er step, and as the degree is
emblematic of youth, so it is here that the intellectual education of the
candidate begins. And therefore, here, at the very spot which separates
the Porch from the Sanctuary, where childhood ends and manhood begins, he
finds stretching out before him a winding stair which invites him, as it
were, to ascend, and which, as the symbol of discipline and instruction,
teaches him that here must commence his masonic labor--here he must enter
upon those glorious though difficult researches, the end of which is to be
the possession of divine truth. The Winding Stairs begin after the
candidate has passed within the Porch and between the pillars of Strength
and Establishment, as a significant symbol to teach him that as soon as he
has passed beyond the years of irrational childhood, and commenced his
entrance upon manly life, the laborious task of self-improvement is the
first duty that is placed before him. He cannot stand still, if he would
be worthy of his vocation; his destiny as an immortal being requires him
to ascend, step by step, until he has reached the summit, where the
treasures of knowledge await him.

The number of these steps in all the systems has been odd. Vitruvius
remarks--and the coincidence is at least curious--that the ancient temples
were always ascended by an odd number of steps; and he assigns as the
reason, that, commencing with the right foot at the bottom, the worshipper
would find the same foot foremost when he entered the temple, which was
considered as a fortunate omen. But the fact is, that the symbolism of
numbers was borrowed by the Masons from Pythagoras, in whose system of
philosophy it plays an important part, and in which odd numbers were
considered as more perfect than even ones. Hence, throughout the masonic
system we find a predominance of odd numbers; and while three, five,
seven, nine, fifteen, and twenty-seven, are all-important symbols, we
seldom find a reference to two, four, six, eight, or ten. The odd number
of the stairs was therefore intended to symbolize the idea of perfection,
to which it was the object of the aspirant to attain.

As to the particular number of the stairs, this has varied at different
periods. Tracing-boards of the last century have been found, in which only
_five_ steps are delineated, and others in which they amount to _seven_.
The Prestonian lectures, used in England in the beginning of this century,
gave the whole number as thir