See _Apron_.

LAW, ORAL. See _Oral Law_.

LEGEND. A narrative, whether true or false, that has been traditionally
preserved from the time of its first oral communication. Such is the
definition of a masonic legend. The authors of the Conversations-Lexicon,
referring to the monkish Lives of the Saints which originated in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, say that the title _legend_ was given to
all fictions which make pretensions to truth. Such a remark, however
correct it may be in reference to these monkish narratives, which were
often invented as ecclesiastical exercises, is by no means applicable to
the legends of Freemasonry. These are not necessarily fictitious, but are
either based on actual and historical facts which have been but slightly
modificd, or they are the offspring and expansion of some symbolic idea in
which latter respect they differ entirely from the monastic legends, which
often have only the fertile imagination of some studious monk for the
basis of their construction.

LEGEND OF THE ROYAL ARCH DEGREE. Much of this legend is a mythical
history; but some portion of it is undoubtedly a philosophical myth. The
destruction and the reedification of the temple, the captivity and the
return of the captives, are matters of history; but many of the details
have been invented and introduced for the purpose of giving form to a
symbolic idea.

LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. In all probability this legend is a mythical
history, in which truth is very largely and preponderatingly mixed with
fiction.

It is the most important and significant of the legendary symbols of
Freemasonry.

Has descended from age to age by oral tradition, and has been preserved in
every masonic rite.

No essential alteration of it has ever been made in any masonic system,
but the interpretations of it have been various; the most general one is,
that it is a symbol of the resurrection and the immortality of the soul.

Some continental writers have supposed that it was a symbol of the
downfall of the Order of Templars, and its hoped-for restoration. In some
of the high philosophical degrees it is supposed to be a symbol of the
sufferings, death, and resurrection Christ. Hutchinson thought it a symbol
of the decadence of the Jewish religion, and the rise of the Christian on
its ruins. Oliver says that it symbolically refers to the murder of Abel,
the death of our race through Adam, and its restoration through Christ.

Ragon thi