THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

made the representative of the world or the universe, and the sun is
presented as its most prominent symbol.
4. That this identity of symbolism proves an identity of origin, which
identity of origin can be shown to be strictly compatible with the true
religious sentiment of Masonry.
5. And fifthly and lastly, that the whole symbolism of Freemasonry has
an
exclusive reference to what the Kabalists have called the ALGABIL--the
_Master Builder_--him whom Freemasons have designated as the Grand
Architect of the Universe.
XVII.
Ritualistic Symbolism.
We have hitherto been engaged in the consideration of these simple
symbols, which appear to express one single and independent idea. They
have sometimes been called the "alphabet of Freemasonry," but
improperly,
I think, since the letters of the alphabet have, in themselves, unlike
these masonic symbols, no significance, but are simply the component
parts
of words, themselves the representatives of ideas.
These masonic symbols rather may be compared to the elementary
characters
of the Chinese language, each of which denotes an idea; or, still
better,
to the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians, in which one object was
represented in full by another which bore some subjective relation to
it,
as the wind was represented by the wings of a bird, or courage by the
head
and shoulders of a lion.
It is in the same way that in Masonry the plumb represents rectitude,
the
level, human equality, and the trowel, concord or harmony. Each is, in
itself, independent, each expresses a single elementary idea.
But we now arrive at a higher division of masonic symbolism, which,
passing beyond these tangible symbols, brings us to those which are of
a
more abstruse nature, and which, as being developed in a ceremonial
form,
controlled and directed by the ritual of the order, may be designated
as
the _ritualistic symbolism_ of Freemasonry.
It is to this higher division that I now invite attention; and for the