Part 5 (2/2)
A people, as well as the sages, must learn to forget. If it neither learns the new nor forgets the old, it is fated, even if it has been royal for thirty generations. To unlearn is to learn; and also it is sometimes needful to learn again the forgotten. The antics of fools make the current follies more palpable, as fas.h.i.+ons are shown to be absurd by caricatures, which so lead to their extirpation. The buffoon and the zany are useful in their places. The ingenious artificer and craftsman, like Solomon, searches the earth for his materials, and transforms the misshapen matter into glorious workmans.h.i.+p. The world is conquered by the head even more than by the hands. Nor will any a.s.sembly talk forever. After a time, when it has listened long enough, it quietly puts the silly, the shallow, and the superficial to one side,--it thinks, and sets to work.
The human thought, especially in popular a.s.semblies, runs in the most singularly crooked channels, harder to trace and follow than the blind currents of the ocean. No notion is so absurd that it may not find a place there. The master-workman must train these notions and vagaries with his two-handed hammer. They twist out of the way of the sword-thrusts; and are invulnerable all over, even in the heel, against logic. The martel or mace, the battle-axe, the great double-edged two-handed sword must deal with follies; the rapier is no better against them than a wand, unless it be the rapier of ridicule.
The SWORD is also the symbol of _war_ and of the _soldier_. Wars, like thunder-storms, are often necessary to purify the stagnant atmosphere.
War is not a demon, without remorse or reward. It restores the brotherhood in letters of fire. When men are seated in their pleasant places, sunken in ease and indolence, with Pretence and Incapacity and Littleness usurping all the high places of State, war is the baptism of blood and fire, by which alone they can be renovated. It is the hurricane that brings the elemental equilibrium, the concord of Power and Wisdom. So long as these continue obstinately divorced, it will continue to chasten.
In the mutual appeal of nations to G.o.d, there is the acknowledgment of His might. It lights the beacons of Faith and Freedom, and heats the furnace through which the earnest and loyal pa.s.s to immortal glory.
There is in war the doom of defeat, the quenchless sense of Duty, the stirring sense of Honor, the measureless solemn sacrifice of devotedness, and the incense of success. Even in the flame and smoke of battle, the Mason discovers his brother, and fulfills the sacred obligations of Fraternity.
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_ princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.syria; 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 mult.i.tude 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, const.i.tuted 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 G.o.d 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, G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 yods, 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 circ.u.mstances 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.
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