The Sanctuary Of Memphis, Or Hermes:

their origin to the " almond-eyed Aignptioi , " as Arrian called them)—was the cradle of the most ancient and illustrious Craft of Freemasonry . I now present an " Abridged History of Freemasonry , " from the French of an exhaustive volume on " The Rite of Memphis , by E . J . Marconis de Negre , author of the " Hierophant , " " Recreations ( Delassements ) of the Human Mind , " etc ., followed by an essay , entitled " Of the Origin , Moral and Religious ,

of Masonry : its Mission and the Positive Epoch of its Material Institution , " by Count S . de Giorgi Bertola , of Rome , Knight of Christ , and Member of Freemasonry , according to the French ancl Scottish Rites , etc . This latter brochure contains many interesting explanations of the causes of the observances of Freemasonry , with some fairly eloquent concurrent moralising , and maybe received as an acceptable complement to the able "Histoire Abregee cle Mac . " of M . Marconis de Negre , who , it will be seen , claims for France at present the most ancient rite in the world—that of Memphis . THE TRANSLATOR .

THE origin of Masonry , like that of all the great institutions destined to exercise a potent influence upon the future of the human race , has been lost in the night of time . A thousand contradictory opinions have been emitted npon the subject , a thousand systems have been tried , but to this day no system has sufficed to assume a preponderance sufficiently marked to rally around it a general acquiescence . To attempt to enumerate and to analyse the different opinions would be a work at once fastidious and of but little use . TAVO facts

alone seem well assured b y all authors , and may serve as a stand-point . The first is that Masonry has had its origin in the East ; the second , that it is a continuation of the ancient mysteries , or at least that it presents to them striking analogies . "Whatever may be the source wherefrom we derive Freemasonry , " says Brother Quentin in his " Diet . Mao ., " " it is evident that it presents , even its minor details ,. memories and traditions of the ancient

initiation . " "Itis in Asia , " says Brother Valleteau de Chabrefy in his "Masonic Annals , " " the cradle of the human race , that we find the most ancient institution of this kind—that of the Brahmans ( Brahminy as now known in India ) . From Asia the knoivledge of these sublime truths passed into Africa , where were celebrated the mysteries of Isis , ivhich have a striking relationship to Freemasonry . " These two passages sum upwith sliht variationsthe

, g , opinions most generally adopted on Masonry . Both place that origin near the cradle of the human race ; both make of it the repository of primitive knowledge ; and it is in this sense that the profound St . Martin has said , "Masonry is an emanation of the Divinity , " ancl the Englishman , Smith , that " Adam was the depository of Masonic science , and that be derived it from God . " But if , setting aside presumptuous research , we desire to take into account

the motives which have caused to be given to this mysterious science the name of Freemasonry , we shall be free to choose between the opinion of those who derive it from the Tower of Babel—that first ancl bold attempt of the power of human intelligence—or of those who would wish to rediscover in it the memorial of the Temple of Solomon—that marvel of human art , aided by divine inspiration ; or , lastly , from the archaeologists , that in pre-bistorie times every science was symbolised in a structure , ancl that , in the language of the poet , when building a cit y the constructors were not piling up stones but founding- institutions .

The banks of the Ganges and those of the Nile were then witnesses of the first initiations . The division of castes , common to the E gyptians and the Indians , and their ternary number ( merchants , soldiers , and priests , ) indicate clearly enough the three degrees of initiation , even now reflected in political institutions . Few documents are now known , or perhaps extant , as to the Indian initiation . The Vedas , which the Rite of Memphis has been exploring , may give us some light upon the subject . As to the Egyptian initiation , its