A Lecture On The Antiquity Of Laying Corner Stones With Religious And Mystical Ceremonies.*

In this connection , it will not excite any hig her surprise to be told that amono-st the trees sacred to this Holy Architect of the Universe was reckoned at Memphis the acacia , nor to learn that there were two chief feasts to him in Memphis , viz ., on the first of the months Ty bi and Mechir . The office of " foreman , " or high priest of Patah , was filled often by the princes of royal blood . There was also the office of architect or Master and the trainedskilful hand

Mason , which demanded the hig hest intelligence , , , and was the occupation of the noblest men at the king ' s court . " Pharaoh , architects , the mur-ket , who were often of the number of the king s sons and grandsons , were held in high honour , and the favour of their lord gave them his own daughters out of the women ' s house as wives . " ( I . Brugsch , 4 / . ) These architects , you will soon see , were not mere palace minions or political functionaries performing their duties by deputy , but were actual Grand Masters of the arts ancl points , tools ancl sciences of the Graft , and

guardians of its rights and privileges . _ In the twelfth dynasty , about 2400 years B . C ., we meet with inscriptions of the reign of Usurtasen I ., describing a council held in the third year of his reign about building a new temple to the sun , at which the king orders the work to proceed ; aud the inscrip tion then describes the solemn laying of the corner stone , undertaken by the king himself . In this reign , Mentu Hotep

was the chief architect to the king . _ In another connection I shall quote his descrip tion of the duties of his office , ancl of his own manual skill in the royal ark , in which he evidently took a commendable pride .

CORNER STONES . THE laying of the corner stone of a new public building appears to have embraced a mystic relig ious appeal to the Holy Architect of the Universe . The Master Masons were , like the land surveyors , members of the priestly caste in the organization of the Egyp tian social system , ancl the king was chief of this casteas -well as of the soldier caste . We shall see in following

, the quotations , that not only was he by indirection the head and chief of the Masons , but that he was personally instructed ancl taught the art and mystery of the Masonic Craft , both in its practical and scientific departments , ancl presided at the most mystical of their ceremonials . A parchment acquired at Thebes , in 1858 , and ' now at Berlin , describes an occasion of this sort . Brugsch ( I ., 137 ) , in citing it says : " Then ensues , now undertaken by the

king himself ( Usur-tasen I . ) , the solemn laying of the foundation . " Again , ' in the reign of that Egyptian hero , Thutmes III . ( p . 379 ) , an inscription says : " The king with his own hand conducted the solemn festival of the laying of the foundation stone for this monument . " P . 410 , Amenhotep II ., son of Thutmes III ., beautified ancl enlarged a temple " Then the king carried out the festival of the laying of the

founda-; tion stone to the honour of all his fathers , when he dedicated it a massive tower gate of hard stone . " In vol . ii ., p . 37 , Ramses Miamum , in another inscription , says : "I gave orders for the building ; I myself laid their foundation stone to build the work . " Ramses II . was crowned with his father at an early age ( 12 years ) . His progress in public employments is thus spoken of : " When thou wast a youth

and counted ten full years , all buildings proceeded from thy hands , and the laying of their foundation stones was performed . " That this ceremony was mystical , and that the art instruction of the king was practical , will appear by an inscription of Mentu Hotep , chief architect of Usur-tasen I . ( I . Brugsch , p . 140 ) , who also describes himself as a legislator and a judge . He distinguishes the duties of his various stations : "As chief architect of the king , he promoted the worship of the gods , and instructed the inhabitants of the country , ' as God orders to be done . '" Vol . i ., p . 378-9 ,