THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

are
to be viewed as histories, but readily reconcilable with sound sense,
if
looked at only in the light of allegories. They present an
uninterrupted
succession of events, in which the Stone of Foundation takes a
prominent
part, from Adam to Solomon, and from Solomon to Zerubbabel.
Thus the first of these legends, in order of time, relates that the
Stone
of Foundation was possessed by Adam while in the garden of Eden; that
he
used it as an altar, and so reverenced it, that, on his expulsion from
Paradise, he carried it with him into the world in which he and his
descendants were afterwards to earn their bread by the sweat of their
brow.
Another legend informs us that from Adam the Stone of Foundation
descended
to Seth. From Seth it passed by regular succession to Noah, who took it
with him into the ark, and after the subsidence of the deluge, made on
it
his first thank-offering. Noah left it on Mount Ararat, where it was
subsequently found by Abraham, who removed it, and consequently used it
as
an altar of sacrifice. His grandson Jacob took it with him when he fled
to
his uncle Laban in Mesopotamia, and used it as a pillow when, in the
vicinity of Luz, he had his celebrated vision.
Here there is a sudden interruption in the legendary history of the
stane, and we have no means of conjecturing how it passed from the
possession of Jacob into that of Solomon. Moses, it is true, is said to
have taken it with him out of Egypt at the time of the exodus, and thus
it
may have finally reached Jerusalem. Dr. Adam Clarke[223] repeats what
he
very properly calls "a foolish tradition," that the stone on which
Jacob
rested his head was afterwards brought to Jerusalem, thence carried
after
a long lapse of time to Spain, from Spain to Ireland, and from Ireland
to
Scotland, where it was used as a seat on which the kings of Scotland
sat
to be crowned. Edward I., we know, brought a stone, to which this
legend
is attached, from Scotland to Westminster Abbey, where, under the name
of
Jacob's Pillow, it still remains, and is always placed under the chair
upon which the British sovereign sits to be crowned, because there is
an
old distich which declares that wherever this stone is found the
Scottish
kings shall reign.[224]