Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

244 ENGLET
ENOCH
Signatures are again wanting to the
ceedings of 28th February and 12th Decem r,
1726, but reappear under date of 27th "ffebry
1726" [27], viz . :
"Paisley, G. Mr ., 1726 "
and the next three succeeding officers.
The minutes of the following 10th May
(1727) were signed by "Inchiquin, G. M .,
1727," and the three officers next in rank .
The earliest minutes were not signed on confirmation
at the next meeting but were verified
by thefour Grand Officers, or such of them
as took part in the proceedings recorded . In
consequence of the reelection of Dr . Desaguliers
as Dep . G. M . the minutes say that "the
late Grand Master went away from the Hall
without any ceremony." [E . L. H .]
Englet. A corruption of Euclid, found in
the Old Constitutions known as the Matthew
Cooke MS., "wherefore ye forsayde maister
Englet ordeynet thei were passing of conying
schold be passing honoured ." (LI. 674-7 .)
Perhaps the copyist mistook a badly made old
English u for an n, and the original had Euglet,
which would be a nearer approximation to
Euclid .
Engrave. In French Lodges, buriner, to
engrave, is used instead of ecrire, to write .
The "engraved tablets" are the "written
records."
Enlightened . This word, equivalent to
the Latin illuminatus, is frequently used to
designate a Freemason as one who has been
rescued from darkness, and received intellectual
light. Webster's definition shows its
appositeness : "Illuminated ; instructed; informed,
furnished with clear views." Many
old Latin diplomas commence with the heading,
"Omnibus illummatis," i . e., "to all the
enlightened."
Enlightenment, Shock of. See Shock of
Enlightenment .
Enoch . Though the Scriptures furnish
but a meager account of Enoch, the traditions
of Freemasonry closely connect him, by numerous
circumstances, with the early history of
the Institution . All, indeed, that we learn
from the Book of Genesis on the subject of his
life is, that he was the seventh of the patriarchs
; the son of Jared, and the great-grandfather
of Noah ; that he was born in the year
of the world 622 ; that his life was one of eminent
virtue, so much so, that he is described
as "walking with God" ; and that in the year
987 his earthly pilgrimage was terminated
(as the commentators generally suppose), not
by death, but by a bodily translation to
heaven .
In the very commencement of our inquiries,
we shall find circumstances in the life of this
great patriarch that shadow forth, as it were,
something of that mysticism with which the
traditions of Masonry have connected him .
His name, in the Hebrew language, I1,
ienoch, signifies to initiate and to instruct, and
seems intended to express the fact that he was,
as Oliver remarks, the first to give a decisive
character to the rite of initiation and to add
to the practise of Divine worship the study and
application of human science . In confirmation
of this view, a writer in the Freemasons' Quarterly
Review says, on this subject, that "it
seems probable -that Enoch introduced the
speculative principles into the Masonic creed
and that he originated its exclusive character,' ;
which theory must be taken, if it is accepted
at all, with very considerable modifications .
The years of his life may also be supposed to
contain a mystic meaning, for they amounted
to three hundred and sixty-five, being exactly
equal to a solar revolution . In all the ancient
rites this number has occupied a prominent
place, because it was the representative of the
annual course of that luminary which, as the
great fructifier of the earth, was the peculiar
object of divine worship .
Of the early history of Enoch, we know
nothing. It is, however probable that, like
the other descendants of the pious Seth, he
passed his pastoral life in the neighborhood
of Mount Moriah . From the other patriarchs
he differed only in this, that, enlightened by
the Divine knowledge which had been imparted
to him, he instructed his contemporaries
in the practise of those rites, and in the
study of those sciences, with which he had
himself become acquainted .
The Oriental writers abound in traditionary
evidence of the learning of the venerable patriarch
. One tradition states that he received
from God the gift of wisdom and knowledge,
and that God sent him thirty volumes from
heaven, filled with all the secrets of the most
mysterious sciences. The Babylonians supposed
him to have been intimately acquainted
with the nature of the stars ; and they attribute
to him the invention of astrology. The
Rabbis maintain that he was taught by God
and Adam how to sacrifice, and how to worship
the Deity aright . The Kabbalistic book of
Raziel says that he received the Divine mysteries
from Adam, through the direct line of
the preceding patriarchs.
The Greek Christians supposed him to have
been identical with the first Egyptian Hermes,
who dwelt at Sais. They say he was the first
to give instruction on the celestial bodies ;
that he foretold the deluge that was to overwhelm
his descendants ; and that he built the
Pyramids, engraving thereon figures of artificial
instruments and the elements of the sciences,
fearing lest the memory of man should
perish in that general destruction . Eupolemus,
a Grecian writer, makes him the same as Atlas,
and attributes to him, as the Pagans did to
that deity, the invention of astronomy .
Mr . Wait, in his Oriental Antiquities, quotes
a pMsage from Bar Hebraeus, a Jewish writer,
which asserts that Enoch was the first who invented
books and writing; that he taught men
the art of building cities ; that he discovered
the knowledge of the Zodiac and the course of
the planets- and that he inculcated the worship
of God by fasting, prayer, alms, votive
offerings, and tithes . Bar Hebraeue adds, that
he also appointed festivals for sacrifices to the
sun at the periods when that luminary entered
each of the zodiacal signs; but this