ity or the morality of the masonic order.

[29] We must not confound these Asiatic builders with the play-actors, who
were subsequently called by the Greeks, as we learn from Aulus Gellius
(lib. xx. cap. 4), "artificers of Dionysus"--[Greek: Dionysiakoi
technitai\].

[30] There is abundant evidence, among ancient authors, of the existence
of signs and passwords in the Mysteries. Thus Apuleius, in his Apology,
says, "Si qui forte adest eorundem Solemnium mihi particeps, signum dato,"
etc.; that is, "If any one happens to be present who has been initiated
into the same rites as myself, if he will give me the sign, he shall then
be at liberty to hear what it is that I keep with so much care." Plautus
also alludes to this usage, when, in his "Miles Gloriosus," act iv. sc. 2,
he makes Milphidippa say to Pyrgopolonices, "Cedo signum, si harunc
Baccharum es;" i.e., "Give the sign if you are one of these Bacchae," or
initiates into the Mysteries of Bacchus. Clemens Alexandrinus calls these
modes of recognition [Greek: sothemata], as if _means of safety_. Apuleius
elsewhere uses _memoracula_, I think to denote passwords, when he says,
"sanctissime sacrorum signa et memoracula custodire," which I am inclined
to translate, "most scrupulously to preserve the signs and passwords of
the sacred rites."

[31] The Baron de Sainte Croix gives this brief view of the ceremonies:
"Dans ces mysteres on employoit, pour remplir l'ame des assistans d'une
sainte horreur, les memes moyens qu'a Eleusis. L'apparition de fantomes et
de divers objets propres a effrayer, sembloit disposer les esprits a la
credulite. Ils en avoient sans doute besoin, pour ajouter foi a toutes les
explications des mystagogues: elles rouloient sur le massacre de Bacchus
par les Titans," &c.--_Recherches sur les Mysteres du Paganisme_, tom. ii.
sect. vii. art. iii. p. 89.

[32] Lawrie, Hist. of Freemasonry, p. 27.

[33] Vincentius Lirinensis or Vincent of Lirens, who lived in the fifth
century of the Christian era, wrote a controversial treatise entitled
"Commonitorium," remarkable for the blind veneration which it pays to the
voice of tradition. The rule which he there lays down, and which is cited
in the text, may be considered, in a modified application, as an axiom by
which we may test the _probability_, at least, of all sorts of traditions.
None out of the pale of Vincent's church will go so far as he did in
making it the criterion of positive truth.

[34] Prol