rigin of Geometry to the Egyptians the writer was
but following a tradition that the Egyptians were compelled to invent
it in order to restore the landmarks effaced by the inundations of the
Nile; a tradition confirmed by modern research.

Proceeding, the compiler tells us that during their sojourn in Egypt
the Hebrews learned the art and secrets of Masonry, which they took
with them to the promised land. Long years are rapidly sketched, and
we come to the days of David, who is said to have loved Masons well,
and to have given them "wages nearly as they are now." There is but a
meager reference to the building of the Temple of Solomon, to which is
added: "In other chronicles and old books of Masonry, it is said that
Solomon confirmed the charges that David had given to Masons; and that
Solomon taught them their usages differing but slightly from the
customs now in use." While allusion is made to the master-artist of
the temple, his name is not mentioned, _except in disguise_. Not one
of the _Old Charges_ of the order ever makes use of his name, but
always employs some device whereby to conceal it.[74] Why so, when
the name was well known, written in the Bible which lay upon the
altar for all to read? Why such reluctance, if it be not that the name
and the legend linked with it had an esoteric meaning, as it most
certainly did have long before it was wrought into a drama? At this
point the writer drops the old legend and traces the Masons into
France and England, after the manner of the _Regius MS_, but with more
detail. Having noted these items, he returns to Euclid and brings that
phase of the tradition up to the advent of the order into England,
adding, in conclusion, the articles of Masonic law agreed upon at an
early assembly, of which he names nine, instead of the fifteen recited
in the _Regius Poem_.

What shall we say of this Legend, with its recurring and insistent
emphasis upon the antiquity of the order, and its linking of Egypt
with Israel? For one thing, it explodes the fancy that the idea of the
symbolical significance of the building of the Temple of Solomon
originated with, or was suggested by, Bacon's _New Atlantis_. Here is
a body of tradition uniting the Egyptian Mysteries with the Hebrew
history of the Temple in a manner unmistakable. Wherefore such names
as Hermes, Pythagoras, and Euclid, and how did they come into the old
craft records if not through the Comacine artists and scholars? With
the sto