The Secret of the Pacific - A Discussion of the Origin of the Early Civilisations of America, the Toltecs, Aztecs, Mayas, Incas, and Their Predecessors; And of the Possibilities O Asiatic Influence Thereon #271541

One poignant reflection there is: that man could build such beautiful dreams in sculptured stone as in all ages he has, and yet be SO bar barous to his kind. Temples have generally been synonymous with cruelties and sacrifice. Furthermore, Masonry, whether as an Art, whether as an Order, presents itself to us mainly as a great Pretension, which embodies little of the milk of human kindness, but which rather separates man into selfish sects. It is after the lapse of time, when temples and palaces have become monuments, that we revere them the perpetuation in stone of sentiment and faith. As to the problem of the ancient American civilisations, it is an Old one, a mysterious one, and certainly not to be explained with ease, either one way or the other. There are many factors to be taken into account as concerns their origin and even to connect such origin with some ancient cycle of civilisation or lost continent is not outside the field of admissible conjecture; as if both their cultures and those of the Old World were offshoots of some parent stock, long Since buried in the mists of age and change.