THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
25
^
as well as in
symbols on tombs, that Mithraism prevailed extensively in this country
and Gaul,- in eacli case, no doubt, having been introduced by the Eoman Legions.
Germany
By those authors who attempt to prove that all secret fraternities form but the successive
links of one
Persia,
unbroken chain,
it
is
alleged that the esoteric doctrines
and in Greece, preserved the speculations
illiterate
heretics
;
which in
of the wise from the ears
Egj'pt, in
and tongues of an
multitude, passed, with slight modifications, into the possession of the early Christian
from the Gnostic schools of Spia and Egypt to their successors the Manicheans
;
aud that from these tlirough the PaulicianSj Albigenses, and Templars, they have been
bequeathed to the modern Freemasons.^
Into the abyss of Gnosticism it is not
my
intention to plunge, but the following
summary
be of assistance in our general inquiry.
Gnosticism was the earliest attenqjt to construct a philosophical system of fait