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

study of the ancient religions, and with profound learning, established
a
peculiar system on the subject. Many of his views have been adopted in
the
text of the present work. His theory was, that the religion and
mythology
of the ancient Greeks were borrowed from a far more ancient people,--a
body of priests coming from the East,--who received them as a
revelation.
The myths and traditions of this ancient people were adopted by Hesiod,
Homer, and the later poets, although not without some misunderstanding
of
them, and they were finally preserved in the Mysteries, and became
subjects of investigation for the philosophers. This theory Creuzer has
developed in his most important work, entitled "Symbolik und Mythologie
der alten Voelker, besonders der Greichen," which was published at
Leipsic
in 1819. There is no translation of this work into English, but
Guigniaut
published at Paris, in 1824, a paraphrastic translation of it, under
the
title of "Religions de l'Antiquite considerees principalement dans leur
Formes Symboliques et Mythologiques." Creuzer's views throw much light
on
the symbolic history of Freemasonry.
CROSS. No symbol was so universally diffused at an early period as the
cross. It was, says Faber (Cabir. ii. 390), a symbol throughout the
pagan
world long previous to its becoming an object of veneration to
Christians.
In ancient symbology it was a symbol of eternal life. M. de Mortillet,
who
in 1866 published a work entitled "Le Signe de la Croix avant le
Christianisme," found in the very earliest epochs three principal
symbols
of universal occurrences; viz., the _circle_, the _pyramid_, and the
_cross_. Leslie (Man's Origin and Destiny, p. 312), quoting from him in
reference to the ancient worship of the cross, says "It seems to have
been
a worship of such a peculiar nature as to exclude the worship of
idols."
This sacredness of the crucial symbol may be one reason why its form
was
often adopted, especially by the Celts in the construction of their
temples, though I have admitted in the text the commonly received
opinion
that in cross-shaped temples the four limbs of the cross referred to
the
four elements. But in a very interesting work lately published--"The
Myths
of the New World" (N.Y., 1863)--Mr. Brinton assigns another symbolism.
"The symbol," says this writer, "that beyond all others has fascinated
the
human mind, THE CROSS, finds here its source and meaning. Scholars have
pointed out its sacredness in many natural religions, and have
reverently