The Ancient Mysteries And Modern Freemasonry; Their Analogies Considered.

Masonry , and that there Avas scarcely any appreciable difference betAveen the rites and ceremonies practised in those mystical associations of paganism and those adopted by the Masonic lodges of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . These believers

in the lineal ancl direct succession of Freemasonry from the ancient mysteries have , of course , discovered , or thought that they bad discovered , the most striking ancl wonderful analogies betAveen the internal organizations of the tAvo institutions . Hencethey have not hesitated to call

, the " Hierophant , " or the explainer of the Sacred Rites in the mysteries , a " Worshipful Master , " nor to style the " Dadouchos , " or torch-bearer , and the " Hieroceiyx , " or herald , " Wardens , " nor to assign to the " Epibomus" or

altar-, server , the title of " Senior Deacon . " All this is , of course , absurd . It is in violation of historical truth , and , in the mind of the real scholar , it produces the inevitable effect , that all pretentious statements mustof weakening the real and

well-, founded claims of Masonry to an early ori g in . Modem Masonic students have , therefore , with great unanimity , rejected this theory . The theory of the Abbe Robin , although less preposterous than that of Anderson

ami Oliver , is yet untenable . He held that many of the Christian kni ghts Avho went to Palestine in the time of the crusaders , undei'Avent the ancient initiations , and , on their return , brought them Avith thorn to Europe and introduced them into the secret societieswhichiu time

, , , assumed the form and name of Freemasonry . This theory Avas adopted also by the chevalier Ramsey , Avho made it the basis of the Masonic Rite Avhich he established , and who chose as tlie motto of his order the apothegm that " every

Templar is a Freemason . " This doctrine is still maintained in most of the " hauts grades , " of the modern rites of Masonry , but it is so symbolically explained as to divest it of all historical value . The Rev . Mr . King , the author of a very

learned and interesting treatise on the Gnostics , has advanced a theory much more plausible than either of those to Avhich I have adverted . He maintains that some of the pagan mysteries , especially those of Mithras , Avhicli had been instituted in

Persia , extended beyond the period of the advent of Christianity , and that their doctrines and usages were adopted b y the secret societies , Avhich existed at an earl y period in Europe , and which finall y assumed the form of Freemasonry . I have

said that this theory is a plausible one . It is so , because its salient points are sustained by history . It is a fact that some of the mysteries of paganism Avere practised in Europe long after the commencement of the Christian era . They afforded a

constant topic of denunciation to the fathers of the church , AVIIO feared ancl attacked what they supposed to be their idolatrous tendencies . It Avas not until the middle of the fifth century that they Avere proscribed by an edict of the emperor Theodosius . But an edict of proscription

is not necessarily MloAved by an immediate abolition of the thing proscribed . The public celebration of the mysteries , of course , must have ceased at once when such celebration became unlawful . But a private and secret observance of them may have continuedand probably did continuefor

, , an indefinite time—perhaps even to as late a period as the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth . During all this time it is knoAvn that secret associations , such as the Roman Colleges of Artificers , existed in Europe , and that from

them ultimately sprang up the organizations of Builders , which Avith Como , in Loinbardy , as their centre , spread throughout Europe in the middle ages , and whose members , under the recognized name of " Travelling Freemasons , " were the founders of Gothic Architecture . There

is no forced nor unnatural succession from them to the guilds of Operative Masons , who undoubtedly gave rise , about the end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century , to the Speculative Order , or the Free and Accepted Masons ,

Avhich is the organization that exists at the present day . There is therefore nothing untenable in the theory that the Mithraic mysteries Avhich prevailed in Europe until the fifth , or perhaps the sixth , century may have impressed some influence on the

ritual , form and character of the associations of early Builders , ancl that this influence may have extended to the Travelling Freemasons , the Operative , Masons , and , finally , to the Free and