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

46 ALEXANDRIA
ALLEGORY
rescind the obnoxious decrees, and to add these
words : "What you have told me of the Institution
not only induces me to grant it my
protection and patronage, but even to ask for
initiation into its mysteries . Is this possible
to be obtained? " M . Boeber replied : "Sire
I cannot myself re ply to the question . But I
will call together the Masons of your capital
and make your Majesty's desire known ; and
I have no doubt that they will be eager to
comply with your wishes ." Accordingly Alexander
was soon after initiated, and the Grand
Orient of all the Russias was in consequence
established, of which M . Boeber was elected
Grand Master . (Acts Latomorum, i., 218.)
Alexandria, School of . When Alexander
built the city of Alexandria in Egypt, with the
intention of making it the seat of his empire,
he invited thither learned men from all nations,
who brought with them their peculiar notions .
The Alexandria School of Philosophy which
was thus established, by the commingling of
Orientalists, Jews, Egyptians, and Greeks,
became eclectic in character, and exhibited a
heterogeneous mixture of the opinions of the
Egyptian priests, of the Jewish Rabbis of
Arabic teachers, and of the disciples of Plato
and P'thagoras . From this school we derive
Gnosticism and the Kabbala and, above all,
the system of symbolism and allegory which
lay at the foundation of the Masonic philosophy
. To no ancient sect, indeed, except
perhaps the Pythagoreans, have the Masonic
teachers been so much indebted for the substance
of their doctrines, as well as the esoteric
method of communicating them as to that of
the School of Alexandria . Both Aristobulus
and Philo the two most celebrated chiefs of
this schoo'1, taught, although a century intervened
between their births, the same theory,
that the sacred writings of the Hebrews were,
b y their system of allegories, the true source
of all religious and philosopic doctrine, the
literal meaning of which alone was for the
common people, the esoteric or hidden meaning~being
kept for the initiated. Freemasonry
still carries into practise the same theor y .
Alincourt, Francois d' . A French gentleman,
who, in the year 1776, was sent with
Don Oyres de Ornellas Pragao, a Portuguese
nobleman, to prison, by the governor of the
island of Madeira, for being Freemasons .
The were afterward sent to Lisbon, and confine
in a common jail for fourteen months,
where they would have perished had not the
Masons of Lisbon supported them, throw gh
whose intercession with Don Martimo de
Mello they were at last released . (Smith, Use
and Abuse ofFreemasonry, p. 206 .)
Allah. (Assyrian (Fig . 1), ilu; Aramaic,
'*ii, elah; Hebrew, 't 'l{, dlbah.) The Arabic
name of God, derived from (Fig . 2) ildh, od
and the article (Fig . 3) al, expressing the
by way of eminence . In the great profession
of the Unity, on which is founded the religion
of Islam, both terms are used, as, pronounced
" IA ilaha ill' Allah," there is no god but God,
the real meaning of the expression being,
" There is only one God." Mohammed relates
that in his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem,
on ascending through the seven heavens,
he beheld above the throne of God this
formula ; and the green standard of the
(Fig. 1 .) (Fig . 2 .) (Fig. 3.)
aJI, Si,
Prophet was adorned with the mystic sentence .
It is the first phrase lisped by the infant, and
the devout Moslem utters the profession of the
faith at all times, in joy, in sorrow, in praise,
in prayer, in battle, and with his departing
S3355S x ~
breath the words are wafted to heaven ; for
among the peculiar virtues of these words is
that they may be spoken without any motion
of the lips . The mourners on their way to the
grave continue the strain in melancholy tones .
Around the supreme name is clustered the
masbaha, or rosary, of the ninety-nine beautiful
names of God, which are often repeated by
the Mohammedan in his devotions .
[W. S . Paterson .)
Allegiance . Every Mason owes allegiance
to. the Lodge, Chapter, or other body of which
he is a member, and also to the Grand Lodge,
Grand Chapter or other supreme authority
from which that body has received its charter .
But this is not a divided allegiance . If, for
instance the edicts of a Grand and a Subordinate
Lodge conflict, there is no question
which is to be obeyed . Supreme or governing
bodies in Masonry claim and must receive a
paramount allegiance.
Allegory. A discourse or narrative in
which there is a literal and a figurative sense, a
patent and a concealed meanin g , the literal or
patent sense being intended, by analogy or
comparison, to indicate the figurative or concealed
one . Its derivation from the Greek,
IxAos and ayopslEu', to say something different,
that is, to stay something where the language is
one thing andthetruemeaninganother,exactly
expresses the character of an allegory . It has
been said that there is no essential difference
between an allegory and a symbol. There is
not in design, but there is in their character .
An allegory may be interpreted without any
previous conventional agreement but a symbol
cannot . Thus, the legend of the Third Degree
is an allegory, evidently to be interpreted
as teaching a restoration to life ; and this we
learn from the leg end itself, without any previous
understanding. The sprig of acacia
is a symbol of the immortality of the soul .
But this we know only because such meaning
had been conventionally determined when the
symbol was first established . It is evident,
then that an allegory whose meaning is obscure
is imperfect . The enigmatical meaning
should be easy of interpretation ; and hence