Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

LEBANON
LECTURE 429
supply the timber for the Temple . Such of
these forests as lay nearest the sea were in the
possession of the Phoenicians, among whom
timber was in such constant demand that
they had acquired great and acknowledged
skill in the felling and transportation thereof ;
and hence it was of such importance that
Hiram consented to employ large bodies of
men in Lebanon to hew timber as well as
others to perform the service of bringing it
down to the seaside, whence it was to be taken
along the coasts in floats to the port of Joppa,
from which place it could be easily taken
across the country to Jerusalem ."
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
has dedicated to this mountain its Twentysecond
Degree, or Prince of Lebanon . The
Druses now inhabit Mount Lebanon, and
still preserve there a secret organization .
(See Druses .)
Lebanon, Prince of . See Knight of the
Royal Ax.
Le Bauld de Nans, Claude Etienne. A
distinguished Masonic writer, born at Besancon
in 1736. He was by profession a highly
respected actor, and a man of much learning,
which he devoted to the cultivation of Freemasonry
. He was for seven years Master of
the Lodge St . Charles de 1'Union, in Mannheim
; and on his removal to Berlin, in 1771,
became the Orator of the Lodge Royale York
de 1'Amitie, and editor of a Masonic journal .
He delivered, while Orator of the Lodge-a
position which he resigned in 1778-a large
number of discourses, a collection of which
was published at Berlin in 1788. He also
composed many Masonic odes and songs,
and published, in 1781, a collection of his
songs for the use of the Lodge Royale York,
and in 1786, his Lyre Magonnique . He is described
by his contemporaries as a man of
great knowledge and talents, and Fessler has
paid a warm tribute to his learning and to his
labors in behalf of Masonry . He died at Berlin
in 1789.
Leehangeur. An officer of one of the
Lodges of Milan, Italy, of whom Rebold
(Hilt. des Trois G . Loges, p . 575) gives the following
account . When, in 1805, a Supreme
Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite was established at Milan, Lechangeur
became a candidate for membership . He
received some of the degrees ; but subsequently
the founders of the Council, for satisfactory
reasons, declined to confer upon him
the superior grades . Incensed at this, Lechangeur
announced to them that he would
elevate himself above them by creating a rite
of ninety degrees, into which they should not be
admitted . He carried this project into effect,
and the result was the Rite of Mizraim, of
which he declared himself to be the Superior
Grand Conservator . His energies seem to
have been exhausted in the creation of his unwieldy
rite, for no Chapters were established
except in the city of Naples. But in 1810 a
patent was granted by him to Michel Bedarride,
by whom the Rite was propagated in
France. Lechangeur's fame, as the founder
of the Rite, was overshadowed by the greater
zeal and impetuosity of Bedarride, by whom
his self-assumed prerogatives were usurped .
He died in 1812 .
Lecture. Each degree of Masonry contains
a course of instruction, in which the ceremonies,
traditions, and moral instruction appertaining
to the degree are set forth. This
arrangement is called a lecture. Each lecture,
for the sake of convenience, and for the
purpose of conforming to certain divisions in
the ceremonies, is divided into sections, the
number of which have varied at different periods,
although the substance remains the same .
According to Preston, the lecture of the first
degree contains six sections ; that of the
second, four ; and that of the third twelve .
But according to the arrangement adoptedin
this country, commonly known as the
lectures," there are three sections in the first
degree, two in the second, and three in the
third .
In the Entered Apprentices', the first section
is almost entirely devoted to a recapitulation
of the ceremonies of initiation . The
initiatory portion, however, supplies certain
modes of recognition . The second section is
occupied with an explanation of the ceremonies
that had been detailed in the first-the two
together furnishing the interpretation of ritualistic
symbolism . The third is exclusively
occupied in explaining the signification of the
symbols peculiar to the degree .
In the Fellow-Craft's Degree, the first section,
like the first section of the Entered Apprentice,
is merely a recapitulation of ceremonies,
with a passing commentary on some
of them . The second section introduces the
neophyte for the first time to the differences
between Operative and Speculative Masonry
and to the Temple of King Solomon as a
Masonic symbol, while the candidate is ingeniously
deputed as a seeker after knowledge
.
the Master's Degree the first section
is again only a detail of ceremonies . The
second section is the most important and impressive
portion of all the lectures, for it contains
the legend on which the whole symbolic
character of the Institution is founded . The
third section is an interpretation of the symbols
of the degree, and is, of all the sections,
the one least creditable to the composer .
In fact, it must be confessed that many of
the interpretations g~ven in these lectures are
unsatisfactory to the cultivated mind, and
seem to have been adopted on the principle
of the old Egyptians, who made use of symbols
to conceal rather than to express their
thoughts. Learned Masons have been, therefore,
always disposed to go beyond the mere
technicalities and stereotyped phrases of the
lectures, and to look in the history and the
philosophy of the ancient religions, and the
organization of the ancient mysteries, for a
true explanation of most of the symbols of
Masonry, and there they have always been
enabled to find this true interpretation . The
lectures, however, serve as an introduction or