Note 26 — Chapter VI · PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

P. 109. The Temple scenes in Mozart’s Magic Flute are a Freemason’s attempt to depict the proceedings within an Egyptian Mystery School, and the opera itself is plainly a fanciful treatment of the drama of initiation. (Incidentally, the noises made by Papageno when he attempts to sing with the padlock on his lips are an excellent illustration of the possibly natural origin of the root ‘mu-’ in ‘mu-ein’.)