Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated - The Masonic Trowel

434 SUBLIME PRINCE OF THE ROYAL SECRET. INITIATION. 435
settled when there were but tventy-five degrees, prior
to 1786, and we see at once that cause, ~.dditionah to
time and the treachery of memory which has lost us
the full explanation of this collection of symbols. It is
that aftcr thlc degrccs had been increased to the 33rd,
the figures had too fcw sides, and it became necessary
to rearrange the dcgrees, and distribute them ancw
among the camps. This displaced the letters; assigned
one letter to more than one degree; displaced the standards
and caused the disuse of the heptagon, and made
the whole arrangement arbitrary and inexplicable. This
is the key to the mystery; or if it be not, we do not
believe there is any key, and with this key we proceed
to unlock that mystery as far as we can; knowing that
we can only partially do so, and only hoping to put
others and more learned investigators on the right
track and so be instrumental in the ultimate entire development
of these interesting symbols. We again observe
that the degrees of the two scales are identical up
to the 18th degree assuming as a reasonable supposition,
that the lower degrees
were originally assigned
to the lines of the
camp furthest from
the centre, because that
is natural, because the
general feature would
in all probability not
be changed in the rearrangement
w h i c h
the increased number
of the degrees made
necessary, we at once find that the nonagon, offering us
nine sides, accommodates the first nine degrees, beginning
with the Apprentice and ending with the Elect of
Nine, and thflt the heptagon, completing with its seven
sides the number 16, accommodates those from the
tenth to th~ sixteenth, or Prince of Jerusalem inclusive,
and thus, as the regulations do, puts these Princes at
the head of the Masons of those sixteen degrees, and
this agrees with the regulations of 1762, which declares
them to be the Most Valiant Chiefs of the Renovated
Masonry, and gives them control over all lodges
of the Royal Perfection and Council of Knights of the
East. See constitutions of 1762, Art. 31. Above the 16
degrees then, by the system of 1762, are the following
which we number as they stand in both scales:
17. Knights of the East and West. 17
18. Sovereign Prince of Rose Croix. 18
19. Grand Pontiff and Master ad vitam 19 and 20
20. Grand Patriarch, Noachite. 21
21. Grand Master of the Key of Masonry.
22. Prince of Libanus, or Knight of Royal Axe. 22
23. Sovereign Prince Adept or Knight of the Sun.28
24. Grand Commander of the Black Eagle. 30
25. Sovereign Prince of Royal Secret. 32
Now it is obvious that the five sides of the pentagon
accommodate the five degrees from the 17th to the 21st
inclusive, and if we assign the Princes of the Royal
Secret to the circle, as we must do to make the number
correspond, we have for the triangle the three following
degrees.
22. Prince of Libanus or Knight of Royal Axe.
23. Sovereign Prince Adept or Knight of the Sun.
24. Grand Commander of the Black Eagle.
To have placed an inferior degree on the triangle and
one of these three on the pentagon, and thus further