Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-31
THE ALLEGED MASONIC DISCOVERY.

A great deal of excitement appears to
have been created among the Freemasons
of the Eastern States by the alleged dis.
covery, at the base of the Egyptian obelisk
in course of removal from Alexandria, of
certain relics claimed to be Masonic en-
blems. The attempt to establish from
such evidence a connection between mod
ern Freemasonry and the Egypt of Au-
gustus may be approved by those who in
the past have accepted the wild and
baseless legends which have been con-
structed about the origin of the Order,
but we venture to say that none who have
studied the history of Freemasonry care
fully will put any faith in these deduc-
tions. In the first place, what is called
speculative Masonry has no connection
whatever with operative Masonry, the lat
ter having been regular trade guild, such
as were common in the Middle Ages,
and all its peculiarities and secret
signs, grips and passwords, having
been no more than precautionary de-
vices for securing mutual recognition and
assistance in an age when the members
of the craft were constantly travelling
all over the continent The operative
masons were distinguished above other
trade guilds because they were church
builders, and because this was the princi-
pal architectural work done in the four
teenth century, when they aourished. Of
course it would be necessary, in order to
establish connection between speculative
Masonry and Asiatic orders of the same
kind, to show that operative Masonry was
affiliated with such Oriental organizations !;
but this cannot be done. The operative
masons were veritable wOrkingmen, having
no esoteric mysteries, being bound togeth-
er for mutual help and fellowship, but
without any mystic doctrines whatever,
and in fact being no more mysterious and
no more aspiring than modern trades
union. The attempt to graft speculative
Masonry upon this root was made by the
antiquary Elias Ashmole in the seventeenth
century. He gathered much mummery and
mysteries from the rites of the extinct
Templars and the writings of the Roscru-
clans, and between them he and some of
his friends concocted the ambitious and
imposing traditions which have since been
so eagerly availed of by mems vanity.
1t is quite credible that certain geometri-
cal figures and masonic tools may have
been found under the 0belisk, as related
by Lieutenant Commander Gorringe, but
such discovery has no bearing upon mo-
dern or medieval Freemasonry. 1t does not
require to be said that the Egytians were
with geometry, or that they
employed many of the tools, such as the
level, the square, the hammer, etc., which
have been in use ever since. 1t is also
well known that they were accustomed to
sy mbolize divine power, the principle of
generation, and other things, under the
shape of cubical stone, which is one of
the objects said to have been found under
the Obelsk. But there is another con-
sideration very likely to create confu-
sion in the Masonic mind. 1t is the fact
that modern Masonry has pilfered from
the ancient mysteries and religions very
freely, and that if now it recognizes
the likeness of any of this plumber
in an Egyptian monument, the cir
cannot justify the infer
ence that a real connection exists
between the past and the present.
Among the Mason's marks which the ca
thedral- builders of the middle ages put
upon their handiwork may be recognized
large number of Hindoo caste-marks. A
plate of several of these mason's marks
will be found in Kings The Gnostics and
60 Their Remains" and the identity of
them with the caste marks is indisputable.
The cathedral builders, however, had Ger.
.ainly copied these marks without the
east comprehension Of their real meaning,
;or they are used as the initiate would
never have thought of using them, and
his one fact demonstrates the real ignorance
If these craftsmen concerning mystical and |
md Asiatic lore. In fact this alleged dis
,overy is suspiciously like those which the
INGENIOUS Able Hue made in Thibet, |
where he found the Buddhist priests wor-
Shipping with a ceremonial so remarkably |
ike that of his own church that he inno- |
,ently supposed Christian missionaries