NOACHIDÆ, OR NOACHITES. The descendants of Noah. A term applied to Freemasons. Noah having alone preserved the true name and worship of God, amid a race of impious idolaters, Freemasons claim to be his descendants, because they still preserve that pure religion which distinguished this second father of the human race from the rest of the world. And even when his descendants began again, in the plains of Shinar, to forget the Almighty, and to wander from the path of purity, the principles of Noah were still perpetuated by that portion of his race whom the Freemasons of the present day regard as their early predecessors. Hence, Freemasons call themselves Noachidæ, or the sons of Noah.

This respect for Noah, as the father and founder of the masonic system of theology, was not confined to the pure Freemasons, but extended, even unconsciously, to the seceders from its spirit, those whom Oliver calls the spurious Freemasons of antiquity. In all their mysteries, they commemorated, even after they had lost the true history, the descent of Noah into the ark, and his subsequent exodus. The entrance into initiation was symbolic of his entrance into the vessel of his salvation; his detention in the ark was represented by the darkness and the pastos, coffin, or couch in which the aspirant was placed, and the exit of Noah, after the forty days of deluge, was seen in the manifestation of the candidate, when, being fully tried and proved, he was admitted to full light, amid the rejoicings of the surrounding initiates, who received him in the sacellum or holy place.

NOACHITE, OR PRUSSIAN KNIGHT. Noachite ou Chevalier Prussien. The 21st degree of the Ancient Scotch rite, called by its possessors not a degree, but "the very Ancient Order of Noachites." In this degree the Knights celebrate the destruction of the Tower of Babel, and for this purpose they meet on the night of the full moon of each month. No other light is permitted in the lodge than what proceeds from that satellite. The records of the order furnish us with the following history. The

Noachites, at this day called Prussian Knights, are the descendants of Peleg, Chief Architect of the Tower of Babel. Thus they trace the origin of their order to a more ancient date than the descendants of Hiram, for the Tower of Babel was built many ages before the Temple of Solomon. And formerly it was not necessary that candidates for this degree should be Hiramites or Blue Masons. But a different regulation was afterwards adopted, and to receive the degree of Noachite, it is now necessary that the candidate shall have performed the duties of a worthy office in a regularly constituted lodge of Blue Masons. The order of Noachites was established in Prussia in 1755, and inducted into France by the Count St. Gelaire in 1757.

NOAH, PRECEPTS OF.

The precepts of the patriarch Noah, which were preserved as the constitutions of our ancient brethren, are seven in number, and are as follows:

1. Renounce all idols.

2. Worship the only true God.

3. Commit no murder.

4. Be not defiled by incest.

5. Do not steal.

6. Be just.

7. Eat no flesh with blood in it.

The "proselytes of the gate," as the Jews termed those who lived among them without undergoing circumcision, or observing the ceremonial law, were bound to obey the seven precepts of Noah.

NOMINATION. The nomination of officers, previous to an election, is contrary to true masonic usage. Officers should be elected in the manner prescribed under the article Election.

NORTH. The north is masonically called a place of darkness. I doubt whether I am at liberty to explain the reason. But I may make this general explanation. The sun in his pro

gress through the ecliptic, never reaches farther than 23° 28′ north of the equator. A wall being erected on any part of the earth farther north than that, will, therefore, receive the rays of the sun only on its south side, while the north will be entirely in shadow at the hour of meridian.

NUMBERS. The mystical meaning and divine virtue of numbers formed an important part of the philosophy of Pythagoras, and from him have been transmitted to the masonic system of symbolism. Pythagoras doubtless brought his doctrines on this subject from Egypt, in which country he long resided, and with whose wisdom he was richly embued. In numbers Pythagoras saw the principle of all things; he believed that the creation of the world was produced by their harmonious combination, and that they existed before the world.

According to the doctrine of this sage, numbers are of two kinds, intellectual and scientific.

Intellectual number has always existed in the divine mind; it is the basis of universal order, and the link which binds all things.

Scientific number is the generative cause of multiplicity, which proceeds from and is the result of unity. Scientific numbers are equal or odd.

Equal numbers are said to be female, and odd ones, male; because even numbers admit of division or generation, which odd ones do not. Odd numbers, however, are the most perfect.

To each number Pythagoras ascribed a peculiar character and quality.

ONE, the Monad,-represented the central fire, or God, without beginning and without end, the point within the circle. It also denoted love, concord, piety, and friendship, because it is indivisible. It was the symbol of identity, equality, existence, and universal preservation and harmony.

Two was unlucky, and as one denoted light and the good principle or God, two denoted darkness and the evil principle.

Hence it was that the Romans dedicated the second month of the year to Pluto, the god of hell, and the second day of that month to the manes of the dead.

THREE referred to harmony, friendship, peace, concord, and temperance, and was so highly esteemed among the Pythagoreans that they called this number "perfect harmony.

FOUR was a divine number; it referred to Deity, and among the ancients many nations gave to God a name of four letters, as the Hebrews 17, the Assyrians ADAD, the Egyptians AMUM, the Persians SYRE, the Greeks 0E02, and the Latins DEUS. This, which was the Tetragrammaton of the Hebrews, the Pythagoreans called Tetractys, and used it as a most solemn oath.*

FIVE denoted light, nature, marriage; the latter, because it was made up of the female two and the male three, whence it is sometimes called a hemaphrodite number. The triple triangle, which was a figure of five lines uniting into five points, was among the Pythagoreans an emblem of health.

SIX was also an emblem of health, and it was also the symbol of justice, because it was the first perfect number, that is, one whose aliquot parts being added together make itself, for the aliquot parts of six, which are three, two and one, are equal to six. SEVEN was highly esteemed, and called a venerable number, because it referred to the creation of the world.

EIGHT was esteemed as the first cube, (2 × 2 × 2) and signified friendship, prudence, counsel, and justice. It designated the primitive law of nature, which supposes all men to be equal.

NINE was called Teletos, or perfect, finished, because nine months is the period required for the perfection of a human being in the womb before birth.

TEN was denominated heaven, because it was the perfection and consummation of all things, and was constituted by the union of ONE, the monad or active principle, Two, the duad or

See Tetractys.

passive principle, THREE, the triad or world proceeding from their union, and FOUR, the sacred tetractys, thus 1+ 2+ 3+ 4 10. Hence Ten contained all the relations, numerical and harmonic.

The Pythagoreans extended still farther their speculations on the first three numbers, the monad, the duad, and the triad.

The monad was male, because its action produces no change in itself, but only out of itself. It represented the creative principle.

The duad, for a contrary reason, was female, being ever changing by addition, substraction, or multiplication. It represents matter capable of form.

The union of the monad and duad produces the triad, which signifies the world formed by the creative principle out of matter. This world Pythagoras represented by the right angled triangle, because the square of the longest side is equal to the squares of the two other sides, and the world as it is formed is equal to the formative cause and matter clothed with form.

Thus :

In symbolic masonry, three, five, and seven, are mystic numbers, as is nine in Royal Arch Masonry. In the ineffable degrees, nine, with its products, such as twenty-seven and eightyone are sacred.

For further observations on some of these numbers, see in this work, the words, Five, Nine, Seven, Three and Tetractys.