APRON.  The lambskin, or white leather apron, is the peculiar and distinctive badge of a mason.

Its color must be white, and its material a lambskin.

It is a symbol of purity, and it derives this symbolism from its color, white being symbolic of purity; from its material, the lamb having the same symbolic character; and from its use, which is to preserve the garments clean.

The apron, or abnet, worn by the Egyptian and the Hebrew priests, and which has been considered as the analogue of the masonic apron, is supposed to have been a symbol of authority; but the use of the apron in Freemasonry originally as an implement of labor, is an evidence of the derivation of the speculative science from an operative art.

APULEIUS.  Lucius Apuleius, a Latin writer, born at Medaura, in Africa, flourished in the reigns of the emperors Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius.  His most celebrated book, entitled “Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass,” was written, Bishop Warburton thinks, for the express purpose of recommending the ancient Mysteries.  He had been initiated into many of them, and his descriptions of them, and especially of his own initiation into those of the Egyptian Isis, are highly interesting and instructive, and should be read by every student of the science of masonic symbolism.

ARCHETYPE.  The principal type, figure, pattern, or example, whereby and whereon a thing is formed.  In the science of symbolism, the archetype is the thing adopted as a symbol, whence the symbolic idea is derived.  Thus we say the temple is the archetype of the lodge, because the former is the symbol whence all the temple symbolism of the latter is derived.

ARCHITECTURE.  The art which teaches the proper method of constructing public and private edifices.  It is to Freemasonry the “ars artium,” the art of arts, because to it the institution is indebted for its origin in its present organization.  The architecture of Freemasonry is altogether related to the construction of public edifices, and principally sacred or religious ones,—­such as temples, cathedrals, churches,—­and of these, masonically, the temple of Solomon is the archetype.  Much of the symbolism of Freemasonry is drawn from the art of architecture.  While the improvements of Greek and Roman architecture are recognized in Freemasonry, the three ancient orders, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian are alone symbolized.  No symbolism attaches to the Tuscan and Composite.

ARK OF THE COVENANT.  One of the most sacred objects among the Israelites.  It was a chest made of shittim wood, or acacia, richly decorated, forty-five inches long, and eighteen inches wide, and contained the two tables of stone on which the ten commandments were engraved, the golden pot that held manna, and Aaron’s rod.  It was placed in the holy of holies, first of the tabernacle, and then of the temple.  Such is its masonic and scriptural history.  The idea of this ark was evidently borrowed from the Egyptians,