that small race of men who adhered to the genuine worship of God. Hence, though one of its general grand divisions sunk with the knowledge of God, the other suffered no material deterioration; because, when the former was finally restored by Jesus Christ, the latter, having received accessions of strength in almost every age, was in the maturity of its vigour and excellence.

Masonry was known and practised under the name of Lux, or its equivalent in all languages used since the creation; and they who search for its existence, in its true and spiritual form, amongst idolatrous Operative Masons in the early ages of the world, may expend much time to a fruitless purpose, and help to confound our science with many systems at variance with its great and prominent designs, though apparently founded on the same basis. It is true that many eminent men professing the science of Lux, which includes a knowledge of all other sciences, applied it to an operative purpose, and united in the construction of magnificent edifices; but as they chiefly sought their own private interests or emolument, it is no wonder that the true principles of Lux were sacrificed, founded as they are on the belief and acknowledgment of one only Supreme Being, the Creator and Governor of the world, when these edifices were dedicated to deceased mortals, or the host of heaven.

After the flood the true professors of Lux were termed NOACHIDE; but the science itself retained its primitive name for many centuries afterwards. At the building of the Temple by King Solomon, it was known under this appellation, which certainly remained for a considerable time subsequent to that event; for our science is recognized by Christ and his apostles under this denomination, and it even retains the name of Lux in our Latin records to the present day. St. John, speaking in high commendation of Jesus Christ, says, "He was the true LIGHT,"16 "and the LIGHT shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." This evangelist, as the grand patron of Masonry, inculcates the doctrines of our Craft throughout the whole of his writings; and on every important appeal fails not to use such expressions and phrases as apply equally and jointly to Christianity and

Masonry. He considered them in the light of two twin sisters, which would grow up together and moralize the world. His First General Epistle contains all the sublime and spiritual part of our ordinary illustrations. And our Saviour says of himself, "I am the LIGHT of the world." And again more explicitly, "Yet a little while is the LIGHT with you; walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have LIGHT, believe in the light, that ye may be the CHILDREN OF LIGHT."'19

At the building of Solomon's Temple the sons of light associated together, under an exalted professor of Lux, to devote themselves to the service of the true and living God; but it does not hence follow that the science was designated from the operative pursuits embraced on that memorable occasion, for the appellation of a science is seldom extracted from any of its inferior branches. Its name was more probably changed by some distinguished founder of a sect of philosophy amongst idolaters; because, as I have already observed, it was acknowledged by Christ and his apostles under its primitive designa

tion.

The word Masonry, when first adopted, was merely a corruption of Meosgavew, sum in medio cali; which name was applied to the science about A.M. 3490; when Pythagoras, after traveling over the whole world, made many additions to the mysteries of his native country, which he purified from their gross abominations by the use of Lux, which he had learned in Judea,20 and in Greece instituted a lodge of geometricians, on a new principle, compounded from all the existing systems of other nations. The aspirants were enjoined a SILENCE of five years previously to initiation; and they who could not endure this rigid probation were publicly dismissed; a tomb was erected for them, and they were ever after considered as dead men.21

This new institution in Greece would naturally pro

18 John viii., 12.

19 John xii., 35, 36.

20 Aristobulus the Jew informs us (Clem. Alex. Strom. 1), that Pythagoras transferred the Jewish doctrines and ceremonies into his own system; and this is confirmed by others. (Hermipp in Jos con. Ap., lib. 1; Orig. con. Cels., lib. 1.)

21 Jambl. Vit. Pyth., c. 17.

duce a Grecian appellation, as the inhabitants were in the constant practice of naming, according to the idiom of their own language, not only other countries, but the sciences, and also eminent men; that the honour of each might be attributed to their own nation. From this time, also, a more intimate union took place between the speculative and operative professors; and the beautiful columns, known amongst us by the names of WISDOM, STRENGTH, and BEAUTY, were brought to perfection amongst that people. Pythagoras also invented an invaluable proposition, which he called the Evonxa, because it forms a grand basis for all the laborious calculations of operative architecture. This indefatigable Mason carried his astronomical studies to such perfection as absolutely to discover the true system of the universe, by placing the sun in the centre, round which the planets made their various revolutions. From this system originated the name of our science, Meosgave; and the representation of the great luminary which invigorates all Nature with its beams, was placed in the centre of his lodge, as an emblem of the union of Speculative with Operative Masonry; which had been before practised by King Solomon in the middle chamber of his Temple.22

As the Grecian arts, manners, and language became propagated throughout the world, their system of Masonry, together with the name, accompanied them. The Druidical memoranda were made in the Greek character, for the Druids had been taught Masonry by Pythagoras himself," who had communicated its arcana to them, under the name he had assigned to it in his own

"Greece now abounded with the best architects, sculptors, statuaries, painters, and other fine designers, most of them educated at the academies of Athens and Sicyon, who instructed many artists and fellow-crafts to be the best operators upon earth; so that the nations of Asia and Africa, who had taught the Greeks, were now taught by them. No country but Greece could now boast of such men as Mycon, Phidias, Demon, Androcides, Meton, Anaxagoras, Diponus and Scyllis, Glycon, Alcamenes, Praxiteles, Polycletus, Lysippus, Peneus, Euphronor, Perseus, Philostratus, Zeuxis, Apollodorus, Parbasius, Timanthes, Eupompus, Pamphilus, Apelles, Artemones, Socrates, Eudoxus, Metrodorus, who wrote of Masonry, and the excellent Theodorus Cyrenæus, who amplified geometry, and published the art analytic, the master of the divine Plato, from whose school came Zenocrates, and Aristotle, the preceptor of Alexander the Great. (North. Const., chap. 5, part 1.)

13 Amm. Marcell.

country. This distinguished appellation (Meosoavsw), in the subsequent declension and oblivion of the science, during the dark ages of barbarity and superstition, might be corrupted into MASONRY, as its remains, being merely operative, were confined to a few hands, and these artificers and working Masons.

Throughout this work I have used the appellation MASONRY as the acknowledged designation of our science in its present form, though it was not known by that name during any of the periods I have attempted to elu

cidate.

The true definition of Masonry is, a science which includes all others, and teaches mankind their duty to God, their neighbour, and themselves.24 This definition evidently conveys two distinct ideas; the former of which is termed OPERATIVE, and the latter SPECULATIVE MASONRY. Architecture, being a science of the greatest use and benefit to man in his natural state, was principally cultivated by the Masons of that race who had separated from the faithful worshippers of God, and migrated into distant realms, where, for want of an intercommunity with the Sons of Light, the noble science of Masonry would soon be forgotten, and operative architecture might, by their posterity, be mistaken for the science of which it was, in reality, only a constituent part of an inferior division: and this mistake would not be rectified, until a renewed association with the true Masons convinced them practically of their error, which was effected at the building of King Solomon's Temple. And hence it has happened that many excellent and well-meaning Masons have been led to conclude, that Operative Masonry only was known and practised by our ancient Brethren before the building of that sacred edifice.

But, if religion be intimately connected with Masonry, and essentially necessary to its existence, then we must look for it under some unequivocal and universal form. Now, operative architecture is an insulated science, and depends on some others to bring it to perfection; therefore the perfection of Masonry cannot be found in

1. It is

24 There are two other legitimate definitions of Masonry. a beautiful system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols. 2. The study of science, and the practice of virtue.

architecture alone; and this more particularly, because the most stately structures of antiquity were erected by idolatrous nations to the honour of false gods, and consequently in defiance of the true God, and to the prejudice of that religion on which we assert that Masonry is founded. It could not then be Lux or Masonry which stimulated them to a renunciation of God, but a perverted system, which bore but a slight and fading resemblance to that science, which gradually sunk into oblivion as idolatry was disseminated over the face of the earth. Nor can the declension of Masonry, in different ages, be attributed to any other cause; for when the pure worship of the true God was the most prevalent, we find Masonry blazing forth in its native and unsullied lustre. Thus it shone amidst the darkness during the life of Adam, of Enoch, and of Noah; thus it displayed its radiance in the time of Abraham, Moses, and Solomon; thus the strong traces of its existence are discoverable in the time of Zerubbabel and Jesus Christ; and thus it has flourished in all ages when sober religion has characterized the manners and influenced the morals of civil society.

We find that where architecture was cultivated as an exclusive science, its professors became much more expert than those nations who practised Masonry as a universal system. Hence, when Solomon had determined to erect a Temple to the living God, he was obliged to apply for assistance to the Tyrians, who were, at that time, the most expert architects in the world. It is true the Israelites were not entirely ignorant of that art, having cultivated Operative Masonry from the time that their ancestors in Egypt built the cities of Pithom and Raamses. At the building of this Temple, the chief architect was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and consequently an Israelite by his mother's side, though his father was a man of Tyre. He had been brought up under the patronge of Abibalus, the father of Hiram, King of Tyre, and was beyond all competition the best designer and artificer upon earth.

This Temple was acknowledged by all nations to be the utmost effort of human genius; and that the united excellences of all the structures in the world would have been inferior to it in beauty and splendour, either