Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
before the candidate , and were hence supposed to have their residence in these Tartarean caves . And the terrified candidate might have exclaimed , with Macbeth—Why do you show me this ? A fourth ? Start eyes 1 What ! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? Another yet ? A seventh ? I'll see no more !
The darkness of these caves or valleys , domed and secluded from public observation by nature or art , was highly venerated , and lauded by cheers and acclamations as the one great principle of the universe , fua TCOV 6 Xav apxi O-KOTOS ayvao-rov . And the rites here celebrated are said to have been practised in the antediluvian world . Thus , Bishop Cumberland , in
his dissertation on the Cosmogony of Sanchoniatho , says that " the custom that is before him must be judged to be even before the Flood , before which all acknowledge Ham to be born . So we shall be led to demons worshipped by such sacrifices before the Flood , when idolatry was in its youngest years , and we must judge that even this worst part of it was received , and continued by Ham in Canaan and Egypt , and the rest of his dominions .
If we turn to other parts of the globe , the same analogy will be found to prevail . Many stupendous remains of these sacred places still exist , not only in Egypt , and in the warm and sunny regions of the east , but in the more inhospitable climates of the north and west—in America , in ancient Scandinavia , and in Britain . Indeed , every nation
in Europe will furnish specimens of the remains of these sacred caverns , which were of old the scene of the absorbing ceremonies of initiation . I shall describe one of them from a writer who has bestowed great attention on the subject , and thus expresses his opinion on the purpose to which the grotto at Castletonin the Peak of Derbyshirewas
ap-, , plied by our ] 3 redecessors , the Druids of Britain . " With regard to the interior of the Derbyshire cavern , I am persuaded that any person who descends into it , after having first attentively perused the sixth book of the Eneid , will not be a little surprised at its singular resemblance to the Hades of the mysteriesthough the terrific machinery once
intro-, duced into it exists no longer . You first enter into an immense and magnificent natural cave , the whole of which , however , is perfectly visible by the dusky light admitted through its noble arched gateway . From this cave you are
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
before the candidate , and were hence supposed to have their residence in these Tartarean caves . And the terrified candidate might have exclaimed , with Macbeth—Why do you show me this ? A fourth ? Start eyes 1 What ! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? Another yet ? A seventh ? I'll see no more !
The darkness of these caves or valleys , domed and secluded from public observation by nature or art , was highly venerated , and lauded by cheers and acclamations as the one great principle of the universe , fua TCOV 6 Xav apxi O-KOTOS ayvao-rov . And the rites here celebrated are said to have been practised in the antediluvian world . Thus , Bishop Cumberland , in
his dissertation on the Cosmogony of Sanchoniatho , says that " the custom that is before him must be judged to be even before the Flood , before which all acknowledge Ham to be born . So we shall be led to demons worshipped by such sacrifices before the Flood , when idolatry was in its youngest years , and we must judge that even this worst part of it was received , and continued by Ham in Canaan and Egypt , and the rest of his dominions .
If we turn to other parts of the globe , the same analogy will be found to prevail . Many stupendous remains of these sacred places still exist , not only in Egypt , and in the warm and sunny regions of the east , but in the more inhospitable climates of the north and west—in America , in ancient Scandinavia , and in Britain . Indeed , every nation
in Europe will furnish specimens of the remains of these sacred caverns , which were of old the scene of the absorbing ceremonies of initiation . I shall describe one of them from a writer who has bestowed great attention on the subject , and thus expresses his opinion on the purpose to which the grotto at Castletonin the Peak of Derbyshirewas
ap-, , plied by our ] 3 redecessors , the Druids of Britain . " With regard to the interior of the Derbyshire cavern , I am persuaded that any person who descends into it , after having first attentively perused the sixth book of the Eneid , will not be a little surprised at its singular resemblance to the Hades of the mysteriesthough the terrific machinery once
intro-, duced into it exists no longer . You first enter into an immense and magnificent natural cave , the whole of which , however , is perfectly visible by the dusky light admitted through its noble arched gateway . From this cave you are