Papers On The Great Pyramid.

PAPERS ON THE GREAT PYRAMID .

BY BRO . WM . BOWBOTTOJI . ( Continued from page 586 . ) y . —ITS MASONIC TEACHING .

THOSE who have followed me thus far in tracing the historical and scientific features of the Great Pyramid must , I think , admit that everything connected with the building lends itself in a remarkable manner to illustrate Masonic lore . We have seen how the master mind winch designed it formed upon a square base a monument of that peculiar geometrical figure which still retains in the East its character of the Divine Symbol , and chose the centre of the earth for the site of his work .

Having five sides and five points , it also gives a reasonable origin for that mysterious reverence for the number 5 , still so remarkable in the East , especially upon the banks of that river which divides with the Nile the interest centring round the early home of Masonic knowledge . By the banks of the Ganges , " clinging to the traditions of the Past , the native Hindoo bases upon them his system of local government , which Professor Monier Williams tells us has survived alike repeated conquests and the more modern

innovations of Western civilization . " The Voice of God is in the Council of Eve , " says the Hindoo ; and he but echoes a sentiment and a tradition not unknown in tbe West , but having its origin , we are taught , in the East . It was the symbol of deliverance from the land of servitude , when our great ensample , Moses , led forth the people whom the Lord had made free , and they marched forth from the land of their sore travail and affliction by five in a rank . * They went forth

too with a high hand ; the uplifted hand being itself the symbol of 5 . Nor did they choose the number unwittingly . It had been the favourite number of their forefathers . ' It was the symbol of their separateness from the Egyptians , and thus became to the Egyptian , and is to this day , an aversion , a number never used . So Sir Gardner Wilkinson tells us , and adds that even on their watches the obnoxious number is omitted , ancl the 0 substituted .

It appears to have been an object of aversion even in the clays of Joseph , who , when anxious to obtain for his father and brethren a suitable settlement in the land of Egypt , ancl yet to avoid the absorption of their descendants among the native populations , instructed them in the answers they were to make , and then " took some of his brethren , even five men , and presented them to Pharaoh . t Thus do we find an affinity in symbol between the race of Israel in its earliest days

with that monument which was erected by their Semitic ancestors in the land of Egypt , ancl an agreement with the great constructive number of the Tabernacle and the Temple . But this , to suit the prejudices of those who pride themselves on being matter-of-fact people , may be regarded as purely an imaginary connection , —a pretty fancy , of no material value unless corroborated by evidence of a more direct nature . Can such be produced ? There is no written record . We have seen how careful those