The Canon : an Exposition of the Pagan Mystery Perpetuated in the Cabala As The

A numerical interpretation of Cosmic law and the law of human nature, sanctifying the society that possessed it, and regulating its institutions in accordance with the laws of nature. Once a standard in music and other arts, its knowledge was preserved in the tradition of masonic and craft guilds.It is well known to many people that certain numbers had an important place in the philo- sophical and theological system of the ancients. The Pythagoreans concealed their doctrines in a numerical and geometric system, which was the only form of their philosophy given to the outer world. The Jewish priests also elaborated an ex- tensive system of numeration in the Cabala, and the Rabbis frequently make use of it in the Tal- mudic commentaries on the Scriptures. The early fathers of the church have preserved considerable expositions of the system in their books con-troverting the heretical opinions of the various sects of Christian Gnostics. But the purport of all these theories of numbers has ceased to be understood, together with the greater part of the doctrines of the ancient mysteries of which this numerical philosophy formed a part.