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masonry dissected
ENTER'D 'PRENTICE'S DEGREE
chapter i
Samuel Prichard
Q. FROM whence
came you? A. From the Holy Lodge of St. John's.
Q. What
Recommendations brought you from thence?
A. The Recommendations
which I brought from the Right Worshipful Brothers andFellows of
the Right Worshipful and Holy Lodge of St. John's, from whence
I came, and Greet you thrice heartily well.
Q. What do you
come here to do?
A. Not to do my own proper Will, But to
subdue my Passion still; The Rules of Masonry in hand to
take, And daily Progress therein make.
Q. Are you a
Mason?
A. I am so taken and Accepted to be amongst Brothers and
Fellows.
Q. How shall I know that you are a Mason?
A. By Signs
and Tokens and perfect Points of my Entrance.
Q. What are
Signs?
A. All Squares, Angles and Perpendiculars.
Q. What are
Tokens?
A. Certain Regular and Brotherly Gripes.
Exam. Give me
the Points of your Entrance.
Resp. Give me the first, and I'll give
you the second.
Exam. I Hail it.
Resp. I Conceal it.
Exam.
What do you Conceal?
Resp. All Secrets and Secresy of Masons and
Masonry, unless to a True and Lawful Brother after due
Examination, or in a just and worshipful Lodge of Brothers and
Fellows well met.
Q. Where was you made a Mason?
A. In a Just
and Perfect Lodge.
Q. What makes a Just and Perfect Lodge?
A.
Seven or more.
Q. What do they consist of?
A. One Master, two
Wardens, two Fellow-Crafts and two Enter'd 'Prentices.
Q. What
makes a Lodge?
A. Five.
Q. What do they consist of?
A. One
Master. Two Wardens, one Fellow-Craft, one Enter'd 'Prentice.
Q.
Who brought you to the Lodge?
A. An Enter'd 'Prentice.
Q. How did
he bring you?
A. Neither naked nor cloathed, barefoot nor shod,
deprived of all Metal and in aright moving Posture.
Q. How got
you Admittance?
A. By three great Knocks.
Q. Who receiv'd
you?
A. A Junior Warden.
Q. How did he dispose of you?
A.
He carried me up to the North-East Part of the Lodge, and brought me
back again to the West and deliver'd me to the Senior
Warden.
Q. What did the Senior Warden do with you?
A. He
presented me, and shew'd me how to walk up (by three Steps) to the
Master.
Q. What did the Master do with you?
A. He made me a
Mason.
Q. How did he make you a Mason?
A. With my bare-bended
Knee and Body within the Square, the Compass extended to my naked
Left Breast, my naked Right Hand on the Holy Bible; there I took
the Obligation (or Oath) of a Mason.
Q. Can you repeat that
Obligation.
A. I'll do my Endeavour.
(Which is as
follows.) I Hereby solemnly Vow and Swear in the Presence of
Almighty God and this Right Worshipful Assembly, that I will Hail
and Conceal, and never Reveal the Secrets or Secresy of Masons or
Masonry, that shall be Revealed unto me; unless to a True and
Lawful Brother, after due Examination, or in a Just and
Worshipful Lodge of Brothers and Fellows well met.
I
furthermore Promise and Vow, that I will not Write them, Print them,
Mark them, Carve them or Engrave them, or cause them to be
Written, Printed, Marked, Carved or Engraved on Wood or Stone, so
as the Visible Character or Impression of a Letter may appear,
whereby it may be unlawfully obtain'd.
All this under no less
Penalty than to have my Throat cut, my Tongue taken from the Roof
of my Mouth, my Heart pluck'd from under my Left Breast, them to
be buried in the Sands of the Sea, the Length of a Cable-rope
from Shore, where the Tide ebbs and flows twice in 24 Hours, my
Body to be burnt to Ashes, my Ashes to be be scatter'd upon the
Face of the Earth, so that there shall be no more Remembrance of
me among Masons.
So help me God.
Q. What Form is the
Lodge?
A. A long Square.
Q. How long?
A. From East to
West.
Q. How broad?
A. From North to South.
Q. How
high?
A. Inches, Feet, and Yards innumerable, as high as the
Heavens.
Q. How deep?
A. To the Centre of the Earth.
Q.
Where does the Lodge stand?
A. Upon Holy Ground, or the highest
Hill or lowest Vale, or in the Vale of Jehosaphat, or any other
secret Place.
Q. How is it situated?
A. Due East and
West.
Q. Why so?
A. Because all Churches and Chappels are or
ought to be so.
Q. What supports a Lodge?
A. Three great
Pillars.
Q. What are they called?
A. Wisdom, Strength to
support, and Beauty.
Q. Why so?
A. Wisdom to contrive,
Strength to support, and Beauty to adorn.
Q. What Covering have
you to the Lodge?
A. A clouded Canopy of divers Colours (or the
Clouds.)
Q. Have you any Furniture in your Lodge?
A.
Yes.
Q. What is this?
A. Mosaick Pavement, Blazing Star and
Indented Tarsel.
Q. What are they?
A. Mosaick Pavement, the
Ground Floor of the Lodge, Blazing Star the Centre, and Indented
Tarsel the Border round about it.
Q. What is the other Furniture
of a Lodge?
A. Bible to God, Compass to the Master, and Square to
the Fellow-Craft.
Q. Have you any Jewels in the Lodge?
A.
Yes.
Q. How many?
A. Six. Three Moveable, and three
Immoveable.
Q. What are the Moveable Jewels?
A. Square, Level
and Plumb-Rule.
Q. What are their Uses.
A. Square to lay down
True and Right Lines, Level to try all Horizontals, and
the Plumb-Rule to try all Uprights.
Q. What are the Immoveable
Jewels?
A. Trasel Board, Rough Ashler, and Broach'd
Thurnel.
Q. What are their Uses?
A. Trasel Board for the aster
to draw his Designs upon, Rough Ashler for the Fellow-Craft to
try their Jewels upon, and the Broach'd Thurnel for the Enter'd
'Prenticeto learn to work upon.
Q. Have you any Lights in
your Lodge?
A. Yes, Three.
Q. What do they represent?
A.
Sun, Moon and Master-Mason.
N.B. These Lights are three large
Candles placed on high Candlesticks.
Q. Why so?
A. Sun to rule
the Day, Moon to the Night, and Master-Mason his Lodge.
Q. Have
you any fix'd Lights in tour Lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. How many?
A.
Three.
N.B. These fix'd Lights are Three Windows, suppos'd (tho'
vainly) to be in every Room where a Lodge is held, but more
properly the four Cardinal Points according to the antique Rules
of Masonry.
Q. How are they situated?
A. East, South and
West.
Q. What are their Uses?
A. To light the Men to, at and
from their Works.
Q. Why are there non Lights in the North?
A.
Because the Sun darts no Rays fromt hence.
Q. Where stands
your Master?
A. In the East.
Q. Why so?
A. As the Sun rises
in the East and opens the Day, so the Master stands in the
East [with his Right Hand upon his Left Breast being a Sign, and
the Square about his Neck] to open the Lodge and to set his Men
at Work.
Q. Where stands your Wardens?
A. In the West.
Q.
What's their Business?
A. As the Sun sets in the West to close
the Day, so the Wardens stand in the West. [with their Right
Hands upon their Laft Breasts being a Sign, and the Level
and Plumb-Rule about their Necks] to close the Lodge and dismiss
the Men from Labour, paying their Wages.
Q. Where stands the
Senior Enter'd 'Prentice?
A. In the south.
Q. What is his
Business?
A. to hear and receive Instructions and welcome strange
Brothers.
Q. Where stands the Junior Enter'd 'Prentice?
A. In
the North.
Q. What is his Business?
A. To keep off all Cowans
and Evesdroppers.
Q. If a Cowan (or Listner) is catch'd, how is
he to be punished?
A. To be plac'd under the Eves of the Houses
(in rainy Weather) till the Water runs in at his Shoulders and
out at his Shoos.
Q. What are the Secrets of a Mason?
A.
Signs, Tokens and many Words.
Q. Where do you keep those
Secrets?
A. Under my Left Breast.
Q. Have you any Key to those
Secrets?
A. Yes.
Q. Where do you keep it?
A. In a Bone Bone
Box that neither opens nor shuts but with Ivory Keys.
Q. Does it
hang or does it lie?
A. It hangs.
Q. What does it hang
by?
A. A Tow-Line 9 Inches or a Span.
Q. What Metal is ir
of?
A. No manner of Metal at all; but a Tongue of good Report is
as good behind a Brother's Back as before his Face.
N.B. The
Key is the Tongue, the Bone Bone Box is the Teeth, the Tow-Line
the Roof of the Mouth.
Q. How many Principles are there in
Masonry?
A. Four.
Q. What are they?
A. Point, Line,
Superficies and Solid.
Q. Explain them.
A. Point the Centre
(round which the Master cannot err) Line Length without Breadth,
Superficies Length and Breadth, Solid comprehends the whole.
Q.
How many Principle-Signs?
A. Four.
Q. What are they?
A.
Guttural, Pectoral, Manual and Pedestal.
Q. Explain Them.
A.
Guttural the Throat, Pectoral the Breast, Manual the Hand, Pedestal
the Feet.
Q. What do you learn by being a Gentleman-Mason.
A.
Secresy, Morality and Goodfellowship.
Q. What do you learn by
being an Operative Mason?
A. Hue, Square, Mould-stone, lay a
Level and raise a Perpendicular.
Q. Have you seen your Master
to-day?
A. Yes.
Q. How was he Cloathed?
A. In a Yellow
Jacket and Blue Pair of Breeches.
N.B. The Yellow Jacket is the
Compasses, and the Blue Breeches the Steel Points.
Q. How long
do you serve your Master?
A. From Monday Morning to Saturday
Night.
Q. How do you serve him?
A. With Chalk, Charcoal and
Earthen Pan.
Q. What do they denote?
A. Freedom, Fervency and
Zeal.
Ex. Give me the Enter'd 'Prentice's Sign.
Resp.
Extending the Four Fingers of the Right Hand and drawing of them
cross his Throat, is the Sign, and demands a Token.
N.B. A
Token is by joining the Ball of the Thumb of the Right Hand upon the
first Knuckle of the Fore-finger of the Brother's Right Hand that
demands a Word.
Q. Give me the Word.
A. I'll letter it with
You.
Exam. BOAZ. [N.B. The Exam. Says B, Resp. O, Exam. A, Resp.
Z, i.e. Boaz.] Give me another.
Resp. JACHIN. [N.B. Boaz and
Jachin were two Pillars in Solomon's Porch. I Kings, chap. Vii.
Ver. 21.]
Q. How old are you?
A. Under Seven. [Denoting he has
not pass'd Master.]
Q. What's the Day for?
A. To See in.
Q.
What's the Night for?
A. To Hear.
Q. How blows the Wind?
A.
Due East and West.
Q. What's a Clock?
A. High
Twelve.
The End of the Enter'd 'Prentice's Part.
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