Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Spurious Freemasonry Of Ancient Times,
which bore a strict resemblance to those flitting shapes which were exhibited during the initiations . In that fearful darkness , as it has been recorded by the author of the Book of Wisdom in the Apocrypha of our Bible , — " Noises as of waters falling down sounded about them , and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances . No power
of fire might give them light ; neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night ; * * * being scared with beasts that passed by , and hissing of serpents ; vexed with monstrous apparitions , their heart failing them ; for a sudden fear , not looked for , came upon them . * * * Whether it were a whistling wind
, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches ; or a pleasing fall of water running violently ; or a terrible sound of stones cast down , or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts , or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts , or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains . These things made them to swoon for fear . For the
whole world shined with clear Light ; over them only was spread an heavy night , an image of darkness . " In the mysteries a tradition was promulgated , that the world was created in the spring time of the year . If this be true , it seems to constitute a proof that tlie centre of gravity was the same before the delugeas it is now ; for the
obli-, quity of the earth's axis alone could constitute summer and winter , " signs and seasons , days and yeai * s . " Virgil , who had been initiated , and was intimately acquainted with all the secrets of these extraordinary institutions , in allusion to this doctrine , says ,
Non alios prima crescentis origine mundi , & c . In this soft season ( let me dare to sing ) The world was hatch'd by heaven ' s imperial King , In prime of all the year , the holy days of spring . Then did the new creation first appear ; Nor other was the tenor of the year ; When laughing heaven did the great birth attend , And eastern winds their wintry breath suspend . D RYDEJS
In conformity with the same opinion , an eminent modern naturalist observes , — " Among all the remains of the antediluvian world , I have found such a uniformity and general consent , that I was able to discover at what time of the year
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Spurious Freemasonry Of Ancient Times,
which bore a strict resemblance to those flitting shapes which were exhibited during the initiations . In that fearful darkness , as it has been recorded by the author of the Book of Wisdom in the Apocrypha of our Bible , — " Noises as of waters falling down sounded about them , and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances . No power
of fire might give them light ; neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night ; * * * being scared with beasts that passed by , and hissing of serpents ; vexed with monstrous apparitions , their heart failing them ; for a sudden fear , not looked for , came upon them . * * * Whether it were a whistling wind
, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches ; or a pleasing fall of water running violently ; or a terrible sound of stones cast down , or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts , or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts , or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains . These things made them to swoon for fear . For the
whole world shined with clear Light ; over them only was spread an heavy night , an image of darkness . " In the mysteries a tradition was promulgated , that the world was created in the spring time of the year . If this be true , it seems to constitute a proof that tlie centre of gravity was the same before the delugeas it is now ; for the
obli-, quity of the earth's axis alone could constitute summer and winter , " signs and seasons , days and yeai * s . " Virgil , who had been initiated , and was intimately acquainted with all the secrets of these extraordinary institutions , in allusion to this doctrine , says ,
Non alios prima crescentis origine mundi , & c . In this soft season ( let me dare to sing ) The world was hatch'd by heaven ' s imperial King , In prime of all the year , the holy days of spring . Then did the new creation first appear ; Nor other was the tenor of the year ; When laughing heaven did the great birth attend , And eastern winds their wintry breath suspend . D RYDEJS
In conformity with the same opinion , an eminent modern naturalist observes , — " Among all the remains of the antediluvian world , I have found such a uniformity and general consent , that I was able to discover at what time of the year