It is engaged symbolically in the construction of a spiritual temple.

There is in it always a progress—­an advancement from a lower to a higher sphere.

SPIRITUAL TEMPLE.  The body of man; that temple alluded to by Christ and St. Paul; the temple, in the construction of which the Speculative Mason is engaged, in contradistinction to that material temple which occupies the labors of the Operative Mason.

SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY.  A term applied to the initiations in the Mysteries of the ancient pagan world, and to the doctrines taught in those Mysteries.  See Mysteries.

SQUARE.  A geometric figure consisting of four equal sides and equal angles.  In Freemasonry it is a symbol of morality, or the strict performance of every duty.  The Greeks deemed it a figure of perfection, and the “square man” was a man of unsullied integrity.

SQUARE, TRYING.  One of the working-tools of a Fellow Craft, and a symbol of morality.

STONE OF FOUNDATION.  A very important symbol in the masonic system.  It is like the word, the symbol of divine truth.

STONE WORSHIP.  A very early form of fetichism.  The Pelasgians are supposed to have given to their statues of the gods the general form of cubical stones, whence in Hellenic times came the Hermae, or images of Hermes.

SUBSTITUTE WORD.  A symbol of the unsuccessful search after divine truth, and the discovery in this life of only an approximation to it.

SUN, RISING.  In the Sabian worship the rising sun was adored on its resurrection from the apparent death of its evening setting.  Hence, in the ancient Mysteries, the rising sun was a symbol of the regeneration of the soul.

SUN-WORSHIP.  The most ancient of all superstitions.  It prevailed especially in Phoenicia, Chaldea. and Egypt, and traces of it have been discovered in Peru and Mexico.  Its influence was felt in the ancient Mysteries, and abundant allusions to it are to be found in the symbolism of Freemasonry.

SWEDENBORG.  A Swedish philosopher, and the founder of a religious sect.  Clavel, Ragon, and some other writers have sought to make him the founder of a masonic rite also, but without authority.  In 1767 Chastanier established the rite of Illuminated Theosophists, whose instructions are derived from the writings of Swedenborg, but the sage himself had nothing to do with it.  Yet it cannot be denied that the mind of Swedenborg was eminently symbolic in character, and that the masonic student may derive many valuable ideas from portions of his numerous works, especially from his “Celestial Arcana” and his “Apocalypse Revealed.”

SYMBOL.  A visible sign with which a spiritual feeling, emotion, or idea is connected.—­Mueller.  Every natural thing which is made the sign or representation of a moral idea is a symbol.

SYMBOL, COMPOUND.  A species of symbol not unusual in Freemasonry, where the symbol is to be taken in a double sense, meaning in its general application one thing, and then in a special application another.