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  • July 14, 1860
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  • CLASSICAL THEOLOGY.—XXV.
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, July 14, 1860: Page 2

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Classical Theology.—Xxv.

Perhaps it is better it should be borne in mind , and recorded here , that these laivs of thc people did not save them from the butchery of the sanguinary Draco , who remarked , on the making of his deadly code of many new enactments , " The crime of stealing an apple is deserving of death , and I have no hiher punishment for greater offences . " Demades

g immortalized himself , and generations honour move and more his name , in his saying , " The laws of Draco were written , not with ink , but in blood . " The Hapaaina , or IIpirai'Eia , was the entertainment given to such as had served and deserved well of the commonwealth ( especially to those who had been ambassadorsand magnates

, returned to or arriving at Athens ) , in the public hall called , as its toiver , the Prytaneum . Whence it is asserted of Socrates that , on being asked before the judges ofthe Areo-2 > agns what punishment he thought himself ho deserved , he replied that they should UIIOAV him at least a constant maintenance in the Prytaneum as one of its pensionersthat is

, in Frytaneo cdi , or , as his words are stated by Cicero , " Ut ei victus quotidiaiius in Prytaneo publico praiberetur qui hones apncl Grmcos maxim us habetur , " which is an honour considered tho highest amongst the Grecians . Sometimes

this privilege was conferred upon whole families in reward for tlie services of their ancestors , as , in particular , to thoso of Aristogiton , Harmodius , and Hippocrates . But after all , if credence is to be given to Demosthenes , these common state meals , like the feasts of Homer ' s heroes , pi / iui / . iero £ TOT " O / xiipov , of which they professed to be imitations , were bufc

sorry fare , consisting mainly of the authentic pudding , or cake , called maza . At this period the Athenian constitution had not heen rifled of all its genuine principles of . Freemasonry . There was a 2 * ious care taken of the memory of their great men . Aristides' two daughters , who had else been unprovided forwere by the state married out of the

Pryta-, neum , the city decreeing a jiortion to each of three hundred drachmas : and , not tlie least among many like generous acts , Ihey brought , for the sake of Aristogiton , who had aided Harmodius in " killing tbe tyrant Pisistratus , his daughter from the isle of Lemnus , where she was living in poverty , and bestowed upon her a large farmas also a husband from

, out of the sphere of the wealthy . "Nor is it surprising , " sa } 's Plutarch , " that the Athenians should deservedly be held in great honour and admiration , since of their bounty , humanity , and virtue , they have given extreme and divers rlem onstrations . "

Pericles , the reckless general and unprincipled statesman of the Athenians , about the year 431 B . CJ , by poiver and artifice reduced and subverted the authority and dignity of the senate of the Areopagus . By this event the Athenians in a great measure became released from tlie restraint ivhich had been hold over them , and thenceforth 2 'erceptibly declined aucl degenerated from their ancient virtue . Plutarch

has compared them at this juncture to an ungoverned horse , that having thrown its rider , was wildly jmrsuing its OAVII unchecked and heedless career . Morals soon became corrupted , ignorance usurped the seat of reason , ami brute force grew mig htier than mental poiver . Eventually this corruption of things found ibs way into the midst ofthe

assembly of the Areopagus itself , and we find at last the Areopagites themselves accusing and taunting each other on tlie grounds of adultery and other immoralities of the blackest dye .

Tire TOWER . —Lord de Pos , tlie High Constable of the Tower of London , has heen making great improvements there by cultivating the ditch and other available spots . Colonel Palmer , of Nosing Park , has sent his lordship a cutting from the vine planted by the Great Napoleon , at Sfc . Helena , shortly before his death , and brought fco England soon after . The original vine Colonel Palmer , a few months tnnse ,, gave to the governor of the Hotel Imperial des Inv . ilides , afc Paris , having previpusly lind some cuttings struck from it .

Masonic Explanations Of The Numbers.

MASONIC EXPLANATIONS OF THE NUMBERS .

THE following originally appeared in the American Freemasons Quarterly , and Ave now republish it in consequence of having recentl y received several inquiries relative to the qualities of numbers : The unit is the symbol of identity , equality , existence , conservation , and general harmony : the Central Fire , the

point within the circle . Two , or the duad , is the symbol of diversity , inequality , division , separation , and vicissitudes . The cipher 1 signifies the living man [ a body standingupright ] man being the only living being possessed of this faculty . Adding to it a head , we have the letter P , the sign

of paternity , creative power ; and with a further addition , B , signifying man in motion , going , lens , Ituru . i . The duad is the origin of contrasts . It is the imperfect condition into ivhich , according to the Pythagoreans , a being falls , when ho detaches himself from the Monad or God . Sj'iritual beingsemanating from Godare enveloped in the

, , duad , and therefore receive only illusory impressions . As formerly the number one designated harmony , order , or the Good Principle ( the One and Only God , expressed in Latin by Stilus , whence tho words Sol , Soleil , symbol of this God ) , the number two expressed the contrary idea . There commenced the fatal knowledge of good and evil . Every

tiling double , false , ojrposed to thc single and sole reality , was expressed by the binary number . It expressed also that state of contrariety in which nature exists , where everything is double ; night and clay , light and darkness , cold and heat , wet and dry , health and sickness , error and truth , one and the other sex , etc . Hence the Unmans dedicated the second month in the year to Pluto , the god of hell , and tho second clay of that month to the manes of the dead .

The number one with the Chinese , signified unity , harmony , ordor , the Good Principle , or Gocl . Two , disorder , duplicity , falsehood . That peojrle , in the earliest ages , based their whole philosophical system on tiro two primary figures or lines , one straight and unbroken , and the other broken or divided in two doubling ivhich , by placing one under the

other , and trebling by jilachig three under each other , thej ' made tlie four symbols and eight Koua ; whicli referred to the natural elements , and the primary pirinci ples of all things , and served symbolicall y or scientifically to express them . Plato terms unity and duality the original elements of nature , and first princij-Ies of all existence : and tlie oldest

sacred book of the Chinese says : " The Great First Prim ciple has produced two equations and differences , or primary rules of existence : but the two primary rules or two oppositions , namely , Yn and Yang , or repose , and motion , have produced four signs or symbols , and the four symbols have produced the eight Koua or further combinations . " The interpretation of the Hermetic fables shows , among

every ancient people , in their principle gods , first , 1 , the creating Monad , then 3 , then 3 times 3 , 3 times 9 , and 3 times 27 . This tri ple progression has for its foundation tho three ages of nature , the past , the jwesent , and the future ; or the tli roe degrees of universal generation—birth , life , death- —beginning , middle , end . The monad ivas male , because its action produces no change

in itself , but only out of itself . It represented the creative principle . The duad , for a contrary reason , was female , ever changing by addition , subtraction , or multi plication . It represents matter capable of form . The union of the monad and duad produced tho triad

, signifying the world formed by the creative principle out of matter * . Pythagoras represented the world by the rightangled triangle , in which the squares of tire two shortest sides are equal , added together , to tho square of the longest one as the world , as formed , is equal to the creative cause , and matter clothed with form ,

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1860-07-14, Page 2” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 5 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_14071860/page/2/.
  • List
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Title Category Page
CLASSICAL THEOLOGY.—XXV. Article 1
MASONIC EXPLANATIONS OF THE NUMBERS. Article 2
THE MODEL AMERICAN MASONIC EDITOR. Article 5
ARCHÆOLOGY. Article 6
MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 7
NOTES ON LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART. Article 8
Poetry. Article 9
THE PLAYMATE. Article 9
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 9
PROV. G.M. FOR KENT. Article 11
COUNTY REGISTRATION OF LODGES. Article 11
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 11
METROPOLITAN. Article 12
PROVINCIAL. Article 12
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. Article 14
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE. Article 15
IRELAND. Article 15
PRUSSIA. Article 17
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Article 17
AMERICA. Article 18
MASONIC FESTIVITIES. Article 18
THE WEEK. Article 19
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. Article 20
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Classical Theology.—Xxv.

Perhaps it is better it should be borne in mind , and recorded here , that these laivs of thc people did not save them from the butchery of the sanguinary Draco , who remarked , on the making of his deadly code of many new enactments , " The crime of stealing an apple is deserving of death , and I have no hiher punishment for greater offences . " Demades

g immortalized himself , and generations honour move and more his name , in his saying , " The laws of Draco were written , not with ink , but in blood . " The Hapaaina , or IIpirai'Eia , was the entertainment given to such as had served and deserved well of the commonwealth ( especially to those who had been ambassadorsand magnates

, returned to or arriving at Athens ) , in the public hall called , as its toiver , the Prytaneum . Whence it is asserted of Socrates that , on being asked before the judges ofthe Areo-2 > agns what punishment he thought himself ho deserved , he replied that they should UIIOAV him at least a constant maintenance in the Prytaneum as one of its pensionersthat is

, in Frytaneo cdi , or , as his words are stated by Cicero , " Ut ei victus quotidiaiius in Prytaneo publico praiberetur qui hones apncl Grmcos maxim us habetur , " which is an honour considered tho highest amongst the Grecians . Sometimes

this privilege was conferred upon whole families in reward for tlie services of their ancestors , as , in particular , to thoso of Aristogiton , Harmodius , and Hippocrates . But after all , if credence is to be given to Demosthenes , these common state meals , like the feasts of Homer ' s heroes , pi / iui / . iero £ TOT " O / xiipov , of which they professed to be imitations , were bufc

sorry fare , consisting mainly of the authentic pudding , or cake , called maza . At this period the Athenian constitution had not heen rifled of all its genuine principles of . Freemasonry . There was a 2 * ious care taken of the memory of their great men . Aristides' two daughters , who had else been unprovided forwere by the state married out of the

Pryta-, neum , the city decreeing a jiortion to each of three hundred drachmas : and , not tlie least among many like generous acts , Ihey brought , for the sake of Aristogiton , who had aided Harmodius in " killing tbe tyrant Pisistratus , his daughter from the isle of Lemnus , where she was living in poverty , and bestowed upon her a large farmas also a husband from

, out of the sphere of the wealthy . "Nor is it surprising , " sa } 's Plutarch , " that the Athenians should deservedly be held in great honour and admiration , since of their bounty , humanity , and virtue , they have given extreme and divers rlem onstrations . "

Pericles , the reckless general and unprincipled statesman of the Athenians , about the year 431 B . CJ , by poiver and artifice reduced and subverted the authority and dignity of the senate of the Areopagus . By this event the Athenians in a great measure became released from tlie restraint ivhich had been hold over them , and thenceforth 2 'erceptibly declined aucl degenerated from their ancient virtue . Plutarch

has compared them at this juncture to an ungoverned horse , that having thrown its rider , was wildly jmrsuing its OAVII unchecked and heedless career . Morals soon became corrupted , ignorance usurped the seat of reason , ami brute force grew mig htier than mental poiver . Eventually this corruption of things found ibs way into the midst ofthe

assembly of the Areopagus itself , and we find at last the Areopagites themselves accusing and taunting each other on tlie grounds of adultery and other immoralities of the blackest dye .

Tire TOWER . —Lord de Pos , tlie High Constable of the Tower of London , has heen making great improvements there by cultivating the ditch and other available spots . Colonel Palmer , of Nosing Park , has sent his lordship a cutting from the vine planted by the Great Napoleon , at Sfc . Helena , shortly before his death , and brought fco England soon after . The original vine Colonel Palmer , a few months tnnse ,, gave to the governor of the Hotel Imperial des Inv . ilides , afc Paris , having previpusly lind some cuttings struck from it .

Masonic Explanations Of The Numbers.

MASONIC EXPLANATIONS OF THE NUMBERS .

THE following originally appeared in the American Freemasons Quarterly , and Ave now republish it in consequence of having recentl y received several inquiries relative to the qualities of numbers : The unit is the symbol of identity , equality , existence , conservation , and general harmony : the Central Fire , the

point within the circle . Two , or the duad , is the symbol of diversity , inequality , division , separation , and vicissitudes . The cipher 1 signifies the living man [ a body standingupright ] man being the only living being possessed of this faculty . Adding to it a head , we have the letter P , the sign

of paternity , creative power ; and with a further addition , B , signifying man in motion , going , lens , Ituru . i . The duad is the origin of contrasts . It is the imperfect condition into ivhich , according to the Pythagoreans , a being falls , when ho detaches himself from the Monad or God . Sj'iritual beingsemanating from Godare enveloped in the

, , duad , and therefore receive only illusory impressions . As formerly the number one designated harmony , order , or the Good Principle ( the One and Only God , expressed in Latin by Stilus , whence tho words Sol , Soleil , symbol of this God ) , the number two expressed the contrary idea . There commenced the fatal knowledge of good and evil . Every

tiling double , false , ojrposed to thc single and sole reality , was expressed by the binary number . It expressed also that state of contrariety in which nature exists , where everything is double ; night and clay , light and darkness , cold and heat , wet and dry , health and sickness , error and truth , one and the other sex , etc . Hence the Unmans dedicated the second month in the year to Pluto , the god of hell , and tho second clay of that month to the manes of the dead .

The number one with the Chinese , signified unity , harmony , ordor , the Good Principle , or Gocl . Two , disorder , duplicity , falsehood . That peojrle , in the earliest ages , based their whole philosophical system on tiro two primary figures or lines , one straight and unbroken , and the other broken or divided in two doubling ivhich , by placing one under the

other , and trebling by jilachig three under each other , thej ' made tlie four symbols and eight Koua ; whicli referred to the natural elements , and the primary pirinci ples of all things , and served symbolicall y or scientifically to express them . Plato terms unity and duality the original elements of nature , and first princij-Ies of all existence : and tlie oldest

sacred book of the Chinese says : " The Great First Prim ciple has produced two equations and differences , or primary rules of existence : but the two primary rules or two oppositions , namely , Yn and Yang , or repose , and motion , have produced four signs or symbols , and the four symbols have produced the eight Koua or further combinations . " The interpretation of the Hermetic fables shows , among

every ancient people , in their principle gods , first , 1 , the creating Monad , then 3 , then 3 times 3 , 3 times 9 , and 3 times 27 . This tri ple progression has for its foundation tho three ages of nature , the past , the jwesent , and the future ; or the tli roe degrees of universal generation—birth , life , death- —beginning , middle , end . The monad ivas male , because its action produces no change

in itself , but only out of itself . It represented the creative principle . The duad , for a contrary reason , was female , ever changing by addition , subtraction , or multi plication . It represents matter capable of form . The union of the monad and duad produced tho triad

, signifying the world formed by the creative principle out of matter * . Pythagoras represented the world by the rightangled triangle , in which the squares of tire two shortest sides are equal , added together , to tho square of the longest one as the world , as formed , is equal to the creative cause , and matter clothed with form ,

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