among the other nations of antiquity. Freemasonry has adopted the same
expedient, and the Grand Architect of the Universe, whom it is the usage,
even in ordinary writing, to designate by the initials G.A.O.T.U., is
accordingly presented to us in a variety of symbols, three of which
particularly require attention. These are the letter _G_, the equilateral
triangle, and the All-Seeing Eye.

Of the letter _G_ I have already spoken. A letter of the English alphabet
can scarcely be considered an appropriate symbol of an institution which
dates its organization and refers its primitive history to a period long
anterior to the origin of that language. Such a symbol is deficient in the
two elements of antiquity and universality which should characterize every
masonic symbol. There can, therefore, be no doubt that, in its present
form, it is a corruption of the old Hebrew symbol, the letter _yod_, by
which the sacred name was often expressed. This letter is the initial of
the word _Jehovah_, or _Ihoh_, as I have already stated, and is constantly
to be met with in Hebrew writings as the symbol or abbreviature of
_Jehovah_, which word, it will be remembered, is never written at length.
But because _G_ is, in like manner, the initial of _God_, the equivalent
of _Jehovah_, this letter has been incorrectly, and, I cannot refrain from
again saying, most injudiciously, selected to supply, in modern lodges,
the place of the Hebrew symbol.

Having, then, the same meaning and force as the Hebrew _yod_, the letter
_G_ must be considered, like its prototype, as the symbol of the
life-giving and life-sustaining power of God, as manifested in the meaning
of the word Jehovah, or Ihoh, the generative and prolific energy of the
Creator.

The _All-Seeing Eye_ is another, and a still more important, symbol of the
same great Being. Both the Hebrews and the Egyptians appear to have
derived its use from that natural inclination of figurative minds to
select an organ as the symbol of the function which it is intended
peculiarly to discharge. Thus the foot was often adopted as the symbol of
swiftness, the arm of strength, and the hand of fidelity. On the same
principle, the open eye was selected as the symbol of watchfulness, and
the eye of God as the symbol of divine watchfulness and care of the
universe. The use of the symbol in this sense is repeatedly to be found in
the Hebrew writers. Thus the Psalmist says (Ps. xxxiv. 15), "The eyes of
the Lo