Illustrations Of The History Of The Craft.

annually , and persons non-operative AVPI-O made patrons and honorary members . In the exercise of charity the more opulent AA'ere sacredly bound to provide for the exigencies of the poorer brethren . AVe have also the fact that priests Avere

attached , specially to these communities , as fl-c bear of Kpa-rii'os eepevs rtov TCXVITIOV , latinos , priest of the builders or artificers . They employed in their ceremonial observances many of the symbols AA'hich are still found among Freemasons , particularly

says Schauberg , the cubical stone , and the smooth and rough ashlar , and their signs of recognition enabled them to distinguish one another " in the dark as AveU as in the light" ( Mackey ) , and united the " members scattered over IndiaPersiaand

, , Syria , into one common brotherhood . " ¦ Bro . Findel has said ( Eindel ' s History , pp . 25 and 26 ) , that all that has been stated has only " confirmed aneAV , AA'hat it must be conceded no one doubted , that these institutions and confederations

resembled those of the Freemasons , " and has " furnished fresh material for a more perfect recognition of this , and has SIIOAAUI that 8 A'eryAvhere certain tokens are to be met Avith , the counterparts of Avhich may be found in Freemasonry , " yet " it is very evidentthat the borrowing and

appropria-, tion of these is something nearer the truth than the reception of the improbable presumption of a propagation of some mystic order or other . " And he goes on to say , if " Freemasonry Avere really a continuation of these ancient

confederacies , Ave must of necessity knoAV more of their method of instructing , and their internal arrangements , than the rest of mankind , Avhich is by no means the case . "

But in saying this , Bro . Findel begs the whole question , as regards AA'hat is the real origin and meaning of our Masonic symbolism and teaching , and oral traditions . . As regards "their method of instruction , " the principles of their operative

system have no doubt passed out of mcmoi T , as have also the principles of the wasters of the mediawal guilds . but as no one can safely question , and W'o . Findel does not himself , the existence 01 the medieval guilds , or their identity with

our modern Order , though all traces ° i those plans and their system " of procedure la -ve long since perished-utterly , and are

practically altogether unknoAA'n , so I do not think Ave can fairly question , on account of the absence of such special and . convincing testimony , the general identity of the Grecian with the latter building societies , or the clear continuation of the same great order in the Avorld .

All that Ave can expect to do to-day , is to trace , so far as Ave are permitted by the change of times and conditions , the general similarity in the usage of certain AvellknoAvn forms and common symbols , and , so far as is possible , to educe , from

contemporary or later historian- * , some feAV scattered hints of their technical system or mystical teaching . Though there is no doubt some difficulty as regards both the Tyrian and JeAvish MasonsI do not think that it is

insuper-, able . The Phoenicians Avere , as all readers of history ICUOAA ' , great builders , though all their wondrous Avorks have perished utterly from the earth , and Tyre is as if she had never been .

There is also no doubt that , for all their principles of art-knoAA'ledge , their building designs , as Avell as their building sodalities , they were indebted to the old and Avonderful land of Egypt . It has often struck Avriters , whether

Masonic or not , IIOAV very difficult it is to account , on ordinary grounds , for the union of the Tyrian and JeAvish Avorkmen at the building of the First Temple at Jerusalem . KnoAA'ing the repugnance of the JBAVS themselves to foreignersand the direct

, prohibition of contact with unbelievers , especially in sacred Avorks , there seems no & priori objection to the unchanging tradition of our Order , that Tyrian and JeAvish Masons Avere bound together by one common organizationand Avere members of one

, comprehensive operative brotherhood . If it be true that they had all found a common origin in the building societies of Egypt , and that all the operative sodalities of the world Avere members of the one same

great confederation , under the attractive condition of secresy in art and prima 3 A ai truth , Ave should find , I think , a satisfactory solution of the Avhole question . And as the unity and eternity of God , the immortality of the soul , the accountability of man , where the great secrets of the mysteries , until they were overlaid by superstition and debased , and AA'ith the building societies in all countries the mys- .