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

however, like many other ancient mystics, had recovered some portion of
the lost light, and the complete repossession was finally achieved by
their union with the Jewish masons, who were Noachidae.
[141] "A mythis omnis priscorum hominum tum historia tum philosophia
procedit."--_Ad Apollod. Athen. Biblioth. not._ f. p. 3.--And Faber
says,
"Allegory and personification were peculiarly agreeable to the genius
of
antiquity; and the simplicity of truth was continually sacrificed at
the
shrine of poetical decoration."--_On the Cabiri._
[142] See Grote, History of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 479, whence
this
definition has been substantially derived. The definitions of Creuzer,
Hermann, Buttmann, Heyne, Welcker, Voss, and Mueller are none of them
Better, and some of them not as good.
[143] Hist. of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 579. The idea of the
existence
of an enlightened people, who lived at a remote era, and came from the
East, was a very prevalent notion among the ancient traditions. It is
corroborative of this that the Hebrew word _kedem_,
signifies, in respect to place, _the east_, and, in respect to time,
_olden time, ancient days_. The phrase in Isaiah xix. 11, which reads,
"I
am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings," might just as well
have
been translated "the son of kings of the East." In a note to the
passage
Ezek. xliii. 2, "the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of
the
East," Adam Clarke says, "All knowledge, all religion, and all arts and
sciences, have travelled, according to the _course of the sun_, FROM
EAST
TO WEST!" Bazot tells us (in his Manuel du Franc-macon, p. 154) that
"the
veneration which masons entertain for the east confirms an opinion
previously announced, that the religious system of Masonry came from
the
east, and has reference to the _primitive religion_, whose first
corruption was the worship of the sun." And lastly, the masonic reader
will recollect the answer given in the Leland MS. to the question
respecting the origin of Masonry, namely, "It did begin" (I modernize
the
orthography) "with the first men in the east, which were before the
first
men of the west; and coming westerly, it hath brought herewith all
comforts to the wild and comfortless." Locke's commentary on this
answer
may conclude this note: "It should seem, by this, that masons believe
there were men in the east before Adam, who is called the 'first man of
the west,' and that arts and sciences began in the east. Some authors,
of
great note for learning, have been of the same opinion; and it is
certain