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ON THE
ORIGIN
OF
FREE-MASONRY.
BY THOMAS
PAIME,
POSTHUMOUS WORK
NE WYORK
'i8ia
District of
New-York>
83.
it Remembered, ihal on the 14th day of September, in the thirty-fifth yeas of the independence of the United States of America, Margaret B. Bonneville, of the said District, has deposited in this Office, the Title of a Book, the right whereof she claims as
BE
it
" On
By Thomas
Paine."
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, (C An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, " An during the times therein mentioned," and also to an act, entitled Act supplementary to an act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching Historical and other Prints."
CHS. CLINTON,
0.N
THE
ORIGIN
FREE-MASONRY.
It
is
a secret
which they
from
own
real secret is
no other
it
in mystery.
The
society of
Masons
Mas-
ter-Mason.
ON THE ORIGIN
The
entered apprentice
who
is
not a mason.
The
ma-
much
better instructed in
It is
only in
member of a contreatise
England, published a
fore
Masonry Dissected; and made oath be* the Lord Mayor of London that it was a
true copy.
that the
copy
OF FREE-MASONRY.
prentice, the fellow-craft
There was no
difficulty in his
is
mere form.
masonry consisted
in the foundation
espe-
on Geometry;
for
art
at
the building
of
the
sonry was
introduced,
and he com-
municated
it
to
other,
and conse-
6.
UN THE ORIGIN
Solomon's Temple was built and dedicated
christian era;
and Euclid,
may be seen
the
same
era.
It
was
there-
700 years
after the
time of Hiram.
Academy, at Woolwich, in England, and Provincial Grand Master of Mathe Royal Artillery
When,
and commanded
lay the planeits
Geometry, to
tary world,
and to regulate by
laws the
round the
centra! sun.
5,1
OF FREE-MASONRY.
iZ
am
licly to
undraw
the curtain,
it
is
sacred,
who
it,
are
ant of
it
cannot betray
By this
last part
of
the phrase,
inferior classes,
It is
not
entrusted with
the mysteries
las
not attainable
by every capacity."
The
Dodd,
in his oration at
Masonry through a
and
variety
of stages.
their
own
private
ing of Solomon's
Temple
is
an important
era,
mysteries of their
that this
"
Now,
says he, be
it
remembered
ON THE ORIGIN
1000 years before
more than
Homer,
the
first
of the Grecian
is,
we
date not
art.
For though
it
glori-
certainly the
"
We trace,
continues he,
its
footsteps in the
most
distant, the
of the world.
We
among
the
first
and
most celebrated
deduce
it
civilizers of the
first
East.
We
astronomers on
OF FREE-MASONRY.
we
see
so,
the creator in a
manner
different from,
and un-
result
from
this
that
Masonry
derived from
some very
an-
and uncon^
To come
(as I shall
who
like the
magi of Persia
Egypt, were
and the
priests of Heliopolis in
They
great invisible
first
cause,
whom
they
styled,
time without
limits.
In Masonry
many
10
ON THE ORIGIN
in their original state, at
With them
in the
the sun
is still
form of
the sun,
on
their aprons,
on the breast
in their lodges
and in
their processions.
At what
w as
r
first
established,
is lost
in
It is
genethe
ancient Egyptians,
after-
apparent pro-
12 signs of the
it
into Greece,
refers in the
Dr.
Dodd
The worship
OF FREE-MASONRY.
out limits, spread
itself
1.1
ancient
Gaul and
into Britain
Smith, in his chapter on the Antiquity of Ma" Notwithstanding sonry in Britain, says, that,
the obscurity which envelopes Masonic history
in that country, various circumstances contri-
ced
into
Britain
about
Christ."
It
cannot be Masonry in
to.
its
The Druids
he speaks
is
of,
and
it is
descended.
Smith
It
in writing as in
and
ON THE ORIGIN
" chapter he says,
am
and ceremonies
the
Masons
that are to
mankind.
lo trace
My
may be
able
them with
am
This
is
Mason
without intending
public, that
to
be so understood by the
is
Masonry
Masons
course
keeping
of this work.
As
in the
was the
all
of Druids,
refer-
OF FREE-MASONRY.
the twelve signs of the Zodiac,
13
upon the
practices.
is
earth.
The Masons
Lodges
is
floor
by carpeting
or
Mosaic Work.
a magnificent buildsterling.
The
is,
in
chitecture in
roof,
Europe.
In the
is
center of this
represented in
Aries
fy^.
Libra
=z=.
Taurus &.
Scorpio nt.
Sagittarius
Gemini
Cancer
n
SB
Capricornus V^.
Leo
Si.
Aquarius ?.
Pisces X.
Virgo n#.
14
ON THE ORIGIN
" " After giving this description he says,
The
is
well
known
and as the
real
sun
emblematical sun
is
the
Masonry.
is
We
all
know, con-
hall.'*-
The masons,
in a mystical
manner of the
astronomer Lalande,
lent
who
is
a mason, been
si-
upon the
subject.
The Lodges
of the Masons,
if built for
the
sun.
They
OF FREE MASONRY.
are
15
situated
is
The
Master's
place
In the examination
among
many
Q.
How
is
the
Lodge
situated ?
A.
Q.
A.
Why
so?
all
Because
so.
ought to be
is
mere catechismal
It
form',
is
does no
why ought
not
Masonry,
he
is
Q. A.
Q.
Where
In the East.
Why
As
-so
so?
A.
the sun rises in the East and opensthe Master stands in the East (with.
the day,
16
ON THE ORIGIN
hand upon
his left breast, being a sign, his neck) to
his right
men
at
work.
Q. A.
Q.
Where
stand your
Wardens?
In the West.
What
As
is
their business ?
A.
Jay,
West
to close the
so the
Wardens
stand in
their right
left breasts,
being
men
their wages.
is
mentioned, but
it
is
has
rite
or cereto
mony,
as
it
the
situation of Lodges
have alrea-
dy observed
in the chapter
East and
West
is
OF FREEMASONRY.
the sun which rises in the East.
W
The christians
church
is
them from
moon.
The Master
Q.
How
What
A.
Q.
A. Q.
To
light the
men
to
and from
their
work.
Why
are there
no
lights in the
North ?
A.
thence.
darts
no rays from
common
The high
they
call St.
festival
of the masons
;
is
on the day
John's day
on
IS
ON THE ORIGIN
day has no reference to the person called
it
St..
this
is
it
cause of holding
the day
on
by
that
name.
As
or at least Druids,
many
time of
St.
John,
if
must
refer
some cause
totally
The
is
case
is,
that the
day called
is
St.
John's day
what
is
called
midsum-
mer day. The sun is then arrived at the summer solstice, and with respect to his meridional
altitude, or height at
The astronomiis
like the
shortest day,
not
is
it is
in
OF FREE-MASONRY.
festival
is
19
celebrated on
midsummer
day.
Customs
remembrance
custom
still
Druids flourished
Britain.
On
Irish light
hills.
but
has emblematiis at
his highest
summer
and might
in
common
at the
top of the
As
to
tell
us of Solomon's Temple
Jerusalem,
it
is
no
ways improbable
that
for the
many
S3
ON THE ORIGIN
learn
we
sun
It is,
much
to
be doubted,
was done
scientific purity
it
with which
Druids,
who by
men.
all
The
and
if a
religion
fell
into
cor-
their hands,
it is
would be
rupted.
We
do not read
one
art or science.
know how
to square
to
Hiram)
Kings, chap.
5, v. 6) that there is
not
among
hem
timber
OP FREE-MASONRY.
like unto the
21
Zidonians."
more properly Hiram's Temple than Solomon's, and if the Masons derive any thing from the
building of
it,
they
owe
it
to the Zidonians
and
But
It is said,
v. 5,
Josiah put
down
all
And
it
sun
at the entering in
mount
had builded
abomination of the
description
that
22
ON THE ORIGIN
this
TemMa-
resemble on a large
scale, those
of a
son's Lodge.
He
Temple
of the Jews
represented
all
most
apparent of
the zodiac,
it,
moon, the
planets,
and
that
was retraced
there
in
by
all numerous ingenious emblems. These, probability, are what Josiah, in his ignorance,
calls the
tiling,
Every
Templef and
* Smith in speaking of a Lodge says, when the Lodge is revealed to an entering Mason, it discovers to him a representation of the
World;
in
we
and worship
him from
mankind
t
It
mighty works; and we are thereby also moved to exercise those moral and social virtues which become
as the servants of the great Architect of the world.
may
Here
is
the likeness of
And we
read
Kings, chap.
6, 7.
that
all
OF FREE-MASONRY.
applied to Masonry,
still
23
refers to the
worship
to the religion
that
Ma-
ancient
system,
re-
prior to,
ligion, is the
time, used
by the Masons
Lodges.
of what
is
called
months
Quakers do now.
have by
me
a relate
Duke
of Orleans, then
Duke de
Chartres was
It
in France.
begins
made
the ledges of
were ornamented
with
lions,
oxen and
cherubims;
all this is
Moses.
24
ON THE ORIGIN
"
Le
la V.
is,
The
By what
observe
Ma-
A. L. and not V. L. By A.
year of the Lodge, as the
L. they
mean
in the
christians
Lord.
of the Creation.
taken
many
of their
chronology
from thence.
they
had,
the
;
many thousand
years
beyond
The
OF FREE -MASONRY.
was the same
Egyptians*
professors
as the
religion
25
of the
ancient
The
priests
of Egypt were
the
of the city
of
the
the sun.
The Druids
in
Europe,
who were
their
mans being anciently called Teutones, The word Druid signifies a wise man. In Persia they
were called magi, which
signifies the
same
thing*
"
many
others for
its antiquities,
learn-
opulence, and
fertility.
In their system,
logically
Being and
universal Nature
whose
influence
all
The
informed what
26
ON THE ORIGIN
these
affinity
why
Masonic Lodges."
in their
public processions,
says,
The Egyptian
white cotton.
priests
Priests of Osiris
wore snowother
As Masons, we
the first
"The
earliest
Egyptians,
ages,
continues Smith,
a great
in the
constituted
number of
kept their
Masonry from
all
strangers.
These
secrets have
us by
OF FREE-MASONRY,
study, they
#
Geo-
become
better acquainted in
liberal arts,
seldom or
Under
by
from
his great
knowledge in
much
information on
Masonry
for
if there
its
be not some-
as an
it is
used; and
we
among whom
many very learned and scientific men, to be such idiots as to make use of astronomical signs without some astronomical purpose.
But
tion
in
my expecta-
from Lalande.
28
ON THE ORIGIN
la
maqonerie se
temps;" that
others,
is,
many
obscurity
of time.
When
came
to this expression, I
supposed
which they
are
sworn to conceal.
in
There
is
a society of
Masons
have a reason
for
come now
The
is fear.
When
religion,
of the old.
We see this in
When
scribe,
Hilkiah the
in the reign
OF FREE-MASONRY.
29
as a national religion,
and put
the priests of
When
christian
be found
all
As
the instances
are
we
obliged
admit
it
when
Druids
in Italy,
This would
meet
in secret
30
ON THE
ORIGIN,
&c.
tions of secresy.
it,
A false
many
of them to destruction
the institution
new name,
Druids.
s.
*r-