The Symbolism of Freemasonry: Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, its Legends, Myths and Symbols - Tapa blanda

“Freemasonry is a science of symbols, in which, by their proper study, a search is instituted after truth, that truth consisting in the knowledge of the divine and human nature of God and the human Soul.” -Albert G. Mackey

“Freemasonry is a science. The great principles it unfolds are beautifully clothed in allegories and symbols, and the true student of its sublime doctrines, who will submit to their influences, cannot miss a noble life. Few, however, comparatively, of the fraternity, deeply investigate the internal character of Masonry. They are content with a slight knowledge of the more routine of labor – the beautiful ceremonial of a virtuous craftsman – and pause not to read the sublime truths deeply hidden beneath the drapery of rites and ceremonies. They are content to know that the science they profess teaches the great doctrines of the unity of God and the immortality of the soul, but have little appreciation of the exquisitely beautiful and graduated links in the chain of evidence and demonstration. The book before us is invaluable as a guide and teacher. It unlocks the deep recesses of Masonic mystery, and ably simplifies it’s most difficult and obscure symbols.

“It contains thirty one chapters, and a very elaborate synoptical index, which greatly enhances the utility and value of the work. While every chapter furnishes evidence of great research and ability, that on the ‘symbolism of labor’ we consider the gem of the book. It is a beautiful production, and reflects honor upon the writer. The book, of course, commends itself to the brotherhood, but we have no hesitation in recommending it to every household, and to every young man in the land. It is a gallery of ancient pictures whose excellencies grow upon the student with every moment devoted to them.” -The XIX Century, Volume 1, 1869 Contents.

Preliminary The Noachidae The Primitive Freemasonry of Antiquity The Spurious Freemasonry of Antiquity The Ancient Mysteries The Dionysiac Artificers The Union of Speculative and Operative Masonry at the Temple of Solomon The Travelling Freemasons of the Middle Ages Disseverance of the Operative Element The System of Symbolic Instruction The Speculative Science and the Operative Art The Symbolism of Solomon's Temple The Form of the Lodge The Officers of a Lodge The Point within a Circle The Covering of the Lodge Ritualistic Symbolism The Rite of Discalceation The Rite of Investiture The Symbolism of the Gloves The Rite of Circumambulation The Rite of Intrusting, and the Symbolism of Light Symbolism of the Corner-stone The Ineffable Name The Legends of Freemasonry The Legend of the Winding Stairs The Legend of the Third Degree The Sprig of Acacia The Symbolism of Labor The Stone of Foundation The Lost Word Synoptical Index

Albert Gallatin Mackey (March 12, 1807 - June 20, 1881) was an American medical doctor, and is best known for his authorship of many books and articles about freemasonry, particularly Masonic Landmarks. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of John Mackey (1765 - December 14, 1831), a physician, journalist and educator, who published The American Teacher's Assistant and Self-Instructor's Guide, containing all the Rules of Arithmetic properly Explained, etc. (Charleston, 1826), the most comprehensive work on arithmetic that had then been published in the United States. Albert Mackey obtained the means for studying medicine by teaching, and graduated from the medical department of the College of South Carolina in 1832. He settled in Charleston, and was in 1838 appointed demonstrator of anatomy in that institution, but in 1844 he abandoned the practice of medicine, and divided his time between miscellaneous writing and the study of freemasonry. After being connected with several Charleston journals, he established in 1849 The Southern and Western Masonic Miscellany, a weekly magazine, which he maintained for the following three years almost entirely with his own contributions. He conducted a Quarterly 1858-1860 which he devoted to the same interests. He acquired the Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and continental languages almost unaided, and lectured frequently on the intellectual and moral development of the middle ages. Subsequently, he turned his attention exclusively to the investigation of abstruse symbolism, and to cabalistic and Talmudic researches. He served as Grand Lecturer and Grand Secretary of The Grand Lodge of South Carolina as well as Secretary General of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States. He died in Fortress Monroe, Virginia