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Article ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 3 of 9 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
p lace a true value on the data , so in metaphysics , it is necessary to have a clear knowledge of the facts before we can arrive at a correct logical deduction . In the East , which was first peopled after the Flood , we may expect to find these historical notices in some degree of perfectionas they would pass , without any material
, change , from generation to generation clown to the time when their sacred books were composed . Accordingly , amongst the Hindoos and their immediate nei g hbours , many i * eli g ious legends approximate very nearly to similar events recorded by Moses . Thus we find in the Asiatic Researches * a tradition preserved hy the Burmas—a
pri-, mitive people—in their sacred writings , which are of great antiquity , that " After the first inhabitants , their children and grandchildren had gradually and successively shorter lives in proportion as they became less virtuous ; and this gradual decrease continued till men came to live ten years only—the duration of the life of men in their greatest state
of wickedness . " This is a true description , excepting the number of years , of the degeneracy which actuall y took p lace at the Flood ; ancl the length of man ' s life was further shortened after that event till it fixed itself at the average age of three score years ancl ten . In like manner , Hesiod , speaking of the iron age , predicts that the world shall
be destroyed , when , by reason of iniquity , GUT' av r / eivo pivot iroXioKpoia / poi reKsDuxriv , men shall become grey-headed soon after their birth .
Again , " to the eastward of the Garden of Eden , the Hindoo traditions , preserved in their Mysteries , ! p lace a destroying angel , who generall y appears , and is represented like a cherub ; I mean Garuda , or the Eagle , upon whom Vishnu , or Jupiter , is mounted . Garuda is represented like an eagle ; but in his compound character
approaches to the Masonic cherub . He is sometimes dep icted like a young man , with the countenance , wings , and talons of the eagle . In Scripture the Deity is represented riding upon a cherub and flying upon the wings of the wind . This is the Simurgh of Persian romance , who carries the heros from one extremity of the world to
another . Garuda is called the Vahan ( literally the vehicle ) of Vishnu , or Jupiter , and he thus answers to the cherub of Scripture ; for man y commentators derive this word from the obsolete root C ' HARAB in the Chaldean language—
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
p lace a true value on the data , so in metaphysics , it is necessary to have a clear knowledge of the facts before we can arrive at a correct logical deduction . In the East , which was first peopled after the Flood , we may expect to find these historical notices in some degree of perfectionas they would pass , without any material
, change , from generation to generation clown to the time when their sacred books were composed . Accordingly , amongst the Hindoos and their immediate nei g hbours , many i * eli g ious legends approximate very nearly to similar events recorded by Moses . Thus we find in the Asiatic Researches * a tradition preserved hy the Burmas—a
pri-, mitive people—in their sacred writings , which are of great antiquity , that " After the first inhabitants , their children and grandchildren had gradually and successively shorter lives in proportion as they became less virtuous ; and this gradual decrease continued till men came to live ten years only—the duration of the life of men in their greatest state
of wickedness . " This is a true description , excepting the number of years , of the degeneracy which actuall y took p lace at the Flood ; ancl the length of man ' s life was further shortened after that event till it fixed itself at the average age of three score years ancl ten . In like manner , Hesiod , speaking of the iron age , predicts that the world shall
be destroyed , when , by reason of iniquity , GUT' av r / eivo pivot iroXioKpoia / poi reKsDuxriv , men shall become grey-headed soon after their birth .
Again , " to the eastward of the Garden of Eden , the Hindoo traditions , preserved in their Mysteries , ! p lace a destroying angel , who generall y appears , and is represented like a cherub ; I mean Garuda , or the Eagle , upon whom Vishnu , or Jupiter , is mounted . Garuda is represented like an eagle ; but in his compound character
approaches to the Masonic cherub . He is sometimes dep icted like a young man , with the countenance , wings , and talons of the eagle . In Scripture the Deity is represented riding upon a cherub and flying upon the wings of the wind . This is the Simurgh of Persian romance , who carries the heros from one extremity of the world to
another . Garuda is called the Vahan ( literally the vehicle ) of Vishnu , or Jupiter , and he thus answers to the cherub of Scripture ; for man y commentators derive this word from the obsolete root C ' HARAB in the Chaldean language—