Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1858 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter viii. Esueneatt ffv eemasonrs. When Solomon had matured his magnificent design of a Temple to be consecrated to the Most High, he found it impossible to carry that design into execution without foreign assistance. The Hebrew nation, constantly struggling for its material existence, and just rising to the condition of a civilized people, had made little proficiency in science and architecture, and especially the ornamental arts. There were few artificers, and probably no architects in Judea. Impelled, we know not by what motives, Hiram, king of Tyre and Sidon, sent to Solomon a society of architects, under the presidency of Hiram, the Sidonian, to assist him in building the Temple, or rather to superintend the construction of that magnificent edifice. These builders, like the Collegia Fabrorum of ancient Rome and the Grecian orders, were without doubt a secret society; and it is very reasonable to suppose, that after the Temple was completed, a branch of so useful a society would be 2 Chron. ii. 3-15. planted permanently in Judea. This conjecture is confirmed by the fact, that many years afterward some of the Hebrew Prophets condemn the secret Mysteries of the Sidonians, probably through a misapprehension of their real import, or because they had really degenerated, and been perverted to evil uses. The secret principle thus introduced among the Jews would not be likely soon to die out. But in the absence of all historical records regarding the particular forms it might have assumed, it would be presumption to propose any theory thereon. All that is certainly known is, that the secret Mysteries of the Cabiri were celebrated in Syria from the remotest times, and were carried to Jerusalem by Hiram, the chief of the Sidonian...