nks that it is a symbol of the sun shorn of its vigor by the
three winter months, and restored to generative power by the spring. And
lastly, Des Etangs says that it is a symbol of eternal reason, whose
enemies are the vices that deprave and finally destroy humanity.

But none of these interpretations, except the first, can be sustained.

LETTUCE. The sacred plant of the Mysteries of Adonis; a symbol of
immortality, and the analogue of the acacia.

LEVEL. One of the working tools of a Fellow Craft. It is a symbol of the
equality of station of all men before God.

LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES. In the seventh century, all learning was
limited to the seven liberal arts and sciences; their introduction into
Freemasonry, referring to this theory, is a symbol of the completion of
human learning.

LIGHT. It denotes truth and knowledge, and is so explained in all the
ancient systems; in initiation, it is not material but intellectual light
that is sought.

It is predominant as a symbol in all the ancient initiations.

There it was revered because it was an emanation trom the sun, the common
object of worship; but the theory advanced by some writers, that the
veneration of light originally proceeded from its physical qualities, is
not correct.

Pythagoras called it the good principle in nature; and the Cabalists
taught that eternal light filled all space before the creation, and that
after creation it retired to a central spot, and became the instrument of
the Divine Mind in creating matter.

It is the symbol of the autopsy, or the full perfection and fruition of
initiation.

It is therefore a fundamental symbol in Freemasonry, and contains within
itself the very essence of the speculative science.

LINGAM. The phallus was so called by the Indian nations of the East. See
_Phallus_.

LODGE. The place where Freemasons meet, and also the congregation of
masons so met. The word is derived from the _lodges_ occupied by the
travelling Freemasons of the middle ages.

It is a symbol of the world, or universe.

Its form, an oblong square, is symbolic of the supposed oblong form of the
world as known to the ancients.

LOST WORD. There is a masonic myth that there was a certain word which was
lost and afterwards recovered.

It is not material what the word was, nor how lost, nor when recovered:
the symbolism refers only to the abstract idea of a loss and a recovery.

It is a symbol of divine truth.

The search for it wa