The Arcana of Freemasonry (1915) - The Masonic Trowel

I
THE ARCANA OF FREEMASONRY 113
The Glacial Epoch occurs once in every 25,827
years, during part of which period the whole of the
Northern Hemisphere is frozen and covered with
ice and snow, down as far as the latitude of the
south of France. This great City of London and
others will be ground to pieces and buried under-
neath the Great Ice Sheet ; everything will be
destroyed, as it has been many times ; only remains
will be re-discovered by our future Brothers when
they come North again, and who shall say how
much or how little evidence will they then find
of. our present institutions and teachings?
As regards the Roman College of Artificers,
Krause, in his work, endeavoured to prove that
Masonry originated in the associations of operative
Masons. These associations may have sprung from
the building corporations of the Romans. The
initiates of the Architectural Colleges of the
Romans did not, however, call themselves
'
Brothers " ; they were styled Collega or
Incorporatus. The Colleges held
" "
Lodges
wherever they established themselves, had signs,
symbols, tokens, and passwords, which they had
learned and received from the Chaldean magicians,
who flocked to Rome at the beginning of the
Christian era. These Chaldean priests, neverthe-
less, were of inferior order, who were initiated
into part of the lesser mysteries of the Egyptians
only, so that at best these could only be carriers,
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