The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

THE ORIGIN AND REFERENCES OF THE HERMESIAN SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY .

BY REV GEO . OLIVER , D . D . ( Continued from page 116 . ) CHAPTER XI . THE REFERENCE TO THE DIVINE UNITY .

" Then deep within Eleusis' mystic cell . The trembling novice heard the measure swell , Dwelt with keen ear upon the solemn strain , Which whispered truthsunknowu to the profane ; Explored a passage which obscurely led To some half doubted state beyond the dead ; And saw Creation bend before tho throne Of one pure Essence , self-sprung , and alone . " EELIGIO CLERICI .

IT is a remarkable coincidence that while the worshippers of an omnipresent Oeity were interested in the preservation of historical truth unadulterated , those who had wandered into paths of their own devising , were equally desirous of perverting those truths to serve their own designs .

The attempt at first was delicate , and perhaps dangerous ; and required great caution to elude exposure . They deviated gradually as the worship of idols progressed in successive generations , and when Polytheism became popular , the legends

were openly adapted to the prevailing mythology of every existing nation . To this point the learning and talent of poets and philosophers appears to have been directed . Historical truth degenerated into fable , and a multiplication of legendary tales were engrafted on the original fact according to the inventive fancy of the writer of metrical romances .

Hence all the fictions of Orpheus and Homer , Melampus , Amphion , and Hessiod , and a host of others , who followed in after ages , and profiting by these primitive models of the art , engrafted numerous scions into the same prolific tree , until all animated nature—the earth , the sea , the

air , fountains and rivers , woods , and the champagne country , heaven and hell , were peopled with deities of poetic creation . Amongst all this mass of absurdity , vestiges of truth , which could not be mistaken , were amalgamated . And we accordingly find , even in the darkest ages ,

and at the lowest and most degraded point of the Spurious Ereemasonry , tokens of truth , which reveal the origin whence all these rites , and all theso fables sprang These poetical absurdities were , however , distinguishable from the sacred legends b y

perfectly initiated men , and were explained to those few favoured individuals , whose merits had elevated them to the autopsia . Many of the philosophers rejected them with contempt . Eratosthenes called them old wives' tales ; Strabowho wrote an

, essay in their vindication , confessed that they were principally intended to keep the multitude in awe ; Lucian openly turned them into ridicule ; and Philo Byblius complained , that "with a great deal of force and straining they had converted all the

stories of the gods into allegory and physical lectures ; and numbers laughed at the credulity of those who placed any confidence in them . Notwithstanding which , the Spurious Ereemasonry continued to be venerated by those who were not qualified

to distinguish between truth and error . " But amongst all their fluctuations , the legend of the Spurious Freemasonry which inculcated the unity of the deity , remained unaltered to the latest period of its existence . Considering the anaglyph before us to be an embodiment of the Euresis , we must conclude that the Tablet or Tracing Board

which the figure holds between its claws , together with the two tables of concentric circles , contain the doctrines which were taught to the candidate after his exaltation or new birth ; and being designated by signs and symbols which were well understoodthey conveyed no equivocal

, meaning to the perfectly initiated Epopt . We have here , both in the Breastplate of Truth , which is placed on the neck of the symbolical representation of the deity , and in the centre of the concentric circles , a reference to the Tetraccys or

Tetragrammaton of the ancients , which was the peculiar name of the One God the Creator of heaven and earth . * It is universally admitted that this four-lettered name was

known to the heathen . Sanchoniatho mentions a priest of the god JENO ; the sibylline oracles name JA . HO as the supreme God . Diodorus Siculus and Theoderet