Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

92 Mystic Masonry.
that indites it; and yet so superstitious over the letters
of a name as to believe them more sacred in one
form than another ! Notwithstanding, it is the letter
that killeth, and the Spirit (the breath) that maketh
alive. The consonants composing the Hebrew alphabet
are about as sacred as so many wooden
blocks. If one knows how to arrange the blocks,
and endow them with life, so that they may "bud
and blossom like Aaron's rod," that of course is a
very different matter.
"There are dangers inseparable from SymboUsm,
which afford an impressive lesson in regard to similar
risks attendant on the use of language. The
imagination called in to assist the reason usurps its
place, or leaves its ally helplessly entangled in its
web, Names which stand for things are confounded
with them; the means are mistaken for the ends;
the instrument of interpretation for the object; and
thus symbols come to usurp an independent character
as truths and persons. Though perhaps a necessary
path, they are a dangerous one, by which to approach
the Deity; in which many, says Plutarch,
mistaking the sign for the thing signified, fell into a
ridiculous superstition, while others, in avoiding one
extreme, plunge into the no less hideous gulf of
irreligion and impiety." . . .