he last century, speaking of the degree of "Tres
Parfait Maitre," says, "C'est ici qu'on voit reellement qu'Hiram n'a ete
que le type de Jesus Christ, que le temple et les autres symboles
maconniques sont des allegories relatives a l'Eglise, a la Foi, et aux
bonnes moeurs."--_Origine et Objet de la Franchemaconnerie, 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.

[168] "Thus, then, it appears that the historical reference of the legend
of Speculative Freemasonry, in all ages of the world, was--to our death in
Adam and life in Christ. What, then, was the origin of our tradition? Or,
in other words, to what particular incident did the legend of initiation
refer before the flood? I conceive it to have been the offering and
assassination of Abel by his brother Cain; the escape of the murderer; the
discovery of the body by his disconsolate parents, and its subsequent
interment, under a certain belief of its final resurrection from the dead,
and of the detection and punishment of Cain by divine vengeance."--OLIVER,
_Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry_, vol. ii. p. 171.

[169] "Le grade de Maitre va donc nous retracer allegoriquement la mort du
_dieu-lumiere_--mourant en hiver pour reparaitre et ressusciter au
printemps."--RAGON, _Cours Philos. et Interp. des Init._ p. 158.

[170] "Dans l'ordre moral, Hiram n'est autre chose que la raison
eternelle, par qui tout est pondere, regle, conserve."--DES ETANGS,
_Oeuvres Maconniques_, p. 90.

[171] With the same argument would I meet the hypothesis that Hiram was
the representative of Charles I. of England--an hypothesis now so
generally abandoned, that I have not thought it worth noticing in the
text.

[172] "The initiation into the Mysteries," he says, "scenically
represented the mythic descent into Hades and the return from thence to
the light of day; by which was meant the entrance into the Ark and the
subsequent liberation from its dark enclosure. Such Mysteries were
established in almost every part of the pagan world; and those of Ceres
were substantially the same as the Orgies of Adonis, Osiris, Hu, Mithras,
and the Cabiri. They all equally related to the allegorical disappearance,
or death, or descent of