Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reprint Of Scarce, Or Curicus, Books On Freemasonry.
REPRINT OF SCARCE , OR CURICUS , BOOKS ON FREEMASONRY .
"TUB LIFE OF SETHOS . Taken from private memoirs of the " Ancient Egyptians . Translated from a Greek " Manuscript into French , " and now done faithfully into English , from the Paris edition , by Mr . " LEDIARD . Two Volumes . London : Printed for J . VfALTHOE " , over " against the Royal Exchange , in Cornhill . M . DCC . XXXII . " THIS hook , of which Ave offer a first instalment , lias been very popular
with Freemasons on the Continent . It has gone through several editions in France , has been translated into three or four European languages , and even now holds its place in the best masonic libraries . Dunlop ' s Jliston / of Fiction , vol . iii ., page 141 , quotes Gibbon , the Roman historian , as saying— " The author" ( the Abbe Terrasson ) " was a scholar and
" philosopher . His book " ( Sethos ) " has far more ori ginality and variety " than Telemackus ; yet Sctltos is forgotten and Tehmachus will be " immortal . That harmony of style , and the great talent of speaking to " heart and passions , which Fenelon possessed , was unknown to Terrasson . "
Dunlop observes , " that besides its intrinsic merit the romance of Sethos " is curious , as being the foundation of the hypothesis , concerning the " vith . Book of the JEnid , maintained by Bishop Warburton , in his Divine " Legation of Moses , which was first published in 1738 , seven years after " the appearance of Sethos ; " and he then quotes a passage from Cooper ' s Life of Socrates , where that author says— " Warburton supposes the Avhole
" vith . Book of the iEnid to be a description of the Elusinian mysteries , " which , though he . lets it pass for his own , was borrowed , or more " properly stolen , from a French romance , entitled , The Life of Sethos . " And Gibbon s & ja— " Appearances , it must be confessed , wear a very " suspicious aspect , but "—he sarcastically subjoins— " what are appearances
" wben Aveighed against his Lordship ' s declaration , that this is a point of " honour in Avhich he is particularly delicate , and that he may venture to " boast that no author was ever more averse to take to himself what
" belonged to another . We have produced a literal reprint , with the following exceptions : —The spelling has been modernized ; the profuse use of capital letters—so common in books printed in the eighteenth century- —has been abandoned ; and the punctuation has been occasionally revised , so as to be more in accordance with modern usage . In all else it is a faithful reproduction of the original translation .
THE PREFACE . | ^|? HE Greek manuscript , of which I here offer the public a translation , CQj was found in the libraiy of a foreign nation extremely jealous of this ^^ sort of treasure . Those who procured me the reading of it would admit of my publishing this translation upon no other terms but that of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reprint Of Scarce, Or Curicus, Books On Freemasonry.
REPRINT OF SCARCE , OR CURICUS , BOOKS ON FREEMASONRY .
"TUB LIFE OF SETHOS . Taken from private memoirs of the " Ancient Egyptians . Translated from a Greek " Manuscript into French , " and now done faithfully into English , from the Paris edition , by Mr . " LEDIARD . Two Volumes . London : Printed for J . VfALTHOE " , over " against the Royal Exchange , in Cornhill . M . DCC . XXXII . " THIS hook , of which Ave offer a first instalment , lias been very popular
with Freemasons on the Continent . It has gone through several editions in France , has been translated into three or four European languages , and even now holds its place in the best masonic libraries . Dunlop ' s Jliston / of Fiction , vol . iii ., page 141 , quotes Gibbon , the Roman historian , as saying— " The author" ( the Abbe Terrasson ) " was a scholar and
" philosopher . His book " ( Sethos ) " has far more ori ginality and variety " than Telemackus ; yet Sctltos is forgotten and Tehmachus will be " immortal . That harmony of style , and the great talent of speaking to " heart and passions , which Fenelon possessed , was unknown to Terrasson . "
Dunlop observes , " that besides its intrinsic merit the romance of Sethos " is curious , as being the foundation of the hypothesis , concerning the " vith . Book of the JEnid , maintained by Bishop Warburton , in his Divine " Legation of Moses , which was first published in 1738 , seven years after " the appearance of Sethos ; " and he then quotes a passage from Cooper ' s Life of Socrates , where that author says— " Warburton supposes the Avhole
" vith . Book of the iEnid to be a description of the Elusinian mysteries , " which , though he . lets it pass for his own , was borrowed , or more " properly stolen , from a French romance , entitled , The Life of Sethos . " And Gibbon s & ja— " Appearances , it must be confessed , wear a very " suspicious aspect , but "—he sarcastically subjoins— " what are appearances
" wben Aveighed against his Lordship ' s declaration , that this is a point of " honour in Avhich he is particularly delicate , and that he may venture to " boast that no author was ever more averse to take to himself what
" belonged to another . We have produced a literal reprint , with the following exceptions : —The spelling has been modernized ; the profuse use of capital letters—so common in books printed in the eighteenth century- —has been abandoned ; and the punctuation has been occasionally revised , so as to be more in accordance with modern usage . In all else it is a faithful reproduction of the original translation .
THE PREFACE . | ^|? HE Greek manuscript , of which I here offer the public a translation , CQj was found in the libraiy of a foreign nation extremely jealous of this ^^ sort of treasure . Those who procured me the reading of it would admit of my publishing this translation upon no other terms but that of