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

and Thought in Egypt_, by J.H. Breasted.
[36] Pyramid Texts, 775, 1262, 1453, 1477.
[37] For a full account of the evolution of the Osirian theology from
the time it emerged from the mists of myth until its conquest, see
_Religion and Thought in Egypt_, by Breasted, the latest, if not the
most brilliant, book written in the light of the completest translation
of the Pyramid Texts (especially lecture v).
[38] Much has been written about the Egyptian Mysteries from the days
of Plutarch's _De Iside et Osiride_ and the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius
to the huge volumes of Baron Sainte Croix. For popular reading the
_Kings and Gods of Egypt_, by Moret (chaps. iii-iv), and the
delightfully vivid _Hermes and Plato_, by Schure, could hardly be
surpassed. But Plutarch and Apuleius, both initiates, are our best
authorities, even if their oath of silence prevents them from telling
us what we most want to know.
[39] Among the Hindoos, whose Chrisna is the same as the Osiris of
Egypt, the gods of summer were beneficent, making the days fruitful.
But "the three wretches" who presided over winter, were cut off from
the zodiac; and as they were "found missing," they were accused of the
death of Chrisna.
[40] A literary parallel in the story of AEneas, by Vergil, is most
suggestive. Priam, king of Troy, in the beginning of the Trojan war
committed his son Polydorus to the care of Polymester, king of Thrace,
and sent him a great sum of money. After Troy was taken the Thracian,
for the sake of the money, killed the young prince and privately buried
him. AEneas, coming into that country, and accidentally plucking up a
shrub that was near him on the side of the hill, discovered the
murdered body of Polydorus. Other legends of such accidental
discoveries of unknown graves haunted the olden time, and may have been
suggested by the story of Isis.
[41] _The Gods of the Egyptians_, by E.A.W. Budge; _La Place des
Victores_, by Austin Fryar, especially the colored plates.
[42] _Quests New and Old_, by G.R.S. Mead.
[43] _Pythagoras_, by Edouard Schure--a fascinating story of that great
thinker and teacher. The use of numbers by Pythagoras must not,
however, be confounded with the mystical, or rather fantastic,
mathematics of the Kabbalists of a later time.
[44] For a vivid account of the spread of the Mysteries of Isis and
Mithra over the Roman Empire, see _Roman Life from Nero to Aurelius_,
by Dill (bk. iv, chaps. v-vi). Franz Cumont is the great authority on
Mithra, and his _Mysteries of Mithra_ and _Oriental Religions_ trace
the origin and influence of that cult with accuracy, insight, and
charm. W.W. Reade, brother of Charles Reade the novelist, left a study
of _The Veil of Isis, or Mysteries of the Druids_, finding in the
vestiges of Druidism "the Emblems of Masonry."
[45] Col. 2:8-19. See _Mysteries Pagan and Christian_, by C. Cheethan;
also _Monumental Christianity_, by Lundy, especially chapter on "The