The antiquities of Freemasonry Author:George Oliver Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PERIOD II. CHAPTER III. On the Origin of the Arts and Sciences. It has been already explained that Masonry is divided into two distinct parts, Operative... more » and Speculative ; the latter and most noble portion of which declined amongst the descendants of Ham and Japheth, when they renounced the worship of the true God, and degenerated into idolatry. They cherished, however, the former division, amidst all the fluctuations of their fortune, and diversities of modes of faith and worship. The corruptions which gradually debased the moral principle in man did not check his ardour in the pursuit of science, or restrain the avidity with which he cultivated wisdom, and the love of every useful art. The Egyptians were celebrated for geometry, the Phoenicians for the perfection of their arithmetical calculations, the Chaldeans for their knowledge of astronomy, and the Cretans for music. The island of Crete, which was planted in the ages anterior to Abraham, so far excelled in the cultivation of the fine arts, that men of learning andresearch, from other countries, visited this people to reap the benefit of their improvements.1 Under the patronage and genial encouragement of their kings, they excelled not only in music, but also in medicine, and the arts of civil and social life ;2 they carried the art of working in brass and metals to a greater perfection than any nation had done before them ;s they communicated their knowledge very freely to other nations who applied for it, and even appointed public teachers, whose office was to preserve their acquirements pure and free from sophisticated adulterations. These teachers were appointed by an edict of the state, and heavy penalties were denounced upon any person who should attempt to give instruction in the sciences without this autho...« less