soft Thilosophical Society of London. 



of things wliich lend to excite inebriation. After pointln* 

 out the knou'le(l<xe of niclals, and the nnanner of working 

 them, evidenced by Tubal Cain, the lecturer said, that al- 

 though metalkirgy had been brought to a considerable de- 

 gree of perfection before the deluge, it iTiit»ht be presumed 

 from the silence of the sacred historian, that fermentation, 

 so essential to the jiroduction of inebriating liquors, had 

 not been discovered. Noah, who planted the vine in the 

 valley of Mount Ararat, (Baris or Luban, descril^ed by 

 Tournefort, who visited it, as the finest valley in Persia,) 

 appears to have been ignorant of the effects of the fer- 

 mented juice of the grape, till he had experienced its in- 

 ebriating influence. The memory of the great patriarch 

 vas preserved by various rites, till at length the knowledge 

 of their origin was lost, for which those rites had been in- 

 stituted, probably hastened by the confusion of tongues, 

 and emigration and dispersion which ensued, about 600 

 years after the patriarch had settled in the valley of Ararat. 

 In these ceremonies they religiously preserved the number 

 nine, constituting the eight persons saved in the ark, with 

 the d')ve, the messenger of the cessation of the flood. These 

 ceremonies were conducted with secrecy and awful pomp, 

 as early as 1400 years before the Christian aera, particularly 

 at Eleusis ; ceremonies strongly resembling those of free 

 masonry in all the lodges in Europe. They were introduced 

 into Europe as early as the Crusades in the 11th century, 

 and the same mystic numbers continued, as nine, or three 

 times three, the root of nine. 



On'the origin of drinking healths, the learned lecturer 

 related t!ie manner of that of Rowena, the daughter or niece 

 of Hengist, to V'ortigern, king of the Britons. — " She came 

 into the room where the king and his guests were sitting. 

 Making a low obedience to him, she said, * Be of good 

 health, lord king 1' Then having drunk, she presented the 

 cup on her knees to the king, who replied, ' I drink your 

 health,' and drank also." This is said to be the origin of 

 the practice of drinking healths; but the President observed, 

 that it was certainly in use as early as the time of Homer, 

 and from the account in Jamblicluis, in the Eleusinian or 

 Masonic ceremonies also, accompanied with libations of 

 wine to the mystic number nine. Man, endowed with sen- 

 tient organs to receive and convey impressions; with intel- 

 K'cuial faculties to analyse and modify perception ; with 

 powers to evolve thought and constitute mind; and upon 

 whom are conferred the possession and government of the 

 world, enters into his wide domain more helpless and weak 



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