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

xvi Preface to the Second Edition.
Masonry for more than a thousand years, for presenting
its
sublime philosophy to the world for the
upHfting of humanity.
Mystic Masonry is, to a considerable extent, a
compilation. It was not the author's purpose to
become an innovator, but rather, in a modest way,
an inspirer and renovator, and for this purpose he
but repeated statements that had already been made
by those high in Masonic authority,
statements that
had been overlooked or forgotten, and that needed
to be remembered. In his preface to Morals and
Dogma, Mr. Pike declares that about one-half of
that work is original matter, and half taken from
various sources, and that as he was writing neither
for fame nor money, but for the benefit of the craft,
the source of what he had set down was a matter of
secondary importance. He often adapted, rather
than quoted, in many places, and very seldom gave
authorities. He wrote those things which he evidently
believed his Masonic Brotherhood ought to
know, and as he had divested his mind of all
selfish
motive or hope of gain, so must he be exempt from
the charge of plagiarism. He drew very largely, in
many places, from the writings of Abbe Constant,
better known as Eliphas Levi, whose writings then
existed only in the French language, and which un-