original and ideal form of freemasonry."

The comparison of masonry and alchemy remains true even if we work more
critically than Katsch, who is accused of many inaccuracies. I recall for
instance the later researches of the thorough and far-seeing Dr. Ludwig
Keller.

For the illumination of the darkness that has spread over the past of
freemasonry, Keller shows us (B. W. and Z., pp. 1, 2) the rich material of
symbolism that is offered the diligent student, first of all in the very
copious literature, printed matter, and especially in the manuscripts,
that is known by the name of Chemistry or Alchemy.

In the symbols of the alchemists, the rosicrucians, the Lodges, etc., "we
meet a language that has found acceptance among all occidental peoples in
analogous form, not indeed a letter or word language, but a language
nevertheless, a token or a symbol language of developed form, which is
evident even in the rock temples of the so-called catacombs, once called
latomies and loggie. The single images and symbols have something to say
only to the person who understands this language. To the man who does not
understand it, they say nothing and are not expected to say anything."

In reference to the symbol and image language, which was comprehensible
only to the initiated, we think naturally of the ancient mysteries. The
religious societies of the oldest Christians, in the centuries when
Christianity belonged in the Roman Empire to the forbidden cults, found a
possibility of existence before the law in the form of licensed societies,
i.e., as guilds, burial unions, and corporations of all sorts. The
primitive Christians were not the only forbidden sects that sought and
found this recourse. Under the disguise of schools, trade unions, literary
societies, and academies, there existed in the jurisdiction of the Roman
Empire, and later inside of the world church, organizations that before
the law were secular societies, but in the minds of the initiated were
associations of a religious character. Within these associations there
appeared very early a well developed system of symbols, which were adopted
for the purpose of actually maintaining, through the concealment
necessitated by circumstances, their unions and their implements and
customs--symbols that they chose as cloaks and that in the circle of the
initiated were explained and interpreted according to the teachings of
their cult.

Valuable monuments of this symbolism are