On the Vitrified Forts of North Britain. 405

ployed in the construction of the vitrified forts have unquestionably been acted upon Kelp will produce this effect; and as it was abundant in the highlands, there can be little doubt but that the use of this article in the fusion of the stones forms a satisfactory solution of the long-pending question, and explains the secret of the construction of the vitrified forts.

In communicating these particulars to the British Archæological Association, this opinion was generally adopted. Mr. SAULL explained the way in which the fusion was probably effected; and Mr. J. S. BUCKINGHAM (the oriental traveller), informed me, that the ancient buildings at Babylon, he had examined, appeared analagous to the vitrified forts which I had described, and that in particular in the Birs Nimrod, or Temple of Belus (generally known as the Tower of Babel), he had noticed a mass of brick-masonry, one hundred and seventy feet high, the exterior and interior surfaces of which had been vitrified in a manner evidently similar to that adopted in the construction of the Caledonian forts. Various theories it appeared had been advanced to account for this vitrification; some thinking that the lightnings which destroyed the Tower of Babel had produced the effect, whilst others sought a cause in the custom of the Persian fire-worshippers of maintaining a perpetual fire in the temple after its partial demolition; but the explanation given as to the mode in which the Caledonian forts were vitrified, Mr. Buckingham considered far more rational; and in illustration of the manner of burning walls in the most remote periods, Mr. B. referred to the volume of the Sacred Law as throwing light upon the subject, the expression in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, "Let us make brick and burn them thoroughly," being still more applicable in the original Hebrew text, which might be translated, "Let us make brick, and burn them to a burning," alluding unquestionably to something more than the application of ordinary heat, whilst the slime which was used for mortar, alluded to the cementing matter produced during the process of calcination.

From what has been stated it appears, therefore, that we must travel "to the East" to discover the origin of the mode of construction adopted by the builders of the vitrified forts in North Britain, though in what manner, or through what particular channels this knowledge travelled so far westward, is a question which we cannot so readily determine. It is however an important fact, in addition to many previously established, showing the numerous analogies in architecture and religion existing between the Chaldeans and Persians, and the primitive inhabitants of the British Isles.

I have alluded to some remains in France. Much interest has been recently excited amongst the antiquarians of that country, by the discovery of some remains in Brittany, in which the agency of fire had evidently been adopted for the purpose of running together or cementing portions of the work. One of these is situated near the hamlet of Peran, south of St. Brieux. It is known in the neighbourhood by the name of burnt stones (pierres brulées), and no historical notice of it exists. M. ANATOLE BARTHELEMY, who has recently examined it, communicated the particulars to the British Archæological Association, and it appears from his description, that the principal peculiarity in its construction, consists of a wall which has evidently undergone combustion. Mons. B. states,-"The second or lower parapet, is entirely of earth. The upper parapet is composed of a wall which supports a talus of

earth it is of this wall I have to speak. It is throughout composed of granite in the condition of pumice stone, very porous and very light; the upper part of this wall is not calcined, nor the lower part; even the surfaces are in general untouched. The action of the fire, therefore, appears to have been internal. In the excavations, executed under my eyes, I made the following remarks:-We find, first, the foundations made without cement or mortar, and untouched; then a layer of cinders, then a layer of charcoal, then the mass of granite, of which all the fusible part has run between the stones so as to fill up the interstices, and to hang down in the form of stalactites; and then lastly, the upper part, which is little or not at all burnt. It seems to me, therefore, evident, until I see a proof of the contrary, that in constructing the wall, they first placed a layer of wood, that then they covered the whole with earth, and thus effected a choaked combustion. In fact, the charcoal is often formed in the midst of this kind of lava, so as to make us think that during the combustion, the stones, rendered fusible, had fallen in upon the layer of wood.

"Excavations made in every direction in the interior area, were without result; no traces of buildings or burnt stones have yet been found, nor anything to lead us to suppose the existence of a castle."

This remain (whether fort or camp) is elliptical in shape, and there are many indications which prove that it is not of equal antiquity with the vitrified forts of the highlands. It is, however, generally admitted that the peculiarity in its mode of construction was imported into France from the British Isles, and I am disposed to attribute its erection to the third or fourth century of the Christian era. There appear to be several other monuments in Brittany of a similar description, which are at present undergoing examination. These, however, cannot be considered as strictly analogous to the highland forts, there being many essential points of difference both in shape and construction.

With regard to the peculiar mode adopted in the construction of the vitrified forts in North Britain, we are now enabled from what has been before explained, to form something like a rational conjecture, if not to arrive at an accurate conclusion; but the period when they were constructed, and the people by whom they were raised, are questions not to be so readily solved. These, however, are interesting questions, and their investigation leads us into the consideration of matters historical as well as Masonic, necessarily instructive, and which cannot be deemed unprofitable.

It has been observed that all antiquarians are agreed as to the erection of the highland forts preceding the Roman invasion. This being the case, the next question seems to be whether they were erected by the ancient inhabitants of Caledonia within what may be considered a limited period antecedent to that event. Now, considering that the temples and forts of the ancient Britons, as well as Caledonians, were circular (having reference to the solar worship), and that the vitrified forts are parallelograms, we have at once a striking dissimilarity in shape, which is an important point to be considered in the classification of these descriptions of relics; and in the next place, we have a mode of construction entirely unknown in the south, for if it had been known, remains would most unquestionably before this have been discovered. And, putting these two facts together, we are forced to the conclusion that as we can discover nothing analogous within a period embraced by history or reached by tradition, we must revert back to a most remote era to account for

On the Vitrified Forts of North Britain. 407

their origin, to a period of time in fact earlier than that usually ascribed to the Druids or the Celte. And when we consider further, that the only real analogy is to be found on the banks of the Euphrates, it would seem to lead us to the conclusion, that shortly after the dispersion of mankind, a tribe or family penetrated westward as far as the British Isles, carrying with them that knowledge of practical masonry which had been acquired on the plains of Shinar, and extending even to Ultima Thule, the early lights of science and civilization. And this is not an unreasonable supposition-The primitive race may have been swept away by the subsequent invasion of barbaric hordes, leaving no trace of its previous existence, except those vitrified remains which have so long excited our curiosity. One thing is unquestionable, that in Britain and the sister isle, there are traces of a much higher state of civilization having existed in periods long anterior to the Christian era, than would appear from records to have existed at the Roman Conquest; and this, to the enquiring mind, is as evident as that in ancient Mexico a people formerly existed whose stupendous edifices and style of building assimilated to those of the ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans, so that the arts of the land of the Pharaohs must have reached the transatlantic world ages before that world itself is generally supposed to have been discovered by the inhabitants of the eastern hemisphere.

Greece and Rome have left us a literature from which we can judge, by contemporaneous evidence of their former grandeur, wealth, and power, as well as the intellectual superiority they attained; but of the earlier nations of antiquity, no chronicles exist except those architectural remains whose magnificence occasionally excites the wonder of the traveller; and yet those nations supplied the founts of wisdom and knowledge which afterwards poured such copious streams over Greece and Rome, and they probably exceeded the latter in wealth, and power, and grandeur; but their literature is lost-their records are in the dust, and it is only by researches similar to those which have been detailed, that we can partially uplift the veil of obscurity which spreads the pall of its dark shadow over the early nations of the earth, and admit perhaps a feeble glimmering of light upon a state of things once in active existence, even like the events of the present time, but now buried in the omb of oblivion, and lost in the darkness of by-gone ages.

These, indeed, are questions of deep and absorbing interest, and I am thoroughly convinced that a knowledge of Masonic antiquities alone, pursued with a true spirit of Masonic perseverance, will assist in bringing these hidden things of the past to light, and explain those anomalies in the early history of the human race, which will otherwise remain dark and incomprehensible.

Let me, therefore, in conclusion, earnestly exhort my Brethren to devote more attention to the philosophy of Freemasonry, and less to its convivialities; the result cannot fail to add dignity to our time-honoured institution, and supply the truly speculative Mason with that mental food which constitutes the genuine sustenance of intellectual life.

VOL. IV.

3 H

ESOTERIC AND EXOTERIC MASONRY.

FROM THE LEXICON OF FREEMASONRY, BY ALBERT G. MACKEY, M. D., GRAND SECRETARY AND GRAND LECTURER OF THE

GRAND LODGE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, ETC.

ESOTERIC AND EXOTERIC MASONRY-From two Greek words signifying interior and exterior. The ancient philosophers in the establishment of their respective sects, divided their schools into two kinds, exoteric and esoteric. In the exoteric school, instruction was given in public places; the elements of science, physical and moral, were unfolded, and those principles which ordinary intelligences could grasp, and against which the prejudices of ordinary minds could not revolt, were inculcated in places accessible to all whom curiosity or a love of wisdom congregated. But the more abstruse tenets of their philosophy were reserved for a chosen few, who, united in an esoteric school, received in the secret recesses of the master's dwelling, lessons too strange to be acknowledged, too pure to be appreciated, by the vulgar crowd who in the morning had assembled at the public lecture. Thus, in some measure, is it with Masonry. Its system, taken as a whole, is, it is true, strictly esoteric in its construction. Its disciples are taught a knowledge which is forbidden to the profane, and it is only in the adytum of the Lodge that these lessons are bestowed; and yet, viewed in itself and unconnected with the world without, Masonry contains within its bosom an exoteric and esoteric school, as palpably divided as were those of the ancient sects, with this simple difference-that the admission or the exclusion was in the latter case involuntary, and dependent solely on the will of the instructor, while in the former it is voluntary, and dependent only on the will and wishes of the disciple. In the sense in which I wish to convey the terms, every Mason on his initiation is exoteric; he beholds before him a beautiful fabric, the exterior of which, alone, he has examined, and with this examination he may, possibly, remain satisfied-many, alas! too many, are-if so, he will remain an exoteric Mason. But there are others whose curiosity is not so easily gratified; they desire a further and more intimate knowledge of the structure than has been presented to their view; they enter and examine its internal form,-they traverse its intricate passages,-they explore its hidden recesses, and admire and contemplate its magnificent apartments: their knowledge of the edifice is thus enlarged, and with more extensive they have purer views of the principles of its construction than have fallen to the lot of their lessenquiring brethren. These men become esoteric Masons. The hidden things of the Order are to them familiar as household words. They constitute the Masters in Israel who are to guide and instruct the lessinformed, and to diffuse light over paths which, to all others, are obscure and dark. There is between these studious Masons and their slothful unenquiring Brethren the same difference in the views they take of Masonry, as there is between an artist and a peasant, in their respective estimation of an old painting it may be of a Raphael or a Reubens. The peasant gazes with stupid wonder or with cold indifference on the canvass, redolent with life, without the excitation of a single emotion in his barren soul. Its colors mellowed to a rich softness by the hand of time, are to him less pleasing than the gaudy tints which glare upon the

sign of his village inn; and its subject, borrowed from the deep lore of history, or the bold imaginings of poesy, are less intelligible to him than the daubed print which hangs conspicuously at his cottage fireside,--and he is amazed to see this paltry piece of canvass bought with the treasures of wealth, and guarded with a care that the brightest jewel would demand in vain But to the eye of the artist how different the impression conveyed! To him every thing beams with light and life and beauty. To him it is the voice of nature, speaking in the language of art. Prometheus-like, he sees the warm blood gushing through the blue veins, and the eye beaming with a fancied animation; the correctness of its outlines -the boldness of its foreshortenings, where the limbs appear ready to burst from the canvass-the delicacy of its shadows, and the fine arrangement of its lights,—are all before him,-subjects of admiration, on which he could for ever gaze, and examples of instruction which he would fain imitate. And whence arises this difference of impression, produced by the same object on two different individuals? It is not from genius alone, for that, unaided, brings no light to the mind, though it prepares it for its reception. It is cultivation which enlarges the intellect and fits it as a matrix for the birth of those truths which find in the bosom of ignorance no abiding place. And thus it is with Masonry: as we cultivate it as a science, its objects become extended as our knowledge of it increases,-new lights burst forth from its inmost recesses, which to the inquisitive Mason burn with bright effulgence, but to the inattentive and unsearching are but as dim and fitful glimmerings, only rendering "darkness visible." Let every Mason ask himself if he be of the esoteric or exoteric school of Masonry. Has he studied its hidden beauties and excellencies? Has he explored its history, and traced out the origin and the euridite meaning of its symbols? Or, on the other hand, has he supinely rested content with the knowledge he received at the pedestal, nor sought to pass beyond the porch of the temple? If so, he is not prepared to find in our royal art those lessons which adorn the path of life, and cheer the bed of death; and for all purposes, except those of social meeting and friendly recognition, Masonry is to him a sealed book. But if he has ever felt a desire to seek and cultivate the internal philosophy of Masonry, let him advance in those rarely trodden paths; the labour of such a pursuit is itself refreshment, and the reward great. Fresh flowers bloom at every step, and the prospect on every side is so filled with beauty and enchantment, that, ravished at the sight, he will rush on with enthusiasm from fact to fact, and from truth to truth, until the whole science of Masonry lies before him invested with a new form and sublimity.

MASONS' MARKS.

THE church of St. Mary de Castro, which was rebuilt by Robert de Bellomont, Earl of Leicester, in 1107, and of which the chancel and other portions of the beautiful architecture of the Norman period still remain, as do also fine specimens of the succeeding styles, has lately been undergoing extensive repairs and restorations. A short time ago, in removing the great western window of the nave, which was of the decorated character prevalent in the early part of the fourteenth century, but greatly dilapidated, several Masons' Marks were discovered on the

stones.