Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

80 FREE MASOJJRY A PIOUS FRAUD.
read that' How little calculated that was for his faithful
purpose, the reader may judge from the following extract,
taken from the first column of the paper.
" Within our own time, mysterious inscriptions and characters
have been found among the rubbish of eastern cities,
over whose ruins more than forty centuries have rolled, which
called forth the wonder of the curious, and puzzled the most
learned and scrutinizing antiquary, and which none have yet ,
been found competent to decipher, save those who are
versed in the higher orders of Masonry.
" On these mouldering ruins and relics of ancient grandeur,
the Mason gazes with awful veneration, and holds converse
with the spirit of other ages, while he reads on.every mossy
stone, and dilapidated wall,those mystic chronicles, long since
forgotten in tradition, and lost in history."
" Piscium et summa genus haesit ulmo."
flew. Ode 2.
The fishes were tangled in the tops of the trees!
This matter must rest on the authority of the orator,* as
it belongs to the higher degrees, with which I claim only a
kindred acquaintance; but to put its bare face in the light, let
us observe, that " ruins over which more than forty centuries
have rolled," are within fifty years of the building of
Babel, according to Le Sage. " Chronicles" of that period,
are rare; and if they contained but the name of the architect,
or of the reigning prince, or the date of the structure,
they would be invaluable. It would not endanger the mysteries
of the fraternity, to lend a few minor circumstances of
this sort to the learned world, and to furnish the curious
with the names of the founders of the pyramids, and with
* w Cui Pudor, et Justitie sorer
* l Incorrupt* Fides, nudaque Veritas,
** Quando nllam invenient parem."
Hor. Odt 24.