Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Knowledge Of Freemasonry By The Druids.
jealousy and ambition , set themselves up in opposition to the pure Masonry practised by the Patriarchs ; and whilst it must engender a feeling of honest pride and veneration for his own order , it cannot fail to be also a matter of great consolation to the Mason , when he reflects that , to the opposition and oppression consequent upon the desire to carry out those unworthy motives , he doubtless owes the preservation of Masonry in all its original purity and excellence .
Ca 3 sar , whose historical account of this country is admitted to be as authentic as any written by early historians , describes the British , particularly those not living on the coast , as a rude barbarous race , and in one of their embassies of peace to him , they designate themselves as " a savage unpolished people , and wholly unacquainted with Roman customs . " It seems evident , therefore , they could not have had much , if anyprior intercourse with that couuttyand that consequently their
, , manners aud observances , all of which bear strong traces of eastern origin , must have been derived from some country of greater antiquity ; and upon a comparison of our own Masonic ceremonials with those of the Druids , although some may be found to bear a resemblance , yet if the principles of Masonry be steadily kept in view , it would seem to be something more than mere fancy , in asserting that Freemasonry was wholly unknown to the Britons up to the commencement of the present
era , and that their practices and symbols must have been derived from some one of the numerous systems of profane worship , and spurious mysteries , set up in opposition to the pure science . These spurious mysteries had grown to so alarming an extent during
the three or four centuries before Caisar ' s invasion , and were so universally substituted for Freemasonry , that had not the latter received a Divine support , it must then have been lost to the world . Such , however , was not to be its doom ; for although in fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah , * the Laws of God , and Masonry with them , fell for a time into oblivion before the worship of Baal ; yet it was only to rise again , and like a giant refreshed by slumber , to tread beneath its powerful
weig ht of truth all the systems that had been set up to [ traduce and destroy it , thereby verifying the proverb , that " the lip of truth shall be established for ever , but a ly ing tongue is but for a moment " - ! / . It has been suggested , that the Druids derived their system of Government from Pythagoras , and that he also taught them the " science of Masonry" when he journeyed into Britain ; but if such was the fact , and that the Druids condescended to become his pupils instead of his
teachers ( which latter would seem to be the more reasonable conjecture of the two , from the avowed purposes of Pythagoras' travels ) , it seems strange , as the Grecian and Roman customs and ceremonials were in his time so very similar , that the British should , in Cesar ' s time , have remained so perfectly ignorant of them . The chief argument in support of the assertion that Pythagoras was a teacher of the Druidsseems to he derived from the fact that they
, practised many of his tenets , and adopted many of his doctrines ; but it should be recollected that those tenets and doctrines did not originate with Pythagoras , although .. they were reduced to a more perfect and pure system by him ; and the weig ht of evidence appears to be rather in support of a presumption that the Druids learnt them from the same
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Knowledge Of Freemasonry By The Druids.
jealousy and ambition , set themselves up in opposition to the pure Masonry practised by the Patriarchs ; and whilst it must engender a feeling of honest pride and veneration for his own order , it cannot fail to be also a matter of great consolation to the Mason , when he reflects that , to the opposition and oppression consequent upon the desire to carry out those unworthy motives , he doubtless owes the preservation of Masonry in all its original purity and excellence .
Ca 3 sar , whose historical account of this country is admitted to be as authentic as any written by early historians , describes the British , particularly those not living on the coast , as a rude barbarous race , and in one of their embassies of peace to him , they designate themselves as " a savage unpolished people , and wholly unacquainted with Roman customs . " It seems evident , therefore , they could not have had much , if anyprior intercourse with that couuttyand that consequently their
, , manners aud observances , all of which bear strong traces of eastern origin , must have been derived from some country of greater antiquity ; and upon a comparison of our own Masonic ceremonials with those of the Druids , although some may be found to bear a resemblance , yet if the principles of Masonry be steadily kept in view , it would seem to be something more than mere fancy , in asserting that Freemasonry was wholly unknown to the Britons up to the commencement of the present
era , and that their practices and symbols must have been derived from some one of the numerous systems of profane worship , and spurious mysteries , set up in opposition to the pure science . These spurious mysteries had grown to so alarming an extent during
the three or four centuries before Caisar ' s invasion , and were so universally substituted for Freemasonry , that had not the latter received a Divine support , it must then have been lost to the world . Such , however , was not to be its doom ; for although in fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah , * the Laws of God , and Masonry with them , fell for a time into oblivion before the worship of Baal ; yet it was only to rise again , and like a giant refreshed by slumber , to tread beneath its powerful
weig ht of truth all the systems that had been set up to [ traduce and destroy it , thereby verifying the proverb , that " the lip of truth shall be established for ever , but a ly ing tongue is but for a moment " - ! / . It has been suggested , that the Druids derived their system of Government from Pythagoras , and that he also taught them the " science of Masonry" when he journeyed into Britain ; but if such was the fact , and that the Druids condescended to become his pupils instead of his
teachers ( which latter would seem to be the more reasonable conjecture of the two , from the avowed purposes of Pythagoras' travels ) , it seems strange , as the Grecian and Roman customs and ceremonials were in his time so very similar , that the British should , in Cesar ' s time , have remained so perfectly ignorant of them . The chief argument in support of the assertion that Pythagoras was a teacher of the Druidsseems to he derived from the fact that they
, practised many of his tenets , and adopted many of his doctrines ; but it should be recollected that those tenets and doctrines did not originate with Pythagoras , although .. they were reduced to a more perfect and pure system by him ; and the weig ht of evidence appears to be rather in support of a presumption that the Druids learnt them from the same