, death became the symbol of
initiation; and hence among the Greeks the same word signified _to die_,
and _to be initiated_. In the British Mysteries, says Davies (Mythol. of
the British Druids), the novitiate passed the river of death in the boat
of Garanhir, the Charon of the Greeks; and before he could be admitted to
this privilege, it was requisite that he should have been mystically
buried, as well as mystically dead.

DEFINITION OF FREEMASONRY. The definition quoted in the text, that it is a
science of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, is the
one which is given in the English lectures.

But a more comprehensive and exact definition is, that it is a science
which is engaged in the search after divine truth.

DELTA. In the higher degrees of Masonry, the triangle is so called because
the Greek letter of that name is of a triangular form.

It is a symbol of Deity, because it is the first perfect figure in
geometry; it is the first figure in which space is enclosed by lines.

DEMETER. Worshipped by the Greeks as the symbol of the prolific earth. She
was the Ceres of the Romans. To her is attributed the institution of the
Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece, the most popular of all the ancient
initiations.

DESIGN OF FREEMASONRY. It is not charity or alms-giving.

Nor the cultivation of the social sentiment; for both of these are merely
incidental to its organization.

But it is the search after truth, and that truth is the unity of God, and
the immortality of the soul.

DIESEAL. A term used by the Druids to designate the circumambulation
around the sacred cairns, and is derived from two words signifying "on the
right of the sun," because the circumambulation was always in imitation of
the course of the sun, with the right hand next to the cairn or altar.

DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. An association of architects who possessed the
exclusive privilege of erecting temples and other public buildings in Asia
Minor. The members were distinguished from the uninitiated inhabitants by
the possession of peculiar marks of recognition, and by the secret
character of their association. They were intimately connected with the
Dionysiac Mysteries, and are supposed to have furnished the builders for
the construction of the temple of Solomon.

DIONYSIAC MYSTERIES. In addition to what is said in the text, I add the
following, slightly condensed, from the pen of that accomplished writer,
Albert Pike: "The initiates