Section 20

''The allegorical myths, being taken up by the poets,
insensibly became confounded in the same category
with the purely narrative myths; the matter symbolized
was no longer thought of, while the symbolizing words
came to be construed in their own literal meaning.
The basis of the early allegory, thus lost among the
general public, was only preserved as a secret among
various religious fraternities, composed of members
allied together by initiation in certain mystical cere-
monies, and administered by hereditary families of
presiding priests.

''In the Orphic and Bacchic sects, in the Eleusinian
and Samothracian Mysteries, was thus treasured up the
secret doctrine of the old theological and philosophical
myths, which had once constituted the primitive legen-
dary stock of Greece in the hands of the original priest-

204 Symbolism of Freemasonry

hood and in the ages anterior to Homer. Persons who
had gone through the prehminary ceremonies of initia-
tion were permitted at length to hear, though under
strict obhgation of secrecy, this ancient rehgion and
cosmogonic doctrine, reveahng the destination of man
and the certainty of posthumous rewards and punish-
ments, all disengaged from the corruptions of poets, as
well as from the symbols and allegories under which
they still remained buried in the eyes of the vulgar.

*'The Mysteries of Greece were thus traced up to
the earliest ages, and represented as the only faithful
depositaries of that purer theology and physics which
had been originally communicated, though under the
unavoidable inconvenience of a symbolical expression,
by an enlightened priesthood, coming from abroad, to
the then rude barbarians of the country."^

In this long but interesting extract we find not only
a philosophical account of the origin and design of the
ancient myths, but a fair synopsis of all that can be
taught in relation to the symbolical construction of
Freemasonry, as one of the depositaries of a mythical
theology.

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 tradi-
tions. It is corroborative of this that the Hebrew word
^IP., 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 Ezekiel xliii. 2, "the glory of
the God of Israel came from the way of the East,"

* "History of Greece," vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 579.

Legends of Freemasonry 205

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 that ''the veneration which Freemasons
entertain for the east confirms an opinion previously an-
nounced, that the religious system of Freemasonry came
from the east, and has reference to the primitive religion,
whose first corruption was the worship of the sun.'' ^

Lastly, the Masonic reader will recollect the answer
given in the Leland MS. to the question respecting the
origin of Freemasonry, namely, "It did begin" (we
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 Freemasons 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 Talraudists make the same allusions to the supe-
riority 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."

The myths of Freemasonry, at first perhaps nothing
more than the simple traditions of the Pure Freema-

^ "Manuel du Franc-magon," p. 154.

206 Symbolism of Freemasonry

sonry of the antediluvian system, having been cor-
rupted and misunderstood in the separation of the
races, were again purified, and adapted to the inculca-
tion of truth, at first by the disciples of the Spurious
Freemasonry, and then, more fully and perfectly,
in the development of that system which we now
practise.

And if there be any leaven of error still remaining in
the interpretation of our Masonic myths, we must seek
to disengage them from the corruptions with which
they have been invested by ignorance and by misin-
terpretation. We must give to them their true sig-
nificance, and trace them back to those ancient
doctrines and faith whence the ideas which they are
intended to embody were derived.

The myths or legends which present themselves to
our attention in the course of a complete study of the
symbolic system of Freemasonry may be considered as
divided into three classes:

1. The historical myth.

2. The philosophical myth.

3. The mythical history.

These three classes of myths or legends may be de-
fined as follows:

1. The myth may be engaged in the transmission of
a narrative of early deeds and events, having a foun-
dation in truth, which truth, however, has been greatly
distorted and perverted by the omission or introduction
of circumstances and personages, and then it consti-
tutes the historical myth.

2. The legend may have been invented and adopted
as the medium of enunciating a particular thought, or
of inculcating a certain doctrine, when it becomes a
philosophical myth.

Legends of Freemasonry 207

3. Lastly, the truthful elements of actual history may
greatly predominate over the fictitious and invented
materials of the myth, and the narrative may be, in
the main, made up of facts, with a slight coloring of
imagination, when it forms a mythical history.

Strauss in his Leben JesUj Life of Jesus, makes a
division of myths into historical, philosophical, and
poetical. His poetical myth agrees with the above
first division, his philosophical with the second, and his
historical with the third. But Bro. Mackey objected
to the word poetical, as a distinctive term, because all
myths have their foundation in the poetic idea.

These form the three divisions of the legend or myth
(for we are not disposed, on the present occasion, like
some of the German mythological writers, to make a
distinction between the two words^); and to one of
these three divisions we must appropriate every legend
which belongs to the mythical symbolism of Free-
masonry.

These Masonic myths partake, in their general char-
acter, of the nature of the myths which constituted the
foundation of the ancient religions, as they have just
been described in the language of Grote. Of these
latter myths, Miiller says that "their source is to be
found, for the most part, in oral tradition, "^ and that
the real and the ideal — that is to say, the facts of
history and the inventions of imagination — concurred by
their union and reciprocal fusion in producing the myth.

*Ulmann, for instance, distinguishes between a mjrth and a
legend — the former containing, to a great degree, fiction com-
bined with history, and the latter having but a few faint echoes of
mythical history.

2 "Prolegomena zu einer wissenshaftlichen Mythologie," cap. iv.,
John Leitch's translation.

208 Symbolism of Freemasonry

Those are the very principles that govern the con-
struction of the Masonic myths or legends. These, too,
owe their existence entirely to oral tradition, and are
made up, as we have just observed, of a due admixture
of the real and the ideal — the true and the false — ^the
facts of history and the inventions of allegory.

Dr. Oliver remarks that ''the first series of historical
facts, after the fall of man, must necessarily have been
traditional, and transmitted from father to son by oral
communication. ' ' *

The same system, adopted in all the Mysteries, has
been continued in the Masonic institution; and all the
esoteric instructions contained in the legends of Free-
masonry are forbidden to be written, and can be com-
municated only in the oral intercourse of Freemasons
with each other.*

De Wette, in his Criticism on the Mosaic History, lays
down the test by which a myth is to be distinguished
from a strictly historical narrative. He says that the
myth must owe its origin to the intention of the inventor
not to satisfy the natural thirst for historical truth by
a simple narration of facts, but rather to delight or
touch the feelings, or to illustrate some philosophical
or religious truth.

This definition precisely fits the character of the
myths of Freemasonry. Take, for instance, the legend
of the third degree, or the myth of Hiram Abif. As "a.
simple narration of facts," it is of no great value —
certainly not of value commensurate with the labor
that has been engaged in its transmission.

* "Historical Landmarks," i. 53.

• See an article by Bro. Mackey on "The Unwritten Landmarks
of Freemasonry," in the first volume of the Masonic Miscellany,
in which this subject is treated at considerable length.

Legends of Freemasonry 209

What we shall say of its invention is meant not to
refer to the invention or imagination of all the incidents
of which it is composed, for there are abundant materials
of the true and real in its details, but we mean its in-
vention or composition in the form of a myth by the
addition of some features, the suppression of others,
and the general arrangement of the whole.

The invention was not intended to add a single item
to the great mass of history, but altogether, as De Wette
says, '*to illustrate a philosophical or religious truth,"
which truth, it is hardly necessary for us to say, is the
doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

It must be evident, from all that has been said re-
specting the analogy in origin and design between the
Masonic and the ancient religious myths, that no one
acquainted with the true science of this subject can,
for a moment, contend that all the legends and tradi-
tions of the Order are, to the very letter, historical facts.

All that can be claimed for them is, that in some
there is simply a substratum or basis of history, the
edifice constructed on this foundation being purely in-
ventive, to serve as a medium for inculcating some
religious truth; in others, nothing more than an idea
to which the legend or myth is indebted for its exis-
tence, and of which it is, as a symbol, the exponent;
and in others, again, a great deal of truthful narrative,
more or less intermixed with fiction, but the historical
always predominating.

Thus there is a legend, contained in some of our old
records, which states that Euclid was a distinguished
Freemason, and that he introduced Freemasonry
among the Egyptians.

As a matter of some interest to the curious reader, we
insert the legend as pubHshed in the Gentleman's Mag-

210 Symbolism of Feeemasonry

azine 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 parlia-
ment, 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

Legends of Freemasonry 211

them the scyence of Geometrie 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."

Now, it is not at all necessary to the orthodoxy of a
Freemason^s creed that he should literally believe that
Euclid, the great geometrician, was really a Free-
mason, and that the ancient Egyptians were indebted
to him for the establishment of the institution among
them.

Indeed, the palpable anachronism or error of date in
the legend which makes Euclid the contemporary of
Abraham necessarily prohibits any such belief, and
shows that the whole story is a sheer invention. The
intelligent Freemason, however, will not wholly reject
the legend, as ridiculous or absurd; but, with a due
sense of the nature and design of our system of sym-
bolism, will rather accept it as what, in the classifica-
tion laid down on a preceding page, would be called
**a philosophical myth'^ — an ingenious method of con-
veying, symbolically, a Masonic truth.

Euclid is here very appropriately used as a type of
geometry, that science of which he was so eminent a
teacher. The myth or legend then symbolizes the
fact that there was in Egypt a close connection between
that science and the great moral and religious system,
which was among the Egyptians, as well as other
ancient nations, what Freemasonry is in the present
day — a secret institution, established for the teaching
of the same principles, and teaching them in the same
symbolic manner.

So interpreted, this legend corresponds to all the
developments of Egyptian history, which teach us how
close a connection existed in that country between the

212 Symbolism of Freemasonry

religious and scientific systems. Thus Kenrick tells
us, that "when we read of foreigners [in Egypt] being
obliged to submit to painful and tedious ceremonies of
initiation, it was not that they might learn the secret
meaning of the rites of Osiris or Isis, but that they
might partake of the knowledge of astronomy, physic,
geometry, and theology."^

Another illustration will be found in the myth or
legend of the Winding Stairs, by which the Fellow
Crafts are said to have ascended to the middle chamber
to receive their wages. Now, this myth, taken in its
literal sense, is, in all its parts, opposed to history and
probability. As a myth, it finds its origin in the fact
that there was a place in the temple called the '' Middle
Chamber," and that there were "winding stairs'^ by
which it was reached; for we read, in the First Book of
Kings, that "they went up with winding stairs into the
middle chamber. "^

But we have no historical evidence that the stairs
were of the construction, or that the chamber was used
for the purpose, indicated in the mythical narrative,
as it is set forth in the ritual of the second degree.
The whole legend is, in fact, a historical myth, in which
the mystic number of the steps, the process of passing
to the chamber, and the wages there received, are in-
ventions added to or ingrafted on the fundamental
history contained in the sixth chapter of Kings, to in-
culcate important symbolic instruction relative to the
principles of the Order.

These lessons might, it is true, have been inculcated
in a dry, didactic form; but the allegorical and mythical
method adopted tends to make a stronger and deeper

* "Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs," vol. i. p. 393.

« 1 Kings, vi. 8.

Legends of Freemasonry 213

impression on the mind, and at the same time serves
more closely to connect the institution of Freemasonry
with the ancient temple.

Again, note the myth which traces the origin of the
institution of Freemasonry to the beginning of the
world, making its commencement coeval with the
creation. This is a myth which is even at this day
ignorantly interpreted, by some, as a historical fact,
and the reference to which is still preserved in the date
of "anno lucis,'' or year of light, which is affixed to all
Masonic documents. We may call it but a philo-
sophical myth, symbolizing the idea which analogically
connects the creation of physical light in the universe
with the birth of Masonic or spiritual and intellectual
light in the candidate. The one is the type of the other.

When, therefore, Preston says that "from the com-
mencement of the world we may trace the foundation
of Freemasonry,'' and when he goes on to assert that
"ever since symmetry began, and harmony displayed
her charms, our Order has had a being," we are not to
suppose that Preston intended to teach that a Masonic
Lodge was held in the Garden of Eden. Such a sup-
position would justly subject us to the ridicule of every
intelligent person.