the intention of preserving, between the common people and the Initiates, the line of separation which he found in Egypt. Moshah and Aharun his brother, the whole series of High-Priests, the Council of the 70 Elders, Salomon and the entire succession of Prophets, were in possession of a higher science; and of that science Masonry is, at least, the lineal descendant. It was familiarly known as THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORD. AMŪN, at first the God of Lower Egypt only, where Moshah was reared [a word that in Hebrew means Truth], was the Supreme God. He was styled "_the Celestial Lord, who sheds Light on hidden things_." He was the source of that divine life, of which the _crux ansata_ is the symbol; and the source of all power. He united all the attributes that the Ancient Oriental Theosophy assigned to the Supreme Being. He was the [Greek: πλήρωμα] (Pleroma), or "_Fullness of things_," for He comprehended in Himself everything; and the LIGHT; for he was the Sun-God. He was unchangeable in the midst of everything phenomenal in his worlds. He _created_ nothing; but everything _emanated_ from Him; and of Him all the other Gods were but manifestations. The Ram was His living symbol; which you see reproduced in this Degree, lying on the book with seven seals on the tracing-board. He caused the creation of the world by the Primitive Thought [[Greek: Εννοια], Ennoia], or _Spirit_ [[Greek: Πνευμα], Pneuma], that issued from him by means of his _Voice_ or the WORD; and which _Thought_ or _Spirit_ was personified as the Goddess NEITH. She, too, was a divinity of _Light_, and mother of the Sun; and the Feast of Lamps was celebrated in her honor at Sais. The Creative _Power_, another manifestation of Deity, proceeding to the creation conceived of in her, the Divine _Intelligence_, produced with its Word the Universe, symbolized by an egg issuing from the mouth of KNEPH; from which egg came PHTHA, image of the Supreme Intelligence as realized in the world, and the type of that manifested in man; the principal agent, also, of Nature, or the creative and productive Fire. PHRE or RE, the Sun, or Celestial Light, whose symbol was [Mystic Symbol: ○], the point within a circle, was the son of PHTHA; and TIPHE, his wife, or the celestial firmament, with the seven celestial bodies, animated by spirits of genii that govern them, was represented on many of the monuments, clad in blue or yellow, her garments sprinkled with stars, and accompanied by the sun, moon, and five planets; and she was the type of Wisdom, and they of the Seven Planetary Spirits of the Gnostics, that with her presided over and governed the sublunary world. In this Degree, unknown for a hundred years to those who have practised it, these emblems reproduced refer to these old doctrines. The lamb, the yellow hangings strewed with stars, the seven columns, candlesticks, and seals all recall them to us.