crowns and garlands of flowers, which were called Ismera or Imera; they had also, under their feet, Jupiter's skin, which was the skin of a victim offered to that god. The person that assisted them herein was called Udranus, from udor, i. e. water; which was used at most purifications; themselves were named Musta, i. e. persons initiated. About a year after, having sacrificed a sow to Ceres, they were admitted to the superior Degrees.15 But the Greater Mysteries, which contained the doctrines so clearly revealed in the Mosaic history, and which appertain to the designs of Providence in the salvation of man16-veiled, indeed, and often misunderstood-were of too serious a nature to be thus freely exposed. They were communicated only to a select few, and even to them under the most awful sanctions. This will account for the silence of the early historians on most of these subjects. Cuvier concludes, most unphilosophically, that all remembrance of the Deluge was lost because it is not mentioned by Sanchoniatho, neither "are any traces of it to be found in Egypt in ancient records." The fact is, that this knowledge was preserved in the Mysteries by the Anaglyph, or sacred character of the priests; and to whomsoever it might be revealed, its publication was prohibited under heavy penalties. As in the genuine Freemasonry, secrecy was recommended and enforced by every possible expedient. The Egyptians set up a statue of Harpocrates, with his right hand on his heart, and his left pendant by his side, and full of eyes and ears, but without a tongue-to intimate that whatever may be seen and heard in the mysterious celebrations, ought never to be spoken. The Greeks, in like manner, erected a statue of brass at Athens without a tongue, to enjoin secrecy; and the Romans had a goddess of Silence, who was represented with her forefinger on her lips. These practical lessons made such an impression on the people, that from a simple suspicion that Eschylus had introduced into one of his plays some reference to the mysterious doctrines, the poet preserved his life only by taking sanctuary at the altar of Bacchus, until he had an opportunity of appealing to the Areopagus.17 Pausa 15 Potter Arch. i. 420. nias, in his History of Greece, assigns to the mysteries such a venerable sanctity that he is obliged to pass over them in silence.18 And, in another place, he excuses himself from making a revelation of their secrets by a very ingenious device. "I intended," he says, "to have entered on a particular description of the Eleusinian temple at Athens, and all its services; but my design was prevented by a prohibition communicated to me in a dream.19 And he accuses Homer20 of boldness for the insertion of certain particulars in his poem respecting the souls in Hades, or, in other words, respecting the initiations. Horace was thus pointed in his opinion respecting those who betrayed the secrets of the Spurious Freemasonry:— Est et fideli tuta silentio Marces vetabo qui Cereris sacrum Sit trabibus, fragilemve mecum OD. iii. 2. 25. Indeed, the priests of all nations were so chary in the revelation of their sacred Mysteries, that it constituted their chief boast that no one was able to lift up their veil." 66 To make the impression still more affecting, the Greater Mysteries were celebrated at dead of night, in the deep recesses of caverns, amidst darkness and seclusion, attended with horrible representations of the sufferings which departed souls endured who had died without regeneration, or, which is the same thing, who had incurred the displeasure of those in whose custody these institutions were placed. And many a godlike form there met his eye, SOUTHEY. Kehama. xvi. 2. And the open sanction of the civil magistrate" was added, if it be true that the Senate assembled after each celebration, to enquire whether it had been conducted according to the prescribed formula, without irregularity or profanation. When the mind had been subdued by these scenes to 18 Messen. iv. 33. 19 Paus. l. i. 14. 20 Messen. p. 17. the requisite point of implicit submission and unreserved faith and obedience, the ineffable doctrines, on which the whole fabric of true religion rests, were gradually unfolded as profound secrets, the very whisper of any one of which could only be atoned for with life. "Si quis arcanæ mysteria Cereris sacra vulgasset, lege morti addicebatur." These were the Unity and Trinity of the Godhead, including the startling fact, that the popular deities of their mythology were only dead men, who had been canonized by their ancestors for benefits rendered to mankind; the creation and institution of a Sabbath; the fall of man by means of a serpent-tempter, and his restoration through the voluntary obedience of a Mediator, who should bruise the serpent's head; the universal deluge; and a future state, with its necessary concomitant, the immortality of the soul. These are doctrines which were essential to the true Freemasonry in all ages of the world; and still remain to invigorate our Order with the vivifying principle of religion, without which Freemasonry would be a skeleton of dry bones, and unworthy the attention of a rational being. That they formed part of the imitative systems of antiquity, there is no lack of proof. On all the above points the evidence is full and clear; not consisting in detached and solitary allusions, and dark hints thinly dispersed throughout the writings of antiquity, but broadly declared in language which cannot admit of cavil or doubt. And there is nothing in the admission of this fact which is inconsistent with the attributes of the Deity. If the Governor of the Universe thought proper to permit such an universal defection from truth, it was intended not only to conduce to some further purposes of his providence, but as a means of contributing to the perfection of those secret purposes which were designed for the ultimate benefit of all his creatures. King, in the "Origin of Evil," maintains the principle, that if God had been inclined to have removed this evil, it would have been at the sacrifice of a certain portion of good. On a full inquiry into this intricate subject, we shall find that, as St. Paul assures us," he did permit idolatry and its attendant Acts. xiv. 16. mysteries to exist amongst mankind, for the purpose of conveying throughout the whole world the sublime truths connected with his gracious purposes respecting our salvation, although human perversity studiously endeavoured to throw them into shade. LECTURE V. ON THE ORIGIN OF HIEROGLYPHICS. But on the south, a long majestic race Of Egypt's priests the gilded niches grace, Who measured earth, described the starry spheres, Pope. I HAVE asserted, and in a future Lecture shall endeavour to prove, that a system of symbolical instruction was profusely used in the Spurious Freemasonry of ancient times but this is not enough for my purpose. I must first make it appear that the elementary principles of the system originated amongst the sons of Light; trace its existence in the infancy of time, and show that it pervaded the more ancient institutions of truth, and was sanctioned by the approbation of the Deity. The knowledge of symbols is of great importance in the illustration of Freemasonry, because they were used in all its branches, whether Speculative, Operative, or Spurious. A dissertation, therefore, on their nature and properties will be of peculiar utility, because the chief excellence of our sublime science consists in its emblems, which embody every thing that is commendable and praiseworthy in the system. I assume that alphabetical characters, in their primitive state, were but a series of substantive emblems, or simple representations of language, which itself, in the first ages of the world, was so figurative as to constitute a speaking picture. Shuckford, in his Connection of Sacred and Profane History, has expressed an opinion that "the first language had but one part of speech; and consisted chiefly of a few |