The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

54
HISTORY OF INITIATION.
essentially similar to those of India, being derived from
the same source, and containing the same rites, founded
on the same general principles;
for ancient India com-
prehended the whole of that vast continent. A recapitulation
of the ceremony of initiation will, therefore, be
unnecessary, and I shall confine my notices of China and
Japan to the detail of a few prominent facts, which constituted
the shades of difference between them and other
Asiatic nations.
The Chinese practised Buddhism in its most simple
form, and worshipped an invisible God, 52 until a few
centuries before the Christian era, when visible objects
of adoration were introduced; 53 and so rapid was the
march of innovation, that in the course of a very short
period, China was as famous as any other idolatrous
nation for the number and variety of its objects of popular
adoration. 54
It is true that many abuses had crept,
52 Martinius. in Maur. Ind. Ant., vol. v., p. 797.
53 Lao-Kiun, who flourished about the year A. C. 600, introduced
a system which bore a striking resemblance to that of Epicurus, and
his followers styled themselves Immortals. (Maur. Ind. Ant., vol. v.,
p. 807.) They were materialists, but addicted, notwithstanding, to
the worship of idols.
54 Confucius attempted to reform ^the abuses' which had crept into
their religious mysteries ;
but licentiousness long indulged, could not
quietly submit to the mortifying castigation of austere and unbending
virtue. The Emperor and his grandees disregarded his admonitions ;
the Mandarins hated him for projecting a reformation in those
abstruse mysteries, which, in their present state, were the chief
source of all their wealth and all their power and one of them ;
actually
made an attempt upon his life. And the great philosopher, who
was afterwards adored as a god by his countrymen was obliged to
fly from civilized society to escape from the dreaded machinations of
his powerful opponents. He retired into the desert, and formed a
school of philosophy, to which he invited all who were inspired with
a love of virtue and science ; and the genial effects of his improved
system were reserved for the enjoyment of posterity. One prominent
misconception, however, counteracted the benefits which might
reasonably be expected to result from this greatjnan's improvements.
On his death bed he predicted that there should arise in the western
part of the world a GREAT PROPHET (Couplet, p. 78), who should
deliver mankind from the bondage of error and superstition, and
establish an universal system of religion, which should be ultimately
embraced by all the nations of the earth. His followers erroneously
concluded that this great and powerful being was no other than
Buddha or Fo himself, who was, accordingly, installed into their
Temples in a visible form (Asiat. Kes., vol. vii., p. 299), with solemn
pomp, as the chief deity of the Chinese empire. This proceeding