material and tangible pledge is really wanted, but that the true pledge of Masonic friendship is deposited in the heart. At a future period, in the next section, an opportunity is taken to exemplify the practical application of the pledge thus made, by an impressive charge on the nature of charity.
SECOND SECTION.
The second section of the first lecture, according to the system prevailing in this country, is occupied with an explanation of the symbolic meaning of the ceremonies that are detailed in the first; without, therefore, a knowledge of the second section, the first becomes barren and insignificant. It must, however, be confessed that many of the interpretations given in this section 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 usual lecture is, however, still preserved as a brief mode of acquiring a general knowledge of the mode of Masonic instruction, and as furnishing sufficient proof of the definition that "Freemasonry is a system of morality vailed in allegory and illustrated by symbols."[1]
- ↑ Webb, Cross, Hardie, and our other monitorial writers, have printed very little of this section, although they have been exceedingly liberal in their publication of the third section. I have not deemed it expedient to go much beyond their degree of reticence, but I have taken occasion, as being much more useful, to invite attention to the coincidences existing between the ceremonies of Masonry and those of the ancient systems of initiation. The allusions, where I have felt constrained to be cautious in my language, will be well understood by the Mason who has made himself acquainted with the authorized lecture of the degree.
