Masonic Symbolism

Symbolism was made use of among the people to perpetuate the knoAvledge of the most important truths , to serve as the rule of morals and to inculcate their principal duties . This method of saying or showing one thing to intimate others , is what induced among the Eastern nations the taste for Allegories .

Hence arose the language of signs and symbols , for language may include all signs , marks , or indications that are employed to make known or signify something different from themselves , thus the ringing of a bell the sounding a trumpet , are acts performed not for their , own sake , but for the purpose of com eying some communication Avhich has been connected or associated with them .

" Without \ A'hat logicians call common terms , that is signs spoken or written to stand for classes of objects , no process of reasoning can be carried on . For all reasoning consists in referring Avhat AA e are speaking of to some class concerning which Ave know , that so and so does or does not belong to the Avhole of it . " * By this process of

reasoning Ave are distinguished from the brutes or irrational animals . We find then that symbolism has existed from the earliest ages , but it was used not onl y by depicting figures with the brush or chisel , but also in other ways . Thus Sextus Tarquinius having gained possession of Gabii

sent a messenger to his father asking what course he should pursue , no ansAver Avas returned , but the old Tarquin walked in his garden aud cut the heads oft ' his tallest poppies : Sextus on being informed of tin ' s , recognised the symbol , and immediately beheaded the chief artizans

of Cabii , and the town soon fell into the hands of Rome . 'The practice of bringing earth and water to an enemy , in the east , was an acknoAvledgment of his superiority aud the bringer ' s submission . Again in the middle ages in England we find an example , when the Earl of Gloucester learnt that King Edward was about to destroy Ms

brother in arms Eobert Bruce , afterwards king of Scotland , he sent him a piece of gold and a pair of spurs . This was sufficient , and the Bruce sought safet y in flight : but even in the present day Ave teach children by symbols in their al phabets , Avhere a large letter A and a picture of an archer are often associated together , Avith "A was an

Archer" & c . Freemasons have always used symbols ; the tools belonging to operative masons are by Freemasons used symbolically , applied to their morals . The lodge itself is a symbol of the world . " The form of a Masonic lodge ( says Bro . A . G . Mackey , U . S . A . ) , is

said to be a parallelogram or oblong square—its greatest length from East to West , its breadth from A ' orth to South . NOAV as the world is a globe , or to speak more accurately an oblate spheroid , the attempts to make au oblong square , its symbol Avould seem at first si ght to

present insuperable difficulties . But the system of Masonic symbolism has stood the test of too long an experience to be easil y found at fault , and therefore this xery symbol furnishes a striking evidence of the antiquity of the order . At the Solomonic era—the era of the building the temple of Jerusalem—the world , it must be remembered , was

supposed to have been that very oblong form , Avhich has been here symbolized . If for instance , on the map of the world , Ave should inscribe an oblong figure whose boundary lines would circumscribe and include just that portion which AA as known and inhabited in the days of Solomon —these lines running a short distance North and South of the Mediterranian sea , and extending from Spain in the West to Asia Minor in the East would form an oblonjr

square , including the South coast of Europe , the North shore of Africa , and the West district of Asia , the length of the parallelogram being about 60 ° from East to West , and its breadth being about 20 ° from North to South . This oblong square thus enclosing the whole of what AA as then supposed to be the habitable globe , would precisely

represent what is symbolically said to be the form of the lodge , while the pillars of Hercules in the West on each side of the straits of Gades or Gibraltar , might appropriately be referred to the two pillars that stood at the porch of the Temple . " This view of Bro . Mackey iscarried out by the

passage in Acts c . 11 , A . 5 , which speaks of "deA'out men , out of every nation under heaven , " and in verses 9 , 10 , and 11 the names of those nations are gwen , i . e ., " Parthians , and Medes , and Elamites , dwellers in Mesopotamia , and in Juden , and Cappadoeia , in Pontus

and Asia , Phrygia and Pamphylia , in Egypt , and in the parts of Libya about Gyrene , and strangers of Eome , Jews and proselytes , Cretes and Arabians . " TJie quadrangular form of the earth , is preserved in nearly all the Scri ptural allusions to it . Isaiah 11 ,

v . 12 says : — " The Lord shall gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth , " and \ ve find in Eev . 20 , v . 9 , "four angels standing on the four corners of thc earth . " And Herodotus in his

4 th book , c . 36 , ridicules the idea of the earth being round ; and again in his 2 nd book c . 10 , he states that the lonians affirm that Eurojie , Asia , and Libya constitute thc proper division of it . A Masonic lodge then , is symbolical of the world . Eagon says that the word :: Lodge " is derived from the Sanscrit "Loga , "

the Avorld . By a a lodge is generally understood the room in which a regularly warranted and properly constituted body of Freemasonr meet ; the term is also applied to the members AVIIO meet there as forming the lodge . It will not be foreign to my subject to mention

that cities , rivers , countries , and even various parts of the world , had their proper symbols as well as Eoyalty and Government , and also the characteristics , peculiar not only to each nation and tribe , but also those appertaining to each individual , which were derived either

from some trait in their character , habit , or formation , or from some deed which they had done . Thus Asia was depicted as a woman Avith a mural crown , holding an anchor , to denote that the way thither was across the sea . Cities were represented by women with

towers on their heads . The east , by a woman in a car , drawn b y four horses ascending ; while the Avest is a female in a car Avith two horses descending , preceded by a genius , thus denoting the setting sun .