Correspondece.

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM , ILLUSTRATED . BY BEO . BOB . MARTIN , M . D ., PAST DEPUTY PROV . GRAND MASTER OF ^ SOTl'OLli ; AKD P . E . COM . OE KNIGHTS TEMPLAB , & C . ) To remain the unenlightened observers of certain forms and customs , and to witness from year to year the employment of peculiar symbols , still ignorant of their signification , is unworthy of the age in which we live . Few orders teem

more with emblems of mysterious import than does that of Freemasonry ; over the ori g in of some of these the dust and eobivebs of ages have accumulated , but patient investigation ivill clear them of their covering and establish the fact that they were not unmeaning baubles , but that they have been carefully handed down to us from , time immemorial by our

ancient brethren as the symbols and guards of onr mysteries . Some of them are so exclusive in their import as to admit of explanation only in our Lodges , with the usual regard to secrecy and caution ; while others , having peculiar meanings known only to tlie Craft , yet have equally belonged to the philosophy of the ancients , aud admit of more full and more

general elucidation—these may even become the subjects of written lectures without offering violence to the secret tenets of our Order . Of this class is the triangle or trowel , as it is called in Craft Masonry ; and in treating of it , my endeavour will be to prove it one of the most ancient and important of our symbols ; to trace it from the dawn of man ' s existence on the earth , through the dark ages of idolatry , to these , our more enlightened times ; and to show that although the name

and nature of that deity of whom we considered it an emblem , was and is for a season lost to some of the sons of men , tlie symbol itself in eA * eiy quarter of the globe lias invariably maintained a sacred signification . Six hundred and fifty-six years after the creation of man , and tivo thousand three hundred and forty-eight years before Christthe universal deluge destroyed all mankind excepting

, Noah and his family Noah ' s three sons were consequently the founders of nations . Japhet peopled the greater part of the west ; Ham , Africa , where he was worshipped as a god ; and Shem was honoured by the Hebrews his descendants . Smarting under the curse of their progenitor Noah , it was but a probable consequence that tho observances of the patriarch

would first be disregarded by thc family of Ham ; and accordingly wc trace the origin of idolatry to tho Phoenicians or ancient Egyptians , by whom signs , symbols , and hieroglyphical figures were employed as a means of preserving to their priests exclusively the secrets and mysteries of their ancient religion .

The triangle is tho most ancient of the postdiluvian symbols ; it was one of the hieratic or sacerdotal characters , abridged from tho lrieroglyphical signs adopted for the sake of convenience and expedition , and used by the priests in their records . The Abbe de Tressau , in his "Heathen Mythology" observes that in the temple of Jupiter Amnion , the figure of an equilateral triangle had reference to the division of the world ; he states that almost all the learned

men agree in considering that it refers to a confused tradition of the beginning of the world , nearly the same as related in the book of Genesis . Noah , say they , divided the earth among his three children , Shem , Ham , and Japhet . Africa became the possession of Ham , where he ivas afterwards known hy the name of Jupiter . In Egypt there was a city consecrated to him ; and the name of Ham bears great affinity to that of Hammon or Amnion , so celebrated among the nations of Africa .

Japhet , the second son of Noah , had for his share all the riiayitime parts of Asia , with the Archipelago and Europe , which caused him afterwards to be accounted god of the sea , and worshi pped under the title of Neptune . Shem , third son . Noah , had the rest of Asia , where the worship of fire j eciiuie almost general ; which occasioning conflagrations that consumed several cities , procured for him the title of 1 bito , or god of the infernal regions . Thus we see , in the earliest days of man ' s existence , " although a deviation from

the worship of the first great cause was permitted , still , in conformity with revelation , the idea of a triple godhead was established . The late Sir William Jones has satisfactorily traced the origin of all the people of the earth to these three roots , Shem , Ham , and Japhet , agreeably to the account rendered in the tenth chapter of GenesisIn the ninth chapter

. you will read : — " These are tho three sons of Noah , and " of them was the whole earth overspread . " On which the celebrated Wogan remarks : — " All mankind are of one blood and original , being descended of one common ancestor ; and are therefore all brethren , and as it were , of one family . This consideration shows not only the reasonableness of that

universal benevolence and kindness which God , the great Lord and Architect of all requires from us , but demonstrates the folly of that pride which puffs up one man against another . The rich and the poor meet together ; the Lord is the maker of them all , " A finer illustration of the level and the trowel than these words of Wogan convey , cannot possiblbe given .

y That learned author , Faber , in his " Mysteries of the Cabiri , " states that " under tilie name of Jupiter Amnion , or Protecting Father , Son of our Kindred ( the word amnion in Hebrew has this meaning)—there is no doubt but the Egyptians worshipped their progenitor Ham . His title of ( Ammon' was also employed by the Phoenicians as a

distinguishing form of appellation towards each other , as well as of solemn invocation to the Deity ; from which ancient precedent we use the title of ' Lord , ' and the French that of ' Seigneur , ' to distinguish nobles . " Tims then . the triangle was first employed as a sacred symbol in the land of Ham , deified and worshipped under the title of Jupiterand I now proceed to trace it into the

, possession of Japhet . Many of the characters of the Greek language had of themselves other than alphabetical meanings , having been hieroglyphics of the Phoenicians or Egyptians , descendants of Ham , who having migrated into Greece ( peopled by the descendants of Japhet ) , introduced many words from their own language , particularly those which

were employed in tlie new laws , customs , and religions which they carried with them into Greece ; and the Grecians in adopting their innovations made use of their terms , which quickly produced a confusion ofthe two languages—precisely in the same manner as our mother tongue admitted words and idioms from the successive conquerors of our country ,

until it became the mixed language which is noAv universally spoken among us . The most ancient Phoenician letters , introduced into Greece by Cadmus , were sixteen in number . About tho period of the Trojan war four more letters were added by Palamedes ; and many years after , Simonides , by adding four others , completed the Greek alp habet . From the works of Berosus ,