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

Introduction.
xxxi
idol.
Only the Perfect Master can so chip away the
stone as to reveal in all its grandeur and beauty the
Divine Ideal, and endow it with the breath of life.
Such is the building of character. The fable of
Pygmalion and Galatea is, after all, more real than
history. The thread of history is not in isolated
facts, joined by conjecture, and warped to the ignorant,
bigoted, and time-serving opinions of men.
The real thread is to be sought in the theme that
runs through the symphony of creation ; in the lofty
Ideals that inspire the life of man, and that lead him
from the clod and the lowlands, where hover the
ghosts of superstition and fear, to the mountains of
light, where dwell forever inspiration and peace.
Such ideals are the Christ, Hiram, and the Perfect
Master.
It is doubtful whether any portion of the present
organization of Masonry, as such, can be traced
further back than the middle of the 17th century.
The great Masonic revolution of 1717, and the
Constitutions of 1723 and 1738, seem to have brought
into existence the present organizations ; which, by
no means uniform throughout the world, have,
nevertheless, very much in common. There were
indeed earlier organizations, often unknown and unsuspected,
and operating under different names,