discourse of a higher and abstruser mode of symbolism; and it may be
observed that, in coming to this topic, we arrive, for the first time, at
that chain of resemblances which unites Freemasonry with the ancient
systems of religion, and which has given rise, among masonic writers, to
the names of Pure and Spurious Freemasonry--the pure Freemasonry being
that system of philosophical religion which, coming through the line of
the patriarchs, was eventually modified by influences exerted at the
building of King Solomon's temple, and the spurious being the same system
as it was altered and corrupted by the polytheism of the nations of
heathendom.[64]

As this abstruser mode of symbolism, if less peculiar to the masonic
system, is, however, far more interesting than the one which was treated
in the previous essay,--because it is more philosophical,--I propose to
give an extended investigation of its character. And, in the first place,
there is what may be called an elementary view of this abstruser
symbolism, which seems almost to be a corollary from what has already been
described in the preceding article.

As each individual mason has been supposed to be the symbol of a spiritual
temple,--"a temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,"--the
lodge or collected assemblage of these masons, is adopted as a symbol of
the world.[65]

It is in the first degree of Masonry, more particularly, that this
species of symbolism is developed. In its detail it derives the
characteristics of resemblance upon which it is founded, from the form,
the supports, the ornaments, and general construction and internal
organization of a lodge, in all of which the symbolic reference to the
world is beautifully and consistently sustained.