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

the efficacy of Freemasonry, which are dependent on its organization as
a
secret and mystical association, will be lost. We move between Scylla
and
Charybdis, and it is difficult for a masonic writer to know how to
steer
so as, in avoiding too frank an exposition of the principles of the
Order,
not to fall by too much reticence into obscurity. The European Masons
are
far more liberal in their views of the obligation of secrecy than the
English or the American. There are few things, indeed, which a French
or
German masonic writer will refuse to discuss with the utmost frankness.
It
is now beginning to be very generally admitted, and English and
American
writers are acting on the admission, that the only real aporrheta of
Freemasonry are the modes of recognition, and the peculiar and
distinctive
ceremonies of the Order; and to these last it is claimed that reference
may be publicly made for the purposes of scientific investigation,
provided that the reference be so made as to be obscure to the profane,
and intelligible only to the initiated.
APRON. The lambskin, or white leather apron, is the peculiar and
distinctive badge of a mason.
Its color must be white, and its material a lambskin.
It is a symbol of purity, and it derives this symbolism from its color,
white being symbolic of purity; from its material, the lamb having the
same symbolic character; and from its use, which is to preserve the
garments clean.
The apron, or abnet, worn by the Egyptian and the Hebrew priests, and
which has been considered as the analogue of the masonic apron, is
supposed to have been a symbol of authority; but the use of the apron
in
Freemasonry originally as an implement of labor, is an evidence of the
derivation of the speculative science from an operative art.
APULEIUS. Lucius Apuleius, a Latin writer, born at Medaura, in Africa,
flourished in the reigns of the emperors Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius.
His most celebrated book, entitled "Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass,"
was
written, Bishop Warburton thinks, for the express purpose of
recommending
the ancient Mysteries. He had been initiated into many of them, and his
descriptions of them, and especially of his own initiation into those
of
the Egyptian Isis, are highly interesting and instructive, and should
be
read by every student of the science of masonic symbolism.
ARCHETYPE. The principal type, figure, pattern, or example, whereby and
whereon a thing is formed. In the science of symbolism, the archetype