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Article CLASSICAL THEOLOGY.—XXV. ← Page 2 of 2 Article MASONIC EXPLANATIONS OF THE NUMBERS. Page 1 of 4 →
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 ,
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 ,