The Moral And Religious Origin Of Freemasonry:

To be convinced that the ceremonies of these " mysterious initiations " constituted an act truly solemn and religions , by which man quitted the state of nature to pass into the state of society , and whose object was his perfecting and his progress in sociability , or social life , it suffices to follow the developments given of it by Homer , Apuleius , Diodorus Siculus , Diogenes of Laertium , HerodotusPlutarchJamblicusClement of AlexandriaStraboand many

, , , , , others , who were , for that reason , accused of indiscretion b y their initiated contemporaries . Just the same one can acquire conviction as to the identit y of the Masonic initiation with this olden institution , if they search into what remains to us of ancient rites—those which present relation and analogy , although Alasonry offers us to-day no more than an imperfect image of its brilliant existence—but

the ruins of its greatness—but a system disfigured by progressive alterations , the result of events and circumstances—the thread of which appears broken for us , but upon which given positives permit us to establish solid conjectures . Like Freemasonry , the ancient institution had its degrees , to which all the initiated were not indiscriminately admitted . I will say more—Freemasonry is but a continuation of the propaganda of the ancient schools .

Let us follow the Neophyte into the courts of his reception . We see him at first left to himself , to his reflections , afterwards travelling , wandering hither and thither , deprived of the light ; and if decency , fruit of social morality , opposed his becoming like man in a state of nature , it is as much as is permitted to the sages , being allegorically brought near that condition . ' Such were , likewise , the preparations for the initiation to the grand mysteries : they

depict the state of isolation— -of ignorance of the natural man . He is deprived of metals because they are the productions of the social arts . Society , which protects and defends , has itself need of defence '; it must , then , inspire in the Neophyte virtue , the courage which consists in the moral strength of the soul as well as in the vigour of the body ; and , in order to confirm one ' s self in these good dispositions , the Neophyte was subjected to long and rigorous tests , reduced now-a-days to formulae as simple as possible , so as not to destroy the basis of the institution .

After being assured of the aspirant through all those means , they demanded of him the secrecy necessary in order that the society should not be exposed to impositions whereto a single indiscretion might open the way . At last he is one of us , this Neophyte . He receives the li ght as a symbol of the instructions which should be given him ; afterwards , you clothe him . Consider what clothing you give him—the first of which man has been

compelled to make use , that which must necessarily have preceded all other habiliments which demand the slow and progressive perfection of the arts . You enjoin on him never to appear before his brethren without being invested with this "habit "—a necessary advice to him to whom no inculcation has yet demonstrated this decorous necessity . His new condition demands that he should communicate with his equals—yon accord him the means oi doin ° -

sone receives from you the password . You give it to him as if to a being absolutely new , entirely ignorant ; you add to that the dumb language of signs . In this you follow the first primaeval custom which necessity established , and which was practised in the first initiations , whereby were taught the elements and principles of languages . In admitting him into the society , it appears just to make him know the benefactors of the institution : he learns from you the name of him who oriinallset metals to work . Yon ive him the

g y g explanation of objects which strike his eager regards—the imperfect remains , the feeble semblances of the great instructions of the olden ages . You make him see the rough stone , manifesting to him that it is the symbol of man abandoned to mere natural instinct , but which , in order to be employed in the building of the Temple—emblem of the social edifice which was the original triump h of the institution—must needs be chipped and squared by the chisel