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diff --git a/19049.txt b/19049.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62fe0cf --- /dev/null +++ b/19049.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8845 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Builders, by Joseph Fort Newton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Builders + A Story and Study of Masonry + +Author: Joseph Fort Newton + +Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #19049] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUILDERS *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + * * * * * + +/$ + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation matches the original document. | + | | + | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected | + | in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | + | this document. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ +$/ + + * * * * * + + + +/$ +THE BUILDERS + +A STORY AND STUDY +OF MASONRY + +BY +JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, LITT. D. +GRAND LODGE OF IOWA + + +_When I was a King and a Mason-- +A master proved and skilled, +I cleared me ground for a palace +Such as a King should build. +I decreed and cut down to my levels, +Presently, under the silt, +I came on the wreck of a palace +Such as a King had built!_ + --KIPLING + + +CEDAR RAPIDS IOWA +THE TORCH PRESS +NINETEEN FIFTEEN +$/ + + + + +/$ +COPYRIGHT, 1914 +BY JOSEPH FORT NEWTON + + +_First Printing, December, 1914_ +$/ + + + + +/$ +To +The Memory of +THEODORE SUTTON PARVIN +Founder of the Library of the Grand Lodge +of Iowa, with Reverence and Gratitude; to +LOUIS BLOCK +Past Grand Master of Masons in Iowa, dear Friend +and Fellow-worker, who initiated and inspired +this study, with Love and Goodwill; and +to the +YOUNG MASONS +Our Hope and Pride, for whom +this book was written +With +Fraternal Greeting +$/ + + + + +THE ANTEROOM + + +Fourteen years ago the writer of this volume entered the temple of +Freemasonry, and that date stands out in memory as one of the most +significant days in his life. There was a little spread on the night +of his raising, and, as is the custom, the candidate was asked to give +his impressions of the Order. Among other things, he made request to +know if there was any little book which would tell a young man the +things he would most like to know about Masonry--what it was, whence +it came, what it teaches, and what it is trying to do in the world? No +one knew of such a book at that time, nor has any been found to meet a +need which many must have felt before and since. By an odd +coincidence, it has fallen to the lot of the author to write the +little book for which he made request fourteen years ago. + +This bit of reminiscence explains the purpose of the present volume, +and every book must be judged by its spirit and purpose, not less than +by its style and contents. Written as a commission from the Grand +Lodge of Iowa, and approved by that Grand body, a copy of this book is +to be presented to every man upon whom the degree of Master Mason is +conferred within this Grand Jurisdiction. Naturally this intention has +determined the method and arrangement of the book, as well as the +matter it contains; its aim being to tell a young man entering the +order the antecedents of Masonry, its development, its philosophy, its +mission, and its ideal. Keeping this purpose always in mind, the +effort has been to prepare a brief, simple, and vivid account of the +origin, growth, and teaching of the Order, so written as to provoke a +deeper interest in and a more earnest study of its story and its +service to mankind. + +No work of this kind has been undertaken, so far as is known, by any +Grand Lodge in this country or abroad--at least, not since the old +_Pocket Companion_, and other such works in the earlier times; and +this is the more strange from the fact that the need of it is so +obvious, and its possibilities so fruitful and important. Every one +who has looked into the vast literature of Masonry must often have +felt the need of a concise, compact, yet comprehensive survey to clear +the path and light the way. Especially must those feel such a need who +are not accustomed to traverse long and involved periods of history, +and more especially those who have neither the time nor the +opportunity to sift ponderous volumes to find out the facts. Much of +our literature--indeed, by far the larger part of it--was written +before the methods of scientific study had arrived, and while it +fascinates, it does not convince those who are used to the more +critical habits of research. Consequently, without knowing it, some of +our most earnest Masonic writers have made the Order a target for +ridicule by their extravagant claims as to its antiquity. They did not +make it clear in what sense it is ancient, and not a little satire has +been aimed at Masons for their gullibility in accepting as true the +wildest and most absurd legends. Besides, no history of Masonry has +been written in recent years, and some important material has come to +light in the world of historical and archaeological scholarship, making +not a little that has hitherto been obscure more clear; and there is +need that this new knowledge be related to what was already known. +While modern research aims at accuracy, too often its results are dry +pages of fact, devoid of literary beauty and spiritual appeal--a +skeleton without the warm robe of flesh and blood. Striving for +accuracy, the writer has sought to avoid making a dusty chronicle of +facts and figures, which few would have the heart to follow, with what +success the reader must decide. + +Such a book is not easy to write, and for two reasons: it is the +history of a secret Order, much of whose lore is not to be written, +and it covers a bewildering stretch of time, asking that the contents +of innumerable volumes--many of them huge, disjointed, and difficult +to digest--be compact within a small space. Nevertheless, if it has +required a prodigious labor, it is assuredly worth while in behalf of +the young men who throng our temple gates, as well as for those who +are to come after us. Every line of this book has been written in the +conviction that the real history of Masonry is great enough, and its +simple teaching grand enough, without the embellishment of legend, +much less of occultism. It proceeds from first to last upon the +assurance that all that we need to do is to remove the scaffolding +from the historic temple of Masonry and let it stand out in the +sunlight, where all men can see its beauty and symmetry, and that it +will command the respect of the most critical and searching +intellects, as well as the homage of all who love mankind. By this +faith the long study has been guided; in this confidence it has been +completed. + +To this end the sources of Masonic scholarship, stored in the library +of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, have been explored, and the highest +authorities have been cited wherever there is uncertainty--copious +references serving not only to substantiate the statements made, but +also, it is hoped, to guide the reader into further and more detailed +research. Also, in respect of issues still open to debate and about +which differences of opinion obtain, both sides have been given a +hearing, so far as space would allow, that the student may weigh and +decide the question for himself. Like all Masonic students of recent +times, the writer is richly indebted to the great Research Lodges of +England--especially to the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076--without +whose proceedings this study would have been much harder to write, if +indeed it could have been written at all. Such men as Gould, Hughan, +Speth, Crawley, Thorp, to name but a few--not forgetting Pike, Parvin, +Mackey, Fort, and others in this country--deserve the perpetual +gratitude of the fraternity. If, at times, in seeking to escape from +mere legend, some of them seemed to go too far toward another +extreme--forgetting that there is much in Masonry that cannot be +traced by name and date--it was but natural in their effort in behalf +of authentic history and accurate scholarship. Alas, most of those +named belong now to a time that is gone and to the people who are no +longer with us here, but they are recalled by an humble student who +would pay them the honor belonging to great men and great Masons. + +This book is divided into three parts, as everything Masonic should +be: Prophecy, History, and Interpretation. The first part has to do +with the hints and foregleams of Masonry in the early history, +tradition, mythology, and symbolism of the race--finding its +foundations in the nature and need of man, and showing how the stones +wrought out by time and struggle were brought from afar to the making +of Masonry as we know it. The second part is a story of the order of +builders through the centuries, from the building of the Temple of +Solomon to the organization of the mother Grand Lodge of England, and +the spread of the Order all over the civilized world. The third part +is a statement and exposition of the faith of Masonry, its philosophy, +its religious meaning, its genius, and its ministry to the individual, +and through the individual to society and the state. Such is a bare +outline of the purpose, method, plan, and spirit of the work, and if +these be kept in mind it is believed that it will tell its story and +confide its message. + +When a man thinks of our mortal lot--its greatness and its pathos, how +much has been wrought out in the past, and how binding is our +obligation to preserve and enrich the inheritance of humanity--there +comes over him a strange warming of the heart toward all his fellow +workers; and especially toward the young, to whom we must soon entrust +all that we hold sacred. All through these pages the wish has been to +make the young Mason feel in what a great and benign tradition he +stands, that he may the more earnestly strive to be a Mason not merely +in form, but in faith, in spirit, and still more, in character; and so +help to realize somewhat of the beauty we all have dreamed--lifting +into the light the latent powers and unguessed possibilities of this +the greatest order of men upon the earth. Everyone can do a little, +and if each does his part faithfully the sum of our labors will be +very great, and we shall leave the world fairer than we found it, +richer in faith, gentler in justice, wiser in pity--for we pass this +way but once, pilgrims seeking a country, even a City that hath +foundations. + +/$ + J.F.N. + +_Cedar Rapids, Iowa_, September 7, 1914. +$/ + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +/$ +THE ANTE-ROOM vii + + +PART I--PROPHECY + CHAPTER I. THE FOUNDATIONS 5 + + CHAPTER II. THE WORKING TOOLS 19 + + CHAPTER III. THE DRAMA OF FAITH 39 + + CHAPTER IV. THE SECRET DOCTRINE 57 + + CHAPTER V. THE COLLEGIA 73 + + +PART II--HISTORY + + CHAPTER I. FREE-MASONS 97 + + CHAPTER II. FELLOWCRAFTS 127 + + CHAPTER III. ACCEPTED MASONS 153 + + CHAPTER IV. GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND 173 + + CHAPTER V. UNIVERSAL MASONRY 201 + + +PART III--INTERPRETATION + + CHAPTER I. WHAT IS MASONRY 239 + + CHAPTER II. THE MASONIC PHILOSOPHY 259 + + CHAPTER III. THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY 283 + +BIBLIOGRAPHY 301 + +INDEX 306 +$/ + + + + +Part I--Prophecy + + + + +THE FOUNDATIONS + + + + +/# + _By Symbols is man guided and commanded, made happy, made + wretched. He everywhere finds himself encompassed with Symbols, + recognized as such or not recognized: the Universe is but one vast + Symbol of God; nay, if thou wilt have it, what is man himself but + a Symbol of God; is not all that he does symbolical; a revelation + to Sense of the mystic God-given force that is in him; a Gospel of + Freedom, which he, the Messiah of Nature, preaches, as he can, by + word and act? Not a Hut he builds but is the visible embodiment of + a Thought; but bears visible record of invisible things; but is, + in the transcendental sense, symbolical as well as real._ + + --THOMAS CARLYLE, _Sartor Resartus_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_The Foundations_ + + +Two arts have altered the face of the earth and given shape to the +life and thought of man, Agriculture and Architecture. Of the two, it +would be hard to know which has been the more intimately interwoven +with the inner life of humanity; for man is not only a planter and a +builder, but a mystic and a thinker. For such a being, especially in +primitive times, any work was something more than itself; it was a +truth found out. In becoming useful it attained some form, enshrining +at once a thought and a mystery. Our present study has to do with the +second of these arts, which has been called the matrix of +civilization. + +When we inquire into origins and seek the initial force which carried +art forward, we find two fundamental factors--physical necessity and +spiritual aspiration. Of course, the first great impulse of all +architecture was need, honest response to the demand for shelter; but +this demand included a Home for the Soul, not less than a roof over +the head. Even in this response to primary need there was something +spiritual which carried it beyond provision for the body; as the men +of Egypt, for instance, wanted an indestructible resting-place, and so +built the pyramids. As Capart says, prehistoric art shows that this +utilitarian purpose was in almost every case blended with a religious, +or at least a magical, purpose.[1] The spiritual instinct, in seeking +to recreate types and to set up more sympathetic relations with the +universe, led to imitation, to ideas of proportion, to the passion for +beauty, and to the effort after perfection. + +Man has been always a builder, and nowhere has he shown himself more +significantly than in the buildings he has erected. When we stand +before them--whether it be a mud hut, the house of a cliff-dweller +stuck like the nest of a swallow on the side of a canon, a Pyramid, a +Parthenon, or a Pantheon--we seem to read into his soul. The builder +may have gone, perhaps ages before, but here he has left something of +himself, his hopes, his fears, his ideas, his dreams. Even in the +remote recesses of the Andes, amidst the riot of nature, and where man +is now a mere savage, we come upon the remains of vast, vanished +civilizations, where art and science and religion reached unknown +heights. Wherever humanity has lived and wrought, we find the +crumbling ruins of towers, temples, and tombs, monuments of its +industry and its aspiration. Also, whatever else man may have +been--cruel, tyrannous, vindictive--his buildings always have +reference to religion. They bespeak a vivid sense of the Unseen and +his awareness of his relation to it. Of a truth, the story of the +Tower of Babel is more than a myth. Man has ever been trying to build +to heaven, embodying his prayer and his dream in brick and stone. + +For there are two sets of realities--material and spiritual--but they +are so interwoven that all practical laws are exponents of moral laws. +Such is the thesis which Ruskin expounds with so much insight and +eloquence in his _Seven Lamps of Architecture_, in which he argues +that the laws of architecture are moral laws, as applicable to the +building of character as to the construction of cathedrals. He finds +those laws to be Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and, +as the crowning grace of all, that principle to which Polity owes its +stability, Life its happiness, Faith its acceptance, and Creation its +continuance--_Obedience_. He holds that there is no such thing as +liberty, and never can be. The stars have it not; the earth has it +not; the sea has it not. Man fancies that he has freedom, but if he +would use the word Loyalty instead of Liberty, he would be nearer the +truth, since it is by obedience to the laws of life and truth and +beauty that he attains to what he calls liberty. + +Throughout that brilliant essay, Ruskin shows how the violation of +moral laws spoils the beauty of architecture, mars its usefulness, and +makes it unstable. He points out, with all the variations of emphasis, +illustration, and appeal, that beauty is what is imitated from natural +forms, consciously or unconsciously, and that what is not so derived, +but depends for its dignity upon arrangement received from the human +mind, expresses, while it reveals, the quality of the mind, whether it +be noble or ignoble. Thus: + +/#[4,66] + All building, therefore, shows man either as gathering or + governing; and the secrets of his success are his knowing + what to gather, and how to rule. These are the two great + intellectual Lamps of Architecture; the one consisting in a + just and humble veneration of the works of God upon earth, + and the other in an understanding of the dominion over those + works which has been vested in man.[2] +#/ + +What our great prophet of art thus elaborated so eloquently, the early +men forefelt by instinct, dimly it may be, but not less truly. If +architecture was born of need it soon showed its magic quality, and +all true building touched depths of feeling and opened gates of +wonder. No doubt the men who first balanced one stone over two others +must have looked with astonishment at the work of their hands, and +have worshiped the stones they had set up. This element of mystical +wonder and awe lasted long through the ages, and is still felt when +work is done in the old way by keeping close to nature, necessity, and +faith. From the first, ideas of sacredness, of sacrifice, of ritual +rightness, of magic stability, of likeness to the universe, of +perfection of form and proportion glowed in the heart of the builder, +and guided his arm. Wren, philosopher as he was, decided that the +delight of man in setting up columns was acquired through worshiping +in the groves of the forest; and modern research has come to much the +same view, for Sir Arthur Evans shows that in the first European age +columns were gods. All over Europe the early morning of architecture +was spent in the worship of great stones.[3] + +If we go to old Egypt, where the art of building seems first to have +gathered power, and where its remains are best preserved, we may read +the ideas of the earliest artists. Long before the dynastic period a +strong people inhabited the land who developed many arts which they +handed on to the pyramid-builders. Although only semi-naked savages +using flint instruments in a style much like the bushmen, they were +the root, so to speak, of a wonderful artistic stock. Of the Egyptians +Herodotus said, "They gather the fruits of the earth with less labor +than any other people." With agriculture and settled life came trade +and stored-up energy which might essay to improve on caves and pits +and other rude dwellings. By the Nile, perhaps, man first aimed to +overpass the routine of the barest need, and obey his soul. There he +wrought out beautiful vases of fine marble, and invented square +building. + +At any rate, the earliest known structure actually discovered, a +prehistoric tomb found in the sands at Hieraconpolis, is already +right-angled. As Lethaby reminds us, modern people take squareness +very much for granted as being a self-evident form, but the discovery +of the square was a great step in geometry.[4] It opened a new era in +the story of the builders. Early inventions must have seemed like +revelations, as indeed they were; and it is not strange that skilled +craftsmen were looked upon as magicians. If man knows as much as he +does, the discovery of the Square was a great event to the primitive +mystics of the Nile. Very early it became an emblem of truth, +justice, and righteousness, and so it remains to this day though +uncountable ages have passed. Simple, familiar, eloquent, it brings +from afar a sense of the wonder of the dawn, and it still teaches a +lesson which we find it hard to learn. So also the cube, the +compasses, and the keystone, each a great advance for those to whom +architecture was indeed "building touched with emotion," as showing +that its laws are the laws of the Eternal. + +Maspero tells us that the temples of Egypt, even from earliest times, +were built in the image of the earth as the builders had imagined +it.[5] For them the earth was a sort of flat slab more long than wide, +and the sky was a ceiling or vault supported by four great pillars. +The pavement, represented the earth; the four angles stood for the +pillars; the ceiling, more often flat, though sometimes curved, +corresponded to the sky. From the pavement grew vegetation, and water +plants emerged from the water; while the ceiling, painted dark blue, +was strewn with stars of five points. Sometimes, the sun and moon were +seen floating on the heavenly ocean escorted by the constellations, +and the months and days. There was a far withdrawn holy place, small +and obscure, approached through a succession of courts and columned +halls, all so arranged on a central axis as to point to the sunrise. +Before the outer gates were obelisks and avenues of statues. Such were +the shrines of the old solar religion, so oriented that on one day in +the year the beams of the rising sun, or of some bright star that +hailed his coming, should stream down the nave and illumine the +altar.[6] + +Clearly, one ideal of the early builders was that of sacrifice, as +seen in their use of the finest materials; and another was accuracy of +workmanship. Indeed, not a little of the earliest work displayed an +astonishing technical ability, and such work must point to some +underlying idea which the workers sought to realize. Above all things +they sought permanence. In later inscriptions relating to buildings, +phrases like these occur frequently: "it is such as the heavens in all +its quarters;" "firm as the heavens." Evidently the basic idea was +that, as the heavens were stable, not to be moved, so a building put +into proper relation with the universe would acquire magical +stability. It is recorded that when Ikhnaton founded his new city, +four boundary stones were accurately placed, that so it might be +exactly square, and thus endure forever. Eternity was the ideal aimed +at, everything else being sacrificed for that aspiration. + +How well they realized their dream is shown us in the Pyramids, of all +monuments of mankind the oldest, the most technically perfect, the +largest, and the most mysterious. Ages come and go, empires rise and +fall, philosophies flourish and fail, and man seeks him out many +inventions, but they stand silent under the bright Egyptian night, as +fascinating as they are baffling. An obelisk is simply a pyramid, +albeit the base has become a shaft, holding aloft the oldest emblems +of solar faith--a Triangle mounted on a Square. When and why this +figure became holy no one knows, save as we may conjecture that it was +one of those sacred stones which gained its sanctity in times far back +of all recollection and tradition, like the _Ka'aba_ at Mecca. Whether +it be an imitation of the triangle of zodiacal light, seen at certain +times in the eastern sky at sunrise and sunset, or a feat of masonry +used as a symbol of Heaven, as the Square was an emblem of Earth, no +one may affirm.[7] In the Pyramid Texts the Sun-god, when he created +all the other gods, is shown sitting on the apex of the sky in the +form of a Phoenix--that Supreme God to whom two architects, Suti and +Hor, wrote so noble a hymn of praise.[8] + +White with the worship of ages, ineffably beautiful and pathetic, is +the old light-religion of humanity--a sublime nature-mysticism in +which Light was love and life, and Darkness evil and death. For the +early man light was the mother of beauty, the unveiler of color, the +elusive and radiant mystery of the world, and his speech about it was +reverent and grateful. At the gates of the morning he stood with +uplifted hands, and the sun sinking in the desert at eventide made him +wistful in prayer, half fear and half hope, lest the beauty return no +more. His religion, when he emerged from the night of animalism, was a +worship of the Light--his temple hung with stars, his altar a glowing +flame, his ritual a woven hymn of night and day. No poet of our day, +not even Shelley, has written lovelier lyrics in praise of the Light +than those hymns of Ikhnaton in the morning of the world.[9] Memories +of this religion of the dawn linger with us today in the faith that +follows the Day-Star from on high, and the Sun of Righteousness--One +who is the Light of the World in life, and the Lamp of Poor Souls in +the night of death. + +Here, then, are the real foundations of Masonry, both material and +moral: in the deep need and aspiration of man, and his creative +impulse; in his instinctive Faith, his quest of the Ideal, and his +love of the Light. Underneath all his building lay the feeling, +prophetic of his last and highest thought, that the earthly house of +his life should be in right relation with its heavenly prototype, the +world-temple--imitating on earth the house not made with hands, +eternal in the heavens. If he erected a square temple, it was an image +of the earth; if he built a pyramid, it was a picture of a beauty +shown him in the sky; as, later, his cathedral was modelled after the +mountain, and its dim and lofty arch a memory of the forest vista--its +altar a fireside of the soul, its spire a prayer in stone. And as he +wrought his faith and dream into reality, it was but natural that the +tools of the builder should become emblems of the thoughts of the +thinker. Not only his tools, but, as we shall see, the very stones +with which he worked became sacred symbols--the temple itself a vision +of that House of Doctrine, that Home of the Soul, which, though +unseen, he is building in the midst of the years. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Primitive Art in Egypt._ + +[2] Chapter iii, aphorism 2. + +[3] _Architecture_, by Lethaby, chap. i. + +[4] _Architecture_, by Lethaby, chap. ii. + +[5] _Dawn of Civilization_. + +[6] _Dawn of Astronomy_, Norman Lockyer. + +[7] Churchward, in his _Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man_ (chap. +xv), holds that the pyramid was typical of heaven, Shu, standing on +seven steps, having lifted the sky from the earth in the form of a +triangle; and that at each point stood one of the gods, Sut and Shu at +the base, the apex being the Pole Star where Horus of the Horizon had +his throne. This is, in so far, true; but the pyramid emblem was older +than Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and runs back into an obscurity beyond +knowledge. + +[8] _Religion and Thought in Egypt_, by Breasted, lecture ix. + +[9] Ikhnaton, indeed, was a grand, solitary, shining figure, "the first +idealist in history," and a poetic thinker in whom the religion of +Egypt attained its highest reach. Dr. Breasted puts his lyrics +alongside the poems of Wordsworth and the great passage of Ruskin in +_Modern Painters_, as celebrating the divinity of Light (_Religion and +Thought in Egypt_, lecture ix). Despite the revenge of his enemies, he +stands out as a lonely, heroic, prophetic soul--"the first _individual_ +in time." + + + + +THE WORKING TOOLS + + + + +/# + _It began to shape itself to my intellectual vision into something + more imposing and majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It + seemed to me like the Pyramids in their loneliness, in whose yet + undiscovered chambers may be hidden, for the enlightenment of + coming generations, the sacred books of the Egyptians, so long + lost to the world; like the Sphynx half buried in the desert._ + + _In its symbolism, which and its spirit of brotherhood are its + essence, Freemasonry is more ancient than any of the world's + living religions. It has the symbols and doctrines which, older + than himself, Zarathrustra inculcated; and it seemed to me a + spectacle sublime, yet pitiful--the ancient Faith of our ancestors + holding out to the world its symbols once so eloquent, and mutely + and in vain asking for an interpreter._ + + _And so I came at last to see that the true greatness and majesty + of Freemasonry consist in its proprietorship of these and its + other symbols; and that its symbolism is its soul._ + + --ALBERT PIKE, _Letter to Gould_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Working Tools_ + + +Never were truer words than those of Goethe in the last lines of +_Faust_, and they echo one of the oldest instincts of humanity: "All +things transitory but as symbols are sent." From the beginning man has +divined that the things open to his senses are more than mere facts, +having other and hidden meanings. The whole world was close to him as +an infinite parable, a mystical and prophetic scroll the lexicon of +which he set himself to find. Both he and his world were so made as to +convey a sense of doubleness, of high truth hinted in humble, nearby +things. No smallest thing but had its skyey aspect which, by his +winged and quick-sighted fancy, he sought to surprise and grasp. + +Let us acknowledge that man was born a poet, his mind a chamber of +imagery, his world a gallery of art. Despite his utmost efforts, he +can in nowise strip his thought of the flowers and fruits that cling +to it, withered though they often are. As a fact, he has ever been a +citizen of two worlds, using the scenery of the visible to make vivid +the realities of the world Unseen. What wonder, then, that trees grew +in his fancy, flowers bloomed in his faith, and the victory of spring +over winter gave him hope of life after death, while the march of the +sun and the great stars invited him to "thoughts that wander through +eternity." Symbol was his native tongue, his first form of speech--as, +indeed, it is his last--whereby he was able to say what else he could +not have uttered. Such is the fact, and even the language in which we +state it is "a dictionary of faded metaphors," the fossil poetry of +ages ago. + + +I + +That picturesque and variegated maze of the early symbolism of the +race we cannot study in detail, tempting as it is. Indeed, so +luxuriant was that old picture-language that we may easily miss our +way and get lost in the labyrinth, unless we keep to the right +path.[10] First of all, throughout this study of prophecy let us keep +ever in mind a very simple and obvious fact, albeit not less wonderful +because obvious. Socrates made the discovery--perhaps the greatest +ever made--that human nature is universal. By his searching questions +he found out that when men think round a problem, and think deeply, +they disclose a common nature and a common system of truth. So there +dawned upon him, from this fact, the truth of the kinship of mankind +and the unity of mind. His insight is confirmed many times over, +whether we study the earliest gropings of the human mind or set the +teachings of the sages side by side. Always we find, after comparison, +that the final conclusions of the wisest minds as to the meaning of +life and the world are harmonious, if not identical. + +Here is the clue to the striking resemblances between the faiths and +philosophies of widely separated peoples, and it makes them +intelligible while adding to their picturesqueness and philosophic +interest. By the same token, we begin to understand why the same +signs, symbols, and emblems were used by all peoples to express their +earliest aspiration and thought. We need not infer that one people +learned them from another, or that there existed a mystic, universal +order which had them in keeping. They simply betray the unity of the +human mind, and show how and why, at the same stage of culture, races +far removed from each other came to the same conclusions and used much +the same symbols to body forth their thought. Illustrations are +innumerable, of which a few may be named as examples of this unity +both of idea and of emblem, and also as confirming the insight of the +great Greek that, however shallow minds may differ, in the end all +seekers after truth follow a common path, comrades in one great quest. + +An example in point, as ancient as it is eloquent, is the idea of the +trinity and its emblem, the triangle. What the human thought of God is +depends on what power of the mind or aspect of life man uses as a lens +through which to look into the mystery of things. Conceived of as the +will of the world, God is one, and we have the monotheism of Moses. +Seen through instinct and the kaleidoscope of the senses, God is +multiple, and the result is polytheism and its gods without number. +For the reason, God is a dualism made up of matter and mind, as in the +faith of Zoroaster and many other cults. But when the social life of +man becomes the prism of faith, God is a trinity of Father, Mother, +Child. Almost as old as human thought, we find the idea of the trinity +and its triangle emblem everywhere--Siva, Vishnu, and Brahma in India +corresponding to Osiris, Isis, and Horus in Egypt. No doubt this idea +underlay the old pyramid emblem, at each corner of which stood one of +the gods. No missionary carried this profound truth over the earth. It +grew out of a natural and universal human experience, and is explained +by the fact of the unity of the human mind and its vision of God +through the family. + +Other emblems take us back into an antiquity so remote that we seem to +be walking in the shadow of prehistoric time. Of these, the mysterious +Swastika is perhaps the oldest, as it is certainly the most widely +distributed over the earth. As much a talisman as a symbol, it has +been found on Chaldean bricks, among the ruins of the city of Troy, in +Egypt, on vases of ancient Cyprus, on Hittite remains and the pottery +of the Etruscans, in the cave temples of India, on Roman altars and +Runic monuments in Britain, in Thibet, China, and Korea, in Mexico, +Peru, and among the prehistoric burial-grounds of North America. There +have been many interpretations of it. Perhaps the meaning most usually +assigned to it is that of the Sanskrit word having in its roots an +intimation of the beneficence of life, _to be_ and _well_. As such, it +is a sign indicating "that the maze of life may bewilder, but a path +of light runs through it: _It is well_ is the name of the path, and +the key to life eternal is in the strange labyrinth for those whom God +leadeth."[11] Others hold it to have been an emblem of the Pole Star +whose stability in the sky, and the procession of the Ursa Major +around it, so impressed the ancient world. Men saw the sun journeying +across the heavens every day in a slightly different track, then +standing still, as it were, at the solstice, and then returning on its +way back. They saw the moon changing not only its orbit, but its size +and shape and time of appearing. Only the Pole Star remained fixed and +stable, and it became, not unnaturally, a light of assurance and the +footstool of the Most High.[12] Whatever its meaning, the Swastika +shows us the efforts of the early man to read the riddle of things, +and his intuition of a love at the heart of life. + +Akin to the Swastika, if not an evolution from it, was the Cross, made +forever holy by the highest heroism of Love. When man climbed up out +of the primeval night, with his face to heaven upturned, he had a +cross in his hand. Where he got it, why he held it, and what he meant +by it, no one can conjecture much less affirm.[13] Itself a paradox, +its arms pointing to the four quarters of the earth, it is found in +almost every part of the world carved on coins, altars, and tombs, and +furnishing a design for temple architecture in Mexico and Peru, in the +pagodas of India, not less than in the churches of Christ. Ages before +our era, even from the remote time of the cliff-dweller, the Cross +seems to have been a symbol of life, though for what reason no one +knows. More often it was an emblem of eternal life, especially when +inclosed within a Circle which ends not, nor begins--the type of +Eternity. Hence the Ank Cross or Crux Ansata of Egypt, scepter of the +Lord of the Dead that never die. There is less mystery about the +Circle, which was an image of the disk of the Sun and a natural symbol +of completeness, of eternity. With a point within the center it +became, as naturally, the emblem of the Eye of the World--that +All-seeing eye of the eternal Watcher of the human scene. + +Square, triangle, cross, circle--oldest symbols of humanity, all of +them eloquent, each of them pointing beyond itself, as symbols always +do, while giving form to the invisible truth which they invoke and +seek to embody. They are beautiful if we have eyes to see, serving not +merely as chance figures of fancy, but as forms of reality as it +revealed itself to the mind of man. Sometimes we find them united, the +Square within the Circle, and within that the Triangle, and at the +center the Cross. Earliest of emblems, they show us hints and +foregleams of the highest faith and philosophy, betraying not only the +unity of the human mind but its kinship with the Eternal--the fact +which lies at the root of every religion, and is the basis of each. +Upon this Faith man builded, finding a rock beneath, refusing to think +of Death as the gigantic coffin-lid of a dull and mindless universe +descending upon him at last. + + +II + +From this brief outlook upon a wide field, we may pass to a more +specific and detailed study of the early prophecies of Masonry in the +art of the builder. Always the symbolic must follow the actual, if it +is to have reference and meaning, and the real is ever the basis of +the ideal. By nature an Idealist, and living in a world of radiant +mystery, it was inevitable that man should attach moral and spiritual +meanings to the tools, laws, and materials of building. Even so, in +almost every land and in the remotest ages we find great and beautiful +truth hovering about the builder and clinging to his tools.[14] +Whether there were organized orders of builders in the early times no +one can tell, though there may have been. No matter; man mixed thought +and worship with his work, and as he cut his altar stones and fitted +them together he thought out a faith by which to live. + +Not unnaturally, in times when the earth was thought to be a Square +the Cube had emblematical meanings it could hardly have for us. From +earliest ages it was a venerated symbol, and the oblong cube signified +immensity of space from the base of earth to the zenith of the +heavens. It was a sacred emblem of the Lydian Kubele, known to the +Romans in after ages as Ceres or Cybele--hence, as some aver, the +derivation of the word "cube." At first rough stones were most sacred, +and an altar of hewn stones was forbidden.[15] With the advent of the +cut cube, the temple became known as the House of the Hammer--its +altar, always in the center, being in the form of a cube and regarded +as "an index or emblem of Truth, ever true to itself."[16] Indeed, the +cube, as Plutarch points out in his essay _On the Cessation of +Oracles_, "is palpably the proper emblem of rest, on account of the +security and firmness of the superficies." He further tells us that +the pyramid is an image of the triangular flame ascending from a +square altar; and since no one knows, his guess is as good as any. At +any rate, Mercury, Apollo, Neptune, and Hercules were worshiped under +the form of a square stone, while a large black stone was the emblem +of Buddha among the Hindoos, of Manah Theus-Ceres in Arabia, and of +Odin in Scandinavia. Everyone knows of the Stone of Memnon in Egypt, +which was said to speak at sunrise--as, in truth, all stones spoke to +man in the sunrise of time.[17] + +More eloquent, if possible, was the Pillar uplifted, like the pillars +of the gods upholding the heavens. Whatever may have been the origin +of pillars, and there is more than one theory, Evans has shown that +they were everywhere worshiped as gods.[18] Indeed, the gods +themselves were pillars of Light and Power, as in Egypt Horus and Sut +were the twin-builders and supporters of heaven; and Bacchus among the +Thebans. At the entrance of the temple of Amenta, at the door of the +house of Ptah--as, later, in the porch of the temple of Solomon--stood +two pillars. Still further back, in the old solar myths, at the +gateway of eternity stood two pillars--Strength and Wisdom. In India, +and among the Mayas and Incas, there were three pillars at the portals +of the earthly and skyey temple--Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty. When +man set up a pillar, he became a fellow-worker with Him whom the old +sages of China used to call "the first Builder." Also, pillars were +set up to mark the holy places of vision and Divine deliverance, as +when Jacob erected a pillar at Bethel, Joshua at Gilgal, and Samuel at +Mizpeh and Shen. Always they were symbols of stability, of what the +Egyptians described as "the place of establishing forever,"--emblems +of the faith "that the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He +hath set the world upon them."[19] + +Long before our era we find the working tools of the Mason used as +emblems of the very truths which they teach today. In the oldest +classic of China, _The Book of History_, dating back to the twentieth +century before Christ, we read the instruction: "Ye officers of the +Government, apply the compasses." Even if we begin where _The Book of +History_ ends, we find many such allusions more than seven hundred +years before the Christian era. For example, in the famous canonical +work, called _The Great Learning_, which has been referred to the +fifth century B.C., we read, that a man should abstain from doing unto +others what he would not they should do to him; "and this," the writer +adds, "is called the principle of acting on the square." So also +Confucius and his great follower, Mencius. In the writings of Mencius +it is taught that men should apply the square and compasses morally to +their lives, and the level and the marking line besides, if they would +walk in the straight and even paths of wisdom, and keep themselves +within the bounds of honor and virtue.[20] In the sixth book of his +philosophy we find these words: + +/#[4,66] + A Master Mason, in teaching apprentices, makes use of the + compasses and the square. Ye who are engaged in the pursuit + of wisdom must also make use of the compass and square.[21] +#/ + +There are even evidences, in the earliest historic records of China, +of the existence of a system of faith expressed in allegoric form, and +illustrated by the symbols of building. The secrets of this faith seem +to have been orally transmitted, the leaders alone pretending to have +full knowledge of them. Oddly enough, it seems to have gathered about +a symbolical temple put up in the desert, that the various officers of +the faith were distinguished by symbolic jewels, and that at its rites +they wore leather aprons.[22] From such records as we have it is not +possible to say whether the builders themselves used their tools as +emblems, or whether it was the thinkers who first used them to teach +moral truths. In any case, they were understood; and the point here is +that, thus early, the tools of the builder were teachers of wise and +good and beautiful truth. Indeed, we need not go outside the Bible to +find both the materials and working tools of the Mason so +employed:[23] + +/#[4,66] + For every house is builded by some man; but the builder of + all things is God ... whose house we are.[24] + + Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a tried stone, a + precious corner-stone, a sure foundation.[25] + + The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of + the corner.[26] + + Ye also, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual + house.[27] + + When he established the heavens I was there, when he set the + compass upon the face of the deep, when he marked out the + foundations of the earth: then was I by him as a master + workman.[28] + + The Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a + plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what + seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, + Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people + Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.[29] + + Ye shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the + possession of the city.[30] + + And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as + the breadth.[31] + + Him that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of my + God; and I will write upon him my new name.[32] + + For we know that when our earthly house of this tabernacle is + dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with + hands, eternal in the heavens.[33] +#/ + +If further proof were needed, it has been preserved for us in the +imperishable stones of Egypt.[34] The famous obelisk, known as +Cleopatra's Needle, now in Central Park, New York, the gift to our +nation from Ismail, Khedive of Egypt in 1878, is a mute but eloquent +witness of the antiquity of the simple symbols of the Mason. +Originally it stood as one of the forest of obelisks surrounding the +great temple of the Sun-god at Heliopolis, so long a seat of Egyptian +learning and religion, dating back, it is thought, to the fifteenth +century before Christ. It was removed to Alexandria and re-erected by +a Roman architect and engineer named Pontius, B.C. 22. When it was +taken down in 1879 to be brought to America, all the emblems of the +builders were found in the foundation. The rough Cube and the polished +Cube in pure white limestone, the Square cut in syenite, an iron +Trowel, a lead Plummet, the arc of a Circle, the serpent-symbols of +Wisdom, a stone Trestle-board, a stone bearing the Master's Mark, and +a hieroglyphic word meaning _Temple_--all so placed and preserved as +to show, beyond doubt, that they had high symbolic meaning. Whether +they were in the original foundation, or were placed there when the +obelisk was removed, no one can tell. Nevertheless, they were there, +concrete witnesses of the fact that the builders worked in the light +of a mystical faith, of which they were emblems. + +Much has been written of buildings, their origin, age, and +architecture, but of the builders hardly a word--so quickly is the +worker forgotten, save as he lives in his work. Though we have no +records other than these emblems, it is an obvious inference that +there were orders of builders even in those early ages, to whom these +symbols were sacred; and this inference is the more plausible when we +remember the importance of the builder both to religion and the state. +What though the builders have fallen into dust, to which all things +mortal decline, they still hold out their symbols for us to read, +speaking their thoughts in a language easy to understand. Across the +piled-up debris of ages they whisper the old familiar truths, and it +will be a part of this study to trace those symbols through the +centuries, showing that they have always had the same high meanings. +They bear witness not only to the unity of the human mind, but to the +existence of a common system of truth veiled in allegory and taught in +symbols. As such, they are prophecies of Masonry as we know it, whose +genius it is to take what is old, simple, and universal, and use it to +bring men together and make them friends. + +/P + Shore calls to shore + That the line is unbroken! +P/ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] There are many books in this field, but two may be named: _The +Lost Language of Symbolism_, by Bayley, and the _Signs and Symbols of +Primordial Man_, by Churchward, each in its own way remarkable. The +first aspires to be for this field what Frazer's _Golden Bough_ is for +religious anthropology, and its dictum is: "Beauty is Truth; Truth +Beauty." The thesis of the second is that Masonry is founded upon +Egyptian eschatology, which may be true; but unfortunately the book is +too polemical. Both books partake of the poetry, if not the confusion, +of the subject; but not for a world of dust would one clip their wings +of fancy and suggestion. Indeed, their union of scholarship and poetry +is unique. When the pains of erudition fail to track a fact to its +lair, they do not scruple to use the divining rod; and the result often +passes out of the realm of pedestrian chronicle into the world of +winged literature. + +[11] _The Word in the Pattern_, Mrs. G.F. Watts. + +[12] _The Swastika_, Thomas Carr. See essay by the same writer in which +he shows that the Swastika is the symbol of the Supreme Architect of +the Universe among Operative Masons today (_The Lodge of Research_, No. +2429, Transactions, 1911-12). + +[13] _Signs and Symbols_, Churchward, chap. xvii. + +[14] Here again the literature is voluminous, but not entirely +satisfactory. A most interesting book is _Signs and Symbols of +Primordial Man_, by Churchward, in that it surveys the symbolism of the +race always with reference to its Masonic suggestion. Vivid and popular +is _Symbols and Legends of Freemasonry_, by Finlayson, but he often +strains facts in order to stretch them over wide gaps of time. Dr. +Mackey's _Symbolism of Freemasonry_, though written more than sixty +years ago, remains a classic of the order. Unfortunately the lectures +of Albert Pike on _Symbolism_ are not accessible to the general reader, +for they are rich mines of insight and scholarship, albeit betraying +his partisanship of the Indo-Aryan race. Many minor books might be +named, but we need a work brought up to date and written in the light +of recent research. + +[15] Exod. 20:25. + +[16] _Antiquities of Cornwall_, Borlase. + +[17] _Lost Language of Symbolism_, Bayley, chap, xviii; also in the +Bible, Deut. 32:18, II Sam. 22:3, 32, Psa. 28:1, Matt. 16:18, I Cor. +10:4. + +[18] _Tree and Pillar Cult_, Sir Arthur Evans. + +[19] I Sam. 2:8, Psa. 75:8, Job 26:7, Rev. 3:12. + +[20] _Freemasonry in China_, Giles. Also Gould, _His. Masonry_, vol. i, +chap. i. + +[21] _Chinese Classics_, by Legge, i, 219-45. + +[22] Essay by Chaloner Alabaster, _Ars Quatuor Coronatorum_, vol. ii, +121-24. It is not too much to say that the Transactions of this Lodge +of Research are the richest storehouse of Masonic lore in the world. + +[23] Matt. 16:18, Eph. 2:20-22, I Cor. 2:9-17. Woman is the house and +wall of man, without whose bounding and redeeming influence he would be +dissipated and lost (Song of Solomon 8:10). So also by the mystics +(_The Perfect Way_). + +[24] Heb. 3:4. + +[25] Isa. 28:16. + +[26] Psa. 118:22, Matt. 21:42. + +[27] I Pet. 2:5. + +[28] Prov. 8:27-30, Revised Version. + +[29] Amos 7:7, 8. + +[30] Ezk. 48:20. + +[31] Rev. 21:16. + +[32] Rev. 3:12. + +[33] II Cor. 5:1. + +[34] _Egyptian Obelisks_, H.H. Gorringe. The obelisk in Central Park, +the expenses for removing which were paid by W.H. Vanderbilt, was +examined by the Grand Lodge of New York, and its emblems pronounced to +be unmistakably Masonic. This book gives full account of all obelisks +brought to Europe from Egypt, their measurements, inscriptions, and +transportation. + + + + +THE DRAMA OF FAITH + + + + +/# + _And so the Quest goes on. And the Quest, as it may be, ends in + attainment--we know not where and when: so long as we can conceive + of our separate existence, the quest goes on--an attainment + continued henceforward. And ever shall the study of the ways which + have been followed by those who have passed in front be a help on + our own path._ + + _It is well, it is of all things beautiful and perfect, holy and + high of all, to be conscious of the path which does in fine lead + thither where we seek to go, namely, the goal which is in God. + Taking nothing with us which does not belong to ourselves, leaving + nothing behind us that is of our real selves, we shall find in the + great attainment that the companions of our toil are with us. And + the place is the Valley of Peace._ + + --ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, _The Secret Tradition_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_The Drama of Faith_ + + +Man does not live by bread alone; he lives by Faith, Hope, and Love, +and the first of these was Faith. Nothing in the human story is more +striking than the persistent, passionate, profound protest of man +against death. Even in the earliest time we see him daring to stand +erect at the gates of the grave, disputing its verdict, refusing to +let it have the last word, and making argument in behalf of his soul. +For Emerson, as for Addison, that fact alone was proof enough of +immortality, as revealing a universal intuition of eternal life. +Others may not be so easily convinced, but no man who has the heart of +a man can fail to be impressed by the ancient, heroic faith of his +race. + +Nowhere has this faith ever been more vivid or victorious than among +the old Egyptians.[35] In the ancient _Book of the Dead_--which is, +indeed, a Book of Resurrection--occur the words: "The soul to heaven; +the body to earth;" and that first faith is our faith today. Of King +Unas, who lived in the third millennium, it is written: "Behold, thou +hast not gone as one dead, but as one living." Nor has any one in our +day set forth this faith with more simple eloquence than the Hymn to +Osiris, in the Papyrus of Hunefer. So in the Pyramid Texts the dead +are spoken of as Those Who Ascend, the Imperishable Ones who shine as +stars, and the gods are invoked to witness the death of the King +"Dawning as a Soul." There is deep prophecy, albeit touched with +poignant pathos, in these broken exclamations written on the pyramid +walls: + +/#[4,66] + Thou diest not! Have ye said that he would die? He diest not; + this King Pepi lives forever! Live! Thou shalt not die! He + has escaped his day of death! Thou livest, thou livest, raise + thee up! Thou diest not, stand up, raise thee up! Thou + perishest not eternally! Thou diest not![36] +#/ + +Nevertheless, nor poetry nor chant nor solemn ritual could make death +other than death; and the Pyramid Texts, while refusing to utter the +fatal word, give wistful reminiscences of that blessed age "before +death came forth." However high the faith of man, the masterful +negation and collapse of the body was a fact, and it was to keep that +daring faith alive and aglow that The Mysteries were instituted. +Beginning, it may be, in incantation, they rose to heights of +influence and beauty, giving dramatic portrayal of the unconquerable +faith of man. Watching the sun rise from the tomb of night, and the +spring return in glory after the death of winter, man reasoned from +analogy--justifying a faith that held him as truly as he held it--that +the race, sinking into the grave, would rise triumphant over death. + + +I + +There were many variations on this theme as the drama of faith +evolved, and as it passed from land to land; but the Motif was ever +the same, and they all were derived, directly or indirectly, from the +old Osirian passion-play in Egypt. Against the background of the +ancient Solar religion, Osiris made his advent as Lord of the Nile and +fecund Spirit of vegetable life--son of Nut the sky-goddess and Geb +the earth-god; and nothing in the story of the Nile-dwellers is more +appealing than his conquest of the hearts of the people against all +odds.[37] Howbeit, that history need not detain us here, except to say +that by the time his passion had become the drama of national faith, +it had been bathed in all the tender hues of human life; though +somewhat of its solar radiance still lingered in it. Enough to say +that of all the gods, called into being by the hopes and fears of men +who dwelt in times of yore on the banks of the Nile, Osiris was the +most beloved. Osiris the benign father, Isis his sorrowful and +faithful wife, and Horus whose filial piety and heroism shine like +diamonds in a heap of stones--about this trinity were woven the ideals +of Egyptian faith and family life. Hear now the story of the oldest +drama of the race, which for more than three thousand years held +captive the hearts of men.[38] + +Osiris was Ruler of Eternity, but by reason of his visible shape +seemed nearly akin to man--revealing a divine humanity. His success +was chiefly due, however, to the gracious speech of Isis, his +sister-wife, whose charm men could neither reckon nor resist. Together +they labored for the good of man, teaching him to discern the plants +fit for food, themselves pressing the grapes and drinking the first +cup of wine. They made known the veins of metal running through the +earth, of which man was ignorant, and taught him to make weapons. They +initiated man into the intellectual and moral life, taught him ethics +and religion, how to read the starry sky, song and dance and the +rhythm of music. Above all, they evoked in men a sense of immortality, +of a destiny beyond the tomb. Nevertheless, they had enemies at once +stupid and cunning, keen-witted but short-sighted--the dark force of +evil which still weaves the fringe of crime on the borders of human +life. + +Side by side with Osiris, lived the impious Set-Typhon, as Evil ever +haunts the Good. While Osiris was absent, Typhon--whose name means +serpent--filled with envy and malice, sought to usurp his throne; but +his plot was frustrated by Isis. Whereupon he resolved to kill Osiris. +This he did, having invited him to a feast, by persuading him to enter +a chest, offering, as if in jest, to present the richly carved chest +to any one of his guests who, lying down inside it, found he was of +the same size. When Osiris got in and stretched himself out, the +conspirators closed the chest, and flung it into the Nile.[39] Thus +far, the gods had not known death. They had grown old, with white hair +and trembling limbs, but old age had not led to death. As soon as Isis +heard of this infernal treachery, she cut her hair, clad herself in a +garb of mourning, ran thither and yon, a prey to the most cruel +anguish, seeking the body. Weeping and distracted, she never tarried, +never tired in her sorrowful quest. + +Meanwhile, the waters carried the chest out to sea, as far as Byblos +in Syria, the town of Adonis, where it lodged against a shrub of +arica, or tamarisk--like an acacia tree.[40] Owing to the virtue of +the body, the shrub, at its touch, shot up into a tree, growing around +it, and protecting it, until the king of that country cut the tree +which hid the chest in its bosom, and made from it a column for his +palace. At last Isis, led by a vision, came to Byblos, made herself +known, and asked for the column. Hence the picture of her weeping over +a broken column torn from the palace, while Horus, god of Time, stands +behind her pouring ambrosia on her hair. She took the body back to +Egypt, to the city of Bouto; but Typhon, hunting by moonlight, found +the chest, and having recognized the body of Osiris, mangled it and +scattered it beyond recognition. Isis, embodiment of the old +world-sorrow for the dead, continued her pathetic quest, gathering +piece by piece the body of her dismembered husband, and giving him +decent interment. Such was the life and death of Osiris, but as his +career pictured the cycle of nature, it could not of course end here. + +Horus fought with Typhon, losing an eye in the battle, but finally +overthrew him and took him prisoner. There are several versions of his +fate, but he seems to have been tried, sentenced, and executed--"cut +in three pieces," as the Pyramid Texts relate. Thereupon the faithful +son went in solemn procession to the grave of his father, opened it, +and called upon Osiris to rise: "Stand up! Thou shalt not end, thou +shalt not perish!" But death was deaf. Here the Pyramid Texts recite +the mortuary ritual, with its hymns and chants; but in vain. At length +Osiris awakes, weary and feeble, and by the aid of the strong grip of +the lion-god he gains control of his body, and is lifted from death to +life.[41] Thereafter, by virtue of his victory over death, Osiris +becomes Lord of the Land of Death, his scepter an Ank Cross, his +throne a Square. + + +II + +Such, in brief, was the ancient allegory of eternal life, upon which +there were many elaborations as the drama unfolded; but always, under +whatever variation of local color, of national accent or emphasis, its +central theme remained the same. Often perverted and abused, it was +everywhere a dramatic expression of the great human aspiration for +triumph over death and union with God, and the belief in the ultimate +victory of Good over Evil. Not otherwise would this drama have held +the hearts of men through long ages, and won the eulogiums of the most +enlightened men of antiquity--of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, +Euripides, Plutarch, Pindar, Isocrates, Epictetus, and Marcus +Aurelius. Writing to his wife after the loss of their little girl, +Plutarch commends to her the hope set forth in the mystic rites and +symbols of this drama, as, elsewhere, he testifies that it kept him +"as far from superstition as from atheism," and helped him to approach +the truth. For deeper minds this drama had a double meaning, teaching +not only immortality after death, but the awakening of man upon earth +from animalism to a life of purity, justice, and honor. How nobly this +practical aspect was taught, and with what fineness of spiritual +insight, may be seen in _Secret Sermon on the Mountain_ in the +Hermetic lore of Greece:[42] + +/#[4,66] + What may I say, my son? I can but tell thee this. Whenever I + see within myself the Simple Vision brought to birth out of + God's mercy, I have passed through myself into a Body that + can never die. Then I am not what I was before.... They who + are thus born are children of a Divine race. This race, my + son, is never taught; but when He willeth it, its memory is + restored by God. It is the "Way of Birth in God." ... + Withdraw into thyself and it will come. _Will_, and it comes + to pass. +#/ + +Isis herself is said to have established the first temple of the +Mysteries, the oldest being those practiced at Memphis. Of these there +were two orders, the Lesser to which the many were eligible, and which +consisted of dialogue and ritual, with certain signs, tokens, grips, +passwords; and the Greater, reserved for the few who approved +themselves worthy of being entrusted with the highest secrets of +science, philosophy, and religion. For these the candidate had to +undergo trial, purification, danger, austere asceticism, and, at last, +regeneration through dramatic death amid rejoicing. Such as endured +the ordeal with valor were then taught, orally and by symbol, the +highest wisdom to which man had attained, including geometry, +astronomy, the fine arts, the laws of nature, as well as the truths of +faith. Awful oaths of secrecy were exacted, and Plutarch describes a +man kneeling, his hands bound, a cord round his body, and a knife at +his throat--death being the penalty of violating the obligation. Even +then, Pythagoras had to wait almost twenty years to learn the hidden +wisdom of Egypt, so cautious were they of candidates, especially of +foreigners. But he made noble use of it when, later, he founded a +secret order of his own at Crotona, in Greece, in which, among other +things, he taught geometry, using numbers as symbols of spiritual +truth.[43] + +From Egypt the Mysteries passed with little change to Asia Minor, +Greece, and Rome, the names of local gods being substituted for those +of Osiris and Isis. The Grecian or Eleusinian Mysteries, established +1800 B.C., represented Demeter and Persephone, and depicted the death +of Dionysius with stately ritual which led the neophyte from death +into life and immortality. They taught the unity of God, the immutable +necessity of morality, and a life after death, investing initiates +with signs and passwords by which they could know each other in the +dark as well as in the light. The Mithraic or Persian Mysteries +celebrated the eclipse of the Sun-god, using the signs of the zodiac, +the processions of the seasons, the death of nature, and the birth of +spring. The Adoniac or Syrian cults were similar, Adonis being killed, +but revived to point to life through death. In the Cabirie Mysteries +on the island of Samothrace, Atys the Sun was killed by his brothers +the Seasons, and at the vernal equinox was restored to life. So, also, +the Druids, as far north as England, taught of one God the tragedy of +winter and summer, and conducted the initiate through the valley of +death to life everlasting.[44] + +Shortly before the Christian era, when faith was failing and the world +seemed reeling to its ruin, there was a great revival of the +Mystery-religions. Imperial edict was powerless to stay it, much less +stop it. From Egypt, from the far East, they came rushing in like a +tide, Isis "of the myriad names" vieing with Mithra, the patron saint +of the soldier, for the homage of the multitude. If we ask the secret +reason for this influx of mysticism, no single answer can be given to +the question. What influence the reigning mystery-cults had upon the +new, uprising Christianity is also hard to know, and the issue is +still in debate. That they did influence the early Church is evident +from the writings of the Fathers, and some go so far as to say that +the Mysteries died at last only to live again in the ritual of the +Church. St. Paul in his missionary journeys came in contact with the +Mysteries, and even makes use of some of their technical terms in his +epistles;[45] but he condemned them on the ground that what they +sought to teach in drama can be known only by spiritual experience--a +sound insight, though surely drama may assist to that experience, else +public worship might also come under ban. + + +III + +Toward the end of their power, the Mysteries fell into the mire and +became corrupt, as all things human are apt to do: even the Church +itself being no exception. But that at their highest and best they +were not only lofty and noble, but elevating and refining, there can +be no doubt, and that they served a high purpose is equally clear. No +one, who has read in the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius the initiation of +Lucius into the Mysteries of Isis, can doubt that the effect on the +votary was profound and purifying. He tells us that the ceremony of +initiation "is, as it were, to suffer death," and that he stood in the +presence of the gods, "ay, stood near and worshiped." _Far hence ye +profane, and all who are polluted by sin_, was the motto of the +Mysteries, and Cicero testifies that what a man learned in the house +of the hidden place made him want to live nobly, and gave him happy +hopes for the hour of death. + +Indeed, the Mysteries, as Plato said,[46] were established by men of +great genius who, in the early ages, strove to teach purity, to +ameliorate the cruelty of the race, to refine its manners and morals, +and to restrain society by stronger bonds than those which human laws +impose. No mystery any longer attaches to what they taught, but only +as to the particular rites, dramas, and symbols used in their +teaching. They taught faith in the unity and spirituality of God, the +sovereign authority of the moral law, heroic purity of soul, austere +discipline of character, and the hope of a life beyond the tomb. Thus +in ages of darkness, of complexity, of conflicting peoples, tongues, +and faiths, these great orders toiled in behalf of friendship, +bringing men together under a banner of faith, and training them for a +nobler moral life. Tender and tolerant of all faiths, they formed an +all-embracing moral and spiritual fellowship which rose above barriers +of nation, race, and creed, satisfying the craving of men for unity, +while evoking in them a sense of that eternal mysticism out of which +all religions were born. Their ceremonies, so far as we know them, +were stately dramas of the moral life and the fate of the soul. +Mystery and secrecy added impressiveness, and fable and enigma +disguised in imposing spectacle the laws of justice, piety, and the +hope of immortality. + +Masonry stands in this tradition; and if we may not say that it is +historically related to the great ancient orders, it is their +spiritual descendant, and renders much the same ministry to our age +which the Mysteries rendered to the olden world. It is, indeed, the +same stream of sweetness and light flowing in our day--like the fabled +river Alpheus which, gathering the waters of a hundred rills along the +hillsides of Arcadia, sank, lost to sight, in a chasm in the earth, +only to reappear in the fountain of Arethusa. This at least is true: +the Greater Ancient Mysteries were prophetic of Masonry whose drama is +an epitome of universal initiation, and whose simple symbols are the +depositaries of the noblest wisdom of mankind. As such, it brings men +together at the altar of prayer, keeps alive the truths that make us +men, seeking, by every resource of art, to make tangible the power of +love, the worth of beauty, and the reality of the ideal. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[35] Of course, faith in immortality was in nowise peculiar to Egypt, +but was universal; as vivid in _The Upanishads_ of India as in the +Pyramid records. It rests upon the consensus of the insight, +experience, and aspiration of the race. But the records of Egypt, like +its monuments, are richer than those of other nations, if not older. +Moreover, the drama of faith with which we have to do here had its +origin in Egypt, whence it spread to Tyre, Athens, and Rome--and, as we +shall see, even to England. For brief expositions of Egyptian faith see +_Egyptian Conceptions of Immortality_, by G.A. Reisner, and _Religion +and Thought in Egypt_, by J.H. Breasted. + +[36] Pyramid Texts, 775, 1262, 1453, 1477. + +[37] For a full account of the evolution of the Osirian theology from +the time it emerged from the mists of myth until its conquest, see +_Religion and Thought in Egypt_, by Breasted, the latest, if not the +most brilliant, book written in the light of the completest translation +of the Pyramid Texts (especially lecture v). + +[38] Much has been written about the Egyptian Mysteries from the days +of Plutarch's _De Iside et Osiride_ and the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius +to the huge volumes of Baron Sainte Croix. For popular reading the +_Kings and Gods of Egypt_, by Moret (chaps. iii-iv), and the +delightfully vivid _Hermes and Plato_, by Schure, could hardly be +surpassed. But Plutarch and Apuleius, both initiates, are our best +authorities, even if their oath of silence prevents them from telling +us what we most want to know. + +[39] Among the Hindoos, whose Chrisna is the same as the Osiris of +Egypt, the gods of summer were beneficent, making the days fruitful. +But "the three wretches" who presided over winter, were cut off from +the zodiac; and as they were "found missing," they were accused of the +death of Chrisna. + +[40] A literary parallel in the story of AEneas, by Vergil, is most +suggestive. Priam, king of Troy, in the beginning of the Trojan war +committed his son Polydorus to the care of Polymester, king of Thrace, +and sent him a great sum of money. After Troy was taken the Thracian, +for the sake of the money, killed the young prince and privately buried +him. AEneas, coming into that country, and accidentally plucking up a +shrub that was near him on the side of the hill, discovered the +murdered body of Polydorus. Other legends of such accidental +discoveries of unknown graves haunted the olden time, and may have been +suggested by the story of Isis. + +[41] _The Gods of the Egyptians_, by E.A.W. Budge; _La Place des +Victores_, by Austin Fryar, especially the colored plates. + +[42] _Quests New and Old_, by G.R.S. Mead. + +[43] _Pythagoras_, by Edouard Schure--a fascinating story of that great +thinker and teacher. The use of numbers by Pythagoras must not, +however, be confounded with the mystical, or rather fantastic, +mathematics of the Kabbalists of a later time. + +[44] For a vivid account of the spread of the Mysteries of Isis and +Mithra over the Roman Empire, see _Roman Life from Nero to Aurelius_, +by Dill (bk. iv, chaps. v-vi). Franz Cumont is the great authority on +Mithra, and his _Mysteries of Mithra_ and _Oriental Religions_ trace +the origin and influence of that cult with accuracy, insight, and +charm. W.W. Reade, brother of Charles Reade the novelist, left a study +of _The Veil of Isis, or Mysteries of the Druids_, finding in the +vestiges of Druidism "the Emblems of Masonry." + +[45] Col. 2:8-19. See _Mysteries Pagan and Christian_, by C. Cheethan; +also _Monumental Christianity_, by Lundy, especially chapter on "The +Discipline of the Secret." For a full discussion of the attitude of St. +Paul, see _St. Paul and the Mystery-Religions_, by Kennedy, a work of +fine scholarship. That Christianity had its esoteric is plain--as it +was natural--from the writings of the Fathers, including Origen, Cyril, +Basil, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, and others. Chrysostom often uses +the word _initiation_ in respect of Christian teaching, while +Tertullian denounces the pagan mysteries as counterfeit imitations by +Satan of the Christian secret rites and teachings: "He also baptises +those who believe in him, and promises that they shall come forth, +cleansed of their sins." Other Christian writers were more tolerant, +finding in Christ the answer to the aspiration uttered in the +Mysteries; and therein, it may be, they were right. + +[46] _Phaedo._ + + + + +THE SECRET DOCTRINE + + + + +/# + _The value of man does not consist in the truth which he + possesses, or means to possess, but in the sincere pain which he + hath taken to find it out. For his powers do not augment by + possessing truth, but by investigating it, wherein consists his + only perfectibility. Possession lulls the energy of man, and makes + him idle and proud. If God held inclosed in his right hand + absolute truth, and in his left only the inward lively impulse + toward truth, and if He said to me: Choose! even at the risk of + exposing mankind to continual erring, I most humbly would seize + His left hand, and say: Father, give! absolute truth belongs to + Thee alone._ + + G.E. LESSING, _Nathan the Wise_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_The Secret Doctrine_ + + +I + +God ever shields us from premature ideas, said the gracious and wise +Emerson; and so does nature. She holds back her secrets until man is +fit to be entrusted with them, lest by rashness he destroy himself. +Those who seek find, not because the truth is far off, but because the +discipline of the quest makes them ready for the truth, and worthy to +receive it. By a certain sure instinct the great teachers of our race +have regarded the highest truth less as a gift bestowed than as a +trophy to be won. Everything must not be told to everybody. Truth is +power, and when held by untrue hands it may become a plague. Even +Jesus had His "little flock" to whom He confided much which He kept +from the world, or else taught it in parables cryptic and veiled.[47] +One of His sayings in explanation of His method is quoted by Clement +of Alexandria in his _Homilies_: + +/#[4,66] + It was not from grudgingness that our Lord gave the charge in + a certain Gospel: "_My mystery is for Me and the sons of My + house_."[48] +#/ + +This more withdrawn teaching, hinted in the saying of the Master, with +the arts of spiritual culture employed, has come to be known as the +Secret Doctrine, or the Hidden Wisdom. A persistent tradition affirms +that throughout the ages, and in every land, behind the system of +faith accepted by the masses an inner and deeper doctrine has been +held and taught by those able to grasp it. This hidden faith has +undergone many changes of outward expression, using now one set of +symbols and now another, but its central tenets have remained the +same; and necessarily so, since the ultimates of thought are ever +immutable. By the same token, those who have eyes to see have no +difficulty in penetrating the varying veils of expression and +identifying the underlying truths; thus confirming in the arcana of +faith what we found to be true in its earliest forms--the oneness of +the human mind and the unity of truth. + +There are those who resent the suggestion that there is, or can be, +secrecy in regard to spiritual truths which, if momentous at all, are +of common moment to all. For this reason Demonax, in the Lucian play, +would not be initiated, because, if the Mysteries were bad, he would +not keep silent as a warning; and if they were good, he would proclaim +them as a duty. The objection is, however, unsound, as a little +thought will reveal. Secrecy in such matters inheres in the nature of +the truths themselves, not in any affected superiority of a few elect +minds. Qualification for the knowledge of higher things is, and must +always be, a matter of personal fitness. Other qualification there is +none. For those who have that fitness the Secret Doctrine is as clear +as sunlight, and for those who have it not the truth would still be +secret though shouted from the house-top. The Grecian Mysteries were +certainly secret, yet the fact of their existence was a matter of +common knowledge, and there was no more secrecy about their +sanctuaries than there is about a cathedral. Their presence testified +to the public that a deeper than the popular faith did exist, but the +right to admission into them depended upon the whole-hearted wish of +the aspirant, and his willingness to fit himself to know the truth. +The old maxim applies here, that when the pupil is ready the teacher +is found waiting, and he passes on to know a truth hitherto hidden +because he lacked either the aptitude or the desire. + +All is mystery as of course, but mystification is another thing, and +the tendency to befog a theme which needs to be clarified, is to be +regretted. Here lies, perhaps, the real reason for the feeling of +resentment against the idea of a Secret Doctrine, and one must admit +that it is not without justification. For example, we are told that +behind the age-long struggle of man to know the truth there exists a +hidden fraternity of initiates, adepts in esoteric lore, known to +themselves but not to the world, who have had in their keeping, +through the centuries, the high truths which they permit to be dimly +adumbrated in the popular faiths, but which the rest of the race are +too obtuse, even yet, to grasp save in an imperfect and limited +degree. These hidden sages, it would seem, look upon our eager +aspiring humanity much like the patient masters of an idiot school, +watching it go on forever seeking without finding, while they sit in +seclusion keeping the keys of the occult.[49] All of which would be +very wonderful, if true. It is, however, only one more of those +fascinating fictions with which mystery-mongers entertain themselves, +and deceive others. Small wonder that thinking men turn from such +fanciful folly with mingled feelings of pity and disgust. Sages there +have been in every land and time, and their lofty wisdom has the unity +which inheres in all high human thought, but that there is now, or has +ever been, a conscious, much less a continuous, fellowship of superior +souls holding as secrets truths denied to their fellow-men, verges +upon the absurd. + +Indeed, what is called the Secret Doctrine differs not one whit from +what has been taught openly and earnestly, so far as such truth can be +taught in words or pictured in symbols, by the highest minds of almost +every land and language. The difference lies less in what is taught +than in the way in which it is taught; not so much in matter as in +method. Also, we must not forget that, with few exceptions, the men +who have led our race farthest along the way toward the Mount of +Vision, have not been men who learned their lore from any coterie of +esoteric experts, but, rather, men who told in song what they had been +taught in sorrow--initiates into eternal truth, to be sure, but by the +grace of God and the divine right of genius![50] Seers, sages, +mystics, saints--these are they who, having sought in sincerity, found +in reality, and the memory of them is a kind of religion. Some of +them, like Pythagoras, were trained for their quest in the schools of +the Secret Doctrine, but others went their way alone, though never +unattended, and, led by "the vision splendid," they came at last to +the gate and passed into the City. + +Why, then, it may be asked, speak of such a thing as the Secret +Doctrine at all, since it were better named the Open Secret of the +world? For two reasons, both of which have been intimated: first, in +the olden times unwonted knowledge of any kind was a very dangerous +possession, and the truths of science and philosophy, equally with +religious ideas other than those in vogue among the multitude, had to +seek the protection of obscurity. If this necessity gave designing +priestcraft its opportunity, it nevertheless offered the security and +silence needed by the thinker and seeker after truth in dark times. +Hence there arose in the ancient world, wherever the human mind was +alive and spiritual, systems of exoteric and esoteric instruction; +that is, of truth taught openly and truth concealed. Disciples were +advanced from the outside to the inside of this divine philosophy, as +we have seen, by degrees of initiation. Whereas, by symbols, dark +sayings, and dramatic ritual the novice received only hints of what +was later made plain. + +Second, this hidden teaching may indeed be described as the open +secret of the world, because it is open, yet understood only by those +fit to receive it. What kept it hidden was no arbitrary restriction, +but only a lack of insight and fineness of mind to appreciate and +assimilate it. Nor could it be otherwise; and this is as true today as +ever it was in the days of the Mysteries, and so it will be until +whatever is to be the end of mortal things. Fitness for the finer +truths cannot be conferred; it must be developed. Without it the +teachings of the sages are enigmas that seem unintelligible, if not +contradictory. In so far, then, as the discipline of initiation, and +its use of art in drama and symbol, help toward purity of soul and +spiritual awakening, by so much do they prepare men for the truth; by +so much and no further. So that, the Secret Doctrine, whether as +taught by the ancient Mysteries or by modern Masonry, is less a +doctrine than a discipline; a method of organized spiritual culture, +and as such has a place and a ministry among men. + + +II + +Perhaps the greatest student in this field of esoteric teaching and +method, certainly the greatest now living, is Arthur Edward Waite, to +whom it is a pleasure to pay tribute. By nature a symbolist, if not a +sacramentalist, he found in such studies a task for which he was +almost ideally fitted by temperament, training, and genius. Engaged in +business, but not absorbed by it, years of quiet, leisurely toil have +made him master of the vast literature and lore of his subject, to the +study of which he brought a religious nature, the accuracy and skill +of a scholar, a sureness and delicacy of insight at once sympathetic +and critical, the soul of a poet, and a patience as untiring as it is +rewarding; qualities rare indeed, and still more rarely blended. +Prolific but seldom prolix, he writes with grace, ease, and lucidity, +albeit in a style often opulent, and touched at times with lights and +jewels from old alchemists, antique liturgies, remote and haunting +romance, secret orders of initiation, and other recondite sources not +easily traced. Much learning and many kinds of wisdom are in his +pages, and withal an air of serenity, of tolerance; and if he is of +those who turn down another street when miracles are performed in the +neighborhood, it is because, having found the inner truth, he asks for +no sign. + +Always he writes in the conviction that all great subjects bring us +back to the one subject which is alone great, and that scholarly +criticisms, folk-lore, and deep philosophy are little less than +useless if they fall short of directing us to our true end--the +attainment of that living Truth which is about us everywhere. He +conceives of our mortal life as one eternal Quest of that living +Truth, taking many phases and forms, yet ever at heart the same +aspiration, to trace which he has made it his labor and joy to essay. +Through all his pages he is following out the tradition of this Quest, +in its myriad aspects, especially since the Christian era, disfigured +though it has been at times by superstition, and distorted at others +by bigotry, but still, in what guise soever, containing as its secret +the meaning of the life of man from his birth to his reunion with God +who is his Goal. And the result is a series of volumes noble in form, +united in aim, unique in wealth of revealing beauty, and of unequalled +worth.[51] + +Beginning as far back as 1886, Waite issued his study of the +_Mysteries of Magic_, a digest of the writings of Eliphas Levi, to +whom Albert Pike was more indebted than he let us know. Then followed +the _Real History of the Rosicrucians_, which traces, as far as any +mortal may trace, the thread of fact whereon is strung the romance of +a fraternity the very existence of which has been doubted and denied +by turns. Like all his work, it bears the impress of knowledge from +the actual sources, betraying his extraordinary learning and his +exceptional experience in this kind of inquiry. Of the Quest in its +distinctively Christian aspect, he has written in _The Hidden Church +of the Holy Graal_; a work of rare beauty, of bewildering richness, +written in a style which, partaking of the quality of the story told, +is not at all after the manner of these days. But the Graal Legend is +only one aspect of the old-world sacred Quest, uniting the symbols of +chivalry with Christian faith. Masonry is another; and no one may ever +hope to write of _The Secret Tradition in Masonry_ with more insight +and charm, or a touch more sure and revealing, than this gracious +student for whom Masonry perpetuates the instituted Mysteries of +antiquity, with much else derived from innumerable store-houses of +treasure. His last work is a survey of _The Secret Doctrine in +Israel_, being a study of the _Zohar_,[52] or Hebrew "Book of +Splendor," a feat for which no Hebrew scholar has had the heart. This +Bible of Kabbalism is indeed so confused and confusing that only a +"golden dustman" would have had the patience to sift out its gems from +the mountain of dross, and attempt to reduce its wide-weltering chaos +to order. Even Waite, with all his gift of research and narration, +finds little more than gleams of dawn in a dim forest, brilliant +vapors, and glints that tell by their very perversity and strangeness. + +Whether this age-old legend of the Quest be woven about the Cup of +Christ, a Lost Word, or a design left unfinished by the death of a +Master Builder, it has always these things in common: first, the +memorials of a great _loss_ which has befallen humanity by sin, making +our race a pilgrim host ever in search; second, the intimation that +what was lost still exists somewhere in time and the world, although +deeply buried; third, the faith that it will ultimately be found and +the vanished glory restored; fourth, the substitution of something +temporary and less than the best, albeit never in a way to adjourn the +quest; fifth, and more rarely, the felt presence of that which was +lost under veils close to the hands of all. What though it take many +forms, from the pathetic pilgrimage of the _Wandering Jew_ to the +journey to fairyland in quest of _The Blue Bird_, it is ever and +always the same. These are but so many symbols of the fact that men +are made of one blood and born to one need; that they should seek the +Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He is +not far from every one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our +being.[53] + +What, then, is the Secret Doctrine, of which this seer-like scholar +has written with so many improvisations of eloquence and emphasis, and +of which each of us is in quest? What, indeed, but that which all the +world is seeking--knowledge of Him whom to know aright is the +fulfillment of every human need: the kinship of the soul with God; the +life of purity, honor, and piety demanded by that high heredity; the +unity and fellowship of the race in duty and destiny; and the faith +that the soul is deathless as God its Father is deathless! Now to +accept this faith as a mere philosophy is one thing, but to realize it +as an experience of the innermost heart is another and a deeper thing. +_No man knows the Secret Doctrine until it has become the secret of +his soul, the reigning reality of his thought, the inspiration of his +acts, the form and color and glory of his life._ Happily, owing to the +growth of the race in spiritual intelligence and power, the highest +truth is no longer held as a sacred secret. Still, if art has efficacy +to surprise and reveal the elusive Spirit of Truth, when truth is +dramatically presented it is made vivid and impressive, strengthening +the faith of the strongest and bringing a ray of heavenly light to +many a baffled seeker. + +Ever the Quest goes on, though it is permitted some of us to believe +that the Lost Word has been found, in the only way in which it can +ever be found--even in the life of Him who was "the Word made flesh," +who dwelt among us and whose grace and beauty we know. Of this Quest +Masonry is an aspect, continuing the high tradition of humanity, +asking men to unite in the search for the thing most worth finding, +that each may share the faith of all. Apart from its rites, there is +no mystery in Masonry, save the mystery of all great and simple +things. So far from being hidden or occult, its glory lies in its +openness, and its emphasis upon the realities which are to the human +world what light and air are to nature. Its mystery is of so great a +kind that it is easily overlooked; its secret almost too simple to be +found out. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[47] Matt. 13:10, 11. + +[48] _Unwritten Sayings of Our Lord_, David Smith, vii. + +[49] By occultism is meant the belief in, and the claim to be able to +use, a certain range of forces neither natural, nor, technically, +supernatural, but more properly to be called preternatural--often, +though by no means always, for evil or selfish ends. Some extend the +term occultism to cover mysticism and the spiritual life generally, but +that is not a legitimate use of either word. Occultism seeks to get; +mysticism to give. The one is audacious and seclusive, the other humble +and open; and if we are not to end in blunderland we must not confound +the two (_Mysticism_, by E. Underhill, part i, chap. vii). + +[50] Much time would have been saved, and not a little confusion +avoided, had this obvious fact been kept in mind. Even so charming a +book as _Jesus, the Last Great Initiate_, by Schure--not to speak of +_The Great Work_ and _Mystic Masonry_--is clearly, though not +intentionally, misleading. Of a piece with this is the effort, +apparently deliberate and concerted, to rob the Hebrew race of all +spiritual originality, as witness so able a work as _Our Own Religion +in Persia_, by Mills, to name no other. Our own religion? Assuredly, if +by that is meant the one great, universal religion of humanity. But the +sundering difference between the Bible and any other book that speaks +to mankind about God and Life and Death, sets the Hebrew race apart as +supreme in its religious genius, as the Greeks were in philosophical +acumen and artistic power, and the Romans in executive skill. Leaving +all theories of inspiration out of account, facts are facts, and the +Bible has no peer in the literature of mankind. + +[51] Some there are who think that much of the best work of Mr. Waite +is in his poetry, of which there are two volumes, _A Book of Mystery +and Vision_, and _Strange Houses of Sleep_. There one meets a fine +spirit, alive to the glory of the world and all that charms the soul +and sense of man, yet seeing past these; rich and significant thought +so closely wedded to emotion that each seems either. Other books not to +be omitted are his slender volume of aphorisms, _Steps to the Crown_, +his _Life of Saint-Martin_, and his _Studies in Mysticism_; for what he +touches he adorns. + +[52] Even the _Jewish Encyclopedia_, and such scholars as Zunz, Graetz, +Luzzatto, Jost, and Munk avoid this jungle, as well they might, +remembering the legend of the four sages in "the enclosed garden:" one +of whom looked around and died; another lost his reason; a third tried +to destroy the garden; and only one came out with his wits. See _The +Cabala_, by Pick, and _The Kabbalah Unveiled_, by MacGregor. + +[53] Acts 17:26-28. + + + + +THE COLLEGIA + + + + +/# + _This society was called the Dionysian Artificers, as Bacchus was + supposed to be the inventor of building theaters; and they + performed the Dionysian festivities. From this period, the Science + of Astronomy which had given rise to the Dionysian rites, became + connected with types taken from the art of building. The Ionian + societies ... extended their moral views, in conjunction with the + art of building, to many useful purposes, and to the practice of + acts of benevolence. They had significant words to distinguish + their members; and for the same purpose they used emblems taken + from the art of building._ + + --JOSEPH DA COSTA, _Dionysian Artificers_ + + + _We need not then consider it improbable, if in the dark centuries + when the Roman empire was dying out, and its glorious temples + falling into ruin; when the arts and sciences were falling into + disuse or being enslaved; and when no place was safe from + persecution and warfare, the guild of the Architects should fly + for safety to almost the only free spot in Italy; and here, though + they could no longer practice their craft, they preserved the + legendary knowledge and precepts which, as history implies, came + down to them through Vitruvius from older sources, some say from + Solomon's builders themselves._ + + --LEADER SCOTT, _The Cathedral Builders_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_The Collegia_ + + +So far in our study we have found that from earliest time architecture +was related to religion; that the working tools of the builder were +emblems of moral truth; that there were great secret orders using the +Drama of Faith as a rite of initiation; and that a hidden doctrine was +kept for those accounted worthy, after trial, to be entrusted with it. +Secret societies, born of the nature and need of man, there have been +almost since recorded history began;[54] but as yet we have come upon +no separate and distinct order of builders. For aught we know there +may have been such in plenty, but we have no intimation, much less a +record, of the fact. That is to say, history has a vague story to tell +us of the earliest orders of the builders. + +However, it is more than a mere plausible inference that from the +beginning architects were members of secret orders; for, as we have +seen, not only the truths of religion and philosophy, but also the +facts of science and the laws of art, were held as secrets to be known +only to the few. This was so, apparently without exception, among all +ancient peoples; so much so, indeed, that we may take it as certain +that the builders of old time were initiates. Of necessity, then, the +arts of the craft were secrets jealously guarded, and the architects +themselves, while they may have employed and trained ordinary workmen, +were men of learning and influence. Such glimpses of early architects +as we have confirm this inference, as, for example, the noble hymn to +the Sun-god written by Suti and Hor, two architects employed by +Amenhotep III, of Egypt.[55] Just when the builders began to form +orders of their own no one knows, but it was perhaps when the +Mystery-cults began to journey abroad into other lands. What we have +to keep in mind is that all the arts had their home in the temple, +from which, as time passed, they spread out fan-wise along all the +paths of culture. + +Keeping in mind the secrecy of the laws of building, and the sanctity +with which all science and art were regarded, we have a key whereby to +interpret the legends woven about the building of the temple of +Solomon. Few realize how high that temple on Mount Moriah towered in +the history of the olden world, and how the story of its building +haunted the legends and traditions of the times following. Of these +legends there were many, some of them wildly improbable, but the +persistence of the tradition, and its consistency withal, despite many +variations, is a _fact of no small moment_. Nor is this tradition to +be wondered at, since time has shown that the building of the temple +at Jerusalem was an event of world-importance, not only to the +Hebrews, but to other nations, more especially the Phoenicians. The +histories of both peoples make much of the building of the Hebrew +temple, of the friendship of Solomon and Hiram I, of Tyre, and of the +harmony between the two peoples; and Phoenician tradition has it that +Solomon presented Hiram with a duplicate of the temple, which was +erected in Tyre.[56] + +Clearly, the two nations were drawn closely together, and this fact +carried with it a mingling of religious influences and ideas, as was +true between the Hebrews and other nations, especially Egypt and +Phoenicia, during the reign of Solomon. Now the religion of the +Phoenicians at this time, as all agree, was the Egyptian religion in a +modified form, Dionysius having taken the role of Osiris in the drama +of faith in Greece, Syria, and Asia Minor. Thus we have the Mysteries +of Egypt, in which Moses was learned, brought to the very door of the +temple of Solomon, and that, too, at a time favorable to their +impress. The Hebrews were not architects, and it is plain from the +records that the temple--and, indeed, the palaces of Solomon--were +designed and erected by Phoenician builders, and for the most part by +Phoenician workmen and materials. Josephus adds that the architecture +of the temple was of the style called Grecian. So much would seem to +be fact, whatever may be said of the legends flowing from it. + +If, then, the laws of building were secrets known only to initiates, +there must have been a secret order of architects who built the temple +of Solomon. Who were they? They were almost certainly the _Dionysian +Artificers_--not to be confused with the play-actors called by the +same name later--an order of builders who erected temples, stadia, and +theaters in Asia Minor, and who were at the same time an order of the +Mysteries under the tutelage of Bacchus before that worship declined, +as it did later in Athens and Rome, into mere revelry.[57] As such, +they united the art of architecture with the old Egyptian drama of +faith, representing in their ceremonies the murder of Dionysius by the +Titans and his return to life. So that, blending the symbols of +Astronomy with those of Architecture, by a slight change made by a +natural process, how easy for the master-artist of the temple-builders +to become the hero of the ancient drama of immortality.[58] Whether +or not this fact can be verified from history, such is the form in +which the tradition has come down to us, surviving through long ages +and triumphing over all vicissitude.[59] Secret orders have few +records and their story is hard to tell, but this account is perfectly +in accord with the spirit and setting of the situation, and there is +neither fact nor reason against it. While this does not establish it +as true historically, it surely gives it validity as a prophecy, if +nothing more.[60] + +After all, then, the tradition that Masonry, not unlike the Masonry we +now know, had its origin while the temple of King Solomon was +building, and was given shape by the two royal friends, may not be so +fantastic as certain superior folk seem to think it. How else can we +explain the fact that when the Knights of the Crusades went to the +Holy Land they came back a secret, oath-bound fraternity? Also, why is +it that, through the ages, we see bands of builders coming from the +East calling themselves "sons of Solomon," and using his interlaced +triangle-seal as their emblem? Strabo, as we have seen, traced the +Dionysiac builders eastward into Syria, Persia, and even India. They +may also be traced westward. Traversing Asia Minor, they entered +Europe by way of Constantinople, and we follow them through Greece to +Rome, where already several centuries before Christ we find them bound +together in corporations called _Collegia_. These lodges flourished in +all parts of the Roman Empire, traces of their existence having been +discovered in England as early as the middle of the first century of +our era. + + +II + +Krause was the first to point out a prophecy of Masonry in the old +orders of builders, following their footsteps--not connectedly, of +course, for there are many gaps--through the Dionysiac fraternity of +Tyre, through the Roman Collegia, to the architects and Masons of the +Middle Ages. Since he wrote, however, much new material has come to +light, but the date of the advent of the builders in Rome is still +uncertain. Some trace it to the very founding of the city, while +others go no further back than King Numa, the friend of +Pythagoras.[61] By any account, they were of great antiquity, and +their influence in Roman history was far-reaching. They followed the +Roman legions to remote places, building cities, bridges, and temples, +and it was but natural that Mithra, the patron god of soldiers, should +have influenced their orders. Of this an example may be seen in the +remains of the ancient Roman villa at Morton, on the Isle of +Wight.[62] + +As Rome grew in power and became a vast, all-embracing empire, the +individual man felt, more and more, his littleness and loneliness. +This feeling, together with the increasing specialization of industry, +begat a passion for association, and Collegia of many sorts were +organized. Even a casual glance at the inscriptions, under the heading +_Artes et Opificia_, will show the enormous development of skilled +handicrafts, and how minute was their specialization. Every trade soon +had its secret order, or union, and so powerful did they become that +the emperors found it necessary to abolish the right of free +association. Yet even such edicts, though effective for a little time, +were helpless as against the universal craving for combination. Ways +were easily found whereby to evade the law, which had exempted from +its restrictions orders consecrated by their antiquity or their +religious character. Most of the Collegia became funerary and +charitable in their labors, humble folk seeking to escape the dim, +hopeless obscurity of plebeian life, and the still more hopeless +obscurity of death. Pathetic beyond words are some of the inscriptions +telling of the horror and loneliness of the grave, of the day when no +kindly eye would read the forgotten name, and no hand bring offerings +of flowers. Each collegium held memorial services, and marked the tomb +of its dead with the emblems of its trade: if a baker, with a loaf of +bread; if a builder, with a square, compasses, and the level. + +From the first the Colleges of Architects seem to have enjoyed special +privileges and exemptions, owing to the value of their service to the +state, and while we do not find them called Free-masons they were such +in law and fact long before they wore the name. They were permitted to +have their own constitutions and regulations, both secular and +religious. In form, in officers, in emblems a Roman Collegium +resembled very much a modern Masonic Lodge. For one thing, no College +could consist of less than three persons, and so rigid was this rule +that the saying, "three make a college," became a maxim of law. Each +College was presided over by a Magister, or Master, with two +_decuriones_, or wardens, each of whom extended the commands of the +Master to "the brethren of his column." There were a secretary, a +treasurer, and a keeper of archives, and, as the colleges were in part +religious and usually met near some temple, there was a _sacerdos_, +or, as we would say, a priest, or chaplain. The members were of three +orders, not unlike apprentices, fellows, and masters, or colleagues. +What ceremonies of initiation were used we do not know, but that they +were of a religious nature seems certain, as each College adopted a +patron deity from among the many then worshiped. Also, as the +Mysteries of Isis and Mithra ruled the Roman world by turns, the +ancient drama of eternal life was never far away. + +Of the emblems of the Collegia, it is enough to say that here again we +find the simple tools of the builder used as teachers of truth for +life and hope in death. Upon a number of sarcophagi, still extant, we +find carved the square, the compasses, the cube, the plummet, the +circle, and always the level. There is, besides, the famous Collegium +uncovered at the excavation of Pompeii in 1878, having been buried +under the ashes and lava of Mount Vesuvius since the year 79 A.D. It +stood near the Tragic Theater, not far from the Temple of Isis, and by +its arrangement, with two columns in front and interlaced triangles on +the walls, was identified as an ancient lodge room. Upon a pedestal in +the room was found a rare bit of art, unique in design and exquisite +in execution, now in the National Museum at Naples. It is described by +S.R. Forbes, in his _Rambles in Naples_, as follows: + +/#[4,66] + It is a mosaic table of square shape, fixed in a strong + wooden frame. The ground is of grey green stone, in the + middle of which is a human skull, made of white, grey, and + black colors. In appearance the skull is quite natural. The + eyes, nostrils, teeth, ears, and coronal are all well + executed. Above the skull is a level of colored wood, the + points being of brass; and from the top to the point, by a + white thread, is suspended a plumb-line. Below the skull is + a wheel of six spokes, and on the upper rim of the wheel + there is a butterfly with wings of red, edged with yellow; + its eyes blue.... On the left is an upright spear, resting on + the ground; from this there hangs, attached to a golden cord, + a garment of scarlet, also a purple robe; whilst the upper + part of the spear is surrounded by a white braid of diamond + pattern. To the right is a gnarled thorn stick, from which + hangs a coarse, shaggy piece of cloth in yellow, grey, and + brown colors, tied with a ribbon; and above it is a leather + knapsack.... Evidently this work of art, by its composition, + is mystical and symbolical. +#/ + +No doubt; and for those who know the meaning of these emblems there is +a feeling of kinship with those men, long since fallen into dust, who +gathered about such an altar. They wrought out in this work of art +their vision of the old-worn pilgrim way of life, with its vicissitude +and care, the level of mortality to which all are brought at last by +death, and the winged, fluttering hope of man. Always a journey with +its horny staff and wallet, life is sometimes a battle needing a +spear, but for him who walks uprightly by the plumb-line of rectitude, +there is a true and victorious hope at the end. + +/P + Of wounds and sore defeat + I made my battle stay, + Winged sandals for my feet + I wove of my delay. + Of weariness and fear + I made a shouting spear, + Of loss and doubt and dread + And swift on-coming doom + I made a helmet for my head, + And a waving plume. +P/ + + +III + +Christianity, whose Founder was a Carpenter, made a mighty appeal to +the working classes of Rome. As Deissmann and Harnack have shown, the +secret of its expansion in the early years was that it came down to +the man in the street with its message of hope and joy. Its appeal was +hardly heard in high places, but it was welcomed by the men who were +weary and heavy ladened. Among the Collegia it made rapid progress, +its Saints taking the place of pagan deities as patrons, and its +spirit of love welding men into closer, truer union. When Diocletian +determined to destroy Christianity, he was strangely lenient and +patient with the Collegia, so many of whose members were of that +faith. Not until they refused to make a statue of AEsculapius did he +vow vengeance and turn on them, venting his fury. In the persecution +that followed four Master Masons and one humble apprentice suffered +cruel torture and death, but they became the Four Crowned Martyrs, +the story of whose heroic fidelity unto death haunted the legends of +later times.[63] They were the patron saints alike of Lombard and +Tuscan builders, and, later, of the working Masons of the Middle Ages, +as witness the poem in their praise in the oldest record of the Craft, +the _Regius MS._ + +With the breaking up of the College of Architects and their expulsion +from Rome, we come upon a period in which it is hard to follow their +path. Happily the task has been made less baffling by recent research, +and if we are unable to trace them all the way much light has been let +into the darkness. Hitherto there has been a hiatus also in the +history of architecture between the classic art of Rome, which is said +to have died when the Empire fell to pieces, and the rise of Gothic +art. Just so, in the story of the builders one finds a gap of like +length, between the Collegia of Rome and the cathedral artists. While +the gap cannot, as yet, be perfectly bridged, much has been done to +that end by Leader Scott in _The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a +Great Masonic Guild_--a book itself a work of art as well as of fine +scholarship. Her thesis is that the missing link is to be found in the +Magistri Comacini, a guild of architects who, on the break-up of the +Roman Empire, fled to Comacina, a fortified island in Lake Como, and +there kept alive the traditions of classic art during the Dark Ages; +that from them were developed in direct descent the various styles of +Italian architecture; and that, finally, they carried the knowledge +and practice of architecture and sculpture into France, Spain, +Germany, and England. Such a thesis is difficult, and, from its +nature, not susceptible of absolute proof, but the writer makes it as +certain as anything can well be. + +While she does not positively affirm that the Comacine Masters were the +veritable stock from which the Freemasonry of the present day sprang, +"we may admit," she says, "that they were the link between the classic +Collegia and all other art and trade Guilds of the Middle Ages. _They +were Free-masons because they were builders of a privileged class, +absolved from taxes and servitude, and free to travel about in times of +feudal bondage_." The name Free-mason--_Libera muratori_--may not +actually have been used thus early, but the Comacines were _in fact +free builders long before the name was employed_--free to travel from +place to place, as we see from their migrations; free to fix their own +prices, while other workmen were bound to feudal lords, or by the +Statutes of Wages. The author quotes in the original Latin an Edict of +the Lombard King Rotharis, dated November 22, 643, in which certain +privileges are confirmed to the _Magistri Comacini_ and their +_colligantes_. From this Edict it is clear that it is no new order that +is alluded to, but an old and powerful body of Masters capable of +acting as architects, with men who executed work under them. For the +Comacines were not ordinary workmen, but artists, including architects, +sculptors, painters, and decorators, and if affinities of style left in +stone be adequate evidence, to them were due the changing forms of +architecture in Europe during the cathedral-building period. Everywhere +they left their distinctive impress in a way so unmistakable as to +leave no doubt. + +Under Charlemagne the Comacines began their many migrations, and we +find them following the missionaries of the church into remote places, +from Sicily to Britain, building churches. When Augustine went to +convert the British, the Comacines followed to provide shrines, and +Bede, as early as 674, in mentioning that builders were sent for from +Gaul to build the church at Wearmouth, uses phrases and words found in +the Edict of King Rotharis. For a long time the changes in style of +architecture, appearing simultaneously everywhere over Europe, from +Italy to England, puzzled students.[64] Further knowledge of this +powerful and widespread order explains it. It also accounts for the +fact that no individual architect can be named as the designer of any +of the great cathedrals. Those cathedrals were the work, not of +individual artists, but of an order who planned, built, and adorned +them. In 1355 the painters of Siena seceded, as the German Masons did +later, and the names of individual artists who worked for fame and +glory begin to appear; but up to that time the Order was supreme. +Artists from Greece and Asia Minor, driven from their homes, took +refuge with the Comacines, and Leader Scott finds in this order a +possible link, by tradition at least, with the temple of Solomon. At +any rate, all through the Dark Ages the name and fame of the Hebrew +king lived in the minds of the builders. + +An inscribed stone, dating from 712, shows that the Comacine Guild +was organized as _Magistri_ and _Discipuli_, under a _Gastaldo_, or +Grand Master, the very same terms as were kept in the lodges later. +Moreover, they called their meeting places _loggia_, a long list of +which the author recites from the records of various cities, giving +names of officers, and, often, of members. They, too, had their +masters and wardens, their oaths, tokens, grips, and passwords which +formed a bond of union stronger than legal ties. They wore white +aprons and gloves, and revered the Four Crowned Martyrs of the Order. +Square, compasses, level, plumb-line, and arch appear among their +emblems. "King Solomon's Knot" was one of their symbols, and the +endless, interwoven cord, symbol of Eternity which has neither +beginning nor end, was another. Later, however, the Lion's Paw seems +to have become their chief emblem. From illustrations given by the +author they are shown in their regalia, with apron and emblems, clad +as the keepers of a great art and teaching of which they were masters. + +Here, of a truth, is something more than prophecy, and those who have +any regard for facts will not again speak lightly of an order having +such ancestors as the great Comacine Masters. Had Fergusson known +their story, he would not have paused in his _History of Architecture_ +to belittle the Free-masons as incapable of designing a cathedral, +while puzzling the while as to who did draw the plans for those dreams +of beauty and prayer. Hereafter, if any one asks to know who uplifted +those massive piles in which was portrayed the great drama of +mediaeval worship, he need not remain uncertain. With the decline of +Gothic architecture the order of Free-masons also suffered decline, as +we shall see, but did not cease to exist--continuing its symbolic +tradition amidst varying, and often sad, vicissitude until 1717, when +it became a fraternity teaching spiritual faith by allegory and moral +science by symbols. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[54] _Primitive Secret Societies_, by H. Webster; _Secret Societies of +all Ages and Lands_, by W.C. Heckethorn. + +[55] We may add the case of Weshptah, one of the viziers of the Fifth +Dynasty in Egypt, about 2700 B.C., and also the royal architect, for +whom the great tomb was built, endowed, and furnished by the king +(_Religion in Egypt_, by Breasted, lecture ii); also the statue of +Semut, chief of Masons under Queen Hatasu, now in Berlin. + +[56] _Historians His. World_, vol. ii, chap. iii. Josephus gives an +elaborate account of the temple, including the correspondence between +Solomon and Hiram of Tyre (_Jewish Antiquities_, bk. viii, chaps. 2-6). + +[57] _Symbolism of Masonry_, Mackey, chap. vi; also in Mackey's +_Encyclopedia of Masonry_, both of which were drawn from _History of +Masonry_, by Laurie, chap. i; and Laurie in turn derived his facts from +a _Sketch for the History of the Dionysian Artificers, A Fragment_, by +H.J. Da Costa (1820). Why Waite and others brush the Dionysian +architects aside as a dream is past finding out in view of the evidence +and authorities put forth by Da Costa, nor do they give any reason for +so doing. "Lebedos was the seat and assembly of the _Dionysian +Artificers_, who inhabit Ionia to the Hellespont; there they had +annually their solemn meetings and festivities in honor of Bacchus," +wrote Strabo (lib. xiv, 921). They were a secret society having signs +and words to distinguish their members (Robertson's _Greece_), and used +emblems taken from the art of building (Eusebius, _de Prep. Evang._ +iii, c. 12). They entered Asia Minor and Phoenicia fifty years before +the temple of Solomon was built, and Strabo traces them on into Syria, +Persia, and India. Surely here are facts not to be swept aside as +romance because, forsooth, they do not fit certain theories. Moreover, +they explain many things, as we shall see. + +[58] Rabbinic legend has it that all the workmen on the temple were +killed, so that they should not build another temple devoted to +idolatry (_Jewish Encyclopedia_, article "Freemasonry"). Other legends +equally absurd cluster about the temple and its building, none of which +is to be taken literally. As a fact, Hiram the architect, or rather +artificer in metals, did not lose his life, but, as Josephus tells us, +lived to good age and died at Tyre. What the legend is trying to tell +us, however, is that at the building of the temple the Mysteries +mingled with Hebrew faith, each mutually influencing the other. + +[59] Strangely enough, there is a sect or tribe called the Druses, now +inhabiting the Lebanon district, who claim to be not only the +descendants of the Phoenicians, but _the builders of King Solomon's +temple_. So persistent and important among them is this tradition that +their religion is built about it--if indeed it be not something more +than a legend. They have Khalwehs, or temples, built after the fashion +of lodges, with three degrees of initiation, and, though an +agricultural folk, they use signs and tools of building as emblems of +moral truth. They have signs, grips, and passwords for recognition. In +the words of their lawgiver, Hamze, their creed reads: "The belief in +the Truth of One God shall take the place of Prayer; the exercise of +brotherly love shall take the place of Fasting; and the daily practice +of acts of Charity shall take the place of Alms-giving." Why such a +people, having such a tradition? Where did they get it? What may this +fact set in the fixed and changeless East mean? (See the essay of +Hackett Smith on "The Druses and Their Relation to Freemasonry," and +the discussion following, _Ars Quatuor Coronatorum_, iv. 7-19.) + +[60] Rawlinson, in his _History of Phoenicia_, says the people "had for +ages possessed the mason's art, it having been brought in very early +days from Egypt." Sir C. Warren found on the foundation stones at +Jerusalem Mason's marks in Phoenician letters (_A. Q. C._, ii, 125; +iii, 68). + +[61] See essay on "A Masonic Built City," by S.R. Forbes, a study of +the plan and building of Rome, _Ars Quatuor Coronatorum_, iv, 86. As +there will be many references to the proceedings of the Coronatorum +Lodge of Research, it will be convenient hereafter to use only its +initials, _A. Q. C._, in behalf of brevity. For an account of the +Collegia in early Christian times, see _Roman Life from Nero to +Aurelius_, by Dill (bk. ii, chap. iii); also _De Collegia_, by Mommsen. +There is an excellent article in Mackey's _Encyclopedia of +Freemasonry_, and Gould, _His. Masonry_, vol. i, chap. i. + +[62] See _Masonic Character of Roman Villa at Morton_, by J.F. Crease +(_A. Q. C._, iii, 38-59). + +[63] Their names were Claudius, Nicostratus, Simphorianus, Castorius, +and Simplicius. Later their bodies were brought from Rome to Toulouse +where they were placed in a chapel erected in their honor in the church +of St. Sernin (_Martyrology_, by Du Saussay). They became patron saints +of Masons in Germany, France, and England (_A. Q. C._, xii, 196). In a +fresco on the walls of the church of St. Lawrence at Rotterdam, +partially preserved, they are painted with compasses and trowel in +hand. With them, however, is another figure, clad in oriental robe, +also holding compasses, but with a royal, not a martyr's, crown. Is he +Solomon? Who else can he be? The fresco dates from 1641, and was +painted by F. Wounters (_A. Q. C._, xii, 202). Even so, those humble +workmen, faithful to their faith, became saints of the church, and +reign with Solomon! Once the fresco was whitewashed, but the coating +fell off and they stood forth with compasses and trowel as before. + +[64] _History of Middle Ages_, Hallam, vol. ii, 547. + + + + +Part II--History + + + + +FREE-MASONS + + + + +/# + _The curious history of Freemasonry has unfortunately been treated + only by its panegyrists or calumniators, both equally mendacious. + I do not wish to pry into the mysteries of the craft; but it would + be interesting to know more of their history during the period + when they were literally architects. They are charged by an act of + Parliament with fixing the price of their labor in their annual + chapters, contrary to the statute of laborers, and such chapters + were consequently prohibited. This is their first persecution; + they have since undergone others, and are perhaps reserved for + still more. It is remarkable, that Masons were never legally + incorporated, like other traders; their bond of union being + stronger than any charter._ + + --HENRY HALLAM, _The Middle Ages_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Free-Masons_ + + +I + +From the foregoing pages it must be evident that Masonry, as we find +it in the Middle Ages, was not a novelty. Already, if we accept its +own records, it was hoary with age, having come down from a far past, +bringing with it a remarkable deposit of legendary lore. Also, it had +in its keeping the same simple, eloquent emblems which, as we have +seen, are older than the oldest living religion, which it received as +an inheritance and has transmitted as a treasure. Whatever we may +think of the legends of Masonry, as recited in its oldest documents, +its symbols, older than the order itself, link it with the earliest +thought and faith of the race. No doubt those emblems lost some of +their luster in the troublous time of transition we are about to +traverse, but their beauty never wholly faded, and they had only to be +touched to shine. + +If not the actual successors of the Roman College of Architects, the +great order of Comacine Masters was founded upon its ruins, and +continued its tradition both of symbolism and of art. Returning to +Rome after the death of Diocletian, we find them busy there under +Constantine and Theodosius; and from remains recently brought to +knowledge it is plain that their style of building at that time was +very like that of the churches built at Hexham and York in England, +and those of the Ravenna, also nearly contemporary. They may not have +been actually called Free-masons as early as Leader Scott insists they +were,[65] but _they were free in fact_, traveling far and near where +there was work to do, following the missionaries of the Church as far +as England. When there was need for the name _Free-masons_, it was +easily suggested by the fact that the cathedral-builders were quite +distinct from the Guild-masons, the one being a universal order +whereas the other was local and restricted. Older than Guild-masonry, +the order of the cathedral-builders was more powerful, more artistic, +and, it may be added, more religious; and it is from this order that +the Masonry of today is descended. + +Since the story of the Comacine Masters has come to light, no doubt +any longer remains that during the building period the order of Masons +was at the height of its influence and power. At that time the +building art stood above all other arts, and made the other arts bow +to it, commanding the services of the most brilliant intellects and +of the greatest artists of the age. Moreover, its symbols were wrought +into stone long before they were written on parchment, if indeed they +were ever recorded at all. Efforts have been made to rob those old +masters of their honor as the designers of the cathedrals, but it is +in vain.[66] Their monuments are enduring and still tell the story of +their genius and art. High upon the cathedrals they left cartoons in +stone, of which Findel gives a list,[67] portraying with searching +satire abuses current in the Church. Such figures and devices would +not have been tolerated but for the strength of the order, and not +even then had the Church known what they meant to the adepts. + +History, like a mirage, lifts only a part of the past into view, +leaving much that we should like to know in oblivion. At this distance +the Middle Ages wear an aspect of smooth uniformity of faith and +opinion, but that is only one of the many illusions of time by which +we are deceived. What looks like uniformity was only conformity, and +underneath its surface there was almost as much variety of thought as +there is today, albeit not so freely expressed. Science itself, as +well as religious ideas deemed heretical, sought seclusion; but the +human mind was alive and active none the less, and a great secret +order like Masonry, enjoying the protection of the Church, yet +independent of it, invited freedom of thought and faith.[68] The +Masons, by the very nature of their art, came into contact with all +classes of men, and they had opportunities to know the defects of the +Church. Far ahead of the masses and most of the clergy in education, +in their travels to and fro, not only in Europe, but often extending +to the far East, they became familiar with widely-differing religious +views. They had learned to practice toleration, and their Lodges +became a sure refuge for those who were persecuted for the sake of +opinion by bigoted fanaticism. + +While, as an order, the Comacine Masters served the Church as +builders, the creed required for admission to their fraternity was +never narrow, and, as we shall see, it became every year broader. +Unless this fact be kept in mind, the influence of the Church upon +Masonry, which no one seeks to minify, may easily be exaggerated. Not +until cathedral building began to decline by reason of the +impoverishment of the nations by long wars, the dissolution of the +monasteries, and the advent of Puritanism, did the Church greatly +influence the order; and not even then to the extent of diverting it +from its original and unique mission. Other influences were at work +betimes, such as the persecution of the Knights Templars and the +tragic martyrdom of De Molai, making themselves felt,[69] and Masonry +began to be suspected of harboring heresy. So tangled were the +tendencies of that period that they are not easily followed, but the +fact emerges that Masonry rapidly broadened until its final break with +the Church. Hardly more than a veneer, by the time of the German +Reformation almost every vestige of the impress of the Church had +vanished never to return. Critics of the order have been at pains to +trace this tendency, not knowing, apparently, that by so doing they +only make more emphatic the chief glory of Masonry. + + +II + +Unfortunately, as so often happens, no records of old Craft-masonry, +save those wrought into stone, were made until the movement had begun +to decline; and for that reason such documents as have come down to us +do not show it at its best. Nevertheless, they range over a period of +more than four centuries, and are justly held to be the title deeds of +the Order. Turning to these _Old Charges_ and _Constitutions_,[70] as +they are called, we find a body of quaint and curious writing, both in +poetry and prose, describing the Masonry of the late cathedral-building +period, with glimpses at least of greater days of old. Of these, there +are more than half a hundred--seventy-eight, to be exact--most of which +have come to light since 1860, and all of them, it would seem, copies +of documents still older. Naturally they have suffered at the hands of +unskilled or unlearned copyists, as is evident from errors, +embellishments, and interpolations. They were called _Old Charges_ +because they contained certain rules as to conduct and duties which, in +a bygone time, were read or recited to a newly admitted member of the +craft. While they differ somewhat in details, they relate substantially +the same legend as to the origin of the order, its early history, its +laws and regulations, usually beginning with an invocation and ending +with an Amen. + +Only a brief account need here be given of the dates and +characteristics of these documents, of the two oldest especially, with +a digest of what they have to tell us, first, of the Legend of the +order; second, its early History; and third, its Moral teaching, its +workings, and the duties of its members. The first and oldest of the +records is known as the _Regius MS_ which, owing to an error of David +Casley who in his catalogue of the MSS in the King's Library marked it +_A Poem of Moral Duties_, was overlooked until James Halliwell +discovered its real nature in 1839. Although not a Mason, Halliwell +was attracted by the MS and read an essay on its contents before the +Society of Antiquarians, after which he issued two editions bearing +date of 1840 and 1844. Experts give it date back to 1390, that is to +say, fifteen years after the first recorded use of the name +_Free_-mason in the history of the Company of Masons of the City of +London, in 1375.[71] + +More poetical in spirit than in form, the old manuscript begins by +telling of the number of unemployed in early days and the necessity of +finding work, "that they myght gete there lyvyngs therby." Euclid was +consulted, and recommended the "onest craft of good masonry," and the +origin of the order is found "yn Egypte lande." Then, by a quick +shift, we are landed in England "yn tyme of good Kinge Adelstonus +day," who is said to have called an assembly of Masons, when fifteen +articles and as many points were agreed upon as rules of the craft, +each point being duly described. The rules resemble the Ten +Commandments in an extended form, closing with the legend of the Four +Crowned Martyrs, as an incentive to fidelity. Then the writer takes up +again the question of origins, going back this time to the days of +Noah and the Flood, mentioning the tower of Babylon and the great +skill of Euclid, who is said to have commenced "the syens seven." The +seven sciences are then named, to-wit, Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, +Music, Astronomy, Arithmetic, Geometry, and each explained. Rich +reward is held out to those who use the seven sciences aright, and the +MS proper closes with the benediction: + +/P + Amen! Amen! so mote it be! + So say we all for Charity. +P/ + +There follows a kind of appendix, evidently added by a priest, +consisting of one hundred lines in which pious exhortation is mixed +with instruction in etiquette, such as lads and even men unaccustomed +to polite society and correct deportment would need. These lines were +in great part extracted from _Instructions for Parish Priests_, by +Mirk, a manual in use at the time. The whole poem, if so it may be +called, is imbued with the spirit of freedom, of gladness, of social +good will; so much so, that both Gould and Albert Pike think it points +to the existence of symbolic Masonry at the date from which it speaks, +and may have been recited or sung by some club commemorating the +science, but not practicing the art, of Masonry. They would find +intimation of the independent existence of speculative Masonry thus +early, in a society from whom all but the memory or tradition of its +ancient craft had departed. One hesitates to differ with writers so +able and distinguished, yet this inference seems far-fetched, if not +forced. Of the existence of symbolic Masonry at that time there is no +doubt, but of its independent existence it is not easy to find even a +hint in this old poem. Nor would the poem be suitable for a mere +social, or even a symbolic guild, whereas the spirit of genial, joyous +comradeship which breathes through it is of the very essence of +Masonry, and has ever been present when Masons meet. + +Next in order of age is the _Cooke MS_, dating from the early part of +the fifteenth century, and first published in 1861. If we apply the +laws of higher-criticism to this old document a number of things +appear, as obvious as they are interesting. Not only is it a copy of +an older record, like all the MSS we have, but it is either an effort +to join two documents together, or else the first part must be +regarded as a long preamble to the manuscript which forms the second +part. For the two are quite unlike in method and style, the first +being diffuse, with copious quotations and references to +authorities,[72] while the second is simple, direct, unadorned, and +does not even allude to the Bible. Also, it is evident that the +compiler, himself a Mason, is trying to harmonize two traditions as to +the origin of the order, one tracing it through Egypt and the other +through the Hebrews; and it is hard to tell which tradition he favors +most. Hence a duplication of the traditional history, and an odd +mixture of names and dates, often, indeed, absurd, as when he makes +Euclid a pupil of Abraham. What is clear is that, having found an old +Constitution of the Craft, he thought to write a kind of commentary +upon it, adding proofs and illustrations of his own, though he did not +manage his materials very successfully. + +After his invocation,[73] the writer begins with a list of the Seven +Sciences, giving quaint definitions of each, but in a different order +from that recited in the _Regius Poem_; and he exalts Geometry above +all the rest as "the first cause and foundation of all crafts and +sciences." Then follows a brief sketch of the sons of Lamech, much as +we find it in the book of Genesis which, like the old MS we are here +studying, was compiled from two older records: the one tracing the +descent from Cain, and the other from Seth. Jabal and Jubal, we are +told, inscribed their knowledge of science and handicraft on two +pillars, one of marble, the other of lateres; and after the flood one +of the pillars was found by Hermes, and the other by Pythagoras, who +taught the sciences they found written thereon. Other MSS give Euclid +the part here assigned to Hermes. Surely this is all fantastic enough, +but the blending of the names of Hermes, the "father of Wisdom," who +is so supreme a figure in the Egyptian Mysteries, and Pythagoras who +used numbers as spiritual emblems, with old Hebrew history, is +significant. At any rate, by this route the record reaches Egypt +where, like the _Regius Poem_, it locates the origin of Masonry. In +thus ascribing the origin of Geometry to the Egyptians the writer was +but following a tradition that the Egyptians were compelled to invent +it in order to restore the landmarks effaced by the inundations of the +Nile; a tradition confirmed by modern research. + +Proceeding, the compiler tells us that during their sojourn in Egypt +the Hebrews learned the art and secrets of Masonry, which they took +with them to the promised land. Long years are rapidly sketched, and +we come to the days of David, who is said to have loved Masons well, +and to have given them "wages nearly as they are now." There is but a +meager reference to the building of the Temple of Solomon, to which is +added: "In other chronicles and old books of Masonry, it is said that +Solomon confirmed the charges that David had given to Masons; and that +Solomon taught them their usages differing but slightly from the +customs now in use." While allusion is made to the master-artist of +the temple, his name is not mentioned, _except in disguise_. Not one +of the _Old Charges_ of the order ever makes use of his name, but +always employs some device whereby to conceal it.[74] Why so, when +the name was well known, written in the Bible which lay upon the +altar for all to read? Why such reluctance, if it be not that the name +and the legend linked with it had an esoteric meaning, as it most +certainly did have long before it was wrought into a drama? At this +point the writer drops the old legend and traces the Masons into +France and England, after the manner of the _Regius MS_, but with more +detail. Having noted these items, he returns to Euclid and brings that +phase of the tradition up to the advent of the order into England, +adding, in conclusion, the articles of Masonic law agreed upon at an +early assembly, of which he names nine, instead of the fifteen recited +in the _Regius Poem_. + +What shall we say of this Legend, with its recurring and insistent +emphasis upon the antiquity of the order, and its linking of Egypt +with Israel? For one thing, it explodes the fancy that the idea of the +symbolical significance of the building of the Temple of Solomon +originated with, or was suggested by, Bacon's _New Atlantis_. Here is +a body of tradition uniting the Egyptian Mysteries with the Hebrew +history of the Temple in a manner unmistakable. Wherefore such names +as Hermes, Pythagoras, and Euclid, and how did they come into the old +craft records if not through the Comacine artists and scholars? With +the story of that great order before us, much that has hitherto been +obscure becomes plain, and we recognize in these _Old Charges_ the +inaccurate and perhaps faded tradition of a lofty symbolism, an +authentic scholarship, and an actual history. As Leader Scott +observes, after reciting the old legend in its crudest form: + +/#[4,66] + _The significant point is that all these names and Masonic + emblems point to something real which existed in some + long-past time, and, as regards the organisation and + nomenclature, we find the whole thing in its vital and actual + working form in the Comacine Guild._[75] +#/ + +Of interest here, as a kind of bridge between old legend and the early +history of the order in England, and also as a different version of +the legend itself, is another document dating far back. There was a MS +discovered in the Bodleian Library at Oxford about 1696, supposed to +have been written in the year 1436, which purports to be an +examination of a Mason by King Henry VI, and is allowed by all to be +genuine. Its title runs as follows: "_Certain questions with answers +to the same concerning the mystery of masonry written by King Henry +the Sixth and faithfully copied by me, John Laylande, antiquarian, by +command of his highness_." Written in quaint old English, it would +doubtless be unintelligible to all but antiquarians, but it reads +after this fashion: + +/#[4,66] + What mote it be?--It is the knowledge of nature, and the + power of its various operations; particularly the skill of + reckoning, of weights and measures, of constructing buildings + and dwellings of all kinds, and the true manner of forming + all things for the use of man. + + Where did it begin?--It began with the first men of the East, + who were before the first men of the West, and coming with it, + it hath brought all comforts to the wild and comfortless. + + Who brought it to the West?--The Phoenicians who, being great + merchants, came first from the East into Phoenicia, for the + convenience of commerce, both East and West by the Red and + Mediterranean Seas. + + How came it into England?--Pythagoras, a Grecian, traveled to + acquire knowledge in Egypt and Syria, and in every other land + where the Phoenicians had planted Masonry; and gaining + admittance into all lodges of Masons, he learned much, and + returned and dwelt in Grecia Magna, growing and becoming + mighty wise and greatly renowned. Here he formed a great lodge + at Crotona, and made many Masons, some of whom traveled into + France, and there made many more, from whence, in process of + time, the art passed into England. +#/ + + +III + +With the conquest of Britain by the Romans, the _Collegia_, without +which no Roman society was complete, made their advent into the +island, traces of their work remaining even to this day. Under the +direction of the mother College at Rome, the Britons are said to have +attained to high degree of excellence as builders, so that when the +cities of Gaul and the fortresses along the Rhine were destroyed, +Chlorus, A.D. 298, sent to Britain for architects to repair or rebuild +them. Whether the _Collegia_ existed in Britain after the Romans left, +as some affirm, or were suppressed, as we know they were on the +Continent when the barbarians overran it, is not clear. Probably they +were destroyed, or nearly so, for with the revival of Christianity in +598 A.D., we find Bishop Wilfred of York joining with the Abbott of +Wearmouth in sending to France and Italy to induce Masons to return +and build in stone, as he put it, "after the Roman manner." This +confirms the Italian chroniclists who relate that Pope Gregory sent +several of the fraternity of _Liberi muratori_ with St. Augustine, as, +later, they followed St. Boniface into Germany. + +Again, in 604, Augustine sent the monk Pietro back to Rome with a +letter to the same Pontiff, begging him to send more architects and +workmen, which he did. As the _Liberi muratori_ were none other than +the Comacine Masters, it seems certain that they were at work in +England _long before the period with which the_ OLD CHARGES _begin +their story of English Masonry_.[76] Among those sent by Gregory was +Paulinus, and it is a curious fact that he is spoken of under the title +of _Magister_, by which is meant, no doubt, that he was a member of the +Comacine order, for they so described their members; and we know that +many monks were enrolled in their lodges, having studied the art of +building under their instruction. St. Hugh of Lincoln was not the only +Bishop who could plan a church, instruct the workman, or handle a hod. +Only, it must be kept in mind that these ecclesiastics who became +skilled in architecture _were taught by the Masons_, and that it was +not the monks, as some seem to imagine, who taught the Masons their +art. Speaking of this early and troublous time, Giuseppe Merzaria says +that only one lamp remained alight, making a bright spark in the +darkness that extended over Europe: + +/#[4,66] + It was from the _Magistri Comacini_. Their respective names + are unknown, their individual works unspecialized, but the + breadth of their spirit might be felt all through those + centuries, and their name collectively is legion. We may + safely say that of all the works of art between A.D. 800 and + 1000, the greater and better part are due to that + brotherhood--always faithful and often secret--of the + _Magistri Comacini_. The authority and judgment of learned + men justify the assertion.[77] +#/ + +Among the learned men who agree with this judgment are Kugler of +Germany, Ramee of France, and Selvatico of Italy, as well as Quatremal +de Quincy, in his _Dictionary of Architecture_, who, in the article on +the Comacine, remarks that "to these men, who were both designers and +executors, architects, sculptors, and mosaicists, may be attributed +the renaissance of art, and its propagation in the southern countries, +where it marched with Christianity. Certain it is that we owe it to +them, that the heritage of antique ages was not entirely lost, and it +is only by their tradition and imitation that the art of building was +kept alive, producing works which we still admire, and which become +surprising when we think of the utter ignorance of all science in +those dark ages." The English writer, Hope, goes further and credits +the Comacine order with being the cradle of the associations of +Free-masons, who were, he adds, "the first after Roman times to enrich +architecture with a complete and well-ordinated system, which +dominated wherever the Latin Church extended its influence."[78] So +then, even if the early records of old Craft-masonry in England are +confused, and often confusing, we are not left to grope our way from +one dim tradition to another, having the history and monuments of this +great order which _spans the whole period_, and links the fraternity +of Free-masons with one of the noblest chapters in the annals of art. + +Almost without exception the _Old Charges_ begin their account of +Masonry in England at the time of Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred +the Great; that is, between 925 and 940. Of this prince, or knight, +they record that he was a wise and pacific ruler; that "he brought the +land to rest and peace, and built many great buildings of castles and +abbeys, for he loved Masons well." He is also said to have called an +assembly of Masons at which laws, rules, and charges were adopted for +the regulation of the craft. Despite these specific details, the story +of Athelstan and St. Alban is hardly more than a legend, albeit dating +at no very remote epoch, and well within the reasonable limits of +tradition. Still, so many difficulties beset it that it has baffled +the acutest critics, most of whom throw it aside.[79] That is, +however, too summary a way of disposing of it, since the record, +though badly blurred, is obviously trying to preserve a fact of +importance to the order. + +Usually the assembly in question is located at York, in the year 926, +of which, however, no slightest record remains. Whether at York or +elsewhere, some such assembly must have been convoked, either as a +civil function, or as a regular meeting of Masons authorized by legal +power for upholding the honor of the craft; and its articles became +the laws of the order. It was probably a civil assembly, a part of +whose legislation was a revised and approved code for the regulation +of Masons, and not unnaturally, by reason of its importance to the +order, it became known as a Masonic assembly. Moreover, the Charge +agreed upon was evidently no ordinary charge, for it is spoken of as +"_the_ Charge," called by one MS "a deep charge for the observation of +such articles as belong to Masonry," and by another MS "a rule to be +kept forever." Other assemblies were held afterwards, either annually +or semi-annually, until the time of Inigo Jones who, in 1607, became +superintendent general of royal buildings and at the same time head of +the Masonic order in England; and he it was who instituted quarterly +gatherings instead of the old annual assemblies. + +Writers not familiar with the facts often speak of Freemasonry as an +evolution from Guild-masonry, but that is to err. They were never at +any time united or the same, though working almost side by side +through several centuries. Free-masons existed in large numbers long +before any city guild of Masons was formed, and even after the Guilds +became powerful the two were entirely distinct. The Guilds, as Hallam +says,[80] "were Fraternities by voluntary compact, to relieve each +other in poverty, and to protect each other from injury. Two +essential characteristics belonged to them: the common banquet, and +the common purse. They had also, in many instances, a religious and +sometimes a secret ceremonial to knit more firmly the bond of +fidelity. They readily became connected with the exercises of trades, +with training of apprentices, and the traditional rules of art." +Guild-masons, it may be added, had many privileges, one of which was +that they were allowed to frame their own laws, and to enforce +obedience thereto. Each Guild had a monopoly of the building in its +city or town, except ecclesiastical buildings, but with this went +serious restrictions and limitations. No member of a local Guild could +undertake work outside his town, but had to hold himself in readiness +to repair the castle or town walls, whereas Free-masons journeyed the +length and breadth of the land wherever their labor called them. Often +the Free-masons, when at work in a town, employed Guild-masons, but +only for rough work, and as such called them "rough-masons." No +Guild-mason was admitted to the order of Free-masons unless he +displayed unusual aptitude both as a workman and as a man of +intellect. Such as adhered only to the manual craft and cared nothing +for intellectual aims, were permitted to go back to the Guilds. For +the Free-masons, be it once more noted, were not only artists doing a +more difficult and finished kind of work, but an intellectual order, +having a great tradition of science and symbolism which they guarded. + +Following the Norman Conquest, which began in 1066, England was +invaded by an army of ecclesiastics, and churches, monasteries, +cathedrals, and abbeys were commenced in every part of the country. +Naturally the Free-masons were much in demand, and some of them +received rich reward for their skill as architects--Robertus +Cementarius, a Master Mason employed at St. Albans in 1077, receiving +a grant of land and a house in the town.[81] In the reign of Henry II +no less than one hundred and fifty-seven religious buildings were +founded in England, and it is at this period that we begin to see +evidence of a new style of architecture--the Gothic. Most of the great +cathedrals of Europe date from the eleventh century--the piety of the +world having been wrought to a pitch of intense excitement by the +expected end of all things, unaccountably fixed by popular belief to +take place in the year one thousand. When the fatal year--and the +following one, which some held to be the real date for the sounding of +the last trumpet--passed without the arrival of the dreaded +catastrophe, the sense of general relief found expression in raising +magnificent temples to the glory of God who had mercifully abstained +from delivering all things to destruction. And it was the order of +Free-masons who made it possible for men to "sing their souls in +stone," leaving for the admiration of after times what Goethe called +the "frozen music" of the Middle Ages--monuments of the faith and +gratitude of the race which adorn and consecrate the earth. + +Little need be added to the story of Freemasonry during the +cathedral-building period; its monuments are its best history, alike +of its genius, its faith, and its symbols--as witness the triangle and +the circle which form the keystone of the ornamental tracery of every +Gothic temple. Masonry was then at the zenith of its power, in its +full splendor, the Lion of the tribe of Judah its symbol, strength, +wisdom, and beauty its ideals; its motto to be faithful to God and the +Government; its mission to lend itself to the public good and +fraternal charity. Keeper of an ancient and high tradition, it was a +refuge for the oppressed, and a teacher of art and morality to +mankind. In 1270, we find Pope Nicholas III confirming all the rights +previously granted to the Free-masons, and bestowing on them further +privileges. Indeed, all the Popes up to Benedict XII appear to have +conceded marked favors to the order, even to the length of exempting +its members from the necessity of observance of the statutes, from +municipal regulations, and from obedience to royal edicts. + +What wonder, then, that the Free-masons, ere long, took _Liberty_ for +their motto, and by so doing aroused the animosity of those in +authority, as well as the Church which they had so nobly served. +Already forces were astir which ultimately issued in the Reformation, +and it is not surprising that a great secret order was suspected of +harboring men and fostering influences sympathetic with the impending +change felt to be near at hand. As men of the most diverse views, +political and religious, were in the lodges, the order began first to +be accused of refusing to obey the law, and then to be persecuted. In +England a statute was enacted against the Free-masons in 1356, +prohibiting their assemblies under severe penalties, but the law seems +never to have been rigidly enforced; though the order suffered greatly +in the civil commotions of the period. However, with the return of +peace after the long War of the Roses, Freemasonry revived for a +time, and regained much of its prestige, adding to its fame in the +rebuilding of London after the fire, and in particular of St. Paul's +Cathedral.[82] + +When cathedral-building ceased, and the demand for highly skilled +architects decreased, the order fell into decline, but never at any +time lost its identity, its organization, and its ancient emblems. The +Masons' Company of London, though its extant records date only from +1620, is considered by its historian, Conder, to have been established +in 1220, if not earlier, at which time there was great activity in +building, owing to the building of London Bridge, begun in 1176, and +of Westminster Abbey in 1221; thus reaching back into the cathedral +period. At one time the Free-masons seem to have been stronger in +Scotland than in England, or at all events to have left behind more +records--for the minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh go back to 1599, +and the _Schaw Statutes_ to an earlier date. Nevertheless, as the art +of architecture declined Masonry declined with it, not a few of its +members identifying themselves with the Guilds of ordinary +"rough-masons," whom they formerly held in contempt; while others, +losing sight of high aims, turned its lodges into social clubs. +Always, however, despite defection and decline, there were those, as +we shall see, who were faithful to the ideals of the order, devoting +themselves more and more to its moral and spiritual teaching until +what has come to be known as "the revival of 1717." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[65] _The Cathedral Builders_, chap. i. + +[66] "The honor due to the original founders of these edifices is +almost invariably transferred to the ecclesiastics under whose +patronage they rose, rather than to the skill and design of the Master +Mason, or professional architect, because the only historians were +monks.... They were probably not so well versed in geometrical science +as the Master Masons, for mathematics formed a part of monastic +learning in a very limited degree."--James Dallaway, _Architecture in +England_; and his words are the more weighty for that he is not a +Mason. + +[67] _History of Masonry._ In the St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremburg, is a +carving in stone showing a nun in the embrace of a monk. In Strassburg +a hog and a goat may be seen carrying a sleeping fox as a sacred relic, +in advance a bear with a cross and a wolf with a taper. An ass is +reading mass at an altar. In Wurzburg Cathedral are the pillars of Boaz +and Jachin, and in the altar of the Church of Doberan, in Mecklenburg, +placed as Masons use them, and a most significant scene in which +priests are turning a mill grinding out dogmatic doctrines; and at the +bottom the Lord's Supper in which the Apostles are shown in well-known +Masonic attitudes. In the Cathedral of Brandenburg a fox in priestly +robes is preaching to a flock of geese; and in the Minster at Berne the +Pope is placed among those who are lost in perdition. These were bold +strokes which even heretics hardly dared to indulge in. + +[68] _History of Masonry_, by Steinbrenner, chap. iv. There were, +indeed, many secret societies in the Middle Ages, such as the +Catharists, Albigenses, Waldenses, and others, whose initiates and +adherents traveled through all Europe, forming new communities and +making proselytes not only among the masses, but also among nobles, and +even among the monks, abbots, and bishops. Occultists, Alchemists, +Kabbalists, all wrought in secrecy, keeping their flame aglow under the +crust of conformity. + +[69] _Realities of Masonry_, by Blake (chap. ii). While the theory of +the descent of Masonry from the Order of the Temple is untenable, a +connection between the two societies, in the sense in which an artist +may be said to be connected with his employer, is more than probable; +and a similarity may be traced between the ritual of reception in the +Order of the Temple and that used by Masons, but that of the Temple was +probably derived from, or suggested by, that of the Masons; or both may +have come from an original source further back. That the Order of the +Temple, as such, did not actually coalesce with the Masons seems clear, +but many of its members sought refuge under the Masonic apron (_History +of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders_, by Hughan and Stillson). + +[70] Every elaborate History of Masonry--as, for example, that of +Gould--reproduces these old documents in full or in digest, with +exhaustive analyses of and commentaries upon them. Such a task +obviously does not come within the scope of the present study. One of +the best brief comparative studies of the _Old Charges_ is an essay by +W.H. Upton, "The True Text of the Book of Constitutions," in that it +applies approved methods of historical criticism to all of them (_A. Q. +C._, vii, 119). See also _Masonic Sketches and Reprints_, by Hughan. No +doubt these _Old Charges_ are familiar, or should be familiar, to every +intelligent member of the order, as a man knows the deeds of his +estate. + +[71] _The Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masonry_, by Conder. Also +exhaustive essays by Conder and Speth, _A. Q. C._, ix, 29; x, 10. Too +much, it seems to me, has been made of both the name and the date, +since the _fact_ was older than either. Findel finds the name +_Free_-mason as early as 1212, and Leader Scott goes still further +back; but the fact may be traced back to the Roman Collegia. + +[72] He refers to Herodotus as the _Master of History_; quotes from the +_Polychronicon_, written by a Benedictine monk who died in 1360; from +_De Imagine Mundi_, Isodorus, and frequently from the Bible. Of more +than ordinary learning for his day and station, he did not escape a +certain air of pedantry in his use of authorities. + +[73] These invocations vary in their phraseology, some bearing more +visibly than others the mark of the Church. Toulmin Smith, in his +_English Guilds_, notes the fact that the form of the invocations of +the Masons "differs strikingly from that of most other Guilds. In +almost every other case, God the Father Almighty would seem to have +been forgotten." But Masons never forgot the corner-stone upon which +their order and its teachings rest; not for a day. + +[74] Such names as Aynone, Aymon, Ajuon, Dynon, Amon, Anon, Annon, and +Benaim are used, deliberately, it would seem, and of set design. _The +Inigo Jones MS_ uses the Bible name, but, though dated 1607, it has +been shown to be apocryphal. See Gould's _History_, appendix. Also +_Bulletin_ of Supreme Council S. J., U. S. (vii, 200), that the +Strassburg builders pictured the legend in stone. + +[75] _The Cathedral Builders_, bk. i, chap. i. + +[76] See the account of "The Origin of Saxon Architecture," in the +_Cathedral Builders_ (bk. ii, chap. iii), written by Dr. W.M. Barnes in +England independently of the author who was living in Italy; and it is +significant that the facts led both of them to the same conclusions. +They show quite unmistakably that the Comacine builders were in England +as early as 600 A.D., both by documents and by a comparative study of +styles of architecture. + +[77] _Maestri Comacini_, vol. i, chap. ii. + +[78] _Story of Architecture_, chap. xxii. + +[79] Gould, in his _History of Masonry_ (i, 31, 65), rejects the legend +as having not the least foundation in fact, as indeed, he rejects +almost everything that cannot prove itself in a court of law. For the +other side see a "Critical Examination of the Alban and Athelstan +Legends," by C.C. Howard (_A. Q. C._, vii, 73). Meanwhile, Upton points +out that St. Alban was the name of a town, not of a man, and shows how +the error may have crept into the record (_A. Q. C._, vii, 119-131). +The nature of the tradition, its details, its motive, and the absence +of any reason for fiction, should deter us from rejecting it. See two +able articles, pro and con, by Begemann and Speth, entitled "The +Assembly" (_A. Q. C._, vii). Older Masonic writers, like Oliver and +Mackey, accepted the York assembly as a fact established (_American +Quarterly Review of Freemasonry_, vol. i, 546; ii, 245). + +[80] _History of the English Constitution._ Of course the Guild was +indigenous to almost every age and land, from China to ancient Rome +(_The Guilds of China_, by H.B. Morse), and they survive in the trade +and labor unions of our day. The story of _English Guilds_ has been +told by Toulmin Smith, and in the histories of particular companies by +Herbert and Hazlitt, leaving little for any one to add. No doubt the +Guilds were influenced by the Free-masons in respect of officers and +emblems, and we know that some of them, like the German Steinmetzen, +attached moral meanings to their working tools, and that others, like +the French Companionage, even held the legend of Hiram; but these did +not make them Free-masons. English writers like Speth go too far when +they deny to the Steinmetzen any esoteric lore, and German scholars +like Krause and Findel are equally at fault in insisting that they were +Free-masons. (See essay by Speth, _A. Q. C._, i, 17, and _History of +Masonry_, by Steinbrenner, chap. iv.) + +[81] _Notes on the Superintendents of English Buildings in the Middle +Ages_, by Wyatt Papworth. Cementerius is also mentioned in connection +with the Salisbury Cathedral, again in his capacity as a Master Mason. + +[82] Hearing that the Masons had certain secrets that could not be +revealed to her (for that she could not be Grand Master) Queen +Elizabeth sent an armed force to break up their annual Grand Lodge at +York, on St. John's Day, December 27, 1561. But Sir Thomas Sackville +took care to see that some of the men sent were Free-masons, who, +joining in the communication, made "a very honorable report to the +Queen, who never more attempted to dislodge or disturb them; but +esteemed them a peculiar sort of men, that cultivated peace and +friendship, arts and sciences, without meddling in the affairs of +Church or State" (_Book of Constitutions_, by Anderson). + + + + +FELLOWCRAFTS + + + + +/# + _Noe person (of what degree soever) shalbee accepted a Free Mason, + unless hee shall have a lodge of five Free Masons at least; + whereof one to be a master, or warden, of that limitt, or + division, wherein such Lodge shalbee kept, and another of the + trade of Free Masonry. + + That noe person shalbee accepted a Free Mason, but such as are of + able body, honest parentage, good reputation, and observers of the + laws of the land. + + That noe person shalbee accepted a Free Mason, or know the secrets + of said Society, until hee hath first taken the oath of secrecy + hereafter following: "I, A. B., doe in the presence of Almighty + God, and my fellows, and brethren here present, promise and + declare, that I will not at any time hereafter, by any act or + circumstance whatsoever, directly or indirectly, publish, + discover, reveal, or make known any of the secrets, privileges, or + counsels, of the fraternity or fellowship of Free Masonry, which + at this time, or any time hereafter, shalbee made known unto mee + soe helpe mee God, and the holy contents of this booke."_ + + --HARLEIAN MS, 1600-1650 +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_Fellowcrafts_ + + +I + +Having followed the Free-masons over a long period of history, it is +now in order to give some account of the ethics, organization, laws, +emblems, and workings of their lodges. Such a study is at once easy +and difficult by turns, owing to the mass of material, and to the +further fact that in the nature of things much of the work of a secret +order is not, and has never been, matter for record. By this +necessity, not a little must remain obscure, but it is hoped that even +those not of the order may derive a definite notion of the principles +and practices of the old Craft-masonry, from which the Masonry of +today is descended. At least, such a sketch will show that, from times +of old, the order of Masons has been a teacher of morality, charity, +and truth, unique in its genius, noble in its spirit, and benign in +its influence. + +Taking its ethical teaching first, we have only to turn to the _Old +Charges_ or _Constitutions_ of the order, with their quaint blending +of high truth and homely craft-law, to find the moral basis of +universal Masonry. These old documents were a part of the earliest +ritual of the order, and were recited or read to every young man at +the time of his initiation as an Entered Apprentice. As such, they +rehearsed the legends, laws, and ethics of the craft for his +information, and, as we have seen, they insisted upon the antiquity of +the order, as well as its service to mankind--a fact peculiar to +Masonry, _for no other order has ever claimed such a legendary or +traditional history_. Having studied that legendary record and its +value as history, it remains to examine the moral code laid before the +candidate who, having taken a solemn oath of loyalty and secrecy, was +instructed in his duties as an Apprentice and his conduct as a man. +What that old code lacked in subtlety is more than made up in +simplicity, and it might all be stated in the words of the Prophet: +"To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God,"--the old +eternal moral law, founded in faith, tried by time, and approved as +valid for men of every clime, creed, and condition. + +Turning to the _Regius MS_, we find fifteen "points" or rules set +forth for the guidance of Fellowcrafts, and as many for the rule of +Master Masons.[83] Later the number was reduced to nine, but so far +from being an abridgment, it was in fact an elaboration of the +original code; and by the time we reach the _Roberts_ and _Watson_ MSS +a similar set of requirements for Apprentices had been adopted--or +rather recorded, for they had been in use long before. It will make +for clearness if we reverse the order and take the Apprentice charge +first, as it shows what manner of men were admitted to the order. No +man was made a Mason save by his own free choice, and he had to prove +himself a freeman of lawful age, of legitimate birth, of sound body, +of clean habits, and of good repute, else he was not eligible. Also, +he had to bind himself by solemn oath to serve under rigid rules for a +period of seven years, vowing absolute obedience--for the old-time +Lodge was a school in which young men studied, not only the art of +building and its symbolism, but the seven sciences as well. At first +the Apprentice was little more than a servant, doing the most menial +work, his period of endenture being at once a test of his character +and a training for his work. If he proved himself trustworthy and +proficient, his wages were increased, albeit his rules of conduct were +never relaxed. How austere the discipline was may be seen from a +summary of its rules: + +Confessing faith in God, an Apprentice vowed to honor the Church, the +State, and the Master under whom he served, agreeing not to absent +himself from the service of the order, by day or night, save with the +license of the Master. He must be honest, truthful, upright, faithful +in keeping the secrets of the craft, or the confidence of the Master, +or of any Free-mason, when communicated to him as such. Above all he +must be chaste, never committing adultery or fornication, and he must +not marry, or contract himself to any woman, during his +apprenticeship. He must be obedient to the Master without argument or +murmuring, respectful to all Free-masons, courteous, avoiding obscene +or uncivil speech, free from slander, dissension, or dispute. He must +not haunt or frequent any tavern or ale-house, or so much as go into +them except it be upon an errand of the Master or with his consent, +using neither cards, dice, nor any unlawful game, "Christmas time +excepted." He must not steal anything even to the value of a penny, or +suffer it to be done, or shield anyone guilty of theft, but report the +fact to the Master with all speed. + +After seven long years the Apprentice brought his masterpiece to the +Lodge--or, in earlier times, to the annual Assembly[84]--and on strict +trial and due examination was declared a Master. Thereupon he ceased +to be a pupil and servant, passed into the ranks of Fellowcrafts, and +became a free man capable, for the first time in his life, of earning +his living and choosing his own employer. Having selected a Mark[85] +by which his work could be identified, he could then take his kit of +tools and travel as a Master of his art, receiving the wages of a +Master--not, however, without first reaffirming his vows of honesty, +truthfulness, fidelity, temperance, and chastity, and assuming added +obligations to uphold the honor of the order. Again he was sworn not +to lay bare, nor to tell to any man what he heard or saw done in the +Lodge, and to keep the secrets of a fellow Mason as inviolably as his +own--unless such a secret imperiled the good name of the craft. He +furthermore promised to act as mediator between his Master and his +Fellows, and to deal justly with both parties. If he saw a Fellow +hewing a stone which he was in a fair way to spoil, he must help him +without loss of time, if able to do so, that the whole work be not +ruined. Or if he met a fellow Mason in distress, or sorrow, he must +aid him so far as lay within his power. In short, he must live in +justice and honor with all men, especially with the members of the +order, "that the bond of mutual charity and love may augment and +continue." + +Still more binding, if possible, were the vows of a Fellowcraft when +he was elevated to the dignity of Master of the Lodge or of the Work. +Once more he took solemn oath to keep the secrets of the order +unprofaned, and more than one old MS quotes the Golden Rule as the law +of the Master's office. He must be steadfast, trusty, and true; pay +his Fellows truly; take no bribe; and as a judge stand upright. He +must attend the annual Assembly, unless disabled by illness, if within +fifty miles--the distance varying, however, in different MSS. He must +be careful in admitting Apprentices, taking only such as are fit both +physically and morally, and keeping none without assurance that he +would stay seven years in order to learn his craft. He must be patient +with his pupils, instruct them diligently, encourage them with +increased pay, and not permit them to work at night, "unless in the +pursuit of knowledge, which shall be a sufficient excuse." He must be +wise and discreet, and undertake no work he cannot both perform and +complete equally to the profit of his employer and the craft. Should a +Fellow be overtaken by error, he must be gentle, skilful, and +forgiving, seeking rather to help than to hurt, abjuring scandal and +bitter words. He must not attempt to supplant a Master of the Lodge or +of the Work, or belittle his work, but recommend it and assist him in +improving it. He must be liberal in charity to those in need, helping +a Fellow who has fallen upon evil lot, giving him work and wages for +at least a fortnight, or if he has no work, "relieve him with money to +defray his reasonable charges to the next Lodge." For the rest, he +must in all ways act in a manner befitting the nobility of his office +and his order. + +Such were some of the laws of the moral life by which the old +Craft-masonry sought to train its members, not only to be good +workmen, but to be good and true men, serving their Fellows; to which, +as the Rawlinson MS tells us, "divers new articles have been added by +the free choice and good consent and best advice of the Perfect and +True Masons, Masters, and Brethren." If, as an ethic of life, these +laws seem simple and rudimentary, they are none the less fundamental, +and they remain to this day the only gate and way by which those must +enter who would go up to the House of the Lord. As such they are great +and saving things to lay to heart and act upon, and if Masonry taught +nothing else its title to the respect of mankind would be clear. They +have a double aspect: first, the building of a spiritual man upon +immutable moral foundations; and second, the great and simple +religious faith in the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man, and +the Life Eternal, taught by Masonry from its earliest history to this +good day. Morality and theistic religion--upon these two rocks +Masonry has always stood, and they are the only basis upon which man +may ever hope to rear the spiritual edifice of his life, even to the +capstone thereof. + + +II + +Imagine, now, a band of these builders, bound together by solemn vows +and mutual interests, journeying over the most abominable roads toward +the site selected for an abbey or cathedral. Traveling was attended +with many dangers, and the company was therefore always well armed, +the disturbed state of the country rendering such a precaution +necessary. Tools and provisions belonging to the party were carried on +pack-horses or mules, placed in the center of the convoy, in charge of +keepers. The company consisted of a Master Mason directing the work, +Fellows of the craft, and Apprentices serving their time. Besides +these we find subordinate laborers, not of the Lodge though in it, +termed layers, setters, tilers, and so forth. Masters and Fellows wore +a distinctive costume, which remained almost unchanged in its fashion +for no less than three centuries.[86] Withal, it was a serious +company, but in nowise solemn, and the tedium of the journey was no +doubt beguiled by song, story, and the humor incident to travel. + +"Wherever they came," writes Mr. Hope in his _Essay on Architecture_, +"in the suite of missionaries, or were called by the natives, or +arrived of their own accord, to seek employment, they appeared headed +by a chief surveyor, who governed the whole troop, and named one man +out of every ten, under the name of warden, to overlook the other +nine, set themselves to building temporary huts for their habitation +around the spot where the work was to be carried on, regularly +organized their different departments, fell to work, sent for fresh +supplies of their brethren as the object demanded, and, when all was +finished, again they raised their encampment, and went elsewhere to +undertake other work." + +Here we have a glimpse of the methods of the Free-masons, of their +organization, almost military in its order and dispatch, and of their +migratory life; although they had a more settled life than this +ungainly sentence allows, for long time was required for the building +of a great cathedral. Sometimes, it would seem, they made special +contracts with the inhabitants of a town where they were to erect a +church, containing such stipulations as, that a Lodge covered with +tiles should be built for their accommodation, and that every laborer +should be provided with a white apron of a peculiar kind of leather +and gloves to shield the hands from stone and slime.[87] At all +events, the picture we have is that of a little community or village +of workmen, living in rude dwellings, with a Lodge room at the center +adjoining a slowly rising cathedral--the Master busy with his plans +and the care of his craft; Fellows shaping stones for walls, arches, +or spires; Apprentices fetching tools or mortar, and when necessary, +tending the sick, and performing all offices of a similar nature. +Always the Lodge was the center of interest and activity, a place of +labor, of study, of devotion, as well as the common room for the +social life of the order. Every morning, as we learn from the Fabric +Rolls of York Minster, began with devotion, followed by the directions +of the Master for the work of the day, which no doubt included study +of the laws of the art, plans of construction, and the mystical +meaning of ornaments and emblems. Only Masons were in attendance at +such times, the Lodge being closed to all others, and guarded by a +Tiler[88] against "the approach of cowans[89] and eavesdroppers." Thus +the work of each day was begun, moving forward amidst the din and +litter of the hours, until the craft was called from labor to rest and +refreshment; and thus a cathedral was uplifted as a monument to the +Order, albeit the names of the builders are faded and lost. Employed +for years on the same building, and living together in the Lodge, it +is not strange that Free-masons came to know and love one another, and +to have a feeling of loyalty to their craft, unique, peculiar, and +enduring. Traditions of fun and frolic, of song and feast and +gala-day, have floated down to us, telling of a comradeship as joyous +as it was genuine. If their life had hardship and vicissitude, it had +also its grace and charm of friendship, of sympathy, service, and +community of interest, and the joy that comes of devotion to a high +and noble art. + +When a Mason wished to leave one Lodge and go elsewhere to work, as he +was free to do when he desired, he had no difficulty in making himself +known to the men of his craft by certain signs, grips, and words.[90] +Such tokens of recognition were necessary to men who traveled afar in +those uncertain days, especially when references or other means of +identification were ofttimes impossible. All that many people knew +about the order was that its members had a code of secret signs, and +that no Mason need be friendless or alone when other Masons were +within sight or hearing; so that the very name of the craft came to +stand for any mode of hidden recognition. Steele, in the _Tatler_, +speaks of a class of people who have "their signs and tokens like +Free-masons." There were more than one of these signs and tokens, as +we are more than once told--in the _Harleian MS_, for example, which +speaks of "words and signs." What they were may not be here discussed, +but it is safe to say that a Master Mason of the Middle Ages, were he +to return from the land of shadows, could perhaps make himself known +as such in a Fellowcraft Lodge of today. No doubt some things would +puzzle him at first, but he would recognize the officers of the Lodge, +its form, its emblems, its great altar Light, and its moral truth +taught in symbols. Besides, he could tell us, if so minded, much that +we should like to learn about the craft in the olden times, its hidden +mysteries, the details of its rites, and the meaning of its symbols +when the poetry of building was yet alive. + + +III + +This brings us to one of the most hotly debated questions in Masonic +history--the question as to the number and nature of the degrees made +use of in the old craft lodges. Hardly any other subject has so deeply +engaged the veteran archaeologists of the order, and while it ill +becomes any one glibly to decide such an issue, it is at least +permitted us, after studying all of value that has been written on +both sides, to sum up what seems to be the truth arrived at.[91] +While such a thing as a written record of an ancient degree--aside +from the _Old Charges_, which formed a part of the earliest +rituals--is unthinkable, we are not left altogether to the mercy of +conjecture in a matter so important. Cesare Cantu tells us that the +Comacine Masters "were called together in the Loggie by a grand-master +to treat of affairs common to the order, to receive novices, and +_confer superior degrees on others_."[92] Evidence of a sort similar +is abundant, but not a little confusion will be avoided if the +following considerations be kept in mind: + +First, that during its purely operative period the ritual of Masonry +was naturally less formal and ornate than it afterwards became, from +the fact that its very life was a kind of ritual and its symbols were +always visibly present in its labor. By the same token, as it ceased +to be purely operative, and others not actually architects were +admitted to its fellowship, of necessity its rites became more +formal--"_very formall_," as Dugdale said in 1686,[93]--portraying in +ceremony what had long been present in its symbolism and practice. + +Second, that with the decline of the old religious art of +building--for such it was in very truth--some of its symbolism lost +its luster, its form surviving but its meaning obscured, if not +entirely faded. Who knows, for example--even with the Klein essay on +_The Great Symbol_[94] in hand--what Pythagoras meant by his lesser +and greater Tetractys? That they were more than mathematical theorems +is plain, yet even Plutarch missed their meaning. In the same way, +some of the emblems in our Lodges are veiled, or else wear meanings +invented after the fact, in lieu of deeper meanings hidden, or but +dimly discerned. Albeit, the great emblems still speak in truths +simple and eloquent, and remain to refine, instruct, and exalt. + +Third, that when Masonry finally became a purely speculative or +symbolical fraternity, no longer an order of practical builders, its +ceremonial inevitably became more elaborate and imposing--its old +habit and custom, as well as its symbols and teachings, being +enshrined in its ritual. More than this, knowing how "Time the white +god makes all things holy, and what is old becomes religion," it is +no wonder that its tradition became every year more authoritative; so +that the tendency was not, as many have imagined, to add to its +teaching, but to preserve and develop its rich deposit of symbolism, +and to avoid any break with what had come down from the past. + +Keeping in mind this order of evolution in the history of Masonry, we +may now state the facts, so far as they are known, as to its early +degrees; dividing it into two periods, the Operative and the +Speculative.[95] An Apprentice in the olden days was "entered" as a +novice of the craft, first, as a purely business proceeding, not +unlike our modern indentures, or articles. Then, or shortly +afterwards--probably at the annual Assembly--there was a ceremony of +initiation making him a Mason--including an oath, the recital of the +craft legend as recorded in the _Old Charges_, instruction in moral +conduct and deportment as a Mason, and the imparting of certain +secrets. At first this degree, although comprising secrets, does not +seem to have been mystic at all, but a simple ceremony intended to +impress upon the mind of the youth the high moral life required of +him. Even Guild-masonry had such a rite of initiation, as Hallam +remarks, and if we may trust the Findel version of the ceremony used +among the German Stone-masons, it was very like the first degree as we +now have it--though one has always the feeling that it was embellished +in the light of later time.[96] + +So far there is no dispute, but the question is whether any other +degree was known in the early lodges. Both the probabilities of the +case, together with such facts as we have, indicate that there was +another and higher degree. For, if all the secrets of the order were +divulged to an Apprentice, he could, after working four years, and +just when he was becoming valuable, run away, give himself out as a +Fellow, and receive work and wages as such. If there was only one set +of secrets, this deception might be practiced to his own profit and +the injury of the craft--unless, indeed, we revise all our ideas held +hitherto, and say that his initiation did not take place until he was +out of his articles. This, however, would land us in worse +difficulties later on. Knowing the fondness of the men of the Middle +Ages for ceremony, it is hardly conceivable that the day of all days +when an Apprentice, having worked for seven long years, acquired the +status of a Fellow, was allowed to go unmarked, least of all in an +order of men to whom building was at once an art and an allegory. So +that, not only the exigences of his occupation, but the importance of +the day to a young man, and the spirit of the order, justify such a +conclusion. + +Have we any evidence tending to confirm this inference? Most +certainly; so much so that it is not easy to interpret the hints given +in the _Old Charges_ upon any other theory. For one thing, in nearly +all the MSS, from the _Regius Poem_ down, we are told of two rooms or +resorts, the Chamber and the Lodge--sometimes called the Bower and the +Hall--and the Mason was charged to keep the "counsells" proper to each +place. This would seem to imply that an Apprentice had access to the +Chamber or Bower, but not to the Lodge itself--at least not at all +times. It may be argued that the "other counsells" referred to were +merely technical secrets, but that is to give the case away, since +they were secrets held and communicated as such. By natural process, +as the order declined and actual building ceased, _its technical +secrets became ritual secrets_, though they must always have had +symbolical meanings. Further, while we have record of only one +oath--which does not mean that there _was_ only one--signs, tokens, +and words are nearly always spoken of in the plural; and if the +secrets of a Fellowcraft were purely technical--which some of us do +not believe--they were at least accompanied and protected by certain +signs, tokens, and passwords. From this it is clear that the advent of +an Apprentice into the ranks of a Fellow was in fact a degree, or +contained the essentials of a degree, including a separate set of +signs and secrets. + +When we pass to the second period, and men of wealth and learning who +were not actual architects began to enter the order--whether as +patrons of the art or as students and mystics attracted by its +symbolism--other evidences of change appear. They, of course, were not +required to serve a seven year apprenticeship, and they would +naturally be Fellows, not Masters, because they were in no sense +masters of the craft. Were these Fellows made acquainted with the +secrets of an Apprentice? If so, then the two degrees were either +conferred in one evening, or else--what seems to have been the +fact--they were welded into one; since we hear of men being made +Masons in a single evening.[97] Customs differed, no doubt, in +different Lodges, some of which were chiefly operative, or made up of +men who had been working Masons, with only a sprinkling of men not +workmen who had been admitted; while others were purely symbolical +Lodges as far back as 1645. Naturally in Lodges of the first kind the +two degrees were kept separate, and in the second they were +merged--the one degree becoming all the while more elaborate. +Gradually the men who had been Operative Masons became fewer in the +Lodges--chiefly those of higher position, such as master builders, +architects, and so on--until the order became a purely speculative +fraternity, having no longer any trade object in view. + +Not only so, but throughout this period of transition, and even +earlier, we hear intimations of "the Master's Part," and those hints +increase in number as the office of Master of the Work lost its +practical aspect after the cathedral-building period. What was the +Master's Part? Unfortunately, while the number of degrees may be +indicated, their nature and details cannot be discussed without grave +indiscretion; but nothing is plainer than that _we need not go outside +Masonry itself to find the materials out of which all three degrees, +as they now exist, were developed_.[98] Even the French Companionage, +or Sons of Solomon, had the legend of the Third Degree long before +1717, when some imagine it to have been invented. If little or no +mention of it is found among English Masons before that date, that is +no reason for thinking that it was unknown. _Not until 1841 was it +known to have been a secret of the Companionage in France, so deeply +and carefully was it hidden._[99] Where so much is dim one may not be +dogmatic, but what seems to have taken place in 1717 was, not the +_addition_ of a third degree made out of whole cloth, but the +_conversion_ of two degrees into three. + +That is to say, Masonry is too great an institution to have been made +in a day, much less by a few men, but was a slow evolution through +long time, unfolding its beauty as it grew. Indeed, it was like one of +its own cathedrals upon which one generation of builders wrought and +vanished, and another followed, until, amidst vicissitudes of time and +change, of decline and revival, the order itself became a temple of +Freedom and Fraternity--its history a disclosure of its innermost soul +in the natural process of its transition from actual architecture to +its "more noble and glorious purpose." For, since what was evolved +from Masonry must always have been involved in it--not something alien +added to it from extraneous sources, as some never tire of trying to +show--we need not go outside the order itself to learn what Masonry +is, certainly not to discover its motif and its genius; its later and +more elaborate form being only an expansion and exposition of its +inherent nature and teaching. Upon this fact the present study insists +with all emphasis, as over against those who go hunting in every odd +nook and corner to find whence Masonry came, and where it got its +symbols and degrees. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[83] Our present craft nomenclature is all wrong; the old order was +first Apprentice, then Master, then Fellowcraft--mastership being, not +a degree conferred, but a reward of skill as a workman and of merit as +a man. The confusion today is due, no doubt, to the custom of the +German Guilds, where a Fellowcraft had to serve an additional two years +as a journeyman before becoming a Master. No such restriction was known +in England. Indeed, the reverse was true, and it was not the +Fellowcraft but the Apprentice who prepared his masterpiece, and if it +was accepted, he became a Master. Having won his mastership, he was +entitled to become a Fellowcraft--that is, a peer and fellow of the +fraternity which hitherto he had only served. Also, we must distinguish +between a Master and the Master of the Work, now represented by the +Master of the Lodge. Between a Master and the Master of the Work there +was no difference, of course, except an accidental one; they were both +Masters and Fellows. Any Master (or Fellow) could become a Master of +the Work at any time, provided he was of sufficient skill and had the +luck to be chosen as such either by the employer, or the Lodge, or +both. + +[84] The older MSS indicate that initiations took place, for the most +part, at the annual Assemblies, which were bodies not unlike the Grand +Lodges of today, presided over by a President--a Grand Master in fact, +though not in name. Democratic in government, as Masonry has always +been, they received Apprentices, examined candidates for mastership, +tried cases, adjusted disputes, and regulated the craft; but they were +also occasions of festival and social good will. At a later time they +declined, and the functions of initiation more and more reverted to the +Lodges. + +[85] The subject of Mason's Marks is most interesting, particularly +with reference to the origin and growth of Gothic architecture, but too +intricate to be entered upon here. As for example, an essay entitled +"Scottish Mason's Marks Compared with Those of Other Countries," by +Prof. T.H. Lewis, _British Archaeological Association_, 1888, and the +theory there advanced that some great unknown architect introduced +Gothic architecture from the East, as shown by the difference in +Mason's Marks as compared with those of the Norman period. (Also +proceedings of _A. Q. C._, iii, 65-81.) + +[86] _History of Masonry_, Steinbrenner. It consisted of a short black +tunic--in summer made of linen, in winter of wool--open at the sides, +with a gorget to which a hood was attached; round the waist was a +leathern girdle, from which depended a sword and a satchel. Over the +tunic was a black scapulary, similar to the habit of a priest, tucked +under the girdle when they were working, but on holydays allowed to +hang down. No doubt this garment also served as a coverlet at night, as +was the custom of the Middle Ages, sheets and blankets being luxuries +enjoyed only by the rich and titled (_History of Agriculture and Prices +in England_, T. Rogers). On their heads they wore large felt or straw +hats, and tight leather breeches and long boots completed the garb. + +[87] Gloves were more widely used in the olden times than now, and the +practice of giving them as presents was common in mediaeval times. +Often, when the harvest was over, gloves were distributed to the +laborers who gathered it (_History of Prices in England_, Rogers), and +richly embroidered gloves formed an offering gladly accepted by +princes. Indeed, the bare hand was regarded as a symbol of hostility, +and the gloved hand a token of peace and goodwill. For Masons, however, +the white gloves and apron had meanings hardly guessed by others, and +their symbolism remains to this day with its simple and eloquent +appeal. (See chapter on "Masonic Clothing and Regalia," in _Things a +Freemason Should Know_, by J.W. Crowe, an interesting article by +Rylands, _A. Q. C._, vol. v, and the delightful essay on "Gloves," by +Dr. Mackey, in his _Symbolism of Freemasonry_.) Not only the tools of +the builder, but his clothing, had moral meaning. + +[88] _Tiler_--like the word _cable-tow_--is a word peculiar to the +language of Masonry, and means one who guards the Lodge to see that +only Masons are within ear-shot. It probably derives from the Middle +Ages when the makers of tiles for roofing were also of migratory habits +(_History of Prices in England_, Rogers), and accompanied the +Free-masons to perform their share of the work of covering buildings. +Some tiler was appointed to act as sentinel to keep off intruders, and +hence, in course of time, the name of Tiler came to be applied to any +Mason who guarded the Lodge. + +[89] Much has been written of the derivation and meaning of the word +_cowan_, some finding its origin in a Greek term meaning "dog." (See +"An Inquiry Concerning Cowans," by D. Ramsay, _Review of Freemasonry_, +vol. i.) But its origin is still to seek, unless we accept it as an old +Scotch word of contempt (_Dictionary of Scottish Language_, Jamieson). +Sir Walter Scott uses it as such in Rob Roy, "she doesna' value a +Cawmil mair as a cowan" (chap. xxix). Masons used the word to describe +a "dry-diker, one who built without cement," or a Mason without the +word. Unfortunately, we still have cowans in this sense--men who try to +be Masons without using the cement of brotherly love. If only they +_could_ be kept out! Blackstone describes an eavesdropper as "a common +nuisance punishable by fine." Legend says that the old-time Masons +punished such prying persons, who sought to learn their signs and +secrets, by holding them under the eaves until the water ran in at the +neck and out at the heels. What penalty was inflicted in dry weather, +we are not informed. At any rate, they had contempt for a man who tried +to make use of the signs of the craft without knowing its art and +ethics. + +[90] This subject is most fascinating. Even in primitive ages there +seems to have been a kind of universal sign-language employed, at +times, by all peoples. Among widely separated tribes the signs were +very similar, owing, perhaps, to the fact that they were natural +gestures of greeting, of warning, or of distress. There is intimation +of this in the Bible, when the life of Ben-Hadad was saved by a sign +given (I Kings, 20:30-35). Even among the North American Indians a +sign-code of like sort was known (_Indian Masonry_, R.C. Wright, chap. +iii). "Mr. Ellis, by means of his knowledge as a Master Mason, actually +passed himself into the sacred part or adytum of one of the temples of +India" (_Anacalypsis_, G. Higgins, vol. i, 767). See also the +experience of Haskett Smith among the Druses, already referred to (_A. +Q. C._, iv, 11). Kipling has a rollicking story with the Masonic +sign-code for a theme, entitled _The Man Who Would be King_, and his +imagination is positively uncanny. If not a little of the old +sign-language of the race lives to this day in Masonic Lodges, it is +due not only to the exigencies of the craft, but also to the instinct +of the order for the old, the universal, the _human_; its genius for +making use of all the ways and means whereby men may be brought to know +and love and help one another. + +[91] Once more it is a pleasure to refer to the transactions of the +Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research, whose essays and discussions of +this issue, as of so many others, are the best survey of the whole +question from all sides. The paper by J.W. Hughan arguing in behalf of +only one degree in the old time lodges, and a like paper by G.W. Speth +in behalf of two degrees, with the materials for the third, cover the +field quite thoroughly and in full light of all the facts (_A. Q. C._, +vol. x, 127; vol. xi, 47). As for the Third Degree, that will be +considered further along. + +[92] _Storia di Como_, vol. i, 440. + +[93] _Natural History of Wiltshire_, by John Aubrey, written, but not +published, in 1686. + +[94] _A. Q. C._, vol. x, 82. + +[95] Roughly speaking, the year 1600 may be taken as a date dividing +the two periods. Addison, writing in the _Spectator_, March 1, 1711, +draws the following distinction between a speculative and an operative +member of a trade or profession: "I live in the world rather as a +spectator of mankind, than as one of the species, by which means I have +made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, and _artisan_, +without ever meddling with any practical part of life." By a +Speculative Mason, then, is meant a man who, though not an actual +architect, sought and obtained membership among Free-masons. Such men, +scholars and students, began to enter the order as early as 1600, if +not earlier. If by Operative Mason is meant one who attached no moral +meaning to his tools, there were none such in the olden time--all +Masons, even those in the Guilds, using their tools as moral emblems in +a way quite unknown to builders of our day. 'Tis a pity that this light +of poetry has faded from our toil, and with it the joy of work. + +[96] _History of Masonry_, p. 66. + +[97] For a single example, the _Diary_ of Elias Ashmole, under date of +1646. + +[98] Time out of mind it has been the habit of writers, both within the +order and without, to treat Masonry as though it were a kind of +agglomeration of archaic remains and platitudinous moralizings, made up +of the heel-taps of Operative legend and the fag-ends of Occult lore. +Far from it! If this were the fact the present writer would be the +first to admit it, but it is not the fact. Instead, the idea that an +order so noble, so heroic in its history, so rich in symbolism, so +skilfully adjusted, and with so many traces of remote antiquity, was +the creation of pious fraud, or else of an ingenious conviviality, +passes the bounds of credulity and enters the domain of the absurd. +This fact will be further emphasized in the chapter following, to which +those are respectfully referred who go everywhere else, _except to +Masonry itself_, to learn what Masonry is and how it came to be. + +[99] _Livre du Compagnonnage_, by Agricol Perdiguier, 1841. George +Sand's novel, _Le Compagnon du Tour de France_, was published the same +year. See full account of this order in Gould, _History of Masonry_, +vol. i, chap. v. + + + + +ACCEPTED MASONS + + + + +/# + _The_ SYSTEM, _as taught in the regular_ LODGES, _may have some + Redundancies or Defects, occasion'd by the Ignorance or Indolence + of the old members. And indeed, considering through what Obscurity + and Darkness the_ MYSTERY _has been deliver'd down; the many + Centuries it has survived; the many Countries and Languages, and_ + SECTS _and_ PARTIES _it has run through; we are rather to wonder + that it ever arrived to the present Age, without more + Imperfection. It has run long in muddy Streams, and as it were, + under Ground. But notwithstanding the great Rust it may have + contracted, there is much of the_ OLD FABRICK _remaining: the + essential Pillars of the Building may be discov'd through the + Rubbish, tho' the Superstructure be overrun with Moss and Ivy, and + the Stones, by Length of Time, be disjointed. And therefore, as + the Bust of an_ OLD HERO _is of great Value among the Curious, + tho' it has lost an Eye, the Nose or the Right Hand; so Masonry + with all its Blemishes and Misfortunes, instead of appearing + ridiculous, ought to be receiv'd with some Candor and Esteem, from + a Veneration of its_ ANTIQUITY. + + --_Defence of Masonry_, 1730 +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Accepted Masons_ + + +I + +Whatever may be dim in the history of Freemasonry, and in the nature +of things much must remain hidden, its symbolism may be traced in +unbroken succession through the centuries; and its symbolism is its +soul. So much is this true, that it may almost be said that had the +order ceased to exist in the period when it was at its height, its +symbolism would have survived and developed, so deeply was it wrought +into the mind of mankind. When, at last, the craft finished its labors +and laid down its tools, its symbols, having served the faith of the +worker, became a language for the thoughts of the thinker. + +Few realize the service of the science of numbers to the faith of man +in the morning of the world, when he sought to find some kind of key +to the mighty maze of things. Living amidst change and seeming chance, +he found in the laws of numbers a path by which to escape the awful +sense of life as a series of accidents in the hands of a capricious +Power; and, when we think of it, his insight was not invalid. "All +things are in numbers," said the wise Pythagoras; "the world is a +living arithmetic in its development--a realized geometry in its +repose." Nature is a realm of numbers; crystals are solid geometry. +Music, of all arts the most divine and exalting, moves with measured +step, using geometrical figures, and cannot free itself from numbers +without dying away into discord. Surely it is not strange that a +science whereby men obtained such glimpses of the unity and order of +the world should be hallowed among them, imparting its form to their +faith.[100] Having revealed so much, mathematics came to wear mystical +meanings in a way quite alien to our prosaic habit of thinking--faith +in our day having betaken itself to other symbols. + +Equally so was it with the art of building--a living allegory in which +man imitated in miniature the world-temple, and sought by every +device to discover the secret of its stability. Already we have shown +how, from earliest times, the simple symbols of the builder became a +part of the very life of humanity, giving shape to its thought, its +faith, its dream. Hardly a language but bears their impress, as when +we speak of a Rude or Polished mind, of an Upright man who is a Pillar +of society, of the Level of equality, or the Golden Rule by which we +would Square our actions. They are so natural, so inevitable, and so +eloquent withal, that we use them without knowing it. Sages have +always been called Builders, and it was no idle fancy when Plato and +Pythagoras used imagery drawn from the art of building to utter their +highest thought. Everywhere in literature, philosophy, and life it is +so, and naturally so. Shakespeare speaks of "square-men," and when +Spenser would build in stately lines the Castle of Temperance, he +makes use of the Square, Circle, and Triangle:[101] + +/P + The frame thereof seem'd partly circulaire + And part triangular: O work divine! + Those two the first and last proportions are; + The one imperfect, mortal, feminine. + + The other immortal, perfect, masculine, + And twixt them both a quadrate was the base, + Proportion'd equally by seven and nine; + Nine was the circle set in heaven's place + All which compacted made a goodly diapase. +P/ + +During the Middle Ages, as we know, men revelled in symbolism, often +of the most recondite kind, and the emblems of Masonry are to be found +all through the literature, art, and thought of that time. Not only on +cathedrals, tombs, and monuments, where we should expect to come upon +them, but in the designs and decorations of dwellings, on vases, +pottery, and trinkets, in the water-marks used by paper-makers and +printers, and even as initial letters in books--everywhere one finds +the old, familiar emblems.[102] Square, Rule, Plumb-line, the perfect +Ashlar, the two Pillars, the Circle within the parallel lines, the +Point within the Circle, the Compasses, the Winding Staircase, the +numbers Three, Five, Seven, Nine, the double Triangle--these and other +such symbols were used alike by Hebrew Kabbalists and Rosicrucian +Mystics. Indeed, so abundant is the evidence--if the matter were in +dispute and needed proof--especially after the revival of symbolism +under Albertus Magnus in 1249, that a whole book might be filled with +it. Typical are the lines left by a poet who, writing in 1623, sings +of God as the great Logician whom the conclusion never fails, and +whose counsel rules without command:[103] + +/P + Therefore can none foresee his end + Unless on God is built his hope. + And if we here below would learn + By Compass, Needle, Square, and Plumb, + We never must o'erlook the mete + Wherewith our God hath measur'd us. +P/ + +For all that, there are those who never weary of trying to find where, +in the misty mid-region of conjecture, the Masons got their immemorial +emblems. One would think, after reading their endless essays, that the +symbols of Masonry were loved and preserved by all the world--_except +by the Masons themselves_. Often these writers imply, if they do not +actually assert, that our order begged, borrowed, or cribbed its +emblems from Kabbalists or Rosicrucians, whereas the truth is exactly +the other way round--those impalpable fraternities, whose vague, +fantastic thought was always seeking a local habitation and a body, +making use of the symbols of Masonry the better to reach the minds of +men. Why all this unnecessary mystery--not to say mystification--when +the facts are so plain, written in records and carved in stone? While +Kabbalists were contriving their curious cosmogonies, the Masons went +about their work, leaving record of their symbols in deeds, not in +creeds, albeit holding always to their simple faith, and hope, and +duty--as in the lines left on an old brass Square, found in an ancient +bridge near Limerick, bearing date of 1517: + +/P + Strive to live with love and care + Upon the Level, by the Square. +P/ + +Some of our Masonic writers[104]--more than one likes to admit--have +erred by confusing Freemasonry with Guild-masonry, to the discredit of +the former. Even Oliver once concluded that the secrets of the +working Masons of the Middle Ages were none other than the laws of +Geometry--hence the letter _G_; forgetting, it would seem, that +Geometry had mystical meanings for them long since lost to us. As well +say that the philosophy of Pythagoras was repeating the Multiplication +Table! Albert Pike held that we are "not warranted in assuming that, +among Masons generally--in the _body_ of Masonry--the symbolism of +Freemasonry is of earlier date then 1717."[105] Surely that is to err. +If we had only the Mason's Marks that have come down to us, nothing +else would be needed to prove it an error. Of course, for deeper minds +all emblems have deeper meanings, and there may have been many Masons +who did not fathom the symbolism of the order. No more do we; but the +symbolism itself, of hoar antiquity, was certainly the common +inheritance and treasure of the working Masons of the Lodges in +England and Scotland before, indeed centuries before, the year 1717. + + +II + +Therefore it is not strange that men of note and learning, attracted +by the wealth of symbolism in Masonry, as well as by its spirit of +fraternity--perhaps, also, by its secrecy--began at an early date to +ask to be accepted as members of the order: hence _Accepted +Masons_.[106] How far back the custom of admitting such men to the +Lodges goes is not clear, but hints of it are discernible in the +oldest documents of the order; and this whether or no we accept as +historical the membership of Prince Edwin in the tenth century, of +whom the _Regius Poem_ says, + +/$ + Of speculatyfe he was a master. +$/ + +This may only mean that he was amply skilled in the knowledge, as well +as the practice, of the art, although, as Gould points out, the +_Regius MS_ contains intimations of thoughts above the heads of many +to whom it was read.[107] Similar traces of Accepted Masons are found +in the _Cooke MS_, compiled in 1400 or earlier. Hope suggests[108] +that the earliest members of this class were ecclesiastics who wished +to study to be architects and designers, so as to direct the erection +of their own churches; the more so, since the order had "so high and +sacred a destination, was so entirely exempt from all local, civil +jurisdiction," and enjoyed the sanction and protection of the Church. +Later, when the order was in disfavor with the Church, men of another +sort--scholars, mystics, and lovers of liberty--sought its degrees. + +At any rate, the custom began early and continued through the years, +until Accepted Masons were in the majority. Noblemen, gentlemen, and +scholars entered the order as Speculative Masons, and held office as +such in the old Lodges, the first name recorded in actual minutes +being John Boswell, who was present as a member of the Lodge of +Edinburgh in 1600. Of the forty-nine names on the roll of the Lodge of +Aberdeen in 1670, thirty-nine were Accepted Masons not in any way +connected with the building trade. In England the earliest reference +to the initiation of a Speculative Mason, in Lodge minutes, is of the +year 1641. On the 20th of May that year, Robert Moray, "General +Quarter-master of the Armie off Scottland," as the record runs, was +initiated at Newcastle by members of the "Lodge of Edinburgh," who +were with the Scottish Army. A still more famous example was that of +Ashmole, whereof we read in the _Memoirs of the Life of that Learned +Antiquary, Elias Ashmole, Drawn up by Himself by Way of Diary_, +published in 1717, which contains two entries as follows, the first +dated in 1646: + +/#[4,66] + _Octob 16.4 Hor._ 30 Minutes _post merid._ I was made a + Freemason at _Warrington_ in Lancashire, with Colonel _Henry + Wainwaring_ of _Kartichain_ in _Cheshire_; the names of those + that were there at the Lodge, Mr. _Richard Panket Warden_, + Mr. _James Collier_, Mr. _Richard Sankey_, _Henry Littler_, + _John Ellam_, _Richard Ellam_ and _Hugh Brewer_. +#/ + +Such is the record, italics and all; and it has been shown, by hunting +up the wills of the men present, that the members of the Warrington +Lodge in 1646 were, nearly all of them--every one in fact, so far as +is known--Accepted Masons. Thirty-five years pass before we discover +the only other Masonic entries in the _Diary_, dated March, 1682, +which read as follows: + +/#[4,66] + About 5 p.m. I received a Summons to appear at a Lodge to be + held the next day, at Masons Hall, London. Accordingly I + went, and about Noone were admitted into the Fellowship of + Free Masons, Sir. William Wilson, Knight, Capt. Richard + Borthwick, Mr. Will. Woodman, Mr. Wm. Grey, M. Samuell Taylor + and Mr. William Wise. + + I was the Senior Fellow among them (it being 35 years since I + was admitted). There were present beside myselfe the Fellowes + afternamed: [Then follows a list of names which conveys no + information.] Wee all dyned at the halfe moone Taverne in + Cheapside at a Noble Dinner prepared at the charge of the + new-accepted Masons. +#/ + +Space is given to those entries, not because they are very important, +but because Ragon and others have actually held that Ashmole made +Masonry--as if any one man made Masonry! 'Tis surely strange, if this +be true, that only two entries in his _Diary_ refer to the order; but +that does not disconcert the theorists who are so wedded to their +idols as to have scant regard for facts. No, the circumstance that +Ashmole was a Rosicrucian, an Alchemist, a delver into occult lore, is +enough, the absence of any allusion to him thereafter only serving to +confirm the fancy--the theory being that a few adepts, seeing Masonry +about to crumble and decay, seized it, introduced their symbols into +it, making it the mouthpiece of their high, albeit hidden, teaching. +How fascinating! and yet how baseless in fact! There is no evidence +that a Rosicrucian fraternity existed--save on paper, having been +woven of a series of romances written as early as 1616, and ascribed +to Andreae--until a later time; and even when it did take form, it was +quite distinct from Masonry. Occultism, to be sure, is elusive, +coming we know not whence, and hovering like a mist trailing over the +hills. Still, we ought to be able to find in Masonry _some_ trace of +Rosicrucian influence, some hint of the lofty wisdom it is said to +have added to the order; but no one has yet done so. Did all that +high, Hermetic mysticism evaporate entirely, leaving not a wraith +behind, going as mysteriously as it came to that far place which no +mortal may explore?[109] + +Howbeit, the _fact_ to be noted is that, thus early--and earlier, for +the Lodge had been in existence some time when Ashmole was +initiated--the Warrington Lodge was made up of Accepted Masons. Of the +ten men present in the London Lodge, mentioned in the second entry in +the _Diary_, Ashmole was the senior, but he was not a member of the +Masons' Company, though the other nine were, and also two of the +neophytes. No doubt this is the Lodge which Conder, the historian of +the Company, has traced back to 1620, "and were the books of the +Company prior to that date in existence, we should no doubt be able to +trace the custom of receiving accepted members back to pre-reformation +times."[110] From an entry in the books of the Company, dated 1665, it +appears that + +/#[4,66] + There was hanging up in the Hall a list of the _Accepted + Masons_ enclosed in a "faire frame, with a lock and key." Why + was this? No doubt the Accepted Masons, or those who were + initiated into the esoteric aspect of the Company, did not + include the _whole_ Company, and this was a list of the + "enlightened ones," whose names were thus honored and kept on + record, probably long after their decease.... This we cannot + say for certain, but we can say that as early as 1620, and + inferentially very much earlier, there were certain members + of the Masons' Company and others who met from time to time + to form a Lodge for the purpose of Speculative Masonry.[111] +#/ + +Conder also mentions a copy of the _Old Charges_, or Gothic +Constitutions, in the chest of the London Masons' Company, known as +_The Book of the Constitutions of the Accepted Masons_; and this he +identifies with the _Regius MS_. Another witness during this period is +Randle Holme, of Chester, whose references to the Craft in his +_Acadamie Armory_, 1688, are of great value, for that he writes "as a +member of that society called Free-masons." The _Harleian MS_ is in +his handwriting, and on the next leaf there is a remarkable list of +twenty-six names, including his own. It is the only list of the kind +known in England, and a careful examination of all the sources of +information relative to the Chester men shows that nearly all of them +were Accepted Masons. Later on we come to the _Natural History of +Staffordshire_, by Dr. Plott, 1686, in which, though in an unfriendly +manner, we are told many things about Craft usages and regulations of +that day. Lodges had to be formed of at least five members to make a +quorum, gloves were presented to candidates, and a banquet following +initiations was a custom. He states that there were several signs and +passwords by which the members were able "to be known to one another +all over the nation," his faith in their effectiveness surpassing that +of the most credulous in our day. + +Still another striking record is found in _The Natural History of +Wiltshire_, by John Aubrey, the MS of which in the Bodleian Library, +Oxford, is dated 1686; and on the reverse side of folio 72 of this MS +is the following note by Aubrey: "This day [May 18, 1681] is a great +convention at St. Pauls Church of the fraternity, of the free [then he +crossed out the word Free and inserted Accepted] Masons; where Sir +Christopher Wren is to be adopted a Brother: and Sir Henry Goodric of +ye Tower and divers others."[112] From which we may infer that there +were Assemblies before 1717, and that they were of sufficient +importance to be known to a non-Mason. Other evidence might be +adduced, but this is enough to show that Speculative Masonry, so far +from being a novelty, was very old at the time when many suppose it +was invented. With the great fire of London, in 1666, there came a +renewed interest in Masonry, many who had abandoned it flocking to the +capital to rebuild the city and especially the Cathedral of St. Paul. +Old Lodges were revived, new ones were formed, and an effort was made +to renew the old annual, or quarterly, Assemblies, while at the same +time Accepted Masons increased both in numbers and in zeal. + +Now the crux of the whole matter as regards Accepted Masons lies in +the answer to such questions as these: Why did soldiers, scholars, +antiquarians, clergymen, lawyers, and even members of the nobility ask +to be accepted as members of the order of Free-masons? Wherefore their +interest in the order at all? What attracted them to it as far back as +1600, and earlier? What held them with increasing power and an +ever-deepening interest? Why did they continue to enter the Lodges +until they had the rule of them? There must have been something more +in their motive than a simple desire for association, for they had +their clubs, societies, and learned fellowships. Still less could a +mere curiosity to learn certain signs and passwords have held such men +for long, even in an age of quaint conceits in the matter of +association and when architecture was affected as a fad. No, there is +only one explanation: that these men saw in Masonry a deposit of the +high and simple wisdom of old, preserved in tradition and taught in +symbols--little understood, it may be, by many members of the +order--and this it was that they sought to bring to light, turning +history into allegory and legend into drama, and making it a teacher +of wise and beautiful truth. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[100] There is a beautiful lecture on the moral meaning of Geometry by +Dr. Hutchinson, in _The Spirit of Masonry_--one of the oldest, as it is +one of the noblest, books in our Masonic literature. Plutarch reports +Plato as saying, "God is always geometrizing" (_Diog. Laert._, iv, 2). +Elsewhere Plato remarks that "Geometry rightly treated is the knowledge +of the Eternal" (_Republic_, 527b), and over the porch of his Academy +at Athens he wrote the words, "Let no one who is ignorant of Geometry +enter my doors." So Aristotle and all the ancient thinkers, whether in +Egypt or India. Pythagoras, Proclus tells us, was concerned only with +number and magnitude: number absolute, in arithmetic; number applied, +in music; and so forth--whereof we read in the _Old Charges_ (see "The +Great Symbol," by Klein, _A. Q. C._, x, 82). + +[101] Faerie Queene, bk. ii, canto ix, 22. + +[102] _Lost Language of Symbolism_, by Bayley, also _A New Light on the +Renaissance_, by the same author; _Architecture of the Renaissance in +England_, by J.A. Gotch; and "Notes on Some Masonic Symbols," by W.H. +Rylands, _A. Q. C._, viii, 84. Indeed, the literature is as prolific as +the facts. + +[103] J.V. Andreae, _Ehreneich Hohenfelder von Aister Haimb_. A +verbatim translation of the second line quoted would read, "Unless in +God he has his building." + +[104] When, for example, Albert Pike, in his letter, "Touching Masonic +Symbolism," speaks of the "poor, rude, unlettered, uncultivated working +Stone-masons," who attended the Assemblies, he is obviously confounding +Free-masons with the rough Stone-masons of the Guilds. Over against +these words, read a brilliant article in the _Contemporary Review_, +October, 1913, by L.M. Phillips, entitled, "The Two Ways of Building," +showing how the Free-masons, instead of working under architects +outside the order, chose the finer minds among them as leaders and +created the different styles of architecture in Europe. "Such," he +adds, "was the high limit of talent and intelligence which the creative +spirit fostered among workmen.... The entire body being trained and +educated in the same principles and ideas, the most backward and +inefficient, as they worked at the vaults which their own skillful +brethren had planned, might feel the glow of satisfaction arising from +the conscious realization of their own aspirations. Thus the whole body +of constructive knowledge maintained its unity.... Thus it was by free +associations of workmen training their own leaders that the great +Gothic edifices of the medieval ages were constructed.... A style so +imaginative and so spiritual might almost be the dream of a poet or the +vision of a saint. Really it is the creation of the sweat and labor of +workingmen, and every iota of the boldness, dexterity and knowledge +which it embodies was drawn out of the practical experience and +experiments of manual labor." This describes the Comacine Masters, but +not the poor, rude, unlettered Stone-masons whom Pike had in mind. + +[105] Letter "Touching Masonic Symbolism." + +[106] Some Lodges, however, would never admit such members. As late as +April 24, 1786, two brothers were proposed as members of Domatic Lodge, +No. 177, London, and were rejected because they were not Operative +Masons (_History Lion and Lamb Lodge, 192, London_, by Abbott). + +[107] "On the Antiquity of Masonic Symbolism," _A. Q. C._, iii, 7. + +[108] _Historical Essay on Architecture_, chap. xxi. + +[109] Those who wish to pursue this Quixotic quest will find the +literature abundant and very interesting. For example, such essays as +that by F.W. Brockbank in _Manchester Association for Research_, vol. +i, 1909-10; and another by A.F.A. Woodford, _A. Q. C._, i, 28. Better +still is the _Real History of the Rosicrucians_, by Waite (chap. xv), +and for a complete and final explosion of all such fancies we have the +great chapter in Gould's _History of Masonry_ (vol. ii, chap. xiii). It +seems a pity that so much time and labor and learning had to be +expended on theories so fragile, but it was necessary; and no man was +better fitted for the study than Gould. Perhaps the present writer is +unkind, or at least impatient; if so he humbly begs forgiveness; but +after reading tomes of conjecture about the alleged Rosicrucian origin +of Masonry, he is weary of the wide-eyed wonder of mystery-mongers +about things that never were, and which would be of no value if they +had been. (Read _The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception_, or _Christian +Occult Science_, by Max Heindel, and be instructed in matters whereof +no mortal knoweth.) + +[110] _The Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masons_, by Edward Conder. + +[111] _Ibid._, Introduction. + +[112] Whether Sir Christopher Wren was ever Grand Master, as tradition +affirms, is open to debate, and some even doubt his membership in the +order (Gould, _History of Masonry_). Unfortunately, he has left no +record, and the _Parentalia_, written by his son, helps us very little, +containing nothing more than his theory that the order began with +Gothic architecture. Ashmole, if we may trust his friend, Dr. Knipe, +had planned to write a _History of Masonry_ refuting the theory of Wren +that Freemasonry took its rise from a Bull granted by the Pope, in the +reign of Henry III, to some Italian architects, holding, and rightly +so, that the Bull "was comfirmatory only, and did not by any means +create our fraternity, or even establish it in this kingdom" (_Life of +Ashmole_, by Campbell). This item makes still more absurd the idea that +Ashmole himself created Masonry, whereas he was only a student of its +antiquities. Wren was probably never an Operative Mason--though an +architect--but he seems to have become an Accepted member of the +fraternity in his last years, since his neglect of the order, due to +his age, is given as a reason for the organization of the first Grand +Lodge. + + + + +GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND + + + + +/# + _The doctrines of Masonry are the most beautiful that it is + possible to imagine. They breathe the simplicity of the earliest + ages animated by the love of a martyred God. That word which the + Puritans translated_ CHARITY, _but which is really_ LOVE, _is the + key-stone which supports the entire edifice of this mystic + science. Love one another, teach one another, help one another. + That is all our doctrine, all our science, all our law. We have no + narrow-minded prejudices; we do not debar from our society this + sect or that sect; it is sufficient for us that a man worships + God, no matter under what name or in what manner. Ah! rail against + us bigoted and ignorant men, if you will. Those who listen to the + truths which Masonry inculcates can readily forgive you. It is + impossible to be a good Mason without being a good man._ + + --WINWOOD READE, _The Veil of Isis_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_Grand Lodge of England_ + + +While praying in a little chapel one day, Francis of Assisi was +exhorted by an old Byzantine crucifix: "Go now, and rebuild my Church, +which is falling into ruins." In sheer loyalty he had a lamp placed; +then he saw his task in a larger way, and an artist has painted him +carrying stones and mortar. Finally there burst upon him the full +import of the allocution--that he himself was to be the corner-stone +of a renewed and purified Church. Purse and prestige he flung to the +winds, and went along the highways of Umbria calling men back from the +rot of luxury to the ways of purity, pity, and gladness, his life at +once a poem and a power, his faith a vision of the world as love and +comradeship. + +That is a perfect parable of the history of Masonry. Of old the +working Masons built the great cathedrals, and we have seen them not +only carrying stones, but drawing triangles, squares, and circles in +such a manner as to show that they assigned to those figures high +mystical meanings. But the real Home of the Soul cannot be built of +brick and stone; it is a house not made with hands. Slowly it rises, +fashioned of the thoughts, hopes, prayers, dreams, and righteous acts +of devout and free men; built of their hunger for truth, their love of +God, and their loyalty to one another. There came a day when the +Masons, laying aside their stones, became workmen of another kind, not +less builders than before, but using truths for tools and dramas for +designs, uplifting such a temple as Watts dreamed of decorating with +his visions of the august allegory of the evolution of man. + + +I + +From every point of view, the organization of the Grand Lodge of +England, in 1717, was a significant and far-reaching event. Not only +did it divide the story of Masonry into before and after, giving a new +date from which to reckon, but it was a way-mark in the intellectual +and spiritual history of mankind. One has only to study that first +Grand Lodge, the influences surrounding it, the men who composed it, +the Constitutions adopted, and its spirit and purpose, to see that it +was the beginning of a movement of profound meaning. When we see it in +the setting of its age--as revealed, for example, in the Journals of +Fox and Wesley, which from being religious time-tables broadened into +detailed panoramic pictures of the period before, and that following, +the Grand Lodge--the Assembly on 1717 becomes the more remarkable. +Against such a background, when religion and morals seemed to reach +the nadir of degredation, the men of that Assembly stand out as +prophets of liberty of faith and righteousness of life.[113] + +Some imagination is needed to realize the moral declension of that +time, as it is portrayed--to use a single example--in the sermon by +the Bishop of Litchfield before the Society for the Reformation of +Manners, in 1724. Lewdness, drunkenness, and degeneracy, he said, were +well nigh universal, no class being free from the infection. Murders +were common and foul, wanton and obscene books found so good a market +as to encourage the publishing of them. Immorality of every kind was +so hardened as to be defended, yes, justified on principle. The rich +were debauched and indifferent; the poor were as miserable in their +labor as they were coarse and cruel in their sport. Writing in 1713, +Bishop Burnet said that those who came to be ordained as clergymen +were "ignorant to a degree not to be comprehended by those who are not +obliged to know it." Religion seemed dying or dead, and to mention the +word provoked a laugh. Wesley, then only a lad, had not yet come with +his magnificent and cleansing evangel. Empty formalism on one side, a +dead polemical dogmatism on the other, bigotry, bitterness, +intolerance, and interminable feud everywhere, no wonder Bishop Butler +sat oppressed in his castle with hardly a hope surviving. + +As for Masonry, it had fallen far and fallen low betimes, but with the +revival following the great fire of London, in 1666, it had taken on +new life and a bolder spirit, and was passing through a +transition--or, rather, a transfiguration! For, when we compare the +Masonry of, say, 1688 with that of 1723, we discover that much more +than a revival had come to pass. Set the instructions of the _Old +Charges_--not all of them, however, for even in earliest times some of +them escaped the stamp of the Church[114]--in respect of religion +alongside the same article in the _Constitutions_ of 1723, and the +contrast is amazing. The old charge read: "The first charge is this, +that you be true to God and Holy Church and use no error or heresy." +Hear now the charge in 1723: + +/# + _A Mason is obliged by his Tenure, to obey the moral law; and if + he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist + nor an irreligious Libertine. But though in ancient times Masons + were charged in every country to be of the religion of that + country or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more + expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men + agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves: that is, + to be Good men and True, or Men of Honor and Honesty, by whatever + Denomination or Persuasion they may be distinguished; whereby + Masonry becomes the Centre of Union and the Means of conciliating + true Friendship among persons that must have remained at a + perpetual distance._ +#/ + +If that statement had been written yesterday, it would be remarkable +enough. But when we consider that it was set forth in 1723, amidst +bitter sectarian rancor and intolerance unimaginable, it rises up as +forever memorable in the history of men! The man who wrote that +document, did we know his name, is entitled to be held till the end +of time in the grateful and venerative memory of his race. The temper +of the times was all for relentless partisanship, both in religion and +in politics. The alternative offered in religion was an ecclesiastical +tyranny, allowing a certain liberty of belief, or a doctrinal tyranny, +allowing a slight liberty of worship; a sad choice in truth. It is, +then, to the everlasting honor of the century, that, in the midst of +its clashing extremes, the Masons appeared with heads unbowed, +abjuring both tyrannies and championing both liberties.[115] +Ecclesiastically and doctrinally they stood in the open, while +Romanist and Protestant, Anglican and Puritan, Calvinist and Arminian +waged bitter war, filling the air with angry maledictions. These men +of latitude in a cramped age felt pent up alike by narrowness of +ritual and by narrowness of creed, and they cried out for room and +air, for liberty and charity! + +Though differences of creed played no part in Masonry, nevertheless it +held religion in high esteem, and was then, as now, the steadfast +upholder of the only two articles of faith that never were invented by +man--the existence of God and the immortality of the soul! +Accordingly, every Lodge was opened and closed with prayer to the +"Almighty Architect of the universe;" and when a Lodge of mourning met +in memory of a brother fallen asleep, the formula was: "He has passed +over into the eternal East,"--to that region whence cometh light and +hope. Unsectarian in religion, the Masons were also non-partisan in +politics: one principle being common to them all--love of country, +respect for law and order, and the desire for human welfare.[116] Upon +that basis the first Grand Lodge was founded, and upon that basis +Masonry rests today--holding that a unity of spirit is better than a +uniformity of opinion, and that beyond the great and simple "religion +in which all men agree" no dogma is worth a breach of charity. + + +II + +With honorable pride in this tradition of spiritual faith and +intellectual freedom, we are all the more eager to recite such facts +as are known about the organization of the first Grand Lodge. How many +Lodges of Masons existed in London at that time is a matter of +conjecture, but there must have been a number. What bond, if any, +united them, other than their esoteric secrets and customs, is equally +unknown. Nor is there any record to tell us whether all the Lodges in +and about London were invited to join in the movement. Unfortunately +the minutes of the Grand Lodge only commence on June 24, 1723, and our +only history of the events is that found in _The New Book of +Constitutions_, by Dr. James Anderson, in 1738. However, if not an +actor in the scene, he was in a position to know the facts from +eye-witnesses, and his book was approved by the Grand Lodge itself. +His account is so brief that it may be given as it stands: + +/#[4,66] + King George I enter'd _London_ most magnificently on _20 + Sept. 1714_. And after the Rebellion was over A.D. 1716, the + few _Lodges_ at _London_ finding themselves neglected by Sir + _Christopher Wren_, thought fit to cement under a _Grand + Master_ as the Centre of Union and Harmony, _viz._, the + _Lodges_ that met, + + 1. At the _Goose_ and _Gridiron_ Ale house in _St. Paul's + Church-Yard_. + + 2. At the _Crown_ Ale-house in _Parker's Lane_ near _Drury + Lane_. + + 3. At the _Apple-Tree_ Tavern in _Charles-street, + Covent-Garden_. + + 4. At the _Rummer and Grape_ Tavern in _Channel-Row, + Westminster_. + + They and some other old Brothers met at the said _Apple-Tree_, + and having put into the chair the _oldest Master Mason_ (now + the _Master_ of a _Lodge_) they constituted themselves a Grand + Lodge pro Tempore in _Due Form_, and forthwith revived the + Quarterly _Communication_ of the _Officers_ of Lodges (call'd + the GRAND LODGE) resolv'd to hold the _Annual_ Assembly _and + Feast_, and then to chuse a Grand Master from among + themselves, till they should have the Honor of a Noble Brother + at their Head. + + Accordingly, on _St. John's Baptist's_ Day, in the 3d year of + King George I, A.D. 1717, the ASSEMBLY and _Feast_ of the + _Free and Accepted Masons_ was held at the foresaid _Goose_ + and _Gridiron_ Ale-house. + + Before Dinner, the _oldest Master_ Mason (now the _Master_ of + a _Lodge_) in the Chair, proposed a List of proper Candidates; + and the Brethren by a majority of Hands elected Mr. Anthony + Sayer, _Gentleman_, _Grand Master of Masons_ (Mr. _Jacob + Lamball_, Carpenter, Capt. _Joseph Elliot_, Grand Wardens) who + being forthwith invested with the Badges of Office and Power + by the said _oldest Master_, and install'd, was duly + congratulated by the Assembly who paid him the Homage. + + Sayer, _Grand Master_, commanded the _Masters_ and _Wardens_ + of Lodges to meet the _Grand_ Officers every _Quarter_ in + _Communication_, at the Place that he should appoint in the + Summons sent by the _Tyler_. +#/ + +So reads the only record that has come down to us of the founding of +the Grand Lodge of England. Preston and others have had no other +authority than this passage for their descriptions of the scene, +albeit when Preston wrote, such facts as he added may have been +learned from men still living. Who were present, beyond the three +officers named, has so far eluded all research, and the only variation +in the accounts is found in a rare old book called _Multa Paucis_, +which asserts that six Lodges, not four, were represented. Looking at +this record in the light of what we know of the Masonry of that +period, a number of things are suggested: + +First, so far from being a revolution, the organization of the Grand +Lodge was a revival of the old quarterly and annual Assembly, born, +doubtless, of a felt need of community of action for the welfare of +the Craft. There was no idea of innovation, but, as Anderson states in +a note, "it should meet Quarterly _according to ancient Usage_," +tradition having by this time become authoritative in such matters. +Hints of what the old usages were are given in the observance of St. +John's Day[117] as a feast, in the democracy of the order and its +manner of voting by a show of hands, in its deference to the oldest +Master Mason, its use of badges of office,[118] its ceremony of +installation, all in a lodge duly tyled. + +Second, it is clear that, instead of being a deliberately planned +effort to organize Masonry in general, the Grand Lodge was intended at +first to affect only London and Westminster;[119] the desire being to +weld a link of closer fellowship and cooeperation between the Lodges. +While we do not know the names of the moving spirits--unless we may +infer that the men elected to office were such--nothing is clearer +than that the initiative came from the heart of the order itself, and +was in no sense imposed upon it from without; and so great was the +necessity for it that, when once started, link after link was added +until it "put a girdle around the earth." + +Third, of the four Lodges[120] known to have taken part, only +one--that meeting at the Rummer and Grape Tavern--had a majority of +Accepted Masons in its membership; the other three being Operative +Lodges, or largely so. Obviously, then, the movement was predominantly +a movement of Operative Masons--or of men who had been Operative +Masons--and not, as has been so often implied, the design of men who +simply made use of the remnants of operative Masonry the better to +exploit some hidden philosophy. Yet it is worthy of note that the +leading men of the craft in those early years were, nearly all of +them, Accepted Masons and members of the Rummer and Grape Lodge. +Besides Dr. Anderson, the historian, both George Payne and Dr. +Desaguliers, the second and third Grand Masters, were of that Lodge. +In 1721 the Duke of Montagu was elected to the chair, and thereafter +members of the nobility sat in the East until it became the custom for +the Prince of Wales to be Grand Master of Masons in England.[121] + +Fourth, why did Masonry alone of all trades and professions live after +its work was done, preserving not only its identity of organization, +but its old emblems and usages, and transforming them into instruments +of religion and righteousness? The cathedrals had long been finished +or left incomplete; the spirit of Gothic architecture was dead and the +style treated almost with contempt. The occupation of the Master +Mason was gone, his place having been taken by the architect who, like +Wren and Inigo Jones, was no longer a child of the Lodges as in the +old days, but a man trained in books and by foreign travel. Why did +not Freemasonry die, along with the Guilds, or else revert to some +kind of trades-union? Surely here is the best possible proof that it +had never been simply an order of architects building churches, but a +moral and spiritual fellowship--the keeper of great symbols and a +teacher of truths that never die. So and only so may anyone ever hope +to explain the story of Masonry, and those who do not see this fact +have no clue to its history, much less an understanding of its genius. + +Of course these pages cannot recite in detail the history and growth +of the Grand Lodge, but a few of the more salient events may be noted. +As early as 1719 the _Old Charges_, or Gothic Constitutions, began to +be collected and collated, a number having already been burned by +scrupulous Masons to prevent their falling into strange hands. In +1721, Grand Master Montagu found fault with the _Old Charges_ as being +inadequate, and ordered Dr. Anderson to make a digest of them with a +view to formulating a better set of regulations for the rule of the +Lodges. Anderson obeyed--he seems to have been engaged in such a work +already, and may have suggested the idea to the Grand Master--and a +committee of fourteen "learned brethren" was appointed to examine the +MS and make report. They suggested a few amendments, and the book was +ordered published by the Grand Master, appearing in the latter part of +1723. This first issue, however, did not contain the account of the +organization of the Grand Lodge, which does not seem to have been +added until the edition of 1738. How much Past Grand Master Payne had +to do with this work is not certain, but the chief credit is due to +Dr. Anderson, who deserves the perpetual gratitude of the order--the +more so if he it was who wrote the article, already quoted, setting +forth the religious attitude of the order. That article, by whomsoever +written, is one of the great documents of mankind, and it would be an +added joy to know that it was penned by a minister.[122] The _Book of +Constitutions_, which is still the groundwork of Masonry, has been +printed in many editions, and is accessible to every one. + +Another event in the story of the Grand Lodge, never to be forgotten, +was a plan started in 1724 of raising funds of General Charity for +distressed Masons. Proposed by the Earl of Dalkeith, it at once met +with enthusiastic support, and it is a curious coincidence that one of +the first to petition for relief was Anthony Sayer, first Grand +Master. The minutes do not state whether he was relieved at that time, +but we know that sums of money were voted to him in 1730, and again in +1741. This Board of Benevolence, as it came to be called, became very +important, it being unanimously agreed in 1733 that all such business +as could not be conveniently despatched by the Quarterly Communication +should be referred to it. Also, that all Masters of Regular Lodges, +together with all present, former, and future Grand Officers should be +members of the Board. Later this Board was still further empowered to +hear complaints and to report thereon to the Grand Lodge. Let it also +be noted that in actual practice the Board of Charity gave free play +to one of the most admirable principles of Masonry--helping the needy +and unfortunate, whether within the order or without. + + +III + +Once more we come to a much debated question, about which not a little +has been written, and most of it wide of the mark--the question of the +origin of the Third Degree. Here again students have gone hither and +yon hunting in every cranny for the motif of this degree, and it would +seem that their failure to find it would by this time have turned them +back to the only place where they may ever hope to discover it--in +Masonry itself. But no; they are bound to bring mystics, occultists, +alchemists, Culdees or Cabalists--even the _Vehmgerichte_ of +Germany--into the making of Masonry somewhere, if only for the sake of +glamor, and this is the last opportunity to do it.[123] Willing to +give due credit to Cabalists and Rosicrucians, the present writer +rejects all such theories on the ground that there is no reason for +thinking that they helped to make Masonry, _much less any fact to +prove it_. + +Hear now a review of the facts in the case. No one denies that the +Temple of Solomon was much in the minds of men at the time of the +organization of the Grand Lodge, and long before--as in the Bacon +romance of the _New Atlantis_ in 1597.[124] Broughton, Selden, +Lightfoot, Walton, Lee, Prideaux, and other English writers were +deeply interested in the Hebrew Temple, not, however, so much in its +symbolical suggestion as in its form and construction--a model of +which was brought to London by Judah Templo in the reign of Charles +II.[125] It was much the same on the Continent, but so far from being +a new topic of study and discussion, we may trace this interest in the +Temple all through the Middle Ages. Nor was it peculiar to the +Cabalists, at least not to such a degree that they must needs be +brought in to account for the Biblical imagery and symbolism in +Masonry. Indeed, it might with more reason be argued that Masonry +explains the interest in the Temple than otherwise. For, as James +Fergusson remarks--and there is no higher authority than the historian +of architecture: "There is perhaps no building of the ancient world +which has excited so much attention since the time of its destruction, +as the Temple of Solomon built in Jerusalem, and its successor as +built by Herod. _Throughout the Middle Ages it influenced to a +considerable degree the forms of Christian churches, and its +peculiarities were the watchwords and rallying points of associations +of builders._"[126] Clearly, the notion that interest in the Temple +was new, and that its symbolical meaning was imposed upon Masonry as +something novel, falls flat. + +But we are told that there is no hint of the Hiramic legend, still +less any intimation of a tragedy associated with the building of the +Temple. No Hiramic legend! No hint of tragedy! Why, both were almost +as old as the Temple itself, rabbinic legend affirming that "_all the +workmen were killed that they should not build another Temple devoted +to idolatry, Hiram himself being translated to heaven like +Enoch_."[127] The Talmud has many variations of this legend. Where +would one expect the legends of the Temple to be kept alive and be +made use of in ceremonial, if not in a religious order of builders +like the Masons? Is it surprising that we find so few references in +later literature to what was thus held as a sacred secret? As we have +seen, the legend of Hiram was kept as a profound secret until 1841 by +the French Companionage, who almost certainly learned it from the +Free-masons. Naturally it was never made a matter of record,[128] but +was transmitted by oral tradition within the order; and it was also +natural, if not inevitable, that the legend, of the master-artist of +the Temple should be "the Master's Part" among Masons who were +temple-builders. How else explain the veiled allusions to the name in +the _Old Charges_ as read to Entered Apprentices, if it was not a +secret reserved for a higher rank of Mason? Why any disguise at all if +it had no hidden meaning? Manifestly the motif of the Third Degree was +purely Masonic, and we need not go outside the traditions of the order +to account for it. + +Not content to trace the evolution of Masonry, even so able a man as +Albert Pike will have it that to a few men of intelligence who +belonged to one of the four old lodges in 1717 "is to be ascribed the +authorship of the Third Degree, and the introduction of Hermetic and +other symbols into Masonry; that they framed the three degrees for the +purpose of communicating their doctrines, veiled by their symbols, to +those fitted to receive them, and gave to others trite moral +explanations they could comprehend."[129] How gracious of them to +vouchsafe even trite explanations, but why frame a set of degrees to +conceal what they wished to hide? This is the same idea of something +alien imposed upon Masonry from without, with the added suggestion, +novel indeed, that Masonry was organized to hide the truth, rather +than to teach it. But did Masonry have to go outside its own history +and tradition to learn Hermetic truths and symbols? Who was Hermes? +Whether man or myth no one knows, but he was a great figure in the +Egyptian Mysteries, and was called the Father of Wisdom.[130] What +_was_ his wisdom? From such fragments of his lore as have floated down +to us, impaired, it may be, but always vivid, we discover that his +wisdom was only a high spiritual faith and morality taught in visions +and rhapsodies, and using numbers as symbols. Was such wisdom new to +Masonry? Had not Hermes himself been a hero of the order from the +first, of whom we read in the _Old Charges_, in which he has a place +of honor alongside Euclid and Pythagoras? Wherefore go elsewhere than +to Masonry itself to trace the _pure_ stream of Hermetic faith through +the ages? Certainly the men of the Grand Lodge were adepts, but they +were _Masonic adepts seeking to bring the buried temple of Masonry to +light and reveal it in a setting befitting its beauty_, not cultists +making use of it to exploit a private scheme of the universe. + +Who were those "men of intelligence" to whom Pike ascribed the making +of the Third Degree of Masonry? Tradition has fixed upon Desaguliers as +the ritualist of the Grand Lodge, and Lyon speaks of him as "the +pioneer and co-fabricator of symbolical Masonry."[131] This, however, +is an exaggeration, albeit Desaguliers was worthy of high eulogy, +as were Anderson and Payne, who are said to have been his +collaborators.[132] But the fact is that the Third Degree was not +made; it grew--like the great cathedrals, no one of which can be +ascribed to a single artist, but to an order of men working in unity of +enterprise and aspiration. The process by which the old ritual, +described in the _Sloane MS_, was divided and developed into three +degrees between 1717 and 1730 was so gradual, so imperceptible, that no +exact date can be set; still less can it be attributed to any one or +two men. From the minutes of the Musical Society we learn that the +Lodge at the Queen's Head in Hollis Street was using three distinct +degrees in 1724. As early as 1727 we come upon the custom of setting +apart a separate night for the Master's Degree, the drama having +evidently become more elaborate. + +Further than this the Degree may not be discussed, except to say that +the Masons, tiring of the endless quarrels of sects, turned for relief +to the Ancient Mysteries as handed down in their traditions--the old, +high, heroic faith in God, and in the soul of man as the one +unconquerable thing upon this earth. If, as Aristotle said, it be the +mission of tragedy to cleanse and exalt us, leaving us subdued with a +sense of pity and hope and fortified against ill fortune, it is +permitted us to add that in simplicity, depth, and power, in its +grasp of the realities of the life of man, its portrayal of the +stupidity of evil and the splendor of virtue, its revelation of that +in our humanity which leads it to defy death, giving up everything, +even to life itself, rather than defame, defile, or betray its moral +integrity, and in its prophecy of the victory of light over shadow, +there is not another drama known among men like the Third Degree of +Masonry. Edwin Booth, a loyal Mason, and no mean judge of the essence +of tragedy, left these words: + +/#[4,66] + In all my research and study, in all my close analysis of the + masterpieces of Shakespeare, in my earnest determination to + make those plays appear real on the mimic stage, I have + never, and nowhere, met tragedy so real, so sublime, so + magnificent as the legend of Hiram. It is substance without + shadow--the manifest destiny of life which requires no + picture and scarcely a word to make a lasting impression upon + all who can understand. To be a Worshipful Master, and to + throw my whole soul into that work, with the candidate for my + audience and the Lodge for my stage, would be a greater + personal distinction than to receive the plaudits of people + in the theaters of the world. +#/ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[113] We should not forget that noble dynasty of large and liberal +souls in the seventeenth century--John Hales, Chillingsworth, +Whichcote, John Smith, Henry More, Jeremy Taylor--whose _Liberty of +Prophesying_ set the principle of toleration to stately strains of +eloquence--Sir Thomas Browne, and Richard Baxter; saints, every one of +them, finely-poised, sweet-tempered, repelled from all extremes alike, +and walking the middle path of wisdom and charity. Milton, too, taught +tolerance in a bigoted and bitter age (see _Seventeenth Century Men of +Latitude_, E.A. George). + +[114] For instance the _Cooke MS_, next to the oldest of all, as well +as the _W. Watson_ and _York No. 4_ MSS. It is rather surprising, in +view of the supremacy of the Church in those times, to find such +evidence of what Dr. Mackey called the chief mission of primitive +Masonry--the preservation of belief in the unity of God. These MSS did +not succumb to the theology of the Church, and their invocations remind +us more of the God of Isaiah than of the decrees of the Council of +Nicaea. + +[115] It was, perhaps, a picture of the Masonic Lodges of that era that +Toland drew in his _Socratic Society_, published in 1720, which, +however, he clothed in a vesture quite un-Grecian. At least, the +symposia or brotherly feasts of his society, their give-and-take of +questions and answers, their aversion to the rule of mere physical +force, to compulsory religious belief, and to creed hatred, as well as +their mild and tolerant disposition and their brotherly regard for one +another, remind one of the spirit and habits of the Masons of that day. + +[116] Now is as good a time as another to name certain curious theories +which have been put forth to account for the origin of Masonry in +general, and of the organization of the Grand Lodge in particular. They +are as follows: First, that it was all due to an imaginary Temple of +Solomon described by Lord Bacon in a Utopian romance called the _New +Atlantis_; and this despite the fact that the temple in the Bacon story +was not a house at all, but the name of an ideal state. Second, that +the object of Freemasonry and the origin of the Third Degree was the +restoration of Charles II to the throne of England; the idea being that +the Masons, who called themselves "Sons of the Widow," meant thereby to +express their allegiance to the Queen. Third, that Freemasonry was +founded by Oliver Cromwell--he of all men!--to defeat the royalists. +Fourth, that Free-masons were derived from the order of the Knights +Templars. Even Lessing once held this theory, but seems later to have +given it up. Which one of these theories surpasses the others in +absurdity, it would be hard to say. De Quincey explodes them one by one +with some detail in his "Inquiry into the Origin of the Free-masons," +to which he might also have added his own pet notion of the Rosicrucian +origin of the order--it being only a little less fantastic than the +rest (_De Quincey's Works_, vol. xvi). + +[117] Of the Masonic feasts of St. John the Baptist and St. John the +Evangelist much has been written, and to little account. In +pre-Christian times, as we have seen, the Roman Collegia were wont to +adopt pagan deities as patrons. When Christianity came, the names of +its saints--some of them martyrs of the order of builders--were +substituted for the old pagan gods. Why the two Saints John were chosen +by Masons--rather than St. Thomas, who was the patron saint of +architecture--has never been made clear. At any rate, these two feasts, +coming at the time of the summer and winter solstices, are in reality +older than Christianity, being reminiscences of the old Light Religion +in which Masonry had its origin. + +[118] The badge of office was a huge white apron, such as we see in +Hogarth's picture of the _Night_. The collar was of much the same shape +as that at present in use, only shorter. When the color was changed to +blue, and why, is uncertain, but probably not until 1813, when we begin +to see both apron and collar edged with blue. (See chapter on "Clothing +and Regalia," in _Things a Freemason Ought to Know_, by J.W. Crowe.) In +1727 the officers of all private--or as we would say, +subordinate--Lodges were ordered to wear "the jewels of Masonry hanging +to a white apron." In 1731 we find the Grand Master wearing gold or +gilt jewels pendant to blue ribbons about the neck, and a white leather +apron _lined_ with blue silk. + +[119] This is clear from the book of _Constitutions_ of 1723, which is +said to be "for the use of Lodges in London." Then follow the names of +the Masters and Wardens of twenty Lodges, all in London. There was no +thought at the time of imposing the authority of the Grand Lodge upon +the country in general, much less upon the world. Its growth we shall +sketch later. For an excellent article on "The Foundation of Modern +Masonry," by G.W. Speth, giving details of the organization of the +Grand Lodge and its changes, see _A. Q. C._, ii, 86. If an elaborate +account is wanted, it may be found in Gould's _History of Masonry_, +vol. iii. + +[120] _History of the Four Lodges_, by R.F. Gould. Apparently the Goose +and Gridiron Lodge--No. 1--is the only one of the four now in +existence. After various changes of name it is now the Lodge of +Antiquity, No. 2. + +[121] _Royal Masons_, by G.W. Speth. + +[122] From a meager sketch of Dr. Anderson in the _Gentlemen's +Magazine_, 1783, we learn that he was a native of Scotland--the place +of his birth is not given--and that for many years he was minister of +the Scots Presbyterian Church in Swallow Street, Piccadilly, and well +known to the folk of that faith in London--called "Bishop" Anderson by +his friends. He married the widow of an army officer, who bore him a +son and a daughter. Although a learned man--compiler of a book of +_Royal Genealogies_, which seems to have been his hobby--he was +somewhat imprudent in business, having lost most of his property in +1720. Whether he was a Mason before coming to London is unknown, but he +took a great part in the work of the Grand Lodge, entering it, +apparently, in 1721. Toward the close of his life he suffered many +misfortunes, but of what description we are not told. He died in 1739. +Perhaps his learning was exaggerated by his Masonic eulogists, but he +was a noble man and manifestly a useful one (Gould's _History of +Masonry_, vol. iii). + +[123] Having emphasized this point so repeatedly, the writer feels it +just to himself to state his own position, lest he be thought a kind of +materialist, or at least an enemy of mysticism. Not so. Instead, he has +long been an humble student of the great mystics; they are his best +friends--as witness his two little books, _The Eternal Christ_, and +_What Have the Saints to Teach Us?_ But mysticism is one thing, and +mystification is another, and the former may be stated in this way: + +First, by mysticism--only another word for spirituality--is meant our +sense of an Unseen World, of our citizenship in it, of God and the +soul, and of all the forms of life and beauty as symbols of things +higher than themselves. That is to say, if a man has any religion at +all that is not mere theory or form, he is a mystic; the difference +between him and Plato or St. Francis being only a matter of genius and +spiritual culture--between a boy whistling a tune and Beethoven writing +music. + +Second, since mysticism is native to the soul of man and the common +experience of all who rise above the animal, it is not an exclusive +possession of any set of adepts to be held as a secret. Any man who +bows in prayer, or lifts his thought heavenward, is an initiate into +the eternal mysticism which is the strength and solace of human life. + +Third, the old time Masons were religious men, and as such sharers in +this great human experience of divine things, and did not need to go to +Hidden Teachers to learn mysticism. They lived and worked in the light +of it. It shone in their symbols, as it does in all symbols that have +any meaning or beauty. It is, indeed, the soul of symbolism, every +emblem being an effort to express a reality too great for words. + +So, then, Masonry is mystical as music is mystical--like poetry, and +love, and faith, and prayer, and all else that makes it worth our time +to live; but its mysticism is sweet, sane, and natural, far from +fantastic, and in nowise eerie, unreal, or unbalanced. Of course these +words fail to describe it, as all words must, and it is therefore that +Masonry uses parables, pictures, and symbols. + +[124] _Seventeenth Century Descriptions of Solomon's Temple_, by Prof. +S.P. Johnston (_A. Q. C._, xii, 135). + +[125] _Transactions Jewish Historical Society of England_, vol. ii. + +[126] Smith's _Dictionary of the Bible_, article "Temple." + +[127] _Jewish Encyclopedia_, art. "Freemasonry." Also _Builder's +Rites_, G.W. Speth. + +[128] In the _Book of Constitutions_, 1723, Dr. Anderson dilates at +length on the building of the Temple--including a note on the meaning +of the name Abif, which, it will be remembered, was not found in the +Authorized Version of the Bible; and then he suddenly breaks off with +the words: "_But leaving what must not, indeed cannot, be communicated +in Writing_." It is incredible that he thus introduced among Masons a +name and legend unknown to them. Had he done so, would it have met with +such instant and universal acceptance by old Masons who stood for the +ancient usages of the order? + +[129] Letter to Gould "Touching Masonic Symbolism." + +[130] _Hermes and Plato_, Edouard Schure. + +[131] _History of the Lodge of Edinburgh._ + +[132] Steinbrenner, following Findel, speaks of the Third Degree as if +it were a pure invention, quoting a passage from _Ahiman Rezon_, by +Lawrence Dermott, to prove it. He further states that Anderson and +Desaguliers were "publicly accused of manufacturing the degree, _which +they never denied_" (_History of Masonry_, chap. vii). But inasmuch as +they were not accused of it until they had been many years in their +graves, their silence is hardly to be wondered at. Dr. Mackey styles +Desaguliers "the Father of Modern Speculative Masonry," and attributes +to him, more than to any other one man, the present existence of the +order as a living institution (_Encyclopedia of Freemasonry_). Surely +that is going too far, much as Desaguliers deserves to be honored by +the order. Dr. J.T. Desaguliers was a French Protestant clergyman, +whose family came to England following the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes. He was graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1710, +succeeding Keill as lecturer in Experimental Philosophy. He was +especially learned in natural philosophy, mathematics, geometry, and +optics, having lectured before the King on various occasions. He was +very popular in the Grand Lodge, and his power as an orator made his +manner of conferring a degree impressive--which may explain his having +been accused of inventing the degrees. He was a loyal and able Mason, a +student of the history and ritual of the order, and was elected as the +third Grand Master of Masons in England. Like Anderson, his later life +is said to have been beclouded by poverty and sorrow, though some of +the facts are in dispute (Gould's _History of Masonry_, vol. iii). + + + + +UNIVERSAL MASONRY + + + + +/# + _These signs and tokens are of no small value; they speak a + universal language, and act as a passport to the attention and + support of the initiated in all parts of the world. They cannot be + lost so long as memory retains its power. Let the possessor of + them be expatriated, ship-wrecked, or imprisoned; let him be + stripped of everything he has got in the world; still these + credentials remain and are available for use as circumstances + require._ + + _The great effects which they have produced are established by the + most incontestable facts of history. They have stayed the uplifted + hand of the destroyer; they have softened the asperities of the + tyrant; they have mitigated the horrors of captivity; they have + subdued the rancor of malevolence; and broken down the barriers of + political animosity and sectarian alienation._ + + _On the field of battle, in the solitude of the uncultivated + forests, or in the busy haunts of the crowded city, they have made + men of the most hostile feelings, and most distant religions, and + the most diversified conditions, rush to the aid of each other, + and feel a social joy and satisfaction that they have been able to + afford relief to a brother Mason._ + + --BENJAMIN FRANKLIN +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_Universal Masonry_ + + +I + +Henceforth the Masons of England were no longer a society of +handicraftsmen, but an association of men of all orders and every +vocation, as also of almost every creed, who met together on the broad +basis of humanity, and recognized no standard of human worth other +than morality, kindliness, and love of truth. They retained the +symbolism of the old Operative Masonry,[133] its language, its +legends, its ritual, and its oral tradition. No longer did they build +churches, but the spiritual temple of humanity; using the Square not +to measure right angles of blocks of stone, but for evening the +inequalities of human character, nor the Compass any more to describe +circles on a tracing-board, but to draw a Circle of goodwill around +all mankind. + +Howbeit, one generation of men, as Hume remarks, does not go off the +stage at once, and another succeed, like silkworms and butterflies. No +more did this metamorphosis of Masonry, so to name it, take place +suddenly or radically, as it has become the fashion to think. It was a +slow process, and like every such period the Epoch of Transition was +attended by many problems, uncertainties, and difficulties. Some of +the Lodges, as we have noted, would never agree to admit Accepted +Masons, so jealous were they of the ancient landmarks of the Craft. +Even the Grand Lodge, albeit a revival of the old Assembly, was looked +upon with suspicion by not a few, as tending toward undue +centralization; and not without cause. From the first the Grand Master +was given more power than was ever granted to the President of an +ancient Assembly; of necessity so, perhaps, but it led to +misunderstanding. Other influences added to the confusion, and at the +same time emphasized the need of welding the order into a more +coherent unity for its wider service to humanity. + +There are hints to the effect that the new Masonry, if so it may be +called, made very slow progress in the public favor at first, owing to +the conditions just stated; and this despite the remark of Anderson in +June, 1719: "Now several old Brothers that had neglected the Craft, +visited the Lodges; some Noblemen were also made Brothers, and more +new Lodges were constituted." Stuckely, the antiquarian, tells us in +his _Diary_ under date of January, 1721--at which time he was +initiated--that he was the first person made a Mason in London for +years, and that it was not easy to find men enough to perform the +ceremony. Incidentally, he confides to us that he entered the order in +search of the long hidden secrets of "the Ancient Mysteries." No doubt +he exaggerated in the matter of numbers, though it is possible that +initiations were comparatively few at the time, the Lodges being +recruited, for the most part, by the adhesion of old Masons, both +Operative and Speculative; and among his friends he may have had some +difficulty in finding men with an adequate knowledge of the ritual. +But that there was any real difficulty in gathering together seven +Masons in London is, on the face of it, absurd. Immediately +thereafter, Stuckely records, Masonry "took a run, and ran itself out +of breath through the folly of its members," but he does not tell us +what the folly was. The "run" referred to was almost certainly due to +the acceptance by the Duke of Montagu of the Grand Mastership, which +gave the order a prestige it had never had before; and it was also in +the same year, 1721, that the old Constitutions of the Craft were +revised. + +Twelve Lodges attended the June quarterly communication of the Grand +Lodge in 1721, sixteen in September, twenty in December, and by April, +1723, the number had grown to thirty. All these Lodges, be it noted, +were in London, a fact amply justifying the optimism of Anderson in +the last paragraph of the _Book of Constitutions_, issued in that +year. So far the Grand Lodge had not extended its jurisdiction beyond +London and Westminster, but the very next year, 1724, there were +already nine Lodges in the provinces acknowledging its obedience, the +first being the Lodge at the Queen's Head, City of Bath. Within a few +years Masonry extended its labors abroad, both on British and on +foreign soil. The first Lodge on foreign soil was founded by the Duke +of Wharton at Madrid, in 1728, and regularized the following year, by +which time a Lodge had been established at the East India Arms, +Bengal, and also at Gibraltar. It was not long before Lodges arose in +many lands, founded by English Masons or by men who had received +initiation in England; these Lodges, when sufficiently numerous, +uniting under Grand Lodges--the old Lodge at York, that ancient Mecca +of Masonry, had called itself a Grand Lodge as early as 1725. The +Grand Lodge of Ireland was created in 1729, those of Scotland[134] and +France in 1736; a Lodge at Hamburg in 1737,[135] though it was not +patented until 1740; the Unity Lodge at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1742, +another at Vienna the same year; the Grand Lodge of the Three +World-spheres at Berlin in 1744; and so on, until the order made its +advent in Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. + +Following the footsteps of Masonry from land to land is almost as +difficult as tracing its early history, owing to the secrecy in which +it enwrapped its movements. For example, in 1680 there came to South +Carolina one John Moore, a native of England, who before the close of +the century removed to Philadelphia, where, in 1703, he was Collector +of the Port. In a letter written by him in 1715, he mentions having +"spent a few evenings in festivity with my Masonic brethren."[136] +This is the first vestige of Masonry in America, unless we accept as +authentic a curious document in the early history of Rhode Island, as +follows: "This ye [day and month obliterated] 1656, Wee mett att y +House off Mordicai Campanell and after synagog gave Abram Moses the +degrees of Maconrie."[137] On June 5, 1730, the first authority for +the assembling of Free-masons in America was issued by the Duke of +Norfolk, to Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, appointing him Provincial +Grand Master of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and three +years later Henry Price, of Boston, was appointed to the same office +for New England. But Masons had evidently been coming to the New World +for years, for the two cases just cited date back of the Grand Lodge +of 1717. + +How soon Coxe acted on the authority given him is not certain, but the +_Pennsylvania Gazette_, published by Benjamin Franklin, contains many +references to Masonic affairs as early as July, 1730. Just when +Franklin himself became interested in Masonry is not of record--he was +initiated in 1730-31[138]--but he was a leader, at that day, of +everything that would advance his adopted city; and the "Junto," formed +in 1725, often inaccurately called the Leathern-Apron Club, owed its +origin to him. In a Masonic item in the _Gazette_ of December 3, 1730, +he refers to "several Lodges of Free-masons" in the Province, and on +June 9, 1732, notes the organization of the Grand Lodge of +Pennsylvania, of which he was appointed a Warden, at the Sun Tavern, in +Water Street. Two years later Franklin was elected Grand Master, and +the same year published an edition of the _Book of Constitutions_--the +first Masonic book issued in America. Thus Masonry made an early +advent into the new world, in which it has labored so nobly, helping to +lay the foundations and building its own basic principles into the +organic law of the greatest of all republics. + + +II + +Returning to the Grand Lodge of England, we have now to make record of +ridicule and opposition from without, and, alas, of disloyalty and +discord within the order itself. With the publication of the _Book of +Constitutions_, by Anderson, in 1723, the platform and principles of +Masonry became matters of common knowledge, and its enemies were alert +and vigilant. None are so blind as those who will not see, and not a +few, unacquainted with the spirit of Masonry, or unable to grasp its +principle of liberality and tolerance, affected to detect in its +secrecy some dark political design; and this despite the noble charge +in the _Book of Constitutions_ enjoining politics from entering the +lodge--a charge hardly less memorable than the article defining its +attitude toward differing religious creeds, and which it behooves +Masons to keep always in mind as both true and wise, especially in our +day when effort is being made to inject the religious issue into +politics: + +/#[4,66] + In order to preserve peace and harmony no private piques or + quarrels must be brought within the door of the Lodge, far + less any quarrel about Religions or Nations or State-Policy, + we being only, as Masons, of the Catholic Religion above + mentioned (the religion in which all men agree); we are also + of all Nations, Tongues, Kindreds and Languages, and are + resolved against all Politics as what never yet conduced to + the welfare of the Lodge, nor ever will. This charge has + always been actively enjoined and observed; but especially + ever since the Reformation in Britain or the dissent and + secession of these Nations from the communion of Rome. +#/ + +No sooner had these noble words been printed,[139] than there came to +light a secret society calling itself the "truly Ancient Noble Order +of the Gormogons," alleged to have been instituted by Chin-Quaw Ky-Po, +the first Emperor of China, many thousand years before Adam. Notice of +a meeting of the order appeared in the _Daily Post_, September 3, +1723, in which it was stated, among other high-sounding declarations, +that "no Mason will be received as a Member till he has renounced his +noble order and been properly degraded." Obviously, from this notice +and others of like kind--all hinting at the secrets of the Lodges--the +order was aping Masonry by way of parody with intent to destroy it, +if possible, by ridicule. For all that, if we may believe the +_Saturday Post_ of October following, "many eminent Freemasons" had by +that time "degraded themselves" and gone over to the Gormogons. Not +"many" perhaps, but, alas, one eminent Mason at least, none other than +a Past Grand Master, the Duke of Wharton, who, piqued at an act of the +Grand Lodge, had turned against it. Erratic of mind, unstable of +morals, having an inordinate lust for praise, and pilloried as a +"fool" by Pope in his _Moral Essays_, he betrayed his fraternity--as, +later, he turned traitor to his faith, his flag, and his native land! + +Simultaneously with the announcement that many eminent Masons had +"degraded themselves"--words most fitly chosen--and gone over to the +Gormogons, there appeared a book called the _Grand Mystery of +Freemasons Discovered_, and the cat was out of the bag. Everything was +plain to the Masons, and if it had not been clear, the way in which +the writer emphasized his hatred of the Jesuits would have told it +all. It was a Jesuit[140] plot hatched in Rome to expose the secrets +of Masonry, and making use of the dissolute and degenerate Mason for +that purpose--tactics often enough used in the name of Jesus! +Curiously enough, this was further made evident by the fact that the +order ceased to exist in 1738, the year in which Clement XII published +his Bull against the Masons. Thereupon the "ancient order of +Gormogons" swallowed itself, and so disappeared--not, however, without +one last, futile effort to achieve its ends.[141] Naturally this +episode stirred the Masons deeply. It was denounced in burning words +on the floor of the Grand Lodge, which took new caution to guard its +rites from treachery and vandalism, in which respects it had not +exercised due care, admitting men to the order who were unworthy of +the honor. + +There were those who thought that the power of Masonry lay in its +secrecy; some think so still, not knowing that its _real_ power lies +in the sanctity of its truth, the simplicity of its faith, the +sweetness of its spirit, and its service to mankind, and that if all +its rites were made public today it would still hold the hearts of +men.[142] Nevertheless, of alleged exposures there were many between +1724 and 1730, both anonymous and signed, and they made much ado, +especially among men who were not Masons. It will be enough to name +the most famous, as well as the most elaborate, of them all, _Masonry +Dissected_, by Samuel Prichard, which ran through three editions in +one month, October, 1730, and called out a noble _Defence of Masonry_, +written, it is thought, by Anderson, but the present writer believes +by Desaguliers. Others came later, such as _Jachin and Boaz_, the +_Three Distinct Knocks_, and so forth. They had their day and ceased +to be, having now only an antiquarian interest to those who would know +the manners and customs of a far-off time. Instead of injuring the +order, they really helped it, as such things usually do, by showing +that there must be something to expose since so many were trying to +do it. But Masonry went marching on, leaving them behind in the +rubbish of things forgotten, as it does all its back-stair spies and +heel-snapping critics. + +More serious by far was the series of schisms within the order which +began in 1725, and ran on even into the next century. For the student +they make the period very complex, calculated to bewilder the +beginner; for when we read of four Grand Lodges in England, and for +some years all of them running at once, and each one claiming to be +the Grand Lodge of England, the confusion seems not a little +confounded. Also, one Grand Lodge of a very limited territory, and few +adherents, adopted the title of Grand Lodge of _all_ England, while +another which commenced in the middle of the century assumed the title +of "The Ancients," and dubbed the older and parent Grand Lodge "The +Moderns." Besides, there are traces of an unrecorded Grand body +calling itself "The Supreme Grand Lodge,"[143] as if each were trying +to make up in name what was lacking in numbers. Strict search and due +inquiry into the causes of these divisions would seem to show the +following results: + +First, there was a fear, not unjustified by facts, that the ancient +democracy of the order had been infringed upon by certain acts of the +Grand Lodge of 1717--as, for example, giving to the Grand Master power +to appoint the Wardens.[144] Second, there was a tendency, due to the +influence of some clergymen active in the order, to give a +distinctively Christian tinge to Masonry, first in their +interpretations of its symbols, and later to the ritual itself. This +fact has not been enough emphasized by our historians, for it explains +much. Third, there was the further fact that Masonry in Scotland +differed from Masonry in England, in details at least, and the two did +not all at once harmonize, each being rather tenacious of its usage +and tradition. Fourth, in one instance, if no more, pride of locality +and historic memories led to independent organization. Fifth, there +was the ever-present element of personal ambition with which all human +societies, of whatever kind, must reckon at all times and places this +side of heaven. Altogether, the situation was amply conducive to +division, if not to explosion, and the wonder is that the schisms were +so few. + + +III + +Time out of mind the ancient city of York had been a seat of the +Masonic Craft, tradition tracing it back to the days of Athelstan, in +926 A.D. Be that as it may, the Lodge minutes of York are the oldest +in the country, and the relics of the Craft now preserved in that city +entitle it to be called the Mecca of Masonry. Whether the old society +was a Private or a Grand Lodge is not plain; but in 1725 it assumed +the title of the "Grand Lodge of All England,"--feeling, it would +seem, that its inherent right by virtue of antiquity had in some way +been usurped by the Grand Lodge of London. After ten or fifteen years +the minutes cease, but the records of other grand bodies speak of it +as still working. In 1761 six of its surviving members revived the +Grand Lodge, which continued with varying success until its final +extinction in 1791, having only a few subordinate Lodges, chiefly in +Yorkshire. Never antagonistic, it chose to remain independent, and its +history is a noble tradition. York Masonry was acknowledged by all +parties to be both ancient and orthodox, and even to this day, in +England and over the seas, a certain mellow, magic charm clings to +the city which was for so long a meeting place of Masons.[145] + +Far more formidable was the schism of 1753, which had its origin, as +is now thought, in a group of Irish Masons in London who were not +recognized by the premier Grand Lodge.[146] Whereupon they denounced +the Grand Lodge, averring that it had adopted "new plans" and departed +from the old landmarks, reverted, as they alleged, to the old forms, +and set themselves up as _Ancient_ Masons--bestowing upon their rivals +the odious name of _Moderns_. Later the two were further distinguished +from each other by the names of their respective Grand Masters, one +called Prince of Wales' Masons, the other the Atholl Masons.[147] The +great figure in the Atholl Grand body was Lawrence Dermott, to whose +keen pen and indefatigable industry as its secretary for more than +thirty years was due, in large measure, its success. In 1756 he +published its first book of laws, entitled _Ahiman Rezon, Or Help to a +Brother_, much of which was taken from the _Irish Constitutions_ of +1751, by Pratt, and the rest from the _Book of Constitutions_, by +Anderson--whom he did not fail to criticize with stinging satire, of +which he was a master. Among other things, the office of Deacon seems +to have had its origin with this body. Atholl Masons were presided +over by the Masters of affiliated Lodges until 1756, when Lord +Blessington, their first titled Grand Master, was induced to accept +the honor--their warrants having been left blank betimes, awaiting the +coming of a Nobleman to that office. Later the fourth Duke of Atholl +was Grand Master at the same time of Scotland and of the Atholl Grand +Lodge, the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland being represented at +his installation in London. + +Still another schism, not serious but significant, came in 1778, led +by William Preston,[148] who afterwards became a shining light in the +order. On St. John's Day, December 27, 1777, the Antiquity Lodge of +London, of which Preston was Master--one of the four original Lodges +forming the Grand Lodge--attended church in a body, to hear a sermon +by its Chaplain. They robed in the vestry, and then marched into the +church, but after the service they walked back to the Hall wearing +their Masonic clothing. Difference of opinion arose as to the +regularity of the act, Preston holding it to be valid, if for no other +reason, by virtue of the inherent right of Antiquity Lodge itself. +Three members objected to his ruling and appealed to the Grand Lodge, +he foolishly striking their names off the Lodge roll for so doing. +Eventually the Grand Lodge took the matter up, decided against +Preston, and ordered the reinstatement of the three protesting +members. At its next meeting the Antiquity Lodge voted not to comply +with the order of the Grand Lodge, and, instead, to withdraw from that +body and form an alliance with the "Old Grand Lodge of All England at +York City," as they called it. They were received by the York Grand +Lodge, and soon thereafter obtained a constitution for a "Grand Lodge +of England South of the Trent." Although much vitality was shown at +the outset, this body only constituted two subordinate Lodges, and +ceased to exist. Having failed, in 1789 Preston and his friends +recanted their folly, apologized to the Grand Lodge, reunited with the +men whom they had expelled, and were received back into the fold; and +so the matter ended. + +These divisions, while they were in some ways unhappy, really made for +the good of the order in the sequel--the activity of contending Grand +Lodges, often keen, and at times bitter, promoting the spread of its +principles to which all were alike loyal, and to the enrichment of its +Ritual[149] to which each contributed. Dermott, an able executive and +audacious antagonist, had left no stone unturned to advance the +interests of Atholl Masonry, inducing its Grand Lodge to grant +warrants to army Lodges, which bore fruit in making Masons in every +part of the world where the English army went.[150] Howbeit, when +that resourceful secretary and uncompromising fighter had gone to his +long rest, a better mood began to make itself felt, and a desire to +heal the feud and unite all the Grand Lodges--the way having been +cleared, meanwhile, by the demise of the old York Grand Lodge and the +"Grand Lodge South of the Trent." Overtures to that end were made in +1802 without avail, but by 1809 committees were meeting and reporting +on the "propriety and practicability of union." Fraternal letters were +exchanged, and at last a joint committee met, canvassed all +differences, and found a way to heal the schism.[151] + +Union came at length, in a great Lodge of Reconciliation held in +Freemason's Hall, London, on St. John's Day, December 27, 1813. It was +a memorable and inspiring scene as the two Grand Lodges, so long +estranged, filed into the Hall--delegates of 641 Modern and 359 +Ancient or Atholl Lodges--so mixed as to be indistinguishable the one +from the other. Both Grand Masters had seats of honor in the East. The +hour was fraternal, each side willing to sacrifice prejudice in behalf +of principles held by all in common, and all equally anxious to +preserve the ancient landmarks of the Craft--a most significant fact +being that the Atholl Masons had insisted that Masonry erase such +distinctively Christian color as had crept into it, and return to its +first platform.[152] Once united, free of feud, cleansed of rancor, +and holding high its unsectarian, non-partisan flag, Masonry moved +forward to her great ministry. If we would learn the lesson of those +long dead schisms, we must be vigilant, correcting our judgments, +improving our regulations, and cultivating that spirit of Love which +is the fountain whence issue all our voluntary efforts for what is +right and true: union in essential matters, liberty in everything +unimportant and doubtful; Love always--one bond, one universal law, +one fellowship in spirit and in truth! + + +IV + +Remains now to give a glimpse--and, alas, only a glimpse--of the +growth and influence of Masonry in America; and a great story it is, +needing many volumes to tell it aright. As we have seen, it came early +to the shores of the New World, long before the name of our great +republic had been uttered, and with its gospel of Liberty, Equality, +and Fraternity it helped to shape the institutions of this Continent. +Down the Atlantic Coast, along the Great Lakes, into the wilderness of +the Middle West and the forests of the far South--westward it marched +as "the star of empire" led, setting up its altar on remote frontiers, +a symbol of civilization, of loyalty to law and order, of friendship +with school-house and church. If history recorded the unseen +influences which go to the making of a nation, those forces for good +which never stop, never tarry, never tire, and of which our social +order is the outward and visible sign, then might the real story of +Masonry in America be told. + +Instead of a dry chronicle,[153] let us make effort to capture and +portray the spirit of Masonry in American history, if so that all may +see how this great order actually presided over the birth of the +republic, with whose growth it has had so much to do. For example, no +one need be told what patriotic memories cluster about the old Green +Dragon Tavern, in Boston, which Webster, speaking at Andover in 1823, +called "_the headquarters of the Revolution_." Even so, but it was +also a _Masonic Hall_, in the "Long Room" of which the Grand Lodge of +Massachusetts--an off-shoot of St. Andrew's Lodge--was organized on +St. John's Day, 1767, with Joseph Warren, who afterwards fell at +Bunker Hill, as Grand Master. There Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Warren, +Hancock, Otis and others met and passed resolutions, and then laid +schemes to make them come true. There the Boston Tea Party was +planned, and executed by Masons disguised as Mohawk Indians--not by +the Lodge as such, but by a club formed within the Lodge, calling +itself the _Caucus Pro Bono Publico_, of which Warren was the leading +spirit, and in which, says Elliott, "the plans of the Sons of Liberty +were matured." As Henry Purkett used to say, he was present at the +famous Tea Party as a spectator, and in disobedience to the order of +the Master of the Lodge, who was _actively_ present.[154] + +As in Massachusetts, so throughout the Colonies--the Masons were +everywhere active in behalf of a nation "conceived in liberty and +dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Of the +men who signed the Declaration of Independence, the following are +known to have been members of the order: William Hooper, Benjamin +Franklin, Matthew Thornton, William Whipple, John Hancock, Philip +Livingston, Thomas Nelson; and no doubt others, if we had the Masonic +records destroyed during the war. Indeed, it has been said that, with +four men out of the room, the assembly could have been opened in form +as a Masonic Lodge, on the Third Degree. Not only Washington,[155] but +nearly all of his generals, were Masons; such at least as Greene, Lee, +Marion, Sullivan, Rufus and Israel Putnam, Edwards, Jackson, Gist, +Baron Steuben, Baron De Kalb, and the Marquis de Lafayette who was +made a Mason in one of the many military Lodges held in the +Continental Army.[156] If the history of those old camp-lodges could +be written, what a story it would tell. Not only did they initiate +such men as Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall, the immortal Chief +Justice, but they made the spirit of Masonry felt in "times that try +men's souls"[157]--a spirit passing through picket-lines, eluding +sentinels, and softening the horrors of war. + +Laying aside their swords, these Masons helped to lay wide and deep +the foundations of that liberty under the law which has made this +nation, of a truth, "the last great hope of man." Nor was it an +accident, but a scene in accord with the fitness of things, that +George Washington was sworn into office as the first President of the +Republic by the Grand Master of New York, taking his oath on a Masonic +Bible. It was a parable of the whole period. If the Magna Charta +demanded rights which government can grant, Masonry from the first +asserted those inalienable rights which man derives from God the +Father of men. Never did this truth find sweeter voice than in the +tones of the old Scotch fiddle on which Robert Burns, a Master Mason, +sang, in lyric glee, of the sacredness of the soul, and the native +dignity of humanity as the only basis of society and the state. That +music went marching on, striding over continents and seas, until it +found embodiment in the Constitution and laws of this nation, where +today more than a million Masons are citizens. + +How strange, then, that Masonry should have been made the victim of +the most bitter and baseless persecution, for it was nothing else, in +the annals of the Republic. Yet so it came to pass between 1826 and +1845, in connection with the Morgan[158] affair, of which so much has +been written, and so little truth told. Alas, it was an evil hour +when, as Galsworthy would say, "men just feel something big and +religious, and go blind to justice, fact, and reason." Although Lodges +everywhere repudiated and denounced the crime, if crime it was, and +the Governor of New York, himself a Mason, made every effort to detect +and punish those involved, the fanaticism would not be stayed: the +mob-mood ruled. An Anti-Masonic political party[159] was formed, fed +on frenzy, and the land was stirred from end to end. Even such a man +as John Quincy Adams, of great credulity and strong prejudice, was +drawn into the fray, and in a series of letters flayed Masonry as an +enemy of society and a free state--forgetting that Washington, +Franklin, Marshall, and Warren were members of the order! +Meanwhile--and, verily, it was a mean while--Weed, Seward, Thaddeus +Stevens, and others of their ilk, rode into power on the strength of +it, as they had planned to do, defeating Henry Clay for President, +because he was a Mason--and, incidentally, electing Andrew Jackson, +another Mason! Let it be said that, if the Masons found it hard to +keep within the Compass, they at least acted on the Square. Finally +the fury spent itself, leaving the order purged of feeble men who were +Masons only in form, and a revival of Masonry followed, slowly at +first, and then with great rapidity. + +No sooner had Masonry recovered from this ordeal than the dark clouds +of Civil War covered the land like a pall--the saddest of all wars, +dividing a nation one in arts and arms and historic memories, and +leaving an entail of blood and fire and tears. Let it be forever +remembered that, while churches were severed and states were seceding, +_the Masonic order remained unbroken_ in that wild and fateful hour. +An effort was made to involve Masonry in the strife, but the wise +counsel of its leaders, North and South, prevented the mixing of +Masonry with politics; and while it could not avert the tragedy, it +did much to mitigate the woe of it--building rainbow bridges of mercy +and goodwill from army to army. Though passion may have strained, it +could not break the tie of Masonic love, which found a ministry on red +fields, among the sick, the wounded, and those in prison; and many a +man in gray planted a Sprig of Acacia on the grave of a man who wore +the blue. Some day the writer hopes to tell that story, or a part of +it, and then men will understand what Masonry is, what it means, and +what it can do to heal the hurts of humanity.[160] + +Even so it has been, all through our national history, and today +Masonry is worth more for the sanctity and safety of this republic +than both its army and its navy. At every turn of events, when the +rights of man have been threatened by enemies obvious or insidious, it +has stood guard--its altar lights like signal fires along the heights +of liberty, keeping watch. Not only in our own land, but everywhere +over the broad earth, when men have thrown off the yoke of tyranny, +whether political or spiritual, and demanded the rights that belong to +manhood, they have found a friend in the Masonic order--as did Mazzini +and Garibaldi in Italy. Nor must we be less alert and vigilant today +when, free of danger of foes from without, our republic is imperiled +by the negligence of indifference, the seduction of luxury, the +machinations of politicians, and the shadow of a passion-clouded, +impatient discontent, whose end is madness and folly; lest the most +hallowed of all liberties be lost. + +/P + Love thou thy land, with love far-brought + From out the storied past, and used + Within the present, but transfused + Through future time by power of thought. +P/ + + +V + +Truly, the very existence of such a great historic fellowship in the +quest and service of the Ideal is a fact eloquent beyond all words, +and to be counted among the precious assets of humanity. Forming one +vast society of free men, held together by voluntary obligations, it +covers the whole globe from Egypt to India, from Italy to England, +from America to Australia, and the isles of the sea; from London to +Sidney, from Chicago to Calcutta. In all civilized lands, and among +folk of every creed worthy of the name, Masonry is found--and +everywhere it upholds all the redeeming ideals of humanity, making all +good things better by its presence, like a stream underflowing a +meadow.[161] Also, wherever Masonry flourishes and is allowed to build +freely after its divine design, liberty, justice, education, and true +religion flourish; and where it is hindered, they suffer. Indeed, he +who would reckon the spiritual possessions of the race, and estimate +the forces that make for social beauty, national greatness, and human +welfare, must take account of the genius of Masonry and its ministry +to the higher life of the race. + +Small wonder that such an order has won to its fellowship men of the +first order of intellect, men of thought and action in many lands, and +every walk and work of life: soldiers like Wellington, Bluecher, and +Garibaldi; philosophers like Krause, Fichte, and John Locke; patriots +like Washington and Mazzini; writers like Walter Scott, Voltaire, +Steele, Lessing, Tolstoi; poets like Goethe, Burns, Byron, Kipling, +Pike; musicians like Haydn and Mozart--whose opera, _The Magic Flute_, +has a Masonic motif; masters of drama like Forrest and Edwin Booth; +editors such as Bowles, Prentice, Childs, Grady; ministers of many +communions, from Bishop Potter to Robert Collyer; statesmen, +philanthropists, educators, jurists, men of science--Masons many,[162] +whose names shine like stars in the great world's crown of +intellectual and spiritual glory. What other order has ever brought +together men of such diverse type, temper, training, interest, and +achievement, uniting them at an altar of prayer in the worship of God +and the service of man? + +For the rest, if by some art one could trace those invisible +influences which move to and fro like shuttles in a loom, weaving the +network of laws, reverences, sanctities which make the warp and woof +of society--giving to statutes their dignity and power, to the gospel +its opportunity, to the home its canopy of peace and beauty, to the +young an enshrinement of inspiration, and to the old a mantle of +protection; if one had such art, then he might tell the true story of +Masonry. Older than any living religion, the most widespread of all +orders of men, it toils for liberty, friendship, and righteousness; +binding men with solemn vows to the right, uniting them upon the only +basis upon which they can meet without reproach--like those fibers +running through the glaciers, along which sunbeams journey, melting +the frozen mass and sending it to the valleys below in streams of +blessing. Other fibers are there, but none is more far-ramifying, none +more tender, none more responsive to the Light than the mystical tie +of Masonic love. + +Truth will triumph. Justice will yet reign from sun to sun, victorious +over cruelty and evil. Finally Love will rule the race, casting out +fear, hatred, and all unkindness, and pity will heal the old hurt and +heart-ache of humanity. There is nothing in history, dark as much of +it is, against the ultimate fulfilment of the prophetic vision of +Robert Burns--the Poet Laureate of Masonry: + +/P + Then let us pray, that come it may-- + As come it will, for a' that-- + . . . . . . . . + That man to man, the world o'er + Shall brothers be, for a' that. +P/ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[133] Operative Masonry, it should be remembered, was not entirely +dead, nor did it all at once disappear. Indeed, it still exists in some +form, and an interesting account of its forms, degrees, symbols, +usages, and traditions may be found in an article on "Operative +Masonry," by C.E. Stretton (_Transactions Leicester Lodge of Research_, +1909-10, 1911-12). The second of these volumes also contains an essay +on "Operative Free-masons," by Thomas Carr, with a list of lodges, and +a study of their history, customs, and emblems--especially the +Swastika. Speculative Masons are now said to be joining these Operative +Lodges, seeking more light on what are called the Lost Symbols of +Masonry. + +[134] The Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland, it may be added, were +self-constituted, without assistance or intervention from England in +any form. + +[135] A deputation of the Hamburg Lodge initiated Frederick--afterwards +Frederick the Great of Prussia--into the order of Masons at Brunswick, +August 14, 1738 (_Frederick and his Times_, by Campbell, _History of +Frederick_, by Carlyle, Findel's _History of Masonry_). Other noblemen +followed his example, and their zeal for the order gave a new date to +the history of Masonry in Germany. When Frederick ascended the throne, +in 1740, the Craft was honored, and it flourished in his kingdom. As to +the interest of Frederick in the order in his later years, the facts +are not clear, but that he remained its friend seems certain (Mackey, +_Encyclopedia_). However, the Craft underwent many vicissitudes in +Germany, a detailed account of which Findel recites (_History of +Masonry_). Few realize through what frightful persecutions Masonry has +passed in many lands, owing in part to its secrecy, but in larger part +to its principle of civil and religious liberty. Whenever that story is +told, as it surely will be, men everywhere will pay homage to the +Ancient Free and Accepted Masons as friends of mankind. + +[136] This letter was the property of Horace W. Smith, Philadelphia. +John Moore was the father of William Moore, whose daughter became the +wife of Provost Smith, who was a Mason in 1775, and afterward Grand +Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, and whose son was Grand +Master of Masons in Pennsylvania in 1796 and 1797 (_History of +Freemasonry_, by Hughan and Stillson). + +[137] _Ibid_, chapter on "Early American Masonic History." + +[138] _Benjamin Franklin as a Free Mason_, by J.F. Sachse. Oddly +enough, there is no mention of Masonry by Franklin in his +_Autobiography_, or in any of his letters, with but two exceptions, so +far as known; which is the more remarkable when we look at his Masonic +career in France during the later years of his life, where he was +actively and intimately associated with the order, even advancing to +the higher degrees. Never for a day did he abate by one jot his +interest in the order, or his love for it. + +[139] This injunction was made doubly strong in the edition of the +_Book of Constitutions_, in 1738. For example: "no quarrels about +nations, families, religion or politics must by any means or under any +color or pretense whatever be brought within the door of the Lodge.... +Masons being of all nations upon the square, level and plumb; and like +our predecessors in all ages, we are resolved against political +disputes," etc. + +[140] Masons have sometimes been absurdly called "Protestant Jesuits," +but the two orders are exactly opposite in spirit, principle, purpose, +and method. All that they have in common is that they are both _secret_ +societies, which makes it plain that the opposition of the Latin church +to Masonry is not on the ground of its being a secret order, else why +sanction the Jesuits, to name no other? The difference has been stated +in this way: "Opposite poles these two societies are, for each +possesses precisely those qualities which the other lacks. The Jesuits +are strongly centralized, the Freemasons only confederated. Jesuits are +controlled by one man's will, Freemasons are under majority rule. +Jesuits bottom morality in expediency, Freemasons in regard for the +well-being of mankind. Jesuits recognize only one creed, Freemasons +hold in respect all honest convictions. Jesuits seek to break down +individual independence, Freemasons to build it up" (_Mysteria_, by +Otto Henne Am Rhyn). + +[141] For a detailed account of the Duke of Wharton and the true +history of the Gormogons, see an essay by R.F. Gould, in his "Masonic +Celebrities" series (_A. Q. C._, viii, 144), and more recently, _The +Life and Writings of Philip, Duke of Wharton_, by Lewis Melville. + +[142] Findel has a nobly eloquent passage on this point, and it tells +the everlasting truth (_History of Masonry_, p. 378). His whole +history, indeed, is exceedingly worth reading, the more so because it +was one of the first books of the right kind, and it stimulated +research. + +[143] A paper entitled "An Unrecorded Grand Lodge," by Sadler (_A. Q. +C._, vol. xviii, 69-90), tells practically all that is known of this +movement, which merged with the Grand Lodge of London in 1776. + +[144] Nor was that all. In 1735 it was resolved in the Grand Lodge +"that in the future all Grand Officers (except Grand Master) shall be +selected out of that body"--meaning the past Grand Stewards. This act +was amazing. Already the Craft had let go its power to elect the +Wardens, and now the choice of the Grand Master was narrowed to the +ranks of an oligarchy in its worst form--a queer outcome of Masonic +equality. Three months later the Grand Stewards presented a memorial +asking that they "might form themselves into a special lodge," with +special jewels, etc. Naturally this bred discontent and apprehension, +and justly so. + +[145] Often we speak of "the York Rite," as though it were the oldest +and truest form of Masonry, but, while it serves to distinguish one +branch of Masonry from another, it is not accurate; for, strictly +speaking, there is no such thing as a York Rite. The name is more a +tribute of reverence than a description of fact. + +[146] _Masonic Facts and Fictions_, by Henry Sadler. + +[147] _Atholl Lodges_, by R.F. Gould. + +[148] William Preston was born in Edinburgh in 1742, and came as a +journeyman printer to London in 1760, where he made himself conversant +with the history, laws, and rites of the Craft, being much in demand as +a lecturer. He was a good speaker, and frequently addressed the Lodges +of the city. After his blunder of seceding had been forgiven, he was +honored with many offices, especially the Grand Secretaryship, which +gave him time to pursue his studies. Later he wrote the _Freemason's +Callender_, an appendix to the _Book of Constitutions_, a _History of +Masonry_, and, most famous of all, _Illustrations of Masonry_, which +passed through a score of editions. Besides, he had much to do with the +development of the Ritual. + +[149] The history of the Ritual is most interesting, and should be +written in more detail (_History of Masonry_, by Steinbrenner, chap. +vii, "The Ritual"). An article giving a brief story of it appeared in +the _Masonic Monthly_, of Boston, November, 1863 (reprinted in the _New +England Craftsman_, vol. vii, and still later in the _Bulletin of Iowa +Masonic Library_, vol. xv, April, 1914). This article is valuable as +showing the growth of the Ritual--as much by subtraction as by +addition--and especially the introduction into it of Christian imagery +and interpretation, first by Martin Clare in 1732, and by Duckerley and +Hutchinson later. One need only turn to _The Spirit of Masonry_, by +Hutchinson (1802), to see how far this tendency had gone when at last +checked in 1813. At that time a committee made a careful comparative +study of all rituals in use among Masons, and the ultimate result was +the Preston-Webb lectures now generally in use in this country. (See a +valuable article by Dr. Mackey on "The Lectures of Freemasonry," +_American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry_, vol. ii, p. 297.) What a +pity that this _Review_ died of too much excellence! + +[150] _Military Lodges_, by Gould; also Kipling's poem, _The Mother +Lodge_. + +[151] Among the articles of union, it was agreed that Freemasonry +should consist of the three symbolic degrees, "_including the Holy +Royal Arch_." The present study does not contemplate a detailed study +of Capitular Masonry, which has its own history and historians (_Origin +of the English Rite_, Hughan), except to say that it seems to have +begun about 1738-40, the concensus of opinion differing as to whether +it began in England or on the Continent ("Royal Arch Masonry," by C.P. +Noar, _Manchester Lodge of Research_, vol. iii, 1911-12). Lawrence +Dermott, always alert, had it adopted by the Atholl Grand Lodge about +thirty years before the Grand Lodge of England took it up in 1770-76, +when Thomas Duckerley was appointed to arrange and introduce it. +Dermott held it to be "the very essence of Masonry," and he was not +slow in using it as a club with which to belabor the Moderns; but he +did not originate it, as some imagine, having received the degrees +before he came to London, perhaps in an unsystemized form. Duckerley +was accused of shifting the original Grand Masonic word from the Third +Degree to the Royal Arch, and of substituting another in its stead. +Enough to say that Royal Arch Masonry is authentic Masonry, being a +further elaboration in drama, following the Third Degree, of the spirit +and motif of old Craft Masonry (_History of Freemasonry and Concordant +Orders_, by Hughan and Stillson). + +[152] It is interesting to note that the writer of the article on +"Masonry" in the Catholic _Encyclopedia_--an article admirable in many +ways, and for the most part fair--makes much of this point, and rightly +so, albeit his interpretation of it is altogether wrong. He imagines +that the objection to Christian imagery in the ritual was due to enmity +to Christianity. Not so. Masonry was not then, and has never at any +time been, opposed to Christianity, or to any other religion. Far from +it. But Christianity in those days--as, alas, too often now--was +another name for a petty and bigoted sectarianism; and Masonry by its +very genius was, and is, _unsectarian_. Many Masons then were devout +Christians, as they are now--not a few clergymen--but the order itself +is open to men of all faiths, Catholic and Protestant, Hebrew and +Hindu, who confess faith in God; and so it will always remain if it is +true to its principles and history. + +[153] As for the chronicle, the one indispensable book to the student +of American Masonry is the _History of Freemasonry and Concordant +Orders_, by W.J. Hughan and H.L. Stillson, aided by one of the ablest +board of contributors ever assembled. It includes a history of Masonry +in all its Rites in North, Central, and South America, with accurate +accounts of the origin and growth of every Grand Lodge in the United +States and British America; also admirable chapters on Early American +Masonic History, the Morgan Excitement, Masonic Jurisprudence, and +statistics up to date of 1891--all carefully prepared and well written. +Among other books too many to name, there are the _History of Symbolic +Masonry in the United States_, by J.H. Drummond, and "The American +Addenda" to Gould's massive and magnificent _History of Masonry_, vol. +iv. What the present pages seek is the spirit behind this forest of +facts. + +[154] For the full story, see "Reminiscences of the Green Dragon +Tavern," in _Centennial Memorial of St. Andrew's Lodge, 1870_. + +[155] _Washington, the Man and the Mason_, by C.H. Callahan. Jackson, +Polk, Fillmore, Buchanan, Johnson, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, +all were Masons. A long list may be found in _Cyclopedia of +Fraternities_, by Stevens, article on "Freemasonry: Distinguished +Americans." + +[156] _Washington and his Masonic Compeers_, by Randolph Hayden. + +[157] Thomas Paine, whose words these are, though not a Mason, has left +us an essay on _The Origin of Freemasonry_. Few men have ever been more +unjustly and cruelly maligned than this great patriot, who was the +first to utter the name "United States," and who, instead of being a +sceptic, believed in "the religion in which all men agree"--that is, in +God, Duty, and the immortality of the soul. + +[158] William Morgan was a dissolute, nondescript printer in Batavia, +New York, who, having failed in everything else, thought to make money +by betraying the secrets of an order which his presence polluted. +Foolishly misled, a few Masons had him arrested on a petty charge, got +him out of the country, and apparently paid him to stay out. Had no +attention been paid to his alleged exposure it would have fallen +still-born from the press, like many another before it. Rumors of +abduction started, then Morgan was said to have been thrown into +Niagara River, whereas there is no proof that he was ever killed, much +less murdered by Masons. Thurlow Weed and a pack of unscrupulous +politicians took it up, and the rest was easy. One year later a body +was found on the shore of Lake Ontario which Weed and the wife of +Morgan identified--a _year afterward!_--she, no doubt, having been paid +to do so; albeit the wife of a fisherman named Munroe identified the +same body as that of her husband drowned a week or so before. No +matter; as Weed said, "_It's good enough Morgan until after the +election_"--a characteristic remark, if we may judge by his own +portrait as drawn in his _Autobiography_. Politically, he was capable +of anything, if he could make it win, and here he saw a chance of +stirring up every vile and slimy thing in human nature for sake of +office. (See a splendid review of the whole matter in _History of +Masonry_, by Hughan and Stillson, also by Gould in vol. iv of his +_History_.) + +[159] _Cyclopedia of Fraternities_, by Stevens, article, +"Anti-Masonry," gives detailed account with many interesting facts. + +[160] Following the first day of the battle of Gettysburg, there was a +Lodge meeting in town, and "Yanks" and "Johnny Rebs" met and mingled as +friends, under the Square and Compass. Where else could they have done +so? (_Tennessee Mason_). When the Union army attacked Little Rock, +Ark., the commanding officer, Thomas H. Benton--Grand Master of the +Grand Lodge of Iowa--threw a guard about the home of General Albert +Pike, _to protect his Masonic library_. Marching through burning +Richmond, a Union officer saw the familiar emblems over a hall. He put +a guard about the Lodge room, and that night, together with a number of +Confederate Masons, organized a society for the relief of widows and +orphans left destitute by the war (_Washington, the Man and the Mason_, +Callahan). But for the kindness of a brother Mason, who saved the life +of a young soldier of the South, who was a prisoner of war at Rock +Island, Ill., the present writer would never have been born, much less +have written this book. That young soldier was my father! Volumes of +such facts might be gathered in proof of the gracious ministry of +Masonry in those awful years. + +[161] _Cyclopedia of Fraternities_, by Stevens (last edition), article, +"Free Masonry," pictures the extent of the order, with maps and +diagrams showing its world-wide influence. + +[162] Space does not permit a survey of the literature of Masonry, +still less of Masonry in literature. (Findel has two fine chapters on +the literature of the order, but he wrote, in 1865, _History of +Masonry_.) For traces of Masonry in literature, there is the famous +chapter in _War and Peace_, by Tolstoi; _Mon Oncle Sosthenes_, by +Maupassant; _Nathan the Wise_, and _Ernest and Falk_, by Lessing; the +Masonic poems of Goethe, and many hints in _Wilhelm Meister_; the +writings of Herder (_Classic Period of German Letters_, Findel), _The +Lost Word_, by Henry Van Dyke; and, of course, the poetry of Burns. + +Masonic phrases and allusions--often almost too revealing--are found +all through the poems and stories of Kipling. Besides the poem _The +Mother Lodge_, so much admired, there is _The Widow of Windsor_, such +stories as _With the Main Guard_, _The Winged Hats_, _Hal o' the +Draft_, _The City Walls_, _On the Great Wall_, many examples in _Kim_, +also in _Traffics and Discoveries_, _Puck of Pook's Hill_, and, by no +means least, _The Man Who Would be King_, one of the great short +stories of the world. + + + + +Part III--Interpretation + + + + +WHAT IS MASONRY + + + + +/# + _I am afraid you may not consider it an altogether substantial + concern. It has to be seen in a certain way, under certain + conditions. Some people never see it at all. You must understand, + this is no dead pile of stones and unmeaning timber. It is a_ + LIVING _thing._ + + _When you enter it you hear a sound--a sound as of some mighty + poem chanted. Listen long enough, and you will learn that it is + made up of the beating of human hearts, of the nameless music of + men's souls--that is, if you have ears to hear. If you have eyes, + you will presently see the church itself--a looming mystery of + many shapes and shadows, leaping sheer from floor to dome. The + work of no ordinary builder!_ + + _The pillars of it go up like the brawny trunks of heroes; the + sweet flesh of men and women is molded about its bulwarks, strong, + impregnable; the faces of little children laugh out from every + corner stone; the terrible spans and arches of it are the joined + hands of comrades; and up in the heights and spaces are inscribed + the numberless musings of all the dreamers of the world. It is yet + building--building and built upon._ + + _Sometimes the work goes on in deep darkness; sometimes in + blinding light; now under the burden of unutterable anguish; now + to the tune of great laughter and heroic shoutings like the cry of + thunder. Sometimes, in the silence of the night-time, one may hear + the tiny hammerings of the comrades at work up in the dome--the + comrades that have climbed ahead._ + + --C.R. KENNEDY, _The Servant in the House_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_What is Masonry_ + + +I + +What, then, is Masonry, and what is it trying to do in the world? +According to one of the _Old Charges_, Masonry is declared to be an +"ancient and honorable institution: ancient no doubt it is, as having +subsisted from time immemorial; and honorable it must be acknowledged +to be, as by natural tendency it conduces to make those so who are +obedient to its precepts. To so high an eminence has its credit been +advanced that in every age Monarchs themselves have been promoters of +the art, have not thought it derogatory from their dignity to exchange +the scepter for the trowel, have patronized our mysteries and joined +in our Assemblies." + +While that eulogy is more than justified by sober facts, it does not +tell us what Masonry is, much less its mission and ministry to +mankind. If now we turn to the old, oft-quoted definition, we learn +that Masonry is "a system of morality veiled in allegory and +illustrated by symbols." That is, in so far, true enough, but it is +obviously inadequate, the more so when it uses the word "peculiar" as +describing the morality of Masonry; and it gives no hint of a +world-encircling fellowship and its far-ramifying influence. Another +definition has it that Masonry is "a science which is engaged in the +search after divine truth;"[163] but that is vague, indefinite, and +unsatisfactory, lacking any sense of the uniqueness of the Order, and +as applicable to one science as to another. For surely all science, of +whatever kind, is a search after divine truth, and a physical fact, as +Agassiz said, is as sacred as a moral truth--every fact being the +presence of God. + +Still another writer defines Masonry as "Friendship, Love, and +Integrity--Friendship which rises superior to the fictitious +distinctions of society, the prejudices of religion, and the pecuniary +conditions of life; Love which knows no limit, nor inequality, nor +decay; Integrity which binds man to the eternal law of duty."[164] +Such is indeed the very essence and spirit of Masonry, but Masonry has +no monopoly of that spirit, and its uniqueness consists, rather, in +the form in which it seeks to embody and express the gracious and +benign spirit which is the genius of all the higher life of humanity. +Masonry is not everything; it is a thing as distinctly featured as a +statue by Phidias or a painting by Angelo. Definitions, like delays, +may be dangerous, but perhaps we can do no better than to adopt the +words of the German _Handbuch_[165] as the best description of it so +far given: + +/#[4,66] + _Masonry is the activity of closely united men who, employing + symbolical forms borrowed principally from the mason's trade + and from architecture, work for the welfare of mankind, + striving morally to ennoble themselves and others, and + thereby to bring about a universal league of mankind, which + they aspire to exhibit even now on a small scale._ +#/ + +Civilization could hardly begin until man had learned to fashion for +himself a settled habitation, and thus the earliest of all human arts +and crafts, and perhaps also the noblest, is that of the builder. +Religion took outward shape when men first reared an altar for their +offerings, and surrounded it with a sanctuary of faith and awe, of +pity and consolation, and piled a cairn to mark the graves where their +dead lay asleep. History is no older than architecture. How fitting, +then, that the idea and art of building should be made the basis of a +great order of men which has no other aim than the upbuilding of +humanity in Faith, Freedom, and Friendship. Seeking to ennoble and +beautify life, it finds in the common task and constant labor of man +its sense of human unity, its vision of life as a temple "building and +built upon," and its emblems of those truths which make for purity of +character and the stability of society. Thus Masonry labors, linked +with the constructive genius of mankind, and so long as it remains +true to its Ideal no weapon formed against it can prosper. + +One of the most impressive and touching things in human history is +that certain ideal interests have been set apart as especially +venerated among all peoples. Guilds have arisen to cultivate the +interests embodied in art, science, philosophy, fraternity, and +religion; to conserve the precious, hard-won inheritances of humanity; +to train men in their service; to bring their power to bear upon the +common life of mortals, and send through that common life the light +and glory of the Ideal--as the sun shoots its transfiguring rays +through a great dull cloud, evoking beauty from the brown earth. Such +is Masonry, which unites all these high interests and brings to their +service a vast, world-wide fraternity of free and devout men, built +upon a foundation of spiritual faith and moral idealism, whose +mission it is to make men friends, to refine and exalt their lives, to +deepen their faith and purify their dream, to turn them from the +semblance of life to homage for truth, beauty, righteousness, and +character. More than an institution, more than a tradition, more than +a society, Masonry is one of the forms of the Divine Life upon earth. +No one may ever hope to define a spirit so gracious, an order so +benign, an influence so prophetic of the present and future upbuilding +of the race. + +There is a common notion that Masonry is a secret society, and this +idea is based on the secret rites used in its initiations, and the +signs and grips by which its members recognize each other. Thus it has +come to pass that the main aims of the Order are assumed to be a +secret policy or teaching,[166] whereas _its one great secret is that +it has no secret_. Its principles are published abroad in its +writings; its purposes and laws are known, and the times and places of +its meetings. Having come down from dark days of persecution, when all +the finer things sought the protection of seclusion, if it still +adheres to secret rites, it is not in order to hide the truth, but the +better to teach it more impressively, to train men in its pure +service, and to promote union and amity upon earth. Its signs and +grips serve as a kind of universal language, and still more as a +gracious cover for the practice of sweet charity--making it easier to +help a fellow man in dire plight without hurting his self-respect. If +a few are attracted to it by curiosity, all remain to pray, finding +themselves members of a great historic fellowship of the seekers and +finders of God.[167] It is old because it is true; had it been false +it would have perished long ago. When all men practice its simple +precepts, the innocent secrets of Masonry will be laid bare, its +mission accomplished, and its labor done. + + +II + +Recalling the emphasis of the foregoing pages, it need hardly be added +that Masonry is in no sense a political party, still less a society +organized for social agitation. Indeed, because Masonry stands apart +from partisan feud and particular plans of social reform, she has been +held up to ridicule equally by the unthinking, the ambitious, and the +impatient. Her critics on this side are of two kinds. There are those +who hold that the humanitarian ideal is an error, maintaining that +human nature has no moral aptitude, and can be saved only by +submission to a definite system of dogma. Then there are those who +look for salvation solely in political action and social agitation, +who live in the delusion that man can be made better by passing laws +and counting votes, and to whom Masonry has nothing to offer because +in its ranks it permits no politics, much less party rancor. Advocates +of the first view have fought Masonry from the beginning with the +sharpest weapons, while those who hold the second view regard it with +contempt, as a thing useless and not worth fighting.[168] + +Neither adversary understands Masonry and its cult of the creative +love for humanity, and of each man for his fellow, without which no +dogma is of any worth; lacking which, the best laid plans of social +seers "gang aft aglee." Let us look at things as they are. That we +must press forward towards righteousness--that we must hunger and +thirst after a social life that is true and pure, just and +merciful--all will agree; but they are blind who do not see that the +way is long and the process slow. What is it that so tragically delays +the march of man toward the better and wiser social order whereof our +prophets dream? Our age, like the ages gone before, is full of schemes +of every kind for the reform and betterment of mankind. Why do they +not succeed? Some fail, perhaps, because they are imprudent and +ill-considered, in that they expect too much of human nature and do +not take into account the stubborn facts of life. But why does not the +wisest and noblest plan do more than half what its advocates hope and +pray and labor so heroically to bring about? Because there are not +enough men fine enough of soul, large enough of sympathy, sweet enough +of spirit, and noble enough of nature to make the dream come true! + +There are no valid arguments against a great-spirited social justice +but this--that men will not. Indolence, impurity, greed, injustice, +meanness of spirit, the aggressiveness of authority, and above all +jealousy--these are the real obstacles that thwart the nobler social +aspiration of humanity. There are too many men like _The +Master-Builder_ who tried to build higher than any one else, without +regard to others, all for his own selfish glory. Ibsen has shown us +how _The Pillars of Society_, resting on rotten foundations, came +crashing down, wounding the innocent in their wreck. Long ago it was +said that "through wisdom is an house builded, and by understanding it +is established; and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with +pleasant and precious riches."[169] Time has shown that the House of +Wisdom must be founded upon righteousness, justice, purity, character, +faith in God and love of man, else it will fall when the floods +descend and the winds beat upon it. What we need to make our social +dreams come true is not more laws, not more dogmas, not less liberty, +but better men, cleaner minded, more faithful, with loftier ideals and +more heroic integrity; men who love the right, honor the truth, +worship purity, and prize liberty--upright men who meet all +horizontals at a perfect angle, assuring the virtue and stability of +the social order. + +Therefore, when Masonry, instead of identifying itself with particular +schemes of reform, and thus becoming involved in endless turmoil and +dispute, estranging men whom she seeks to bless, devotes all her +benign energy and influence to _ennobling the souls of men_, she is +doing fundamental work in behalf of all high enterprises. By as much +as she succeeds, every noble cause succeeds; by as much as she fails, +everything fails! By its ministry to the individual man--drawing him +into the circle of a great friendship, exalting his faith, refining +his ideals, enlarging his sympathies, and setting his feet in the long +white path--Masonry best serves society and the state.[170] While it +is not a reformatory, it is a center of moral and spiritual power, and +its power is used, not only to protect the widow and orphan, but also, +and still more important, to remove the cause of their woe and need by +making men just, gentle, and generous to all their fellow mortals. Who +can measure such a silent, persistent, unresting labor; who can +describe its worth in a world of feud, of bitterness, of sorrow! + +No one needs to be told that we are on the eve, if not in the midst, +of a most stupendous and bewildering revolution of social and +industrial life. It shakes England today. It makes France tremble +tomorrow. It alarms America next week. Men want shorter hours, higher +wages, and better homes--of course they do--but they need, more than +these things, to know and love each other; for the questions in +dispute can never be settled in an air of hostility. If they are ever +settled at all, and settled right, it must be in an atmosphere of +mutual recognition and respect, such as Masonry seeks to create and +make prevail. Whether it be a conflict of nations, or a clash of class +with class, appeal must be made to intelligence and the moral sense, +as befits the dignity of man. Amidst bitterness and strife Masonry +brings men of every rank and walk of life together as men, and nothing +else, at an altar where they can talk and not fight, discuss and not +dispute, and each may learn the point of view of his fellow. Other +hope there is none save in this spirit of friendship and fairness, of +democracy and the fellowship of man with man. Once this spirit has its +way with mankind, it will bring those brave, large reconstructions, +those profitable abnegations and brotherly feats of generosity that +will yet turn human life into a glad, beautiful, and triumphant +cooeperation all round this sunlit world. + +Surely the way of Masonry is wise. Instead of becoming only one more +factor in a world of factional feud, it seeks to remove all hostility +which may arise from social, national, or religious differences. It +helps to heal the haughtiness of the rich and the envy of the poor, +and tends to establish peace on earth by allaying all fanaticism and +hatred on account of varieties of language, race, creed, and even +color, while striving to make the wisdom of the past available for the +culture of men in faith and purity. Not a party, not a sect, not a +cult, it is a great order of men selected, initiated, sworn, and +trained to make sweet reason and the will of God prevail! Against the +ancient enmities and inhumanities of the world it wages eternal war, +without vengeance, without violence, but by softening the hearts of +men and inducing a better spirit. Apparitions of a day, here for an +hour and tomorrow gone, what is our puny warfare against evil and +ignorance compared with the warfare which this venerable Order has +been waging against them for ages, and will continue to wage after we +have fallen into dust! + + +III + +Masonry, as it is much more than a political party or a social cult, +is also more than a church--unless we use the word church as Ruskin +used it when he said: "There is a true church wherever one hand meets +another helpfully, the only holy or mother church that ever was or +ever shall be!" It is true that Masonry is not _a_ religion, but it is +Religion, a worship in which all good men may unite, that each may +share the faith of all. Often it has been objected that some men leave +the Church and enter the Masonic Lodge, finding there a religious +home. Even so, but that may be the fault, not of Masonry, but of the +Church so long defamed by bigotry and distracted by sectarian feud, +and which has too often made acceptance of abstract dogmas a test of +its fellowship.[171] Naturally many fine minds have been estranged +from the Church, not because they were irreligious, but because they +were required to believe what it was impossible for them to believe; +and, rather than sacrifice their integrity of soul, they have turned +away from the last place from which a man should ever turn away. No +part of the ministry of Masonry is more beautiful and wise than its +appeal, not for tolerance, but for fraternity; not for uniformity, but +for unity of spirit amidst varieties of outlook and opinion. Instead +of criticizing Masonry, let us thank God for one altar where no man is +asked to surrender his liberty of thought and become an +indistinguishable atom in a mass of sectarian agglomeration. What a +witness to the worth of an Order that it brings together men of all +creeds in behalf of those truths which are greater than all sects, +deeper than all doctrines--the glory and the hope of man! + +While Masonry is not a church, it has religiously preserved some +things of highest importance to the Church--among them the right of +each individual soul to its own religious faith. Holding aloof from +separate sects and creeds, it has taught all of them how to respect +and tolerate each other; asserting a principle broader than any of +them--the sanctity of the soul and the duty of every man to revere, or +at least to regard with charity, what is sacred to his fellows. It is +like the crypts underneath the old cathedrals--a place where men of +every creed who long for something deeper and truer, older and newer +than they have hitherto known, meet and unite. Having put away +childish things, they find themselves made one by a profound and +childlike faith, each bringing down into that quiet crypt his own +pearl of great price-- + +/#[4,66] + The Hindu his innate disbelief in this world, and his + unhesitating belief in another world; the Buddhist his + perception of an eternal law, his submission to it, his + gentleness, his pity; the Mohammedan, if nothing else, his + sobriety; the Jew his clinging, through good and evil days, + to the one God who loveth righteousness, and whose name is "I + AM;" the Christian, that which is better than all, if those + who doubt it would try it--our love of God, call Him what you + will, manifested in our love of man, our love of the living, + our love of the dead, our living and undying love. Who knows + but that the crypt of the past may become the church of the + future?[172] +#/ + +Of no one age, Masonry belongs to all ages; of no one religion, it +finds great truths in all religions. Indeed, it holds that truth which +is common to all elevating and benign religions, and is the basis of +each; that faith which underlies all sects and over-arches all creeds, +like the sky above and the river bed below the flow of mortal years. +It does not undertake to explain or dogmatically to settle those +questions or solve those dark mysteries which out-top human knowledge. +Beyond the facts of faith it does not go. With the subtleties of +speculation concerning those truths, and the unworldly envies growing +out of them, it has not to do. There divisions begin, and Masonry was +not made to divide men, but to unite them, leaving each man free to +think his own thought and fashion his own system of ultimate truth. +All its emphasis rests upon two extremely simple and profound +principles--love of God and love of man. Therefore, all through the +ages it has been, and is today, a meeting place of differing minds, +and a prophecy of the final union of all reverent and devout souls. + +Time was when one man framed a dogma and declared it to be the eternal +truth. Another man did the same thing, with a different dogma; then +the two began to hate each other with an unholy hatred, each seeking +to impose his dogma upon the other--and that is an epitome of some of +the blackest pages of history. Against those old sectarians who +substituted intolerance for charity, persecution for friendship, and +did not love God because they hated their neighbors, Masonry made +eloquent protest, putting their bigotry to shame by its simple +insight, and the dignity of its golden voice. A vast change of heart +is now taking place in the religious world, by reason of an exchange +of thought and courtesy, and a closer personal touch, and the various +sects, so long estranged, are learning to unite upon the things most +worth while and the least open to debate. That is to say, they are +moving toward the Masonic position, and when they arrive Masonry will +witness a scene which she has prophesied for ages. + +At last, in the not distant future, the old feuds of the sects will +come to an end, forgotten in the discovery that the just, the brave, +the true-hearted are everywhere of one religion, and that when the +masks of misunderstanding are taken off they know and love one +another. Our little dogmas will have their day and cease to be, lost +in the vision of a truth so great that all men are one in their +littleness; one also in their assurance of the divinity of the soul +and "the kindness of the veiled Father of men." Then men of every name +will ask, when they meet: + +/P + Not what is your creed? + But what is your need? +P/ + +High above all dogmas that divide, all bigotries that blind, all +bitterness that beclouds, will be written the simple words of the one +eternal religion--the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the +moral law, the golden rule, and the hope of a life everlasting! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[163] _Symbolism of Freemasonry_, by Dr. Mackey. + +[164] _History and Philosophy of Masonry_, by A.C.L. Arnold, chap. xvi. +To say of any man--of Socrates, for example--who had the spirit of +Friendship and Integrity, that he was a Mason, is in a sense true, but +it is misleading. Nevertheless, if a man have not that spirit, he is +not a Mason, though he may have received the thirty-third degree. + +[165] Vol. i, p. 320. The _Handbuch_ is an encyclopedia of Masonry, +published in 1900. See admirable review of it, _A. Q. C._, xi, 64. + +[166] Much has been written about the secrecy of Masonry. Hutchinson, +in his lecture on "The Secrecy of Masons," lays all the stress upon its +privacy as a shelter for the gentle ministry of Charity (_Spirit of +Masonry_, lecture x). Arnold is more satisfactory in his essay on "The +Philosophy of Mystery," quoting the words of Carlyle in _Sartor +Resartus_: "Bees will not work except in darkness; thoughts will not +work except in silence; neither will virtue work except in secrecy" +(_History and Philosophy of Masonry_, chap. xxi). But neither writer +seems to realize the psychology and pedagogy of secrecy--the value of +curiosity, of wonder and expectation, in the teaching of great truths +deemed commonplace because old. Even in that atmosphere, the real +secret of Masonry remains hidden to many--as sunlight hides the depths +of heaven. + +[167] Read the noble chapter on "Prayer as a Masonic Obligation," in +_Practical Masonic Lectures_, by Samuel Lawrence (lecture x). + +[168] Read a thoughtful "Exposition of Freemasonry," by Dr. Paul Carus, +_Open Court_, May, 1913. + +[169] Proverbs 24:3, 4. + +[170] While Masonry abjures political questions and disputes in its +Lodges, it is all the while training good citizens, and through the +quality of its men it influences public life--as Washington, Franklin, +and Marshall carried the spirit of Masonry into the organic law of this +republic. It is not politics that corrupts character; it is bad +character that corrupts politics--and by building men up to spiritual +faith and character, Masonry is helping to build up a state that will +endure the shocks of time; a nobler structure than ever was wrought of +mortar and marble (_The Principles of Freemasonry in the Life of +Nations_, by Findel). + +[171] Not a little confusion has existed, and still exists, in regard +to the relation of Masonry to religion. Dr. Mackey said that old +Craft-masonry was sectarian (_Symbolism of Masonry_); but it was not +more so than Dr. Mackey himself, who held the curious theory that the +religion of the Hebrews was genuine and that of the Egyptians spurious. +Nor is there any evidence that Craft-masonry was sectarian, but much to +the contrary, as has been shown in reference to the invocations in the +_Old Charges_. At any rate, if it was ever sectarian, it ceased to be +so with the organization of the Grand Lodge of England. Later, some of +the chaplains of the order sought to identify Masonry with +Christianity, as Hutchinson did--and even Arnold in his chapter on +"Christianity and Freemasonry" (_History and Philosophy of Masonry_). +All this confusion results from a misunderstanding of what religion is. +Religions are many; religion is one--perhaps we may say one thing, but +that one thing includes everything--the life of God in the soul of man, +which finds expression in all the forms which life and love and duty +take. This conception of religion shakes the poison out of all our wild +flowers, and shows us that it is the inspiration of all scientific +inquiry, all striving for liberty, all virtue and charity; the spirit +of all thought, the motif of all great music, the soul of all sublime +literature. The church has no monopoly of religion, nor did the Bible +create it. Instead, it was religion--the natural and simple trust of +the soul in a Power above and within it, and its quest of a right +relation to that Power--that created the Bible and the Church, and, +indeed, all our higher human life. The soul of man is greater than all +books, deeper than all dogmas, and more enduring than all institutions. +Masonry seeks to free men from a limiting conception of religion, and +thus to remove one of the chief causes of sectarianism. It is itself +one of the forms of beauty wrought by the human soul under the +inspiration of the Eternal Beauty, and as such is religious. + +[172] _Chips from a German Workshop_, by Max Mueller. + + + + +THE MASONIC PHILOSOPHY + + + + +/# + _Masonry directs us to divest ourselves of confined and bigoted + notions, and teaches us, that Humanity is the soul of Religion. We + never suffer any religious disputes in our Lodges, and, as Masons, + we only pursue the universal religion, the Religion of Nature. + Worshipers of the God of Mercy, we believe that in every nation, + he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him. + All Masons, therefore, whether Christians, Jews, or Mahomedans, + who violate not the rule of right, written by the Almighty upon + the tables of the heart, who_ DO _fear Him, and_ WORK + _righteousness, we are to acknowledge as brethren; and, though we + take different roads, we are not to be angry with, or persecute + each other on that account. We mean to travel to the same place; + we know that the end of our journey is the same; and we + affectionately hope to meet in the Lodge of perfect happiness. How + lovely is an institution fraught with sentiments like these! How + agreeable must it be to Him who is seated on a throne of + Everlasting Mercy, to the God who is no respecter of persons!_ + + --WM. HUTCHINSON, _The Spirit of Masonry_ +#/ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Masonic Philosophy_ + + +"Hast any philosophy in thee, Shepherd?"[173] was the question of +Touchstone in the Shakespeare play; and that is the question we must +always ask ourselves. Long ago Kant said that it is the mission of +philosophy, not to discover truth, but to set it in order, to seek out +the rhythm of things and their reason for being. Beginning in wonder, +it sees the familiar as if it were strange, and its mind is full of +the air that plays round every subject. Spacious, humane, eloquent, it +is "a blend of science, poetry, religion and logic"[174]--a +softening, enlarging, ennobling influence, giving us a wider and +clearer outlook, more air, more room, more light, and more background. + +When we look at Masonry in this large and mellow light, it is like a +stately old cathedral, gray with age, rich in associations, its steps +worn by innumerable feet of the living and the dead--not piteous, but +strong and enduring. Entering its doors, we wonder at its lofty +spaces, its windows with the dimness and glory of the Infinite behind +them, the spring of its pillars, the leap of its arches, and its roof +inlaid with stars. Inevitably we ask, whence came this temple of faith +and friendship, and what does it mean--rising lightly as a lyric, +uplifted by the hunger for truth and the love for beauty, and exempt +from the shock of years and the ravages of decay? What faith builded +this home of the soul, what philosophy underlies and upholds it? Truly +did Longfellow sing of _The Builders_: + +/P + In the elder years of art, + Builders wrought with greatest care + Each minute and hidden part, + For the gods see everywhere. +P/ + + +I + +If we examine the foundations of Masonry, we find that it rests upon +the most fundamental of all truths, the first truth and the last, the +sovereign and supreme Reality. Upon the threshold of its Lodges every +man, whether prince or peasant, is asked to confess his faith in God +the Father Almighty, the Architect and Master-Builder of the +Universe.[175] That is not a mere form of words, but the deepest and +most solemn affirmation that human lips can make. To be indifferent +to God is to be indifferent to the greatest of all realities, that +upon which the aspiration of humanity rests for its uprising passion +of desire. No institution that is dumb concerning the meaning of life +and the character of the universe, can last. It is a house built upon +the sand, doomed to fall when the winds blow and floods beat upon it, +lacking a sure foundation. No human fraternity that has not its +inspiration in the Fatherhood of God, confessed or unconfessed, can +long endure; it is a rope of sand, weak as water, and its fine +sentiment quickly evaporates. Life leads, if we follow its meanings +and think in the drift of its deeper conclusions, to one God as the +ground of the world, and upon that ground Masonry lays her +corner-stone. Therefore, it endures and grows, and the gates of hell +cannot prevail against it! + +While Masonry is theocratic in its faith and philosophy,[176] it does +not limit its conception of the Divine, much less insist upon any one +name for "the Nameless One of a hundred names." Indeed, no feature of +Masonry is more fascinating than its age-long quest of the Lost +Word,[177] the Ineffable Name; a quest that never tires, never +tarries, knowing the while that every name is inadequate, and all +words are but symbols of a Truth too great for words--every letter of +the alphabet, in fact, having been evolved from some primeval sign or +signal of the faith and hope of humanity. Thus Masonry, so far from +limiting the thought of God, is evermore in search of a more +satisfying and revealing vision of the meaning of the universe, now +luminous and lovely, now dark and terrible; and it invites all men to +unite in the quest-- + +/P + One in the freedom of the Truth, + One in the joy of paths untrod, + One in the soul's perennial Youth, + One in the larger thought of God. +P/ + +Truly the human consciousness of fellowship with the Eternal, under +whatever name, may well hush all words, still more hush argument and +anathema. Possession, not recognition, is the only thing important; +and if it is not recognized, the fault must surely be, in large part, +our own. Given the one great experience, and before long kindred +spirits will join in the _Universal Prayer_ of Alexander Pope, himself +a Mason: + +/P + Father of all! in every age, + In every clime adored, + By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage, + Jehovah, Jove, or Lord! +P/ + +With eloquent unanimity our Masonic thinkers proclaim the unity and +love of God--whence their vision of the ultimate unity and love of +mankind--to be the great truth of the Masonic philosophy; the unity of +God and the immortality of the soul.[178] Amidst polytheisms, +dualisms, and endless confusions, they hold it to have been the great +mission of Masonry to preserve these precious truths, beside which, in +the long result of thought and faith, all else fades and grows dim. Of +this there is no doubt; and science has come at last to vindicate this +wise insight, by unveiling the unity of the universe with overwhelming +emphasis. Unquestionably the universe is an inexhaustible wonder. +Still, it is a wonder, not a contradiction, and we can never find its +rhythm save in the truth of the unity of all things in God. Other +clue there is none. Down to this deep foundation Masonry digs for a +basis of its temple, and builds securely. If this be false or +unstable, then is + +/P + The pillar'd firmament rottenness, + And earth's base built on stubble. +P/ + +Upon the altar of Masonry lies the open Bible which, despite the +changes and advances of the ages, remains the greatest Modern +Book--the moral manual of civilization.[179] All through its pages, +through the smoke of Sinai, through "the forest of the Psalms," +through proverbs and parables, along the dreamy ways of prophecy, in +gospels and epistles is heard the everlasting truth of one God who is +love, and who requires of men that they love one another, do justly, +be merciful, keep themselves unspotted by evil, and walk humbly before +Him in whose great hand they stand. There we read of the Man of +Galilee who taught that, in the far distances of the divine +Fatherhood, all men were conceived in love, and so are akin--united in +origin, duty, and destiny. Therefore we are to relieve the distressed, +put the wanderer into his way, and divide our bread with the hungry, +which is but the way of doing good to ourselves; for we are all +members of one great family, and the hurt of one means the injury of +all. + +This profound and reverent faith from which, as from a never-failing +spring, flow heroic devotedness, moral self-respect, authentic +sentiments of fraternity, inflexible fidelity in life and effectual +consolation in death, Masonry has at all times religiously taught. +Perseveringly it has propagated it through the centuries, and never +more zealously than in our age. Scarcely a Masonic discourse is +pronounced, or a Masonic lesson read, by the highest officer or the +humblest lecturer, that does not earnestly teach this one true +religion which is the very soul of Masonry, its basis and apex, its +light and power. Upon that faith it rests; in that faith it lives and +labors; and by that faith it will conquer at last, when the noises and +confusions of today have followed the tangled feet that made them. + + +II + +Out of this simple faith grows, by inevitable logic, the philosophy +which Masonry teaches in signs and symbols, in pictures and parables. +Stated briefly, stated vividly, it is that behind the pageant of +nature, in it and over it, there is a Supreme Mind which initiates, +impels, and controls all. That behind the life of man and its pathetic +story in history, in it and over it, there is a righteous Will, the +intelligent Conscience of the Most High. In short, that the first and +last thing in the universe is mind, that the highest and deepest thing +is conscience, and that the final reality is the absoluteness of love. +Higher than that faith cannot fly; deeper than that thought cannot +dig. + +/P + No deep is deep enough to show + The springs whence being starts to flow. + No fastness of the soul reveals + Life's subtlest impulse and appeals. + We seem to come, we seem to go; + But whence or whither who can know? + Unemptiable, unfillable, + It's all in that one syllable-- + God! Only God. God first, God last. + God, infinitesimally vast; + God who is love, love which is God, + The rootless, everflowering rod! +P/ + +There is but one real alternative to this philosophy. It is not +atheism--which is seldom more than a revulsion from +superstition--because the adherents of absolute atheism are so few, if +any, and its intellectual position is too precarious ever to be a +menace. An atheist, if such there be, is an orphan, a waif wandering +the midnight streets of time, homeless and alone. Nor is the +alternative agnosticism, which in the nature of things can be only a +passing mood of thought, when, indeed, it is not a confession of +intellectual bankruptcy, or a labor-saving device to escape the toil +and fatigue of high thinking. It trembles in perpetual hesitation, like +a donkey equi-distant between two bundles of hay, starving to death but +unable to make up its mind. No; the real alternative is materialism, +which played so large a part in philosophy fifty years ago, and which, +defeated there, has betaken itself to the field of practical affairs. +This is the dread alternative of a denial of the great faith of +humanity, a blight which would apply a sponge to all the high +aspirations and ideals of the race. According to this dogma, the first +and last things in the universe are atoms, their number, dance, +combinations, and growth. All mind, all will, all emotion, all +character, all love is incidental, transitory, vain. The sovereign fact +is mud, the final reality is dirt, and the decree of destiny is "dust +unto dust!" + +Against this ultimate horror, it need hardly be said that in every age +Masonry has stood as a witness for the life of the spirit. In the war +of the soul against dust, in the choice between dirt and Deity, it has +allied itself on the side of the great idealisms and optimisms of +humanity. It takes the spiritual view of life and the world as being +most in accord with the facts of experience, the promptings of right +reason, and the voice of conscience. In other words, it dares to read +the meaning of the universe through what is highest in man, not +through what is lower, asserting that the soul is akin to the Eternal +Spirit, and that by a life of righteousness its eternal quality is +revealed.[180] Upon this philosophy Masonry rests, and finds a rock +beneath: + +/P + On Him, this corner-stone we build, + On Him, this edifice erect; + And still, until this work's fulfilled, + May He the workman's ways direct. +P/ + +Now, consider! All our human thinking, whether it be in science, +philosophy, or religion, rests for its validity upon faith in the +kinship of man with God. If that faith be false, the temple of human +thought falls to wreck, and behold! we know not anything and have no +way of learning. But the fact that the universe is intelligible, that +we can follow its forces, trace its laws, and make a map of it, +finding the infinite even in the infinitesimal, shows that the mind of +man is akin to the Mind that made it. Also, there are two aspects of +the nature of man which lift him above the brute and bespeak his +divine heredity. They are reason and conscience, both of which are of +more than sense and time, having their source, satisfaction, and +authority in an unseen, eternal world. That is to say, man is a being +who, if not actually immortal, is called by the very law and necessity +of his being to live as if he were immortal. Unless life be utterly +abortive, having neither rhyme nor reason, the soul of man is itself +the one sure proof and prophet of its own high faith. + +Consider, too, what it means to say that this mighty soul of man is +akin to the Eternal Soul of all things. It means that we are not +shapes of mud placed here by chance, but sons of the Most High, +citizens of eternity, deathless as God our Father is deathless; and +that there is laid upon us an abiding obligation to live in a manner +befitting the dignity of the soul. It means that what a man thinks, +the parity of his feeling, the character of his activity and career +are of vital and ceaseless concern to the Eternal. Here is a +philosophy which lights up the universe like a sunrise, confirming the +dim, dumb certainties of the soul, evolving meaning out of mystery, +and hope out of what would else be despair. It brings out the colors +of human life, investing our fleeting mortal years--brief at their +longest, broken at its best--with enduring significance and beauty. It +gives to each of us, however humble and obscure, a place and a part in +the stupendous historical enterprise; makes us fellow workers with the +Eternal in His redemptive making of humanity, and binds us to do His +will upon earth as it is done in heaven. It subdues the intellect; it +softens the heart; it begets in the will that sense of self-respect +without which high and heroic living cannot be. Such is the philosophy +upon which Masonry builds; and from it flow, as from the rock smitten +in the wilderness, those bright streams that wander through and water +this human world of ours. + + +III + +Because this is so; because the human soul is akin to God, and is +endowed with powers to which no one may set a limit, it is and of +right ought to be free. Thus, by the logic of its philosophy, not less +than the inspiration of its faith, Masonry has been impelled to make +its historic demand for liberty of conscience, for the freedom of the +intellect, and for the right of all men to stand erect, unfettered, +and unafraid, equal before God and the law, each respecting the rights +of his fellows. What we have to remember is, that before this truth +was advocated by any order, or embodied in any political constitution, +it was embedded in the will of God and the constitution of the human +soul. Nor will Masonry ever swerve one jot or tittle from its ancient +and eloquent demand till all men, everywhere, are free in body, mind, +and soul. As it is, Lowell was right when he wrote: + +/P + We are not free: Freedom doth not consist + In musing with our faces toward the Past + While petty cares and crawling interests twist + Their spider threads about us, which at last + Grow strong as iron chains and cramp and bind + In formal narrowness heart, soul, and mind. + Freedom is recreated year by year, + In hearts wide open on the Godward side, + In souls calm-cadenced as the whirling sphere, + In minds that sway the future like a tide. + No broadest creeds can hold her, and no codes; + She chooses men for her august abodes, + Building them fair and fronting to the dawn. +P/ + +Some day, when the cloud of prejudice has been dispelled by the +searchlight of truth, the world will honor Masonry for its service to +freedom of thought and the liberty of faith. No part of its history +has been more noble, no principle of its teaching has been more +precious than its age-long demand for the right and duty of every soul +to seek that light by which no man was ever injured, and that truth +which makes man free. Down through the centuries--often in times when +the highest crime was not murder, but thinking, and the human +conscience was a captive dragged at the wheel of the ecclesiastical +chariot--always and everywhere Masonry has stood for the right of the +soul to know the truth, and to look up unhindered from the lap of +earth into the face of God. Not freedom from faith, but freedom of +faith, has been its watchword, on the ground that as despotism is the +mother of anarchy, so bigoted dogmatism is the prolific source of +scepticism--knowing, also, that our race has made its most rapid +advance in those fields where it has been free the longest. + +Against those who would fetter thought in order to perpetuate an +effete authority, who would give the skinny hand of the past a scepter +to rule the aspiring and prophetic present, and seal the lips of +living scholars with the dicta of dead scholastics, Masonry will never +ground arms! Her plea is for government without tyranny and religion +without superstition, and as surely as suns rise and set her fight +will be crowned with victory. Defeat is impossible, the more so +because she fights not with force, still less with intrigue, but with +the power of truth, the persuasions of reason, and the might of +gentleness, seeking not to destroy her enemies, but to win them to the +liberty of the truth and the fellowship of love. + +Not only does Masonry plead for that liberty of faith which permits a +man to hold what seems to him true, but also, and with equal emphasis, +for the liberty which faith gives to the soul, emancipating it from +the despotism of doubt and the fetters of fear. Therefore, by every +art of spiritual culture, it seeks to keep alive in the hearts of men +a great and simple trust in the goodness of God, in the worth of life, +and the divinity of the soul--a trust so apt to be crushed by the +tramp of heavy years. Help a man to a firm faith in an Infinite Pity +at the heart of this dark world, and from how many fears is he free! +Once a temple of terror, haunted by shadows, his heart becomes "a +cathedral of serenity and gladness," and his life is enlarged and +unfolded into richness of character and service. Nor is there any +tyranny like the tyranny of time. Give a man a day to live, and he is +like a bird in a cage beating against its bars. Give him a year in +which to move to and fro with his thoughts and plans, his purposes +and hopes, and you have liberated him from the despotism of a day. +Enlarge the scope of his life to fifty years, and he has a moral +dignity of attitude and a sweep of power impossible hitherto. But give +him a sense of Eternity; let him know that he plans and works in an +ageless time; that above his blunders and sins there hovers and waits +the infinite--then he is free! + +Nevertheless, if life on earth be worthless, so is immortality. The +real question, after all, is not as to the quantity of life, but its +quality--its depth, its purity, its fortitude, its fineness of spirit +and gesture of soul. Hence the insistent emphasis of Masonry upon the +building of character and the practice of righteousness; upon that +moral culture without which man is rudimentary, and that spiritual +vision without which intellect is the slave of greed or passion. What +makes a man great and freed of soul, here or anywhither, is loyalty to +the laws of right, of truth, of purity, of love, and the lofty will of +God. How to live is the one matter; and the oldest man in his ripe age +has yet to seek a wiser way than to build, year by year, upon a +foundation of faith in God, using the Square of justice, the +Plumb-line of rectitude, the Compass to restrain the passions, and the +Rule by which to divide our time into labor, rest, and service to our +fellows. Let us begin now and seek wisdom in the beauty of virtue and +live in the light of it, rejoicing; so in this world shall we have a +foregleam of the world to come--bringing down to the Gate in the Mist +something that ought not to die, assured that, though hearts are dust, +as God lives what is excellent is enduring! + + +IV + +Bede the Venerable, in giving an account of the deliberations of the +King of Northumberland and his counsellors, as to whether they should +allow the Christian missionaries to teach a new faith to the people, +recites this incident. After much debate, a gray-haired chief recalled +the feeling which came over him on seeing a little bird pass through, +on fluttering wing, the warm bright hall of feasting, while winter +winds raged without. The moment of its flight was full of sweetness +and light for the bird, but it was brief. Out of the darkness it flew, +looked upon the bright scene, and vanished into the darkness again, +none knowing whence it came nor whither it went. + +"Like this," said the veteran chief, "is human life. We come, our wise +men cannot tell whence. We go, and they cannot tell whither. Our +flight is brief. Therefore, if there be anyone that can teach us more +about it--in God's name let us hear him!" + +Even so, let us hear what Masonry has to say in the great argument for +the immortality of the soul. But, instead of making an argument linked +and strong, it presents a picture--the oldest, if not the greatest +drama in the world--the better to make men feel those truths which no +mortal words can utter. It shows us the black tragedy of life in its +darkest hour; the forces of evil, so cunning yet so stupid, which come +up against the soul, tempting it to treachery, and even to the +degredation of saving life by giving up all that makes life worth +living; a tragedy which, in its simplicity and power, makes the heart +ache and stand still. Then, out of the thick darkness there rises, +like a beautiful white star, that in man which is most akin to God, +his love of truth, his loyalty to the highest, and his willingness to +go down into the night of death, if only virtue may live and shine +like a pulse of fire in the evening sky. Here is the ultimate and +final witness of our divinity and immortality--the sublime, +death-defying moral heroism of the human soul! Surely the eternal +paradox holds true at the gates of the grave: he who loses his life +for the sake of truth, shall find it anew! And here Masonry rests the +matter, assured that since there is that in man which makes him hold +to the moral ideal, and the integrity of his own soul, against all +the brute forces of the world, the God who made man in His own image +will not let him die in the dust! Higher vision it is not given us to +see in the dim country of this world; deeper truth we do not need to +know. + +Working with hands soon to be folded, we build up the structure of our +lives from what our fingers can feel, our eyes can see, and our ears +can hear. Till, in a moment--marvelous whether it come in storm and +tears, or softly as twilight breath beneath unshadowed skies--we are +called upon to yield our grasp of these solid things, and trust +ourselves to the invisible Soul within us, which betakes itself along +an invisible path into the Unknown. It is strange: a door opens into a +new world; and man, child of the dust that he is, follows his +adventurous Soul, as the Soul follows an inscrutable Power which is +more elusive than the wind that bloweth where it listeth. Suddenly, +with fixed eyes and blanched lips, we lie down and wait; and life, +well-fought or wasted, bright or somber, lies behind us--a dream that +is dreamt, a thing that is no more. O Death, + +/P + Thou hast destroyed it, + The beautiful world, + With powerful fist: + In ruin 'tis hurled, + By the blow of a demigod shattered! + The scattered + Fragments into the void we carry, + Deploring + The beauty perished beyond restoring. + Mightier + For the children of men, + Brightlier + Build it again, + In thine own bosom build it anew! +P/ + +O Youth, for whom these lines are written, fear not; fear not to +believe that the soul is as eternal as the moral order that obtains in +it, wherefore you shall forever pursue that divine beauty which has +here so touched and transfigured you; for that is the faith of +humanity, your race, and those who are fairest in its records. Let us +lay it to heart, love it, and act upon it, that we may learn its deep +meaning as regards others--our dear dead whom we think of, perhaps, +every day--and find it easier to be brave and hopeful, even when we +are sad. It is not a faith to be taken lightly, but deeply and in the +quiet of the soul, if so that we may grow into its high meanings for +ourselves, as life grows or declines. + +/P + Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, + As the swift seasons roll! + Leave thy low-vaulted past! + Let each new temple, nobler than the last, + Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, + Till thou at length art free, + Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! +P/ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[173] _As You Like It_ (act ii, scene ii). Shakespeare makes no +reference to any secret society, but some of his allusions suggest that +he knew more than he wrote. He describes "The singing Masons building +roofs of gold" (_Henry V_, act i, scene ii), and compares them to a +swarm of bees at work. Did he know what the bee hive means in the +symbolism of Masonry? (Read an interesting article on "Shakespeare and +Freemasonry," _American Freemason_, January, 1912.) It reminds one of +the passage in the _Complete Angler_, by Isaak Walton, in which the +gentle fisherman talks about the meaning of Pillars in language very +like that used in the _Old Charges_. But Hawkins in his edition of the +_Angler_ recalls that Walton was a friend of Elias Ashmole, and may +have learned of Masonry from him. (_A Short Masonic History_, by F. +Armitage, vol. ii, chap. 3.) + +[174] _Some Problems of Philosophy_, by William James. + +[175] In 1877 the Grand Orient of France removed the Bible from its +altar and erased from its ritual all reference to Deity; and for so +doing it was disfellowshiped by nearly every Grand Lodge in the world. +The writer of the article on "Masonry" in the _Catholic Encyclopedia_ +recalls this fact with emphasis; but he is much fairer to the Grand +Orient than many Masonic writers have been. He understands that this +does not mean that the Masons of France are atheistic, as that word is +ordinarily used, but that _they do not believe that there exist +Atheists in the absolute sense of the word_; and he quotes the words of +Albert Pike: "A man who has a higher conception of God than those about +him, and who denies that their conception is God, is very likely to be +called an Atheist by men who are really far less believers in God than +he" (_Morals and Dogma_, p. 643). Thus, as Pike goes on to say, the +early Christians, who said the heathen idols were no Gods, were +accounted Atheists, and accordingly put to death. We need not hold a +brief for the Grand Orient, but it behooves us to understand its +position and point of view, lest we be found guilty of a petty bigotry +in regard to a word when the _reality_ is a common treasure. First, it +was felt that France needed the aid of every man who was an enemy of +Latin ecclesiasticism, in order to bring about a separation of Church +and State; hence the attitude of the Grand Orient. Second, the Masons +of France agree with Plutarch that no conception of God at all is +better than a dark, distorted superstition which wraps men in terror; +and they erased a word which, for many, was associated with an unworthy +faith--the better to seek a unity of effort in behalf of liberty of +thought and a loftier faith. (_The Religion of Plutarch_, by Oakesmith; +also the Bacon essay on _Superstition_.) We may deem this unwise, but +we ought at least to understand its spirit and purpose. + +[176] _Theocratic Philosophy of Freemasonry_, by Oliver. + +[177] "History of the Lost Word," by J.F. Garrison, appendix to _Early +History and Antiquities of Freemasonry_, by G.F. Fort--one of the most +brilliant Masonic books, both in scholarship and literary style. + +[178] _Symbolism of Masonry_, by Dr. Mackey (chap. i) and other books +too many to name. It need hardly be said that the truth of the trinity, +whereof the triangle is an emblem--though with Pythagoras it was a +symbol of holiness, of health--was never meant to contradict the unity +of God, but to make it more vivid. As too often interpreted, it is +little more than a crude tri-theism, but at its best it is not so. "God +thrice, not three Gods," was the word of St. Augustine (_Essay on the +Trinity_), meaning three aspects of God--not the mathematics of His +nature, but its manifoldness, its variety in unity. The late W.N. +Clarke--who put more common sense into theology than any other man of +his day--pointed out that, in our time, the old debate about the +trinity is as dead as Caesar; the truth of God as a Father having taken +up into itself the warmth, color, and tenderness of the truth of the +trinity--which, as said on an earlier page, was a vision of God through +the family (_Christian Doctrine of God_). + +[179] _The Bible, the Great Source of Masonic Secrets and Observances_, +by Dr. Oliver. No Mason need be told what a large place the Bible has +in the symbolism, ritual, and teaching of the Order, and it has an +equally large place in its literature. + +[180] Read the great argument of Plato in _The Republic_ (book vi). The +present writer does not wish to impose upon Masonry any dogma of +technical Idealism, subjective, objective, or otherwise. No more than +others does he hold to a static universe which unrolls in time a plan +made out before, but to a world of wonders where life has the risk and +zest of adventure. He rejoices in the New Idealism of Rudolf Eucken, +with its gospel of "an independent spiritual life"--independent, that +is, of vicissitude--and its insistence upon the fact that the meaning +of life depends upon our "building up within ourselves a life that is +not of time" (_Life's Basis and Life's Ideal_). But the intent of these +pages is, rather, to emphasize the spiritual view of life and the world +as the philosophy underlying Masonry, and upon which it builds--the +reality of the ideal, its sovereignty over our fragile human life, and +the immutable necessity of loyalty to it, if we are to build for +eternity. After all, as Plotinus said, philosophy "serves to point the +way and guide the traveller; the vision is for him who will see it." +But the direction means much to those who are seeking the truth to know +it. + + + + +THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY + + + + +/P + _The crest and crowning of all good, + Life's final star, is Brotherhood; + For it will bring again to Earth + Her long-lost Poesy and Mirth; + Will send new light on every face, + A kingly power upon the race. + And till it comes we men are slaves, + And travel downward to the dust of graves._ + + _Come, clear the way, then, clear the way: + Blind creeds and kings have had their day. + Break the dead branches from the path: + Our hope is in the aftermath-- + Our hope is in heroic men, + Star-led to build the world again. + To this event the ages ran: + Make way for Brotherhood--make way for Man._ + + --EDWIN MARKHAM, _Poems_ +P/ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_The Spirit of Masonry_ + + +I + +Outside of the home and the house of God there is nothing in this +world more beautiful than the Spirit of Masonry. Gentle, gracious, and +wise, its mission is to form mankind into a great redemptive +brotherhood, a league of noble and free men enlisted in the radiant +enterprise of working out in time the love and will of the Eternal. +Who is sufficient to describe a spirit so benign? With what words may +one ever hope to capture and detain that which belongs of right to the +genius of poetry and song, by whose magic those elusive and impalpable +realities find embodiment and voice? + +With picture, parable, and stately drama, Masonry appeals to lovers of +beauty, bringing poetry and symbol to the aid of philosophy, and art +to the service of character. Broad and tolerant in its teaching, it +appeals to men of intellect, equally by the depth of its faith and its +plea for liberty of thought--helping them to think things through to +a more satisfying and hopeful vision of the meaning of life and the +mystery of the world. But its profoundest appeal, more eloquent than +all others, is to the deep heart of man, out of which are the issues +of life and destiny. When all is said, it is as a man thinketh in his +heart whether life be worth while or not, and whether he is a help or +a curse to his race. + +/P + Here lies the tragedy of our race: + Not that men are poor; + All men know something of poverty. + Not that men are wicked; + Who can claim to be good? + Not that men are ignorant; + Who can boast that he is wise? + But that men are strangers! +P/ + +Masonry is Friendship--friendship, first, with the great Companion, of +whom our own hearts tell us, who is always nearer to us than we are to +ourselves, and whose inspiration and help is the greatest fact of +human experience. To be in harmony with His purposes, to be open to +His suggestions, to be conscious of fellowship with Him--this is +Masonry on its Godward side. Then, turning manward, friendship sums it +all up. To be friends with all men, however they may differ from us in +creed, color, or condition; to fill every human relation with the +spirit of friendship; is there anything more or better than this that +the wisest, and best of men can hope to do?[181] Such is the spirit of +Masonry; such is its ideal, and if to realize it all at once is denied +us, surely it means much to see it, love it, and labor to make it come +true. + +Nor is this Spirit of Friendship a mere sentiment held by a +sympathetic, and therefore unstable, fraternity, which would dissolve +the concrete features of humanity into a vague blur of misty emotion. +No; it has its roots in a profound philosophy which sees that the +universe is friendly, and that men must learn to be friends if they +would live as befits the world in which they live, as well as their +own origin and destiny. For, since God is the life of all that was, +is, and is to be; and since we are all born into the world by one +high wisdom and one vast love, we are brothers to the last man of us, +forever! For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and +in health, and even after death us do part, all men are held together +by ties of spiritual kinship, sons of one eternal Friend. Upon this +fact human fraternity rests, and it is the basis of the plea of +Masonry, not only for freedom, but for friendship among men. + +Thus friendship, so far from being a mush of concessions, is in fact +the constructive genius of the universe. Love is ever the Builder, and +those who have done most to establish the City of God on earth have +been the men who loved their fellow men. Once let this spirit prevail, +and the wrangling sects will be lost in a great league of those who +love in the service of those who suffer. No man will then revile the +faith in which his neighbor finds help for today and hope for the +morrow; pity will smite him mute, and love will teach him that God is +found in many ways, by those who seek him with honest hearts. Once let +this spirit rule in the realm of trade, and the law of the jungle will +cease, and men will strive to build a social order in which all men +may have opportunity "to live, and to live well," as Aristotle defined +the purpose of society. Here is the basis of that magical stability +aimed at by the earliest artists when they sought to build for +eternity, by imitating on earth the House of God. + + +II + +Our human history, saturated with blood and blistered with tears, is +the story of man making friends with man. Society has evolved from a +feud into a friendship by the slow growth of love and the welding of +man, first to his kin, and then to his kind.[182] The first men who +walked in the red dawn of time lived every man for himself, his heart a +sanctuary of suspicions, every man feeling that every other man was his +foe, and therefore his prey. So there were war, strife, and bloodshed. +Slowly there came to the savage a gleam of the truth that it is better +to help than to hurt, and he organized clans and tribes. But tribes +were divided by rivers and mountains, and the men on one side of the +river felt that the men on the other side were their enemies. Again +there were war, pillage, and sorrow. Great empires arose and met in the +shock of conflict, leaving trails of skeletons across the earth. Then +came the great roads, reaching out with their stony clutch and bringing +the ends of the earth together. Men met, mingled, passed and repassed, +and learned that human nature is much the same everywhere, with hopes +and fears in common. Still there were many things to divide and +estrange men from each other, and the earth was full of bitterness. Not +satisfied with natural barriers, men erected high walls of sect and +caste, to exclude their fellows, and the men of one sect were sure that +the men of all other sects were wrong--and doomed to be lost. Thus, +when real mountains no longer separated man from man, mountains were +made out of molehills--mountains of immemorial misunderstanding not yet +moved into the sea! + +Barriers of race, of creed, of caste, of habit, of training and +interest separate men today, as if some malign genius were bent on +keeping man from his fellows, begetting suspicion, uncharitableness, +and hate. Still there are war, waste, and woe! Yet all the while men +have been unfriendly, and, therefore, unjust and cruel, only because +they are unacquainted. Amidst feud, faction, and folly, Masonry, the +oldest and most widely spread order, toils in behalf of friendship, +uniting men upon the only basis upon which they can ever meet with +dignity. Each lodge is an oasis of equality and goodwill in a desert +of strife, working to weld mankind into a great league of sympathy and +service, which, by the terms of our definition, it seeks to exhibit +even now on a small scale. At its altar men meet as man to man, +without vanity and without pretense, without fear and without +reproach, as tourists crossing the Alps tie themselves together, so +that if one slip all may hold him up. No tongue can tell the meaning +of such a ministry, no pen can trace its influence in melting the +hardness of the world into pity and gladness. + +The Spirit of Masonry! He who would describe that spirit must be a +poet, a musician, and a seer--a master of melodies, echoes, and long, +far-sounding cadences. Now, as always, it toils to make man better, to +refine his thought and purify his sympathy, to broaden his outlook, to +lift his altitude, to establish in amplitude and resoluteness his life +in all its relations. All its great history, its vast accumulations of +tradition, its simple faith and its solemn rites, its freedom and its +friendship are dedicated to a high moral ideal, seeking to tame the +tiger in man, and bring his wild passions into obedience to the will +of God. It has no other mission than to exalt and ennoble humanity, to +bring light out of darkness, beauty out of angularity; to make every +hard-won inheritance more secure, every sanctuary more sacred, every +hope more radiant![183] + +The Spirit of Masonry! Ay, when that spirit has its way upon earth, as +at last it surely will, society will be a vast communion of kindness +and justice, business a system of human service, law a rule of +beneficence; the home will be more holy, the laughter of childhood +more joyous, and the temple of prayer mortised and tenoned in simple +faith. Evil, injustice, bigotry, greed, and every vile and slimy thing +that defiles and defames humanity will skulk into the dark, unable to +bear the light of a juster, wiser, more merciful order. Industry will +be upright, education prophetic, and religion not a shadow, but a Real +Presence, when man has become acquainted with man and has learned to +worship God by serving his fellows. When Masonry is victorious every +tyranny will fall, every bastile crumble, and man will be not only +unfettered in mind and hand, but free of heart to walk erect in the +light and liberty of the truth. + +Toward a great friendship, long foreseen by Masonic faith, the world +is slowly moving, amid difficulties and delays, reactions and +reconstructions. Though long deferred, of that day, which will surely +arrive, when nations will be reverent in the use of freedom, just in +the exercise of power, humane in the practice of wisdom; when no man +will ride over the rights of his fellows; when no woman will be made +forlorn, no little child wretched by bigotry or greed, Masonry has +ever been a prophet. Nor will she ever be content until all the +threads of human fellowship are woven into one mystic cord of +friendship, encircling the earth and holding the race in unity of +spirit and the bonds of peace, as in the will of God it is one in the +origin and end. Having outlived empires and philosophies, having seen +generations appear and vanish, it will yet live to see the travail of +its soul, and be satisfied-- + +/P + When the war-drum throbs no longer, + And the battle flags are furled; + In the parliament of man, + The federation of the world. +P/ + + +III + +Manifestly, since love is the law of life, if men are to be won from +hate to love, if those who doubt and deny are to be wooed to faith, if +the race is ever to be led and lifted into a life of service, it must +be by the fine art of Friendship. Inasmuch as this is the purpose of +Masonry, its mission determines the method not less than the spirit of +its labor. Earnestly it endeavors to bring men--first the individual +man, and then, so far as possible, those who are united with him--to +love one another, while holding aloft, in picture and dream, that +temple of character which is the noblest labor of life to build in the +midst of the years, and which will outlast time and death. Thus it +seeks to reach the lonely inner life of man where the real battles are +fought, and where the issues of destiny are decided, now with shouts +of victory, now with sobs of defeat. What a ministry to a young man +who enters its temple in the morning of life, when the dew of heaven +is upon his days and the birds are singing in his heart![184] + +From the wise lore of the East Max Mueller translated a parable which +tells how the gods, having stolen from man his divinity, met in +council to discuss where they should hide it. One suggested that it be +carried to the other side of the earth and buried; but it was pointed +out that man is a great wanderer, and that he might find the lost +treasure on the other side of the earth. Another proposed that it be +dropped into the depths of the sea; but the same fear was +expressed--that man, in his insatiable curiosity, might dive deep +enough to find it even there. Finally, after a space of silence, the +oldest and wisest of the gods said: "Hide it in man himself, as that +is the last place he will ever think to look for it!" And it was so +agreed, all seeing at once the subtle and wise strategy. Man did +wander over the earth, for ages, seeking in all places high and low, +far and near, before he thought to look within himself for the +divinity he sought. At last, slowly, dimly, he began to realize that +what he thought was far off, hidden in "the pathos of distance," is +nearer than the breath he breathes, even in his own heart. + +Here lies the great secret of Masonry--that it makes a man aware of +that divinity within him, wherefrom his whole life takes its beauty +and meaning, and inspires him to follow and obey it. Once a man learns +this deep secret, life is new, and the old world is a valley all dewy +to the dawn with a lark-song over it. There never was a truer saying +than that the religion of a man is the chief fact concerning him.[185] +By religion is meant not the creed to which a man will subscribe, or +otherwise give his assent; not that necessarily; often not that at +all--since we see men of all degrees of worth and worthlessness +signing all kinds of creeds. No; the religion of a man is that which +he practically believes, lays to heart, acts upon, and thereby knows +concerning this mysterious universe and his duty and destiny in it. +That is in all cases the primary thing in him, and creatively +determines all the rest; that is his religion. It is, then, of vital +importance what faith, what vision, what conception of life a man lays +to heart, and acts upon. + +At bottom, a man is what his thinking is, thoughts being the artists +who give color to our days. Optimists and pessimists live in the same +world, walk under the same sky, and observe the same facts. Sceptics +and believers look up at the same great stars--the stars that shone in +Eden and will flash again in Paradise. Clearly the difference between +them is a difference not of fact, but of faith--of insight, outlook, +and point of view--a difference of inner attitude and habit of thought +with regard to the worth and use of life. By the same token, any +influence which reaches and alters that inner habit and bias of mind, +and changes it from doubt to faith, from fear to courage, from despair +to sunburst hope, has wrought the most benign ministry which a mortal +may enjoy. Every man has a train of thought on which he rides when he +is alone; and the worth of his life to himself and others, as well as +its happiness, depend upon the direction in which that train is going, +the baggage it carries, and the country through which it travels. If, +then, Masonry can put that inner train of thought on the right track, +freight it with precious treasure, and start it on the way to the City +of God, what other or higher ministry can it render to a man? And that +is what it does for any man who will listen to it, love it, and lay +its truth to heart. + +High, fine, ineffably rich and beautiful are the faith and vision +which Masonry gives to those who foregather at its altar, bringing to +them in picture, parable, and symbol the lofty and pure truth wrought +out through ages of experience, tested by time, and found to be valid +for the conduct of life. By such teaching, if they have the heart to +heed it, men become wise, learning how to be both brave and gentle, +faithful and free; how to renounce superstition and yet retain faith; +how to keep a fine poise of reason between the falsehood of extremes; +how to accept the joys of life with glee, and endure its ills with +patient valor; how to look upon the folly of man and not forget his +nobility--in short, how to live cleanly, kindly, calmly, open-eyed and +unafraid in a sane world, sweet of heart and full of hope. Whoso lays +this lucid and profound wisdom to heart, and lives by it, will have +little to regret, and nothing to fear, when the evening shadows fall. +Happy the young man who in the morning of his years makes it his +guide, philosopher, and friend.[186] + +Such is the ideal of Masonry, and fidelity to all that is holy demands +that we give ourselves to it, trusting the power of truth, the reality +of love, and the sovereign worth of character. For only as we +incarnate that ideal in actual life and activity does it become real, +tangible, and effective. God works for man through man and seldom, if +at all, in any other way. He asks for our voices to speak His truth, +for our hands to do His work here below--sweet voices and clean hands +to make liberty and love prevail over injustice and hate. Not all of +us can be learned or famous, but each of us can be loyal and true of +heart, undefiled by evil, undaunted by error, faithful and helpful to +our fellow souls. Life is a capacity for the highest things. Let us +make it a pursuit of the highest--an eager, incessant quest of truth; +a noble utility, a lofty honor, a wise freedom, a genuine +service--that through us the Spirit of Masonry may grow and be +glorified. + +When is a man a Mason? When he can look out over the rivers, the +hills, and the far horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness +in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and +courage--which is the root of every virtue. When he knows that down in +his heart every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and +as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive, and to love his +fellow man. When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, +yea, even in their sins--knowing that each man fights a hard fight +against many odds. When he has learned how to make friends and to keep +them, and above all how to keep friends with himself. When he loves +flowers, can hunt the birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of an +old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child. When he +can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life. When +star-crowned trees, and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters, +subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long dead. When no +voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid +without response. When he finds good in every faith that helps any man +to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, +whatever the name of that faith may be. When he can look into a +wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of the +most forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond sin. When he knows +how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When he has kept faith with +himself, with his fellow man, with his God; in his hand a sword for +evil, in his heart a bit of a song--glad to live, but not afraid to +die! Such a man has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one +which it is trying to give to all the world. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[181] Suggested by a noble passage in the _Recollections_ of Washington +Gladden; and the great preacher goes on to say: "If the church could +accept this truth--that Religion is Friendship--and build its own life +upon it, and make it central and organic in all its teachings, should +we not have a great revival of religion?" Indeed, yes; and of the right +kind of religion, too! Walt Whitman found the basis of all philosophy, +all religion, in "the dear love of man for his comrade, the attraction +of friend to friend" (_The Base of all Metaphysics_). As for Masonic +literature, it is one perpetual paean in praise of the practice of +friendship, from earliest time to our own day. Take, for example, the +_Illustrations of Masonry_, by Preston (first book, sect, i-x); and +Arnold, as we have seen, defined Masonry as Friendship, as did +Hutchinson (_The Spirit of Masonry_, lectures xi, xii). These are but +two notes of a mighty anthem whose chorus is never hushed in the temple +of Masonry! Of course, there are those who say that the finer forces of +life are frail and foolish, but the influence of the cynic in the +advance of the race is--nothing! + +[182] _The Neighbor_, by N.S. Shaler. + +[183] If Masons often fall far below their high ideal, it is because +they share in their degree the infirmity of mankind. He is a poor +craftsman who glibly recites the teachings of the Order and quickly +forgets the lessons they convey; who wears its honorable dress to +conceal a self-seeking spirit; or to whom its great and simple symbols +bring only an outward thrill, and no inward urge toward the highest of +all good. Apart from what they symbolize, all symbols are empty; they +speak only to such as have ears to hear. At the same time, we have +always to remember--what has been so often and so sadly forgotten--that +the most sacred shrine on earth is the soul of man; and that the temple +and its offices are not ends in themselves, but only beautiful means to +the end that every human heart may be a temple of peace, of purity, of +power, of pity, and of hope! + +[184] Read the noble words of Arnold on the value of Masonry to the +young as a restraint, a refinement, and a conservator of virtue, +throwing about youth the mantle of a great friendship and the +consecration of a great ideal (_History and Philosophy of Masonry_, +chap. xix). + +[185] _Heroes and Hero-worship_, by Thomas Carlyle, lecture i. + +[186] If the influence of Masonry upon youth is here emphasized, it is +not to forget that the most dangerous period of life is not youth, with +its turmoil of storm and stress, but between forty and sixty. When the +enthusiasms of youth have cooled, and its rosy glamour has faded into +the light of common day, there is apt to be a letting down of ideals, a +hardening of heart, when cynicism takes the place of idealism. If the +judgments of the young are austere and need to be softened by charity, +the middle years of life need still more the reenforcement of spiritual +influence and the inspiration of a holy atmosphere. Also, Albert Pike +used to urge upon old men the study of Masonry, the better to help them +gather up the scattered thoughts about life and build them into a firm +faith; and because Masonry offers to every man a great hope and +consolation. Indeed, its ministry to every period of life is benign. +Studying Masonry is like looking at a sunset; each man who looks is +filled with the beauty and wonder of it, but the glory is not +diminished. + + + * * * * * + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +(The literature of Masonry is very large, and the following is only a +small selection of such books as the writer has found particularly +helpful in the course of this study. The notes and text of the +foregoing pages mention many books, sometimes with brief +characterizations, and that fact renders a longer list unnecessary +here.) + +Anderson, _Book of Constitutions_. + +Armitage, _Short Masonic History_, 2 vols. + +Arnold, _History and Philosophy of Masonry_. + +Ashmole, _Diary_. + +Aynsley, _Symbolism East and West_. + +Bacon, _New Atlantis_. + +Bayley, _Lost Language of Symbolism_. + +Breasted, _Religion and Thought in Egypt_. + +Budge, _The Gods of Egypt_. + +Callahan, _Washington, the Man and the Mason_. + +Capart, _Primitive Art in Egypt_. + +Carr, _The Swastika_. + +_Catholic Encyclopedia_, art. "Masonry." + +Churchward, _Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man_. + +Conder, _Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masonry_. + +Crowe, _Things a Freemason Ought to Know_. + +Cumont, _Mysteries of Mithra_. + +Da Costa, _Dionysian Artificers_. + +De Clifford, _Egypt the Cradle of Masonry_. + +De Quincey, _Works_, vol. xvi. + +Dill, _Roman Life_. + +_Encyclopedia Britannica_, art. "Freemasonry." + +Fergusson, _History of Architecture_. + +Findel, _History of Masonry_. + +Finlayson, _Symbols of Freemasonry_. + +Fort, _Early History and Antiquities of Masonry_. + +Gorringe, _Egyptian Obelisks_. + +Gould, _Atholl Lodges_. + +Gould, _Concise History of Masonry_. + +Gould, _History of Masonry_, 4 vols. + +Gould, _Military Lodges_. + +Haige, _Symbolism_. + +Hastings, _Encyclopedia of Religion_, art. "Freemasonry." + +Hayden, _Washington and his Masonic Compeers_. + +Holland, _Freemasonry and the Great Pyramid_. + +Hope, _Historical Essay on Architecture_. + +Hughan, _History of the English Rite_. + +Hughan, _Masonic Sketches and Reprints_. + +Hughan and Stillson, _History of Masonry and Concordant Orders_. + +Hutchinson, _The Spirit of Masonry_. + +_Jewish Encyclopedia_, art. "Freemasonry." + +Kennedy, _St. Paul and the Mystery-Religions_. + +Lawrence, _Practical Masonic Lectures_. + +Leicester Lodge of Research, _Transactions_. + +Lethaby, _Architecture_. + +Lockyear, _Dawn of Astronomy_. + +Mackey, _Encyclopedia of Freemasonry_. + +Mackey, _Symbolism of Masonry_. + +Manchester Lodge of Research, _Transactions_. + +Marshall, _Nature a Book of Symbols_. + +Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_. + +Mead, _Quests New and Old_. + +Moehler, _Symbolism_. + +Moret, _Kings and Gods of Egypt_. + +Morris, _Lights and Shadows of Masonry_. + +Morris, _The Poetry of Masonry_. + +Oliver, _Masonic Antiquities_. + +Oliver, _Masonic Sermons_. + +Oliver, _Revelations of the Square_. + +Oliver, _Theocratic Philosophy of Masonry_. + +Pike, _Morals and Dogma_. + +Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_. + +Preston, _Illustrations of Masonry_. + +Quatuor Coronati Lodge, _Transactions_, 24 vols. + +Ravenscroft, _The Comacines_. + +Reade, _The Veil of Isis_. + +Rogers, _History of Prices in England_. + +Ruskin, _Seven Lamps of Architecture_. + +Sachse, _Franklin as a Mason_. + +Sadler, _Masonic Facts and Fictions_. + +St. Andrew's Lodge, _Centennial Memorial_. + +Schure, _Hermes and Plato_. + +Schure, _Pythagoras_. + +Scott, _The Cathedral Builders_. + +Smith, _English Guilds_. + +Stevens, _Cyclopedia of Fraternities_. + +Steinbrenner, _History of Masonry_. + +Tyler, _Oaths, Their Origin, Nature, and History_. + +Underhill, _Mysticism_. + +Waite, _Real History of Rosicrucians_. + +Waite, _Secret Tradition in Masonry_. + +Waite, _Studies in Mysticism_. + +Watts, _The Word in the Pattern_. + +Wright, _Indian Masonry_. + + + * * * * * + + + + +INDEX + + +/$ +Aberdeen: lodge of, 161 + +_Acadamie Armory_: 166 + +Accepted Masons: 147; + earliest, 160; + not in all lodges, 160 _note_; + first recorded, 161; + and Ashmole, 162-4; + at Warrington, 164; + in the London Company, 165; + and the Regius MS, 166; + at Chester, 166; + Assembly of, 168; + quality of, 168 + +_AEneas_: referred to, 44 _note_ + +_Ahiman Rezon_: 216 + +Alban, St: in Old Charges, 116; + a town, not a man, 117 _note_; + and the Masons, 120 + +America: advent of Masonry in, 206; + spirit of Masonry in, 222; + influence of Masonry on, 223 + +"Ancients, The": and Moderns, 212; + Grand Lodge of, 216; + growth of, 217; + merged into universal Masonry, 221 + +Anderson, James: his account of Grand Lodge of England, 180; + and the Old Charges, 186; + sketch of, 187 _note_; + on Masonic secrets, 192 _note_; + on growth of Masonry, 203; + publishes Book of Constitutions, 204 + +Andreae, J.V.: quoted, 157; + his Rosicrucian romance, 163 + +Anti-Masonic political party, 228 + +Apprentice, Entered: requirements of, 129; + moral code of, 130; + masterpiece of, 131; + degree of, 144 + +Architects: early, 14; + of Rome, 72; + initiates, 73; + honored in Egypt, 74; + College of, 82; + Comacine, 88; + churchmen, 114 + +Architecture: matrix of civilization, 5; + spiritual basis of, 6; + _Seven Lamps_ of, 7; + moral laws of, 8; + mysticism of, 9; + and astronomy, 77; + gaps in history of, 86; + Italian, 87; + and the Comacines, 88; + new light on, 89; + churchmen learn from Masons, 114; + Gothic, 120; + essay on, 136; + influence of Solomon's Temple on, 191; + no older than history, 241 + +Ashmole, Elias: Diary of, 162; + not the maker of Masonry, 163; + student of Masonry, 167 _note_; + and Walton, 259 _note_ + +Assembly of Masons: at York, 117; + semi-annual, 118; + initiations at, 131; + before 1717, 167 + +Atheist: does not exist, 261 _note_; + would be an orphan, 267 + +Athelstan: and Masons, 116 + +Atholl Masons: Grand Lodge of, 216; + power of, 217; + end of, 221 + +Aubrey, John: 166; + on convention of Masons, 167 + +Augustine, St: and Masons, 116 + + +Babel, Tower of: 7 + +Bacon, Francis: 110; + his _New Atlantis_ and Masonry, 179 _note_, 190 + +Benevolence: Board of, 188 + +Bible: Masonic symbols in, 32; + and Masonry, 265 + +_Book of Constitutions_: 187 + +_Book of the Dead_: 40 + +Booth, Edwin: on Third degree, 197; + a Mason, 232 + +Boston Tea Party: 224 + +Brotherhood: in Old Charges, 133; + creed of Masonry, 134; + make way for coming of, 282 + +Builders: early ideals of, 12; + tools of, 26; + in China, 31; + forgotten, 34; + orders of, 74; + in Rome, 79; + of cathedrals, 87; + servants of church, 101; + of Britain, 113; + traveling bands of, 135; + rallying cries of, 191; + Longfellow on, 260 + +Building: spiritual meaning of, 6, 7, 8; + ideal of, 15; + an allegory, 154; + two ways of, 158 _note_; + of character, 275 + +Burns, Robert: 226; + a Mason, 232; + poet of Masonry, 233 + + +Cantu, Cesare: on Comacines, 142 + +Capart: quoted, 6 + +Carlyle, Thomas: quoted, 4 + +Cathedral Builders: 87; + and Masons, 91; + greatness of, 121; + organization of, 136-7; + genius of, 158 _note_ + +Cathedrals: when built, 121 + +Charity: and Masons, 134; + a doctrine of Masonry, 172 + +China: Masonry in, 30 + +Christianity: and the Mysteries, 50, 51 _note_; + and the Collegia, 85; + and Masonry, 221 _note_, 251 + +Churchward: on Triangle, 13 _note_; + on symbols, 20 _note_ + +Circle: meaning of, 27 + +Clay, Henry: 228 + +Cleopatra's Needle: 33 + +Collegia, the: 73; + beginning of, 80; + customs of, 81; + and the Mysteries, 82; + emblems of, 83; + and Christianity, 85; + and cathedral builders, 87; + in England, 112; + on the continent, 113 + +Column: Wren on, 9; + Osiris, 45; + "brethren of the," 82 + +Comacine Masters: 87; + privileges of, 88; + migrations of, 89; + symbols of, 90; + tolerant of spirit, 101; + and Old Charges, 111; + in England, 113; + Merzaria on, 114; + and the arts, 115; + degrees among, 142. + +Companionage: of France, 118 _note_; + and legend of Hiram, 149 + +Conder: historian of Masons' Company, 165 + +Confucius: 30 + +_Cooke MS_: 106; + higher criticism of, 107 + +Cowan: meaning of, 138 _note_ + +Coxe, Daniel: 207 + +Craft-masonry: morality of, 134; + lodge of, 135; + organization of, 136; + routine of, 138; + technical secrets, 147 + +Cromwell, Oliver: and Masonry, 179 _note_ + +Cross: antiquity of, 24; + of Egypt, 25 + +Cube: meaning of, 27 + +Culdees: 189 + + +Da Costa: quoted, 72; + on Dionysian Artificers, 77 _note_ + +Deacon: office of, 217 + +Death: old protest against, 40; + triumph over, 41; + wonder of, 278 + +Declaration of Independence, signed by Masons, 225 + +_Defence of Masonry_: quoted 152 + +Degrees in Masonry: 141; + among Comacines, 142; + of Apprentice, 144; + number of, 145; + evolution of, 149 + +De Molai: 101 + +De Quincey on Masonry, 179 _note_ + +Dermott, Lawrence: and Ancient Grand Lodge, 216; + industry of, 219; + and Royal Arch Masonry, 220 _note_ + +Desaguliers, Dr. J.T.: "co-fabricator of Masonry," 195; + sketch of, 195 _note_ + +Diocletian: fury of against Masons, 85 + +Dionysian Artificers: 72; + builders of Solomon's Temple, 76; + evidence for, 77 _note_; + migrations of, 79 + +Dissensions in Masonry: bitter, 213; + causes of, 214; + led by Preston, 217; + helped the order, 219; + remedy for, 222 + +Doctrine: the Secret, 57; + resented, 58; + open to all, 61; + reasons for, 63; + what it is, 68 + +Drama of Faith: 39; + motif of, 41; + story of, 42; + in India, 44 _note_; + in Tyre, 76 + +Druids: Mysteries of, 49 + +Druses: and Masonry, 78 _note_ + +Dugdale: on formality in Masonry, 143 + + +Eavesdroppers: their punishment, 138 _note_ + +Egypt: earliest artists of, 9; + Herodotus on, 10; + temples of, 11; + obelisks of, 13; + Drama of Faith in, 41; + and origin of Masonry, 105, 109 _note_ + +Elizabeth, Queen: and Masons, 123 _note_ + +Emerson, R.W.: 39, 57 + +Euclid: mentioned in Regius MS, 105; + in Cooke MS, 107 + +Evans: on sacred stones, 9 + +Exposures of Masonry, 210 + + +Faerie Queene: quoted, 155 + +Faith: Drama of, 39; + philosophy of, 270 + +Fellowcraft: points of, 128; + rank of, 131; + degree of, 146 + +Fichte: a Mason, 232 + +Findel: list of cartoons, 99 _note_; + on Apprentice degree, 145 + +Francis of Assist: quoted, 173 + +Franklin, B.: on Masonic grips, 200; + Masonic items in his paper, 207; + Grand Master of Pennsylvania, 207; + his _Autobiography_, 207 _note_ + +Frederick the Great: and Masonry, 205 _note_ + +Free-masons: 87; + why called free, 88; + Fergusson on, 90; + Hallam on, 96; + free in fact before name, 98; + great artists, 99; + cartoons of the church by, 99 _note_; + early date of name, 104 _note_; + not Guild-masons, 118; + contrasted with Guild-masons, 119; + organization of, 136; + degrees among, 142-4 + +Friendship: Masonry defined as, 240; + genius of Masonry, 284; + in Masonic literature, 285; + the ideal of Masonry, 288; + as a method of work, 291 + +Fergusson, James: 90; + on temple of Solomon, 191 + + +G: the letter, 159 + +Garibaldi: 230 + +Geometry: in Old Charges, 108; + Pythagoras on, 154; + and religion, 154 _note_; + mystical meaning of, 159 + +Gladden, Washington: quoted, 285 + +Gloves: use and meaning of, 137 _note_ + +God: ideas of, 22; + "the Builder," 29; + invocations to in old MSS, 108, _note_; + Fatherhood of, 134; + the Great Logician, 157; + unity of, 176 _note_, 264; + foundation of Masonry, 261; + the corner stone, 262; + Masonry does not limit, 263; + wonder of, 267; + kinship of man with, 270; + friendship for, 284 + +Goethe: 232 + +Golden Rule: law of Master Mason, 133; + creed of, 256 + +Gormogons: order of, parody on Masonry, 209; + swallows itself, 211 + +Gothic architecture: 120; + decline of, 185 + +Gould, R.F.: on Regius MS, 106; + on York Assembly, 116 _note_; + on early speculative Masonry, 160 + +Grand Lodge of all England, 218 + +Grand Lodge of England: 173; + meaning of organization, 174; + background of, 176; + its attitude toward religion, 177; + organization of, 180; + Lodges of, 181; + facts about, 182; + usages of, 183; + regalia of, 183 _note_; + a London movement, 184; + leaders of, 185; + charity of, 188; + growth of, 202; + prolific mother, 204; + article on politics, 208; + rivals of, 213 + +Grand Lodge South of Trent, 218 + +Grand Master: office of, 182; + power of, 202 + +Green Dragon Tavern: 223; + a Masonic Lodge, 224 + +Gregory, Pope: and Masons, 113 + +Grips: in the Mysteries, 47; + among Druses, 78 _note_; + among Masons, 140; + antiquity of, 149 _note_; + number of, 141; + Franklin on, 200; + an aid to charity, 244 + +Guild-masonry: 98; + invocations in, 108; + not Freemasonry, 118; + truth about, 119; + morality of, 144 + + +Hallam: on Freemasonry, 96; + on Guilds, 118 + +Halliwell, James: and Regius MS: 104 + +Hamilton, Alexander: 225 + +Hammer, House of: 28 + +_Handbuch_, German: on Masonry, 241 + +_Harleian MS_: quoted, 126; + in Holme's handwriting, 166 + +Hermes: named in Cooke MS, 108; + and Pythagoras, 110; + who was he, 194 + +Herodotus: on Egypt, 10; + referred to in Cooke MS, 107 + +Hiram Abif: 77 _note_; + not named in Old Charges, 109; + esoteric allusions to, 110; + legend of in France, 118 _note_; + and the Companionage, 149; + and the temple, 192 + +Hiram I, of Tyre: 75 + +History: Book of in China, 30; + like a mirage, 100; + no older than architecture, 241 + +Holme, Randle: 166 + +Horus: story of, 42; + heroism of, 45 + +Hutchinson, William: on Geometry, 154 _note_; + on Christianity and Masonry, 251 _note_; + on Spirit of Masonry, 258 + + +Idealism: soul of Masonry, 269; + no dogma of in Masonry, 269 _note_; + basis of, 270 + +Ikhnaton: city of, 12; + poet and idealist, 14 + +Immortality: faith in old, 39; + in Pyramid Texts, 40; + allegory of, 46; + in the Mysteries, 49; + creed of Masonry, 134; + held by Masons, 179; + how Masonry teaches, 277 + +_Instructions of a Parish Priest_: 106 + +Invocations: Masonic, 108 _note_ + +Isis: story of, 42; + and Osiris, 43; + sorrow of, 45; + in Mysteries, 47 + + +Jackson, Andrew: 228 + +Jesuits: and Masons, 210 _note_; + attempt to expose Masonry, 211 + + +Kabbalah: muddle of, 67 + +Kabbalists: used Masonic symbols, 156, 157 + +Kennedy, C.R.: quoted, 238 + +Kipling, Rudyard: 232 + +Krause: on Collegia, 79 + + +Legend: of Solomon, 75; + in Old Charges, 111; + of Pythagoras, 112; + of Masonry unique, 128 + +Lessing, G.E.: quoted, 56; + theory of, 179 _note_; + a Mason, 232 + +Lethaby: on discovery of Square, 10 + +Liberty: and law, 7; + love of, 122; + of thought, 178; + civil and Masonry, 224; + in religion, 252; + of faith, 255; + philosophy of, 271; + Lowell on, 272; + of intellect, 273; + of soul, 274 + +Litchfield, Bishop of: 175 + +Locke, John: 232 + +Lodge: of Roman architects, 82; + of Comacines, 90; + a school, 129; + secrecy of, 132; + enroute, 135; + organization of, 136; + degrees in, 146 + +Longfellow: quoted, 260 + +Lost Word: 67; + Masonic search of, 263 + +Lowell: on liberty, 272 + + +Mackey, Dr: on Craft-masonry, 251 _note_; + definition of Masonry, 240 + +Magnus, Albertus: 156 + +Man: the builder, 6; + a poet, 19; + an idealist, 26; + akin to God, 270; + divinity of, 292; + thoughts of artists, 294; + ideal of, 297 + +Markham, Edwin: quoted, 282 + +Marshall, John: 225 + +Martyrs, the Four Crowned: 86; + honored by Comacines, 90; + in Regius MS, 105 + +_Masonry Dissected_: 212 + +Masonry: foundations of, 15; + symbolism its soul, 18; + in China, 30; + symbols of in obelisk, 33; + and the Mysteries, 53; + secret tradition in, 66; + and the Quest, 69; + and Solomon's temple, 79; + persecution of by Diocletian, 85; + and the Comacines, 90; + not new in Middle Ages, 97; + and tolerance, 100; + and the church, 102; + antiquity of emphasized, 110; + legend of, 111; + and Pythagoras, 112; + in England, 116; + in Scotland, 123; + decline of, 124; + moral teaching of, 128-134; + creed of, 134; + degrees in, 142-4; + not a patch-work, 149 _note_; + an evolution, 150; + defence of, 153; + symbols of in language, 155; + and Rosicrucianism, 164 _note_; + parable of, 173; + transformation of, 176; + and religion, 177; + theories about, 179 _note_; + democracy of, 183; + more than a trade, 185; + mysticism of, 189 _note_; + and Hermetic teaching, 194; + universal, 201; + rapid spread of, 204; + early in America, 206; + not a political party, 208; + parody on, 209; + attempted exposures of, 210-13; + growth of despite dissensions, 219-20; + unsectarian, 221 _note_; + in America, 223; + and the War of Revolution, 225; + and Morgan, 227-8; + and Civil War, 228; + in literature, 232 _note_; + defined, 239-40; + as friendship, 240; + best definition of, 241; + description of, 242; + has no secret, 244; + misunderstood, 245; + more than a church, 250; + crypt, 253; + temple of, 260; + philosophy of, 262; + and unity of God, 273; + its appeal, 283; + and friendship, 288; + spirit of, 289; + wisdom of, 295; + ideal of, 297. + +Masons: and Comacines, 90; + Hallam on, 96; + denied their due, 99 _note_; + culture of, 100; + and Knights Templars, 101 _note_; + first called free, 104; + persecuted, 122; + technical secrets of, 147; + customs of, 166 + +Masons' Company: 104; + date of, 123; + and Accepted Masons, 165 + +Mason's Marks: 131 _note_ + +Maspero: on Egyptian temples, 11 + +Master Mason; + and Fellows, 128 _note_; + oath of, 133; + dress of, 135 + +Masterpiece of Apprentice: 131 + +Master's Part: 148; + in Third Degree, 193 + +Materialism: and Masonry, 268 + +Mazzini: 230 + +Mencius: 30 + +Merzaria, Giuseppe: on Comacine Masters: 114 + +_Metamorphoses_, by Apuleius: 51 + +Montague, Duke of: elected Grand Master, 185 + +Morgan, William: and Masonry, 227; + excitement about, 292 _note_ + +Mysteries, The: origin of, 46; + nobility of, 47; + teaching of, 48; + spread of, 49; + and St. Paul, 50; + corruption of, 51; + Plato on, 52; + and Masonry, 53; + temples of, 59; + Moses learned in, 76; + and Hebrew faith, 77; + and Masonic ritual, 110; + and the Third Degree, 196, 203 + +Mystery-mongers: 60; + fancies of, 164 + +_Mystery of Masonry Discovered_: 210 + +Mysticism: 60 _note_; + of Hermetics, 164; + its real nature, 189 _note_ + +Mueller, Max: quoted, 253; + parable of, 292 + + +_Nathan the Wise_: quoted, 56 + +Numbers: use of by Pythagoras, 48 _note_; + and religious faith, 153; + in nature, 154; + and mysticism, 159 + + +Oath: in the Mysteries, 48; + in Harleian MS, 126; + of Apprentice, 129; + of Fellowcraft, 132; + of Master Mason, 133 + +Obelisks: meaning of, 13; + Masonic symbols in, 33 + +Occultism: 60 _note_; + and Masonry, 164 + +_Old Charges_: 102; + number of, 103; + the oldest of, 104; + higher criticism of, 107-9; + value of, 111; + and English Masonry, 116; + moral teaching of, 128-34; + collated by Grand Lodge, 186 + +Oldest Mason honored: 181 + +Operative Masons: degrees of, 142; + and speculative, 144; + lodges of, 148; + and Wren, 167 _note_; + still working, 201 _note_ + +Oracles: Cessation of, 28 + +Orient, Grand of France: not atheistic, 261 + +Osiris: in trinity of Egypt, 23; + history of, 41; + and Isis, 43; + death of, 44; + resurrection of, 46; + in Tyre, 76 + + +Paine, Thomas: 225 _note_ + +Payne, George: Grand Master, 187 + +Philosophy: "blend of poetry, science and religion," 259; + of Masonry, 264-68; + of faith, 270 + +Pike, Albert: on symbolism of Masonry, 18; + on Regius MS, 106; + error of as to Guild-masonry, 158 _note_; + on symbolism before 1717, 159; + on Third Degree, 193; + on atheism, 261 _note_; + on old men and Masonry, 296 _note_ + +Pillars: origin of, 28; + meaning of, 29; + Isaac Walton on, 259 _note_ + +Plott, Dr: on Masonic customs, 166 + +Plutarch: on Square, 28; + an initiate, 42; + and the Mysteries, 46; + on Pythagoras symbol, 143 + +Pole Star: cult of, 24 + +Politics: and Masons, 179; + forbidden in Lodges, 208; + relation of Masonry to, 245, 248 + +Pompeii: collegium in, 83 + +Pope, Alexander: _Moral Essays_ quoted, 210; + a Mason, 263 + +Popes, the: and Masonry, 113, 122; + bull of against Masonry, 211 + +Prayer: in Masonry, 179, 244 + +Preston, William: 182; + defeated, 218 + +"Protestant Jesuits": Masons called, 210 _note_ + +Pyramids: wonder of, 13; + loneliness of, 28 + +Pyramid Texts: quoted, 40 + + +Quest, The: aspects of, 65; + analysis of, 67; + in Masonry, 69 + + +Reade, Winwood: quoted, 172 + +Reconciliation, Lodge of: 221 + +_Regius MS_: oldest Masonic MS, 104; + synopsis of, 105; + Pike on, 106; + Mason's points in, 128; + and Accepted Masons, 160 + +Religion: of light, 14; + decline of, 176; + and Craft-masonry, 176; + and Grand Lodge of England, 250; + what is it, 251 _note_; + in which all agree, 255; + of nature, 258; + what we practically believe, 293 + +Ritual: Old Charges part of, 128; + growth of, 142-4; + evolution of, 219 _note_ + +Rome: secret orders in, 81; + college of architects in, 86 + +Rosicrucians: use Masonic symbols, 156, 157; + and Ashmole, 163; + distinct from Masons, 164; + and De Quincey, 179 _note_; + and Third Degree, 190 + +Royal Arch Masonry: 220 _note_ + +Ruskin, John: quoted, 7, 8; + on light, 14 _note_; + on the church, 250 + + +St. John's Day: 181; + origin of, 183, _note_ + +Sayer, Anthony: first Grand Master, 182 + +Schaw Statutes: 123 + +Sciences; + the seven, 195; + in Cooke MS, 108 + +Scott, Leader: quoted, 72; + on Cathedral Builders, 87; + on Comacines and Masonry, 111 + +Scott, Sir Walter: on the word cowan, 138 _note_; + a Mason, 232 + +Secrecy: of the Mysteries, 48; + of great teachers, 57; + as to the arts, 74; + not real power of Masonry, 212; + reasons for, 243 _note_ + +Secret Doctrine: 57; + objections to, 59; + open to all, 61; + reasons for, 63; + what is it, 68 + +_Secret Sermon on the Mount_: 47 + +Sectarianism: Masonry against, 254 + +_Seven Lamps of Architecture_: quoted, 7 + +Shakespeare: 155; + and Masons, 259 _note_ + +Shelley: 14 + +Signs: in the Mysteries, 47; + Franklin on, 200; + and charity, 244 + +Socrates: on unity of mind, 21; + and the Mysteries, 46 + +Solomon: and Hiram, 75; + and the Comacines, 89; + in Cooke MS, 109; + sons of, 149 + +Solomon: Temple of, 75; + style of, 76; + legends of, 77 _note_; + and Masonry, 79; + influence of on architecture, 191 + +Speculative Masonry: in Regius MS, 106; + growth of, 123; + meaning of, 144 _note_; + Lodges of, 148; + before 1717, 167 + +Spenser, Edmund: Masonic symbols in, 155 + +Square: discovery of, 10; + in Pyramids, 13; + eloquence of, 26; + emblem of truth, 28; + in China, 30; + in obelisk, 33; + throne of Osiris, 46; + "square men," 155; + an ancient one, 159; + of justice, 275 + +_Staffordshire; Natural History of_, quoted: 166 + +Steinmetzen, of Germany: 118 _note_; + degree of, 145 + +Stones: sanctity of, 28 + +Stuckely: Diary of, 203 + +Swastika: antiquity of, 23; + meaning of, 24; + sign of Operative Masons, 201 _note_ + +Symbolism: Carlyle on, 4; + early Masonic, 11; + Pike on, 18; + richness of, 20; + unity of, 21; + Mencius on, 30; + in Bible, 31; + of Collegia, 93; + of Comacines, 90; + in Masonry, 143; + of numbers, 154; + in language, 155; + in Middle Ages, 156; + preserved by Masons, 159 + + +Taylor, Jeremy: 175 _note_ + +Third Degree: legend of, 149; + confusion about, 189; + purely Masonic, 193; + Pike on, 193; + not made but grew, 196; + and Ancient Mysteries, 196; + Edwin Booth on, 197; + and immortality, 277 + +Tiler: 135; + origin of name, 138 _note_ + +Tolstoi: 232 + +Tools of Masons: 26; + old meanings of, 29; + in Bible, 32; + kit of, 132 + +Tradition: of Solomon, 75; + of Masonry unique, 128; + of degrees, 144 + +Triangle: probable meaning of, 13 _note_; + used by Spenser, 155 + +Trinity: idea of old, 22; + in Egypt and India, 23; + not opposed to unity of God, 264 _note_ + + +Unity: of human mind, 21; + of truth, 58; + of God and Masonry, 176 _note_, 264 + +_Universal Prayer_: quoted, 263 + +Unsectarian: the genius of Masonry, 221, 250, 252, 253, 258 + + +Waite, A.E.: 38; + tribute to, 64; + on the quest, 65; + studies of, 66; + "golden dustman," 67 + +War: and Masonry, 225; + Civil, 228, 229 _note_; + cause of, 287; + end of, 202 + +Warren, Joseph: ardent Mason, 224 + +Washington, George: a Mason, 225; + sworn into office by Mason, 226 + +Watts, G.F.: 174 + +Webster, Daniel: on Green Tavern, 224 + +Weed, Thurlow: and Masonry, 227 _note_; + dirty trickster, 228 + +Wellington: a Mason, 232 + +Wesley, John: 175 + +Wharton, Duke of: traitor, 224 + +_Wiltshire, Natural History of_: quoted, 166 + +Wren, Christopher: on columns, 9; + and Masonry, 167 _note_; + not trained in a Lodge, 186 + + +York: Bishop of, 113; + Assembly of, 117; + old Grand Lodge of, 204; + Mecca of Masonry, 205; + revival of Grand Lodge of, 215; + no rite of, 216 _note_ + + +Zoroaster: faith of, 22 +$/ + + * * * * * + +/$ + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 91: madiaeval replaced with mediaeval | + | Page 98: sybolism replaced with symbolism | + | Page 109: Proceding replaced with Proceeding | + | Page 163: Andrea replaced with Andreae | + | page 178: neverthless replaced with nevertheless | + | Page 221: Christion replaced with Christian | + | Page 229: rembered replaced with remembered | + | Page 263: 'more fascinating that its age-long' replaced with | + | 'more fascinating than its age-long' | + | Page 273: despostism replaced with despotism | + | Page 277: parodox replaced with paradox | + | Page 307: Academie Armory replaced with Acadamie Armory | + | Page 310: Furgusson replaced with Fergusson (twice, | + | putting the index out of order) | + | Page 314: Muller replaced with Mueller | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ +$/ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Builders, by Joseph Fort Newton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUILDERS *** + +***** This file should be named 19049.txt or 19049.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/4/19049/ + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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