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

[155] Hist. of Philos. vol. ii. p. 337.
[156] Such a talisman was the following figure:--
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| 3 | 5 | 7 |
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[157] Anderson's Constitutions, 2d ed. 1738, p. 14.
[158] Anderson's Constitutions, 3d ed. 1756, p. 24.
[159] "The hidden doctrines of the unity of the Deity and the
immortality
of the soul were originally in all the Mysteries, even those of Cupid
and
Bacchus."--WARBURTON, _in Spence's Anecdotes,_ p. 309.
[160] "The allegorical interpretation of the myths has been, by several
learned investigators, especially by Creuzer, connected with the
hypothesis of an ancient and highly instructed body of priests, having
their origin either in Egypt or in the East, and communicating to the
rude
and barbarous Greeks religious, physical, and historical knowledge,
under
the veil of symbols."--GROTE, _Hist. of Greece,_ vol. i. ch. xvi. p.
579.--And the Chevalier Ramsay corroborates this theory: "Vestiges of
the
most sublime truths are to be found in the sages of all nations, times,
and religions, both sacred and profane, and these vestiges are
emanations
of the antediluvian and noevian tradition, more or less disguised and
adulterated."--_Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed
Religion
unfolded in a Geometrical Order,_ vol. 1, p. iv.
[161] Of this there is abundant evidence in all the ancient and modern
writers on the Mysteries. Apuleius, cautiously describing his
initiation
into the Mysteries of Isis, says, "I approached the confines of death,
and
having trod on the threshold of Proserpine, I returned therefrom, being
borne through all the elements. At midnight I saw the sun shining with
its
brilliant light; and I approached the presence of the gods beneath, and
the gods of heaven, and stood near and worshipped them."--_Metam._ lib.
vi. The context shows that all this was a scenic representation.
[162] _Aish hakam iodea binah,_ "a cunning man, endued with
understanding," is the description given by the king of Tyre of Hiram
Abif. See 2 Chron. ii. 13. It is needless to say that "cunning" is a
good