Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Spurious Freemasonry Of Ancient Times.
celestial sphere ; and Osiris was frequently represented as enveloped in the folds of an enormous snake . With this people the elements were symbolized b y Serpents in different positions . Earth was depicted as a two horned snake prostrate ; Air as the reptile erect ; Fire as a snake standing on its tail ; and Water b y its undulating motion . It was
worshipped in the way of propitiation ; being reputed to shed pernicious influences on man and beast ; which is evidentl y the character it acquired at the fall of man ; and Diodorus Siculus says that a spiral Serpent was the hierogl yp hic of evil . Hence the Jewish prophets , in delivering the threatenings of Divine vengeance against that countryspeak of its
, king under the figure of a Dragon . * In reference to the natural evil which was produced b y the intervention of the Serpent , it was believed in ancient India and China , that when the sun and moon were under an eclipse , those grand luminaries were attacked by a monstrous Dragon who endeavoured to devour them . This
tradition probabl y had some reference to the nodes called the Dragon ' s head and tail , or the points where the moon ' s orbit intersects the ecliptic . f But the Serpent was often believed to be propitious . The Chinese invested it with the attributes of " extraordinary strength and sovereign power , being at once in heavenin the airin the waters
, , and in the mountains . " And in the series of asterisms now under examination it will be observed that the centre of the Serpent ' s bod y is coiled so as to form a circle ; and this hierograms of a snake conjoined with a circle , signified , in the hierogl yp hics of Egypt , the superintending care which an eternal Being extends to his creatures .
THE CUP . I now proceed to an examination of that universal emblem , the Cup ; which was dedicated to Bacchus the patron of the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Spurious Freemasonry Of Ancient Times.
celestial sphere ; and Osiris was frequently represented as enveloped in the folds of an enormous snake . With this people the elements were symbolized b y Serpents in different positions . Earth was depicted as a two horned snake prostrate ; Air as the reptile erect ; Fire as a snake standing on its tail ; and Water b y its undulating motion . It was
worshipped in the way of propitiation ; being reputed to shed pernicious influences on man and beast ; which is evidentl y the character it acquired at the fall of man ; and Diodorus Siculus says that a spiral Serpent was the hierogl yp hic of evil . Hence the Jewish prophets , in delivering the threatenings of Divine vengeance against that countryspeak of its
, king under the figure of a Dragon . * In reference to the natural evil which was produced b y the intervention of the Serpent , it was believed in ancient India and China , that when the sun and moon were under an eclipse , those grand luminaries were attacked by a monstrous Dragon who endeavoured to devour them . This
tradition probabl y had some reference to the nodes called the Dragon ' s head and tail , or the points where the moon ' s orbit intersects the ecliptic . f But the Serpent was often believed to be propitious . The Chinese invested it with the attributes of " extraordinary strength and sovereign power , being at once in heavenin the airin the waters
, , and in the mountains . " And in the series of asterisms now under examination it will be observed that the centre of the Serpent ' s bod y is coiled so as to form a circle ; and this hierograms of a snake conjoined with a circle , signified , in the hierogl yp hics of Egypt , the superintending care which an eternal Being extends to his creatures .
THE CUP . I now proceed to an examination of that universal emblem , the Cup ; which was dedicated to Bacchus the patron of the