Table Of Contents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS .

PAGE •ROYAL ARCH MASONRY 37 AN ESSAY 38 MASONIC EXHORTATIONS FROM THE GERMAN ... 38 FREEMASONRY 38 MR . GLADSTONE ON THE •'OLYMPIAN RELIGION" ... 39

HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS 39 THE CRAFT—Provincial 40 ORDERS OF CHIVALRY—Knights Templar 40 PROV . GRAND ENCAMPMENT OF KENT 40 GRAND LODGE 40 A MYSTERY 40

SUPREME COUNCIL , NEW YORK 40 MASONIO MEETINGS FOR NEXT WEEK 41 MASONIC HISTORY 42 TEMPORA MUTANTUR 42 NOTES AND QUERIES 42 PAPERS ON

MASONRYNo . XVI . —Masonry in Italy ... , 43 MASONIC CONGRESS 43 CORRESPONDENCEMasonio Promotion ... 44 Spurious Mnsonic Bodies ... ... 44 POETRY—The Tolling Bell ... 44 ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF THE PROV . GRAND LODGE OF

KENT ... 45 ROBBERY AND MYSTERY 4 G ADVERTISEMENTS 47 & 43

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Royal Arch Masonry.

ROYAL ARCH MASONRY .

Bv THE SOX OF SALATIIIKL . ( Continued . ) I The rights of translation and reproduction reserved . " ] The perfections of God arc the pillars which support tho universe . Mercy illumines justice , and

beauty decorates strength . The Sepliirotic canals , which are twenty-two (/) iu number , convey their influences throughout the whole circumference of creation , harmonising all the orders of being , .-mil regulating all the operations of nature . These canals

never ascend , for , as the source of flic terrestrial rivers is in the lofty and inaccessible mountains , so docs the celestial stream of the Sephiroth spring out of the remote and inexhaustible fountain of the Godhead . Tlie romantic imaginations of the rabbis have

( f ) According to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet .

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conceived no less than fifty gates , which are so many degrees ' of wisdom , and so many avenues to the attainment of sublime and mysterious truths . It is incumbent on men that they study the mysteries before they can receive the influx of divine light . But the

progress through these gates of the candidate for celestial wisdom is exceedingly slow . Moses is recorded to have passed through the forty-ninth , and Joshua , his successor , to have reached the fortyeighth , but neither Moses himself , nor even Solomon ,

who in wisdom surpassed all mankind , could ever open the fiftieth gate , which leads immediately into the presence of the En Saph , —the Infinite and Omnipotent God , whom no mortal ever yet beheld , nor could fully comprehend .

We should not have dwelt so long on these particulars but for the very striking resemblance which subsists between this relation and the account given in ancient authors concerning the 1 itcsof initiation into the Mithraie and Elcusinian mysteries , the Osva diwra , —

or divine lights displayed in them , during the splendid exhibition to the view of the initiated , at the conclusion of the mystic ceremony and the intellectual ladder and sidereal gates mentioned by Celsus .

It is perhaps necessary to observe that the word gate , which is a partof Asiaticpalaces by far the most conspicuous and magnificent , and upon the adorning of which immense sums are often expended , is an expression that , throughout the East , is figuratively used for the

mansion itself . Indeed , it seems to be thus denominated with singular propriety , since , as those who tire acquainted with the manners and customs of the Eastern nations well know , it is under those gates that conversations are holdeii , that hospitality to the

passing traveller is dispensed , and the most important transactions 111 commerce frequently carried on , and which , from many passages in Holy Writ appears to have been a custom existing from the earliest periods . With respect to the ladder , the Jews were no

strangers to that symbol , as appears from the vision which . the patriarch Jacob beheld in his journey from Padan Aram in the land of Mesopotamia , of a mighty ladder set upon the earth , the top of which reached up ( o heaven , and on which the angelic beings ascended

and descended , and at the sight of which he exclaimed , "Surely this is none other than the house of God , and this is the gate of heaven . " (_ y ) Here , then , is a most ancient patriarchal notion plainly taken up and propagated afterwards in the Gentile-world , but flourishing

mining the dews befoiv their sojourning in Egypt . Indeed , it is remarkable that the farther we iidviince in the comparison of the sciences prevailing amongst , the most ancient . Hebrews and those flourishing during the earliest periods among the other nations of the East , we shall discover additional

Royal Arch Masonry.

and more powerful arguments in support of the hypothesis that all the sciences and theology of the ancient world originally came , not from Egypt , but from Chaldea ; and , in particular , that astronomy , the noblest of them , was carried in that part of Asia to a

high point of improvement before it began to be cultivated in Egypt . In the Book of Job many passages occur which may serve to confirm our opinion upon this subject . As we penetrate deeper into the mystery of the

Hebrew Sephiroth we find circumstances open which evince it to have been at once a physical and theological symbol , and it appears indubitable that the primitive idea altogether orig inated in astronomical speculations . It is nccessarv then to observe

that these fifty gates of wisdom are distinguished by the Hebrew mystagogues into five chief ones , each ot which comprehends ten . The three former of these greater gates include the knowledge of the first principles of things , and , in passing through them , the

soul is busied in discussing the nature of the first matter of the gloomy chaos—of the immense void , and of the elements—the animal , the mineral , and vegetable creation—insects , reptiles , fishes , birds , and quadrupeds , and , finally , of the creation of man—of

his faculties , senses , and various other particulars of a deep metaphysical kind . But it is the fourth gate which , in a singular manner , claims our attention , for , through that gate , wc are immediately introduced into the starry world and all the wonders of astronomy , as

far as then known , are exhibited to our view . There we find one of the names of the seven planets , and one of the seven angels who direct their course allotted to each of the inferior Sephiroth , and upon this the conjecture is founded that the whole mi ght originally be an

astronomical symbol , the oldest , doubtless , in the postdiluvian world , and possibly tinctured with the wisdom of the ante-diluvians . Hence , probably , the seven gates erected in the caverns of Alitlira ; hence the Brahmin Char Aslierum , or four degrees of

Hindoo probation ; hence , the excruciating trials , still more severe than those of India , through which the aspirant in the Persian mysteries was compelled to toil ; hence were derived the Zoroastrian wisdom and Clialdaic Tlieuriry (/ ' ) , as well as their mamc and

other dark arts of divination , which spread from thence to Egypt , to Greece , and from those countries throughout ' . t ! ie whole world . The conjecture of the Sephiroth being 0 ! ' astronomical ori gin is not a little strengthened by their very name of celistial

brightnesses , as if we should say the Sapphires of tho sky , and by the Hebrew title piclixed to the fourth gate of wisdom , in the (' al ) . il . i Ilfhrmonim , of which the translation is mniiJii . i rjihcraritiii . In this table th three superior Sephiroth are denominated , the first ,