AS the repositories of a universal sacred learning, the sanctuaries of the pagan gods were protected and served by hierarchies of illumined priests who, consecrated to the spirit of Truth, labored unceasingly to acquaint evolving humanity with the dual mystery of human origin and destiny. The ancient temples have crumbled away. The holy orders of that day have vanished from the earth. A new priestcraft serves the gods and a new laity gathers at the clanging of the great bronze bells. The Mysteries of antiquity have seemingly perished. The faith, however, of the Golden Age-the first religion of man-can never wholly die. In all its pristine purity it is preserved even to this day and may be recovered by everyone who will devote his life to this supreme and holy task. It is not decreed that man should be so easily deprived of that which is his own; for even in this generation, which is a stranger to the gods, he who will follow in the footsteps of the neophyte of old may still receive the priceless heritage of Truth and Light. Amid the bustle and confusion of our great economic era there are still mystic "Master Builders" like Paul, and initiated philosophers like Plato; and these, in common with the priests of an older world, still serve and protect the sacred fires of aspiration burning upon the high altars of humanity. Unrecognized and unappreciated in a generation motivated by personal interest, both these doctrines and their priestly keepers have preserved an inviolable secrecy. The divine traditions still survive and the wise of one generation still pass on to the wise of the next that body of mystic truths which is the leaven of civilization and for lack of which mankind must inevitably perish.
