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KNIGHT OF THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 365
the bosoin of the earth, long chilled by the wintry
frosts.
Let the brazen cross and the serpent be borne before
the congregation, and be forever a symbol of Faith,
by the dying out whereof in the hearts of nations,
they fall into decay ; and lest the knowledge of its
true symbolic meaning should in time be lost, and
the people hereafter imagine it to be something
divine, and worship it, we will perpetuate the remem-
brance of this day's events, and the true meaning of
this and our other symbols, and of the fables of
Osiris and Ormuzd, and Typhon and Ahriman, as
the last degree of those sacred mysteries which
Joseph, the son of Jacob, like myself, learned from
the Egyptians, and which I have taught to you
such as our forefathers practised on the plains of
Chaldaea.
The Father sends fiery serpents to sting and slay
his children. Yet he commands us to forgive those
who trespass against us. And this law is not the
mandate of his will, but the expression of his nature.
Who will explain this great mystery ?
Below, upon the earth, the serpent is the minister
of death. Its image, lifted on high, heals and re-
stores life.
The first sages who sought for the cause of causes
saw good and evil in the world ; they observed the
;