TRINITY, RELIGIOUS FRATERNITY OF THE HOLY.
Instituted at Rome by Saint Philip Neri in 1548.
TRINOSOPHS.
The Lodge of the Trinosophs was instituted at Paris by the celebrated Ragon, October 15, 1816, and installed by the Crand Orient, January 11, 1817. The Word Triposophs is derived from the Greek and signifies Students of three Sciences, in allusion to the three primitive degrees, which were the especial object of study by the members; although they adopted both the French and Scottish Rites, to whose high Degrees, however, they gave their own philosophical interpretation. It was before this Lodge that Ragon delivered his Interpretative and Philosophic Course of Initations. The dodge was composed of some of the most learned freemasons of France, and played an important part in Masonic literature.
No Lodge in France has obtained so much celebrity as did the Trinosophs. It was connected with a Chapter and Council in which the advanced Degrees were conferred, but the Lodge confined itself to the three Symbolic Degrees, which it faithfully sought to preserve in the utmost purity.
TRIPITAKA.
A compound Word among the Hindus, Tri, meaning three and Pitaka, basket. The canonical book of the Buddhists, written two hundred years after the third Oecumenical Council, or about 60 B.C. The former Asiatic doctrines having become intolerable Sakya, a reformer in religion, rejected the god Brahma, and the holy books of the Veda, the sacrifices at other rites, and said: "My law is grace for all." These Sacred writings of the Hindus were called the Three Baskets. the Basket of Laws, the Basket of Discipline, and the Basket of Doctrincs. The first Basket is called Dharma, and relates to the law for man; the second, Vinaya, and relates to the discipline of the priests; and the third, Abhidharma, and pertains to the gods.
TRIPLE ALLIANCE.
An expression in the advanced Degrees, which, having been translated from the French instructions, should have more properly been the Triple Covenant. It is represented by the Triple Triangle, and refers to the Covenant of God With his people, that of King Solomon with Hiram of Tyre, and that which binds the Fraternity of Freemasons.
TRIPLE TAU.
The Tau Cross, or Cross of Saint Anthony, is a Cross in the form of a Greek T. The Triple Tau is a figure formed by three of these crosses meeting in a point, and therefore resembling a letter T resting on the traverse bar of an H. This emblem, placed in the center of a Triangle and Circle—both emblems of the Deity—constitutes the jewel of the Royal .Arch as practised in England where it is so highly esteemed as to be called the ''emblem of all emblems,'' and "the grand emblem of Royal Arch Masonry." It was adopted in the same form as the Royal Arch badge, by the General Grand Chapter of the United States in 1859; although it had previously been very generally recognized by American Freemasons. It is also found in the Capitular Freemasonry of Scotland (see Royal Arch Badge).
The original signification of this emblem has been variously explained. Some suppose it to include the initials of the Temple of Jerusalem, T. H., Templum Hierosolymse; others, that it is a symbol of the mystical union of the Father and Son, H. signifying Jehovah, and T. or the cross, the Son. A writer in Moore's Magazine ingeniously supposes it to be a representation of three T-squares, and that it alludes to the three jewels of the three ancient Grand Masters. It has also been said that it is the monogram of Hiram of Tyre; and others assert that it is only a modification of the Hebrew letter shin, 0, which was one of the Jewish abbreviations of the sacred name.
Doctor Oliver thinks, from its connection with the circle and triangle in the Royal Arch jewel, that it was intended to typify the a sacred name as the Author of Eternal Life. Old English Royal Arch lectures say that by its in tersection it forms a given number of angles that may be taken in five regular combinations; and, reduced, their amount in right angles will be found equal to the five Platonic bodies which represent the four elements and the sphere of the Universe."
Amid so many speculations, Doctor Mackey felt that he need not hesitate to offer one of his own. The Prophet Ezekiel speaks of the tau or tau cross as the Mark distinguishing those who were to he saved, on account of their sorrow for their sins, from those who, as idolaters, were to be slain. It was a mark or sign of favorable distinction; and with this allusion we may, therefore, suppose the triple tau to be used in the Royal Arch Degree as a mark designating and separating those who know and worship the true name of God from those who are ignorant of that august mystery (see Three).
TRIPOLI.
Italian territory in Northern Africa on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The Grand Orient of Italy controls three Lodges at Tripoli City and others at Bengazi, Derna and Homs.
TRIVIUM.
See Quadrivium and Liberal Arts and Sciences.
TROWEL.
An implement of Operative Masonry, which has been adopted by Speculative Freemasons as the peculiar working-tool of the Master's Degree. By this implement, and its use in Operative Masonry to spread the cement which binds all the parts of the building into one common mass, we are taught to spread the cement of affection and kindness, which unites all the members of the Masonic family, wheresoever dispersed over the globe, into one companionship of Brotherly Love and an old custom in an Oxford I,odge, England, gave it prominence as a jewel, and as a symbol it goes back to the practice of the Antiento.
Today this implement is considered the appropriate working-tool of a Master Mason, because, in Operative Masonry, while the Apprentice is engaged in preparing the rude materials, which require only the Gage and Gavel to give them their proper shape. the Fellow Craft places them in their proper position by means of the Plumb, Level, and Square; but the Master Mason alone, having examined their correctness and proved them true and trusty, secures them permanently in their place by spreading, with the trowel, the cement that irrevocably binds them together.
The Trowel has also been adopted as the jewel of the Select Master. But its uses in this Degree are not symbolical. They are simply connected with the historical legend of the Degree.
TROWEL AND SWORD
When Nehemiah received from Artaxerxes Longimanus the appointment of Governor of Judea, and was permitted to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and to restore the city to its former fortified condition, he met with great opposition from the Persian Satraps, or Governors, who were envious of his favor with the King, and from the heathen inhabitants of Samaria, who were unwilling to see the city again resume its pristine importance. The former undertook to injure him with Artaxerxes by false reports of his seditious designs to restore the independent Kingdom of Judea. The latter sought to obstruct the workmen of Nehemiah in their labors, and openly attacked them. Nehemiah took the most active measures to refute the insidious accusations of the first, and to repel the more open violence of the latter. Josephus says in his Antiquities (Book xi, chapter vi, section 8), that he gave orders that the Builders should keep their ranks, and have their armor on while they were building; and, accordingly, the Mason had his sword on as well as he that brought the materials for building.
Zerubbabel had met with similar opposition from the Samaritans while rebuilding the Temple; and although the events connected with Nehemiah's restoration of the walls occurred long after the completion of the second Temple, yet the Freemasons have in the advanced Degrees referred them to the time of Zerubbabel. Hence in the Fifteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or the Knight of the East, which refers to the building of the Temple of Zerubbabel, we find this combination of the Trowel and the Sword adopted as a symbol. The old instructions of that degree say that Zerubbabel, being informed of the hostile intentions of the false Brethren from Samaria, bordered that all the workmen should be armed with the Trowel in one hand and the Sword in the other, that while they worked with the one they might be enabled to defend themselves with the other, and ever repulse the enemy if they should dare to present themselves."
In reference to this idea, but not with chronological accuracy, the Trowel and Sword have been placed crosswise as symbols on the Tracing-Board of the English Royal Arch.
Doctor Oliver correctly interprets the symbol of the Trowel and Sword as signifying that, "next to obedience to lawful authority, a manly and determined resistance to lawless violence is an essential part of social duty."
TROWEL, SOCIETY OF THE.
Vasari, in his Loves of the Painters and Sculptors, and referring to the life of G. F. Rustici, says that about the year 1512 there was established at Florence an Association which counted among its members some of the most distinguished and learned inhabitants of the city. It was the Societa delta Cucchiara, or the Society of the Trowel. Vasari adds that its symbols were the trowel, the Hammer, the Square, and the Level, and had for its patron Saint Andrew, which makes Reghellini think, rather illogically, that it had some relation to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Lenning, too, says that this Society was the first appearance of Freemasonry in Florence. It is to be regretted that such misstatements of Masonic history should be encouraged by writers of learning and distinction.
The perusal of the account of the formation of this society, as given by Vasari, shows that it had not the slightest connection with Freemasonry. It was simply a festive association, or dinner-club of Florentine artists; and it derived its title from the accidental circumstance that certain painters and sculptors, dining together in a garden, found not far from their table a mass of mortar, in which a trowel was sticking. Some rough jokes passed thereupon, in the casting of the mortar on each other, and the calling for the trowel to scrape it off. Whereupon they resolved to form an association to dine together annually, and, in memorial of the ludicrous event that had led to their establishment, they called themselves the Society of the Trowel.
TRUE KINDRED, ORDER OF.
Benjamin Franklin is credited in the literature of the Order with receiving the degrees in England and bringing the Ritual to America where we are also told it was conferred upon George Washington, he in turn communicating the ceremonies to his wife and that for years it therefore received the name of the Martha Washington Degree. The legend and instruction are taken from the Bible, particularly Genesis iv, 18-23; Ruth i-ii; First Kings vii, 21; Second Chronicles iii, 17, and Proverbs xxxi, 19. Members must be the own kin—hence the name—of Master Masons.
There are three Degrees, True Kindred, Heroine of Jericho, and Good Samaritan, the second obtained after six months probation, the third after one year of the second. A Royal Arch Mason, Prude Parsons of Whitewater, Wisconsin, conferred the Degree in 1853 upon his daughter and the daughter of a Masonic friend. Mrs. J. Mathews of Rockland, Wisconsin, received the Degree in the early fifties which then was known as the Lady Washington or Martha Washington Degree which during the first part of the Civil War period is credited with many members in Virginia. Several Freemasons in 1894 at San Francisco organized Conclaves.
Among the Californian members was Mrs. M. E. De Geer Gilmore who moved to Chicago and continued the work there until 1905. In the fall of that year the Order was reorganized at the request of several Conclaves. Rituals of 1847, 1851, and 1895 were reported, a Ritual Committee appointed, and a Supreme National Conclave established. The work of the Committee was adopted, but at a meeting of the National Body in Chicago, March 2-3, 1911, a Committee was again appointed which exemplified a Ritual and this, with amendments, was approved, April 10-17, 1911.
TRUE LIGHT.
Relating to the Latin expression, Sit lux et lux fuit, meaning Let there be Light, and there was Light (see Fiat Lux et Lux fit). However, the Latin edition of the Bible gives the words Fiat Lux et facta est Lux (Genesis i, 3). The words Sit Lox et Lux Suit are on a jewel dated 5758 (1758) owned by Brother John T. Thorp, Lodge of Research, Leicester, England. The translation from the Hebrew Bible Of this passage (Genesis i, 1-5! so often quoted in Freemasonry, is:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And'God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Here we may appropriately introduce an old verse of rare quaintness and appeal, credited to Adam de Saint Victor by the Roberts edition of Hoyt's Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations, and taken from a Latin hymn said to have been sung at the deathbed of William the Conqueror, King of England, who died in 1087 A. D.
Now that the sun is gleaming bright,
Implore we, bending low,
That He, the Uncreated Light
Play guide us as we go.
TRUE MASONS.
See Academy of True Masons.
TRURO CATHEDRAL.
A Protestant edifice erected at a seaport of Cornwall, England, standing at the junction of two rivers, the Allen and the Kenwyn. On the 20th of May, 1880, the Grand Master of Freemasons, the Prince of Wales, laid two cornerstones of the Cathedral with great pageantry, pomp, and ceremony. This was the first time a Grand Master of Freemasons m England was known to lay the corner-stone of an ecclesiastical structure; this was, also, the first occasion on which the then Grand Master had performed sueh a service, in Masonic clothing, surrounded with his staff and officers, in rich robes and in the costume of Freemasonry.
TRUST IN GOD.
Every candidate on his initiation is required to declare that his trust is in God. He who denies the existence of a Supreme Being is debarred the privilege of initiation, for atheism is a disqualification for Freemasonry. This pious principle has distinguished the Fraternity from the earliest period; and it is a happy coincidence, that the Company of Operative Masons instituted in 1477 should have adopted, as their motto, the truly Masonic sentiment, "The Lord is all our Trust."
TRUTH.
The real object of Freemasonrv, in a philosophical and religious sense, is the search for truth. This truth is, therefore, symbolized by the Word. From the first entrance of the Apprentice into the Lodge, until his reception of the highest degree, this search is continued. It is not always found and a substitute must sometimes be provided. Yet whatever be the labors he performs, whatever the ceremonies through which he passes, whatever the symbols in which he may be instructed, whatever the final reward he may obtain, the true end of all is the attainment of Truth.
This idea of truth is not the same as that expressed in the lecture of the First Degree, where Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth are there said to be the "three great tenets of a Mason's profession." In that connection, Truth, which is called a "Divine Attribute, the foundation of every virtue," is synonymous with Sincerity, honesty of expression, and plain dealing. The higher idea of truth which pervades the whole Masonic system, and which is symbolized by the Word, is that which is properly expressed to a knowledge of God.
There was an Egyptian goddess named in the Hebrew, Thm, or Thme, meaning integritas, or Justice and Truth.
This one of the three great Masonic principles is represented among the Egyptians by an ostrich feather; and the judicial officer was also thus represented, "because that bird, unlike others, has all its feathers equal," Horapollo. The Hebrew word ion, signifies an Ostrich, as also a Council; and the word Rnne, is interpreted, poetically, an ostrich, and also a song of joy, or of Praise; hence, "the happy souls thus ornamented, under the inspection of the lords of the heart's joy, gathered fruits from celestial trees." In the judgment in Amenti, the soul advances toward the goddess Thme, who wears on her head the ostrich feather. In the scale, Anubis and Horus weigh the actions of the deceased On one side is the ostrich feather, and on the other the vase containing the heart. Should the weight of the heart be greater than the feather, the soul is entitled to be received into the celestial courts. The forty-two judges, with heads ornamented with ostrich feathers, sit aloft to pronounce judgment (see Book of the Dead ).
TRYONISTS.
Those Pythagoreans who abstained from animal food.
TSAPHIEL.
The Hebrew word Mirans Deus, the angel governing the Moon, in accordance with the Cabalistical system.
TSCHOUDY, LOUIS THEODORE.
Miehaud spells the name Tschudi, but Lenning, Thory, Ragon, Oliver, and all other Masonic writers, give the name as Tschoudy, which form, therefore, we adopt as the most usual, if not the most correct, spelling. Baron de Tschoudy was born at Metz, in 1720. He was descended from a family originally of the Swiss Canton of Glaris, but which had been established in France since the commencement of the sixteenth century. He was a Counselor of State and member of the Parliament of Metz; but the most important events of his life are those which connect him with the Masonic institution, of which he was a zealous and learned investigator. He was one of the most active apostles of the school of Ramsay, and adopted his theory of the Templar origin of Freemasonry.
Having obtained permission from the King to travel, he went to Italy, in 1752, under the assumed name of the Chevalier de Lussy. There he excited the anger of the Papal Court by the publication at the Hague, in the same year, of a book entitled Etrenne au Pape, ou les Francs-Maçons Vengés, that is, A New Year's Gift for the Pope, or the Free Masons Avenged. This was a caustic commentary on the Bull of Benedict XIV excommunicating the Freemasons. It was followed, in the same year, by another work entitled, Le Vatican Vengé that is, The Vatican Avenged; an ironical apology, intended as a Sequence to the former book. these two works subjected him to such persecution by the Church that he was soon compelled to Seek safety in flight.
Brother Tschoudy next repaired to Russia, where his means of living became so much impaired that, Michaud says, he was compelled to enter the company of comedians of the Empress Elizabeth. From this condition he was relieved by Count Ivan Schouwalon, who made him his Private Secretary. He was also appointed the Secretary of the Academy of Moscow, and Governor of the pages at the Court. But this advancement of his fortunes, and the fact of his being a Frenchman, created for him many enemies, and he was compelled at length to leave Russia, and return to France. There, however, the persecutions of his enemies pursued him, and on his arrival at Paris he was sent to the Bastile. But the intercession of his mother with the Empress Elizabeth and with the Grand Duke Peter was successful, and he was speedily restored to liberty. He then retired to Metz, and for the rest of his life devoted himself to the task of Masonic reform and the fabrication of new systems.
The Council of Knights of the East was established in 1762, at Paris. Ragon says (Orthodoxie Maçonnique, page 137) that "its ritual was corrected by the Baron de Tschoudy, the author of the Blazing Star." But this is an error. Tschoudy was then at Metz, and his work and system of the Blazing Star did not appear until four years afterward. It is at a later date that Tschoudy became connected with the Council.
He published, in connection with Bardon-Duhamel, his most important work, in 1766, entitled L'Etoile Flamboyante, ou la Societé d es Francs-Maçons considerée sous tous les Aspects, that is, The Blazing Star, or the Society of Freemasons considered under Every Point of View.
The same year he repaired to Paris, with the declared object of extending his Masonic system. He then attached himself to the Council of Knights of the East, which, under the guidance of the tailor Pirlet, had seceded from the Council of Emperors of the East and West. Tschoudy availed himself of the ignorance and of the boldness of Pirlet to put his plan of reform into execution by the creation of new Degrees.
In Tschoudy's system, however, as developed in the L'Etoile Flamboyante, he does not show himself to be the advocate of the advanced Degrees, which, he says, are "an occasion of expense to their dupes, and an abundant and lucrative resource for those who make a profitable traffic of their pretended instructions." He recognizes the three Symbolic Degrees because their gradations are necessary in the Lodge, which he viewed as a school; and to these he adds a superior class, which may be called the architects, or by any other name, provided we attach to it the proper meaning.
All the advanced Degrees he calls "Masonic reveries," excepting two, which he regards as containing the secret, the object, and the essence of Freemasonry, namely, the Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew and the Knight of Palestine. The former of these Degrees was composer by Tschoudy, and its ritual, which he bequeathed, with other manuscripts, to the Council of Knights of the East and West, was published in 1780, under the title of Ecossais de Saint André, contenant le développement total de l'art royal de la Franche-Maçonnerie, or Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew, containing the entire development of the Royal Arch of Freemasonry Subsequently, on the organization of the Ancient and Accepted ,Scottish Rite, the Degree was adopted as the Twenty-ninth of its series, and is considered as one of the most important and Philosophic of the ,Scottish system. Its fabrication is, indeed, an evidence of the intellectual genius of its inventor.
Ragon, in his Orthodoxie Maçonnique , attributes to Tschoudy the fabrication of the Rite of Adoniramite Freemasonry, and the authorship of the Recueil Precieux, meaning Choice Collection, which contains the description of the Rite. But the first edition of the Recueil, with the acknowledged authorship of Guillemain de Saint Victor, appeared in 1781. This is probably about the date of the introduction of the Rite, and is just twelve years after Tschoudy had gone to his eternal rest. Tschoudy also indulged in light literature, and several romances are attributed to him, the only one of whieh now known, entitled Thérese Philosophe, does not add to his reputation.
Chemins Despontés (Encyclopédie Maçonnique i, page 143) says: "The Baron Tschoudy, whose birth gave him a distinguished rank in society, left behind him the reputation of an excellent man, equally remarkable for his social virtues, his genius, and his military talents." Such appears to have been the general opinion of those who were his contemporaries or his immediate successors He died at Paris, May 28, 1769
TSEDAKAH.
The Hebrew word, meaning Justice The first step of the Mystieal Ladder, known to the Kadosh, Thirtieth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted,Scottish Rite.
TSIDONI.
Hebrew word, the Latin Venator meaning also Hunter, Seeker or Inquirer A name used in the Twenty-second Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
TSOIM.
The Hebrew word, A term used infrequently to designate visitors.
TUAPHOLL.
A term employed by the Druids to designate an unhallowed circumambulation of the sacred Cairn, or altar; the movement being against the sun, that is, from West to East by the North, the Cairn being on the left hand of the circumambulator.
TUBAL CAIN.
Of Tubal Cain, the sacred writings, as well ats the Masonic legends, give us but scanty information. All that we hear of him in the Book of Genesis is that he was the son of Lamech and Zillah, and was "an instructor of every artifices in brass and iron." The Hebrew original does not justify the common version, for lotesh, does not mean "an instructor," but "a sharpener "—one who whets or sharpens instruments. Hence Doctor Raphall translates the passage as one "who sharpened various tools in copper and iron." The authorized version has, however, almost indelibly impressed the character of Tubal Cain as the Father of Artifieers; and it is in this sense that he has been introduced from a very early period into the legendary history of Freemasonry.
The first Masonic reference to Tubal Cain is found in the Legend of the Craft, where he is called the Founder of Smith-Craft, an explanation agreeing closely with modern biblical scholarship which designates him as the "Founder of the Gild of Smiths or Metal Workers." We cite this part of the legend from the Dowland Manuscript simply beceause of its more modern orthography; but the story is substantially the same in all the old manuscript Constitutions. In that manuscript we five find the following account of Tubal Cain:
Befor Noah's flood there was a man called Lamech, as it is written in the Bible, in the fourth Chapter of Genesis; and this Lamech had two wives, the one named Ada and the other named Zilla by his first wife Ada, he got two sons, the one Jubal, and the other Jabal: and by the other wife he got a son and a daughter. And these four children founded the beginning of all the sciences in the world. The elder son Jabal, founded the science ogeometry, and he carried flocks of sheep and lambs into the fields, and first built houses of stone and wood, as it is noted in the chapter above named. And his brother Jubal founded the science of music and songs of the tongue, the harp and organ. And the third brothers Tubal Cain, founded smith-craft , of gold, silver, copper, iron, and steel, and the daughter founded the art of weaving. And these children knew well that God would take vengeance for sin, either by fire or water, wherefore they wrote the sciences that they lead found, on two pillars that they might be found after Noah's flood. The one pillar was marble, for that would not burn with fire, and the other was clepped laterns and would not drown in noe water.
Similar to this an old Rabbillical tradition, which asserts that Jubal, who was the inventor of writing as well as of music, having heard Adam say that the universe would be twice destroyed, once by fire and once by water, inquired Which catastrophe would first occur; but Adam refusing to inform him he inscribed the system of music Which he had invented upon two pillars of stone and briefs A more modern Masonic tradition ascribes the construction of these pillars to Enoch. To this amount of Tubal Cain must he added the additional particulars, recorded by Josephus, that he exceeded all men in strength, and was renowned for his warlike achievements.
The only other account of the proto-metallurgist that we meet with in any ancient author is that which is contained in the celebrated fragment of Sanconiatho, who refers to him under the name of Chrysor, which is evidently, as Bochart affirms, a corruption of the Hebrew chores ur, a worker in fire, that is, a smith. Sanconiatho was a Phenician author, who is supposed to have flourished before the Trojan war, probably, as Sir William Drummond suggests, about the time when Gideon was Judge of Israel, and who collected the different accounts and traditions of the origin of the world which were extant at the period in which he lived. A fragment only of this cork has been preserved, which, translated into Greek by Philo Byblius, was inserted by Eusebitls in his Praepario Evangelica, and has thus been handed down to the present day. That portion of the history by Sanconiatho, which refers to Tubal Cain, is contained in the following words:
A long time after the generation of Hypsoaranios. the inventors of hunting and fishing, Agreas and Alieas, were born: after whom the people were called hunters and fishers, and from whom sprang two brothers, when discovered iron, and the manner of working it. one of these two, called Chrysor, was skilled in eloquence, and composed verses and prophecies. He was the .same with Hephaistos, and invented fishing-hooks, bait for taking fishes cordage and rafts, and was the first of all mankind who had navigated. He was therefore worshiped as a god after his death, and was called Diamichios
It is said that these brothers were the first who contrived partition walls of brick.
Hephaistos, it will be observed, is the Greek of the god who was called by the Romans Vulcan. Hence the remark of Sanconiatho, and the apparent similarity of names as well as occupations, have led some
writers of the last, and even of the present, century to derive Vulcan from Tubal Cain by a process not very
devious and therefore familiar to etymologists. By the omission in Tubal Cain of the initial T. which is
the Phenician article, and its valueless vowel, we get Balcan, which, by the interchangeable nature of B
and V, is easily transformed to Vulcan.
"That Tubal Cain," says Bishop Edw. Stillingfleet (Origines Sacrae, or a Rational Account of the Christian faith as to the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures and the Matters therein contained, 1662, page 292), "gave first occasion to the name and worship of Vulcan, hath been very probably conceived, both from the very great affinity of the names, and that Tubal Cain is expressly mentioned to be an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron, and as near relation as Apollo had to Vulcan, tubal had to Tubal Cain, who was the inventor of music, or the father of all such as handle the harp and organ, which the Greeks attribute to Apollo."
Vossius, in his treatise De Idolatria (book i, chapter 36), makes this derivation of Vulcan from Tubal Cain. But Bryant, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology (volume i, page 139), denies the etymology and says that among the Egyptians and Babylonians, Vulcan was equivalent to Horus or Osiris, symbols of the sun. He traces the name to the words Baal Cahen, Holy Bel, or Sacred Lord. Bryant's etymology may be adopted, however, without any interference with the identity of Vulcan and Tubal Cain. He who discovered the uses of fire, may well, in the corruptions of idolatry, have typified the solar orb, the source of all heat.
It might seem that Tubal is an attribute compounded of the definite particle T and the word Baal, signifying Lord. Tubal Cain would then signify the Lord Cain. Again, dhu or du, in Arabic, signifies Lord, and we trace the same signification of this affix in its various interchangeable forms of Du, Tu, and Di, in many Semitic words. But the question of the identical origin of Tubal Cain and Vulcan has at length been settled by the researches of comparative philologists. Tubal Càin is Semitic in origin, and Vulcan is Aryan. The latter may be traced to the Sanskrit ulka, meaning a firebrand, from which we get also the Latin fulgur and fulmen, names of the lightning.
From the mention made of Tubal Cain in the Legend of the Craft, the word was long ago adopted as significant in the primary Degrees, and various attempts have been made to give it an interpretation. Hutchinson, in an article in his Spirit of Masonry, devoted to the consideration of the Third Degree, has the following reference (page 162) to the word:
The Mason advancing to this state of Masonry, pronounces his own sentence as confessional of the imperfection of the second stage of his profession, and as probationary of the exalted Degree to which he aspires, in this Greek distich, T, Struo tumulum: ' I prepare mar sepulchre: I make my grave in the pollutions of the earth. I am under the shadow of death.' This distich has been vulgarly corrupted among us. and an expression takes place scarcely similar in sound, and entirely inconsistent with Masonry, and unmeaning in itself .
But however ingenious this interpretation of our Brother Hutchinson may be, it is generally admitted to be incorrect.
The modern English Freemasons, and through them the French, have derived Tubal Cain from the Hebrew tebel, meaning earth and kanah to acquire possession, and, with little respect for the grammatical rules of the Hebrew language, interpret it as meaning worldly possessions.
In the Hemming lectures, now the authorized English system, we find that the answer to the question, "What does Tubal Cain denote?" is "Worldly possessions." And Delaunay, in his Thuilleur (page 17), denies the reference to the proto-smith, and says: "If we reflect on the meaning of the two Hebrew words, we will easily recognize in their connection the secret wish of the hierophant, of the Templar, of the Freemason, and of every mystical sect, to govern the world in accordance with its own principles and its own laws." It is fortunate, we think, that the true meaning of the words will authorize no such interpretation. The fact is, that even if Tubal Cain were derived from tebel and kanah, the precise rules of Hebrew construction would forbid affixing to their union any such meaning as "worldly possessions." Such an interpretation of it in the French and English systems was, therefore, in Doctor Mackey's opinion, a very forced and inaccurate one.
The use of Tubal Cain as a significant word in the Masonic instructions is derived from the Legend of the Craft, by which the name was made familiar to the Operative and then to the Speculative Freemasons; and it refers not symbolically, but historically to his Scriptural and traditional reputation as an artificer. If he symbolized anything, it would be labor; and a Freemason's labor is to acquire truth, and not worldly possessions. The English and French interpretation has never been introduced into the United States.
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