Creator; hence the Egyptians made the perpendicular
and base the representatives of Osiris and Isis, while the hypothenuse
represented their child Horus. Dr. Lardner says (_Com. on Euclid_, p. 60)
of this problem, "Whether we consider the forty-seventh proposition with
reference to the peculiar and beautiful relation established by it, or to
its innumerable uses in every department of mathematical science, or to
its fertility in the consequences derivable from it, it must certainly be
esteemed the most celebrated and important in the whole of the elements,
if not in the whole range of mathematical science."

FOURTEEN. Some symbologists have referred the fourteen pieces into which
the mutilated body of Osiris was divided, and the fourteen days during
which the body of the builder was buried, to the fourteen days of the
disappearance of the moon. The Sabian worshippers of "the hosts of heaven"
were impressed with the alternate appearance and disappearance of the
moon, which at length became a symbol of death and resurrection. Hence
fourteen was a sacred number. As such it was viewed in the Osirian
Mysteries, and may have been introduced into Freemasonry with other relics
of the old worship of the sun and planets.

FREEMASONRY, DEFINITION OF. See _Definition_.

FREEMASONS, TRAVELLING. The travelling Freemasons were a society existing
in the middle ages, and consisting of learned men and prelates, under whom
were operative masons. The operative masons performed the labors of the
craft, and travelling from country to country, were engaged in the
construction of cathedrals, monasteries, and castles. "There are few
points in the history of the middle ages," says Godwin, "more pleasing to
look back upon than the existence of the associated masons; they are the
bright spot in the general darkness of that period; the patch of verdure
when all around is barren." _The Builder_, ix. 463

G

G. The use of the letter G in the Fellow Craft's degree is an anachronism.
It is really a corruption of, or perhaps rather a substitution for, the
Hebrew letter (yod), which is the initial of the ineffable name. As such,
it is a symbol of the life-giving and life-sustaining power of God.

G.A.O.T.U. A masonic abbreviation used as a symbol of the name of God, and
signifying the _Grand Architect of the Universe_. It was adopted by the
Freemasons in accordance with a similar practice among all the nations of
antiquity of noting the Divine