LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES. In the seventh century, all learning was limited to the seven liberal arts and sciences; their introduction into Freemasonry, referring to this theory, is a symbol of the completion of human learning. LIGHT. It denotes truth and knowledge, and is so explained in all the ancient systems; in initiation, it is not material but intellectual light that is sought. It is predominant as a symbol in all the ancient initiations. There it was revered because it was an emanation trom the sun, the common object of worship; but the theory advanced by some writers, that the veneration of light originally proceeded from its physical qualities, is not correct. Pythagoras called it the good principle in nature; and the Cabalists taught that eternal light filled all space before the creation, and that after creation it retired to a central spot, and became the instrument of the Divine Mind in creating matter. It is the symbol of the autopsy, or the full perfection and fruition of initiation. It is therefore a fundamental symbol in Freemasonry, and contains within itself the very essence of the speculative science. LINGAM. The phallus was so called by the Indian nations of the East. See _Phallus_. LODGE. The place where Freemasons meet, and also the congregation of masons so met. The word is derived from the _lodges_ occupied by the travelling Freemasons of the middle ages. It is a symbol of the world, or universe. Its form, an oblong square, is symbolic of the supposed oblong form of the world as known to the ancients. LOST WORD. There is a masonic myth that there was a certain word which was lost and afterwards recovered. It is not material what the word was, nor how lost, nor when recovered: the symbolism refers only to the abstract idea of a loss and a recovery. It is a symbol of divine truth. The search for it was also made by the philosophers and priests in the Mysteries of the Spurious Freemasonry. LOTUS. The sacred plant of the Brahminical Mysteries, and the analogue of the acacia. It was also a sacred plant among the Egyptians. LUSTRATION. A purification by washing the hands or body in consecrated water, practised in the ancient Mysteries. See _Purification_. LUX (_light_). One of the appellations bestowed upon Freemasonry, to indicate that it is that sublime doctrine of truth by which the pathway of him who has attained it is to be illumined in the pilgrimage of life. Among the Rosicrucians, light was the knowledge of the philosopher's stone; and Mosheim says that in chemical language the cross was an emblem of light, because it contains within its figure the forms of the three figures of which LVX, or light, is composed. LUX E TENEBRIS (_light out of darkness_). A motto of the Masonic Order, which is equivalent to "truth out of initiation;" light being the symbol of truth, and darkness the symbol of initiation commenced. M