Freemasonry As A Conservator Of The Arts And Sciences.

although there is a close connection of the causes by which each has been brought into activity . As a speculative order , Freemasonry is pre-eminently distinguished for the cultivation it has given to the science of

symbolism—a science which once pervaded the ancient "world , and was closely connected with all the religion and poetry of antiquity . Whatever contending opinions there may be on the subject of the historical ori gin of Freemasonry , no

one who has attentively investigated the subject can for a moment doubt that it is indebted for its peculiar mode of inculcating its principles - to the same spirit of symbolic science which gave rise to the sacred language of the Egyptian priests

, and the sublime initiations of the Pagan philosophers . For all the mysteries of the ancient world , whether they were the Druidical rites of Britain or the Cobric worship of Samothrace , whether celebrated on the . banks of the Ganges or the Nile

, contained so much of the internal spirit and the outward form of pure and speculative Masonry , as to demonstrate the certainty of a common origin for all .

This science of symbolism , once so universally diffused as to have pervaded all these ancient religions , and even still extensively controlling , almost without our recognition , the everyday business of life , has , as a science , been only preserved

in the Masonic institution ; and hence to this fact are we indebted for much of the facility with which we are enabled to understand , and the certainty with which we are beginning to interpret , the esoteric philosophy of the ancients . Etfor

gyp , instance , has been for centuries a sealed volume ; but now that its pages are beginning to bo unrolled by the industrious researches of modern archaeologists , none so well as a Mason can appreciate the hieroglyphic and symbolic teachings which

are inscribed on its obelisks , its temples , and its sarcophagi . Leaving out of immediate consideration the old Aryans of the Caueusus , whose language shows that they possessed a thorough symbolic spiritbut from whose

, very existence the veil is only beginning to be withdrawn , we may say , for all practical purposes , that it was among the ancient priesthood of the East and of Egypt , that this beautiful science of

symbolism was first invented , by which sensible objects , being presented to the eye , conveyed through its principles lessons of profound yet hidden wisdom to tho neophyte . Divine truth was thus communicated by the priests , in their most

impressive forms , by means of poetic images ; and tho philosophers , borrowing tho same system , instructed their disciples by myths and allegories . But the ancient priests and the old philosophers have passed awayand their method of

conceal-, ing wisdom under the veil of tropes and figures would have been irretrievably lost bad not Freemasonry perpetuated the system and preserved the science , while cultivating the same hallowed objects by the same beautiful method of referring : all

material things to an intellectual sense ; so that its most expressive definition has always been that it is a science of morality , veiled in allegory and illustrated b y symbols . Performing , then , its mission of preserving and perpetuating the science of

symbolism , it is evident that , as a scientific institution , it must embrace within the extensive grasp of its study a vast range amid the divisions of human knowled ge . The archaeology of all ancient reli gions , their origintheir connection with anel

, their deviation from the true faith , as taught to Noah and the patriarchs who preceded him ; the ingenious , though sometimes fanciful , cabalistic learning of the Jewish doctors ; the Pythagorean science of numbers ; the nrysticnl and

sublime philosophy of Plato and the other sages of Greece ; and the rites and ceremonies of all the ancient world , with their just interpretation , constitute legitimate subjects of discussion and inquiry for the Masonic student . And I do not

hesitate to say that the scholar who should devote himself to the perusal and stud y of the numerous works of Freemasonry alone , which have issued from the English , the French , and German presses , as well as from those of our own country , would , by

such an intellectual discipline , acquire a more extensive and more varied mass of historical , scientific , and philosophical knowledge , than the cultivation of any other single science or department of learning could supply . As an operative art , our institution has stiU more practically fulfilled its mission .