The System of Symbolic Instuction.
The lectures of the English lodges, which are far more philosophical than
our own,--although I do not believe that the system itself is in general
as philosophically studied by our English brethren as by ourselves,--have
beautifully defined Freemasonry to be "a science of morality veiled in
allegory and illustrated by symbols." But allegory itself is nothing else
but verbal symbolism; it is the symbol of an idea, or of a series of
ideas, not presented to the mind in an objective and visible form, but
clothed in language, and exhibited in the form of a narrative. And
therefore the English definition amounts, in fact, to this: that
_Freemasonry is a science of morality, developed and inculcated by the
ancient method of symbolism_. It is this peculiar character as a symbolic
institution, this entire adoption of the method of instruction by
symbolism, which gives its whole identity to Freemasonry, and has caused
it to differ from every other association that the ingenuity of man has
devised. It is this that has bestowed upon it that attractive form which
has always secured the attachment of its disciples and its own perpetuity.
The Roman Catholic church[37] is, perhaps, the only contemporaneous
institution which continues to cultivate, in any degree, the beautiful
system of symbolism. But that which, in the Catholic church, is, in a
great measure, incidental, and the fruit of development, is, in
Freemasonry, the very life-blood and soul of the institution, born with it
at its birth, or, rather, the germ from which the tree has sprung, and
still giving it support, nourishment, and even existence. Withdraw from
Freemasonry its symbolism, and you take from the body its soul, leaving
behind nothing but a lifeless mass of effete matter, fitted only for a
rapid decay.
Since, then, the science of symbolism forms so important a part of the
system of Freemasonry, it will be well to commence any discussion of that
subject by an investigation of the nature of symbols in general.
There is no science so ancient as that of symbolism,[38] and no mode of
instruction has ever been so general as was the symbolic in former ages.
"The first learning in the world," says the great antiquary, Dr. Stukely,
"consisted chiefly of symbols. The wisdom of the Chaldeans, Phoenicians,
Egyptians, Jews, of Zoroaster, Sanchoniathon, Pherecydes, Syrus,
Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, of all the ancients that is come to our hand,
is symbolic." And the learned Faber remarks, that "allegory and
personification were peculiarly agreeable to the genius of antiquity, and
the simplicity of truth was continually sacrificed at the shrine of
poetical decoration."
In fact, man's earliest instruction was by symbols.[39] The objective
character of a symbol is best calculated to be grasped by the infant mind,
whether the infancy of that mind be considered _nationally_ or
_individually_. And hence, in the first ages of the world, in its infancy,
all propositions, theological, political, or scientific, were expressed in
the form of symbols. Thus the first religions were eminently symbolical,
because, as that great philosophical historian, Grote, has remarked, "At a
time when language was yet in its infancy, visible symbols were the most
vivid means of acting upon the minds of ignorant hearers."
Again: children receive their elementary teaching in symbols. "A was an
Archer;" what is this but symbolism? The archer becomes to the infant mind
the symbol of the letter A, just as, in after life, the letter becomes, to
the more advanced mind, the symbol of a certain sound of the human
voice.[40] The first lesson received by a child in acquiring his alphabet
is thus conveyed by symbolism. Even in the very formation of language, the
medium of communication between man and man, and which must hence have
been an elementary step in the progress of human improvement, it was found
necessary to have recourse to symbols, for words are only and truly
certain arbitrary symbols by which and through which we give an utterance
to our ideas. The construction of language was, therefore, one of the
first products of the science of symbolism.
We must constantly bear in mind this fact, of the primary existence and
predominance of symbolism in the earliest times.[41] when we are
investigating the nature of the ancient religions, with which the history
of Freemasonry is so intimately connected. The older the religion, the
more the symbolism abounds. Modern religions may convey their dogmas in
abstract propositions; ancient religions always conveyed them in symbols.
Thus there is more symbolism in the Egyptian religion than in the Jewish,
more in the Jewish than in the Christian, more in the Christian than in
the Mohammedan, and, lastly, more in the Roman than in the Protestant.
But symbolism is not only the most ancient and general, but it is also the
most practically useful, of sciences. We have already seen how actively it
operates in the early stages of life and of society. We have seen how the
first ideas of men and of nations are impressed upon their minds by means
of symbols. It was thus that the ancient peoples were almost wholly
educated.
"In the simpler stages of society," says one writer on this subject,
"mankind can be instructed in the abstract knowledge of truths only by
symbols and parables. Hence we find most heathen religions becoming
mythic, or explaining their mysteries by allegories, or instructive
incidents. Nay, God himself, knowing the nature of the creatures formed by
him, has condescended, in the earlier revelations that he made of himself,
to teach by symbols; and the greatest of all teachers instructed the
multitudes by parables.[42] The great exemplar of the ancient philosophy
and the grand archetype of modern philosophy were alike distinguished by
their possessing this faculty in a high degree, and have told us that man
was best instructed by similitudes." [43]
Such is the system adopted in Freemasonry for the development and
inculcation of the great religious and philosophical truths, of which it
was, for so many years, the sole conservator. And it is for this reason
that I have already remarked, that any inquiry into the symbolic character
of Freemasonry, must be preceded by an investigation of the nature of
symbolism in general, if we would properly appreciate its particular use
in the organization of the masonic institution.