The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

IN BRITAIN. 149
nated Dedwydd, (E^onr^} and could say to the multitude
of the profane, Stand by, come not near me, I am
holier than ye! 75 and the benefits resulting from this
privilege were so various and important, as amply to
compensate for the danger necessarily incurred in the
process. These benefits rendered the possessor eligible
for any ecclesiastical, civil, or military dignity, and con-
sisted of every species of instruction which had a tendency
to store the mind with wisdom, fortitude, and
virtue. The whole circle of human science was open to
76
his investigation the ; knowledge of divine things was
communicated without reserve he was ; now enabled to
perform the mysterious \ites of understanding
worship, and had his
enriched with an elaborate system of
morality.
womb of Ceridwen, the mythological Ark, where he wus a representative
of the Arkite patriarch; and lastly from the coracle, or
Ark itself. To this effect also the Brahmins say, " The first birth
is from a natural mother ; the second from the ligature of the zone ;
the third from the due performance of the sacrifice (of initiation) ; such
are the births of him who is usually called thrice born, according to
the text of the Veda." (Ordin. of Menu. Sir W. Jones' Works, vol.
in., p. 106.) The Greeks also styled their Epopts, rgiyovos, thrice
born ; and the last birth, like that of Taliesin, was from an Ark. A
passage in the Geeta, -(p. 67,) assigns perfection to the Yogee who
had accomplished many births.
75 Isaiah Ixv., 5.
76 This superior knowledge was that particular species of worldly
wisdom on which the Prophet pronounces this severe invective.
Every man is brutish by his knowledge. (Jerem. li., 17.)