Adonhiramite Masonry.

All ancient authors agree that these Magi had receptions for their initiates , to whom they taught the secrets , aud unfolded to them the knowledge of mysteries impenetrable for everyone else . They alone were charged with the education of the kings and of the grandees , because they were the only persons who understood " the arts ancl nature ; " * and , whatever were the prejudices against them , it is indubitable that their doctrine was nothing but a natural theology , founded on the " Cultus "

, and adoration of a Supreme Being , as Arnobius has remarked . But as everything with them was symbolical , their great number of hieroglyphs has caused many errors to be imputed to them , of which they were incapable . It is easy to judge of this by the great illumination which possessed those whom they had instructed ; and we must admit , "by all that is told us in the history of Abraham , of Jacobof Josephandabove allof Mosesthat these great men owed much

, , , , , of their knowledge to those sages of Egypt , ancl that they followed their maxims iu that which regarded the police , the government , war , offices , the public safety , & c . The Magi , especially those at Memphis ancl Heliopolis , were so much considered , aud their reputation extended so far , that all the great warriors , philosophersstrangers of a superior rankcame to Egypt to be initiated among

, , the priests to learn the secrets of the priesthood . Then , as each returned into his own country he made his fresh knowledge subserve either his own interest or selflove , ' and instituted doctrines , games , festivals , mysteries , following his own views and his opinions . It was from among them that Lycurgas and Solon drew a portion of their moral teaching ; that Orpheus came to be initiated , which fact furnished him with the means of instituting the festivals in his own country

, and which gave birth to the Grecian Mythology . It was among them that Thales was instructed , that Pythagoras obtained his metempsychosis , - } - that Herodotus collected an infinity of information , Democritus his secrets , and thousands of others alike .

There it was that Moses , brought up among the Magi , profiting by the wisdom which he had received , made it serve to deliver the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians , and above all to establish the worship of the one true God . We know how much trouble he had to maintain obedience among his people when they were in the wilderness , and that he required nothing less than a jmrified morality and all the learning of the Magi , as much as regards physics as astronomy , to enable him to succeed . It is true that the ignorance

of the Israelites did not contribute a little to his designs ; for what knowledge could men have who had always been slaves amongst a people where all learning was in the hands of the priests ? We know that Moses made use of probationary trials for the Levites ; that the secrets of the priesthood were impenetrable to all other Israelites , and that their maxims were preserved until the time of Solomon . Besides , we must be persuaded , after what the

sacred books tell us , that all that was in the temple was emblematical , like the candlestick with seven branches , the twelve oxen , the bread , the book of seven seals , etc . Bat after the destruction of Jerusalem the Jewish people , whether wandering or enslaved , finding themselves dispersed in all parts of the world , could not prevent Paganism from taking possession of the remaining portion of their secrets , and the probationary trials which it employed the better to judge of those to whom they confided their mysteries . J Accordingly they neglected none of these means to give credit to all the new institutions , even the most ridiculous and the most unworthy , § and