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PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

placing before him, in a compendious form, the matter scattered through many volumes, some of which are, in this country, rare and generally inaccessible, is the object of the Lexicon now presented to the public.

A work of this kind has, hitherto, I believe, been unknown in our language. Glossaries of all the arts and sciences abound, but Freemasonry is without its appropriate Dictionary. How I have supplied this defect is not for me, but for my readers, to judge.

The difficulties, however, of arranging the materials of an extensive subject in alphabetical order, for the first time, and without any preceding guide, are such, that it has been found impossible to avoid the omission, in their proper places, of a few articles. These have been added in a Supplement, to which the inspector is referred for any word which he shall fail to find in the body of the work.

This work, though the labour of years, is still, I know, imperfect. Yet, "with all its imperfections on its head," I present it to my brethren, because I know that I am not asking more than I shall receive, when I crave for its excellencies, their candid consideration-for its errors, their fraternal indulgence.

CHARLESTON, S. C., March 12, 1845.

A. G. MACKEY.

ADVERTISEMENT. TO THE SECOND EDITION.

SINCE the publication of the first edition of this work, my studies have continued to be directed to the History, Science and Antiquities of Freemasonry. Some of the results of a more extended reading, and more enlarged experience in this interesting field of literature, are now presented in the addition of more than an hundred new articles to this edition, and the enlargement of many of those which were contained in the first.

In many instances I have not, from the nature of the subjects, permitted myself to be as explicit as some of my readers might desire; for, in the spirit of the motto placed upon the title page, while I sought to explain without reserve all that is exoteric in our system, I have not removed the veil from that which in forbidden to be made public. Yet I trust that scattered hints in these instances, unintelligible to the profane, will be sufficient to lead the attentive Mason into that train of thought and speculation into which it was my object to direct him.

I again offer this work to my brethren, with the same confiding trust in their indulgence which inspired me on its first publication; to which is now added the obligation of gratitude for the kindness with which this contribution to the literature of Freemasonry has been received. ALBERT G. MACKEY.

CHARLESTON, S. C. Sept. 10, 1851.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION.

THE publishers of the Lexicon intending to issue a third edition, I have carefully revised the work, and added nearly a hundred new articles, so as to make it still more worthy of the patronage that has been already so liberally extended to it. Notwithstanding the fact, that it has been prepared for the press in a city distant from the author's residence -in consequence of which he has been unable to read the proofs with that diligence he would have desired-it is believed that the inspector will rarely have occasion to find fault with the typographical execution. The Lexicon has long since passed successfully through the ordeal of criticism; and the author now again submits it, with increased confidence, but with unabated gratitude, to the masonic public.

CHARLESTON, S. C., Jan. 1, 1855.

A. G. MACKEY, M. D.