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Article ANCIENT WRITERS AND MODERN PRACTICES. ← Page 6 of 9 →
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Ancient Writers And Modern Practices.
paper ( the limit assigned by him being two hundred years ) , viz ., the "Revision of the Constitutions by King Edward the Third in 1358 , and the prohibition of Masonic assemblies by Parliament in 1425 , so that without some further and more satisfactory proof we must look upon the statement above alluded to as mere assertions , and therefore to be received , as before said , " cum grano satis "
But here , again , is another point to be considered . All this time ttf ^ are speaking of J ^ rtftf- ^ and Hosierucians , as if those two societies or orders were coeval with one another ; and thus though professing to distinguish between
them , he really confuses them together . The history of the Rosicrucians we have not deeply studied ; to that of the Free-Masons we have given far more attention , but we cannot certainly fix the date of the latter—we certainly cannot assign the same antiquity to them both , and mix their history together indiscriminately , as X . T . Z . has undoubtedly done as yet .
we now come to our author ' s survey of the several hypotheses . First : In the earlier records of ( Greece , he tells us , we find nothing but the Orphic and JEleusinian Mysteries which , bears any relation to these subjects . The word " mysteries " ' ¦¦ ' is here not to be
understood in its usual sense , but implies certain dramatic representations of religious ideas . In the Grecian mysteries there w ere degrees of initiation among the members , with purposes , however , wholly distinct from those of the Masonic degrees . How does our author know this ? How can he tell what are the purposes of the Masonic degrees ? To a certain extent , indeed , he has told us , and rightly , that novices are not at once admitted to a full participation
of Masonhr knowledge , from motives of policy on our part ( and we may add no less for the benefit of the novice himself who would derive but little instruction from what is imparted to him , if imparted all at once ) , and we cannot see that it was otherwise in the Grecian mysteries . Tests , indeed , were perhaps employed in that ritual , which we do not think it necessary to adopt ; but though we do not mean to say that Free-Masonry is derived from these mysteries ,
we yet trace a closer analogy between them and Freemasonry than to allow us to agree with our writer , that " the whole resemblance rests on nothing , and serves only to prove an utter ignorance of Grecian antiquities in those who have alleged it . " We will now allude very slightly to hypothesis number two , in
w hich our author asserts that no trace of the [ Rosicmcian or ] Masonic characteristics exists in the history of Egypt any more than in that of Greece , and then collate with him a passage in Bishop Warburton ' s " Divine Legation of Moses , " giving his views of the ancient mysteries , Avhich may perhaps throw a little light
en the subject . We will first' take Dr . Warburton's definition . Each of the gods of Paganism , he tells us , had , besides the public worship paid to them , a secret worship , into which none were admitted but those who had been selected by preparatory ceremonies called Mvy )( tl £ or initiation . This secret worship was termed the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ancient Writers And Modern Practices.
paper ( the limit assigned by him being two hundred years ) , viz ., the "Revision of the Constitutions by King Edward the Third in 1358 , and the prohibition of Masonic assemblies by Parliament in 1425 , so that without some further and more satisfactory proof we must look upon the statement above alluded to as mere assertions , and therefore to be received , as before said , " cum grano satis "
But here , again , is another point to be considered . All this time ttf ^ are speaking of J ^ rtftf- ^ and Hosierucians , as if those two societies or orders were coeval with one another ; and thus though professing to distinguish between
them , he really confuses them together . The history of the Rosicrucians we have not deeply studied ; to that of the Free-Masons we have given far more attention , but we cannot certainly fix the date of the latter—we certainly cannot assign the same antiquity to them both , and mix their history together indiscriminately , as X . T . Z . has undoubtedly done as yet .
we now come to our author ' s survey of the several hypotheses . First : In the earlier records of ( Greece , he tells us , we find nothing but the Orphic and JEleusinian Mysteries which , bears any relation to these subjects . The word " mysteries " ' ¦¦ ' is here not to be
understood in its usual sense , but implies certain dramatic representations of religious ideas . In the Grecian mysteries there w ere degrees of initiation among the members , with purposes , however , wholly distinct from those of the Masonic degrees . How does our author know this ? How can he tell what are the purposes of the Masonic degrees ? To a certain extent , indeed , he has told us , and rightly , that novices are not at once admitted to a full participation
of Masonhr knowledge , from motives of policy on our part ( and we may add no less for the benefit of the novice himself who would derive but little instruction from what is imparted to him , if imparted all at once ) , and we cannot see that it was otherwise in the Grecian mysteries . Tests , indeed , were perhaps employed in that ritual , which we do not think it necessary to adopt ; but though we do not mean to say that Free-Masonry is derived from these mysteries ,
we yet trace a closer analogy between them and Freemasonry than to allow us to agree with our writer , that " the whole resemblance rests on nothing , and serves only to prove an utter ignorance of Grecian antiquities in those who have alleged it . " We will now allude very slightly to hypothesis number two , in
w hich our author asserts that no trace of the [ Rosicmcian or ] Masonic characteristics exists in the history of Egypt any more than in that of Greece , and then collate with him a passage in Bishop Warburton ' s " Divine Legation of Moses , " giving his views of the ancient mysteries , Avhich may perhaps throw a little light
en the subject . We will first' take Dr . Warburton's definition . Each of the gods of Paganism , he tells us , had , besides the public worship paid to them , a secret worship , into which none were admitted but those who had been selected by preparatory ceremonies called Mvy )( tl £ or initiation . This secret worship was termed the