SYMBOL

(Gr. «-u/t£oAov; from trvv, together, and fixXkiu, I throw.) A word of many meanings, although now commonly used in one only. 1. The primary meaning of the verb trv,uS<x.XXiiv expre es the act of several in constituting or throwing together portions to form a whole. Hence a-u/j-QoXov signified a treaty or agreement. (Arist. Polit.) And it seems to be in this sense that the creeds are termed by early ecclesiastical writers symbols: either because (as Augustine says) all the fundamental doctrines of Christianity are collected in them; or from the old traditionary story, related by Rufinus, that the creed called the Apostles' was formed by each of them contributing a sentence. {See Creed.) 2. The mind may be said to put together {trvf^SaXHiv) outward appearances, and collect from them the notion of a thing signified by them; and hence the outward appearances themselves derive the appellation of symbols, signs, or emblems; while the act of the mind is termed conjecture (Lat. conjicio). Thus, the standards of military bodies were called by the Greeks symbols; as likewise omens and portents; and expre ions or figures denoting a received meaning, as the Pythagore.in symbols. In this sense, the early Christian church called 1201 1. Conditional constructive. ' Conditional destructive. SYMPIESOMETER. all rites, ceremonies, and outward forms bearing a I religious meaning, by the general name of symbols;; the sacraments themselves, and the sacramental eleI ments, the Cro , and, in later times, images and pic. tures. Symbols, properly so called, must be distinguished from types, i. e. phenomena, manifestations re! corded in the Old Testament, of which the full meaning is developed by correlative manifestations in the New; and from mere symbolical attributes, such as the figures usually introduced in company of the four Evangelists. Symbolical books are such as contain the creeds and confe ions of different churches; such as the three creeds, received by all; the Confe ion of Augsburg, received by the Luther ans; the articles of the Church of England, . The Germans call the study of the symbols and mysterious rites of antiquity, and also the studv of tlie history and contents of Christian creeds and confe ions of faith, by the name of Symbolics (mythological or theological). Mar he in eke's Institutiones Symbolicce, of which the first edition appeared in 1812, is one of their most distinguished works in the latter cla . [s. 1214]