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Article ON FREEMASONRY. THE NUMBER THREE. ← Page 4 of 10 →
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On Freemasonry. The Number Three.
Pausanias takes notice of a promontory in Brasia , on which were placed three large hats ; but he has not recorded whether they were emblematical of the Dioscori or the Corybantes : nor is it material to my argument to settle the probabilities that these fictions deities were the same persons under different appellations , for the hats were in reality a
representation of the triad . * The breastplate of Agamemnon had for a device a three-headed serpent ; ancl the Thracians buried three silver images as a charm to prevent the incursions of barbarians . On the three peaks of Mount Olivet , king Solomon , in his dotage , erected shrines to the infamous Phoenician triad , which was a personification of
Murder—Lust—Hate ; the centre peak being occupied by the temple of Ashtaroth , the Paphian Venus , whose symbol was a white pyramid ; and hence a subterranean adytum or crypt was excavated in the rock , precisely of that form , for the secret celebrations of the libidinous p-oddess . Even the
virtues ot eminent individuals gave occasion for the exercise of the same distinction , as in the case of Isocrates , to whom the Athenians erected a statue , in commendation of his Perseverance , Prudence , and Independence . If we pass from the east to the west , we shall find the same system in active operation . The Celts and Goths had
each their triads of deity ; and the Lithuanians possessed a private triad of their own , consisting of Fire—Wood — Snake ; and the Celtic Druids found the trinity in the mistletoe , because its leaves and berries were formed in clusters of three united in one stalk ; and also in the trefoil or shamrock leaf , which was in like manner an emblem of three in
one . Reli gion was considered under a tri p le denomination , viz ., mythological—civil—philosophical ; so universall y did this princi p le display itself ; and its tenets were based on three fundamental articles , reverence for the deity—abstain-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Number Three.
Pausanias takes notice of a promontory in Brasia , on which were placed three large hats ; but he has not recorded whether they were emblematical of the Dioscori or the Corybantes : nor is it material to my argument to settle the probabilities that these fictions deities were the same persons under different appellations , for the hats were in reality a
representation of the triad . * The breastplate of Agamemnon had for a device a three-headed serpent ; ancl the Thracians buried three silver images as a charm to prevent the incursions of barbarians . On the three peaks of Mount Olivet , king Solomon , in his dotage , erected shrines to the infamous Phoenician triad , which was a personification of
Murder—Lust—Hate ; the centre peak being occupied by the temple of Ashtaroth , the Paphian Venus , whose symbol was a white pyramid ; and hence a subterranean adytum or crypt was excavated in the rock , precisely of that form , for the secret celebrations of the libidinous p-oddess . Even the
virtues ot eminent individuals gave occasion for the exercise of the same distinction , as in the case of Isocrates , to whom the Athenians erected a statue , in commendation of his Perseverance , Prudence , and Independence . If we pass from the east to the west , we shall find the same system in active operation . The Celts and Goths had
each their triads of deity ; and the Lithuanians possessed a private triad of their own , consisting of Fire—Wood — Snake ; and the Celtic Druids found the trinity in the mistletoe , because its leaves and berries were formed in clusters of three united in one stalk ; and also in the trefoil or shamrock leaf , which was in like manner an emblem of three in
one . Reli gion was considered under a tri p le denomination , viz ., mythological—civil—philosophical ; so universall y did this princi p le display itself ; and its tenets were based on three fundamental articles , reverence for the deity—abstain-