Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

The Great Lodge. 231
and the mission of Buddha largely failed in India,
and found its principal converts in Ceylon, in distant
lands, and the isles of the sea.
The religions of Egypt and Chaldea had back of
them the same Secret Doctrine, or Mysteries; and
they were also both Scientific and Philosophical.
But Egypt and Chaldea repeated the folly of India,
and perished with the degradation of their religions.
Traditions of the Secret Doctrine still existed, and
Masters like Hermes, Zoroaster, Confucius, and
Laotse appeared in different lands from time to time
to revive the old religion under new names, and
often under a different form of symbolism. Pythagoras
and the Schools of the Persian Maji for many
centuries kept the true light burning. The conquest
of Egypt by Cambyses, as already referred to, completed
the ruin of the land of the Pharaohs, and
Pythagoras and Plato became the links between the
old philosophy and the Christian Era, together with
the Jewish Kabalah, derived jointly from the Mysteries
of Egypt and Chaldea, though more largely,
perJiaps, from the latter.
From the Essenes, the Schools of Alexandria, then
in all their glory, from the Kabalaih and the philosophy
of Plato, the Christian mysteries were derived.
During the first three centuries of our era these doc-