Duncan's Ritual of Freemasonry.pdf - FatimaMovement

distinctly known. The perfect stones were
received with acclamations; while those that were
deficient were rejected with disdain. This
arrangement proved a superior stimulus to
exertion, which accounts for the high finish
which the Temple subsequently acquired.--
Historical Landmarks, vol. i. p. 421.
164:1 There can be no doubt that the quarries
from whence the Masons received their materials
were situated very near to the Temple. Mr. Prime
visited one of these quarries, situated beneath the
City of Jerusalem, in 1856, and thus speaks of it:
"One thing to me is very manifest. There has
been solid stone taken from this excavation
sufficient to build the walls of Jerusalem and the
Temple of Solomon. The size of many of the
stones taken from here appears to be very great. I
know of no place to which the stone can have
been carried but to these works, and I know of no
other quarries in the neighborhood from which
the great stone of the walls would seem to have
come. These two connected ideas impelled me
strongly toward the belief that this was the
ancient quarry whence the city was built; and
when the magnitude of the excavation between
the two opposing hills and of this cavern is
considered, it is, to say the least of it, a difficult
question to answer, what has become of the stone
once here, on any other theory than that I have
suggested."--Tent-Life in the Holy Land, p. 113.
Another modern traveller, speaking of this
quarry, says: "I have penetrated it for nearly half
a mile, and seen there many large stones already
cut, which were prepared for work but never
removed. This new discovery is one of the
greatest wonders of Jerusalem. It seems to extend
under the Temple itself, and the stones were all
finished and dressed there, and then raised up at