Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Liberorum Latomorum Primordia Et Recentiora Vera.
chiromancy , and others . Phrenology , magic , alchemy are glanced at , with the round of mysticism and the Cabbala , and the whole is wound up with "Maconnerie philosophale , ou Initiation hermetique . " It is evident from the principle from which the author starts ,
that whatever the ingenuity of mankind has enabled them , or the perversity of others has prompted them to surround with obscurity , or cloak in fables and symbols , could be included in his investigations ; a theme , however , too powerful for a single pen , or the labours of a life , even if extended beyond the limits of the inspired Psalmist : that omissionsthereforeAvill be
, , found in M . Ragon ' s attempt , is but too probable ; Ave have already given one example , —another is more remarkable . The author mentions Zoroaster , but on his doctrine ancl the religion of Mithras he is totally silent . The Greeks had their Eleusinian , then Bacchic or Dionysicial , and other mysteries , Avhich left no room for the intrusion of foreign rites ; the Romans hacl for
their earliest deities no secret or hidden worship : when , therefore , the Mithriatic mysteries were communicated in an undoubted initiation , about seventy years before Christ , to Pompey , then a young man , during his unwilling sojourn amongst a nest of Cilician pirates who had captured him , and
afterwards expiated this and other crimes by the most excruciating torments ; ancl after this introduction , the Romans engaged in the Mithriatic mysteries with the greatest avidity . The tutelage of an unconquered god ( the invocation on the altars to Mithras is invariably "DEO INVICTO" ) had its peculiar charms for a nation which might well vindicate to itself the name of
an unconquered people ; but it was amongst their warriors that the title and the deity ivould have its greatest hold : it is , therefore , in both arms of the Roman military force that we find it most prevalent . The principal station of the Roman fleet in Italy was at Antium , now Terracina , and there was found in an underground cave that most remarkable Mithriatic
basrelief transferred ivith the Borghese collection to Paris , fully described in the " Monumenta veteris Antii , " and other works . It was , hoivever , in their armies , ancl the stationary headquarters of then * legions , that what I may call their regimental Lodges existed ; for ivhich secret and dark-caverned temples were constructedand which will immediately recall to Masons
, the solemn rites connected with their third step . The legions were stationed all along the great line of cireumvallation that encircled the northern and the north-eastern boundary of the Roman empire , commencing at the Solway Firth , and cle-2 n 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Liberorum Latomorum Primordia Et Recentiora Vera.
chiromancy , and others . Phrenology , magic , alchemy are glanced at , with the round of mysticism and the Cabbala , and the whole is wound up with "Maconnerie philosophale , ou Initiation hermetique . " It is evident from the principle from which the author starts ,
that whatever the ingenuity of mankind has enabled them , or the perversity of others has prompted them to surround with obscurity , or cloak in fables and symbols , could be included in his investigations ; a theme , however , too powerful for a single pen , or the labours of a life , even if extended beyond the limits of the inspired Psalmist : that omissionsthereforeAvill be
, , found in M . Ragon ' s attempt , is but too probable ; Ave have already given one example , —another is more remarkable . The author mentions Zoroaster , but on his doctrine ancl the religion of Mithras he is totally silent . The Greeks had their Eleusinian , then Bacchic or Dionysicial , and other mysteries , Avhich left no room for the intrusion of foreign rites ; the Romans hacl for
their earliest deities no secret or hidden worship : when , therefore , the Mithriatic mysteries were communicated in an undoubted initiation , about seventy years before Christ , to Pompey , then a young man , during his unwilling sojourn amongst a nest of Cilician pirates who had captured him , and
afterwards expiated this and other crimes by the most excruciating torments ; ancl after this introduction , the Romans engaged in the Mithriatic mysteries with the greatest avidity . The tutelage of an unconquered god ( the invocation on the altars to Mithras is invariably "DEO INVICTO" ) had its peculiar charms for a nation which might well vindicate to itself the name of
an unconquered people ; but it was amongst their warriors that the title and the deity ivould have its greatest hold : it is , therefore , in both arms of the Roman military force that we find it most prevalent . The principal station of the Roman fleet in Italy was at Antium , now Terracina , and there was found in an underground cave that most remarkable Mithriatic
basrelief transferred ivith the Borghese collection to Paris , fully described in the " Monumenta veteris Antii , " and other works . It was , hoivever , in their armies , ancl the stationary headquarters of then * legions , that what I may call their regimental Lodges existed ; for ivhich secret and dark-caverned temples were constructedand which will immediately recall to Masons
, the solemn rites connected with their third step . The legions were stationed all along the great line of cireumvallation that encircled the northern and the north-eastern boundary of the Roman empire , commencing at the Solway Firth , and cle-2 n 2