John Noorthouck:

                     Masonry from the Creation to the Flood, 1784

 

 

John Noorthouck:

Constitutions of the Antient Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons. London: Rozea 1784, 1-7.

 

Chap. I.

 

Introductory Observations; and State of Masonry from the Creation to the Flood.

 

 

 

When we contemplate the wonders of the universe, in a philosophical point of view; we perceive the celestial bodies, the earth we inhabit, ourselves, with all other animals and natural productions, to be constructed and governed in their various operations by general laws; wise and unerring in their tendency, to the harmony and support of the whole system!

 

“All nature, is but art unknown to thee;

All chance, direction which thou canst not see;

All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good!"

Pope

 

[Sieh, die Natur ist Kunst, die du noch nicht gelernet;

Der Zufall ein Entwurf, dem Auge zu entfernet;

Der Mißklang Harmonie, die man nicht hören soll,

Und jedes einzle Weh ein allgemeines Wohl.

            Übersetzung von Johann Jakob Harder, 1772]

 

It has been by the attentive study of these laws, so far as they are discoverable by finite abilities, that human industry has been enabled to deduce those principles, which digested and classed under different sciences, or distinct departments of knowledge, furnish the elements of all learning and mechanical arts.

 

Great as our present stock of knowledge may be, it accumulated by very slow progression; for what are termed profane histories, commence every where in obscurity and barbarism. The instinctive impulses of self-preservation and accommodation, were undoubtedly the first that actuated the rude natives of every climate; and of these, the providing habitations to shelter themselves from the inclemencies of the seasons, must have been the earliest.

The several fruits of the earth succeeding each other through the course of the year, offered a regular supply for daily subsistence; but protection against the chilly darkness of the night, and the vicissitudes of weather, required mental contrivance and bodily labour: the art of building must therefore have been the first that called for an exertion of the human faculties. The art first exercised, would be the first improved.

The next tree might screen a man from the scorching rays of the meridian sun, or from the sudden fury of a storm; but a hut fenced round with the boughs of trees, and covered with grass or reeds, would afford a more commodious shelter: yet even this would be thought deficient, upon comparison with a warm cavern under a hill.

Caverns, however, are not everywhere to be met with, and would be frequently inconvenient in formation, situation, or entrance. Detached masses and beds of stone offered materials to imitate such warm subterranean retreats upon level ground; and as these would be found and, applied long before the composition and baking of bricks could have occurred to the human invention, we are justified, without indulging any farther conjectures, in the high antiquity ascribed to the practice of masonry; however rude it must have been in the first essays.

It scarcely need to be intimated that operative masonry solely, is the object now in view; for the scientifical and moral refinements that grew from the profession, and are now implied under the term free masonry, could not have taken root, until the art and the artists, as well as the institutions of civil society, had attained some degree of maturity.

 

The earliest history extant, as well as that of the most established authority, being recorded in the Holy Scriptures, we shall trace the history of masonry from that high source until it brings us down to other histories, at aeras when they become intitled to our confidence. But if, in any part of this work, facts and circumstances should be occasionally asserted, for which no  historical vouchers are to be produced, it is hoped those readers who are not masons, will candidly accept the following apology: Antient tradition have often afforded occasional assistance to history, by stepping in to supply the want of existing monuments and records: and even at this time, in remote country places, where letters are little if at all known, common tradition hands down past events with an artless sincerity sometimes wanting where such advantages are liable to be perverted for indirect purposes.

But Masonic traditions stand upon much firmer ground; the chief bond of connection among masons is all ages, having been fidelity. It is well known, that in former times, while learning remained in few hands, the antients had several institutions for the cultivating of knowledge, concealed under doctrinal and ritual mysteries, that were sacredly with-held from all who were not initiated into a participation of the privileges they led to; that they might not be prostituted to the vulgar.

Among these institutions may be ranked that of Masonry, and its value may be inferred from its surviving those revolutions of government, religion, and manners, that have swallowed up the rest!

It was by the aid of memorials carefully transmitted down through so trusty a channel, that this work was originally compiled; and the traditions of so venerable an institution, claim an attention far superior to the loose oral relations or epic songs, of any uncultivated people whatever.

 

That a society formed on leges non scriptae should not be able to produce very antient records, is perfectly consistent: whatever old writings the brethren might possess in different places, the revolutions of time, and accidents of various kinds, continually diminish.

Dr. Anderson, however, who prepared the first printed book of Constitutions, is highly commended by Dr. Desaguliers, in his dedication of that work to the Duke of Montague, for his pains and accuracy in compiling the book from old records: and his use of such materials ins mentioned by the author himself, in the preparatory advertisement to the second edition.

What losses the society sustained in the year 1720, when the ignorant zeal of some rash brethren induced them to burn their manuscripts, from a dislike probably of having their constitutions printed, cannot now be estimated; but we may congratulate ourselves that such a Gothic principle was not general enough to frustrate the undertaking.

 

Thus much offered in behalf of the historical use made of Masonic authorities, it remains only to account for the history of masonry beginning with Mosaic history of mankind. It has already been noted, that the art of building was the first that mankind had occasion for; and the Masonic character being formed on those principles that dignify human nature, may of course be traced beyond the known existence of any exclusive society under the distinction of masons.

In this view, though the order may not be traced higher than the building of Solomon’s temple, the practice of the Masonic art, and the principles on which this order is founded, are coeval with man. Whoever, therefore, from the earliest ages is recorded as exercising or promoting Masonic operations, and acting conformable to the rules of the order, may justly be claimed and enrolled as members of the fraternity.

 

These necessary considerations being premised, we may proceed to relate, that the Almighty architect of the universe having prepared this globe, and replenished it with all its animal, vegetable and mineral furniture, as a habitation fit to receive the class of rational beings his wisdom determined to place in it; he created man in his own image, and endued him with a capacity of mind, and powers of body, for acquiring those sciences, and exercising those arts, that are so successfully cultivated by every civilized nation.

How ADAM forfeited the state of felicity in which he was originally placed, is not our peculiar province to inquire, farther than we are informed by the inspired penman: it is sufficient to remark, that he incurred banishment from the garden of Eden, by too eager a desire for knowledge, which he ventured to anticipate the possession of, by a prohibited act. Hence he entailed upon himself and all his sinful posterity, the severe punishment of earning their bread by the sweat of their brow; and of having a life of labour closed by the extinction of their vital powers in death!

 

Man being, as we have seen, destined to labour, possesses a fund of industry, and a happy facility in inventing arts and sciences, whether mechanical or liberal; all of which have a tendency to the. benefit of social intercourse. Therefore we need not question but that the allwise God, by implanting these propensities in our nature, intended that we should not .only live happily as individuals, but be mutually assistant to each other for the good of human society; which, in the Scripture phrase, is to be all of one mind, having compassion one for another, and to love as brethren.

 

“See him from nature rising slow to art!

To copy instinct then, was reason’s part.

Thus then to man, the voice of nature spake –

Go, from the creatures thy instructions take:

Learn from the birds, what food the thickets yield;

Learn from the beasts, the physic of the field;

Thy arts of building, from the bee receive;

Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave;

Learn of the little nautilus to sail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale:

Here too, all forms of social union find,

And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind.”

                        Pope

 

[Wie langsam er zur Kunst von der Natur sich schwingt:

Denn damals war Vernunft Nachahmung vom Instinkt.

Die Stimme der Natur wies ihm dazu die Spuren:

”Nimm, spach sie, Unterricht von allen Kreaturen;

Vom Vogel, welcher Baum gesunde Früchte trägt,

Vom Viehe, welches Kraut der grüne Boden hegt,

Zur Baukunst lass den Riß dir von der Biene geben,

Vom Maulwurf lern den Pflug, vom Seidenwurme weben,

Vom kleinen Nautilus, wie man das Segel führt,

Das dünne Ruder bricht, durch Wind ein Schiff regiert.

Hier findst du jede Form gesellschaftlicher Staaten,

Die mag einst die Vernunft des künftgen Menschen rathen.”

            Übersetzung von Johann Jakob Harder, 1772]

 

 

We may be well assured that ADAM instructed his descendants in all the knowledge he himself possessed; which, when we consider his immediate communications with his Maker, and the extraordinary perceptions he purchased at so dear a price, contrary to express command, must have been far greater than that of an ordinary man born amid the wild scenes of nature, with no farther opportunities of information than the mere supply of immediate wants afforded.

 

Accordingly we find cultivation soon attended to in Adam's family; for, of his two sons, Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the earth.

 

[ab hier hält sich Noorthouck weitgehend an den Text von Entick]

 

A. M. 129.

Bef. C. 3875.

 

After their separation, upon the murder of Abel, Cain, with his family, being expelled from Adam's altars, built a city, and called it Dedicate or Consecrate, after the name of his eldest son Enoch; whose race following this example, improved themselves not only in geometry and masonry, but made discoveries of other curious arts.

Thus Jabal, the eldest son of Lamech, first invented the use of tents, as moveable dwellings adapted to grazing; and taught the art of managing herds of cattle, which heretofore had been dispersed wild through the land: Jubal, his third son, was the inventor of music, and musical instruments; and Tubal Cain, his youngest son, found out the art of forging and working metals.

 

The descendants of SETH, the third son of Adam, came nothing behind those of Cain, in the cultivation of useful arts: this patriarch of the other half of mankind, must have greatly profited under the continual tuition of Adam, with whom he lived till the year of the world 930, and succeeded him then with the assistance of Enosh, Kainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, and Enoch.

The latter, as a monument of his superior abilities and love to posterity, foreseeing the universal desolation which would soon happen by water or fire, and deprive mankind of those arts and sciences already improved, raised two large pillars, one of brick, the other of stone, and inscribed thereon an abridgment of the arts and sciences; that if the pillar of brick happened to be overthrown by the flood, the other of stone might remain; which Josephus tells us was to be seen, in his time, in the land of Siriad, by the name of Seth's or Enoch's pillar.

 

It is more than probable that about this time astronomy began to be studied; for, as there is nothing more surprising than the regularity of the heavenly luminaries, it is easy to judge that one of the first objects of attention for mankind, would be to consider their courses, and to observe their periods. It could not be curiosity only that prompted men to apply themselves to astronomical speculations; necessity itself must have dictated them. For if the seasons are not observed, which are distinguished by the planetary motions, it is impossible to succeed in agriculture.

If the duration of the month and year were not determined, a certain order could not be established in civil affairs; nor could the days allotted to the exercise of religion be fixed. Thus, as neither agriculture, polity, nor religion could dispense with the want of astronomy; it is evident that mankind were obliged to apply themselves to the sciences from the beginning of the world.

 

The Posterity of Seth, who had for many ages retained their integrity in the true worship of God, and a close application to sciences, were at last infected with the same contagion of profaneness and immorality as the race of Cain; so that all sorts of wickedness overspread the earth: this depravity at last ended in their destruction and extirpation by the deluge, in which all the human race perished, except NOAH and his family.

Here was a dismal face of things; instead of the earth, adorned with the productions of nature, and the improvements of art, a watery desart appeared, which offered nothing to the view of Heaven, but the floating wrecks of man and his fellow-creatures, swept away in one common destruction!

This was the most dreadful and amazing judgment, the most horrid and portentous catastrophe that nature ever saw.