d
printers, and even as initial letters in books--everywhere one finds
the old, familiar emblems.[102] Square, Rule, Plumb-line, the perfect
Ashlar, the two Pillars, the Circle within the parallel lines, the
Point within the Circle, the Compasses, the Winding Staircase, the
numbers Three, Five, Seven, Nine, the double Triangle--these and other
such symbols were used alike by Hebrew Kabbalists and Rosicrucian
Mystics. Indeed, so abundant is the evidence--if the matter were in
dispute and needed proof--especially after the revival of symbolism
under Albertus Magnus in 1249, that a whole book might be filled with
it. Typical are the lines left by a poet who, writing in 1623, sings
of God as the great Logician whom the conclusion never fails, and
whose counsel rules without command:[103]

/P
Therefore can none foresee his end
Unless on God is built his hope.
And if we here below would learn
By Compass, Needle, Square, and Plumb,
We never must o'erlook the mete
Wherewith our God hath measur'd us.
P/

For all that, there are those who never weary of trying to find where,
in the misty mid-region of conjecture, the Masons got their immemorial
emblems. One would think, after reading their endless essays, that the
symbols of Masonry were loved and preserved by all the world--_except
by the Masons themselves_. Often these writers imply, if they do not
actually assert, that our order begged, borrowed, or cribbed its
emblems from Kabbalists or Rosicrucians, whereas the truth is exactly
the other way round--those impalpable fraternities, whose vague,
fantastic thought was always seeking a local habitation and a body,
making use of the symbols of Masonry the better to reach the minds of
men. Why all this unnecessary mystery--not to say mystification--when
the facts are so plain, written in records and carved in stone? While
Kabbalists were contriving their curious cosmogonies, the Masons went
about their work, leaving record of their symbols in deeds, not in
creeds, albeit holding always to their simple faith, and hope, and
duty--as in the lines left on an old brass Square, found in an ancient
bridge near Limerick, bearing date of 1517:

/P
Strive to live with love and care
Upon the Level, by the Square.
P/

Some of our Masonic writers[104]--more than one likes to admit--have
erred by confusing Freemasonry with Guild-masonry, to the discredit of
the former. Even Oliver once concluded that the secrets of the