ic incredulity, to reject them in a mass, as fabulous
inventions. In these extremes there is equal error. "The myth," says
Hermann, "is the representation of an idea." It is for that idea that the
student must search in the myths of Masonry. Beneath every one of them
there is something richer and more spiritual than the mere narrative.[153]
This spiritual essence he must learn to extract from the ore in which,
like a precious metal, it lies imbedded. It is this that constitutes the
true value of Freemasonry. Without its symbols, and its myths or legends,
and the ideas and conceptions which lie at the bottom of them, the time,
the labor, and the expense incurred in perpetuating the institution, would
be thrown away. Without them, it would be a "vain and empty show." Its
grips and signs are worth nothing, except for social purposes, as mere
means of recognition. So, too, would be its words, were it not that they
are, for the most part, symbolic. Its social habits and its charities are
but incidental points in its constitution--of themselves good, it is true,
but capable of being attained in a simpler way. Its true value, as a
science, consists in its symbolism--in the great lessons of divine truth
which it teaches, and in the admirable manner in which it accomplishes
that teaching. Every one, therefore, who desires to be a skilful Mason,
must not suppose that the task is accomplished by a perfect knowledge of
the mere phraseology of the ritual, by a readiness in opening and closing
a lodge, nor by an off-hand capacity to confer degrees. All these are good
in their places, but without the internal meaning they are but mere
child's play. He must study the myths, the traditions, and the symbols of
the order, and learn their true interpretation; for this alone constitutes
the science and the philosophy--the end, aim, and design of Speculative
Masonry.

XXVI.

The Legend of the Winding Stairs.

Before proceeding to the examination of those more important mythical
legends which appropriately belong to the Master's degree, it will not, I
think, be unpleasing or uninstructive to consider the only one which is
attached to the Fellow Craft's degree--that, namely, which refers to the
allegorical ascent of the Winding Stairs to the Middle Chamber, and the
symbolic payment of the workmen's wages.

Although the legend of the Winding Stairs forms an important tradition of
Ancient Craft Masonry, the only allusion to it in Sc