[160] "The allegorical interpretation of the myths has been, by several learned investigators, especially by Creuzer, connected with the hypothesis of an ancient and highly instructed body of priests, having their origin either in Egypt or in the East, and communicating to the rude and barbarous Greeks religious, physical, and historical knowledge, under the veil of symbols."--GROTE, _Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 579.--And the Chevalier Ramsay corroborates this theory: "Vestiges of the most sublime truths are to be found in the sages of all nations, times, and religions, both sacred and profane, and these vestiges are emanations of the antediluvian and noevian tradition, more or less disguised and adulterated."--_Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion unfolded in a Geometrical Order_, vol. 1, p. iv. [161] Of this there is abundant evidence in all the ancient and modern writers on the Mysteries. Apuleius, cautiously describing his initiation into the Mysteries of Isis, says, "I approached the confines of death, and having trod on the threshold of Proserpine, I returned therefrom, being borne through all the elements. At midnight I saw the sun shining with its brilliant light; and I approached the presence of the gods beneath, and the gods of heaven, and stood near and worshipped them."--_Metam._ lib. vi. The context shows that all this was a scenic representation. [162] _Aish hakam iodea binah_, "a cunning man, endued with understanding," is the description given by the king of Tyre of Hiram Abif. See 2 Chron. ii. 13. It is needless to say that "cunning" is a good old Saxon word meaning _skilful_. [163] "Pronaque cum spectent animalia cætera terram; Os homini sublime dedit: coelumque tueri Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus." OVID, _Met._ i. 84. P/ "Thus, while the mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies." DRYDEN. [164] "Ἀφανισμὸς, disappearance, destruction, a perishing, death, from ἀφανίζω, to remove from one's view, to conceal," &c.--_Schrevel. Lex._ [165] "Εῦρεσις, a finding, invention, discovery."--_Schrevel. Lex._ [166] A French writer of the last century, speaking of the degree of "Très Parfait Maitre," says, "C'est ici qu'on voit réellement qu'Hiram n'a été que le type de Jésus Christ, que le temple et les autres symboles maçonniques sont des allegories relatives à l'Eglise, à la Foi, et aux bonnes moeurs."--_Origine et Objet de la Franchemaçonnerie, par le F.B._ Paris, 1774. [167] "This our order is a positive contradiction to the Judaic blindness and infidelity, and testifies our faith concerning the resurrection of the body."--HUTCHINSON, _Spirit of Masonry_, lect. ix. p. 101.--The whole lecture is occupied in advancing and supporting his peculiar theory.