138
THE BOOB OF THE WORDS .
the name of the Phcanician San-God, Ado . So that Rephadon, Raphadon, or Rafodon, is 'Adon the Healer, Consoler or Comforter .' _
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The letters L . •. D.-. P. •. on the bridge, are said by Dumas, in his novel of "Joseph Balsamo, or the Memoirs of a Pbvsician," to have meant ` Li7ia pedibtts destrue : ' `Destroy with your feet the Lilies!' or, 'Tread under foot the Lilies ! '-a declaration of eternal hostility against the Bourbons. But in the old Rituals they are said to be the initials of the words `Liberte de passer,' and this gives the clue to the real meaning. It was thus that the Hermetic Philosophers and Alchemists concealed their real meanings, by giving false interpretations to mislead . The Pass-word of the degree is Ltbertas, a word not suggested in the least by the ceremonial or history of the degree contained in the old Rituals . The passage over the bridge was not free. It was a forced one, won by the sword, a long, difficult and arduous one . The true words, of which the letters are the initials, are ` LIBERTE DE PE1sER :' `Freedom of Thought and Conscience ;' that spoil which it was the object of the Knights of the East to recover from the Church of Rome . Part shim : Equites : `Knights.' C)1-1 P : K'edin: : `The Orient : the East .' ,Z-1r, : X ? arab, `Sword.' Even these names are .significant. Rome was the Western Church . In the Orient the doctrines of John prevailed, and