The Symbolism Of Freemasonry Part 30

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 (?????, alius, and ????e??, 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 canva.s.sed, 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 cla.s.sical, 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:-

157. Anderson's Const.i.tutions, 2d ed. 1738, p. 14.

158. Anderson's Const.i.tutions, 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 s.h.i.+ning with its brilliant light; and I approached the presence of the G.o.ds beneath, and the G.o.ds of heaven, and stood near and wors.h.i.+pped 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.

"p.r.o.naque c.u.m spectent animalia caetera terram; Os homini sublime dedit: coelumque tueri Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus."

OVID, Met. i. 84.

"Thus, while the mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies."

DRYDEN.

164. "?fa??s??, disappearance, destruction, a peris.h.i.+ng, death, from ?fa????, to remove from one's view, to conceal," &c.-Schrevel. Lex.

165. "???es??, a finding, invention, discovery."-Schrevel. Lex.

166. A French writer of the last century, speaking of the degree of "Tres Parfait Maitre," says, "C'est ici qu'on voit reellement qu'Hiram n'a ete que le type de Jesus Christ, que le temple et les autres symboles maconniques sont des allegories relatives a l'Eglise, a la Foi, et aux bonnes moeurs."-Origine et Objet de la Franchemaconnerie, par le F.B. Paris, 1774.

167. "This our order is a positive contradiction to the Judaic blindness and infidelity, and testifies our faith concerning the resurrection of the body."-HUTCHINSON, Spirit of Masonry, lect. ix. p. 101.-The whole lecture is occupied in advancing and supporting his peculiar theory.

168. "Thus, then, it appears that the historical reference of the legend of Speculative Freemasonry, in all ages of the world, was-to our death in Adam and life in Christ. What, then, was the origin of our tradition? Or, in other words, to what particular incident did the legend of initiation refer before the flood? I conceive it to have been the offering and a.s.sa.s.sination of Abel by his brother Cain; the escape of the murderer; the discovery of the body by his disconsolate parents, and its subsequent interment, under a certain belief of its final resurrection from the dead, and of the detection and punishment of Cain by divine vengeance."-OLIVER, Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry, vol. ii. p. 171.

169. "Le grade de Maitre va donc nous retracer allegoriquement la mort du dieu-lumiere-mourant en hiver pour reparaitre et ressusciter au printemps."-RAGON, Cours Philos. et Interp. des Init. p. 158.

170. "Dans l'ordre moral, Hiram n'est autre chose que la raison eternelle, par qui tout est pondere, regle, conserve."-DES ETANGS, uvres Maconniques, p. 90.

171. With the same argument would I meet the hypothesis that Hiram was the representative of Charles I. of England-an hypothesis now so generally abandoned, that I have not thought it worth noticing in the text.

172. "The initiation into the Mysteries," he says, "scenically represented the mythic descent into Hades and the return from thence to the light of day; by which was meant the entrance into the Ark and the subsequent liberation from its dark enclosure. Such Mysteries were established in almost every part of the pagan world; and those of Ceres were substantially the same as the Orgies of Adonis, Osiris, Hu, Mithras, and the Cabiri. They all equally related to the allegorical disappearance, or death, or descent of the great father at their commencement, and to his invention, or revival, or return from Hades, at their conclusion."-Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. iv. b. iv. ch. v. p. 384-But this Arkite theory, as it is called, has not met with the general approbation of subsequent writers.

173. Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence, situated in a westerly direction from that Mount Moriah on which the temple of Solomon was built. It was originally a hillock of notable eminence, but has, in modern times, been greatly reduced by the excavations made in it for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Buckingham, in his Palestine, p. 283, says, "The present rock, called Calvary, and enclosed within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, bears marks, in every part that is naked, of its having been a round nodule of rock standing above the common level of the surface."

174. Dr. Beard, in the art. "Golgotha," in Kitto's Encyc. of Bib. Lit., reasons in a similar method as to the place of the crucifixion, and supposing that the soldiers, from the fear of a popular tumult, would hurry Jesus to the most convenient spot for execution, says, "Then the road to Joppa or Damascus would be most convenient, and no spot in the vicinity would probably be so suitable as the slight rounded elevation which bore the name of Calvary."

175. Some have supposed that it was so called because it was the place of public execution. Gulgoleth in Hebrew, or gogultho in Syriac, means a skull.

176. Quoted in Oliver, Landmarks, vol. i. p. 587, note.

177. Oliver's idea (Landmarks, ii. 149) that ca.s.sia has, since the year 1730, been corrupted into acacia, is contrary to all etymological experience. Words are corrupted, not by lengthening, but by abbreviating them. The uneducated and the careless are always p.r.o.ne to cut off a syllable, not to add a new one.

178. And yet I have been surprised by seeing, once or twice, the word "Ca.s.sia" adopted as the name of a lodge. "Cinnamon" or "sandal wood" would have been as appropriate, for any masonic meaning or symbolism.

179. Eclog. ii. 49.

"Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens, Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi: Tum casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis, Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia, caltha."

180. Exod. x.x.x. 24, Ezek. xxvii. 9, and Ps. xlv. 8.

181. Oliver, it is true, says, that "there is not the smallest trace of any tree of the kind growing so far north as Jerusalem" (Landm. ii. 136); but this statement is refuted by the authority of Lieutenant Lynch, who saw it growing in great abundance at Jericho, and still farther north.-Exped. to the Dead Sea, p. 262.-The Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, who is excellent authority, says, "The Acacia (s.h.i.+ttim) Tree, Al Sunt, is found in Palestine of different varieties; it looks like the Mulberry tree, attains a great height, and has a hard wood. The gum which is obtained from it is the gum Arabic."-Descriptive Geography and Historical Sketch of Palestine, p. 308, Leeser's translation. Phila., 1850.-Schwarz was for sixteen years a resident of Palestine, and wrote from personal observation. The testimony of Lynch and Schwarz should, therefore, forever settle the question of the existence of the acacia in Palestine.

182. Calmet, Parkhurst, Gesenius, Clarke, Shaw, and all the best authorities, concur in saying that the otzi s.h.i.+ttim, or s.h.i.+ttim wood of Exodus, was the common acacia or mimosa nilotica of Linnaeus.

183. "This custom among the Hebrews arose from this circ.u.mstance. Agreeably to their laws, no dead bodies were allowed to be interred within the walls of the city; and as the Cohens, or priests, were prohibited from crossing a grave, it was necessary to place marks thereon, that they might avoid them. For this purpose the acacia was used."-DALCHO, Oration, p. 27, note.-I object to the reason a.s.signed by Dalcho; but of the existence of the custom there can be no question, notwithstanding the denial or doubt of Dr. Oliver. Blount (Travels in the Levant, p. 197) says, speaking of the Jewish burial customs, "those who bestow a marble stone over any [grave] have a hole a yard long and a foot broad, in which they plant an evergreen, which seems to grow from the body, and is carefully watched." Ha.s.selquist (Travels, p. 28) confirms his testimony. I borrow the citations from Brown (Antiquities of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 356), but have verified the reference to Ha.s.selquist. The work of Blount I have not been enabled to consult.

184. Antiquities of Greece, p. 569.

185. Dr. Crucefix, MS., quoted by Oliver, Landmarks, ii. 2.

186. Spirit of Masonry, lect. ix. p. 99.

187. The Temple of Solomon, ch. ix. p. 233.

188. It is probable that the quince derived this symbolism, like the acacia, from its name; for there seems to be some connection between the Greek word ??d?????, which means a quince, and the participle ??d???, which signifies rejoicing, exulting. But this must have been an afterthought, for the name is derived from Cydon, in Crete, of which island the quince is a native.