THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
APRIL 1915
volume 1 - number 4
HOW TO STUDY MASONRY
A SYMPOSIUM
(Herewith we present the first installment of a symposium
intended to answer the question, so often asked by young Masons, How should a
man begin the study of Masonry, and where? The contributors to this symposium
are competent Masonic students--some of them teachers of long experience, who
bring to our service their training and leadership--and it is hoped that many
young men will take advantage of so rare an opportunity. Several issues of The
Builder will be needed to complete the symposium, and we propose to follow it
up, working out its suggestions specifically and in detail, the better to show
that it is practical and worth while. Of the various plans of study outlined,
any one of them may be adapted to local conditions or individual taste and
habit, and the results obtained will depend of course, upon the industry of the
student and the co-operation f the group engaged. Digests of particular books
will be given --thanks to the Cincinnati Masonic School--in the form of
questions, to provoke interest and inquiry, and at the close The Builder will
sum up the whole matter--and, if time permits, ye editor hopes to present a
syllabus with references and notes to guide the student and save him a waste of
time and energy. Meantime, elsewhere in this issue, we offer certain
suggestions-- speaking from long experience--as to the economy and right use of
time, which is a very important matter to busy men.)
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THE FIELD OF STUDY
By Prof. Roscoe Pound, Harvard University.
Masonic knowledge seems to me to involve five points: (1)
Ritual; (2) History; (3) Philosophy; (4) Symbolism; (5) Jurisprudence. I think
we cannot insist too strongly that knowledge of the Ritual is the Foundation of
all Masonic knowledge. The first thing which the student should do is to learn
the work of the Craft degrees thoroughly. He will then be in a position to
appreciate what he reads and to ask questions as he reads. As to History, I
should recommend him to begin with Gould's Concise History. I know of nothing so
good. When he has read this, it will be time enough for him to begin, if he has
time, with the original sources of our information. If he has more time, Gould's
larger History might be read at the beginning.
As to philosophy it is quite impossible to refer to any
introduction. My suggestion would be that he read one of the ordinary histories
of philosophy, say, for instance, the English translation of Windelband, and
perceive what the problems of philosophy are with which Masonic philosophers
also have been wrestling. He will then be in a position to read Preston's
Illustrations, to re-read the American Fellow-Craft lecture, to read Oliver, and
ultimately to read Pike's Morals and Dogma understandingly. As to symbolism, I
should recommend him to read Hutton Webster's Primitive Secret Societies,
especially those parts dealing with primitive initiatory rites and primitive
symbolic instruction; to follow that with some good modern textbook on
psychology, from which he will perceive the psychological problems involved, and
then to take up Oliver's signs and Symbols and Pike's Morals and Dogma for the
purely Masonic side.
As to Masonic Jurisprudence, I take it the first thing the
student has to do is to perceive the distinction between that indefinite,
unwritten Constitution of Masonry which we call the Landmarks--an institution
very like the British Constitution--on the one hand, and what may be called the
Common Law of Masonry-- an institution very like our Anglo-American common
law--and modern legislation in our several jurisdictions--an institution very
like the legislation of the several States of the Union, on the other hand. If
he gets this notion well in mind, he can safely begin with Mackey's
Jurisprudence, which he should follow with the well-known report of the New
Jersey committee on the subject of Landmarks and the admirable articles of
Brother Moore in the New Age. (Vol. 15, pp 79, 177, 280, 381, 529, 622.)
When our student has gone as far as this, he will need no
one to tell him what more to do. He will have perceived the line in which he is
especially interested, and will be able to determine for himself what he should
do in that line. One bit of advice, however, may be given him at the outset. He
cannot do better than become a member of the correspondence circle of the
Quatuor Coronati Lodge, and in return he will receive the Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum which will keep him in touch with the best that is doing in Masonic
scholarship.
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THE PURPOSE OF STUDY
By Hon. Louis Block, Past Grand Master, Iowa.
You are indeed right when you say that the problem before
us is that of the Pedagogy of Masonry. That means the teaching of the facts
about a great historical movement based upon the theory that man's real
happiness can only be secured by his meeting his fellows upon the great
democratic level of human brotherhood--not alone that each man should be his
brother's keeper, but his defender, aider, helper, encourager, comforter,
inspirer and lover as well. All this taught by means of the imagery and poetry
of Masonry, and its mystic symbolism. We must not get lost in chasing some
abstruse, abstract theory away off into the dim vistas of confusion and hazy
nothingness, but must ever cling close to the human appreciation of it all.
Principles must be made to live in the active life of persons, else they are but
"too much of nothing." Our study must keep step with a practice, a putting to
present use, else our efforts are in vain.
Nor must we neglect to show that it is ideas that count,
that control the conduct of men; that if their ideas are not right their conduct
cannot be. What we need is to get the right ideas clearly formulated, taken to
heart, and deeply impressed upon the inner consciousness, so that they will
inevitably find expression in our social life. That is the mission of Masonry,
as I see it,--the building of these great ideas into the minds of men, by
constantly holding them forth and everlastingly insisting that they must
predominate, rule and prevail if men are ever to live together in peace and
harmony, or enjoy real happiness.
How to do this, that is the great question. How to make the
Craft feel that these ideas are no mere empty abstractions, but real, powerful,
living, actual realities, solid facts--that is the hard thing to do. We need to
get together the facts about Masonry--what it has done in the past that has made
it live down to this day on account of its real worth, the help it has been to
man. Then we need to put them together into a story told in such a way that it
will seize the attention and hold the interest of the student. The ability to
make things interesting, to stir up a hunger for more light, believe me, that is
the whole secret of all education. You cannot force a student to know, but you
can win him to want to know for himself, and when you have done that the victory
is won! Just see how Lessing piques and whets this appetite in his Ernst and
Falk dialogues. He knew how. And right there is the great drawing power of all
our secrecy and show of mystery--it makes the profane want to find out. We must
show the initiates how little they know, how much fascinating mystery remains to
be explored, investigated, analyzed.
Ask the Mason why he has kept his membership. Has it helped
him? If so, just how and in what way? Fire a series of Socratic questions at
him; make him think! If he got help in one thing, in one way, no doubt he can
get more. There is more there, if he will look for it- -"seek and ye shall
find." It is hard enough to teach men to see with the physical eye, let alone
teaching them the art of spiritual insight. But it can be taught, can be
developed, can be made to grow. Too much of our modern pedagogy is nothing more
than a dry, mechanical stuffing and cramming process. Children are made to
memorize, to mimic, to imitate, to follow precedent and rule, and not to think.
Whereas a real education is not pouring water into a cistern, but opening up a
spring--educing what is in the mind, teaching it to test, build, originate,
think.
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THE METHOD OF STUDY
By Prof. F. W. Shepardson, University of Chicago.
Thinking the matter over, I believe that what is needed is
a Syllabus or outline modeled after the general style of what is called a
University Extension Syllabus. This would include a division of the subject
matter, say, of "The Builders: A Story and Study of Masonry," into convenient
study portions. For each of these divisions there should be an outline in
Syllabus style. Then there should be references to books or articles bearing on
the subjects treated in that portion, and then at the end there should be
perhaps a dozen questions or topics for review and discussion.
No doubt you are familiar with the ordinary University
Extension Syllabus. These would not cost much and might be furnished to a Lodge
at a reasonable price, or the Grand Lodge of Iowa might get them out and have
one included in each book sent out-following its arrangement of presenting a
copy of the book to each man made a Mason--or the Research Society might print
the Syllabus and thus meet the desires of readers at a distance. How does it
strike you? I think, carrying this suggestion a little further, that it might
be possible to prepare a leaflet called "Suggestions to Leaders," designed for
the guidance of the Master of a Lodge, or some individual member selected to
lead. If you had these two leaflets, namely, the Syllabus and the Suggestions,
it would save a great amount of writing and would be quite effective from the
educational point of view. It occurs to me that these two leaflets perhaps might
be called Masonic Study Leaflets No. 1 and No. 2, with the thought that other
leaflets in the same style might be issued later. If this strikes you and I can
co-operate with you in any way in getting them ready, I shall be delighted to do
so.
(To be continued.)
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'WORTHY AND WELL QUALIFIED"
ARCANA Lodge No. 87, of Seattle, Washington, has a custom
well worth considering by the Craft at large, its intent being to discover, so
far as possible, the internal qualifications of candidates for the Degrees.
Also, it serves to induce in the mind of an applicant a sense of the seriousness
of the step he is about to take, and to obliterate every vestige of the absurd
idea that Masonry is a "goat-riding fraternity." After a man has petitioned for
the Degrees of the Lodge, the secretary sends him the Preliminary statement
reproduced below for his consideration. His first knowledge of its existence is
when he receives it in the mail, and naturally it arouses some thought. If he
applies, as occasionally one does, for assistance in formulating his reply, he
is told that none can be given; that it is for him to study and make his own
reply, whatever that may be. After the reply is received, the petition is
presented to the Lodge and follows the usual course. In no case is the Statement
sent to any man prior to his petitioning the Lodge, as that would be regarded as
an improper use of it. The statement here follows:
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PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
You have expressed a wish to become a Freemason. Before
going further we deem it essential to meet you with candor and courteously
request your careful consideration of this Preliminary statement and certain
questions concerning yourself.
Masonry is a universal system of morality to which all good
men may subscribe. Its teachings are based upon belief in the existence of God,
the immortality of the soul and the brotherhood of man. While acknowledging with
deep reverence the eternal and all-powerful Creator, it places no restrictions
upon a man's religious or political opinions, striving to unite all men as
brothers and to free them from darkness and error. Indeed, its moral and
philosophic instructions are drawn from Truth itself and harmonize with the
highest and best that are to be found in every religion which makes for the
enlightenment of mankind.
The realization of your desire to become a part of this
Fraternity will depend upon the judgment of the members as to whether you are
suitable material for the Order and whether the Order is suitable for you. It
will, therefore, be their duty-- in case your petition is presented to the
Lodge--to institute diligent inquiries about you; after which a vote by ballot
will be taken, wherein a single negative will preclude your admission. Examine
yourself, therefore, and see whether you can answer the expectations of the
Order; and above all, endeavor to settle clearly and honestly in your own mind
the motives which lead you to seek our society. The following will serve to
facilitate this self-examination and to guard both you and ourselves against
mistakes:
1. Do you expect by becoming a member to obtain any outward
advantage relative to your position as a citizen and as an individual? If so,
you will be disappointed.
2. Would your present convictions prevent you from
disregarding distinctions which society has made between individuals, as to
their station, wealth, religious opinions, politics, etc. ? If so, relinquish
the idea of becoming a Freemason, as no notice is taken of those discriminations
in our meetings.
3. If, however, you believe that we advocate a civil
relation that is chimerical or a liberty and equality neither good nor
practical, then you should reconsider your resolution to join us because with
such views you would not suit our Order.
4. Curiosity, ambition for honors, and desire to enlarge
the circle of your social acquaintance, are not suitable motives for seeking
admission into Freemasonry.
5. To those who voluntary knock at its doors and whose
character, motives and daily lives are in harmony with its high ideals, the
Temples of the Order are open. To preserve and perpetuate its teachings, every
initiate is required to make vows of the most inviolable secrecy as to its rites
and ceremonies. These obligations in no wise conflict with the duties he owes to
God, humanity, the country of which he is a citizen, the community in which he
lives, or himself.
6. Since the Masonic Order, as has already been said,
consists of men of all classes and circumstances, you might perhaps find someone
among us with whom you have been or are at variance. Therefore, determine to
your own satisfaction, whether you will be strong and charitable enough to
acknowledge such a man as your brother.
7. Our membership is attended with some necessary expense,
which we require to be promptly and punctually paid, that our good works may not
suffer for want thereof. The amount you can readily ascertain (by reference to
our By-Laws), and you will give this due attention.
We trust you will consider these statements in the same
spirit of honesty and friendship in which they have been presented. It is of the
utmost importance to you as well as to the Fraternity that the motives and
ideals governing your daily life be in substantial accord therewith. A frank and
voluntary expression of your views, together with any explanations you may wish
to make regarding these or other matters, is desired and will receive careful,
sincere and conscientious attention.
Kindly return this paper with your communication to the
Secretary of the Lodge on or before..........................
After the petitioner has been elected, the secretary of the
Lodge sends him notice to that effect, in the following letter, which gives him
something further to think about while waiting Initiation.
It affords me pleasure to inform you that you have been
duly elected to receive the degrees of Masonry and become a member of this Lodge
by Initiation, in accordance with your petition. As soon as the exact date has
been set for conferring the first, or Entered Apprentice Degree, you will be
informed. Meanwhile, you may reflect with much profit upon the step you are
about to take, and the motives which prompt you to seek admission into an
institution inspired by the pure principles of Truth and Benevolence, the
ceremonies and allegories of which are intended as useful Moral lessons,
illustrative of Light and Truth to the mind of him who seeks to enter--lessons
to be cherished among life's fondest memories.
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THE PHILOSOPHY OF MASONRY
Five Lectures Delivered under the Auspices of the Grand
Master of Massachusetts Masonic Temple, Boston
BY BROTHER ROSCOE POUND, PROFESSOR OF JURISPRUDENCE IN
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
IV PIKE
WE come now to a radically different type of Masonic
philosophy. To Preston Masonry is a traditional system of knowledge and its end
is to impart knowledge. Hence he thinks of the relation of Masonry to education.
To Krause it is organized morals and its end is to put organized mankind behind
the universal moral ideas of humanity. Hence he thinks of the relation of
Masonry to law and government. To Oliver it is a mode of approach to God and its
end is to bring us to the Absolute by means of a pure tradition. Hence he thinks
of the relation of Masonry to religion. Pike gives us instead a metaphysic of
Masonry. To him Masonry is a mode of studying first principles and its end is to
reveal and to give us possession of the universal principle by which we may
master the universe. Hence he thinks of the relation of Masonry to the
fundamental problems of existence. In part this view was inevitable in one who
thought and wrote in a country under the influence of the transcendental
philosophy. In part also it was to be expected in a member of a profession whose
philosophical ideas, so far as its leaders held any at all, were thoroughly
Hegelian. In part it grew out of Pike's wide reading in the philosophical
writings of antiquity and his bent for mysticism. Thus his philosophy of Masonry
is a product of the man and of the time and we must look first at each of these
in order to treat it intelligently.
1. The man. Albert Pike was born in Boston, December 29,
1809. His parents were poor. He was educated in the public schools in Boston and
it is interesting to know as a means of comparing those days with these that,
although he passed the examinations for admission to Harvard College, he was
unable to enter because in those days the requirement was that two years'
tuition be paid in advance or secured by bond. He became a school teacher and
taught in country schools in Massachusetts from 1825 to 1831. In 1831 he went
west and joined a trading party from St. Louis to Santa Fe. Santa Fe was then in
Mexico and the journey at that time was a perilous one through a wilderness
inhabited only by Indians. On his, return he traversed the Staked Plains and the
Indian Territory and settled finally at Van Buren in Arkansas where he opened a
school.
At that time political feeling in Arkansas was very bitter.
The territory was divided between the Conway party who were politically
democrats and in truth were a sort of clan as well, and the Crittenden party who
were Whigs politically but were in truth more a personal faction than a
political party. Bloodshed was frequent and in many respects there was a feud
between the factions quite as much as a political rivalry. The early experience
of this era of feud and private war on the frontier is worth remembering in
connection with many things in Pike's lectures upon Masonry. Pike was a Whig and
as such published in the Whig organ at Little Rock some articles of such force
as to attract general attention. Accordingly Crittend, the Whig leader, sought
out Pike in his country school-room and induced him to go to Little Rock as one
of the editors of the party organ. This was his opportunity and he improved it
to the full by studying law while, also at work upon the paper. In 1834 he was
admitted to the bar and he rose rapidly to the first rank in the profession in
Arkansas. Among his earlier achievements was the preparation of the first
revision of the statutes of that state. The book does not bear his name but
contemporary accounts tell us that he had the chief part in framing it. By
general consent it is a model of what such a work should be.
At the outbreak of the Mexican war Pike entered the service
and was in action at Buena Vista. His courage, proved already in the political
conflicts of territorial days, was again shown in events that grew out of the
campaign in Mexico. Pike felt it his duty to criticize the military conduct of
Governor Roane and as a result was compelled to fight a duel. The duel took
place over the line in the Indian Territory. Happily it was bloodless and ended
in reconciliation. There is good reason to suspect that some traces of this
experience are to be seen in his lectures.
From 1853 to 1857 Pike practiced law in New Orleans. Thus
he was led to make a diligent and characteristically thorough study of Roman
law, the basis of the French law which obtained then, as it does now, in
Louisiana. In 1857 he returned to Arkansas and afterward sat upon the supreme
bench of that state. At the outbreak of the Civil War he cast his lot with the
South. As he had great influence with the Indians he was sent to raise a force
in the Indian Territory. In this work he was vigorous and untiring. But his
utmost efforts could not make obedient or efficient soldiers out of the large
force which he was able to raise. Some of the doings of this force have left a
stain upon his memory, which, according to the best authorities obtainable,
seems to be undeserved. In truth his experience was not very different from that
of the British officers during the Revolution and during the War of 1812 who
sought to make military use of Indian allies. In any event the project failed.
This experience also has left more than one trace in his Masonic lectures. After
the Civil War he practiced law for a time in Memphis. In 1868 he went to
Alexandria, Virginia, and in 1870 moved across the river to Washington where he
practiced law for twenty-one years. He died in 1891.
Albert Pike was a man of the widest and most varied
learning. He was a strong and successful common-law lawyer. He had studied the
Roman law to good purpose and left a manuscript of a three-volume book upon the
principles of the Roman law which is now in the library of the Supreme Court of
the United states. But he had many scholarly interests outside of his
profession. He left among his papers a manuscript translation of the Zend Avesta
and of the Rig Veda in twenty-two large volumes copiously annotated. Moreover he
made some mark as a poet. Some of his poems, particularly a striking one upon
the battle of Buena Vista, are still to be found in school readers and his
verses were formerly much in vogue. Reviewing his extra-Masonic record for a
moment, we see a man born and educated in New England, a pioneer in the
southwest in its frontier period, a soldier in two wars, a successful lawyer
under each of the two great systems of modern law, for a season judge of a
supreme court and withal, though largely self-educated, a man of learning and
culture who, along with a treatise upon the principles of Roman law which bore
immediately upon his profession, could write verse of some merit and could busy
himself in the translation of the great books of Oriental philosophy and
religion.
But the field of Pike's most fruitful labors was Masonry.
His career as a Mason is too recent and his standing as a Masonic scholar is too
well-known to all of you to call for any statement in this place. But I may
remind you that he became Sovereign Grand Commander of the southern jurisdiction
in the Scottish Rite in 1859 and devoted the remaining thirty-two years of his
life in continually increasing measure to the work of that rite. Excepting
Krause no mind of equal caliber has been employed upon the problems of Masonry.
And Krause, great scholar and philosopher as he was, had lived only in the
cultured serenity of German university towns whereas Pike had lived in staid
Boston and turbulent territorial Arkansas, had been compelled by local public
opinion to fight in a duel, had fought in two wars and had commanded Indians.
Moreover, Krause's Masonic experience was negligible in comparison with that of
this veteran of American Masonry. Accordingly we need not hesitate to pronounce
Albert Pike by far the best qualified by nature, experience of life, Masonic
experience and Masonic learning of those who have thought upon the problems of
Masonic philosophy.
2. Now as to the time.
In the earlier part of his career, Pike was brought into
contact with the eighteenth-century political philosophy which became classical
in American political thought because it was the philosophy of the framers of
our constitutions and bills of rights and entered into the framework of our
institutions in their formative period. Also in this part of his career, in his
study of law, he came in contact with the eighteenth-century legal philosophy of
the American common-law lawyer. In the latter part of his career, in his wide
philosophical studies, he was brought into contact with the prevailing
metaphysical method of the nineteenth century, with the conception of the
Absolute, which governed in English philosophical writing, and with the method
of unifying all things by reference to some basic absolute principle which
prevailed down to the new century. This same period saw the general rise of
materialism in the wake of decay of dogma and the triumphant advance of the
natural sciences, and this movement so far affected his thought as to turn him,
by way of reaction, to mysticism. Indeed a mystic element is to be found not
uncommonly in thorough-going idealists. For example the leader of the new school
that builds on Hegel's philosophy has been reproved for dragging mysticism into
so prosaic a subject as the philosophy of law. But mystics are made by nature,
and nature made Pike one of the greatest of them. Hence we may be confident that
reaction from materialism merely accentuated an element which in any event would
have been prominent in his thinking and writing. Each of the four points of
contact with American thought in the nineteenth century requires a moment's
consideration.
American political philosophy in the first half of the
nineteenth century was a compound of English law and French speculation. Prior
to the Revolution in the Declaration of Rights of the Continental Congress the
colonists had relied upon the common-law rights of Englishmen as asserted by
English lawyers and English judges against the Stuart kings in the seventeenth
century. But the Declaration of Independence relied instead upon the natural
rights of man, a supposed body of universal, eternal, inalienable rights deduced
by reason from the nature of man in the abstract. Under the influence of English
thinkers of the seventeenth century and of the Continental philosophy of law in
the period after Grotius, the French writers of the eighteenth century had
developed this theory of natural rights to a high degree, and the founders of
our government were deeply read in their writings. But they were also deeply
read in Blackstone and in Coke, the oracle of English law. Naturally they
combined the general theory of the French speculators and the concrete details
of the English lawyers and came to hold that the common-law rights of Englishmen
found in their law books were the natural rights of man found in their French
political philosophy. Hence in our bills of rights they laid down the former
section by section and enacted them in fixed and precise rules on the authority
of the latter. This had important consequences for the American legal philosophy
which Pike absorbed in the formative period of his study for the bar.
In the contests between the English judges and the Stuart
kings the judges had claimed to stand between the rights and liberties of the
individual Englishman and arbitrary oppressive action on the part of the crown.
When we took over the theory of eternal, inalienable natural rights and combined
it with the theory of the English lawyers, the result was a doctrine that law
stands and must stand between the individual on the one hand and state and
society on the other hand and that its function is to secure the individual in
his natural rights against the aggressions and oppressions of organized society.
This idea of the mediating function of law, as a reconciling of the individual
and the whole, which the lawyer of the last century took for the first article
of his creed, is to be seen throughout Pike's lectures and lent itself readily
to his generalization of equilibrium or balance as the Ultimate Reality. For if
law was a mediation, a harmonizing, a reconciling, and the universe was governed
by law, the fundamental principle of the universe was the mediating or
harmonizing which he called equilibrium.
When, in his later studies, Pike came upon the metaphysical
method of nineteenth-century philosophers, it was easy to confirm the views to
which his acquaintance with the classical American political and legal
philosophy and his reading of French Masonic writers of the eighteenth century
had led him. For the generation that followed Hegel sought to explain the
universe as the realization of an idea. History was the unfolding of that idea
in human experience. Philosophy was a logical unfolding of the same idea. Hence
the quest was for the one fundamental idea of which the seemingly complex order
of the phenomenal world was but a manifestation. Hence the task of the
philosopher was to unite and reconcile all differences in the Absolute which he
reached through this idea. Traces of the transition from the legal and political
analogy to this metaphysical foundation may be seen here and there in those
parts of Morals and Dogma which, we may suspect, remained in their earlier forms
despite his repeated and thorough-going revisions.
In his later studies Pike was also compelled to take
account of the materialism which held its head so high and with "a mouth
speaking great things" grew so confidently dogmatic during the last third of his
life. If Pike, who was naturally a mystic, seems sometimes to rely on intuition
more than on reason, to put faith, which is self-justifying, at the bottom of
knowledge, to find a reality in the occult, and to show a conviction of the
relation of the symbol to the thing symbolized, in contrast with the rigorous
metaphysic of the lectures where he argues and demonstrates instead of
prophesying, we must consider the impatience of an idealist and a mystic with
the mechanical universe of the positivists and the economic ethics and
belly-philosophy of the materialists which a new generation was asserting all
about him.
3. Let us turn now to Pike's Masonic philosophy. Pike did
not leave us any compendium of his philosophical views. Hence we cannot, as in
the case of Oliver, apprehend them at a glance from a concise exposition. The
student of Pike's Masonic philosophy must read and study the teeming pages of
Morals and Dogma. After reading and reflection the system of philosophy
expounded will make itself felt. But it is quite impossible for the reader to
put his finger upon this sentence or that and say here is Pike's philosophy in a
nut-shell. For the first thing to bear in mind in reading Morals and Dogma is
that we must discriminate closely between what is really Pike and what is not.
Indeed he has told us this himself.
"In preparing this work, the Grand Commander has been about
equally Author and Compiler; since he has extracted quite half its contents from
the works of the best writers and most philosophic or eloquent thinkers. Perhaps
it would have been better and more acceptable, if he had extracted more and
written less.
"Still, perhaps half of it is his own; and, in
incorporating here the thoughts and words of others, he has continually changed
and added to the language, often intermingling, in the same sentences, his own
words with theirs."
In some measure the author is unjust to himself in this
statement. In a sense the book is all his own. He read and digested everything.
He assimilated it. He made it part of himself and worked it into his system. But
for this very reason texts from Pike and excepts from Morals and Dogma are more
than usually deceptive. We may fasten almost any philosophical idea upon him if
we proceed in this way. We may refute almost any page by any other page if we
look simply at the surface and do not distinguish matter which he is adapting or
is making use of to illustrate the development of thought upon the subject from
dogmatic statements of his philosophy. Morals and Dogma must be read and
interpreted as a unit. As Immanuel Kant said of his own writings, it is a book
to think through not merely to read through.
Three contributions of the first moment to Masonic science
deserve to be noted before taking up Pike's philosophy of Masonry in detail. In
the first place Pike was the apostle of liberty of interpretation. He insisted
in season and out of season that no infallible authority speaking ex cathedra
could bind the individual Mason to this or that interpretation of the
traditional symbols of the Craft. He taught that the individual Mason instead of
receiving a pre-digested Masonry ladled out to him by another should make his
own Masonry for himself by study and reflection upon the work and the symbols.
Thus he stood for thorough going individual Masonic development. He stood for a
Masonry built up within each Mason by himself and for himself on the solid
foundation of internal conviction. This Masonic Protestantism, as it might well
be called, is especially interesting in one who was so thoroughly filled with
French writings upon Masonry. Secondly he gave us a genuine interpretation of
the symbols which came into Masonry through the hermetic philosophers.
Hutchinson and Preston and even Oliver in many cases did not understand these
symbols at all. Indeed Preston was much less interested in what they really were
than in how they might be made instruments of education in his time and place.
Accordingly Preston and Oliver gave currency to inadequate and often ignorant
explanations of ancient symbols. Pike studied their history and development. He
mastered their spirit and perceived their place in the evolution of human
thinking. Hence he was able to replace the crude symbolism of the end of the
eighteenth century by a real science of Masonic symbols. In the third place not
only did he interpret our symbols but he enriched the symbolism of the Craft
from a profound acquaintance with the ancient and modern literature of symbolism
and mysticism. Thus he made us aware that the science of Masonic symbols is but
part of a much wider subject, that it is not self-sufficient and that the
serious Masonic Student has much more to study than he can find within the
covers of an exclusively Masonic library.
I can do no more than give you a key to what I conceive to
be Pike's philosophy of Masonry. Perhaps the first point to make is that in
nineteenth-century America philosophy was regarded, under the influence of
Herbert Spencer, as the unification of knowledge. Moreover the metaphysical
method of the first half of the nineteenth century, when Pike's ideas were
formative, was to endeavor to explain everything in a "speculative, metaphysical
way by a spiritual, logical principle." But it so happened that all antiquity
had been making a like search for the One but for a different sort of One. The
earlier Greek philosophers sought a single element to which the whole universe
might be reduced. The Ionian philosophers sought to find such elements in air or
fire or water or, as one of them put it, "a primordial slime." Oriental thinkers
had usually sought an absolute word which was to be the key of all things.
Others among the ancients had sought an absolute principle. With vast labor Pike
brings together all that ancient and Oriental peoples thought and wrote and all
that mystics have since thought and written with the ideas of the Orient and of
antiquity as a basis and upon this foundation he sets forth to work out a system
of his own.
Pike starts with a triad. This is suggested by the ancient
conception of the number three as the symbol of completion or perfection. The
singular, the dual and the plural, the odd and even added, was thought of as a
complete system of numbers. Hence the number three was perfection in its
simplest form; it was the type or the symbol of perfection. He finds a triad
everywhere in ancient thought and in every system of the occult and in every
mystic philosophy. He finds it also in all Masonic symbolism and from end to end
in our lectures. Accordingly he seeks to show that in its essentials this triad
is at all times and in all its forms the same triad. Wisdom, strength, beauty;
intelligence, force, harmony; reason, will, action; morals, law, social order;
faith, hope, charity; equality, liberty, fraternity--all these he shows are the
same triad in various forms. There is a fruitful passive principle which is
energized and made productive by an active, creative principle and there is a
product. As he shows, Osiris, Isis and Horus symbolize this with the Egyptians
and he traces the same reduction of the universe to these fundamental through
every type of ancient mystery and all mystic speculation. In Morals and Dogma he
makes all manner of application of this idea to politics, to morals and to
religion. He carries it into every type of human spiritual activity and gives
the most copious and learned illustrations.
But this of itself would be barren and would end in
pluralism. Accordingly he conceives that these three things are emanations, or
better, are manifestations of the Absolute. This idea again he subjects to the
test of application to all that has been thought and written by mystics down to
his time. We find a unity in the Absolute. But how do we unify the manifold, the
infinite manifestations of the Absolute in our experience ? Is there here some
one principle? Pike says there is and that this unifying principle is
equilibrium or balance. The result of the action of creative, active energy and
productive, passive receptivity is in the end a harmony, a balance, an
equilibrium. He then applies this idea of equilibrium to every field of thought.
One example will suffice.
"It is the Secret of the Universal Equilibrium:-- "Of that
Equilibrium in the Deity, between the Infinite Divine Wisdom and the Infinite
Divine Power, from which result the Stability of the Universe, the
unchangeableness of the Divine Law, and the Principles of Truth, Justice, and
Right which are a part of it; . . .
"Of that Equilibrium also, between the Infinite Divine
Justice and the Infinite Divine Mercy, the result of which is the Infinite
Divine Equity, and the M oral Harmony or Beauty of the Universe. By it the
endurance of created and imperfect natures in the presence of a Perfect Deity is
made possible;
"Of that Equilibrium between Necessity and Liberty, between
the action of the Divine Omnipotence and the Free-will of man, by which vices
and base actions, and ungenerous thoughts and words are crimes and wrongs,
justly punished by the law of cause and consequence, though nothing in the
Universe can happen or be done contrary to the will of God; and without which
co-existence of Liberty and Necessity, of Freewill in the creature and
Omnipotence in the Creator, there could be no religion, nor any law of right and
wrong, or merit and demerit, nor any justice in human punishments or penal laws.
"Of that Equilibrium between Good and Evil, and Light and
Darkness in the world, which assures us that all is the work of the Infinite
Wisdom and of an Infinite Love; and that there is no rebellious demon of Evil,
or Principle of Darkness co-existent and in eternal controversy with God, or the
Principle of Light and of Good: by attaining to the knowledge of which
equilibrium we can, through Faith, see that the existence of Evil, sin,
Suffering, and Sorrow in the world, is consistent with the Infinite Goodness as
well as with the Infinite Wisdom of the Almighty.
"Sympathy and Antipathy, Attraction and Repulsion, each a
Force of nature, are contraries, in the souls of men and in the universe of
spheres and worlds; and from the action and opposition of each against the
other, result Harmony, and that movement which is the Life of the Universe and
the Soul alike...
"Of that Equilibrium between Authority and Individual
Action which constitutes Free Government, by settling on immutable foundations
Liberty with Obedience to Law, Equality with Subjection to Authority, and
Fraternity with Subordination to the wisest and the Best: and of that
Equilibrium between the Active Energy of the Will of the Present, expressed by
the Vote of the People, and the Passive Stability and Permanence of the Will of
the Past, expressed in constitutions of government, written or unwritten, and in
the laws and customs, gray with age and sanctified by time, as precedents and
authority;
"And, finally, of that Equilibrium, possible in ourselves,
and which Masonry incessantly labors to accomplish in its Initiates, and demands
of its Adepts and Princes (else unworthy of their titles), between the Spiritual
and Divine and the Material and Human in man; between the Intellect, Reason, and
Moral Sense on one side, and the Appetites and Passions on the other, from which
result the Harmony and Beauty of a well-regulated life."
Well, we have got our idea of equilibrium and the profane
will say: What of it ? Pike would answer that this universal unifying principle
is the light of which all men in all ages have been in search, the light which
we seek as Masons. Hence we get our answers to the fundamental problems of
Masonic philosophy.
1. What is the end of Masonry? What is the purpose for
which it exists? Pike would answer: the immediate end is the pursuit of light.
But light means here attainment of the fundamental principle of the universe and
bringing of ourselves into the harmony, the ultimate unity which alone is real.
Hence the ultimate end is to lead us to the Absolute--interpreted by our
individual creed if we like but recognized as the final unity into which all
things merge and with which in the end all things must accord. You will see here
at once a purely philosophical version of what, with Oliver, was purely
religious.
2. What is the relation of Masonry to other human
institutions and particularly to the state and to religion? He would answer it
seeks to interpret them to us, to make them more vital for us, to make them more
efficacious for their purposes by showing the ultimate reality of which they are
manifestations. It teaches us that there is but one Absolute and that everything
short of that Absolute is relative; is but a manifestation, so that creeds and
dogmas, political or religious, are but interpretations. It teaches us to make
our own interpretation for ourselves. It teaches us to save ourselves by finding
for ourselves the ultimate principle by which we shall come to the real. In
other words, it is the universal institution of which other spiritual, moral and
social institutions are local and temporary phases.
3. How does Masonry seek to reach these ends? He would say
by a system of allegories and of symbols handed down from antiquity which we are
to study and upon which we are to reflect until they reveal the light to each of
us individually. Masonry preserves these symbols and acts out these allegories
for us. But the responsibility of reaching the real through them is upon each of
us. Each of us has the duty of using this wonderful heritage from antiquity for
himself. Masonry in Pike's view does not offer us predigested food. It offers us
a wholesome fare which we must digest for ourselves. But what a feast ! It is
nothing less than the whole history of human search for reality. And through it
he conceives, through mastery of it, we shall master the universe.
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CHARGE GIVEN TO THE CANDIDATE BY HIS FATHER
After the Candidate Had Received the "Third Degree."
MY SON--Tonight you become a member of an order--not only
of friends but of brothers. In your after-life as you master its teachings, and
experience its good influences, you will have a great mental growth.
Masonry fosters only the right doers; its principles, its
teachings, its mysteries--all tend to the elevation of man.
Masonry gives maturity to the good character, and character
may be likened to a universal bank; The deposits that are made in the bank of
character bear an eternal interest; no thief can steal them, no panic can
dissipate them.
The life of him who is pure, just, honorable and noble,
finds within the tenets of Masonry loyal protection "from the evil intentions of
our enemies."
We believe that you will be true and faithful to the
teachings of Masonry, and we trust that you will so live that your words and
your actions will be such as to brighten the memory of all the good men who have
stood where you and I now stand--amid friends and amid brothers.
You are the son of a Mason who reveres Masonry's teachings
and stands uncovered in the presence of its sublime mysteries.
If you will have your conduct in harmony with the
principles of Masonry, you will aid my remaining years, to pass in peaceful
satisfaction.
You are not only my SON but you are also my BROTHER; and
believing that you will always prove yourself as being worthy of having been
this evening, "raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason," I hope to be
steadied by your arm as my SON and as my BROTHER when I depart on the journey
whose goal is the realm of silence.
FRANK BRAYTON.
ARTHUR BRAYTON.
Lyons Lodge, Number Ninety-Three, Lyons, Iowa
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PIKE, THE PATRIOT
BY LILIAN PIKE ROOME
(The following extracts from the unpublished writings of
Albert Pike, made by his daughter, are doubly timely in view of the growing
agitation in behalf of a more adequate national defense. It is one thing to
prepare for war, and another and wiser thing to prepare for peace, and it was
the latter which Pike had in mind. His words reveal a noble patriotic faith in
the future of the Republic, with which was united a like vivid faith in the
world-conquering spirit of Masonry.)
THE question whether we have an adequate national defense
has been answered in the negative by those best qualified to speak with
authority, the highest officers of the army and navy; and their dictum has not
been disputed by any military expert. When they assert that we have no adequate
defense, they mean, not only great lack of soldiers, but of nearly all munitions
such as are in use now by other nations, and more especially of war craft,
whether sea craft or airships.
If the allies all combined are scarcely able to withstand
the impact of the Germans and their allies, how could we cope with even one of
those nations? Yet we, who are said to be the richest nation in the world, are
haggling over appropriations for a much smaller force and very much fewer
supplies of armaments and munitions than even one of the smaller countries of
Europe.
Another thing I cannot understand is, how an American can
say that all wars are wicked, since we exist as a free nation only by virtue of
the War of the Revolution: nor indeed, how he can condemn any war that ever has
been waged by the United States.
As my greatest inspiration was derived from my father, I
bring to my support some utterances which I have culled from his writings, which
show very plainly what his views would be in this present crisis, if he were
alive today. His words would appeal to all patriots, therefore they ought to
appeal to all true Masons.
Expansion.
"As the United states has by express grant the power to
declare and wage war and to make peace, I find no difficulty in holding that it
may by treaty of peace extend its frontier by the acquisition of new territory,
in order to protect itself by a line more easily defended; or may acquire
islands in the ocean to serve it as outposts and fortresses. If, in doing so, it
finds within its territorial limits large masses of people unfit for
self-government, I think it perfectly competent for it to govern them and
legislate for them as provincials. I should have thought that nothing could be
more clearly within its powers than the acquisition of Louisiana and of the
mouth of the Mississippi, or the purchase of California and the Pacific Coast. I
see no objection to the purchase of the Isthmus between the two continents, and
of any or all of the West India islands, and no reason why it may not have
colonies as well as any other nation. All such powers were certainly possessed
by each state, and as certainly they do not possess them now, and they are not
reserved to the people.
"So, again, I think that it has the power to impose a
tariff on particular articles of manufacture or production, when a permanent
home supply of those articles is necessary to our safety and success in case of
war; and that it may do this in peace, in order to provide for a state of war,
just as it may raise, equip, arm, and keep on foot an army and navy in time of
peace, in order to be at all times prepared for war."
National Defense.
"By way of provision for the national defense in case of
war, I do not doubt it may in time of peace build military roads for the
conveyance of troops and munitions of war, as well across as outside of the
states, and even beyond its own territory, nor that it may, to secure greater
speed of movement, and facility and cheapness of transportation, lay down rails
of iron upon the road so constructed. I do not see why it may not as well do
that as build a frigate in advance.
"When it was reported that British vessels had fired upon
and insulted our flag in the Gulf of Mexico, it was seen how completely the
nation had but one heart and one soul, notwithstanding its petty domestic
heart-burnings and squabbles. None anywhere paused to ask from what ports, north
or south, the vessels sailed, but one outcry of indignation was heard, from the
Aroostook to the Sabine, at the insult and indignity offered our flag, * * * but
whenever a hostile hand approaches that flag to desecrate it, every heart in the
Union will rally to it, and every hand be raised to defend it."
The Union.
"If the Fathers did not mean that we should be one nation,
they should never have adopted a national flag, for, I think, none ever served
under that flag in the sunny land of Mexico, or on the ocean, who did not feel
with a conviction more potent than all the arguments and logic of statesmen
could produce, that we are one nation, in name, fame and destiny; who did not
feel that our national motto: 'E Pluribus Unum'--ONE, made up of many--was a
true definition of the nature of our government: the manifold welded into one--
Oneness grown out of the manifold: who did not proudly exult at the greatness
and glory of that one country, and answer cheerily to the name of Yankee, in
whatever corner of the Republic he had chanced to be born. No American, I think,
ever saw that glorious flag in a foreign port, fluttering at the masthead of
even the most insignificant vessel, without a thrill of excitement and
exultation and gladness at the sight--without stepping a little more haughtily
and firmly at the thought of his country across the ocean. One flag makes us one
nation. No matter whether it was so intended or not; inevitably it is felt to be
so, and every war we pass through renders that feeling more irresistible. * * *
"Our Republic is fast arriving at colossal greatness, and
the shadow of her power already reaches the shores of Europe, of which steam and
the Telegraph are fast making her a part. We are beginning to assert our right,
while denying our inclination, to interfere in the affairs of that Continent:
and there are many possible contingencies in which we might be compelled to do
so. In a long continued conflict among the great Powers of Europe, such as seems
now approaching, we shall find it difficult to maintain our neutrality. * * *
The United States considers as settled, so far as it is concerned, certain
principles as to neutrality, claimed by it to form a part of the international
law, which the greatest Maritime Powers of Europe deny: this, of itself, would
soon push us into a war, perhaps with two or three nations at once.
"For we should not recede from the positions we have
deliberately assumed in the face of the world. Having announced those contested
principles as, in our judgment, settled, we should not yield them up to force.
On that there would not be a dissenting vote in America. To recede is to be
dishonored, and to invite new aggression. And, if these principles can in no
other way be written on the pages of the great book of the law of Nations, they
must be written there in blood, amid the thunder of Republican guns. * * *
"The phrase sounds strangely now, I know; but once it was
held to be the noblest fortune that could befall a man, to die for his country;
and then were men capable of great and lofty deeds. Once the sentiment, 'Dulce
et decorum est pro patria mori,' was not bombast, but the expression of a living
truth.
"To toil, to incur hazard, to die, for one's country,
without hope of pay or reward, is the noblest aspiration and ambition of a
freeman. * * * The Republic grateful to those who have served it, ought to see
it to that they or their widows and children do not languish and suffer in
penury and destitution."
Masonry.
"So may our beloved Order grow and expand, till many a
nation stands within the great circle of its shade. * * *
"Long after we are gathered to our fathers, and our names
have ceased to be remembered on this earth and our bones have mouldered to a
little dust, and the flowers have bloomed and faded upon our graves for a
thousand years, will come the noonday of our Order.
"Then, the Union of these states still unbroken, and as
dear to our descendants as it now is to us--no column of the great Temple of
Liberty fallen to decay or shattered by the rude hand of violence or time, the
flag of the Union, 'one and indivisible,' floating over a nation mightier than
Imperial Rome--then will our Order have made the circle of the Globe and planted
her Colonies in every country and on all the islands of the sea; then will her
tents whiten ten thousand plains, gleam on the green shoulders of the hills, and
cast down their peaceful shadows upon the clear running waters; and then will
millions of Brothers, speaking many a tongue, meet and commune in peace and
harmony, and the Destiny of the Order be fulfilled: and then, when the people of
the Great Republic have added many a new star to the proudest flag that ever
flew with or against the wind, and the millions of its freemen are counted not
by scores, but by hundreds, then shall our remote descendants, gazing back
through the long aisles of the receding years, thank us, their forefathers,
first and chiefly of all, that when the storm roared and the winds blew, and the
temple of our freedom and our Union quivered to its deep foundations, we shrank
not from the bitter anger of the elements, but preserved for them, and handed
down unimpaired, the blessings of that freedom and that Union, God's inestimable
gift to our forefathers: and next, that we were instrumental in enlarging the
bonds and perpetuating the existence of an Order which, gaining strength by
time, will have proved a blessing to the world, second only to the truths of
religion and the rich inheritance of Liberty."
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HYSTERIA IN FREEMASONRY
BY BRO. WM. F. KUHN, P. G. H. P. (Missouri)
THERE is a certain mental condition, as set forth
frequently in our Masonic literature, especially in that great forum, the
Masonic press, that gives strong evidence of what may be termed Hysteria. It has
not attained to that solidarity that we can characterize it as hysterical
Freemasonry; it has such a spasmodic, fantastic and grotesque manifestation,
that the term hysteria in Freemasonry is more suggestive, and at the same time
relieves the fraternity of the onus of the disease and places it on the
individual.
Freemasonry must not be held responsible for it, either by
heredity or by environment; it is purely an exotic growth. Hysteria has been
defined as, "Repressed Desire"; hence it is purely a mental state. We find
hysteria in medicine, in religion, in law, in Pedagogics, in philosophy, in fact
it abounds in all systems of thought. It should not, therefore, be thought
strange that this mental quirk, this cerebration cut on the bias, should
manifest itself in Freemasonry. The disease is not contagious in the accepted
sense of the word, but it is transmitted by mimicry. If a circus comes to town
and the boys succeed in attending it, the barns and woodsheds are filled for
months, thereafter, by embryo rope walkers, contortionists and bare back riders.
A transmission by imitation. It is equally true in Freemasonry; let some one
expound something that looks, tastes, smells and sounds profound, imitators will
spring up from all quarters. The more incomprehensible the seeming profundity,
the greater the number of gymnasts in the Masonic barns and woodsheds. I have
always believed that Freemasonry was a very practical thing; a something that
manifests itself, chiefly, in a man's life; that it is a life and not a theory;
practical living and doing, not dreaming and philosophizing. That it was a
beautiful, everyday, practical system of morality veiled in allegory, and
illustrated by symbols; not veiled to confuse or hide, but to make plain; not
buried in symbols to obscure, but to fix indelibly some plain, possibly homely,
truth. I have believed that the allegory and the symbol in Freemasonry stood in
the same relation to the candidate that the parables of the "Great Teacher"
stood in relation to the multitudes who heard Him. The allegory, the symbol and
the parable are but different modes of expression to make clear the thought. But
now comes the Masonic Philosopher and the Masonic Symbologist with eyes in fiery
frenzy rolling, actuated and influenced by this "Repressed desire" and says: "It
is all a mistake, Freemasonry is not such a simple thing, as everyday living and
doing; no it is a sublime, profound system of metaphysics, that only the Ancient
wise men understood and could explain; a philosophy so obstruse that the average
Mason, and, possible, a Past Grand Master, is a mere babe and suckling in the
comprehension of it. I once met a man in a lunatic asylum, who came to me with
crude geometrical figures of a sphere, a cube, an equilateral triangle, and a
right angle triangle, drawn on the bottom of a paste board box. He explained to
me that the three sides of the equilateral triangle represented the three great
forces of Nature, namely, the upsideness, the downsideness and the
downupsideness or the upsidedownness; as long as the upsideness and downsideness
maintain their proper relation and were greater in power than the third side
represented by the downupsideness or the upsidedownness, everything would be
harmonious; but should these three great forces ever become projected, so as to
form a right angle triangle, so that the square of the downsideupness or the
upsidedownness becomes equal to the sum of the squares of the upsideness and
downsideness, then chaos and evil would reign, and as the cube, representing the
universe, consists of many right angle triangles, there would be an endless
disturbance in the cosmogony of the world. I admired his vast learning and
profundity, and I was mere suckling to his theme and theory. I advised him to
write it out in full and that I would give him the names of several Masonic
papers which would be more than delighted to publish it. This man had been
judged insane, he was not a hysteric.
A Masonic hysteric is a man with a wild imagination plus a
symbol. The beauty about a symbol, is its flexibility; you can see more things
in it and through it than were ever dreamed of by mortal man, and no man can say
to you, nay. It is said that a Masonic hysteric one day saw some rabbit tracks
in the snow and he immediately began to demonstrate the fact that the rabbit had
a working knowledge of the Omniscience, Omnipresence and Omnipitence of Diety,
because the tracks were triangular in outline.
What I may have said may sound jestingly, but we need not
go far to see the convulsions of these hysterics. I quote one from a leading
Masonic Journal; listen to its profoundity:--"Therefore when we consider the
profound truths, marvelous philosophy, and exact sciences upon which Freemasonry
is founded, and which bear the ear marks of centuries of scientific research,
such as the careful observer must admit is contained in the work, we must banish
for all time the thought that the Craft was founded by any others than Masters
of the Great School of Natural Science and Philosophy who permitted it to be
known to the profane that the Guild or Craft was one of operative Masons, for
the purpose only to hide the real truths and its true object from those hostile
to the institution. This object was and has been for centuries to give to the
human race TRUTH concerning the creation of the universe and the continuity of
life after death, the immortality of the soul, and the relation which exists
between this planet and the inhabitants of the whole universe. These truths are
founded upon exact science, demonstrable by the Master in the possession of the
knowledge, the whole being figured out on geometrical lines. Naturally this
truth would come in conflict with orthodox and dogmatic religion."
His first claim is, that Freemasonry did not spring from
the operative Mason and the history of such an ancestry was used merely as a
blind behind which the Masters of the Great School of Natural Science and
Philosophy hid themselves from hostile foes. No one will deny that the so called
philosophy was engrafted into Masonry with the evolution of the Royal Arch. Many
of the symbols and emblems in the Lodge Ritual were added during the period of
Ritualistic development by Clare, Dunkerly, Hutchinson and Preston, but to claim
that the Great Masters stole the livery of the Operative Craft as a mask through
fear of hostility is absurd and unworthy of consideration, and it is to be
regretted that the simple philosophy of right living should be perverted into an
occult science and paraded as Masonic.
But the sum and substance of this "Repressed desire" is,
that Freemasonry is a science plus a philosophy, which, when applied along
"Geometrical lines," we may know the truth that will reveal to us immortality,
the continuity of life after death, and the relation that exists between us and
the inhabitants of Mars, Venus and Saturn and we may even greet the Jupterites.
But he confesses that this wonderful science along geometrical lines, "Would
come in conflict with orthodox and dogmatic religion." It is painful to think
how many of us have been groping blindly and in darkness for many years under
the delusion that the "Great Light" on our Altar reveal to us a merciful Father,
the hope of immortal life and our duty to God and our neighbor, and have
overlooked the great source of Truth revealed along Geometrical lines. Possibly
we ought to replace the Holy Bible on our Altar with a copy of Euclid. But the
author leaves a loop hole for our escape by saying farther along in his
article:--"This is plain enough to one who is sufficiently interested and
intelligent." I plead guilty to the last charge. These citations are given
merely as an illustration of the kind of hysterical literature that is being
written under the guise of Freemasonry.
But Hysteria is protean in its nature; it appears suddenly
in unexpected quarters and under various disguises. Several years ago it broke
out in the etymological field when a new prophet arose who contented that the
words "Free Mason" are derived from the Egypto-Coptic language, and mean
"Children of Light." This was a brand new discovery and from an unlooked-for
source. Immediately the Masonic barns and woodsheds were filled with
etymological gymnasts but they have merely rehearsed the old stunt without any
additional thrills. Listen: "If we are to believe that our words, 'Free Mason'
are derived from the ancient Egypto-Coptic language in which 'Phree' means
light, knowledge, wisdom, or intelligence, while 'Messem' was the plural of 'Mes,'
signifying children; hence we were originally known as children or son of light,
wisdom and intelligence. Then, considering this, the true conception of the word
'Free Mason,' it will be seen that everything else is consistent, placing in
evidence not only the spiritual and philosophical teachings of the Craft, but
also showing the oriental origin and great antiquity of our beloved Order."
This is indeed a beautiful conception and we can only wish
that Masons were children of the light, even if the etymology is very wabbly.
The assertion that the words, Free Mason, are derived from the Egyto-Coptic
language is another figment of fancy thrown out by "Repressed desire;" an effort
to bolster up the flimsy claim that Freemasonry is founded upon the Egyptian
mysteries. The facts are, there never was an Egypto-Coptic language. The Coptic
language was spoken by the people of the Nile, until the Saracen conquest; it
lives to-day only in Biblical literature, enriched with Greek and Hebrew words
and embellished with a Greek culture of the Alexandrian School. The Egyptian
language for the last twelve hundred years has been Arabic, and if there is or
ever was a language known as Egypto-Coptic, it is a mongrel and not recognized
by the best authorities.
The English language is made up of words derived from the
divisions and subdivisions of the great Aryan Race whose root language is the
Sanskrit. Upon this derivation, the etymology of the English language is based.
The word "Free" can be traced back through the six or seven different languages
to the Sanskrit root word, "Priya," the original meaning being beloved or dear.
Through the different languages in which it can be traced it has its present
meaning, "Free."
The word, "Light," comes from the Sanskrit word, "Ruch,"
meaning brightness. The root of this word is found in the language of all
Nations, and means brightness or to shine. In the derivation of these two words
can any one discover any relation whatever between the root "Priya" and the word
"Ruch?" The wildest stretch of the imagination can not make them synonymous.
The claim that "Messem" is the plural of "Mes" will not
bear investigation because in the Coptic Language the plural of a word ending in
a consonant was formed by adding the letter "I," hence if the derivation were
true it should be "Mesi," not "Messem." Judging from the spelling of the word
Mason in the several centuries, the Egypto-Coptic word "Mes" had a difficult
course to travel to find its imaginary plural. In the 16th Century the word was
spelled "Maisson," "Masones" and "Maison." In 1611 we find the expression "Frie
men of Maissones;" in 1634 it appears as "Frie Masones;" in 1636 it was written
"Frie Mason." But not until 1725 was the Fraternity known as a "Society of
Freemasons."
If the word Mason and the word Children, were ever
synonymous we ought to be able to trace the root of these words. The word Child
comes from the Sanskrit word Ga or Gan meaning "to beget." From this root word
up through all the languages the word means child.
The word Mason can be traced back through all the prominent
languages to the Sanscrit root, "Mit," which means to cut. Can any one find even
a possible relation between the words meaning to be born, and to cut? Will any
one claim that they are synonymous? Unfortunately for this fancy of "Repressed
Desire," the lexicographers and etymologists are all on the other side of the
question.
If "The spiritual and philosophical teachings of the Craft
and the oriental origin and great antiquity of our beloved Order" depend on such
flimsy and untenable arguments or hypotheses, then the Craft is in danger, both
as to its teachings and its origin.
If any Mason wishes to draw geometrical figures and lines,
and evolve from them that life continues beyond the grave, and to demonstrate
the relation between the planets and the inhabitants thereof, no one will
deprive him of the pleasure; but the Book on our Altar declared many Centuries
ago that: "The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His
handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth
knowledge." If any Mason wishes to amuse himself with the sacred triangles of
Pythagoras, to demonstrate the unity of the world and the existence of Deity,
well and good; but Freemasonry postulates the existence of God.
If any Mason enjoys himself by delving into the mysteries
of Egypt and the Kabalah, no one will gainsay his zeal in his efforts to prove
immortal life, the evidence of the spiritual world and the perfection of the
Divine nature. It is well; but, Freemasonry accepts all this as axiomatic and
concerning which there can be no denial.
Freemasonry is not a science of mental gyrations and
abstractions, but it is the science of utilitarian thinking; it is not a
philosophy of speculation, but it is the philosophy of doing; it is not a
symbolism of Occult Sciences, but it is the mystery of the unfolding of a larger
life; it is not so much as to origin, as it is to destiny; it is not so much as
to the certainty of the past, as it is to the certainty and permanency in the
future.
The liberal arts and sciences are worthy of every Mason's
time and zeal, but these do not constitute Freemasonry. The ancestry of
Freemasonry through the operative Craft is noble, the teachings of Freemasonry
are sublime. Strained symbolism, abstract philosophy and etymological hypotheses
add nothing to its luster, but rather dim its radiance in the broad field of
practical morality.
Sentiment is the greatest thing in the world. Freemasonry
is sentiment in action.
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SHALOM
On his last bed, when unable any longer to speak, Albert
Pike beckoned for a pencil and paper, with which he wrote his last words. Pencil
and paper are framed and preserved in the House of the Temple at Washington.
What he wrote was as follows:
"Shalom: Peace--that comes with blessing to carefretted,
weary men when death's dreamless sleep ends all suffering and sorrow."
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SHAKESPEARE
Life is neither a Tempest nor a Midsummer Night's Dream.
More often it is a Comedy of Errors. You may take it As You Like It, or make
Much Ado About Nothing, and declare that Love's Labor's Lost. Rut the years will
teach you, if you be wise, that All's Well that Ends Well, and that in the end
every man receives Measure for Measure.
J.F.N.
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PROBLEMS IN MASONIC CHARITY
BY BRO. GEO. E. FRAZER. GRAND PRESIDENT ACACIA FRATERNITY
YOU will agree with me that Freemasonry is not, in itself,
a charitable organization. That is to say, the primary purpose of the order is
not charitable relief to its members. The fundamental creed of Masonry is, and
must ever be, the study of Masonic philosophy. As Masons come together in the
lodge room and outside of it for the discussion of Masonic truth, a strong
feeling of companionship and brotherhood naturally results. The friendships
formed in Masonic work and study carry in themselves a desire to relieve the
necessities of unfortunate brothers. Masonic charity is a great fact; it is an
inherent part of the Masonic system; but it is not, of course, in itself, the
purpose nor function of Masonry.
The real Masonic assistance that is afforded by one Brother
to another is assistance in the learning and understanding of Masonic truth.
American Freemasonry is very careful strictly to limit its field to this ideal
of brotherly assistance. Our order does not teach us, it does not expect of us,
that we shall afford one another political assistance. I am under no obligation
whatsoever to vote or to exercise my influence in favor of a candidate because
he is a member of the Masonic order. Likewise, I am under no obligation to favor
Masonic brethren in any of my business relations. Nothing in the philosophy, or
ritual, or practices of Masonry obligates me to assist a Masonic brother in his
endeavors towards social distinction. The lodges of Freemasonry are not
political organizations; they are not business syndicates; they are not social
cliques. There is something in the essential equality of Masons among their
fellows that is, in itself, an effective barrier towards the use of Masonry by
politicians, by captains of finance, and by social leaders. It is perhaps safe
to say that the average Mason looks askance at the brother who seems to seek
assistance of this sort, and is inclined to afford such a self-seeking brother
much less than the usual amount of sympathy and co-operation that he would give
if Masonic influence had been attempted. It is, of course, not to be denied that
the strong and enduring friendships formed in the Masonic lodge are a real
assistance to a man in all of his legitimate endeavors. But we must not forget
that if we assist a brother Mason in his endeavors, we assist him as a friend
and not because there is anything in Masonry that teaches us to discriminate in
favor of Masons in the ordinary relationships of life. True Masonic charity
comes naturally from a study of Masonic fundamentals. For the great lesson of
Masonry is human welfare, than which there is no truer form of charity. Masonry
fights for freedom, for free speech, for free schools, for freedom in religious
belief, for law and order, such as will protect the laborer in his hire.
Assistance to the individual member is but an incident in
the great work of Freemasonry. That great work is to stand for the fundamental
rights of free men. These rights are only partly won; they are always in
jeopardy. Unceasing must be the vigil of the master workman who seeks that real
democracy that was forever lost, and that is forever to be won. Speech, we say,
is free in America, and yet our brothers are constantly losing place and
position because of their courage in speaking freely against religious
domination. Schools are free, we say, yet a powerful enemy insidiously and
unceasingly attacks the public schools of America. The right to work is
established, we say, and yet tyrannical labor organizations and grasping
capitalists vie with each other in restricting the laborer in his hire. I need
not go on. It is enough if you understand that the larger ideals of Masonry mean
freedom, and therefore, average prosperity of soul, and mind, and body to its
members, We must not forget that the fundamentals of Masonry, the simple and
accepted things, are the makers of welfare--the truest and surest expression of
Masonic charity. These simple things were fought for by our fathers in Masonry
through all the centuries; these things we must fight for if we would have
perfect charity among men; these things our children's children must fight for.
The first great problem in Masonic charity is, then, this:
Shall we throw all of our resources into the ceaseless struggle which makes for
general welfare? As an organization, can we afford to set aside the smallest
fraction of our funds for the aid of individuals, when so great is the need for
resources in the fight for great principles that mean general welfare? We have
answered that problem, it seems to me, to some extent in the affirmative. Every
lodge building, every lodge meeting and ceremony, every lodge club room even, is
an expression of Masonic principles. As an order, we have given the greater part
of our strength everywhere to the expression of great principles, rather than to
the temporary assistance of individuals. A fraction of our resources, we have
given to charity in the restricted sense of that term. This fraction annually
amounts in volume to many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our practical
charity is administered in many different ways, under many different methods, to
many different ends. Here, in America, we have administered Masonic charity for
many decades. What does our experience show?
What methods have proven unfortunate in their results? What
methods have succeeded in distributing charitable funds to the greatest possible
advantage? It seems to me that the practical men in our fraternity, who have
with such splendid self-sacrifice ably administered Masonic charity, should give
us from the wisdom of their experience. Of late, I have been thinking about
Masonic charity, and many questions have presented themselves to me. As a young
man, and especially as a young man who now represents a considerable number of
other young Masons, I want to present these questions to the men of experience
in Masonry. Let us suppose, in the first place, that a lodge finds itself able
to spend one thousand dollars each year in charitable relief in the town in
which it is located. Shall the lodge contribute this sum to the Associated
Charities, or to the Salvation Army, or to some other organized body for the
administration of charities? Shall the lodge administer its own funds, and make
its own distribution of relief?
If a lodge decides to give its charity funds over to, let
us say, the Associated Charities of the town in which it is located, shall the
lodge rely entirely upon the efficiency of the organization to which the funds
are contributed; or shall the lodge demand and secure representation among the
officers of the charitable organization, or on its executive committee? If the
lodge decides to administer its own relief fund, shall it entrust the money to
the master of the lodge; or shall it set up a standing relief committee? Shall
the master, or the relief committee, give direct aid to unfortunate Masons and
their families in the name of the lodge and on the behalf of the lodge? Or,
shall the officers of the lodge aid their unfortunate brethren through indirect
channels, so that relief may be given, but so, also, that the left hand shall
not know what the right hand is doing?
How shall the lodge care for the aged Mason who is without
material resources? How shall the lodge care for widows and orphans of members?
Shall the Grand Lodge of the State or Province erect a Masonic home for the care
of these dependents; or, shall such dependents be aided with money and other
resources, so that they may continue to live in their own homes and among their
own friends and associates? If the "home" plan is followed, shall the home be
supported in the name of some particular order of Masonry, such as the Grand
Chapter, or the Scottish Rite, or the Shrine; or, shall the home be supported by
all of the Masonic orders located within the territory served by the home? How
shall the home be governed? Shall the home be supported by voluntary
contributions, or by an enforced per capita tax? Shall each lodge contributing
to the support of the home have the right to send such dependents to the home as
the lodge sees fit to send; or, shall the officers of the home receive or reject
applicants for admission?
If it is best to have homes for the care of dependents,
shall we have a Masonic home in each state and Province; or, shall we have a
number of national homes set up for the special care of particular classes of
dependents, such as, for example, a national home for the care of tuberculosis
patients ? If it is best to care for dependents in their own homes, or at least
in private homes in their own localities, shall the care afforded by the lodge
take the form of a monthly payment, or pension system ? Or, shall the relief
extended by the lodge be such as necessity may occasion from week to week and
from month to month? If it is desirable to have a pension system for the care of
dependents, shall each Grand Lodge create a pension fund, to which contributions
shall be made for subordinate lodges on a per capita basis; or, shall we expect
each lodge to meet its own pensions from its own current revenue ?
If dependents are to be cared for in their own homes, or at
least in their own localities, shall the lodge become legally responsible for
them, and thereby secure legal control over them, as, for example, in the case
of an infant orphan, or aged insane brother? Or, shall we leave legal control in
the hands of relatives, who may, or may not be, in sympathy with Masonry and
Masonic influences? What shall be the limits of practical Masonic charity? Shall
it be permissible for the lodge at Jonesville to give pensions to its dependent
aged brethren, while the lodge at Smithtown, twelve miles away, refuses to aid
its members under any circumstances? What attitude are we to take as Masons
towards insurance companies bearing Masonic names, and limiting their clientele
to members of Masonic orders? What attitude, as Masons, are we to take to mutual
accident and sickness societies organized under Masonic titles and restricted to
membership on the Masonic basis? What attitude are we to take towards Masonic
clubs organized for the mutual relief and support of their members? Shall we
have laws as to these things; or, shall we regard them as accessories to the
great fight that we are waging for fundamental principles and leave them, as
accessories, to stand or fall on their own merits ?
I have named but a few of the problems of Masonic charity.
Problems I have touched upon are problems of today that have come to us from
yesterday. The solution of these problems that we are working out today will
more or less determine the status of the Masonry of the future. Our order, with
its great membership and great age, has great experience in the handling of
these matters. The administration of Masonic charity is a great field of Masonic
research, a field of tremendous importance about which little has been written.
What is your experience in these matters, my brother in Oregon? You have served
for many years on the relief committee of your lodge. What principles has your
experience formulated for you? What is your experience in these matters, my
brother in New York? You were on the building committee of your Masonic home. To
what decisions have you arrived as to any or all of the questions about Masonic
charity that the young men in Masonry are asking? Your opinions, my brothers in
Honolulu and in London, will be most valuable if you will support them in these
pages with facts and figures, and evidence of specific character. Perhaps this
is all old ground to you, but to many thousands of young Masons the
administration of Masonic charity is a fruitful field for research.
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PLOUGHING AND REAPING
The ploughing of the Lord is deep,
On ocean and on land;
His furrows cross the mountain steep,
They cross the sea-washed sand.
Wise men and prophets know not how,
But do their Master's will;
The kings and nations drag the plough,
His purpose to fulfill.
They work His will because they must,
On hillside or on plain;
The clods are broken into dust,
And ready for the grain.
Then comes the planting of the Lord,
His kingdom cometh now;
The ocean's deepest depths are stirred,
And all their secrets show.
Where prophets trod His deserts broad,
Where monarchs dragged the plough,
Behold the seedtime of His word:
The Sower comes to sow.
- E. E. Hale.
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THE PRESENCE
We falter on
Through storm and mire:
Above, beside, around us, there is One
Will never tire.
What though we fall and bruised and wounded lies
Our lips in dust !
God's arm shall lift us up to victory !
In Him we trust.
For neither life, nor death, nor things below,
Nor things above,
Can ever sever us, that we should go
From His great love
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WISDOM OF ALBERT PIKE
Man is accountable for
the uprightness of his doctrine, not for the rightness of it.
Influence of man over
man is a law of nature, and the conquest of mind over mind is the only conquest
worth while.
The free country in
which intellect and genius rule, will endure. Where they serve, and other
influences govern, the national life is short.
Select thinkers for
legislators; avoid gabblers. Wisdom is rarely loquacious.
Deeds are greater than
words. They have a life, mute, but undeniable; and they grow. They people the
vacuity of Time, and make it worthy.
Nothing is really
small. Every bird that flies carries a thread of the infinite in its claws.
Life has its ills, but
is not all evil. If life is worthless, so is immortality.
- Morals and Dogma.
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MAXIMS OF MARK
Few things are harder
to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Man is the only animal
that blushes - or needs to.
April 1st - this is
the day upon which we are reminded of of what we are on the other three hundred
and sixty-four days.
One of the most striking differences between a cat and a
lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
Training is everything. A cauliflower is nothing but a
cabbage with a college education.
When in doubt, tell the truth. Tell the truth or trump -
but get the trick.
- Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar.
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THERE IS NO UNBELIEF PEACE
This noble poem has been ascribed to Bulwer - "Owen
Meredith" - but that is to err - the error being due to an oversight of Burton
Stevenson, as he has confessed. It was written by Mrs. Lizzie Y. Case, and has
the following history. In answer to the question of a young clergyman as to her
religious belief, the author told him that she was of the faith of her fathers -
the Friends. "Then," said the young zealot, "you are an unbeliever, and will be
damned." She answered: "Never ! If there were no true God to trust in, I should
still believe in the gods of the woods and the streams. In fact, I believe in
everything - in God, man, nature - there is no unbelief." Hence the lines:
There is no unbelief !
Whoever plants a seed beneath the sod
And waits to see it push away the clod,
Trusts he in God.
There is no unbelief !
Whoever says, when clouds are in the sky,
Be patient, heart, light breaketh by and by,
Trusts the most High.
There is no unbelief !
Whoever sees heath winter's field of snow
The silent harvest of the future grow,
God's power must know.
There is no unbelief !
Whoever lies down on his couch to sleep
Content to lock his sense in slumber deep,
Knows God will keep.
There is no unbelief !
Whoever says tomorrow, the unknown,
The future, trusts that power alone, Nor dares disown.
There is no unbelief !
The heart that looks on when dear eyelids close
And dares to live when life has only woes,
God's comfort knows.
There is no unbelief !
For thus by day and night, unconsciously,
The heart lives by that faith the lips deny,
God knoweth why.
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THE BETTER WAY
Were half the power that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals nor forts.
- Longfellow.
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FEAR
"Some of your grief's you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived;
But what torments of pain you endured
From evils that never arrived."
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PEACE
Peace on earth good will toward men;
I wish the Lord would tell us when,
For all the records of our life
Only tell of constant strife.
Perhaps great hope may lie in this;
That those who have attained to bliss,
Have found inside the life that mocks,
A subtle, mystic paradox.
The Lord gives light, but light makes shade;
By this great law all worlds are made.
The Lord sends peace, but peace makes strife;
This is the paradox of life.
If all our light be darkness yet;
How great that darkness seems to get.
Give us "more light," then we are Seers
And all our darkness disappears.
If all the shadows are from light
Of course there, really, is no night.
If strife is swallowed up in peace,
Then all our conflict can but cease.
When by the light of peace arrayed
No longer is the struggle made.
The laws of being understood
Turns all our evil into good.
No power of evil will we find,
Except that given by the mind.
Let's strive for peace within the Soul
And know One's Self to be the goal.
- Arthur B. Rugg,
Minneapolis, Minn.
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THE MYSTIC ART
The world may rail at Masonry,
And scoff at Square and Line,
We'll follow with complacency
The Master's great Design.
A King can make a gartered Knight,
And breathe away another;
But he, with all his skill and might,
Can never make a Brother.
This power alone, thou Mystic Art,
Freemasonry, is thine:
The power to tame the savage heart
With brother-love divine !
- Bulwer-Lytton.
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THE CHURCH
With reverent feet the earth he trod,
Nor banished Nature from his plan,
But studied still with deep research
To build a universal church,
Lofty as the love of God,
And ample as the wants of man.
- Longfellow.
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EDITORIAL
THE SPIRIT OF EASTER
ONCE again, borne on
that tide of Eternity which men call Time, we have come to the great day of
Memory and Hope. That a day in Spring should be set apart to commemorate the
ever-renewed evidence of the Life Everlasting is in accord with the fitness of
things, as if the seasons of the soul were attuned to the seasons of the year.
It is more than beautiful; it unites faith with life, linking the fresh buds of
returning spring with the ancient poetries and pieties of the human heart. It
finds in Nature, with her woven hymns of night and day, of winter and summer, a
ritual of prophecy and joy.
A breath we are,
servile to all skyey influences, said the prince of poets; and something in the
stir of life in the reviving earth, in the springtime overflowing the world like
a heavenly Nile, in the resurrection of the tender race of flowers, begets an
unconscious, involuntary renewal of the faith of man, refreshing his hope and
quickening his passion for life. So we look into the face of the new spring and
our hearts are strangely glad, and strangely sad also - touched by dim, wistful
memories of springs agone when life was new and we were young; melted by "the
song of those who answer not, however we may call." So run the records of all
the times, since ever Time began, and so it will be until the last man lifts his
trembling hands in prayer on this dying earth. Nor is it a mere fancy that has
thus prompted our humanity to greet the coming of spring with feast and
festival, as symbolizing the victory of life over the white winter of death -
for in Nature there is no death, but only living and living again.
Admit that Easter is
an old sun-feast, a spring frolic, or whatever else wise men may dig up from the
folklore of olden time, it is for us the Feast of Christ none the less, and
there is in it that touch of melancholy in joy which all lovers of the Christ
feel is the note of His life as it sounds in the story of pilgrimage, in the
tone of His words, and in the pathos of His passion. Think as we may of that
tragic and heroic Figure, this is the day of Jesus, whose Life of Love is the
one everlasting romance in this prosaic old world, and whose ineffable
tenderness seems to blend naturally with the thrill of springtime when the
finger of God is pointing the new birth of the earth. Our little passions are as
naught in face of that mighty Passion; our small trials fade before that solemn
trial of Love and Death; and we are subdued with a sense of something as far
beyond our useful tasks or transient joys, as the awakening of Nature is beyond
our waking from slumber.
No other day touches
us more deeply, more tenderly, more joyously, and none so stirs the spirit of
hope and courage in the heart of man. Hope and courage we have for the affairs
of daily life - albeit a courage that is often faint, and a hope that is not
hopeless, but unhopeful; but here is a Hope that leaps beyond the borders of the
world, and a Courage that faces Eternity ! For that Easter stands; in its
history, its music, its springing earth, its prophecy of renewal for the putting
off of the tyranny of Time, the terror of the Grave, and the triumph of the
Flesh, and the putting on of Immortality. It is thus that Easter gives us the
hint, if not the key, to a higher heroism and cheer - that which Tennyson meant
when he wrote that rather than the glory of warrior, the glory of orator, the
glory of song, "give me the glory of going on and still to be" - a glory which
puts a new meaning and value on life with its efforts, so sadly baffled; its
acquirements, so incomplete; its achievements, so transient and so quickly
forgotten. For we can work with brave hearts, and endure with serenity, and
delight without alloy, if the good we aim at here, and never quite attain, is an
earnest of the Good we shall win otherwhere.
It profits us little
to argue amid music and flowers, or at any other time in respect of this high
confidence. The faith of Easter has its home in the deep heart of man - for the
Heart hath its reasons which the Reason knows not of - and it is older than all
arguments, which are only so many efforts of logic to justify to the reason the
faith of the soul. No man was ever argued into this Faith, or out of it. Its
roots go deeper than argument, deeper than dogma, deeper than reason - ay, as
deep as the home and the family, as deep as infancy and old age, as deep as love
and death ! As we do not ask logic to prove the coming of Spring, so there is no
need that any one argue in behalf of the faith - older than history - that the
mysterious Power which weaves in silence robes of white for the lily, of red for
the rose, will the much more clothe our winged spirits with a moral beauty that
shall never fade.
"What to you is
Shadow, to Him is Day,
And the end He knoweth;
And not on a blind and
aimless way
Thy spirit goeth.
The steps of Faith
Fall on a seeming
void, and find
A Rock beneath."
Let those doubt who
will, it is still true that the Spirit of Christ does live in the hearts of a
multitude, some of them all unaware, in deeds of love and pity all the world
over. And His great and simple words, as those of no other, do uplift and
fortify the soul against the fear of that Shadow that waits for every man. The
only things worth our while are the things thought and felt and done in accord
with His spirit and example, in sympathy with His life so serene, so radiant, so
triumphant. The sorrow is that we for whom He lived and died, by our misdeeds,
by our falling away from His ideal, crucify the Man we ought to be many times
again. Yet is there hope, though we have fallen far and fallen low - hope in God
whom He revealed as our Father, whose love hath in it the secret of unknown
redemptions. Sorrows come, and deep grief, and loneliness unutterable, when
those whom we love fall into the great white sleep; but the Easter Lily will
grow in our hearts if we cultivate it, watering it the while with our tears -
and at last it will bloom, and its beauty will be the fairest thing in the house
of our pilgrimage.
"If Jesus Christ is a man -
And only a man - I say
That of all mankind I cleave to Him,
And to Him I cleave alway.
If Jesus Christ is a God -
And the only God - I swear
I will follow Him through heaven and hell,
The earth, the sea, and the air."
* * *
A Masonic Study and
Research Club was organized by the professors and students of the State
University of Oklahoma, Thursday night, Feb. 25th. It was an enthusiastic
gathering, and the Club started with a membership of sixty. It is the intention
of the Club to affiliate with the Acacia Fraternity. The Builder rejoices in the
organization of this Study Club and invites its co-operation with the National
Research Society.
* * *
Essays of great
interest to all Masonic students are constantly appearing in all our Masonic
journals - and, just now, in journals not Masonic - of which The Builder is
anxious to make note, if the editors will be good enough to let us see them. For
example, take the following few among many:
Washington, The Man
and Mason, by R. I. Clegg: Masonic Bulletin, March.
George Washington, the
Mason, by J. W. Carter: Masonic Observer, Feb. 20th.
The Sacred Number
Seven, by J. E. Morcombe: American Freemason, February.
The True Thomas Paine:
Texas Freemason, February.
Pre-Grand-Lodge Lodges
of Virginia, by J. F. Carson: Virginia Home Journal.
Masonic Record of
Joseph Warren: Christian Science Monitor, February 26th.
Masonic Record of John
Paul Jones: Seattle Times, February 28th.
* * *
The Society is eager
to gather all available information about financing Masonic projects, especially
Masonic Temples; and if brethren in any city or community where a Temple has
been recently built will tell us what plan they used, and how it worked - giving
us the benefit of their experience - The Builder will be glad to put it in a
form that will be accessible and useful to the Craft at large. Your response to
this request, Brethren, will be a very real service to your fellow-workers
everywhere. Furthermore, we are planning to devote an entire issue of The
Builder to Masonic buildings, their design, arrangement, expense, and
decoration, discussing the while what features should be included in every Lodge
where Masons meet - taking up different styles and types of buildings, all the
way from the village Lodge which meets in an Upper Room to the Grand Lodge
Temple at Indianapolis.
* * *
Brother Wm. P.
Freeman, Grand Master of Masons in Oklahoma, in an address to his Grand Lodge,
reviewed the history of the founding, purpose, and development of this Society,
pointing out that it was authorized by the Grand Lodge of Iowa, its mission
being to diffuse the light of Masonic knowledge and understanding; that it is
incorporated under the laws of Iowa providing that it shall not be operated for
the financial advantage of anyone; and then he added: "Having carefully read the
first issue of its journal, The Builder, I unhesitatingly give it my approval."
Such words are not only gratifying but appropriate, since this Society is really
an invitation from the Grand Lodge of Iowa to her sister Grand Jurisdictions to
join with her in promoting Masonic learning and the education of young Masons.
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CORRESPONDENCE
THE HAPPY WAY.
Dear Sir: - In the
February issue of The Builder is published an article by Brother S. W. Williams,
under the title "Two Paths." The writer uses the very old figure of two
highways, one narrow, difficult, tedious, adverse and forlorn; the other the
primrose way, broad, easy, flower embroidered: the first leading through great
tribulation to ultimate happiness beyond the portals of the grave, the other
through pleasure to the degredation and death of the soul. I have always
believed the figure unfortunate and untrue to the realities of life. In the
first place, most men who are living a sane, rational, normal life are more
concerned with this world than with the next. We best fit ourselves for the life
eternal by making the most of the life temporal. Moreover, the way of clean,
honest decent living is the joyful way. It is the way wherein friends walk by
our side. There are built the happy homes where peace and contentment and love
abide. There grow the flouters of hope. There is to be heard the music of
children's laughter. There material advantages and worldly blessings are to be
found, and glory awaits those who persevere. There are, of course, grave
questions to be faced, difficulties to be overcome, grief and suffering to be
borne but in infinitely less degree than on the other road. It leads away from
temptations and dangers, and those who follow it are strong to resist evil.
"The other way," says
Brother Williams, "is a broad highway, easy to travel, with delightful groves
and a plentitude of sunshine, music, and flowers." Evidently he has not traveled
that way, else would he know that there are hunger, want, and weariness,
physical, mental, spiritual; traps and pitfalls are in the way. The sunshine
blinds and blisters; the flowers are weeds; the music without harmony; the
groves full of wild beasts seeking whom they may devour. Along this way are
neither love nor friendship, material advantage, or worldly honor. It
is the way of the fool and the
harlot. Why will men persist in picturing the way of righteousness as dark,
gloomy, and hedged about with evil ? What a mistaken idea to implant in the
minds of the young. No! The way of Godliness is the way of happiness, here now,
in this mortal life. Go, tell it out among the nations!
Sincerely,
Herbert N. Laflin, Milwaukee.
* * *
THAT WAR-LORD.
Dear Brother: - In
your editorial comments touching the war you say: "Indeed, a page from the story
of this war reads like an excerpt from the Chronicles of Hell, as witness these
words from a war-lord to his men: 'Cause the greatest amount of suffering, leave
the non-combatants nothing but their eyes to weep with. The law of Christian
charity has no bearing on the relation of nation to nation.' " Astonishing,
indeed, and terrible, if true. You do not mention which war-lord you mean, but
since the English-made news so generally disseminated in this country knows but
one "war-lord," may I infer that you refer to Emperor William II ? If so, have
you any authentic information as to when and where he made such a statement ?
Or, have you obtained it merely from the day's news ?
If you will refer to
the English edition of Busch's "Bismark," (Vol. I, p 128) you may read Phil
Sheridan's advice in 1870 to the Germans (he was our military observer with
their forces) as follows: "The proper strategy consists, in the first place, in
inflicting as telling blows as possible upon the enemy's army, and then in
causing the inhabitants so much suffering that they must long for peace and
force their government to demand it. The people must be left nothing but their
eyes to weep with over the war."
You will find a
similar quotation from Sheridan in Charles Francis Adams' "Studies, Military and
Diplomatic," 1911, page 287. As Americans, nay, as Freemasons, we should be
careful not to bear witness against anyone unless we have positive evidence.
Fraternally yours,
J. T. Hosbach, Philadelphia.
* * *
HIRAM, THE CRAFTSMAN.
Dear Brother: - Allow
me to call your attention to an article concerning Hiram ("Huram-abi") the
Phoenician Craftsman, by Charles C. Torrey, Ph. D.,
D. D.,
Professor of Semetic Languages, Yale University, in the "Journal of Biblical
Literature." (Vol. 31, part 4, 1912, pp 151, 152). Although not so fruitful as
its title might indicate, the article is nevertheless of some interest to
Masons. A brief summary of it follows: In I Kings the name of the craftsman sent
by the King of Tyre to King Solomon has the form Hiram, as does also the name of
the Tyrian King, whereas in II Chronicles both names have the form of Huram.
There is certainly no good reason to prefer the latter form, although it is at
present the well nigh universally accepted view that it is the original. The
word "ibi" does not appear in connection with the name given in I Kings. In II
Chronicles the name of the craftsman is thrice mentioned. In the first instance
(II Chron. 2:11) it is Huram-abi, in the second, (II Chron. 4:11) it is merely
Huram, while in the third, (II Chron. 4:16) it is Huram-abiu. The conclusion is
that abi is not a part of the proper name, but is the noun meaning
"right-hand-man," or 'trusted counsellor "
Fraternally,
Paul R. Rider. New Haven
* * *
THE TWENTY-FOUR INCH GAUGE
Dear Brother: - Will
you not favor us with an editorial, if possible, relative to the teaching of The
Twenty-four Inch Gauge, and the reason why a more united effort is not made to
advance it practically? I am a member of organized labor, personally favored
with an eight hour work day, although seven days per week, and know we have met
considerable opposition from superior officers in our daily duties to such an
extent as to give the impression that the teachings of the Twenty-four Inch
Gauge are for the Lodge room only. Cannot something be done to encourage the
practical use of these teachings and not leave the impression that when business
and Freemasonry conflict, business must lead? I appreciate the position of an
officer in a corporation, but feel certain they could materially assist were
they properly approached and all sides of the question talked over.
Fraternally yours
Wm. Mason, Stamford, Conn.
* * *
OPERATIVE MASONS.
Dear Brother: - I
think it may interest you to know that in England the old Operative Guild of
Free Masons still exists, and meets under the authority of the Athelstan Charter
granted to Masons in 926, and this Society is getting all its old records looked
over and put together ready for the Special Grand Assembly which will be held in
York, England, in 1926, when we shall have been working under that Charter for
1000 years. We have documents that go back for hundreds of years, and there can
be no doubt that Speculative Masonry was in 1717 derived from the Operative.
Yours fraternally
Clement E. Stretton,
Operative General
Secretary.
* * *
WHY STUDY MASONRY?
Dear Brother: - Any
Mason who will take the time to study will soon find that, instead of labor, he
has found a new field of enjoyment from which he will derive a benefit which
will prove a material gain in many respects. It will expand his God-given
reason. The study of Masonry will open up new vistas of which he has never
dreamed, will broaden his horizon, and new paths will be found which will
eventually lead to roads that open up the beauties of Nature now hidden to his
non-observant eyes. Politics and Religion, History, sacred and profane, will
assume new aspects and will
compel him to become a student, and before he knows it, he will possess an
education not to be compared with the broadest of University readings.
Fraternally yours
A. L. Metz, Tulane University, New Orleans.
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THE LIBRARY
"IN A NOOK WITH A BOOK"
QUITE a number of
Brethren have written to say that they would be very glad to take up the study
of Masonry, but that they are too busy and have not the time to do it. Perhaps
so, but it is open to question whether any one of them has more to do than the
writer of these lines, who must needs make use of odd hours and the fag ends of
days - and, sometimes, the wee hours of the night - to edit The Builder. Truth
to tell, all of us have all the time there is, but we waste much of it,
forgetting the words of the wise old Bible which tells us to "redeem the time;"
that is, literally, to buy it up, get a corner on it.
There are conditions
of life, to be sure, in which it is not easy to do much in the way of study, but
most of us waste enough time to make us master of any field of research we might
elect to conquer. Without any boast, ye humble scribe believes that he has
earned the right to speak in behalf of the economy and right use of time, and he
very earnestly lays this matter upon the hearts of his readers, especially upon
the young men. Long ago he learned the value of odd moments, and somewhat of the
art of using them to advantage - thanks to the dilatory habits of a dear old
teacher. Nearly always that good man was ten minutes late to his lecture, and
two lads conceived the idea of keeping a book in the desk to read while we
waited. If the actual facts were here set down as to the number and kind of
books read in that way during a series of years in college, using only ten
minutes a day, they would hardly be believed.
What days were those,
and how can ye scribe ever forget the impressions made on his mind by great
books in those fugitive moments stolen from the routine of toil. There was the
ode of Keats to a Grecian Urn - a miracle of art; and bonnie Kilmeny as she went
up the glen and was carried away by angels; and Sir Galahad seeking and finding
the Holy Grail; and Elaine, lying on her bed in the black boat, steered by the
dumb old servitor - so sweet and fresh and lovely that "she did not seem as
dead," but fast asleep, and lay as though she smiled. Ay, then it was that we
came to know the stately, grave and noble genius of George Eliot, and better
still, the serene and radiant spirit of Emerson - a man whose mind was a city of
light set upon a hill. Frankly, if put to it, ye scribe would have to admit that
he got more from those moments of waiting for the lecture than ever he did from
the lectures for which he waited.
What thus began as a
device for killing time became an art of using it and a habit of reading for the
joy of it, reading outside the path of regular work - a habit which Gibbon said
he would not exchange for all the wealth of the Indies. During all the years it
has been a way of escape from the fret and jar of things, a resource in dull and
weary hours, a joy in health a Belief in illness, and a solace in sorrow.
Fellowship with brave and noble souls is an inspiration and a benediction, and
they have much to teach us for our health of heart and fortitude of spirit - for
we are helped most in this world by the example of one who passed before
us through difficulties like our
own. Even the grim old Sphinx is not so enduring as a great book, written in the
heart book of a man or woman who has sounded the depths of sorrow only to rise
up full of courage and faith in God and human nature.
Having for so many
years preached the gospel of good books, and the duty of taking time to know
them, ye scribe rejoices to find his wisdom confirmed by George H. Fitch, who
writes so graciously of "Comfort Found in Good Old Books." (Paul Elder & Co.)
Who does not feel something tighten about his heart as he reads this dedication:
"To the memory of my son Harold, my best critic, my other self, whose death has
taken the light out of my life." In the solitude of a great sorrow the author
found help in his habit of reading, and a refuge in great books - each one
giving him a ray of light wherewith to make a torch to light him along a dark
way. If any one wishes to know what books he read, and how, and why, and what
healing they brought to a heart wounded by the deep stab of death - let him
forthwith make friends with this golden little book, so wisely written and so
beautifully printed.
So much of our reading
is slovenly, lacking plan, system and aim, that it comes to nothing, when it is
not ill-digested, bizarre, and utterly misdirected - to say nothing of the time
wasted on papers and magazines. What we need is a habit of reading and a course
of study, and what is more worth while than to look into the depths of Masonry
which brings from afar the high and simple wisdom of humanity - a wisdom tried
by time, tested by experience, and found to be valid for the illumination of
life. There a young man may learn how the wisest thought of the race has solved
the riddle of life, and the old may gather up their deepest thoughts which, in
the busy mid-years of life, are too often left scattered in the disarray of a
temple yet unbuilt, and build a House of Faith - a Home of the Soul. Of a truth,
Masonry has something to tell us for our help in life and our hope in death, and
it is worth hearing.
When a man is young he
may think he knows Hamlet. After twenty years, however, he is not so sure: new
doors open; long vistas unfold; and at length old familiar lines "come home to
him, when he has had experience of life, and pierce him as if he had never known
them, with their sad earnestness and vivid exactness." So it is with Masonry. At
first it may seem simple - as indeed it is, like all things great and enduring -
but when he has looked into it more carefully, in the light of what life has
taught him by its struggle and sorrow, he finds that it is an allegory of the
mysterious life of man, wide and deep and wonderful. If he is a thoughtful man,
subdued by the mystery of "these strange souls that dwell in clay," slowly a
sense of wonder will gather and grow, and he will discover in its simple symbols
meanings hitherto unguessed - hints of truths no words may utter, suggestions of
a beauty so elusive that a glimpse of it makes one wistful, and, by no means
least, a brotherly comradeship in the quest and service of the Moral Ideal worth
more than gold can buy.
Therefore, ye scribe
urges his young Brethren to lay this little homily to heart, and act upon it.
Study Masonry. Even if you are busy, use your odd hours wisely and your research
will reward you richly. If you will do so, content to take first things first,
and, above all, persevere in your study, every year will make you more grateful
for the suggestion. Studying Masonry is like looking at a sunrise; there is a
prodigal wealth of beauty for all, yet the wonder is not diminished.
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QUESTIONS
May I not ask you if
the "Crucifixion by an Eyewitness" is authentic? The story is supposed to be a
translation of an original manuscript which is said to be in the possession of
German Masons. What about it ?
- F.W.G.
Manifestly the
manuscript, if it exists, is a fiction, and the story is so regarded in the
world of scholarship. Like the "Unknown Life of Jesus," it is one of many
efforts to fill out what is lacking in the Gospel narrative of the life and
training and death of the Great Teacher.
Some accept such records as authentic, and of course there
is no law against doing so - nor is there any fact in favor of it.
* * *
Can you tell me of a
book discussing the relation of Masonry to Religion, with special reference to
the Old Charges? This is a question in which I am just now much interested.
- H. P. D.
The book you are
seeking is "The Religion of Freemasonry," by H. J. Whymper, with an introduction
by W. J. Hughan, edited by G. W. Speth. (Published by George Kenning, 16 Great
Queen St., Lincoln's Fields, London.) This admirable work has two chapters
dealing with the Old Charges and their religious instructions. For more recent
researches, see the brilliant article in the last number of the Transactions of
the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, by Sir Chetwode Crawley, referred to in the March
issue of The Builder.
* * *
In your book "The
Builders" you make frequent reference to the Regius Poem as the oldest document
of Freemasonry. Where can I find a fuller account of that Ms. and a more
detailed explanation of it? Also, has the essay of Brother Gould on "The
Antiquity of Masonic Symbolism" ever been printed anywhere else except in the
Proceedings of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge?
- D. G. L.
Fortunately, the
answer to both of these inquiries may be found in a recently published volume of
"Collected Essays and Papers Relating to Freemasonry," by R. F. Gould, which
contains, among many other good things, a "Commentary on the Regius Ms.," and
the essay on the antiquity of Masonic symbolism. (Published by Wm. Tait,
Inniskeen, Marlborough Park North, Belfast, Ireland.) The Research Society will
be very glad to secure this book for you, if you so desire.
* * *
In your recent address
in our city you spoke of a book telling of "The Men's House," and the initiatory
rites of primitive tribal society. Will you be kind enough to give in The
Builder the name of that book and its publisher?
- H. H. D.
The book referred to
was "Primitive Secret Societies: A Study in Early Politics and Religion," by
Hutton Webster, professor of Sociology and Anthropology in the University of
Nebraska. Published by the Macmillan Co., New York. It is a brilliant book, and
worth your while - Prof. Pound recommends it elsewhere in this issue.
* * *
Here is a puzzle. In
your short history of Masonry - "The Builders" - you name Millard Fillmore among
other Presidents who were Masons. Whereas I find in the new life of Fillmore, by
W. E. Griffin, that he took part in the anti-Masonic crusade at the time of the
Morgan raid. Which is right?
- J. L. G.
Both are in a sense
right, but we are disposed to think that Dr. Griffin has the best of it - in
this way. The fact seems to be that Fillmore received the degrees of Masonry,
but recanted his Masonry at the time of the Morgan fanaticism. That is to say,
like too many others he received the degrees of Masonry, but was not really a
Mason - else he would not have recanted at the behest of a pack of pusillanimous
politicians and religious bigots.
* * *
What do you think of
advertising in Masonic Bulletins ? I am not speaking of papers published by a
corporation or individuals and sold to Masons, but of Lodge organs. There are
factions for and against carrying ads in our little sheet. - J. T.
As The Builder carries
no advertising, it may not be qualified to answer such a question. It is largely
a problem of taste. While there may be good reasons advanced in favor of
admitting ads, we would advise against it as being more in keeping with the
wisdom of eliminating the idea of gain. However, we would not be dogmatic, and
with due care as to the nature and number of ads used, no harm would come of it.
* * *
Ye scribe has been amazed at the number of letters thanking
him for calling attention to "Jean Christophe," by Romain Rolland, and a still
larger number asking for the name of the publisher. It is published by the Henry
Holt Co., New York.
* * *
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BOOKS RECEIVED
Is Death the End? by J. H. Holmes. Putnam Sons, New York.
Footnotes to Life, by Frank Crane. John Lane Co., Boston.
Freemasonry, by M. L. Wagner. F. J. Heer Co., Columbus,
Ohio.
A. B. C. of Masonry, by D. D. Darrah, Bloomington, Ill.
The Voice of Fate, by Henry De LaVaseur, Waterloo, Iowa.
Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of
Antiquity. R. Steiner. Putnam Sons. New York
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AT HER GRAVE
Sixteen at most was she,
Flower-fair, slender;
Never were hands so slight,
Never so tender.
I saw in sunset clouds
Robes to beseem her;
She, with a clearer eye,
Saw her Redeemer.
One day she went from me;
Then fell the Shadow,
Mournful the sun appeared,
Dreary the meadow.
Next day the sun came back,
Dearer and clearer;
Since then it seems to me
God has drawn nearer.
- W. J. Dawson.
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