And this train of thought is eminently applicable to the admission of the name into the system of Masonry.  With us, the name of God, however expressed, is a symbol of DIVINE TRUTH, which it should be the incessant labor of a Mason to seek.

XXV.

The Legends of Freemasonry.

The compound character of a speculative science and an operative art, which the masonic institution assumed at the building of King Solomon’s temple, in consequence of the union, at that era, of the Pure Freemasonry of the Noachidae[140] with the Spurious Freemasonry of the Tyrian workmen, has supplied it with two distinct kinds of symbols—­the mythical, or legendary, and the material; but these are so thoroughly united in object and design, that it is impossible to appreciate the one without an investigation of the other.

Thus, by way of illustration, it may be observed, that the temple itself has been adopted as a material symbol of the world (as I have already shown in former articles), while the legendary history of the fate of its builder is a mythical symbol of man’s destiny in the world.  Whatever is visible or tangible to the senses in our types and emblems—­such as the implements of operative masonry, the furniture and ornaments of a lodge, or the ladder of seven steps—­is a material symbol; while whatever derives its existence from tradition, and presents itself in the form of an allegory or legend, is a mythical symbol.  Hiram the Builder, therefore, and all that refers to the legend of his connection with the temple, and his fate,—­such as the sprig of acacia, the hill near Mount Moriah, and the lost word,—­are to be considered as belonging to the class of mythical or legendary symbols.

And this division is not arbitrary, but depends on the nature of the types and the aspect in which they present themselves to our view.

Thus the sprig of acacia, although it is material, visible, and tangible, is, nevertheless, not to be treated as a material symbol; for, as it derives all its significance from its intimate connection with the legend of Hiram Abif, which is a mythical symbol, it cannot, without a violent and inexpedient disruption, be separated from the same class.  For the same reason, the small hill near Mount Moriah, the search of the twelve Fellow Crafts, and the whole train of circumstances connected with the lost word, are to be viewed simply as mythical or legendary, and not as material symbols.

These legends of Freemasonry constitute a considerable and a very important part of its ritual.  Without them, the most valuable portions of the masonic as a scientific system would cease to exist.  It is, in fact, in the traditions and legends of Freemasonry, more, even, than in its material symbols, that we are to find the deep religious instruction which the institution is intended to inculcate.  It must be remembered that Freemasonry has been defined to be “a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.”  Symbols, then, alone, do not constitute the whole of the system:  allegory comes in for its share; and this allegory, which veils the divine truths of masonry, is presented to the neophyte in the various legends which have been traditionally preserved in the order.