The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

IN GREECE. 89
opinion, prudence, science, wisdom, and mind. He
arranged his assemblies due East and West, because he
said that motion began in the East or right
side of the
world and proceeded towards the West or left side. In
a word, though his Institution was the most perfect
system ever practised amongst idolaters, yet when he
endeavoured to enter the Holy of Holies, and began to
speculate on the knowledge of God and a future state,
he was bewildered with childish notions and idle conjectures,
instead of enjoying the brilliant beams of divine
truth.
Plato was deeply versed in all the mysteries of anti-
quity, 33 which he believed capable of restoring the soul
to its primitive purity. 34 He adopted the division of
three degrees, because three was a mystical number, dedi-
cated to the celestial deities. These degrees were progressive,
the ceremonial being in accordance with the
Greek mode; and no candidate was admitted to them
without an elementary course of study and privation,
during which he was subjected to the Pastes, by being
placed in a well for a specified period,
as the medium of
regeneration. 35 The first degree was mathematical ; and
embraced arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy;
the instruction of the second degree was confined to
physics ; and the third, in which the brows of the candidate
were encircled with a crown or tiara, to intimate
meet with a guide that directs him to pursue philosophy, and he procures
initiation, his life shall be honourable and his death happy.
But if he omits to do this, and takes the left hand path, which
appears broader and better, it will lead to sloth and luxury; will
waste his estate, impair his health, and bring on an old age of infamy
and misery. (Porph. vit. Pyth. Stob. Serai. Persius. Sat. iii.,
v. 56. Stanley. Lives of Philos., &c.) See also the Theocr. Phil,
of Freemas., where the system of Pythagoras is elaborately explained.
33 Proems says that Plato derived his theology from Orpheus.
(Cudw. Intell. Syst., p. 547.)
M In Phaedone.
35 " It was in allusion to such rites that Plato," says Faber (Pag.
Idol., vol. iii., p. 188), "whose philosophy was largely tinged with
the doctrines of the Mysteries, was wont to say, that Truth must be
sought for at the bottom of a well. By truth he meant the speculations
revealed to the initiated, who were henceforth styled Epopts,
or persons who see things truly as they are ; and by the well, he
meant the sacred pit or cavern where the mysteries were so frequently
celebrated."