KEY therefore, not only content to pay the usual tribute, out charged themselves with greater expense on that account. Their USU!l" oatn. was "by the temple." This sect arose either during the eaptivity, or soon after the restoration. Scaliger contends that they were the source whence, in after times, sprung the Essenes, that body whose close connection with the Freenlasons has been so much insisted on by certain writers. I-Ience Lawrie infers their relationship to the architects who built the house of the Lord for Solomon, and calls them" Knights of the Tenlple of Jerusalem." They were, in fact, the conservators of masonry lI1IDong the Jews, and deposited it with their successors, the Essenians, who brought it down beyond the times of Christ.
KEY. The key was anciently an emblem of power, and as such bas been adopted as the jewel of the Treasurer in a Blue lodge, because he has the purse under his command. The key is also a symbol of silence and circumspection, and as such has been adopted as one of the emblems of the Royal Arch Tracing Board. 't The key," says Dr. Oliver, " is one of the most important symbols of .Jj'reemRsonry. It bears the appearance of a common metal instrument, confined to the perfornlance of one simpIe act. But the well instructed brother beholds in it the symbol which teaches hinl to keep a tongue of good report, and to abstain from the debasing vices of slander and defamation."*
KEY OF MASONRY.
See Knight 01 the Sun.
KEY-STONE. That stone placed in the centre of an aroh which preserves the others in their places, and secures firmness and stability to the arch. As it was formerly the custom of I'perative masons to place a peculiar mark on each stone of a building to designate the workman by whom it had been ad.. justed, so the Key-Stone was most likely to receive the most prominent mark,t bat of the superintendent of the structure~ • Uistorioal La.lld~a:r¼;8, 1.