red with various sculptures.

Indeed, so universal was this stone-worship, that Higgins, in his
"_Celtic Druids_," says that, "throughout the world the first object of
idolatry seems to have been a plain, unwrought stone, placed in the
ground, as an emblem of the generative or procreative powers of nature."
And the learned Bryant, in his "_Analysis of Ancient Mythology_," asserts
that "there is in every oracular temple some legend about a stone."

Without further citations of examples from the religious usages of other
countries, it will, I think, be conceded that the cubical stone formed an
important part of the religious worship of primitive nations. But
Cudworth, Bryant, Faber, and all other distinguished writers who have
treated the subject, have long since established the theory that the pagan
religions were eminently symbolic. Thus, to use the language of Dudley,
the pillar or stone "was adopted as a symbol of strength and firmness,--a
symbol, also, of the divine power, and, by a ready inference, a symbol or
idol of the Deity himself." [229] And this symbolism is confirmed by
Cornutus, who says that the god Hermes was represented without hands or
feet, being a cubical stone, because the cubical figure betokened his
solidity and stability.[230]

Thus, then, the following facts have been established, but not precisely
in this order: First, that there was a very general prevalence among the
earliest nations of antiquity of the worship of stones as the
representatives of Deity; secondly, that in almost every ancient temple
there was a legend of a sacred or mystical stone; thirdly, that this
legend is found in the masonic system; and lastly, that the mystical stone
there has received the name of the "Stone of Foundation."

Now, as in all the other systems the stone is admitted to be symbolic,
and the tradition connected with it mystical, we are compelled to assume
the same predicates of the masonic stone. It, too, is symbolic, and its
legend a myth or an allegory.

Of the fable, myth, or allegory, Bailly has said that, "subordinate to
history and philosophy, it only deceives that it may the better instruct
us. Faithful in preserving the realities which are confided to it, it
covers with its seductive envelope the lessons of the one and the truths
of the other." [231] It is from this stand-point that we are to view the
allegory of the Stone of Foundation, as developed in one of the most
interesting and important sym