave . or by a display of pomp in the interior of their Lodges . The respect due to the dead is invariabl y found among all nations , which have attained that real civilizationin which reliion and morality sanctif
, g y industry , the sciences , and the arts . Abundant historical facts , and the repeated testimony of architecture and sculpture , verify this assertion . In ancient Egypt , that old and deplorable land of Misraim , entire subterranean cities , restored to light in subsequent ages , have revealed to us the reality of a worship aud adoration paid by a people now no more .
Immense excavations extend beneath the calcareous chain ivhich borders the Nile , and the tumulary marvels of the Necropolis of Thebes and Memphis , equal the chefs-d ' oeuvre illuminated by the beams of the sun on the lovely banks of that river . Even the Pyramids , those colossal monuments of architecture , are temples erected to death ; these enormous works , mountains raised by the hand of man , bear aloft , even to their summits , the sorrow and regrets of those who constructed them , and who
enclosed within these vast sepulchres the bodies of their benefactors , whose foreheads had once been encircled by the crown , on the sacred bandeau . In our own days the members of the Institute , who were the peaceful companions of the French army in the east , and the researches of Burckhardt , Banks , Belzoni , Salt and Calliard , have enriched the learned world ivith fresh discoveries , and our illustrious brother the Count de La Bordehas admirably explored the tombs hollowed in the solid rock
, throughout the space of a square league . These monuments , dedicated to sorrow , of great elevation and extreme depth , enriched within and without by all the treasures of architecture , recall to the beholder , whose daring foot may rarely have pressed the soil of Egypt , the magnificence and piety of those , who ivere its inhabitants in the time of the Pharoahs .
throughout Assyria and Persia , similar sentiments have everywhere left the same vestiges . At Ecbatana , Babylon , and Persepolis , crumbling palaces are buried beneath a vigorous vegetation , the Mausoleum alone still rears its head , and eloquently proclaims to the present generation the virtues of the past . When the empire itself has ceased to be , when dynasties are extinct , the tomb , which only has preserved its honours and its voice , reveals to us a double destruction , —that of the men and of the nation .
Throughout Asia Minor the same respect for the remains of mortal men may be observed . The tumulus of Achilles still crowns Cape Sigseum , on the plain where once ivas Troy ; whilst the pomp of Artemisia ' s grief in Caria has immortalized her name and that of Mausolus . In Greece the same spirit may be traced . The Eleusis of Attica Avas the daughter and the heritage of the Isis of Misraiin . Everything tends to prove that the Athenians attributed a very just importance to the duty of