Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor - Rose Croix

is left for the reception of a KEYSTONE; the Most Excellent Master, taking the keystone
in his hand, places it. in the arch, and drives it home with six raps of his gavel.--
Historical Landmarks, vol. ii. p. 128.
210:2 This pot contains gum camphor or other inflammable matter.
214:1 "Recent discoveries in Ethiopia have brought to light," says a writer on the
Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum, "arches regularly constructed with the keystone.
The same arch is also found in the vaulted roof of a small building or portico in the
Egyptian style, which is attached to one of the sides of the largest pyramids at Assour. At
Jebel Barkal, Mr. Waddington observed an arched roof in a portico attached to a
pyramid." These pyramids are supposed to be of higher antiquity than the building of
King Solomon's Temple.--Theo. Phil., p. 208.
p. 217
ROYAL ARCH, OR SEVENTH DEGREE.
THE Royal Arch Degree seems not to have been known to what are called modern
Masons as late as about 1750. That portion of the old Freemasons who met at the famous
Apple-Tree Tavern, in 1717, and formed the society upon somewhat new principles, that
is, so far as to admit into fellowship, indiscriminately, respectable individuals of all
professions, were denominated, by the non-adherents to this plan, modern Masons. This
affair caused the division of the Masonic Society into two parties, which continued till
1813, nearly one hundred years. To the rivalry occasioned by this schism, Masonry, it is
presumed, is mainly indebted for the great celebrity it has obtained in the world.
It appears that the non-conformists to this new scheme, who considered themselves the
orthodox party, by rummaging among the old records of the Order, first discovered the
Royal Arch Degree, which had probably lain dormant for centuries; during which time, it
would appear, the society had been confined almost exclusively to operative masons;