Chapter 7

Two, or the Duad, is the symbol of Antagonism; of Good and Evil, Light and Darkness. It is Cain and Abel, Eve and Lilith, Jachin and Boaz, Ormuzd and Ahriman, Osiris and Typhon.

Three, or the Triad, is most significantly expressed by the equilateral and the right-angled triangles. There are _three_ principal colors or rays in the rainbow, which by intermixture make _seven_. The three are the _blue_, the _yellow_, and the _red_. The Trinity of the Deity, in one mode or other, has been an article in all creeds. He creates, preserves, and destroys. He is the generative _power_, the productive _capacity_, and the _result_. The immaterial man, according to the Kabalah, is composed of _vitality_, or _life_, the breath of life; of _soul_ or _mind_, and _spirit_. Salt, sulphur, and mercury are the great symbols of the alchemists. To them man was body, soul, and spirit.

Four is expressed by the square, or four-sided right-angled figure. Out of the symbolic Garden of Eden flowed a river, dividing into _four_ streams,--PISON, which flows around the land of gold, or light; GIHON, which flows around the land of Ethiopia or Darkness; HIDDEKEL, running eastward to Assyria; and the EUPHRATES. Zechariah saw _four_ chariots coming out from between two mountains of bronze, in the first of which were _red_ horses; in the second, _black_; in the third, _white_; and in the fourth, _grizzled_: "and these were the four winds of the heavens, that go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth." Ezekiel saw the _four_ living creatures, each with _four_ faces and _four_ wings, the faces of a _man_ and a _lion_, an _ox_ and an _eagle_; and the _four_ wheels going upon their _four_ sides; and Saint John beheld the _four_ beasts, full of eyes before and behind, the LION, the young OX, the MAN, and the flying EAGLE. _Four_ was the signature of the Earth. Therefore, in the 148th Psalm, of those who must praise the Lord on the land, there are _four_ times _four_, and _four_ in particular of living creatures. Visible nature is described as the _four_ quarters of the world, and the _four_ corners of the earth. "There are _four_," says the old Jewish saying, "which take the first place in this world: _man_, among the creatures; the _eagle_ among birds; the _ox_ among cattle; and the _lion_ among wild beasts." Daniel saw _four_ great beasts come up from the sea.

FIVE is the Duad added to the Triad. It is expressed by the five-pointed or blazing star, the mysterious Pentalpha of Pythagoras. It is indissolubly connected with the number _seven_. Christ fed His disciples and the multitude with _five_ loaves and _two_ fishes, and of the fragments there remained _twelve_, that is, _five_ and _seven_, baskets full. Again He fed them with _seven_ loaves and a few little fishes, and there remained _seven_ baskets full. The _five_ apparently small planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, with the two greater ones, the Sun and Moon, constituted the _seven_ celestial spheres.

SEVEN was the peculiarly sacred number. There were _seven_ planets and spheres presided over by _seven_ archangels. There were _seven_ colors in the rainbow; and the Phoenician Deity was called the HEPTAKIS or God of _seven_ rays; _seven_ days of the week; and _seven_ and _five_ made the number of months, tribes, and apostles. Zechariah saw a golden candlestick, with _seven_ lamps and _seven_ pipes to the lamps, and an olive-tree on each side. Since he says, "the _seven_ eyes of the Lord shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel." John, in the Apocalypse, writes _seven_ epistles to the _seven_ churches. In the _seven_ epistles there are _twelve_ promises. What is said of the churches in praise or blame, is completed in the number _three_. The refrain, "_who has ears to hear_," etc., has _ten_ words, divided by _three_ and _seven_, and the _seven_ by _three_ and _four_; and the _seven_ epistles are also so divided. In the seals, trumpets, and vials, also, of this symbolic vision, the _seven_ are divided by _four_ and _three_. He who sends his message to Ephesus, "holds the _seven_ stars in his right hand, and walks amid the _seven_ golden lamps."

In _six_ days, or periods, God created the Universe, and paused on the _seventh_ day. Of clean beasts, Noah was directed to take by _sevens_ into the ark; and of fowls by _sevens_; because in _seven_ days the rain was to commence. On the _seven_teenth day of the month, the rain began; on the _seven_teenth day of the _seventh_ month, that ark rested on Ararat. When the dove returned, Noah waited _seven_ days before he sent her forth again; and again _seven_, after she returned with the olive-leaf. Enoch was the _seventh_ patriarch, Adam included, and Lamech lived 777 years.

There were _seven_ lamps in the great candlestick of the Tabernacle and Temple, representing the _seven_ planets. _Seven_ times Moses sprinkled the anointing oil upon the altar. The days of consecration of Aaron and his sons were _seven_ in number. A woman was unclean _seven_ days after child-birth; one infected with leprosy was shut up _seven_ days; _seven_ times the leper was sprinkled with the blood of a slain bird; and _seven_ days afterwards he must remain abroad out of his tent. _Seven_ times, in purifying the leper, the priest was to sprinkle the consecrated oil; and _seven_ times to sprinkle with the blood of the sacrificed bird the house to be purified. _Seven_ times the blood of the slain bullock was sprinkled on the mercy-seat; and _seven_ times on the altar. The _seventh_ year was a Sabbath of rest; and at the end of _seven_ times _seven_ years came the great year of jubilee. _Seven_ days the people ate unleavened bread, in the month of Abib. _Seven_ weeks were counted from the time of first putting the sickle to the wheat. The Feast of the Tabernacles lasted _seven_ days.

Israel was in the hand of Midian _seven_ years before Gideon delivered them. The bullock sacrificed by him was _seven_ years old. Samson told Delilah to bind him with _seven_ green withes; and she wove the _seven_ locks of his head, and afterwards shaved them off. Balaam told Barak to build for him _seven_ altars. Jacob served _seven_ years for Leah and _seven_ for Rachel. Job had _seven_ sons and _three_ daughters, making the perfect number _ten_. He had also _seven_ thousand sheep and _three_ thousand camels. His friends sat down with him _seven_ days and _seven_ nights. His friends were ordered to sacrifice _seven_ bullocks and _seven_ rams; and again, at the end, he had _seven_ sons and _three_ daughters, and twice _seven_ thousand sheep, and lived an hundred and forty, or twice _seven_ times _ten_ years. Pharaoh saw in his dream _seven_ fat and _seven_ lean kine, _seven_ good ears and _seven_ blasted ears of wheat; and there were _seven_ years of plenty, and _seven_ of famine. Jericho fell, when _seven_ priests, with _seven_ trumpets, made the circuit of the city on _seven_ successive days; once each day for six days, and _seven_ times on the seventh. "The _seven_ eyes of the Lord," says Zechariah, "run to and fro through the whole earth." Solomon was _seven_ years in building the Temple. _Seven_ angels, in the Apocalypse, pour out _seven_ plagues, from _seven_ vials of wrath. The scarlet-colored beast, on which the woman sits in the wilderness, has _seven_ heads and _ten_ horns. So also has the beast that rises up out of the sea. _Seven_ thunders uttered their voices. _Seven_ angels sounded _seven_ trumpets. _Seven_ lamps, of fire, the _seven_ spirits of God, burned before the throne; and the Lamb that was slain had _seven_ horns and _seven_ eyes.

EIGHT is the first cube, that of _two_. NINE is the square of _three_, and represented by the triple triangle.

TEN includes all the other numbers. It is especially _seven_ and _three_; and is called the number of perfection. Pythagoras represented it by the TETRACTYS, which had many mystic meanings. This symbol is sometimes composed of dots or points, sometimes of commas or yōds, and in the Kabalah, of the letters of the name of Deity. It is thus arranged:

, , , , , , , , , ,

The Patriarchs from Adam to Noah, inclusive, are _ten_ in number, and the same number is that of the Commandments.

TWELVE is the number of the lines of equal length that form a cube. It is the number of the months, the tribes, and the apostles; of the oxen under the Brazen Sea, of the stones on the breast-plate of the high priest.

III.

THE MASTER.

To understand literally the symbols and allegories of Oriental books as to ante-historical matters, is willfully to close our eyes against the Light. To translate the symbols into the trivial and commonplace, is the blundering of mediocrity.

_All_ religious expression is symbolism; since we can _describe_ only what we _see_, and the true objects of religion are THE SEEN. The earliest instruments of education were symbols; and they and all other religious forms differed and still differ according to external circumstances and imagery, and according to differences of knowledge and mental cultivation. All language is symbolic, so far as it is applied to mental and spiritual phenomena and action. All _words_ have, primarily, a _material_ sense, however they may afterward get, for the ignorant, a spiritual _non_-sense. "To retract," for example, is to _draw back_, and when applied to a _statement_, is symbolic, as much so as a picture of an arm drawn back, to express the same thing, would be. The very word "_spirit_" means "_breath,_" from the Latin verb _, breathe_.

To present a visible symbol to the eye of another is not necessarily to inform him of the meaning which that symbol has to you. Hence the philosopher soon superadded to the symbols explanations addressed to the ear, susceptible of more precision, but less effective and impressive than the painted or sculptured forms which he endeavored to explain. Out of these explanations grew by degrees a variety of narrations, whose true object and meaning were gradually forgotten, or lost in contradictions and incongruities. And when these were abandoned, and Philosophy resorted to definitions and formulas, its language was but a more complicated symbolism, attempting in the dark to grapple with and picture ideas impossible to be expressed. For as with the visible symbol, so with the word: to utter it to you does not inform you of the _exact_ meaning which it has to _me_; and thus religion and philosophy became to a great extent disputes as to the meaning of words. The most abstract expression for DEITY, which language can supply, is but a _sign_ or _symbol_ for an object beyond our comprehension, and not more truthful and adequate than the images of OSIRIS and VISHNU, or their names, except as being less sensuous and explicit. We avoid sensuousness only by resorting to simple negation. We come at last to define spirit by saying that it is not matter. Spirit is--spirit.

A single example of the symbolism of _words_ will indicate to you one branch of Masonic study. We find in the English Rite this phrase: "I will always _hail_, ever conceal, and never reveal;" and in the Catechism, these:

Q.'. "_I hail_."

A.'. "_I conceal_;"

and ignorance, misunderstanding the word "_hail_," has interpolated the phrase, "From whence do you _hail_?"

But the word is really "_hele_," from the Anglo-Saxon verb Ðelan, _helan_, to _cover, hide_, or _conceal_. And this word is rendered by the Latin verb _tegere_, to _cover_ or _roof over_. "That ye fro me no thynge woll hele," says Gower. "They _hele_ fro me no priuyte," says the Romaunt of the Rose. "To _heal_ a house," is a common phrase in Sussex; and in the west of England, he that covers a house with slates is called a _Healer_. Wherefore, to "_heal_" means the same thing as to "_tile_,"--itself symbolic, as meaning, primarily, to _cover_ a house with _tiles_,--and means to _cover, hide_, or _conceal_. Thus language too is symbolism, and words are as much misunderstood and misused as more material symbols are.

Symbolism tended continually to become more complicated; and all the powers of Heaven were reproduced on earth, until a web of fiction and allegory was woven, partly by art and partly by the ignorance of error, which the wit of man, with his limited means of explanation, will never unravel. Even the Hebrew Theism became involved in symbolism and image-worship, borrowed probably from an older creed and remote regions of Asia,--the worship of the Great Semitic Nature-God AL or ELS and its symbolical representations of JEHOVAH Himself were not even confined to poetical or illustrative language. The priests were monotheists: the people idolaters.

There are dangers inseparable from symbolism, which afford an impressive lesson in regard to the similar risks attendant on the use of language. The imagination, called in to assist the reason, usurps its place or leaves its ally helplessly entangled in its web. Names which stand for things are confounded with them; the means are mistaken for the end; the instrument of interpretation for the object; and thus symbols come to usurp an independent character as truths and persons. Though perhaps a necessary path, they were a dangerous one by which to approach the Deity; in which many, says PLUTARCH, "mistaking the sign for the thing signified, fell into a ridiculous superstition; while others, in avoiding one extreme, plunged into the no less hideous gulf of irreligion and impiety."

It is through the Mysteries, CICERO says, that we have learned the first principles of life; wherefore the term "initiation" is used with good reason; and they not only teach us to live more happily and agreeably, but they soften the pains of death by the hope of a better life hereafter.

The Mysteries were a Sacred Drama, exhibiting some legend significant of nature's changes, of the visible Universe in which the Divinity is revealed, and whose import was in many respects as open to the Pagan as to the Christian. Nature is the great Teacher of man; for it is the Revelation of God. It neither dogmatizes nor attempts to tyrannize by compelling to a particular creed or special interpretation. It presents its symbols to us, and adds nothing by way of explanation. It is the text without the commentary; and, as we well know, it is chiefly the commentary and gloss that lead to error and heresy and persecution. The earliest instructors of mankind not only adopted the lessons of Nature, but as far as possible adhered to her method of imparting them. In the Mysteries, beyond the current traditions or sacred and enigmatic recitals of the Temples, few explanations were given to the spectators, who were left, as in the school of nature, to make inferences for themselves. No other method could have suited every degree of cultivation and capacity. To employ nature's universal symbolism instead of the technicalities of language, rewards the humblest inquirer, and discloses its secrets to every one in proportion to his preparatory training and his power to comprehend them. If their philosophical meaning was above the comprehension of some, their moral and political meanings are within the reach of all.

These mystic shows and performances were not the reading of a lecture, but the opening of a problem. Requiring research, they were calculated to arouse the dormant intellect. They implied no hostility to Philosophy, because Philosophy is the great expounder of symbolism; although its ancient interpretations were often ill-founded and incorrect. The alteration from symbol to dogma is fatal to beauty of expression, and leads to intolerance and assumed infallibility.

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If, in teaching the great doctrine of the divine nature of the Soul, and in striving to explain its longings after immortality, and in proving its superiority over the souls of the animals, which have no aspirations Heavenward, the ancients struggled in vain to express the _nature_ of the soul, by comparing it to FIRE and LIGHT, it will be well for us to consider whether, with all our boasted knowledge, we have any better or clearer idea of its nature, and whether we have not despairingly taken refuge in having none at all. And if they erred as to its original place of abode, and understood literally the mode and path of its descent, these were but the accessories of the great Truth, and probably, to the Initiates, mere allegories, designed to make the idea more palpable and impressive to the mind.

They are at least no more fit to be smiled at by the self-conceit of a vain ignorance, the wealth of whose knowledge consists solely in words, than the _bosom_ of Abraham, as a home for the _spirits_ of the just dead; the gulf of actual fire, for the eternal torture of _spirits_; and the City of the New Jerusalem, with its walls of jasper and its edifices of pure gold like clear glass, its foundations of precious stones, and its gates each of a single pearl. "I knew a man," says PAUL, "caught up to the third Heaven; ... that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard ineffable words, which it is not possible for a man to utter." And nowhere is the antagonism and conflict between the spirit and body more frequently and forcibly insisted on than in the writings of this apostle, nowhere the Divine nature of the soul more strongly asserted. "With the mind," he says, "I serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.... As many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of GOD.... The earnest expectation of the created waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.... The created shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, of the flesh liable to decay, into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

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Two forms of government are favorable to the prevalence of falsehood and deceit. Under a Despotism, men are false, treacherous, and deceitful through fear, like slaves dreading the lash. Under a Democracy they are so as a means of attaining popularity and office, and because of the greed for wealth. Experience will probably prove that these odious and detestable vices will grow most rankly and spread most rapidly in a Republic. When office and wealth become the gods of a people, and the most unworthy and unfit most aspire to the former, and fraud becomes the highway to the latter, the land will reek with falsehood and sweat lies and chicane. When the offices are open to all, merit and stern integrity and the dignity of unsullied honor will attain them only rarely and by accident. To be able to serve the country well, will cease to be a reason why the great and wise and learned should be selected to render service. Other qualifications, less honorable, will be more available. To adapt one's opinions to the popular humor; to defend, apologize for, and justify the popular follies; to advocate the expedient and the plausible; to caress, cajole, and flatter the elector; to beg like a spaniel for his vote, even if he be a negro three removes from barbarism; to profess friendship for a competitor and stab him by innuendo; to set on foot that which at third hand shall become a lie, being cousin-german to it when uttered, and yet capable of being explained away,--who is there that has not seen these low arts and base appliances put into practice, and becoming general, until success cannot be surely had by any more honorable means?--the result being a State ruled and ruined by ignorant and shallow mediocrity, pert self-conceit, the greenness of unripe intellect, vain of a school-boy's smattering of knowledge.

The faithless and the false in public and in political life, will be faithless and false in private. The jockey in politics, like the jockey on the race-course, is rotten from skin to core. Everywhere he will see first to his own interests, and whoso leans on him will be pierced with a broken reed. His ambition is ignoble, like himself; and therefore he will seek to attain office by ignoble means, as he will seek to attain any other coveted object,--land, money, or reputation.

At length, office and honor are divorced. The place that the small and shallow, the knave or the trickster, is deemed competent and fit to fill, ceases to be worthy the ambition of the great and capable; or if not, these shrink from a contest, the weapons to be used wherein are unfit for a gentleman to handle. Then the habits of unprincipled advocates in law courts are naturalized in Senates, and pettifoggers wrangle there, when the fate of the nation and the lives of millions are at stake. States are even begotten by villainy and brought forth by fraud, and rascalities are justified by legislators claiming to be honorable. Then contested elections are decided by perjured votes or party considerations; and all the practices of the worst times of corruption are revived and exaggerated in Republics.

It is strange that reverence for truth, that manliness and genuine loyalty, and scorn of littleness and unfair advantage, and genuine faith and godliness and large-heartedness should diminish, among statesmen and people, as civilization advances, and freedom becomes more general, and universal suffrage implies universal worth and fitness! In the age of Elizabeth, without universal suffrage, or Societies for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, or popular lecturers, or Lycæa, the statesman, the merchant, the burgher, the sailor, were all alike heroic, fearing God only, and man not at all. Let but a hundred or two years elapse, and in a Monarchy or Republic of the same race, nothing is _less_ heroic than the merchant, the shrewd speculator, the office-seeker, fearing man only, and God not at all. Reverence for greatness dies out, and is succeeded by base envy of greatness. Every man is in the way of many, either in the path to popularity or wealth. There is a general feeling of satisfaction when a great statesman is displaced, or a general, who has been for his brief hour the popular idol, is unfortunate and sinks from his high estate. It becomes a misfortune, if not a crime, to be above the popular level.

We should naturally suppose that a nation in distress would take counsel with the wisest of its sons. But, on the contrary, great men seem never so scarce as when they are most needed, and small men never so bold to insist on infesting place, as when mediocrity and incapable pretence and sophomoric greenness, and showy and sprightly incompetency are most dangerous. When France was in the extremity of revolutionary agony, she was governed by an assembly of provincial pettifoggers, and Robespierre, Marat, and Couthon ruled in the place of Mirabeau, Vergniaud, and Carnot. England was governed by the Rump Parliament, after she had beheaded her king. Cromwell extinguished one body, and Napoleon the other.

Fraud, falsehood, trickery, and deceit in national affairs are the signs of decadence in States and precede convulsions or paralysis. To bully the weak and crouch to the strong, is the policy of nations governed by small mediocrity. The tricks of the canvass for office are re-enacted in Senates. The Executive becomes the dispenser of patronage, chiefly to the most unworthy; and men are bribed with offices instead of money, to the greater ruin of the Commonwealth. The Divine in human nature disappears, and interest, greed, and selfishness takes it place. That is a sad and true allegory which represents the companions of Ulysses changed by the enchantments of Circe into swine.

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