nder the name of the "oil of joy," to
indicate the expected propitious results of the consecration of any thing
or person to a sacred purpose.

OLIVE. In a secondary sense, the symbol of peace and of victory; but in
its primary meaning, like all the other Sacred plants of antiquity, a
symbol of immortality; and thus in the Mysteries it was the analogue of
the acacia of the Freemasons.

OLIVER. The Rev. George Oliver, D.D., of Lincolnshire, England, who died
in 1868, is by far the most distinguished and the most voluminous of the
English writers on Freemasonry. Looking to his vast labors and researches
in the arcana of the science, no student of masonry can speak of his name
or his memory without profound reverence for his learning, and deep
gratitude for the services that he has accomplished. To the author of this
work the recollection will ever be most grateful that he enjoyed the
friendship of so good and so great a man; one of whom we may testify, as
Johnson said of Goldsmith, that "nihil quod tetigit non ornavit." In his
writings he has traversed the whole field of masonic literature and
science, and has treated, always with great ability and wonderful
research, of its history, its antiquities, its rites and ceremonies, its
ethics, and its symbols. Of all his works, his "Historical Landmarks," in
two volumes, is the most important, the most useful, and the one which
will perhaps the longest perpetuate his memory. In the study of his works,
the student must be careful not to follow too implicitly all his
conclusions. These were in his own mind controlled by the theory which he
had adopted, and which he continuously maintained, that Freemasonry was a
Christian institution, and that the connection between it and the
Christian religion was absolute and incontrovertible. He followed in the
footsteps of Hutchinson, but with a far more expanded view of the masonic
system.

OPERATIVE MASONRY. Masonry considered merely as a useful art, intended for
the protection and the convenience of man by the erection of edifices
which may supply his intellectual, religious, and physical wants.

In contradistinction to Speculative Masonry, therefore, it is said to be
engaged in the construction of a material temple.

ORAL LAW. The oral law among the Jews was the commentary on and the
interpretation of the written contained in the Pentateuch; and the
tradition is, that it was delivered to Moses at the same time, accompanied
by the di