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Article ANCIENT MASONS' MARKS. ← Page 2 of 5 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ancient Masons' Marks.
istencc still show ; /' . c . they have been in use from the remotest antiquity , and were most probably g iven , to mark a certain advance in the noble science , and at the same time to enable the architect to give praise or censure where it happened to be due , by showing at once the work of the individual . Various writers in modern times have noticed
and commented on these strange hierogl yp hics , ( for in ono sense they arc such , ) and those mysterious characters , which , on stones hewn from the quarry thousands of years since , show the early existence of those associations , known as the Syrian or Dionysian artificers , and in after times , as children of the Widow , or Free Masons , as clearly as the fossil trees
or p lants met with b y the geologist , reveal to him the different aspects , which the crust of our planet has assumed since its creation b y the Almi ghty . Thus wc find Ainsworth in his travels , vol . ii . p . 167 , speaking of the ruins of Al-Hadhr in Mesopotamia , in the following terms . " Every stone" he says" not only in the chief building , but in the
, , walls and bastions , and other public monuments , when not defaced by time , is marked witli a character , which is for the most part either a Chaldean letter or numeral . Some ofthe letters at Al-Hadhr resemble the Roman A , ancl others were apparently astronomical signs , among which were very common the ancient mirror ancl handle 2 „"
The Hol y Volume informs us , that the Temple of Jerusalem , built for the worshi p of the onl y true and living God , b y the wisest of all princes , assisted b y the famed artificers of Gebbal , sent b y Hiram , King of Tyre , was constructed in such a manner , that the sound of axe or hammer was not heard in the Holy House : and our traditions , without directly
alluding to the fact , allege , that each stone hewn in the mountain , had cut upon it a certain character or mark , indicative , at once , of the bod y of Masons who had prepared it , ancl the place it was destined to occupy in the Temple . However this may be , the immense size ancl wei ght of the stones still existing in the
foundationequalling those in the Temple at Baalbec—would appear to corroborate the opinion that some such system had been in use to secure the known result ( absence of metallic noise ) . * We know that modern travellers in E gypt have observed a process represented similar to that just alluded to , where workmen are shewn bringing the stone to be examined ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ancient Masons' Marks.
istencc still show ; /' . c . they have been in use from the remotest antiquity , and were most probably g iven , to mark a certain advance in the noble science , and at the same time to enable the architect to give praise or censure where it happened to be due , by showing at once the work of the individual . Various writers in modern times have noticed
and commented on these strange hierogl yp hics , ( for in ono sense they arc such , ) and those mysterious characters , which , on stones hewn from the quarry thousands of years since , show the early existence of those associations , known as the Syrian or Dionysian artificers , and in after times , as children of the Widow , or Free Masons , as clearly as the fossil trees
or p lants met with b y the geologist , reveal to him the different aspects , which the crust of our planet has assumed since its creation b y the Almi ghty . Thus wc find Ainsworth in his travels , vol . ii . p . 167 , speaking of the ruins of Al-Hadhr in Mesopotamia , in the following terms . " Every stone" he says" not only in the chief building , but in the
, , walls and bastions , and other public monuments , when not defaced by time , is marked witli a character , which is for the most part either a Chaldean letter or numeral . Some ofthe letters at Al-Hadhr resemble the Roman A , ancl others were apparently astronomical signs , among which were very common the ancient mirror ancl handle 2 „"
The Hol y Volume informs us , that the Temple of Jerusalem , built for the worshi p of the onl y true and living God , b y the wisest of all princes , assisted b y the famed artificers of Gebbal , sent b y Hiram , King of Tyre , was constructed in such a manner , that the sound of axe or hammer was not heard in the Holy House : and our traditions , without directly
alluding to the fact , allege , that each stone hewn in the mountain , had cut upon it a certain character or mark , indicative , at once , of the bod y of Masons who had prepared it , ancl the place it was destined to occupy in the Temple . However this may be , the immense size ancl wei ght of the stones still existing in the
foundationequalling those in the Temple at Baalbec—would appear to corroborate the opinion that some such system had been in use to secure the known result ( absence of metallic noise ) . * We know that modern travellers in E gypt have observed a process represented similar to that just alluded to , where workmen are shewn bringing the stone to be examined ,