The Science and Art of Religion (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Science and Art of Religion

The design exhibited on the cover has been taken from a jewel which is highly prized by freemasons, but I have ventured to place a blazing star in the centre, instead of the human face with the compasses and sphere. Freemasonry appears to me to represent the societies formed by Hebrew and Egyptian priests, and by priests of all ancient nations, to preserve the sacred symbolical language of primitive man before his degra dation; and freemasonry has especially to deal with the collection of sacred symbols made by Solomon and embodied in the Temple. The majority of freemasons probably see nothing in their society beyond a social and benevolent club, and are content to learn a ritual by rote without having any idea of its spiritual meaning, though they are taught that freemasonry is a system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbol. The essential teaching of freemasonry is the duty of striving after perfect archetypes, and especially of cultivating the mind to perfection by the worship of the Archetypal Mind. One of the earliest positive masonic commands was that given by God to Abram, Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.

The mind is composed of the intellect or reason, the emotion or feeling, and the will or volition, and these are surrounded and supported by the memory. The intellect corresponds to the brain, the emotion to the nerves. The will to the muscles, and the memory to the blood; while the spirit, or ego, or consciousness, is the life. The spirit is represented by the blazing star in the centre of the equilateral triangle, and the science and art of religion treat of the cultivation of the intellect, the emotion, and the will by the spirit: the mind is perfect when the three elements of mind are equally cultivated and in perfect harmony with one another; and the Circle which surrounds the triangle symbolizes perfection as well as memory. My design shows the perfect mind as existing after death, when the compasses and square will be no longer needed to correct deformi ties; but the masonic design represents Adam before the Fall, when, although his mind was perfect. He had to keep constantly on his guard against imperfection. The freemasons Show the spirit, or the man, as pro vided with the compasses, to indicate that man has been given a conscience to recognize the perfect, and that it is his duty to make his own mind perfect no matter how little his ability, since a circle is equally perfect whether large or small.

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