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Article ON FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 9 →
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On Freemasonry.
ON FREEMASONRY .
EIGHTH Erocir .
( Continued from p . JC 3 , vol . 4 , June , 1837 ., / HAVING traced the progress of Masonry in its purest channel ; its descent from the Patriarchs and through the Jewish nation ; it is our duty , ere we proceed to notice its introduction into the British Isles , to investigate its state with regard to the mighty heathen nations of antiquity .
Of China , the most ancient in the world , having been founded , according to the best authorities , by Noah when he parted in anger from his rebellious offspring , little can be said . Most probably , at a very early period it fell from thc true faith ; but the extraordinary policy of that people renders every thing pertaining to their government , literature ,
antiquities , and sacred laws , a sealed volume ; or , at best , a subject of conjecture . Certain it is , that a knowledge of those truly Masonic sciences , Astronomy and Geometry , at
a remote age prevailed amongst them . To Egypt , founded by Misraim , the son of Ham , we turn with awe and reverence—the land of the wonders of the Craft—the land of the Pyramids ! Thousands of ages have past , and still those gigantic monuments of human industry and skill rear their eternal apex . Egypt was the hallowed fount whence Assyria ,
Media , Babylon , Greece , and Rome drew the mightiest of their inspirations . Simple as were their principles of architecture , ignorant as were their builders of the properties of the arch , they applied their skill to the grandest of purposes . What can be more stupendous than the roofs of their temples —more magnificent than the ruins of MemphisHeliopolis
, , and Thebes , at whose colossal remains the traveller still gazes in breathless wonder and admiration ? The man of science ponders in vain upon the means by which such enormous masses of granite could have been raised , —masses whose weight would baffle the proudest inventions of modern mechanism .
Egypt is in truth the grave of art ; the present degraded stale of its people affords a striking lesson to the wisdom and pride of mankind . The dust of her soil teems with records of the past ; yet her children prize and understand them not . The pilgrim from distant Europe visits the land VOL . iv . 2 s
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
ON FREEMASONRY .
EIGHTH Erocir .
( Continued from p . JC 3 , vol . 4 , June , 1837 ., / HAVING traced the progress of Masonry in its purest channel ; its descent from the Patriarchs and through the Jewish nation ; it is our duty , ere we proceed to notice its introduction into the British Isles , to investigate its state with regard to the mighty heathen nations of antiquity .
Of China , the most ancient in the world , having been founded , according to the best authorities , by Noah when he parted in anger from his rebellious offspring , little can be said . Most probably , at a very early period it fell from thc true faith ; but the extraordinary policy of that people renders every thing pertaining to their government , literature ,
antiquities , and sacred laws , a sealed volume ; or , at best , a subject of conjecture . Certain it is , that a knowledge of those truly Masonic sciences , Astronomy and Geometry , at
a remote age prevailed amongst them . To Egypt , founded by Misraim , the son of Ham , we turn with awe and reverence—the land of the wonders of the Craft—the land of the Pyramids ! Thousands of ages have past , and still those gigantic monuments of human industry and skill rear their eternal apex . Egypt was the hallowed fount whence Assyria ,
Media , Babylon , Greece , and Rome drew the mightiest of their inspirations . Simple as were their principles of architecture , ignorant as were their builders of the properties of the arch , they applied their skill to the grandest of purposes . What can be more stupendous than the roofs of their temples —more magnificent than the ruins of MemphisHeliopolis
, , and Thebes , at whose colossal remains the traveller still gazes in breathless wonder and admiration ? The man of science ponders in vain upon the means by which such enormous masses of granite could have been raised , —masses whose weight would baffle the proudest inventions of modern mechanism .
Egypt is in truth the grave of art ; the present degraded stale of its people affords a striking lesson to the wisdom and pride of mankind . The dust of her soil teems with records of the past ; yet her children prize and understand them not . The pilgrim from distant Europe visits the land VOL . iv . 2 s