The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

built before the flood , and that Cephen reigned there , which is witnessed by certain ancient altars , bearing titles of lum and his brother Phineus , together with a memorial of the grounds and principles of their religion . And of the city Henoch there is

much like relation . But what need I mention more , seeing Josephus , a writer of good credit , affirmeth that he , himself , saw one of these pillars ; and the truth of this was never questioned , but warranted by all antiquity . "

This writer assumes too much ; and I think there can be no question but all the works of the antediluvians iu any of the sciences ; their ornaments in gold , silver , ivory or copper ; their instruments of music ; their astronomical machines ; and

all their performances in the fine arts perished , and were submerged in the mighty abyss ; and no specimen was ever found to show the nature and excellence

of antediluvian architecture . It is even said that the marble p illar of Enoch was uprooted and lost ; and it is extremly doubtful , notwithstanding a masonic tradition to the contrary , whether the pillar , mentioned by Josephuswas truly an

ante-, diluvian work . The foreign evidence , which afford such an abundant confirmation of the Mosaic writings , do not rest in general deductions ; for the history of the origin of all nations is connected with the destruction of a

previous world by water . The Chaldaic account of Xisuthrus , who was apprized by Saturn of such an event , and commanded to build a ship cemented with bitumen , in which himself and family were preserved ; with the method he pursued to ascertain whether the waters had subsided by a

fli ght of birds , and his subsequent erection of an altar for sacrifice on a mountain in Armenia ,, forms an approach to the mosaic record of so perfect a character aa to need ao elucidation ; and the Grecian history of ¦ "eucalios and Pyrrha is its exact

counterpart . There was a strange story , says Lucian , related b y the inhabitants of ilierapolis , of a great hole iu the earth , iu that country which received all the waters of the deluge ; and when they had subsided , -Deucalios built an altar , and erected a temple to Juno over the hole . I saw the bole myself . It ia but a small oue , under

the temple ; whether it was larger formerly , I know not . In commemoration they perform this ceremony : twice in every year water is brought from the sea into the temple ; and not only the priests , but all the people of Syria and Arabia fetch it .

Many go as far as the sea from the river Euphrates to fetch water , which they pour into this hole ; and though it looks small , yet it holds a vast quantity of water . And while they are performing the ceremony , they cry out that it was instituted

by Deucalios , in memory of the deluge , and of his preservation amidst the destruction of mankind . " The Hindoos , according to the testimony of their Pauranics , appear unwilling to admit the dangerous experiment of an ark floating at large on the waters of the flood , without sails or rudder ; yet the machinery

by which their account of the Deluge was accomplished appears incomplete without the presence of such a vessel . The kierop hant instructs the candidate with great solemnity that Satyavrata moored it for safety with a cable of incredible length to the peak of the Chasgarone of the

Hima-, laya mountains , that it might not be overturned or lost during the prevailance of the waters . In all these legends we have the same calamity plainly set forth . The Chinese philosophers describe the Deluge iu the following appropriate

language : " The pillars of Heaven were broken , the earth was shaken to its very foundations , the heavens sunk lower towards the north ; the sun , the moon , and the stars changed their motions ; the earth fell to pieces , the waters enclosed within its bosom burst forth with violence and

overflowed it . Man rebelling against heaven , the system of the universe was quite disordered ; the sun was eclipsed , the planets altered their course , and universal harmony was disturbed . " And what became of the bones of the

immense myriads of inhabitants by which the old world was thronged , for the population appears to have been almost incredible . Mr . Cockburn has made it upwards of 54 billions of souls . The writer of the articleAntediluviansin the

En-, , cyclopedia takes half that number , and , after making large concessions on account of deaths , thus concludes his argument "Though we are far from thinking that