[39] The distinguished German mythologist Müller defines a symbol to be
"an eternal, visible sign, with which a spiritual feeling, emotion, or
idea is connected." I am not aware of a more comprehensive, and at the
same time distinctive, definition.
[40] And it may be added, that the word becomes a symbol of an idea; and
hence, Harris, in his "Hermes," defines language to be "a system of
articulate voices, the symbols of our ideas, but of those principally
which are general or universal."--_Hermes_, book iii. ch. 3.
[41] "Symbols," says Müller, "are evidently coeval with the human race;
they result from the union of the soul with the body in man; nature has
implanted the feeling for them in the human heart."--_Introduction to a
Scientific System of Mythology_, p. 196, Leitch's translation.--R.W.
Mackay says, "The earliest instruments of education were symbols, the most
universal symbols of the multitudinously present Deity, being earth or
heaven, or some selected object, such as the sun or moon, a tree or a
stone, familiarly seen in either of them."--_Progress of the Intellect_,
vol. i p. 134.
[42] Between the allegory, or parable, and the symbol, there is, as I have
said, no essential difference. The Greek verb παραβαλλω, whence comes the
word _parable_, and the verb συμβαλλω in the same language, which is the
root of the word _symbol_, both have the synonymous meaning "to compare."
A parable is only a spoken symbol. The definition of a parable given by
Adam Clarke is equally applicable to a symbol, viz.: "A comparison or
similitude, in which one thing is compared with another, especially
spiritual things with natural, by which means these spiritual things are
better understood, and make a deeper impression on the attentive mind."
[43] North British Review, August, 1851. Faber passes a similar encomium.
"Hence the language of symbolism, being so purely a language of ideas, is,
in one respect, more perfect than any ordinary language can be: it
possesses the variegated elegance of synonymes without any of the
obscurity which arises from the use of ambiguous terms."--_On the
Prophecies_, ii. p. 63.
[44] "By speculative Masonry we learn to subdue our passions, to act upon
the square, to keep a tongue of good report, to maintain secrecy, and
practise charity."--_Lect. of Fel. Craft._ But this is a very meagre
definition, unworthy of the place it occupies in the lecture of the second
degree.
[45] "Animal worship among the Egyptians was the natural and unavoidable
consequence of the misconception, by the vulgar, of those emblematical
figures invented by the priests to record their own philosophical
conception of absurd ideas. As the pictures and effigies suspended in
early Christian churches, to commemorate a person or an event, became in
time objects of worship to the vulgar, so, in Egypt, the esoteric or
spiritual meaning of the emblems was lost in the gross materialism of the
beholder. This esoteric and allegorical meaning was, however, preserved by
the priests, and communicated in the mysteries alone to the initiated,
while the uninstructed retained only the grosser conception."--GLIDDON,
_Otia Aegyptiaca_, p. 94.
[46] "To perpetuate the esoteric signification of these symbols to the
initiated, there were established the Mysteries, of which institution we
have still a trace in Freemasonry."--GLIDDON, _Otia Aegyp._ p. 95.
[47] Philo Judaeus says, that "Moses had been initiated by the Egyptians
into the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics, as well as into the
ritual of the holy animals." And Hengstenberg, in his learned work on
"Egypt and the Books of Moses," conclusively shows, by numerous examples,
how direct were the Egyptian references of the Pentateuch; in which fact,
indeed, he recognizes "one of the most powerful arguments for its
credibility and for its composition by Moses."--HENGSTENBERG, p. 239,
Robbins's trans.
[48] Josephus, _Antiq._ book iii. ch. 7.
[49] The ark, or sacred boat, of the Egyptians frequently occurs on the
walls of the temples. It was carried in great pomp by the priests on the
occasion of the "procession of the shrines," by means of staves passed
through metal rings in its side. It was thus conducted into the temple,
and deposited on a stand. The representations we have of it bear a
striking resemblance to the Jewish ark, of which it is now admitted to
have been the prototype.
[50] "The Egyptian reference in the Urim and Thummim is especially
distinct and incontrovertible."--HENGSTENBERG, p. 158.
[51] According to the estimate of Bishop Cumberland, it was only one
hundred and nine feet in length, thirty-six in breadth, and fifty-four in
height.
[52] "Thus did our wise Grand Master contrive a plan, by mechanical and
practical allusions, to instruct the craftsmen in principles of the most
sublime speculative philosophy, tending to the glory of God, and to secure
to them temporal blessings here and eternal life hereafter, as well as to
unite the speculative and operative Masons, thereby forming a twofold
advantage, from the principles of geometry and architecture on the one
part, and the precepts of wisdom and ethics on the other."--CALCOTT,
_Candid Disquisition_, p. 31, ed. 1769.
[53] This proposition I ask to be conceded; the evidences of its truth
are, however, abundant, were it necessary to produce them. The craft,
generally, will, I presume, assent to it.
[54]
"The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them--ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems--in the darkling wood,
Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication."--BRYANT.
[55] Theologians have always given a spiritual application to the temple
of Solomon, referring it to the mysteries of the Christian dispensation.
For this, consult all the biblical commentators. But I may particularly
mention, on this subject, Bunyan's "Solomon's Temple Spiritualized," and a
rare work in folio, by Samuel Lee, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford,
published at London in 1659, and entitled "Orbis Miraculum, or the Temple
of Solomon portrayed by Scripture Light." A copy of this scarce work,
which treats very learnedly of "the spiritual mysteries of the gospel
veiled under the temple," I have lately been, by good fortune, enabled to
add to my library.
[56] Veluti pecora, quae natura finxit prona et obedientia
ventri.--SALLUST, _Bell. Catil._ i.
[57] I Kings vi. 7.
[58] In further illustration of the wisdom of these temple contrivances,
it may be mentioned that, by marks placed upon the materials which had
been thus prepared at a distance, the individual production of every
craftsman was easily ascertained, and the means were provided of rewarding
merit and punishing indolence.
[59] "Each of the pagan gods had (besides the _public_ and _open_) a
_secret worship_ paid unto him; to which none were admitted but those who
had been selected by preparatory ceremonies, called Initiation. This
_secret-worship_ was termed the Mysteries."--WARBURTON, _Div. Leg. I. i.
p. 189_.
[60] It must be remarked, however, that many of the Fellow Crafts were
also stone-cutters in the mountains, _chotzeb bahor_, and, with their
nicer implements, more accurately adjusted the stones which had been
imperfectly prepared by the apprentices. This fact does not at all affect
the character of the symbolism we are describing. The due preparation of
the materials, the symbol of purification, was necessarily continued in
all the degrees. The task of purification never ceases.
[61] The classical reader will here be reminded of that beautiful passage
of Horace, commencing with "Justum et tenacem propositi virum."--Lib. iii.
od. 3.
[62] "Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque
turres."--HOR. lib. i. od. 4.
[63] It is worth noticing that the verb _natzach_, from which the title of
the _menatzchim_ (the overseers or Master Masons in the ancient temple),
is derived, signifies also in Hebrew _to be perfected, to be completed_.
The third degree is the perfection of the symbolism of the temple, and its
lessons lead us to the completion of life. In like manner the Mysteries,
says Christie, "were termed τελεταὶ, _perfections_, because they were
supposed to induce a perfectness of life. Those who were purified by them
were styled τελουμένοι, and τετελεσμένοι, that is, brought to
perfection."--_Observations on Ouvaroff's Essay on the Eleusinian
Mysteries_, p. 183.
[64] Dr. Oliver, in the first or preliminary lecture of his "Historical
Landmarks," very accurately describes the difference between the pure or
primitive Freemasonry of the Noachites, and the spurious Freemasonry of
the heathens.
[65] The idea of the world, as symbolically representing God's temple, has
been thus beautifully developed in a hymn by N.P. Willis, written for the
dedication of a church:--
"The perfect world by Adam trod
Was the first temple built by God;
His fiat laid the corner stone,
And heaved its pillars, one by one.
"He hung its starry roof on high--
The broad, illimitable sky;
He spread its pavement, green and bright,
And curtained it with morning light.
"The mountains in their places stood,
The sea, the sky, and 'all was good;'
And when its first pure praises rang,
The 'morning stars together sang.'
"Lord, 'tis not ours to make the sea,
And earth, and sky, a house for thee;
But in thy sight our offering stands,
A humbler temple, made with hands."
[66] "The idea," says Dudley, "that the earth is a level surface, and of a
square form, is so likely to have been entertained by persons of little
experience and limited observation, that it may be justly supposed to have
prevailed generally in the early ages of the world."--_Naology_, p. 7.
[67] The quadrangular form of the earth is preserved in almost all the
scriptural allusions that are made to it. Thus Isaiah (xi. 12) says, "The
Lord shall gather together the dispersed of Judah from the _four corners_
of the earth;" and we find in the Apocalypse (xx. 9) the prophetic version
of "four angels standing on the _four corners_ of the earth."
[68] "The form of the lodge ought to be a double cube, as an expressive
emblem of the powers of darkness and light in the creation."--OLIVER,
_Landmarks_, i. p. 135, note 37.
[69] Not that whole visible universe, in its modern signification, as
including solar systems upon solar systems, rolling in illimitable space,
but in the more contracted view of the ancients, where the earth formed
the floor, and the sky the ceiling. "To the vulgar and untaught eye," says
Dudley, "the heaven or sky above the earth appears to be co-extensive with
the earth, and to take the same form, enclosing a cubical space, of which
the earth was the base, the heaven or sky the upper surface."--_Naology_,
7.--And it is to this notion of the universe that the masonic symbol of
the lodge refers.
[70] "These rocky shrines, the formation of which Mr. Grose supposes to
have been a labor equal to that of erecting the Pyramids of Egypt, are of
various height, extent, and depth. They are partitioned out, by the labor
of the hammer and the chisel, into many separate chambers, and the roof,
which in the pagoda of Elephanta is flat, but in that of Salsette is
arched, is supported by rows of pillars of great thickness, and arranged
with much regularity. The walls are crowded with gigantic figures of men
and women, engaged in various actions, and portrayed in various whimsical
attitudes; and they are adorned with several evident symbols of the
religion now prevailing in India. Above, as in a sky, once probably
adorned with gold and azure, in the same manner as Mr. Savary lately
observed in the ruinous remains of some ancient Egyptian temples, are seen
floating the children of imagination, genii and dewtahs, in multitudes,
and along the cornice, in high relief, are the figures of elephants,
horses, and lions, executed with great accuracy. Two of the principal
figures at Salsette are twenty-seven feet in height, and of proportionate
magnitude; the very bust only of the triple-headed deity in the grand
pagoda of Elephanta measures fifteen feet from the base to the top of the
cap, while the face of another, if Mr. Grose, who measured it, may be
credited, is above five feet in length, and of corresponding
breadth."--MAURICE, _Ind. Ant._ vol. ii. p. 135.
[71] According to Faber, the egg was a symbol of the world or megacosm,
and also of the ark, or microcosm, as the lunette or crescent was a symbol
of the Great Father, the egg and lunette--which was the hieroglyphic of
the god Lunus, at Heliopolis--was a symbol of the world proceeding from
the Great Father.--_Pagan Idolatry_, vol. i. b. i. ch. iv.
[72] Zoroaster taught that the sun was the most perfect fire of God, the
throne of his glory, and the residence of his divine presence, and he
therefore instructed his disciples "to direct all their worship to God
first towards the sun (which they called Mithras), and next towards their
sacred fires, as being the things in which God chiefly dwelt; and their
ordinary way of worship was to do so towards both. For when they came
before these fires to worship, _they always approached them on the west
side_, that, having their faces towards them and also towards the rising
sun at the same time, they might direct their worship to both. And in this
posture they always performed every act of their worship."--PRIDEAUX.
_Connection._ i. 216.
[73] "The mysteries of Ceres (or Eleusis) are principally distinguished
from all others as having been the depositories of certain traditions
coeval with the world."--OUVAROFF, _Essay on the Mysteries of Eleusis_, p.
6.
[74] The dadouchus, or torch-bearer, carried a symbol of the sun.
[75] "Indeed, the most ancient superstition of all nations," says Maurice,
"has been the worship of the sun, as the lord of heaven and the governor
of the world; and in particular it prevailed in Phoenicia, Chaldaea,
Egypt, and from later information we may add, Peru and Mexico, represented
in a variety of ways, and concealed under a multitude of fanciful names.
Through all the revolutions of time the great luminary of heaven hath
exacted from the generations of men the tribute of devotion."--_Indian
Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 91.
[76] Facciolatus thus defines the Phallus: "penis ligneus, vel vitreus,
vel coriaceus, quem in Bacchi festis plaustro impositum per rura et urbes
magno honore circumferebant."--_Lex. in voc._
[77] The exhibition of these images in a colossal form, before the gates
of ancient temples, was common. Lucian tells us of two colossal Phalli,
each one hundred and eighty feet high, which stood in the fore court of
the temple at Hierapolis. Mailer, in his "Ancient Art and its Remains,"
mentions, on the authority of Leake, the fact that a colossal Phallus,
which once stood on the top of the tomb of the Lydian king Halyattes, is
now lying near the same spot; it is not an entire Phallus, but only the
head of one; it is twelve feet in diameter below and nine feet over the
glands. The Phallus has even been found, so universal was this worship,
among the savages of America. Dr. Arthaut discovered, in the year 1790, a
marble Phallic image in a cave of the island of St. Domingo.--CLAVEL,
_Hist. Pittoresq. des Religions_, p. 9.
[78] Sonnerat (Voyage aux Indes Orient, i. p. 118) observes, that the
professors of this worship were of the purest principles and most
unblemished conduct, and it seems never to have entered into the heads of
the Indian legislator and people that anything natural could be grossly
obscene.--Sir William Jones remarks (Asiatic Researches, i. 254), that
from the earliest periods the women of Asia, Greece, and Italy wore this
symbol as a jewel, and Clavel tells us that a similar usage prevails at
this day among the women in some of the villages of Brittany. Seely tells
us that the Lingam, or Indian Phallus, is an emblem as frequently met with
in Hindostan as the cross is in Catholic countries.--_Wonders of Elora._
p. 278.
[79] Num. xxv. 1-3. See also Psalm cvi. 28: "They joined themselves also
unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead." This last expression,
according to Russel, has a distinct reference to the physical qualities of
matter, and to the time when death, by the winter absence of the solar
heat, gets, as it were, possession of the earth. Baal-peor was, he says,
the sun exercising his powers of fecundity.--_Connection of Sacred and
Profane History_
[80] Is there not a seeming reference to this thought of divine
hermaphrodism in the well-known passage of Genesis? "So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God created he him: _male and female_
created he them." And so being created "male and female," they were "in
the image of God."
[81] The world being animated by man, says Creuzer, in his learned work on
Symbolism, received from him the two sexes, represented by heaven and the
earth. Heaven, as the fecundating principle, was male, and the source of
fire; the earth, as the fecundated, was female, and the source of
humidity. All things issued from the alliance of these two principles. The
vivifying powers of the heavens are concentrated in the sun, and the
earth, eternally fixed in the place which it occupies, receives the
emanations from the sun, through the medium of the moon, which sheds upon
the earth the germs which the sun had deposited in its fertile bosom. The
Lingam is at once the symbol and the mystery of this religious idea.
[82] Such was the opinion of some of the ancient sun-worshippers, whose
adorations were always performed in the open air, because they thought no
temple was spacious enough to contain the sun; and hence the saying,
"Mundus universus est templum solis"--the universe is the temple of the
sun. Like our ancient brethren, they worshipped only on _the highest
hills_. Another analogy.
[83] _Asgard_, the abode of the gods, is shaded by the ash tree,
_Ydrasil_, where the gods assemble every day to do justice. The branches
of this tree extend themselves over the whole world, and reach above the
heavens. It hath three roots, extremely distant from each other: one of
them is among the gods; the second is among the giants, where the abyss
formerly was; the third covers _Niflheim_, or hell, and under this root is
the fountain _Vergelmer_, whence flow the infernal rivers.--_Edda, Fab._
8.
[84] Exod. iii. 5.
[85] Commentaries _in loco_.
[86] Commentary on Exod. iii. 5.
[87] Iamblichi Vita Pythag. c. 105. In another place he says, "Θύειν χρὴ
ἀνυπόδετον, ϗαι πρὸς τα ἱερὰ προστιέναι,"--We must sacrifice and enter
temples with the shoes off. Ibid. c. 85.
[88] "Quod etiam nunc apud plerasque Orientis nationes piaculum sit,
calceato pede templorum pavimenta calcasse."
[89] Beth Habbechirah, cap. vii.
[90] Histor. Landm. vol. ii. p. 481.
[91] "Non datur nobis potestas adeundi templum nisi nudibus pedibus."
[92] Commentaries, _ut supra_.
[93] See a paper "on the religious ceremonies of the Hindus," by H.T.
Colebrooke, Esq. in the Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 357.
[94] A Specimen of the Critical History of the Celtic Religion and
Learning. Letter ii. § xvii.
[95] Dr. Oliver, referring to the "twelve grand points in Masonry," which
formed a part of the old English lectures, says, "When the candidate was
_intrusted_, he represented Asher, for he was then presented with the
glorious fruit of masonic knowledge, as Asher was represented by fatness
and royal dainties."--_Hist. Landm._, vol. i. lect. xi. p. 313.
[96] From the Greek αὐτοψία, signifying _a seeing with ones own eyes_. The
candidate, who had previously been called a _mystes_, or a _blind man_,
from μίω, to _shut the eyes_, began at this point to change his title to
that of an _epopt_, or an _eye-witness_.
[97] ךדא יהיו ךדא יהי _Yehi aur va yehi aur._
[98] Robert William Mackay, Progress of the Intellect, vol. i. p. 93.
[99] "And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the
Thummim."--_Exod._ xxviii. 30.--The Egyptian judges also wore
breastplates, on which was represented the figure of _Ra_, the sun, and
_Thme_, the goddess of Truth, representing, says Gliddon, "_Ra_, or the
sun, in a double capacity--physical and intellectual light; and _Thme_, in
a double capacity--justice and truth."--_Ancient Egypt_, p. 33.
[100] We owe this interesting discovery to F. Portal, who has given it in
his elaborate work on Egyptian symbols as compared with those of the
Hebrews. To those who cannot consult the original work in French, I can
safely recommend the excellent translation by my esteemed friend, Bro.
John W. Simons, of New York, and which will be found in the thirtieth
volume of the "Universal Masonic Library."
[101] "The most early defection to Idolatry," says Bryant, "consisted in
the adoration of the sun and the worship of demons, styled
Baalim."--_Analysts of Anc. Mythol._ vol. iii. p. 431.
[102] The remarks of Mr. Duncan on this subject are well worth perusal.
"Light has always formed one of the primary objects of heathen adoration.
The glorious spectacle of animated nature would lose all its interest if
man were deprived of vision, and light extinguished; for that which is
unseen and unknown becomes, for all practical purposes, as valueless as if
it were non-existent. Light is a source of positive happiness; without it,
man could barely exist; and since all religious opinion is based on the
ideas of pleasure and pain, and the corresponding sensations of hope and
fear, it is not to be wondered if the heathen reverenced light. Darkness,
on the contrary, by replunging nature, as it were, into a state of
nothingness, and depriving man of the pleasurable emotions conveyed
through the organ of sight, was ever held in abhorrence, as a source of
misery and fear. The two opposite conditions in which man thus found
himself placed, occasioned by the enjoyment or the banishment of light,
induced him to imagine the existence of two antagonist principles in
nature, to whose dominion he was alternately subject. Light multiplied his
enjoyments, and darkness diminished them. The former, accordingly, became
his friend, and the latter his enemy. The words 'light' and 'good,' and
'darkness' and 'evil,' conveyed similar ideas, and became, in sacred
language, synonymous terms. But as good and evil were not supposed to flow
from one and the same source, no more than light and darkness were
supposed to have a common origin, two distinct and independent principles
were established, totally different in their nature, of opposite
characters, pursuing a conflicting line of action, and creating
antagonistic effects. Such was the origin of this famous dogma, recognized
by all the heathens, and incorporated with all the sacred fables,
cosmogonies, and mysteries of antiquity."--_The Religions of Profane
Antiquity_, p. 186.
[103] See the "Bhagvat Geeta," one of the religious books of Brahminism. A
writer in Blackwood, in an article on the "Castes and Creeds of India,"
vol. lxxxi. p. 316, thus accounts for the adoration of light by the early
nations of the world: "Can we wonder at the worship of light by those
early nations? Carry our thoughts back to their remote times, and our only
wonder would be if they did not so adore it. The sun is life as well as
light to all that is on the earth--as we of the present day know even
better than they of old. Moving in dazzling radiance or brilliant-hued
pageantry through the sky, scanning in calm royalty all that passes below,
it seems the very god of this fair world, which lives and blooms but in
his smile."
[104] The _Institutes of Menu_, which are the acknowledged code of the
Brahmins, inform us that "the world was all darkness, undiscernible,
undistinguishable altogether, as in a profound sleep, till the
self-existent, invisible God, making it manifest with five elements and
other glorious forms, perfectly dispelled the gloom."--Sir WILLIAM JONES,
_On the Gods of Greece. Asiatic Researches_, i. 244.
Among the Rosicrucians, who have, by some, been improperly confounded with
the Freemasons, the word _lux_ was used to signify a knowledge of the
philosopher's stone, or the great desideratum of a universal elixir and a
universal menstruum. This was their _truth_.
[105] On Symbolic Colors, p. 23, Inman's translation.
[106] Freemasonry having received the name of _lux_, or light, its
disciples have, very appropriately, been called "the Sons of Light." Thus
Burns, in his celebrated Farewell:--
"Oft have I met your social band,
And spent the cheerful, festive night;
Oft, honored with supreme command,
Presided o'er the _sons of light_."
[107] Thus defined: "The stone which lies at the corner of two walls, and
unites them; the principal stone, and especially the stone which forms the
corner of the foundation of an edifice."--Webster.
[108] Among the ancients the corner-stone of important edifices was laid
with impressive ceremonies. These are well described by Tacitus, in his
history of the rebuilding of the Capitol. After detailing the preliminary
ceremonies which consisted in a procession of vestals, who with chaplets
of flowers encompassed the ground and consecrated it by libations of
living water, he adds that, after solemn prayer, Helvidius, to whom the
care of rebuilding the Capitol had been committed, "laid his hand upon the
fillets that adorned the foundation stone, and also the cords by which it
was to be drawn to its place. In that instant the magistrates, the
priests, the senators, the Roman knights, and a number of citizens, all
acting with one effort and general demonstrations of joy, laid hold of the
ropes and dragged the ponderous load to its destined spot. They then threw
in ingots of gold and silver, and other metals, which had never been
melted in the furnace, but still retained, untouched by human art, their
first formation in the bowels of the earth."--_Tac. Hist._, 1. iv. c. 53,
Murphy's transl.
[109] As, for instance, in Psalm cxviii. 22, "The stone which the builders
refused is become the head-stone of the corner," which, Clarke says,
"seems to have been originally spoken of David, who was at first rejected
by the Jewish rulers, but was afterwards chosen by the Lord to be the
great ruler of his people in Israel;" and in Isaiah xxviii. 16, "Behold, I
lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious
corner-stone, a sure foundation," which clearly refers to the promised
Messiah.
[110] In the ritual "observed at laying the foundation-stone of public
structures," it is said, "The principal architect then presents the
working tools to the Grand Master, who applies the plumb, square, and
level to the stone, in their proper positions, and pronounces it to be
_well-formed, true, and trusty_."--WEBB'S _Monitor_, p. 120.
[111] "The square teaches us to regulate our conduct by the principles of
morality and virtue."--_Ritual of the E. A. Degree._--The old York
lectures define the square thus: "The square is the theory of universal
duty, and consisteth in two right lines, forming an angle of perfect
sincerity, or ninety degrees; the longest side is the sum of the lengths
of the several duties which we owe to all men. And every man should be
agreeable to this square, when perfectly finished."
[112] Aristotle.
[113] "The cube is a symbol of truth, of wisdom, and moral perfection. The
new Jerusalem, promised in the Apocalypse, is equal in length, breadth,
and height. The Mystical city ought to be considered as a new church,
where divine wisdom will reign."--OLIVER'S _Landmarks_, ii. p. 357.--And
he might have added, where eternal truth will be present.
[114] In the most primitive times, all the gods appear to have been
represented by cubical blocks of stone; and Pausanias says that he saw
thirty of these stones in the city of Pharae, which represented as many
deities. The first of the kind, it is probable, were dedicated to Hermes,
whence they derived their name of "Hermae."
[115] "Give unto Jehovah the glory due unto His name; worship Jehovah in
the beauty of holiness."--_Psalm_ xxix. 2.
[116] It is at least a singular coincidence that in the Brahminical
religion great respect was paid to the north-east point of the heavens.
Thus it is said in the Institutes of Menu, "If he has any incurable
disease, let him advance in a straight path towards _the invincible
north-east point_, feeding on water and air till his mortal frame totally
decay, and his soul become united with the Supreme."
[117] This symbolism of the double position of the corner-stone has not
escaped the attention of the religious symbologists. Etsius, an early
commentator, in 1682, referring to the passage in Ephesians ii. 20, says,
"That is called the corner-stone, or chief corner-stone, which is placed
in the extreme angle of a foundation, conjoining and holding together two
walls of the pile, meeting from different quarters. And the apostle not
only would be understood by this metaphor that Christ is the principal
foundation of the whole church, but also that in him, as in a
corner-stone, the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, are conjoined, and so
conjoined as to rise together into one edifice, and become one church."
And Julius Firmicius, who wrote in the sixteenth century, says that Christ
is called the corner-stone, because, being placed in the angle of the two
walls, which are the Old and the New Testament, he collects the nations
into one fold. "Lapis sanctus, i.e. Christus, aut fidei fundamenta
sustentat aut in angulo positus duorum parietum membra aequata moderatione
conjungit, i.e., Veteris et Novi Testamenti in unum colligit gentes."--_De
Errore profan. Religionum_, chap. xxi.
[118] This permanence of position was also attributed to those cubical
stones among the Romans which represented the statues of the god Terminus.
They could never lawfully be removed from the spot which they occupied.
Hence, when Tarquin was about to build the temple of Jupiter, on the
Capitoline Hill, all the shrines and statues of the other gods were
removed from the eminence to make way for the new edifice, except that of
Terminus, represented by a stone. This remained untouched, and was
enclosed within the temple, to show, says Dudley, "that the stone, having
been a personification of the God Supreme, could not be reasonably
required to yield to Jupiter himself in dignity and power."--DUDLEY'S
_Naology_, p 145.
[119] Dudley's Naology, p. 476.
[120] Masonic Discourses, Dis. iv. p. 81.
[121] "The act of consecration chiefly consisted in the unction, which was
a ceremony derived from the most primitive antiquity. The sacred
tabernacle, with all the vessels and utensils, as also the altar and the
priests themselves, were consecrated in this manner by Moses, at the
divine command. It is well known that the Jewish kings and prophets were
admitted to their several offices by unction. The patriarch Jacob, by the
same right, consecrated the altars which he made use of; in doing which it
is more probable that he followed the tradition of his forefathers, than
that he was the author of this custom. The same, or something like it, was
also continued down to the times of Christianity."--POTTER'S
_Archaeologia Graeca_, b. ii. p. 176.
[122] From the Greek τετρὰς, four, and γράμμα, letter, because it is
composed of four Hebrew letters. Brande thus defines it: "Among several
ancient nations, the name of the mystic number _four_, which was often
symbolized to represent the Deity, whose name was expressed by four
letters." But this definition is incorrect. The tetragrammaton is not the
name of the number _four_, but the word which expresses the name of God in
four letters, and is always applied to the Hebrew word only.
[123] Exod. iii. 15. In our common version of the Bible, the word "Lord"
is substituted for "Jehovah," whence the true import of the original is
lost.
[124] Exod. vi. 2. 3.
[125] "The Jews have many superstitious stories and opinions relative to
this name, which, because they were forbidden to mention _in vain_, they
would not mention _at all_. They substituted _Adonai_, &c., in its room,
whenever it occurred to them in reading or speaking, or else simply and
emphatically styled it םשה _the Name_. Some of them attributed
to a certain repetition of this name the virtue of a charm, and others
have had the boldness to assert that our blessed Savior wrought all his
miracles (for they do not deny them to be such) by that mystical use of
this venerable name. See the _Toldoth Jeschu_, an infamously scurrilous
life of Jesus, written by a Jew not later than the thirteenth century. On
p. 7, edition of Wagenseilius, 1681, is a succinct detail of the manner in
which our Savior is said to have entered the temple and obtained
possession of the Holy Name. Leusden says that he had offered to give a
sum of money to a very poor Jew at Amsterdam, if he would only once
deliberately pronounce the name _Jehovah_; but he refused it by saying
that he did not dare."--_Horae Solitariae_, vol. i. p. 3.--"A Brahmin will
not pronounce the name of the Almighty, without drawing down his sleeve
and placing it on his mouth with fear and trembling."--MURRAY, _Truth of
Revelation_, p. 321.
[126] The same scrupulous avoidance of a strict translation has been
pursued in other versions. For Jehovah, the Septuagint substitutes
"Κύριος," the Vulgate "Dominus," and the German "der Herr," all
equivalent to "the Lord." The French version uses the title "l'Eternel."
But, with a better comprehension of the value of the word, Lowth in his
"Isaiah," the Swedenborgian version of the Psalms, and some other recent
versions, have restored the original name.
[127] In the Talmudical treatise, _Majan Hachochima_, quoted by Stephelin
(Rabbinical Literature, i. p. 131), we are informed that rightly to
understand the shem hamphorash is a key to the unlocking of all mysteries.
"There," says the treatise, "shalt thou understand the words of men, the
words of cattle, the singing of birds, the language of beasts, the barking
of dogs, the language of devils, the language of ministering angels, the
language of date-trees, the motion of the sea, the unity of hearts, and
the murmuring of the tongue--nay, even the thoughts of the reins."
[128] The gamma, Γ, or Greek letter G, is said to have been sacred among
the Pythagoreans as the initial of Γεωμειρία or Geometry.
[129] Vide Oliver, _Hist. Init._ p. 68, note.
[130] Jamblichus says that Pythagoras passed over from Miletus to Sidon,
thinking that he could thence go more easily into Egypt, and that while
there he caused himself to be initiated into all the mysteries of Byblos
and Tyre, and those which were practised in many parts of Syria, not
because he was under the influence of any superstitious motives, but from
the fear that if he were not to avail himself of these opportunities, he
might neglect to acquire some knowledge in those rites which was worthy of
observation. But as these mysteries were originally received by the
Phoenicians from Egypt, he passed over into that country, where he
remained twenty-two years, occupying himself in the study of geometry,
astronomy, and all the initiations of the gods (πάσας θεῶν τελετάς), until
he was carried a captive into Babylon by the soldiers of Cambyses, and
that twelve years afterwards he returned to Samos at the age of sixty
years.--_Vit. Pythag_, cap. iii., iv.
[131] "The sacred words were intrusted to him, of which the Ineffable
Tetractys, or name of God, was the chief."--OLIVER, _Hist. Init._ p. 109.
[132] "Hu, the mighty, whose history as a patriarch is precisely that of
Noah, was promoted to the rank of the principal demon-god among the
Britons; and, as his chariot was composed of rays of the sun, it may be
presumed that he was worshipped in conjunction with that luminary, and to
the same superstition we may refer what is said of his light and swift
course."--DAVIES, _Mythol. and Rites of the Brit. Druids_, p. 110.
[133] "All the male gods (of the ancients) may be reduced to one, the
generative energy; and all the female to one, the prolific principle. In
fact, they may all be included in the one great Hermaphrodite, the
ἀῥῤενοθηλυς who combines in his nature all the elements of production, and
who continues to support the vast creation which originally proceeded from
his will."--RUSSELL'S _Connection_, i. p. 402.
[134] It is a tradition that it was pronounced in the following seven
different ways by the patriarchs, from Methuselah to David, viz.: _Juha,
Jeva, Jova, Jevo, Jeveh, Johe_, and _Jehovah_. In all these words the _j_
is to be pronounced as _y_, the _a_ as _ah_, the _e_ as a, and the _v_ as
_w_.
[135] The _i_ is to be pronounced as _e_, and the whole word as if spelled
in English _ho-he_.
[136] In the apocryphal "Book of the Conversation of God with Moses on
Mount Sinai," translated by the Rev. W. Cureton from an Arabic MS. of the
fifteenth century, and published by the Philobiblon Society of London, the
idea of the eternal watchfulness of God is thus beautifully allegorized:--
"Then Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, dost thou sleep or not? The Lord
said unto Moses, I never sleep: but take a cup and fill it with water.
Then Moses took a cup and filled it with water, as the Lord commanded him.
Then the Lord cast into the heart of Moses the breath of slumber; so he
slept, and the cup fell from his hand, and the water which was therein was
spilled. Then Moses awoke from his sleep. Then said God to Moses, I
declare by my power, and by my glory, that if I were to withdraw my
providence from the heavens and the earth for no longer a space of time
than thou hast slept, they would at once fall to ruin and confusion, like
as the cup fell from thy hand."
[137] I have in my possession a rare copy of the Vulgate Bible, in black
letter, printed at Lyons, in 1522. The frontispiece is a coarsely executed
wood cut, divided into six compartments, and representing the six days of
the creation. The Father is, in each compartment, pictured as an aged man
engaged in his creative task.
[138] Christian Iconography, Millington's trans., vol. i. p. 59.
[139] The triangle, or delta, is the symbol of Deity for this reason. In
geometry a single line cannot represent a perfect figure; neither can two
lines; three lines, however, constitute the triangle or first perfect and
demonstrable figure. Hence this figure symbolizes the Eternal God,
infinitely perfect in his nature. But the triangle properly refers to God
only in his quality as an Eternal Being, its three sides representing the
Past, the Present, and the Future. Some Christian symbologists have made
the three sides represent the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; but they
evidently thereby destroy the divine unity, making a trinity of Gods in
the unity of a Godhead. The Gnostic trinity of Manes consisted of one God
and two principles, one of good and the other of evil. The Indian trinity,
symbolized also by the triangle, consisted of Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu,
the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, represented by Earth, Water, and
Air. This symbolism of the Eternal God by the triangle is the reason why a
trinitarian scheme has been so prevalent in all religions--the three sides
naturally suggesting the three divisions of the Godhead. But in the Pagan
and Oriental religions this trinity was nothing else but a tritheism.
[140] Noachidae, or Noachites, the descendants of Noah. This patriarch
having alone preserved the true name and worship of God amid a race of
impious idolaters, the Freemasons claim to be his descendants, because
they preserve that pure religion which distinguished this second father of
the human race from the rest of the world. (See the author's _Lexicon of
Freemasonry_.) The Tyrian workmen at the temple of Solomon were the
descendants of that other division of the race who fell off, at Shinar,
from the true worship, and repudiated the principles of Noah. The Tyrians,
however, like many other ancient mystics, had recovered some portion of
the lost light, and the complete repossession was finally achieved by
their union with the Jewish masons, who were Noachidae.
[141] "A mythis omnis priscorum hominum tum historia tum philosophia
procedit."--_Ad Apollod. Athen. Biblioth. not._ f. p. 3.--And Faber says,
"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."--_On the Cabiri._
[142] See Grote, History of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 479, whence this
definition has been substantially derived. The definitions of Creuzer,
Hermann, Buttmann, Heyne, Welcker, Voss, and Müller are none of them
Better, and some of them not as good.
[143] Hist. of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 579. The idea of the existence
of an enlightened people, who lived at a remote era, and came from the
East, was a very prevalent notion among the ancient traditions. It is
corroborative of this that the Hebrew word םדֶקֶ, _kedem_,
signifies, in respect to place, _the east_, and, in respect to time,
_olden time, ancient days_. The phrase in Isaiah xix. 11, which reads, "I
am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings," might just as well have
been translated "the son of kings of the East." In a note to the passage
Ezek. xliii. 2, "the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the
East," Adam Clarke says, "All knowledge, all religion, and all arts and
sciences, have travelled, according to the _course of the sun_, FROM EAST
TO WEST!" Bazot tells us (in his Manuel du Franc-maçon, p. 154) that "the
veneration which masons entertain for the east confirms an opinion
previously announced, that the religious system of Masonry came from the
east, and has reference to the _primitive religion_, whose first
corruption was the worship of the sun." And lastly, the masonic reader
will recollect the answer given in the Leland MS. to the question
respecting the origin of Masonry, namely, "It did begin" (I modernize the
orthography) "with the first men in the east, which were before the first
men of the west; and coming westerly, it hath brought herewith all
comforts to the wild and comfortless." Locke's commentary on this answer
may conclude this note: "It should seem, by this, that masons believe
there were men in the east before Adam, who is called the 'first man of
the west,' and that arts and sciences began in the east. Some authors, of
great note for learning, have been of the same opinion; and it is certain
that Europe and Africa (which, in respect to Asia, may be called western
countries) were wild and savage long after arts and politeness of manners
were in great perfection in China and the Indies." The Talmudists make the
same allusions to the superiority of the east. Thus, Rabbi Bechai says,
"Adam was created with his face towards the east that he might behold the
light and the rising sun, whence the east was to him the anterior part of
the world."
[144] Strauss makes a division of myths into historical, philosophical,
and poetical.--_Leben Jesu._--His poetical myth agrees with my first
division, his philosophical with my second, and his historical with my
third. But I object to the word _poetical_, as a distinctive term, because
all myths have their foundation in the poetic idea.
[145] Ulmann, for instance, distinguishes between a myth and a legend--the
former containing, to a great degree, fiction combined with history, and
the latter having but a few faint echoes of mythical history.
[146] In his "Prolegomena zu einer wissenshaftlichen Mythologie," cap. iv.
This valuable work was translated in 1844, by Mr. John Leitch.
[147] Historical Landmarks, i. 53.
[148] See an article, by the author, on "The Unwritten Landmarks of
Freemasonry," in the first volume of the Masonic Miscellany, in which this
subject is treated at considerable length.
[149] As a matter of some interest to the curious reader, I insert the
legend as published in the Gentleman's Magazine of June, 1815, from, it is
said, a parchment roll supposed to have been written early in the
seventeenth century, and which, if so, was in all probability copied from
one of an older date:--
"Moreover, when Abraham and Sara his wife went into Egipt, there he taught
the Seaven Scyences to the Egiptians; and he had a worthy Scoller that
height Ewclyde, and he learned right well, and was a master of all the vij
Sciences liberall. And in his dayes it befell that the lord and the
estates of the realme had soe many sonns that they had gotten some by
their wifes and some by other ladyes of the realme; for that land is a
hott land and a plentious of generacion. And they had not competent
livehode to find with their children; wherefor they made much care. And
then the King of the land made a great counsell and a parliament, to witt,
how they might find their children honestly as gentlemen. And they could
find no manner of good way. And then they did crye through all the realme,
if there were any man that could enforme them, that he should come to
them, and he should be soe rewarded for his travail, that he should hold
him pleased.
"After that this cry was made, then came this worthy clarke Ewclyde, and
said to the King and to all his great lords: 'If yee will, take me your
children to governe, and to teach them one of the Seaven Scyences,
wherewith they may live honestly as gentlemen should, under a condicion
that yee will grant mee and them a commission that I may have power to
rule them after the manner that the science ought to be ruled.' And that
the Kinge and all his counsell granted to him anone, and sealed their
commission. And then this worthy tooke to him these lords' sonns, and
taught them the science of Geometric in practice, for to work in stones
all manner of worthy worke that belongeth to buildinge churches, temples,
castells, towres, and mannors, and all other manner of buildings."
[150] Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. I p. 393.
[151] 1 Kings vi. 8.
[152] An allusion to this symbolism is retained in one of the well-known
mottoes of the order--"_Lux e tenebris._"
[153] "An allegory is that in which, under borrowed characters and
allusions, is shadowed some real action or moral instruction; or, to keep
more strictly to its derivation (ἄλλος, _alius_, and ἀγορεύω, _dico_), it
is that in which one thing is related and another thing is understood.
Hence it is apparent that an allegory must have two senses--the literal
and mystical; and for that reason it must convey its instruction under
borrowed characters and allusions throughout."--_The Antiquity, Evidence,
and Certainty of Christianity canvassed, or Dr. Middleton's Examination of
the Bishop of London's Discourses on Prophecy. By Anselm Bayly, LL.B.,
Minor Canon of St. Paul's._ Lond, 1751.
[154] The words themselves are purely classical, but the meanings here
given to them are of a mediaeval or corrupt Latinity. Among the old
Romans, a _trivium_ meant a place where three ways met, and a _quadrivium_
where four, or what we now call a _cross-road_. When we speak of the
_paths of learning_, we readily discover the origin of the signification
given by the scholastic philosophers to these terms.
[155] Hist. of Philos. vol. ii. p. 337.
[156] Such a talisman was the following figure:--
-----------
| 8 | 1 | 6 |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 5 | 7 |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 9 | 2 |
-----------
[157] Anderson's Constitutions, 2d ed. 1738, p. 14.
[158] Anderson's Constitutions, 3d ed. 1756, p. 24.
[159] "The hidden doctrines of the unity of the Deity and the immortality
of the soul were originally in all the Mysteries, even those of Cupid and
Bacchus."--WARBURTON, _in Spence's Anecdotes_, p. 309.
[160] "The allegorical interpretation of the myths has been, by several
learned investigators, especially by Creuzer, connected with the
hypothesis of an ancient and highly instructed body of priests, having
their origin either in Egypt or in the East, and communicating to the rude
and barbarous Greeks religious, physical, and historical knowledge, under
the veil of symbols."--GROTE, _Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. ch. xvi. p.
579.--And the Chevalier Ramsay corroborates this theory: "Vestiges of the
most sublime truths are to be found in the sages of all nations, times,
and religions, both sacred and profane, and these vestiges are emanations
of the antediluvian and noevian tradition, more or less disguised and
adulterated."--_Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion
unfolded in a Geometrical Order_, vol. 1, p. iv.
[161] Of this there is abundant evidence in all the ancient and modern
writers on the Mysteries. Apuleius, cautiously describing his initiation
into the Mysteries of Isis, says, "I approached the confines of death, and
having trod on the threshold of Proserpine, I returned therefrom, being
borne through all the elements. At midnight I saw the sun shining with its
brilliant light; and I approached the presence of the gods beneath, and
the gods of heaven, and stood near and worshipped them."--_Metam._ lib.
vi. The context shows that all this was a scenic representation.
[162] _Aish hakam iodea binah_, "a cunning man, endued with
understanding," is the description given by the king of Tyre of Hiram
Abif. See 2 Chron. ii. 13. It is needless to say that "cunning" is a good
old Saxon word meaning _skilful_.
[163]
"Pronaque cum spectent animalia cætera terram;
Os homini sublime dedit: coelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus."