THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
12
of
outward nature, as in the oppositioa of light
The operations
metaphors and
darkness,
to.
warmth
to cold, life to death.
of the ordinary passions of our nature will also require the occasional use of
as the
;
prominent objects of the material universe are always at hand, the
same comparisons may sometimes be employed by persons who have never dreamt of
^
initiatory rites and secret associations."
Each of the following systems or sects has been regarded as a lineal ancestor of the
Masonic fraternity
I. The Ancient Mysteries;
The Culdees.
:
II.
The Essenes
III.
;
The Eoman Collegia; and IV.
These I shall now consider in their order, reserving for separate treatment at the
conclusion of the evidence (to be presented in the chapters which next follow), those theories
or derivations
which have
their origin in a period of time less remote
from our own.
we
possess Masonic constitutions and regulations of undoubted
authority, ranging back in the case of Britain and Germany to the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries respectively, whUst of French documents referring to the Mason's craft, some are yet
It fortunately
extant of a
instance, to
still
happens that
earlier period.
The best mode
summarise in a brief compass what
of procedure will therefore be, in the first
is
actually
known
of the systems or sects
above enumerated, in order
that, by a careful comparison with the authentic records of the
Medieval Masons, we may determine how nearly or how remotely the usages and customs of
the "Ancient" and the "Modern" organisations correspond, and ascertain what grounds exist
for attributing to the
documents
;
for
Masonic institution any higher antiquity than is attested by its own
flattering to our pride may be the assumption of a long pedigree, it
however
by no means follows that
it
will bear the test of a strict genealogical investigation.
I.
THE ANCIENT MYSTEPJES.
To adequately discuss, within the limit of a few pages, the vast subject of the Ancient
IMvthology, would be a task hardly less difficult than that of carving ujjon the surface of a
cherry-stone the whole of the intricate designs of the shield of Achilles.
The actual evidence
from which alone any certain information is derivable, lies scattered over tire whole surface of
classic literature.
For a combination of these disjointed passages, I have diligently searched
of recent commentators who have attempted any general description of the
Mysteries and being therefore under the necessity of condensing into a small space the
matter of many bulky volumes, must refer any reader who is desirous of examining the subject
the works
;
at greater length, to the original works,
most ardent
where will be found more than enough
to satisfy the
curiosity.
In the following remarks those features only of the Ancient Mysteries will be noticed
which may tend to cast light upon the history of Freemasonry.
It will be evident that the
main point of the inquiry we are about to pursue is not how a mythological system may be
explained, but in what manner it v:as actually explained or understood by the most enlightened
community professing to beUeve in its doctrines.
the Mysteries must be viewed in a double aspect.
of the
1st,
The Mysteries properly
1
so called, that
is,
For the purposes of our investigation
those in which no one was allowed to partake
A. P. Marras, The Secret Frateniities of the Middle Ages (Arnold Prize Essay, 1865), pp.
8, 9.