An encyclopedic outline of masonic, hermetic, cabbalistic and rosicrucian symbolical philosophy. Being an interpretation of the secret teachings concealed within the rituals, allegories and mysteries of all ages

A complex allegorical engraving titled 'GROUP OF WORLD RELIGIONS.' It features various religious symbols and figures from different traditions. At the top left is a zodiac band showing the constellations of Taurus, Aries, and Pisces. In the clouds, Jupiter Ammon is seated brandishing thunderbolts, and the four creatures of Ezekiel's vision (man, lion, ox, eagle) surround an altar upon which sits the Lamb of God and the Book of Seven Seals. On the ground level at the left, Mohammed stands holding the Koran, with a Celestial Bull behind him. In the center, a Jewish High Priest stands next to a large seven-branched candlestick, near a statue of the golden calf and Greek mystics holding a sacrificial tripod. In the background are the Egyptian pyramids, the bull Apis, and a figure representing Father Nile pouring water from an urn. At the bottom right is a bas-relief depicting the Persian god Mithras slaying a bull.

GROUP OF WORLD RELIGIONS.

At the left of the plate stands Mohammed, holding aloft pages from the Koran, his left foot upon an image which he has overthrown. Behind Mohammed, the Celestial Bull—signifying the constellation of Taurus—opens the "Egg of the Year" with his horns. At the lower right is a bas-relief of the Persian Sun God, Mithras, in an attitude signifying the victory of the sun over the Celestial Bull at the ancient vernal equinox. In the center stands the High Priest of Israel, his right arm encircling the base of the seven-branched candlestick—the Mosaic symbol of the Planetary Governors of the world. To his right is the statue of the golden calf, and to his left are the robed figures of the Greek mystics bearing a tripod in which burns the sacrificial fire. Behind the bull Apis, crowned with the lunar globe, and Father Nile, bearing the horn of plenty and pouring the waters of life from his urn, loom the Pyramids—the great Egyptian temples of initiation. In the clouds at the left is the seated figure of Jupiter Ammon, brandishing a flaming thunderbolt and horned to signify that he shares the attributes of the zodiacal ram. In the heavens appears the mystery of the Apocalypse. The four creatures of Ezekiel's Vision surround an altar upon which sits the Book of Seven Seals and the Lamb of God. At the upper left is the band of the zodiac. The constellations of Taurus, Aries, and Pisces represent the stellar influences which—according to the ancients—descending upon the earth, are responsible for the establishment of the religious and philosophical institutions shown here.

Copyrighted by Manly P. Hall.

A large, ornate decorative initial 'P' featuring figures, scrolling foliage, and a landscape scene.

PHILOSOPHY is the science of estimating values. The superiority of any state or substance over another is determined by philosophy. By assigning a position of primary importance to what remains when all that is secondary has been removed, philosophy becomes the true index of priority or emphasis in the realm of speculative thought. The mission of a priori term: reasoning from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience philosophy is to establish the relationship of manifested things to their invisible ultimate cause or nature.

"Philosophy," writes Sir William Hamilton, "has been defined [as]: The science of things divine and human, and of the causes in which they are contained [Cicero]; The science of effects by their principles [Descartes]; The science of sufficient reasons [Leibnitz]; The science of things possible, insofar as they are possible [Wolf]; The science of truths evidently deduced from first principles [Descartes]; The science of truths, sensible and abstract [de Condillac]; The application of reason to its legitimate objects [Tennemann]; The science of the relations of all knowledge to the necessary ends of human reason [Kant]; The science of the original form of the ego or mental self [Krug]; The science of sciences [Fichte]; The science of the absolute [von Schelling]; The science of the absolute indifference of the ideal and real [von Schelling]—or, The identity of identity and non-identity [Hegel]." (See Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic.)

A complex circular diagram titled 'BABBITT'S ATOM,' showing a series of intertwined spirals. Labels include 'NEGATIVE END' and 'VORTEX' at the top, and 'POSITIVE END' and 'TORRENT' at the bottom. Spirals are labeled as 'ELECTRICAL COLORS,' 'EXTRA SPIRALS,' 'THERMAL COLORS,' 'SPIRALS FOR THERMO ELECT.,' and 'SPIRALS FOR FRICTIONAL ELECT.' The structure is annotated with numbers (2 through 6) and the letter 'A'.

The six headings under which the disciplines of philosophy are commonly classified are: metaphysics, which deals with such abstract subjects as cosmology, theology, and the nature of being; logic, which deals with the laws governing rational thinking, or, as it has been called, "the doctrine of fallacies"; ethics, which is the science of morality, individual responsibility, and character—concerned chiefly with an effort to determine the nature of "good"; psychology, which is devoted to the investigation and classification of those forms of phenomena referable to a mental origin; epistemology, which is the science concerned primarily with the nature of knowledge itself and the question of whether it may exist in an absolute form; and aesthetics, which is the science of the nature of and the reactions awakened by the beautiful, the harmonious, the elegant, and the noble.

BABBITT'S ATOM.

Since the postulation of the atomic theory by Democritus, many efforts have been made to determine the structure of atoms and the method by which they unite to form various elements. Even science has not refrained from entering this field of speculation and presents for consideration most detailed and elaborate representations of these minute bodies. By far the most remarkable conception of the atom evolved during the last century is that produced by the genius of Dr. Edwin D. Babbitt, which is reproduced here. The diagram is self-explanatory. It must be borne in mind that this apparently massive structure is actually so minute as to defy analysis. Not only did Dr. Babbitt create this form of the atom, but he also devised a method by which these particles could be grouped together in an orderly manner, resulting in the formation of molecular bodies.

Plato regarded philosophy as the greatest good ever given by Divinity to man. In the twentieth century, however, it has become a ponderous and complicated structure of arbitrary and irreconcilable notions—yet each is substantiated by almost incontestable logic. The lofty theorems of the old Academy, which once made up the life of the gods, have been so diluted by opinion—which Heraclitus declared to be a "falling sickness of the mind"—that the heavenly mead term: a fermented honey drink, used here metaphorically as the "drink of the gods" or divine wisdom would now be quite unrecognizable to that great Neo-Platonist. Convincing evidence of the increasing superficiality of modern scientific and philosophic thought is its persistent drift toward materialism. When the great astronomer Laplace was asked by Napoleon why he had not mentioned God in his Treatise on Celestial Mechanics original: "Traité de la Mécanique Céleste", the mathematician naively replied: "Sire, I had no need for that hypothesis!"

In his treatise on Atheism, Sir Francis Bacon tersely summarizes the situation: "A little philosophy inclines man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy brings men's minds back to

religion." The Metaphysics of Aristotle opens with these words: "All men naturally desire to know." To satisfy this common urge, the unfolding human intellect has explored the extremities of imaginable space without and the extremities of imaginable self within. It seeks to estimate the relationship between the one and the all; the effect and the cause; Nature and the groundwork of Nature; the mind and the source of the mind; the spirit and the substance of the spirit; the illusion and the reality.

An ancient philosopher once said: "He who has not even a knowledge of common things is a brute among men. He who has an accurate knowledge of human concerns alone is a man among brutes. But he who knows all that can be known by intellectual energy is a God among men." Man's status in the natural world is determined, therefore, by the quality of his thinking. He whose mind is enslaved to his bestial instincts is philosophically no superior to the brute; he whose rational faculties ponder human affairs is a man; and he whose intellect is elevated to the consideration of divine realities is already a demigod, for his being partakes of the light with which his reason has brought him into proximity. In his praise of "the science of sciences," Cicero is led to exclaim: "O philosophy, life's guide! O searcher-out of virtue and expeller of vices! What could we and every age of men have done without you? You have produced cities; you have called scattered men into the social enjoyment of life."

In this age, the word philosophy has little meaning unless accompanied by some other qualifying term. The body of philosophy has been broken up into numerous isms that are more or less antagonistic. These schools have become so concerned with the effort to disprove each other's errors that the sublimer issues of divine order and human destiny have suffered deplorable neglect. The ideal function of philosophy is to serve as the stabilizing influence in human thought. By virtue of its intrinsic nature, it should prevent man from ever establishing unreasonable codes of life. Philosophers themselves, however, have frustrated the ends of philosophy by exceeding in their "wool-gathering" term: indulgence in aimless thought or daydreaming those untrained minds whom they are supposed to lead in the straight and narrow path of rational thinking. To list and classify any but the more important of the now recognized schools of philosophy is beyond the space limitations of this volume. The vast area of speculation covered by philosophy will be appreciated best after a brief consideration of a few of the outstanding systems of philosophic discipline which have swayed the world of thought during the last twenty-six centuries.

The Greek school of philosophy began with the seven immortalized "wise men." According to Diogenes Laertius, these were Thales, Solon, Chilon, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobulus, and Periander. Water was conceived by Thales to be the primal principle or element, upon which the earth floated like a ship, and he believed earthquakes were the result of disturbances in this universal sea. Since Thales was an Ionian, the school perpetuating his tenets became known as the Ionic school. He died in 546 B.C. and was succeeded by Anaximander, who in turn was followed by Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, and Archelaus, with whom the Ionic school ended. Anaximander, differing from his master Thales, declared measureless and indefinable infinity to be the principle from which all things were generated. Anaximenes asserted air to be the first element of the universe, and that souls and even the Deity itself were composed of it.

Anaxagoras (whose doctrine suggests atomism) held God to be "an infinite self-moving mind; that this divine infinite Mind, not