[31] The Baron de Sainte Croix gives this brief view of the ceremonies: "Dans ces mystères on employoit, pour remplir l'âme des assistans d'une sainte horreur, les mêmes moyens qu'à Eleusis. L'apparition de fantômes et de divers objets propres à effrayer, sembloit disposer les esprits à la crédulité. Ils en avoient sans doute besoin, pour ajouter foi à toutes les explications des mystagogues: elles rouloient sur le massacre de Bacchus par les Titans," &c.--_Recherches sur les Mystères du Paganisme_, tom. ii. sect. vii. art. iii. p. 89. [32] Lawrie, Hist. of Freemasonry, p. 27. [33] Vincentius Lirinensis or Vincent of Lirens, who lived in the fifth century of the Christian era, wrote a controversial treatise entitled "Commonitorium," remarkable for the blind veneration which it pays to the voice of tradition. The rule which he there lays down, and which is cited in the text, may be considered, in a modified application, as an axiom by which we may test the _probability_, at least, of all sorts of traditions. None out of the pale of Vincent's church will go so far as he did in making it the criterion of positive truth. [34] Prolog. zu einer wissenshaftlich. Mythologie. [35] In German _hutten_, in English _lodges_, whence the masonic term. [36] Historical Essay on Architecture, ch. xxi. [37] Bishop England, in his "Explanation of the Mass," says that in every ceremony we must look for three meanings: "the first, the literal, natural, and, it may be said, the original meaning; the second, the figurative or emblematic signification; and thirdly, the pious or religious meaning: frequently the two last will be found the same; sometimes all three will be found combined." Here lies the true difference between the symbolism of the church and that of Masonry. In the former, the symbolic meaning was an afterthought applied to the original, literal one; in the latter, the symbolic was always the original signification of every ceremony. [38] /P "Was not all the knowledge Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols? Speak not the Scriptures oft in parables? Are not the choicest fables of the poets, That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom, Wrapped in perplexed allegories?" BEN JONSON, _Alchemist_, act ii. sc. i. P/ [39] The distinguished German mythologist Müller defines a symbol to be "an eternal, visible sign, with which a spiritual feeling, emotion, or idea is connected." I am not aware of a more comprehensive, and at the same time distinctive, definition. [40] And it may be added, that the word becomes a symbol of an idea; and hence, Harris, in his "Hermes," defines language to be "a system of articulate voices, the symbols of our ideas, but of those principally which are general or universal."--_Hermes_, book iii. ch. 3.