Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy

MR. ROBERT H. BROWN'S' "Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy"(Appleton) is a curiosity, interesting to those who are versed in Masonic lore. It is chiefly occupied with an attempt to explain certain Masonic legends, especially that of Hiram Abif, as allegorical forms of the solar myth, relating to the passage of the sun through the signs of the zodiac, and the succession of the seasons. The book is well written, and the versification of some of the allegories shows real poetic merit in occasional passages. There are, here and there, some rather remarkable philological and scientific statements. For instance, the author derives ' Masonry' from the Greek pecan/raves and informs us that "This great proficiency alone in astronomy would make it a matter of certainty that the ancients possessed the telescope, . . . as the discovery of many of these astronomical facts, known to the Chaldeans and Egyptians, would simply be impossible without it."