The Arcana of Freemasonry (1915) - The Masonic Trowel

228 THE ARCANA OF FREEMASONRY
when, and where these Symbols and Rituals first
came to this country, but if you follow the progress
and evolution of the human race, its migrations,
arts, sciences, and religious cults, in the various
waves of exodes from Egypt, the rise and fall
of the different Empires that have taken place, the
results and effects upon peoples that flourished in
latitudes down to 50 degrees, by the Glacial Epoch
recurring every, 25,827 years —the destruction of
the old Egyptian Empire over five thousand years
ago, followed by fire, sword, and a dark and
degenerate age of all that pertained to their old
civilization—
you will begin to understand a little,
and when you consider how tenacious mankind is
of the religious doctrines that they have been
taught, and brought up in, by, their fathers and
mothers, you will understand that, in spite
of all
the persecution they were subjected to by the
Roman Priesthood, there would be many in various
countries who would secretly cling to and carry
on their old beliefs.
Herodotus states that all the Zoroastrian,
Dionysiac, Serapism (or Greek), Mithrasism,
Samothracian, Pythagorean, and Eleusnian Mys-
teries were obtained from the Ancient Egyptians,
and that most of these were initiated into these
Mysteries by the Pelasgians, who stated that they
were initiated into these Mysteries by the
Egyptians. Then the Stellar Cult people travelled