The Builder Magazine 

July 1915 - Volume I - Number 7 


MASONIC MEMORIALS 

BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P.G.M., D.C. 

HISTORY is often perverted in its memorials, and memorials are the enduring 
evidences which impress the minds of generations and generations. 

Few people take the trouble to snake careful inquiry into even current events. Most of 
us read the head-lines in the daily papers, and form hasty conclusions. Life is too short, 
we say, to delve into details of much that is passing. The head-lines are often 
ambiguous, and sometimes are contradicted in the text below them. 

A monument or statue to memorialize a man usually invites attention to his most 
important act, and this is never lost sight of either by its projectors or by the artist. 

In the Capital of the Nation there are, in the Parks and Streets, more than 50 memorials 
of heroes, idols, and events besides those under cover in the Public Buildings. Though 
more than half of these memorialize men who were Masons, there is no Masonic 
emblem nor word to indicate it, with one exception. 

Enthusiasts are making history. It has been said there is nothing true in history 
excepting the dates: but it still continues. 

The first statue erected in Washington was that of Columbus, sculpted by the great 
Persico, situated on the buttress on the east side of the Capitol. It shows Columbus in 
the armor and the uniform he wore, as a discoverer, and the memorial is called 
Discovery. The bust is a replique of one in Madrid, modeled during the life of 
Columbus, and believed to be a good por trait. But, not satisfied with this, the Knights 
of Columbus, Ancient Order of Hibernians et al. secured al appropriation from 
Congress of $150,000 to erect an other statue of Columbus which is shown in a cloak 
such as is worn by Monks, and even the portraiture is not at all like that of Persico's 
statue. This is all the more remarkable since it has been pretty well prover that 
Columbus was a Spanish Jew. Certainly he never wrote excepting in the Spanish 
Language. 



But our essay is upon the effigies in the Parks of Washington, which memorialize 
Freemasons, though that quality may be incidental. 


So many of these memorials are of military men that the stranger at once gets the idea 
that we are a terribly war-like people, while we claim to be peace lovers. 

Some of these memorials are dual: there are two of Washington, two of Lincoln, and 
two of Columbus. 

The first and greatest is that of Washington. An obelisk, square, upright and perfect, 
plain on the outside, white and smooth; but on the inside there are sculptured memorial 
stones, presented by States, Grand Lodges, Foreign Governments, Societies and 
individuals. The site was selected by Washington himself, and is on the exact meridian 
of Washington City, a mile due east of the Capitol, and is due south of the Executive 
Mansion (now called White House.) 

ft was intended to build it by subscription, and to make it 600 feet high; the highest 
structure in the world: but the subscriptions ceased before the Civil War came on, when 
the obelisk was but 54 feet high, and work ceased. The comer stone was laid by the 
Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia on the 4th of July, 1848, and it was dedicated 
by the Grand Lodge in 1885. 

In 1882 Congress made an appropriation to finish the Monument, and it then passed 
into Government possession. It was determined that the foundation was not strong 
enough, and Col. Thos. L. Casey, of the U. S. Engineers, was accorded high honor for 
the masterly manner in which he accomplished the difficult work of underpinning and 
strengthening the foundation, which he did before adding a single course of stone. The 
shaft is 55 feet square at the base and 555 feet high. Its weight is estimated at 81,120 
tons. The walls, at the base, are 15 feet thick. There is now an elevator in the 
monument, so its ascent is not hard. There is a spiral stair case reaching nearly to the 
top from which stairs the many memorial stones may be examined. 

Among the first contributions were beautiful stones from Masonic Lodges, from the 
States, many cities, Societies, etc. 

The memorial stones, up to the present, number 151, but the Secretary of War has 
recently refused the Grand Lodge of Louisiana the privilege of placing a stone, and has 
said he will permit none others excepting from States. 

From Individuals there are 6 memorial stones. 

From Militia Companies 6 “ “ 



From Fire Companies 

8 

66 

66 

From States, 7 Cities 

50 

66 

66 

From Labor Unions 8 

66 

66 


From Benevolent Societies 1 

66 

66 

From Masonic Bodies 

24 memorial stones. 

From the Red Men 2 

66 

66 


From the Odd Fellows 

10 

66 

66 

Temperance Societies 

4 

66 

66 

Sons of America 

1 

66 

66 

S. of T.R.I. 

1 

66 

66 

Schools and Colleges 

9 

66 

66 

Whig Party 

1 

66 

66 

Washington Light Infantry 1 

66 

66 

Dramatists 

1 

66 

66 

Ancient Order of Hibernians 1 

66 

66 

Oldest Inhabitants 1 

66 

66 


Sunday Schools and Churches 3 

66 

66 

Medical Society 

1 

66 

66 

Cherokee Indians 

1 

66 

66 

Switzerland 

1 

66 

66 

Greece 

1 

66 

66 

Siam 

1 

66 

66 



Brazil 


1 


Turkey 1 

China 1 

Japan 1 “ “ 

Wales 1 

Egypt 1 

Newspapers 2 “ “ 

Masonic Memorial Stones are from the Grand Lodges of District of Columbia, Ohio, 
Kentucky, New York, Maryland, Illinois, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Virginia; and from 
Mt. Lebanon Lodge of Pa.; La Payette Lodge of N. Y.; Washington Lodge of 
Roxbury, Mass.; and Naval Lodge ofD. C. 

There were, at that time, only 30 States in the Union, but, it will be seen, not all of the 
Grand Lodges in those States presented Stones. 

Many of the stones are beautifully sculptured and lettered and bear the names and rank 
of the Grand Officers. Some have patriotic and endearing inscriptions appropriate to the 
subject. 

THE MASONIC SIGN. 

What fact more conspicuous in modem history than the creation of a gentleman? 
Chivalry is that, and loyalty is that. The word gentleman must hereafter characterize the 
present and a few preceding centuries, by the importance attached to it, is a homage to 
personal and incommunicable qualities. An element which unites persons of every 
country; makes them intelligible and agreeable to each other; and is somewhat so 
precise that it is at once felt if an individual lack the Masonic sign, cannot be any casual 
product. It is made of the spirit, more than of the talent of men, and is a compound 
result, into which every great force enters as an ingredient, namely, virtue, wit, beauty, 
nobility, power. 


- Emerson. 



CHINESE WISDOM. 


He who has no ambition is like an ax without edge. 

When you know yourself thoroughly, you know every one else. 

The last step must be as steady as the first in climbing a hill. 

Youth jumps and slips; age picks its steps and crosses safely. 

Be as cross to yourself as you are to others; as sweet to others as to self. 
If you insist on everyone being like you, look in the mirror. 

With learning, as with weeds, get at the root. 

Prejudice is the thief of persuasion. 

- J.S. Thomson. China Revolutionized. 


THE MEMORIAL TO WASHINGTON 

Address Delivered Before the George Washington Masonic National Memorial 
Association 

BY BRO. J. CLAUDE KEIPER, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

I am bidden by the Worshipful Master of Alexandria-Washington Lodge to speak of the 
work of the Washington Memorial Association, whose avowed puipose it is that here in 
Virginia, not greatly distant from the place of his birth, nigh to the home he loved and 
cherished, the hallowed spot where his ashes repose; here in Alexandria, the community 
in which his Masonic virtues were best known and best regarded, and where he 
presided as Master over the labors of his brethren, here, even in the shadow of the 
church in which he worshiped, there shall rise a memorial to the only man in all our 
history who was at the one time Master of his Masonic Lodge and President of the 
United States, a national memorial to Washington the Mason, a Craftsman who in no 
respect was ever unworthy of his work. 



It is not my purpose to present to you statistical abstracts of the progress of the 
movement, the number of grand jurisdictions which have approved it, nor the amount 
of the fund so far collected for the puipose of the Memorial. These matters, important 
though they best may well be left to the consideration of the devoted men who 
constitute the Association and who are giving freely of their time and their talents in 
what is to them a labor of love. 

Monuments commemorative of the patriotism of Washington, his valor and prowess as 
a military leader, memorials designed to perpetuate his wisdom and virtue as a 
statesman have been erected throughout all our land by a loving and grateful people, but 
nowhere, so far as I know, save in the hearts of his appreciative brethren, has there been 
erected a memorial of the character contemplated by this Association. 

Need I say more to justify the work in which it is engaged? It is true that Masonic 
memorials to individual brethren are comparatively rare and this is not because our 
Fraternity has been influenced by a desire to conceal from public knowledge who 
among the Nation's great have wrought greatly for the upbuilding of the Craft. I take it 
that it is rather because Masonry has recognized the truth that idealized conceptions in 
bronze and marble, however beautiful in themselves, can avail little to add to the luster 
of a name or embellish an achievement, and further that as an ancient and honorable 
institution it would be inconsistent with its dignity to be boastful of the connection with 
it of any man, however distinguished his career or exalted his station. It is our boast that 
in Masonry all are on the one plane of perfect equality, and a remarkable illustration of 
this is found in the life of Washington himself, concerning whom there was published a 
few weeks ago in one of the Boston papers an incident telling how he, the General of 
the American Army, was one day observed seated in the tent of an Army Lodge as a 
mere member while a coiporal presided therein as Master, exemplifying thereby the 
basic principle of our Fraternity to which I have alluded, a principle announced with 
undying emphasis by that other great Virginian when he wrote into the Declaration of 
Independence, the assertion that all men are created equal. 

Therefore it is that the Association for which I speak does not approach the erection of 
this Memorial with the primary puipose of gratifying a vainglorious spirit. It is true that 
one of the results of its work will be the proclamation to all the world of Washington's 
connection with Masonry. But there are other and higher aims and there will be other 
and higher results. One of them will be wholly utilitarian, for within the memorial 
building will be provided a place of safe deposit for the priceless relics that now adorn 
the Lodge room of the local Masonic bodies. And what a splendidly personal interest in 
him do they inspire in us as we reverently gaze upon them! More than that. How strong 
will be their appeal, how profound their impression upon the brethren from the East and 
from the West, from the North and from the South, as they gather in after years at what 



I hope and believe will be the shrine of Freemasonry in the United States, the Mecca 
toward which will be set the feet of Craftsmen in ever-increasing thousands. 


To present properly another result let me go back to that time, now more than 150 years 
gone, when, as a young man just attaining his majority, Washington first learned of 
Masonry and its truths. Can any one doubt that its beneficent teachings exerted a 
powerful influence upon a mind and character already predisposed toward them by 
inherent morality and integrity ? An influence that was strongly felt and plainly 
manifested in the formation, upon allied principles, of a government in whose making 
there were associated with him so many Masons. Therefore it is that this Memorial will 
symbolize more than his connection with our fraternity, proud of it as we are and may 
rightfully be; therefore it is that over and above all mere personal considerations it will 
stand a living monument to the benign influence of Masonic teachings in the formation 
of a great government, under which millions of free people have found happiness, 
obtained justice and through which, under the providence of God, they and their 
posterity shall long enjoy the blessings of untrammeled liberty. 

My friends, seated here tonight on the natal day of our revered brother and gathered for 
its appropriate commemoration, I beg you to indulge me a moment further as I ask you 
to go back with me in imagination to a similar occasion, exactly 90 years ago, when 
Alexandria-Washington Lodge, on February 21,1825, entertained one of Washington's 
best loved associates in the War for Independence, General La Fayette. You are familiar 
with the details. Picture for yourselves that devoted friend of Liberty entering the Lodge 
room clothed in the Masonic habiliments of Washington. Picture the subsequent 
assembly around the banquet table and listen to the toasts proposed. First, as a matter of 
course, was one to Washington, extolled as “First in cabinet, first in the field and first in 
the principles of Masonry.” Then one to the President of the United States, James 
Monroe, whose name will ever be affectionately associated with the doctrine of 
preserving American soil for the propagation of the principles of American liberty. And 
then one to “Our Illustrious Brother and Guest, La Fayette. His brethren take peculiar 
pleasure in receiving him in that Lodge over which their beloved Washington was 
pleased to preside.” And now hearken to the response. Note that it might well have been 
a prophecy of our present undertaking as he says, “The Masonic Temple of Alexandria, 
and the illustrious, venerated name under which it has been consecrated.” Surely in 
closing I can leave with you no higher wish than that this saying of nearly a century ago 
may become the animating and inspiring watchword of our whole Fraternity until its 
efforts to erect a national memorial to Washington the Mason shall be crowned with 
complete success. 



THE MYSTIC LADDER 

TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY THE LATE BRO. EDWIN A. 
SHERMAN 

THE mystic ladder pertains particularly to us as Knights Kadosh, as the type of our 
order. It is composed of two ascents or supports that remind us of the compact which 
took place between Philip the Fair and Pope Clement the V, and the strength of that 
union which was given against our predecessors. The reunion of the two ascents or 
supports, and the seven steps of which it is composed, give an exact idea of the seven 
conditions which Philip imposed on Beltian de Goth, when he was Archbishop of 
Bordeaux, to be seated in the chair of St. Peter, when he obligated him to participate 
in the destruction of the Knights Templars. 

And so you likewise complete your obligations and swear implacable hatred to the 
enemies of that Order which was the pattern of all the virtues; and we now have the 
obligation of employing all our forces for the total min of evil and priestly tyrants, 
upon whose heads must fall the blood of Jacques de Molay and his martyred 
companions. 

After the death of Benedict XI, which occurred on the 6th of July, 1304, the cardinals 
assembled to elect a new Pope, and were divided into two bands, one French and one 
Italian. 

Philip the Fair, King of France, had projects which he could not carry out without the 
assistance of the Pope who should be elected. His party fomented the divisions in the 
conclave to favor his designs. He ordered search to be made for Beltian de Goth, then 
Archbishop of Bordeaux, and in the conference which took place he informed him of 
his projects and the power he had to elect him Pope, affirming that an oath would be 
required of him to execute seven propositions which would be made known to him 
excepting the seventh which he had guarded in reserve until the moment of its 
execution. Devoured by the heat of his ambition to be seated on the PONTIFICAL 
Throne, that Prelate accepted the bribe and sold himself. 

Philip made known to him the first six conditions, which are foreign to the history of 
our order: and after having exacted and received his oath for the execution of the 
seventh, and holding as hostages the brothers and nephews of Beltian, the Archbishop 
arrived in effect to be Pope, and took the name of Clement V. He established his see 
at Avignon, in France, where he put in execution the first six conditions which he had 
accepted. When the favorable moment arrived for the execution of the seventh, Philip 
the Fair declared that it consisted in the total extermination of the Knights Templars 



throughout all Christendom, which was done as far as possible in his power, and that 
of the monarchs with whom he was allied. 

Clement adopted the following ruse: He first caused a new crusade to be preached in 
Europe, and even in Syria; he then sent the following letter to Palestine to the Grand 
Master of the Templars and Hospitaliers: 

"We inform you, my brethren, that we have been urgently solicited by the Kings of 
Aragon and Cyprus for aid to the Holy Land. We order you to come to France as 
secretly as possible, to deliberate with us. You will also be careful to bring with you 
large sums to equip a numerous army." 

Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of Templars, obeyed the injunctions of the HOLY 
FATHERS; but Foulques de Villeret, the Grand Master of the Hospitalliers, occupied 
with the siege of Rhodes, could not quit his army, and thus delayed the ruin of his 
Order. The unfortunate De Molay sailed for France, and by a trap, fell into the hands 
of his enemies. The Pope had agreed that the Knights of the Temple should be 
arrested at the same time, in different Christian Kingdoms, and that they should be 
handed over to the Inquisitors as suspected of heresy: that their property should be 
seized in the name of the church and that they should be put to death at the stake and 
upon the scaffolds, after having been put to the torture to make them avow to 
imaginary crimes. 

The execution of this frightful plot was not deferred: the Pope informed the King of 
Aragon, Castile and of Portugal to annihilate the Templars, and on the day appointed 
they were all arrested and plunged into the dungeons of the Inquisition. The iniquity 
of the Judges was such that they pardoned a murderer named Squin de Florian, who 
had been confined with a Knight Templar, because he deposed that his companion had 
revealed to him the crimes and impurities at the reception of Templars. Squin de 
Florian, the robber and assassin was received at a public audience by Philip the Fair 
and Pope Clement the V, laden with presents and glorified for his religious zeal. 

After such encouragement to informers, thousands of them arose on all sides and the 
duties of the Inquisitors became easier. 

They were also sufficiently encouraged by Philip the Fair and Clement the V who 
presided over an auto da fe. In Italy, Austria, Spain, and particularly in France, a 
prodigious number of scaffolds were erected, which consumed the unfortunate victims 
of the cupidity of a Pope and the avarice of a King. 



So perished the gallant De Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars, and his 
brave companions in arms, betrayed, imprisoned, tortured and cruelly slaughtered by 
order of the Head of the Church and the Kings of the realms. 

These bloody executions having terminated the two execrable tyrants divided between 
themselves the riches of the Templars. Philip kept the land and Clement took all the 
ornaments of gold and silver, and the coined money, which enabled him to reward the 
infamous panderings of his nephew and the Countess de Foix. 

But God had at last marked the end of the term of this criminal existence. Whilst the 
Pontiff was being transported to Bordeaux his malady increased; they were obliged to 
stop his litter at Roquemare on the Rhone, in the Diocese of Nimes, where Clement 
died on the 20th day of April, 1314. 

As soon as Clement the V had closed his eyes, his treasures were pillaged. The 
cardinals seized on enormous sums of coined money. Bernard, Count de Lornogne, 
nephew and minion of the dead Pope, carried off chalices and ornaments worth more 
than a hundred thousand gold florins ($5,347,000.) The Countess de Foix stole as her 
share all the jewels of the HOLY FATHER, and there were no minions nor mistresses 
of the Cardinals who were not enriched by the spoils of the Sovereign Pontiff. 

Jean Villani says that "in the midst of this disorder in which every one was so desirous 
of pillage, they only left an old traveling mantle to cover the dead body of Clement, 
and that was in part consumed by a candle falling on the bed where it lay." 

For two whole years the Christian World was surrendered to the most deplorable 
anarchy. Philip the Fair followed Clement to the grave and the summons to them by 
De Molay at the stake "to meet him at the Bar of God within one year" had been 
fulfilled. (Philip IV, the Fair, was born at Fontainebleu, France, in 1268. He came to 
the throne in 1285. Crowned at Rheims Jan. 6th, 1286. Died Nov. 29th, 1314, from an 
accident while hunting.) In 1316 James de Ossa (or "Jimmy Bones" as he was called) 
was elected Pope, by himself placing the tiara on his own head, proclaiming himself 
Pope, by the name of "John the twenty- second," on the 21st of September of that year. 
He established the infamous "Apostolic Chancery" with a scale of prices for 
indulgences for every sort of crime which by its extortion and greed prepared the way 
for the light and dawn of the Great Reformation in the 16th century, until the sun of 
Liberty burst forth at last over the world, creating new Nations on the Continent of 
America, which free men and Freemasonry, amidst blood and tears, have consecrated 
as their own and our own beloved Scottish Rite, from the birth and organization of the 
American Republic and Nation, the United States of America, which can never be 
dissolved. Cato Perpatria. 



HOW TO STUDY FREEMASONRY 


BY BRO. R. I. CLEGG, OHIO 

(In the Symposium on this subject, the final installment of which was published in our 
last issue, the writers dwelt, at our suggestion, particularly upon the manner in which 
groups of students might enter upon the many phases of Masonic study to best 
advantage. Herewith Brother Clegg brings us, out of his wealth of Masonic 
experience, much that the individual student may do for himself, and by himself. We 
know from our correspondence that his article answers a question which from the 
beginning has been uppermost in the minds of many of our members, and answers it 
in a most practical way. As to method, Brother Clegg's presentation of the subject is 
simple and easily followed, whether one has fellow-workers near at hand or not. The 
material for study, as outlined, is as authentic as it is interesting, and therefore of great 
importance. Also, he shows what needs to be kept in mind, that those hard-working, 
practical men who do so much to strengthen and perfect the organization of Masonry, 
though they may not be learned in books, are Masonic students and builders.— The 
Editor. ) 

No easy task is it to give an answer that will fit all cases. Everything depends upon the 
Freemason who is to do the studying of Freemasonry and upon the particular angle of 
Freemasonry that appeals to him. For that matter, how many of us would think alike 
as to what was most interesting and most important? Even as to definitions of 
Freemasonry itself our ideas will not uniformly run on parallel tracks. 

So right here we may for convenience sake just as well say that for the puipose of 
what I am about to set down at this time I will take Freemasonry to be anything that 
has especial relationship to Freemasons. He that knows himself to be a Freemason 
(and any member of the Craft fully knows how to apply the needful tests) will also be 
aware that when Freemasonry is mentioned here by me it relates specifically to him 
and to such as he and to none other. 

Having already mentioned in these columns the very real difficulty of preparing a 
narrow and precise definition of Freemasonry that will meet the attacks of the most 
critical, I shall now as in the foregoing attempt make it broad enough to include all 
possible points of interest to the brethren. 

Just as we have seen the awkwardness of meeting everybody's requirements as to the 
subject matter, so too we find that there is variety galore in the students themselves. 
There are those Freemasons whose ideas about the study of Freemasonry are 



singularly restricted. They associate study with textbooks. To their view the studious 
Freemason is necessarily a bookworm. The fact is that some most studious 
Freemasons are not book lovers. 

Many of what I may term the executive class of Freemasons are devoted students of 
the Craft and of every branch thereof. Of this office-holding class filling all sorts of 
ritualistic positions and responsibilities there is included a countless array caring little 
and heeding less the historical accounts of the genesis of the various governing 
bodies. To them the present and the future are of paramount importance. Engrossed as 
they are in their personal affairs of business and the steady flood of labor in initiations 
and in allied services, they have no time to spare for literary enjoyment or for actual 
bookish research even if by any possibility they could create in themselves a taste for 
it. 

Research to a large extent they may pursue and yet not be aware of it as such. 
Circumscribed as they are by the devotion of their energies to the consideration of the 
fraternity's progress as bounded by their own career and their own affiliations, these 
men oft write with no uncertain pen records of lofty worth. Look you! What a wealth 
of study is woven into the construction and the financing of the Masonic buildings 
myriadly dotted over this broad land of ours! What eloquent histories are imperishably 
graven into these monumental memorials! Every stone therein is an eternal tribute to 
the zeal of the few or many students banded in the brotherhood of Freemasonry and 
whose joy it was to house their ceremonies in a fitting home. 

Furthermore, every man holding office in our mystic circle, or expecting to at some 
time have an office and meantime preparing himself to fill the place he anticipates, is 
to that extent a student and very often an ardent student of Freemasonry. 

It will thus be seen that there are various grades of Masonic students. We have those 
whose chief concern is with the immediate present and the near future, and then again 
we have those who look further afield. How then shall we prepare a course of 
instruction that meets all the requirements of the worthy brethren already mentioned 
and that will also serve for those who seek to plumb other and deeper depths ? And 
that is not all the difficulty. How shall we take due care of the many who have little to 
spend on books and who must therefore make the most of a very limited outlay. 
Neither can we overlook those of the unselfishly ambitious whose thoughts run 
lavishly toward the founding of a library to be an appropriate adjunct to some 
Masonic edifice of highest quality and purpose. 


Begin at the beginning. Let us first assume you have no books. 



1. Get a Bible. It is easily first of all books in or about Freemasonry. Preferably select 
one that opens out flat at any page. Very many inexpensive Bibles are freely supplied 
with maps and other helps to the better understanding of the text. A good 
Concordance is an excellent handbook to the convenient study of the Bible. The 
Concordance is very useful in locating a text of which you may not be able to 
remember more than one or two significant words. You will find Biblical references 
to Solomon's Temple particularly interesting in Chronicles and Kings, and on careful 
study you will probably agree with me that a second Hiram, doubtless a relative of the 
first, was on account of some mishap to his predecessor called in to finish the work. 

2. Get the Masonic Codes published by the Grand Lodge and the other Masonic 
bodies in which you hold membership. Many a time there arises a knotty little 
question that provided you have the information at home will enable you promptly to 
satisfy yourself as to the law. Very many of the references will be found to throw a 
flood of light upon the development of our jurisprudence. But whatever Codes you 
collect, omit not the one of your own Grand Lodge. That is the fundamental Masonic 
law next to the moral code of the Scriptures. 

3. Get the Standard Monitor of your State. Some Monitors are much more extended 
and elaborate than others. Especially do I admire the one prepared by P. G. M. Wm. 
M. Shaver, of Topeka, for the Grand Lodge of Kansas. On the Apron Lecture it is 
unusually valuable. But be sure and possess the one approved by the Grand Lodge of 
your own State if you desire the one only. 

4. Get the Concise History of Freemasonry written by Brother R. F. Gould. 

5. Get the Concise Cyclopedia of Freemasonry compiled by the late Brother Hawkins. 

Both of the above books are inexpensive and splendid possessions. Gould's larger 
History and Mackey's really comprehensive Encyclopedia are highly desirable 
additions to the above list but they are high in price, though fully worth all they cost. 
The History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders is delightfully written and is a 
scholarly work. Mackey and Singleton's History is in the same category. Gould's 
Concise History will fill all the student's wants for some time. 

So far I have paid attention to the larger class. I have weighed the possibilities open to 
the brother whose desire runs easily ahead of his modest pocketbook. We have 
contemplated something less than a ten-dollar expenditure. Let us now deal briefly 
with those whose means are more ample. 

(a) Write to the Secretary, Brother A. G. Pitts, Equity Building, Detroit, Mich., for a 
copy, it costs only ten cents, of the Masonic Curriculum reprinted by Palestine Lodge. 



This is the work of the late George Speth of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, the justly 
celebrated research body of Masonic students. If you can obtain all the books cited by 
Brother Speth you cannot but possess a very useful working library. 

(b) Write to Brother Frank Marquis, President of the Masonic Library Association at 
Mansfield, Ohio, for a list of the volumes collected by that enthusiastic body. The 
catalogue contains most useful notations to many of the books and the list forms an 
example and a guide. 

Please note that to secure all the foregoing works would demand much time and about 
two thousand dollars for books. 

(c) A subscription to the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 2076, of London, will bring a lot of 
information every year. Many of the Masonic bodies on the membership list published 
by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge issue publications of their own that are of decided 
importance. These are such treasures as the works printed under the auspices of the 
German Union of Freemasons, the Lodges of Research at Manchester and at 
Leicester, England; the several Lodges of Installed Masters at Leeds and elsewhere in 
England; the Masters and Wardens Lodge at Christchurch, New Zealand; the Masonic 
Bureau at Neuchatel, Suisse (Switzerland); the Masonic Library Association at 
Cincinnati, Ohio, and so on. 

(d) President Scott Bonham of the latter organization prepared some years ago a little 
handbook containing suggestions on the buying and the reading of Masonic works, 
and he has also in the same treatise a very good compilation of Masonic words that 
are frequently mispronounced. 

(e) Let me not overlook a series of three cards devised by Robert H. Corey, Registry 
Division, Post Office, Cincinnati, Ohio. These cards list the topics that are of greatest 
pertinence to the young Freemason and they may even be profitably handed to him 
one by one as he receives the lodge degrees. These lists are admirable. As was to be 
expected, they give references to such books as are easily obtained from the local 
Masonic library. 

A good Masonic friend of mine once told me of having invested some twenty- five 
dollars in books on Freemasonry and yet he could never get up interest enough to read 
them. Evidently something else was wanted that he did not buy with the books. Books 
are only a part of the thing. A taste must be cultivated for the information. 

My friend, himself, had out of his long experience a fund of Masonic data that was 
and is very interesting to me. Undoubtedly there were angles of Freemasonry that 
would have been entertaining and instructive to him. 



What then was the fault with the books that he bought? They did not fit. His purchase 
was no more appetizing to him than you would expect any job lot of books to be to 
him or anyone else. Thus it is obvious that the peculiar tendencies of the individual 
brother must be taken into consideration or the road to learning will be dry as dust. 

Therefore take notice that a worker in the Royal Arch cannot but be keenly interested 
in the pamphlet on the Chapter Degrees prepared by Dr. Wm. F. Kuhn of Kansas City. 
There is much charm in the books by Addison and Porter for the Knight Templar. 
Robertson's Cryptic Rite is exceedingly attractive to the devotee of the Council. 
Brockaway's History of Aurora Grata has Scottish Rite importance far beyond the 
membership of that century-old landmark among Eastern Masonic keepers of the 
faith. Ravenscroff s book upon the Comacines is in all too small compass the effort of 
a Freemason of standing among antiquarians to dig out of the remote past historical 
truths of consequence to all of us. The many essays of George W. Warvelle of 
Chicago on the Council and the Chapter and the Red Cross of Constantine are unique 
and ever to be treasured by the fortunate to whom they travel. In the same class are the 
productions of Librarian J. F. Sachse of the Grand Lodge Library at Philadelphia. Of 
the several productions of General Albert Pike they are all to be coveted, especially by 
the Scottish Rite Mason. These are but specimens of what may profitably be added to 
the possessions of the brother whose peculiar interests and connections require special 
information. 

And finally, my brethren, let me not overlook in closing the "Builders," by Brother 
Joseph F. Newton. It is charmingly written and enumerates many references to further 
sources of Masonic light. Of general appeal to all Freemasons it may well be deemed 
one the first selected for the founding of a home library. 


ON THE NATIONAL MASONIC RESEARCH SOCIETY 

BY BRO. ROBERT TIPTON, IOWA 

THE day in which we live is presenting for Masonry an unequaled opportunity for 
service. By reason of the many problems we are facing, Masonry can serve the common 
good as never before. The riches of her Holy of Holies she can bring as a benign gift for 
the uplift of man. Her truths can be told on highway and byway and her transcendent 
hope for the abolition of human strife which in this latter day is measured so much in 
blood and tears is not too far away to be realized. Her task indeed is gigantic, but are 
her resources not mighty? And truth and justice are eternally on her side. The 
establishing of the gracious world-wide brotherhood must no longer be conceived of as 



a “far off divine event.” Masonic idealism with its triune basic principle of freedom, 
toleration, and justice incoiporated in the economy of states, nations and empires, alone 
furnishes the foundation upon which friendship, morality and brotherly love can 
become possible. 

To create that human and divine enthusiasm that will bring a mutual understanding of 
the rights of men and nations stands then as the pre-eminent mission of Masonry today. 
We rejoice in the knowledge of the part that Masons have played in great movements of 
enlightenment in history. It is with sadness that we mark how the noblest and bravest of 
our order have had to suffer for their conviction, how they were stoned, starved and 
crucified. They lived when it required an unusual degree of physical as well as moral 
courage to be a Mason. Let us hope that their glorious example of heroism and their 
deathless passion for truth has not been in vain, and may we, inspired by their zeal and 
love, be as true to our visions and ideals, ready if needs be, to lay down our lives for 
them. Happily it is rare that our modem prophets and teachers of tmth are muzzled, but 
there stalks throughout the land a mighty spirit that is opposed to the tmth as Masons 
see it, and history grimly warns us of the fanaticism of bigotry and its cruelties and 
persecutions, so to awaken and teach and tell the tmth that the world might be better, 
because of its having lived, I conceive to be the great puipose of the National Research 
Society. 

II 

We can all then expect much, and heartily welcome the new society with its brilliant 
coterie of leaders. In the spirit of scholarship, on the lofty plane of reason governed by 
the spirit of charity, fairness and common sense can we alone hope to convince the 
world of the rightness of Philosophy and Religion and Government as Masonry 
declares it. I prophesy today that the new society will prove to be, in Masonry, the most 
powerful agency of any for the realization of the universal ideal, if our loyal and 
generous support is graciously and unselfishly given. 

The fundamental appeal of the new society is for the education - the higher education, if 
you please - of Masons in all that pertains to Masonry. To insure an efficient 
understanding of the place of the order in modem life through a studious research into 
the traditions and work of the order, is its first great care. As I view its mission the task 
assumes religious proportions. Can that indeed be called anything else but religion, 
which enjoins us to govern our life and work by that of which the Holy Bible, square 
and compasses are the symbols. The society then is assuming a most serious and 
solemn engagement for the good of the order. 


Ill 



I presume it to be a common experience among members of the Craft to find frequently 
among the brethren a regrettably limited conception of the nature of Masonry. And no 
doubt there frequently is to be found an unpardonable ignorance. Masonry. I feel, has 
become popular and cheap and some of its glory has become shadowed by pins and 
badges. Quantity has come to obsess quality. What if we had today to face the sore 
trials of our Masonic forebears, think you that you would find among the Craft, those 
whose physical and moral courage you question? It is a weighty tie that binds us and 
such a one that demands the highest human excellence. Masonic culture demands an 
intellectual morality, and this presumes capacity and desire for learning on the part of 
the Masonic aspirant. Are we then asking the unreasonable when we insist that our 
brother should know something of the traditions, history and influences of the order. 

The wilful ignorance of the mission of the order, especially when we find it among 
professors and ministers and others who should manifest the scholarly instinct, is 
unpardonable. I confess it often provokes me to question why they ever joined the 
order. Equally sad to me is that enthusiastic Mason who sees nothing in the order but its 
lip service, and who, having acquired such literal proficiency in the lodge ritual, tries to 
convey the impression that the first, midmost and last of Masonry rests in the 
possession of a good memory and a fair measure of dramatic instinct. 

IV 

It seems that a subtle form of Pharisaism has crept into our midst - which makes much 
of pots and pans and loud exclamations to the disparagement and neglect of the more 
abiding things, the fruits of the spirit of our noble order. It becomes pathetic when we 
view the unstability of our Pharisaism. Some one has said that the use of common 
Masonic terms - hoary with age - frequently are void of meaning to these much lauded 
proficient Masons. What, it is asked, is the meaning of Cowan and Cable tow, and 
before the question those who have been solemnly instructed to inculcate the principles 
of learning stand open mouthed in amazement, and it is surely quaintly humorous if not 
ludicrous to often listen, as some of us patiently do, to the sepulchral voices of many 
reverent Master Masons solemnly speaking the words they have not the slightest 
knowledge of their meaning. It is worse than the pious nonsensical chanting in the Latin 
of an ignorant priest. I for one shall be happy to welcome the movement that will strive 
to banish the antiquated terminology and render our ritual into easy unambiguous 
English. This, however, is but a minor feature after all but it serves to indicate the 
predominant feature of our order to so many Masons. To a multitude of initiates I often 
fear the Craft is nothing but a big club, something from which to acquire prestige, a sort 
of a mutual aid society without the usual embellishments of commercialism - good 
enough as a religion since its observances are on a religious plane, yet not religion. O, I 
tell you the absurdities of conception bom of ignorance is appalling. Let us wake up 
and mdely shock the Craft into the sobriety of thought that will make every man 



understand how serious and holy a thing it is to be a Mason, and how necessary a 
knowledge and love of Masonry is to the need of the world. 


The National Research Society is heralding a new day and Masonry is to be 
congratulated on the response of her sons - her scholar sons - whose great hope and 
supreme desire is to make scholars of all Masons - for in character the New Society is a 
University, and it, leaders for the most part are University bred men whose single 
passion is the good of the order, and more, even convincing the world by its words and 
deeds that Masonry is for the world. I have no desire to be iconoclastic and it may seem 
that I have been so, in arraigning the deficiencies I see in our midst. I plead to but one 
ambition, even the laying on Masonic hearts the fact that we are too indifferent to the 
deeper nature of our Order, and that the work of the new Society necessitates the loyal 
support of every man in our midst. In this alone appears to me to be possible the 
invigorating of our organic life so that we may vindicate before the world our claim to 
being the greatest benefactor of the race. 

CONTENTMENT. 

Let us leam to be content with what we have. Let us get rid of false estimates, set all the 
higher ideals - a quiet home; vines of our own planting; a few books full of the 
inspiration of genius; a few friends worthy of being loved, and able to love us in return; 
a hundred innocent pleasures that bring no pain or remorse; a devotion to the right that 
will not swerve; a simple religion empty of all bigotry, full of trust and hope and love - 
and to such a philosophy this world will yield all the joy it has. 

- David Swing. 


A MASONIC LESSON FROM A RAINDROP 

BY CHARLES N. MIKELS, P. G. M. OF INDIANA 

The Sun was created a long time before it was even partially understood. Those who 
were blind thought that its puipose was to "dispense light." Much was said about light. 
Somebody learned that Sahara was a desert and yet had an ocean of light. The desert 
lacked something practical. 



Then people conceived the idea that maybe the Sun had more than one purpose; that it 
made heat and power; that heat and power were necessary to make light serviceable; 
that heat made raindrops and raindrops made power. 

Unintelligent observation nearly spoiled the reputation of the Sun. He seemed to 
many, to peep over the horizon simply to flirt with the wavelets of the sea. He 
stimulated them until they were ready to fly to pieces. He called them pet names in 
vibrations so rapid that human ear could not register them. The wavelets wanted 
something genuinely hot. They wanted to get near something which had a burning 
heart. Finally the sea submitted to a change of form and part became something better. 
The sea vaporized and the vapor aspired to the Sun. 

This Maker of Light caused a never-ending modification of conventional water. The 
vapor climbed on steps of air until it obscured the light of the Sun itself. Then it 
received "a new name" and was called a Cloud. 

Even the clouds are misunderstood. They drift and drift until they strike against a cold 
and fruitless mountain top. The immovable mountain could not understand a change. 
The cloud meant to softly caress the mountain and moisten its dry brow, but there was 
no welcome. The clouds were chilled. This drifting dust of the sea shrank and 
crowded together in sensitiveness; centralized in sympathy; had no real helpfulness 
until it did centralize. A raindrop fell as a result. 

The cloud died in giving birth to a raindrop. While it fell, a sunbeam from the heart of 
the Sun, shot into the raindrop, ran around its walls, saw that it was an improvement 
over the sea and came out a rainbow of Hope with a message of Change. It seems odd 
that God cannot be satisfied with things as they are but must put on a policy of 
change. Even a rainbow changed sunbeam. 

Crazy with disappointment, the raindrop started down the mountainside, homesick for 
the sea. It traveled in foreign countries. It dodged around boulders which hindered its 
progress. No immovable "forms" could stop it. It saw other homesick raindrops and 
"joined" them in a common puipose. Enough of them form a tricklet, a streamlet, a 
rivulet, a river, yet a river is nothing but a few million heart-sick raindrops sprinting 
for their cradle in the sea. 

A raindrop has a "rough and rugged road to travel from the mountain top of yesterday 
to the sea of tomorrow. It is little but it is mighty. It is slow, but is persistent. Harness 
a raindrop to the horns of Gravitation and it will dig a canyon. But what use has the 
world for a canyon, a big gash in the bosom of earth, which has to be bridged or stop 
travel? A canyon is a purposeless, brainless, heartless monument to waste energy until 
you make another change. 



Fraternalize a raindrop, a grain of sand and a changed sea shell and you can dam a 
canyon which is an unused opportunity. Then you can turn the canyon's liquid 
energies into heat and light and power. You have to add head and heart and hand to do 
it. You put the hoe of purpose into the hands of intelligent method under the direction 
of common-sense and imagination, to get a new result out of old forces in a new way. 

Twin raindrops as alike as two peas, did two things. One acted conventionally and 
caused waste. The other sprung an innovation and warmed the world. 

There is a lodge room on the banks of the Niagara River, in which to learn many 
mysteries. Its covering is a clouded canopy or starry-decked Heaven. Many have paid 
an initiation fee in car fare and hotel bills to visit it. A few people "work" there. A few 
return. The great majority of initiates never come back. All wear an indistinct memory 
as a badge of membership. 

The Falls are one of the mysteries of God. Many have admired its age. Some have 
been awed with its tireless voice of Omnipotence. Others marvelled at its unmastered 
might. Generally people had no practical puipose when they went there and had none 
when they left. The river was nothing but raindrops and the Falls were nothing but a 
jump of raindrops which could not wait. 

After the centuries had grown weary with waiting for God to tell some man what is 
the great mystery of the Falls, an innovator stood on the same spot and saw the same 
sights. The waste challenged his wit and opened his heart. God whispered to him that 
the Falls were meant to be used, and not looked at merely. Wonderful, age-old 
mystery! Practice, and not theory! 

This spectator talked about changing the situation. Every sightseer who had no ideas, 
called him crazy. This particular spectator decided that God created Niagara River and 
Niagara Falls for a practical puipose; that the puipose had never been seen or had 
been forgotten; that God never meant waste of time or opportunity or power. 

In his sincere simplicity this unconventional, unsophisticated soul had heard of people 
who said often and far and wide, that the thing they most desired was "light," "more 
light," "further light." He thought that they meant it, but they didn't; they merely 
wanted to talk about wanting it. There it was running away, enough to answer their 
wildest dreams and not a soul would permit the answer to their own wishes because it 
came in a new way. They did not see the end from the beginning. They had no 
imagination. They did not know how. The idea was too big for them to grasp easily 
and at once. 



This sightseer was obsessed by the thought that he had had a wireless message from 
God; that he alone understood the situation. He suggested that some of these Niagara 
raindrops be diverted to practical uses instead of stereopticon views. 

What a storm of indignation broke upon his head! Change is never practical in 
prospect. An established change is a habit. The Falls were perfect as they were. Let 
well enough alone. They are as they were yesterday. That is good enough for 
tomorrow. He was laughed at but the laugh did not take. He fought first to get the 
world used to the idea. It did get used to his thought. Nothing can head off, 
permanently, the reign of a sound idea. 

This fellow, who was of no official importance, argued that a practical engineer 
should dream out the details of a practical plan to cause raindrops to manufacture and 
deliver light and to deliver heat and power with light. He argued for a constructive 
instead of a "stand pat" policy. He argued that men with burning hearts should replace 
men who sit on the brakes of progress. He argued for a central light plant instead of 
the raindrop system. Everybody said that there could be none, because there had been 
none. But there was. 

What difference did it make to this innovator that the President, Senators, 
Congressmen, Governors, Legislatures, all the officiary of habit, were against him! 
What difference did it make because those who want ideas digested and fed to them as 
if they were young mental robins, insisted on sleeping in comparative darkness, on the 
bri nk of a good thing! It was his business to wake them. He was talking about the 
puiposes of God. God wanted the world to actually and really have more light, heat 
and power. 

The world did not care what God wanted. People wanted that to which they were 
accustomed. The bottomless canyon of habit intervened. Niagara Falls had always 
been "an ancient landmark" of waste, and waste is a virtue when it is old enough. 

People of petrified puiposes fought him, doubted him, hindered him. The dynamic 
heart of this custodian of God's puiposes of helpfulness, hammered the idea into the 
heads of men for their own good. He literally hammered, repeated, reiterated until he 
forged the key of attention which opened the door to their brain cells so that an idea 
could walk in. He aroused interest; study followed; puipose ripened; judgment 
acquiesced; some assisted. Everybody knows what happened. The right was permitted 
to prove that it was right. The right prevailed. The logic of efficiency conquered. The 
raindrops were commanded to turn aside. They co-ordinated for the benefit of man. 
These sovereign, independent raindrops were organized and directed by a 
combination of masterful intelligences possessed of a combined puipose. 



More light and heat and power followed. Everybody is used to the idea today, hence it 
is safe. Men of those days shied at this practical idea of helpfulness just as western 
broncos shy at a stray page from the Bible. The bronco does not understand the Bible. 
He never tried. If he knew anything he knew that the usual place for a page of the 
Bible is in a property room of a Church, home or Lodge. An active page from the 
Bible in a strange place has to be explained to men even. 

God has plenty of time to wait and he has plenty of patience. Man has but three score 
and ten years so he has to be in a hurry to see ideas bud, blossom and bear fruit. The 
persistence of this dreamer of innovations, made him a pest to all whose heads were 
asleep. 

And yet all but this dreamer were mistaken. It did not hurt the world nor mar Niagara 
Falls to change its purpose and plans. There was less light when these raindrops had 
no leadership. Light is applied theory. It is intelligent practice. Heat is not frenzied 
fancy. It is useful every day and not merely on Saturday night on or before full moon. 
Power is not fiction. It is fact, helpful fact. It is sane to secure more light, to secure 
aggressive heat, to increase power by change. 

With the potential power of a river of God's, Masonry has rambled and twisted 
through the bed of two speculative centuries without the direction of organized 
premeditation. To change the figure, it has plowed a great furrow in history. But it 
never had a headplowman who knew anything about intensive farming. 

Masonry has stood pat in the face of God's manifest policy of evolution, and has 
prided herself on the fact. It even glories in repeating words, phrases, paragraphs, 
degrees which have lost their fitness like the Fellow Craft's degree. 

Four or five times in these centuries, some incarnation of Fortitude, has dared to 
challenge the perfection of Masonry just as Preston did. He was an innovator. He was 
a Masonic heretic demanding the light of education. He made a change, a radical 
change, a helpful change. We are used to his change now, so we forgive him, we 
applaud him. New styles in thoughts, ideas, practice and puiposes are no more popular 
than new shoes. Maybe the shoes will not fit. When soles wear out, you have to get 
new ones or go to bed and sleep. 

Preston jarred the brain cells of his co-temporaries. He compelled them to think. He 
compelled them to think when they did not wish to think, of things with regard to 
which they did not wish to think. So did Krause, Oliver and Pike. They should have 
been expelled as disturbers of the age-old peace. Why in the world, did they not let 
well enough alone? Wasn't Masonry growing in numbers fast enough; collecting 
initiation fees enough, wearing badges enough, building enough Temples ? What 



more could you want ! Practical puiposes of the heart are less easily understood than 
practical puiposes of dollars. 

Your National Masonic Research Society isn't an innovation. No one need to be 
afraid. You have simply jumped back one hundred and fifty years to get a little of the 
puiposes of Preston. You have resurrected a part of a dead puipose. He talked of 
education in general. You talk of Masonic education in particular. This puipose is 
narrow enough to be safe. Certainly you are safe. God is probably applauding you 
while we fear lest you let the logic of Truth guide you fearlessly, no matter where it 
takes you. You might find out what God meant Masonry to do and be and how. 

You cannot prevent our learning at least one thing from Preston, Krause, Oliver and 
Pike. They slipped the straight jacket of habit from their minds and hearts. They 
proved that there is a mental peace which is stagnation. 

Masonry has an unpremeditated and unspeakable responsibility because it has 
permitted nearly 2,000,000 men in this country alone, to pass its ritualistic doors. If 
Masonic Truth is being eagerly, frequently, heartily, personally incoiporated in the 
lives of 90 per cent of these members, under the direction of Grand Masters, Past 
Grand Masters and Grand Lodge Officers, Masonry is a practical, vitally effective 
fraternal order and these officers should be crowned with "Well done." 

If you have to drum up quorums, apologize for lack of attendance and interest when 
degree work is done, if scarcely 10 per cent of the 2,000,000 members get under the 
influence of Masonry at all, there is a lack of heat and power at least. 

Sovereign raindrops running independently through a channel of habit, without real 
puipose, without practical plans, without power, without head, call for another of 
God's inspired changes. 

Runaway raindrops are an emblem of waste. Waste is inefficiency. Masonry is a 
progressive science if there is progress. Does it fit the modem heart or is there a lot of 
lost motion? Is Masonry efficient? Could it be made better? Can you make it better? 
Will you make it better? How? 

The first thing to do is to get your Masonic bearings. Understand it as it is. Is Masonry 
efficient? 

— o — 


THE MYSTERY OF WORDS WELL SAID. 



There is a mystery of words well said, 

And many labor in that craft; but few 
Avail to win the worship which is due 
The Master, of his work accredited. 

To some the days their own fulfillment bear, 

Night healeth all their languors, and content 
Sweetly attends their task's accomplishment— 

A measured portion, and an equal care. 

But these are not the Master— not the priest 
Of those high mysteries of words well said; 

But lesser workmen, toiling in his stead: 

For evermore his travail is increased 
Until that he shall frame that greater Word 
Whereat, sublime and perfect, walks the Man; 

As once where Pison and Euphrates ran 
Eastward from Eden, garden of the Lord. 

—John Edmund Barss. 

THE INNER LAW. 

For the commandment is not hidden from thee; neither is it far off. It is not in heaven 
that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we 
may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy 
heart, that thou mayest do it. 



—Deuteronomy XXX. 


— o — 

THE POWER OF LOVE. 

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself have formulated empires. But upon 
what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon Force. Jesus Christ alone founded 
his empire upon Love, and at this moment millions of men will die for Him. 

—Napoleon. 

— o — 

FOUNDATION STONES 

BY BRO. FRANK L. HAYCOCK 

ANOTHER year has ended: another year has commenced. If the old year has had its 
lessons for us, let us hope the new will have even more. And though we may not hope 
to make Masonry different, or more than what it is, and has been, we may still strive 
to come in closer contact with its principles and precepts, and seek its secrets still 
deeper, that we may have a better understanding of its hidden meaning. 

For there is a hidden meaning yet. Let no brother presume to have grasped the 
meaning of all of our ceremonies: let no one think that the lectures so far as they go in 
our three degrees of symbolic Masonry are even intended to convey the true meaning 
of our initiatory ceremonies. 

In Masonry, as in the arts and sciences, "there is no Royal road to learning." What we 
learn we must seek for: what is buried we must uncover. 

But as was the case with our traditional sprig of Acacia, the place is marked, the way 
is pointed out, the line is drawn that we may or must follow. If we lose the road it is 
our own fault. If the real secrets persist in remaining heled, we must dig if we would 
find them. Rubbish must be cleared away. Our highest reasoning powers must be 
invoked; and the best that is in our intellect be brought to bear. 

As I went over in my own mind what I might have to offer to the brethren on this 
occasion, I was minded to give it the title "Foundation Stones"; and later I was 
reminded of a little verse from our Great Light; and the thought struck me that any 
discourse pertinent to Masonry, must of necessity, partake somewhat, if not fully, of a 



moral or at least of an ethical nature; and I wondered if a text would be out of place. If 
not, then the text I would take, or rather the text I would in my humble way endeavor 
to enlarge upon, is in Proverbs, and reads, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He 
shall direct thy paths." And in Proverbs also by the way, there is another verse that is 
applicable, which says, alluding to wisdom and understanding:— "Her ways are ways 
of pleasantness and all her paths are peace." This verse is a poetic gem by itself, but 
the thought in it is far grander than all the poetry that was ever written. 

To those whom I fail to impress with what I am about to say, I would recommend a 
reading of that beautiful book of Proverbs, especially the 2nd, 3rd and 4th chapters. 

When we leave the Apprentice degree behind, with its teachings of Morality and 
Virtue, and arrive symbolically at the foot of the winding stairs, many things are 
pointed out to us that demand our close attention if we would improve our 
opportunities. Unfortunately, it seems, there is so large a scope covered within a short 
time dealing with the different arts and sciences, that even with the closest 
concentration, most of us are unable when we hear it, for even many times, to retain 
or grasp its connection with Masonic principles. 

This is confirmed in my mind by an incident that occurred in this very Lodge many 
years ago, when. I heard one of the principal officers of our Grand Lodge remark, 
speaking of this degree, that, he "could write a better degree himself." 

But when within the middle chamber, the meaning of the letter "G" is explained to us, 
we should then begin to conceive the true import of the meaning of various things. I 
shall always contend, that while the lodge may be as its members make it, Masonry 
itself is founded so firmly, and rooted so deeply in enduring verities, that if all of one 
lodge, or of many lodges should depart almost wholly from everything Masonic, but 
its forms and ceremonies, yet no one could justly say that Masonry is as Masons make 
it. It is the fact of its "Foundation Stones" that I seek to show - the fact that it has 
endured so long conclusively proving their existence. 

All through this degree the attempt is made to link together, operative and speculative 
Masonry; and we are told near the end, speaking of geometry and architecture, 
"Geometry, the first and noblest of sciences is the basis upon which the superstructure 
of Masonry is erected." 

To my mind, that does not mean just what it says. The superstructure of Masonry was 
never erected upon a simple science; but, the application of geometry to the science of 
astronomy did, by determining the fact of a regular and systematic order in the 
movements of the heavenly bodies, inspire in men's minds a greater, firmer, and a 



larger respect for a supreme governing power whom we sometimes term the Grand 
Artificer of the Universe. 


Later we are told:— "A survey of Nature and the observation of her beautiful 
proportions, first, & c— 

This idea of a foundation is something that all men have inherently considered. We 
have always sought to know what was at the bottom of things. It is natural for man to 
turn to the acquisition of wisdom when purely animal wants and desires are satisfied. 
In this one thing more than in anything else, man differs from the rest of the animal 
kingdom. And, as one generation thrives upon the gathered knowledge and 
accumulated wisdom of those who have been before, we pay our debt to humanity by 
adding a little bit more and passing it to posterity. 

The first architect, what of him? His first structures were made with the idea of 
stability and security, if we are to believe the tales told of the cave-men. Then 
probably came rude huts with growing trees used as corner posts, poles from one to 
the other, and other poles on them, a covering of wild grass or skins for roof, brush 
woven together for walls. As architecture advanced, men were not satisfied with what 
was purely for utility in dwellings and structures, and the idea of ornamentation crept 
in; and this at times in the past has been carried to such an extreme, that the cheap and 
gaudy embellishments of certain periods would seem ridiculous in a building of today. 
Some of our plainest structures, that follow symmetrical lines, we now consider the 
most pleasing to the eye. 

But even in our towering buildings with their noble spring of arch, piercing of sky- 
line, heavy cornice, and symmetrical ornaments, do we, in admiring their general 
pleasing effect to the eye, consider what the architect was forced to consider! namely, 
the solid foundation on which it must rest, and the strength so cunningly hidden, to 
form the support of its towering superstructure? A tall, beautiful building, shorn of 
what goes to make up its general finished appearance, has about as much beauty as a 
hay rack. The extreme height of some of the structures of today, demand extremes in 
foundations, and these go deeper and yet deeper, and the builder is but following 
natural laws in his plans and provisions. 

And here is the lesson that architecture teaches to Masons— that we should embellish 
and adorn our minds with useful knowledge; but that our principles should conform to 
the laws of God, as the architect's plans conform to the laws of nature and of physics. 
The Masonic edifice is founded on firmest supports, else we could not build thereon. 
We cannot build without starting squarely over and upon these underlying truths and 
fundamental principles. 



As it is with Masons, so with all society and the State as a whole; for what is good for 
Masons is good for all. Masonry may be big enough some day to embrace all 
mankind. I have no doubt but what it will when mankind shows itself worthy. I 
believe that Masonry in its inception, (that is, modem Masonry) was intended to be 
helpful to society, to improve the social state, through inspiring in men's minds, the 
necessity of considering the existence of a supreme Being who was all wise— who had 
prescribed laws for all human acts- -who, to discourage men from attempting to rear 
an artificial state, had so arranged things that men might not with impunity ignore the 
least of his laws— that any infringement, any departure from what the "great 
intelligence" had said should be, would result only in confusion and suffering. 

As one writer has put it, "the core and essence of our belief is, that there is in social 
relations, as in physical relations, a law, an order, a law which everywhere coincides 
with the divine law, an order which shows intelligence and beneficence." 

As society grows and becomes more complex, we, who superintend the building must, 
if we are true Masons and real builders, go more and more to the bottom of things— 
seek further and further for the governing laws which we are taught exist— endeavor 
with all the intelligence at our command to interpret the tme meaning of the search for 
the "Master's word." 

The higher we go in the scale of civilization, the deeper we must delve into the 
question of what supports it, just as, the higher the architect goes up with his structure, 
the deeper he must go down with foundation. 

I consider it a privilege and an honor to be placed with a society whose fortune it is to 
make men wiser, better, and consequently happier. It should be a noble work, and to 
do it and do it well, the "foundation stones" should be sought out and securely placed. 

If our acts, either as an individual or as a Lodge, or in the State and the community as 
a whole, will bear the supreme test of having "acknowledged Him" let us not think it 
strange that the result is misery and suffering, and poverty with all its attendant ills. 

We are but children of one Father, Brotherhood and interdependence are but facts in 
Nature. Our simplest reasoning powers, following the lines of least resistance, are our 
surest guide, and lead us into safest paths. One writer has truly said "No consecrated 
absurdity could have stood its ground in this world, if the man had not silenced the 
objections of child." 

Vanity makes fools of us all. Who are we anyway, that we should do aught but be 
guided by our Creator in all our ways? Does any man come into this lodge, 
subscribing to his belief in the existence of, and acknowledging that he puts his trust 



in a Supreme being, imagine that he has any powers whatever, except those with 
which he is endowed by God? All that man is existed before he ever saw the light. 

The very elements that compose his physical being were tangible matter long ago; and 
may have been used by other earthly inhabitants, and may be so used again and yet 
again. 

If man has power independent of what he draws from nature, or if his inner intellect is 
other than a part of God, then indeed we all are gods. But such is not the case, "As a 
swallow darting through thy hall, such, O! King is the life of man." 

In this world we live in, nothing escapes, nothing elementary is ever, or has ever been, 
waste or, destroyed. 

We do not change the form, location, and shape of things. In this short life of ours we 
either do, or do not, add to the sum of human knowledge; and what more laudable 
than to study who we are, where we came from, why we are here, and what it is 
intended that we should do? How may we better pay our debt to those who were 
before us, than to bequeath to those to come, a larger store of understanding, 
something to assist them in the problems that will constantly confront them? 

If we build upon the sands, or if we use not "foundation stones" true and tested, then 
our lives have been for naught, our work of no avail. We not only have done nothing, 
we have made accomplishment more difficult for those who follow us, as they must 
first wreck what we have built and lay the foundations true and solid, in order that the 
fabric of that temple, erected to God, and dedicated to the holy Saints John, may rise 
true and plumb, and endure forever in the Kingdom of God. 


EDITORIAL 

(The Builder is an open forum for free and fraternal discussion. Each of its 
contributors writes under his own name, and is responsible for his own opinions. 
Believing that a unity of spirit is better than a uniformity of opinion, the Research 
Society, as such, does not champion any one school of Masonic thought as over 
against another; but offers to all alike a medium for fellowship and instruction, 
leaving each to stand or fall by its own merits.) 


THE TRESTLE BOARD. 



AFTER six months service as Editor of the journal of this Society, it may not be amiss 
to look back for a moment and see how far we have come and what has been done, 
keeping in mind the original designs on the Trestle Board. Detailed report of the 
activities of the Society has been made by its Secretary, and what we give here are 
some impressions which have come to us in the course of our labors. Editors have their 
troubles, so we infer from the preface to the Masonic Calendar of the Province of 
Buckinghamshire, England, in which the Editor of that volume says: 

“They say a reasonable amount of fleas is good for a dog - keeps him from brooding 
over being a dog, maybe. And so I suppose a reasonable amount of worries is good for 
an Editor - keeps him from brooding over being an Editor, maybe. With some 
Secretaries gone to the war and others gone to the dogs, with some of the old ones that 
are left gone out of their senses and some of the new ones never having had any senses 
to go out of, the compilation of the Calendar for 1915 will stand out forever it my 
memory as one of those rugged hilltops, like measles and matrimony and first cigars, 
which one does not want to have to climb more than once during life's weary 
pilgrimage.” 

Happily we have met no such fate, albeit our experiences have been sufficiently varied 
and laborious to keep us from brooding over being an editor, and from taking on any 
airs by virtue of that fact. Of course we have had our difficulties, as we expected, but 
our labors have been delightful, if somewhat exacting, and use would fain believe not 
altogether in vain. Meantime, the fact that stands out like a star is the enthusiasm and 
co-operation of the Craft in an enterprise which they are now certain is one of great 
importance and promise, and to which they lend their earnest support. The wonder is 
that the difficulties have not been greater, for it was a new and untried undertaking, and 
if they have not been as trying as anticipated it is due to the deeply felt need for such a 
Society, and to the remarkable response to its appeal in behalf of the Study Side of 
Masonry. 

Chief among our delights has been the closer contact with Masonic students from one 
end of the land to another, and beyond the seas, and their quick recogniton of the need 
and puipose of this Society. When we began our labors we knew only a few of our 
fellow- workers in the field of Masonic study, but they have made themselves known 
and have shown their readiness to serve, offering the choice results of their researches. 
Besides, they have undertaken arduous tasks at our request, the fruits of which the Craft 
will harvest in due time, and not a few of them have responded to our need, often on 
short notice, with articles of the first order of worth. They have been wise in counsel, 
fruitful in suggestion, and in all ways possible have made us aware of their interest and 
eagerness to assist in a labor which means so much for the better understanding of 
Masonry and the better ordering of its thought and endeavor. 



Meanwhile we have learned many things - a fact which some of our Brethren will be 
glad to know, for they have told us that we have much to learn, including not a little 
which we still think is not so - and one of them is the obvious need for real scholarship 
and clear thinking in Masonry. The London Freemason notes with amazement, not 
unmixed with amusement, that an American Lodge listened to an extensive paper upon 
“Jesus Christ - A Mason,” and remarks that “American Masonic journals have 
published, in ten years or less, more nonsensical imaginative rubbish than English 
Masons would tolerate in a century.” English journals, it adds, closed their columns 
against a number of incredulous fallacies some years ago. Perhaps this criticism is 
justified, and if so, it does but emphasize the necessity for this Society and its journal 
which seeks, with the aid of the best Masonic students of the land, to clear the air and 
set authentic Masonic truth in the light. 

Absurdities there are in plenty, as we can testify - they have beseiged us, clamoring to 
be heard - and to deal with them asks for skill and patience. Some would shut them out 
entirely, as the Freemason has done; others would explode them on the spot, and 
thereby wound the feelings of good but misinformed men; but some of us prefer to 
meet them gently and with charity, the while we tell the truth so simply and plainly that 
they can be seen for what they are and put where they belong. Admit that every kind of 
fantastic nonsense is being taught in the name of Masonry, it only shows how much 
work lies before Masonic students and serves as a challenge to them to bestir 
themselves in behalf of sound learning and the spread of the truth. What the late Robert 
Gould did for Masonic history must now be done, especially in America, for Masonic 
symbolism and philosophy, and in this difficult labor The Builder hopes to have no 
small part in the years to come. 

Not much can be done in six months towards working out the program outlined in the 
Foreword to The Builder. Nevertheless, a beginning has been made, and Masons 
everywhere are coming to realize that such a program, if worked out - as it can be, and 
will be in time - will permanently influence the future of American Masonry in ways 
which no man can measure. In the presence of this possibility, we may well renew our 
vows to keep inviolate the Masonic inheritance handed down to us, turning neither to 
the right nor to the left from the path marked out by ages of experience, and never for a 
day forget the great design drawn on the Trestle Board of The Order. While we are 
writing essays, editing journals, discussing symbolism and philosophy, let us always 
remember that the best thing about Masonry is that it wins the homage of elect youth, 
teaches them to pray to the God in whom their fathers trusted, and upon the open Bible 
which their mothers read asks them to take oath to be good men and true, chaste of 
heart and charitable of mind, to build their characters upon the homely old moralities, 
and to estimate life by its sanctity and service. 



Masonry is not everything; it is a thing as distinctly featured as a statue by Phidias or a 
painting by Angelo. Peipetuating the Men's House of primitive society, it is a world- 
wide fraternity of God-fearing men, founded upon spiritual faith and moral truth, using 
the symbols of architecture to teach the art of building character; a historic fellowship in 
the search for truth and the service of man, whose sacramental mission it is to make 
men friends and to train them in righteousness, liberty, and charity. By as much as this 
mission is fulfilled, by so much will humanity be healed of the wounds of war, the 
crime of greed, the shame of lust, and all injustice and unkindness. 

* * * 

So unqualified an endorsement of the aims of this Society and the ideals of its journal - 
as well as the spirit of its Secretary and its Editor - as that given by the Grand Lodge of 
Indiana at its last communication, in the special report on the Study Side of Masonry, is 
of far-reaching significance. It was gracious and most encouraging, and it means much 
to have two such Grand Jurisdictions as Iowa and Indiana give their sanction to a 
movement for Masonic education truly national in scope, and whose puipose it is to 
promote good-fellowship, free discussion, sound learning, and practical efficiency in 
Masonry. No doubt other Grand Lodges will take due notice and govern themselves 
accordingly, as we believe they realize, what ought by this time to be plain, that this 
Society is no scheme for the floating of a magazine, but the largest organized body of 
Masonic students in the world, founded by the authority of the Grand Lodge of Iowa to 
diffuse the kindly light of Masonry. 

* * * 

We regret that the second chapter of the “Early History of Masonry in America,” by 
Grand Master Johnson of Massachusetts, has been delayed, owing to the pressure upon 
our columns; but it will appear in due course, setting forth the claims of the old Bay 
State in forthright manner. Interest in the Society has grown so rapidly, and articles 
have come so thick and fast, that it is not always easy to select where there is so much 
that is good and timely. None the less, every article, every suggestion, every question - 
of which there are a multitude - receives due consideration, and if the Editor is not 
always able to reply to his correspondents at once, he begs his Brethren to believe that 
it is not humanly possible to do so. 

* * * 

As this issue of The Builder will reach its readers on or before Independence Day, we 
call special attention to the address of Brother Keiper, Past Grand Master of the District 
of Columbia, on the Washington Memorial to be erected at Alexandria, Va., because of 
the admirable and impressive way in which it states the spirit, puipose and symbolism 



of that enterprise. The speaker portrays the movement in its higher and deeper 
meanings, as a proposal to build not simply a monument to a great man and Mason, but 
to uplift a shrine whither pilgrim multitudes may go and renew their homage to the 
Spirit of Masonry which found embodiment in the Constitution of this Republic, and 
vow new allegiance to the principles of civil and religious liberty which Washington 
and his Masonic compeers wrought into the organic law of this nation. 

* * * 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

A CORRECTION. 

Dear Sir and Friend: - If it had not been for poor health and pressure of work, I would 
have written last month in regard to the misstatements contained in Professor Pound's 
lecture about my father in the April number of The Builder. It is incorrect to say that my 
father did not enter Harvard because he was too poor: I have stated the truth briefly in 
the biographical sketch of him in the introduction to the volume of his poems, but shall 
amplify it somewhat in my Life. But I cannot wait for that to contradict the assertions 
about his connection with the Indians in the Civil War. At first I was very indignant that 
Prof. Pound should have revived that old slander; but, on reflection, I concluded that it 
was well that I should have a chance to refute it. It is absolutely untrue. 

My father did not go into the Indian Territory to raise regiments to fight in the 
Confederate Army against Union troops; nor did he voluntarily take them into the battle 
of Elk Horn. He went to the Indian Territory as Commissioner from the Confederate 
States to make treaties with the Indians, and succeeded so well that he was made 
Brigadier General in conmand of that Territory. He made a stipulation, however, which 
was agreed to by the Confederate government, that the Indians were not to be called out 
of the Territory to fight, but were to be organized solely for defense, in case of invasion. 
The Major-General commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department broke this 
agreement, and ordered my father to join him with all the forces under his command. 
My father protested bitterly, stating that some of the Indians were not civilized or 
disciplined, and it would not be possible to prevent them from fighting in their old 
savage way. His protests were over-ruled and his advice flouted; and the blame was left 
on him. It was this and other high-handed proceedings of other Commanding Generals, 
that caused him to resign from the Confederate Army. 

I heard some of these facts from my father himself, and the rest from members of his 
staff, especially from Major Fayette Hewitt, who after the war was made Quartermaster 
General of the State of Kentucky by Governor Stevenson. I feel sure you will give as 



wide publicity to this correction as to the erroneous statement, which casts such a 
reflection upon my father's memory. 

Very sincerely yours 

Lilian Pike Roome. 

* * * 


TK AND THE GREAT SCHOOL. 

Dear Brother: - have read with much interest your review of “The Great Work,” by TK. 
I, too, have read the book more than once, and have also studied somewhat the writings 
of other men along somewhat the same line. My greatest interest has centered around 
the problem of demonstrating the future life - that is, the continued existent of the 
individual after physical death. 1 note your statement, “Moreover, he (the editor) holds 
that this kind of search for certainty is not only useless, but dangerous, in that it is 
seeking for something which is manifestly not ordained for humanity.” Would it be 
presumptuous if 1 asked you to further elucidate this passage in your review? ft would 
be most interesting to me, and, 1 think to others who have studied the problem if you 
give us further instruction along the line of the following questions: 

1 . Why is the search for evidence of the fact of another life (after physical death) 
useless and dangerous? Could you give us any positive information along this line ? 
Have you proven it as positively as you assert it? 

2. Upon what evidence do you base your very positive statement that this knowledge is 
“manifestly not ordained for humanity?” You will note that your statement does not 
seem to be the assertion of a belief, but the word “manifestly” would seem to indicate 
that you have demonstrated its accuracy. 

My reason for making this request is this. TK states very positively that evidence of the 
fact of a life after death is obtainable, and offers to enable the student to make the 
demonstration of the truthfulness of his assertions. If, therefore, you are correct, he is 
most assuredly wrong. If he is right, then it must be that you are in error. While I have 
not proven that he is correct, yet I firmly believe that he is. Inasmuch, however, as I 
recognize that belief is of very little importance as compared with actual knowledge, I 
am very anxious to gain all the information possible on this subject. 

You also state that no evidence of the existence of the Great School is forthcoming. 
Before making this statement did you make a request of any member of the Great 
School for any evidence along this line? Your statement would leave one to infer that it 



is not possible to obtain this evidence. Is that a fact ? I have understood from one of his 
friends that TK is willing to discuss with others matters pertaining to the School, and he 
has stated in his magazine that he is willing to meet men in the interests of science. 

Have you tried to meet him? If there is no such School, then TK is a liar, and I have 
been wasting my time in reading his books. Moreover, if he is lying, he should be 
exposed. His statements, as you know, are as positive as those which you make, and are 
not attributed to mere belief. Besides, from the nature of the thing he must know 
whether or not this Great School is in existence, since he claims to be a member of it. 

If, on the other hand, he is correct, it would seem that he should not refuse a reasonable 
request for information. Seriously, I believe that the matter here touched upon would be 
of interest to a good many Masons, for TK's books are pretty widely read among the 
Craft. I know personally a good many Masons who feel that his Great Work is, indeed, 
the greatest Masonic book ever written; and if this rapidly growing estimate is incorrect, 
The Builder, in my opinion, could do no better work than to stop it. 

Sincerely and fraternally, 

Joe Fennell, Jr., Kentucky. 

(Many thanks for this straightforward letter. Taking first things first, let it be said that 
the immortality of the soul is the polar expedition of philosophy, as it is the polar star of 
faith. There is a sense in which it may be said to be scientifically demonstrated, in the 
same way that all the great conceptions of science and philosophy are true - because the 
integrity of the human mind, and the rationality of human experience, make its reality a 
necessity. (Brother Fennell will be interested in a chapter on this subject in a recent 
book, “Is Death the End?” by J. H. Holmes.) Now as to the questions which he 
formulates so concisely: 

(1) Never once did we intimate that all search for evidence of the fact of another life, 
after physical death, is useless and dangerous, but only that specific kind of uncanny 
search, and other methods of like sort, recommended by TK - that is, inducing a state of 
consciousness or unconsciousness, by means of ascetic practices, in which the mind 
leaves the body and travels in the unseen world and works and receives the wages of a 
Master. With all possible respect, we still hold such methods to be dangerous to body 
and soul alike, if for no other reason, that they think to find the truth by putting the 
mind of man to sleep, or at least by setting at naught its greatest powers and 
achievements. Moreover, such methods are useless as to results, first, because they have 
not yet revealed any important or substantial fact. Second, they are not needed, for that 
Eternity is here, we live in it, and the sky begins at the top of the ground. When a man 
lives as becomes a citizen of Eternity, life discloses its own eternal quality, and death is 
seen to be only an incident in the immortal life. 



(2) Surely the age-long experience of humanity, and of its loftiest and finest minds, is 
worthy of consideration. Time out of mind, men of all ages and races have been seeking 
certainty as to a life beyond death - trying to prove what they cannot help believing - 
but they have not found it to their satisfaction. Is it not “manifest,” then, that it is not 
ordained that man should attain to actual knowledge of what lies behind the heavy 
drapery of death ? Also, is it not clear, as we have tried to point out in our review, that 
such an arrangement is not only a fact, but that it is wisest and best ? There are those 
who would throw the grand old Bible out the window, but Masons are not of that ilk. It 
lies open on our altar, and if we look into it as we should it will tell us the truth - that 
“the just shall live by faith.” 

Concerning the alleged Great School, it is beside the mark to tell us to go and talk it 
over with TK in his office. Nor is it necessary to call him a liar or any other ugly name. 
TK may sincerely believe that such a Great School exists, that it has existed from time 
immemorial, that it has records, as he says reaching back beyond the time of Moses, 
that it has a monopoly of all high truth and has superintended the education of the 
human race: he may believe all this, and more besides, but that does not make it so. 

Fifty thousand men may believe it, still that does not make it true. If such a School 
exists, having in its keeping such astonishing documents, it ought to be an easy matter 
to convince the scholars of the world of that fact. Nor is it a thing to be talked over in 
whispers behind closed doors in a dark room, or in a back alley. When we ask for proof, 
ask to have the documents Produced, it is surely “a reasonable request for information,” 
the more so when it purports to possess the Lineal Key to the origin and story of 
Masonry. 

There is a sense in which we may say that all seekers after truth constitute a kind of 
secret School, a united but unincoiporated fraternity, who recognize one another 
without hesitation or hindrance in every part of the world. (See the beautiful 
Valediction to the Collected Poems of Edward Waite, descriptive of this sodality in 
quest of attainment and light.) But that is not what TK has in mind. No; as Brother 
Fennell says, his language is too specific and positive to be a mere statement of opinion 
or belief; he affirms as a fact that such a Great School actually organized, has existed in 
all ages, and possesses records running back into the darkness of prehistoric time, and 
that Buddhism, early Christianity, and Freemasonry are so many efforts of that Great 
School to instruct the race and lead it into the light of truth. If Brother Fennell accepts 
all this on the ipse dixit of TK, that is his right, and no one will say him nay; but he 
ought not to be impatient with those of us who ask for some semblance of evidence. 

There is much that is wise and true in “The Great Work,” especially in the thesis which 
the author sets forth so logically and cogently in the earlier chapters of the book. Albeit, 
his thesis is neither new nor revolutionary, but has in one form or another been familiar 



enough from the days of Aristotle down to our own. Therefore we should read the 
book, like all other books, with discrimination and care, accepting what approves itself 
as reasonable and is justified by the facts. But if we take the book as it is, without 
criticism and without proof, we may as well bum the books of the late Robert Gould - 
to name no other - and go back to the days when Masonic history was a tissue of fables, 
and each writer tried to outdo the rest in reciting the most fantastic legends. 

If we have written earnestly about this matter, it is because we are in earnest about it. 
For TK himself - a noble and gracious man, we make no question - and for Brother 
Fennell and all those who follow his leadership we have the utmost respect and 
fraternal goodwill. Nevertheless, we believe that while the “Great Work” has done 
good, it has also done great injuiy to the cause of authentic Masonic research - not 
intentionally so, but actually so in fact - in that it has started many Masons on the wrong 
track, and would, if it were accepted as a standard, expose the Order to just ridicule. As 
Brother Fennell has said The Builder can do no better work than to show that “the 
growing estimate of the book is incorrect” - no better work, indeed, unless it be to bring 
Brethren to discuss the matter with the same freedom and frankness as Brother Fennell 
has done in his good letter, and as we have tried to do in our response. - The Editor.) 

* * * 


“MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRAEVALET.” 

Dear Brother. - In the May issue of The Builder, in the article on the early History of 
Masonry in America, by Grand Master Johnson, of Massachusetts, the following 
erroneous statement appears: 

“Brother Sachse, the learned historian and librarian of Philadelphia, has kindly 
informed me that confirmation of the assertion that Masonic meetings were held in 
Boston in these early days is to be found in the library of the American Philosophical 
Society.” 

I have never met Brother Melvin M. Johnson personally nor mentioned the year 1 720 in 
this connection to any one. What I did say to Brother Niskerson and Davis upon 
different occasions was that I had at one time found a reference to Freemasonry in 
Boston, in the early thirties of the eighteenth century; it may have been in 1730, or a 
couple of years later; the date however was prior to 1733. The first I knew of this 
statement about 1 720, was in the September Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts. I at once wrote to Brother Johnson asking him to correct this statement, 
and I have his letter to me under date of February 15th, 1915, wherein he states: 



“I have rewritten my Address on the Early History of Masonry in America in several 
rather important particulars, and furnished it to Brother Newton for publication in The 
Builder. I shall see to it, however, that the statement quoting you is made accurately, as 
I have requested that he send me the proofs for revision.” 

I see now that this has not been done: in the interest of truth, I will ask you to correct 
that misstatement. “Magna est veritas et praevalet.” 

Very fraternally yours, 

Julius F. Sachse, Philadelphia. 

(Perhaps this error occurred in our office, by not catching all the corrections indicated 
by Brother Johnson. If so, we are very sorry. When Brother Johnson has finished stating 
the case for Massachusetts, we hope that Brother Sachse, or some one else, will set 
forth the claims of Pennsylvania with equal force of fact and logic. When that is done, 
we hope to have a word in regard to this much debated matter, the more because 
Brother Johnson thinks he caught us napping in the Builders. 

- The Editor. ) 

* * * 

SLIPPED A COG. 

Dear Brother: - In your reply to a question about the influence of Masonry in Fatin- 
America, did you not slip a cog? Fosdick has a chapter on French Masonry in this 
country, but I do not find anything touching upon Fatin- America. The uninitiated in 
this subject might run over much without seeing it. The key is found in the influence of 
Francisso Miranda who formed Fa Gran Reunion Americana in Fondon, of which a 
branch was The Sociedad de Fautaro, or “Caballeros Racionales.” Among the books 
touching upon it may be mentioned Pennington's “Argentine Republic,” Hirst's 
“Argentina,” and Chisholm's “Independence of Chile,” especially the last named. 

The librarian of the Northwestern University has just returned from two years not 
fruitless search for historical materials in South America. The books brought are almost 
entirely in the Spanish and Portuguese tongues. In the hour I spent while they were 
unpacking I found three chapters dealing with the matter, in Mitre's Fife of San Martin, 
and of Bolivar. 


Cordially yours, 



Henry B. Hemenway, Evanston III. 

(For once we thank the good stars for having slipped a cog, if it has induced Dr. 
Hemenway to break his silence, for he is an authority on all matters pertaining to Latin- 
America, including its Masonic history. Now that the ice is broken, if Brother 
Hemenway does not give us the result of his researches, we are tempted to refuse ever 
again to play in his backyard, or climb his apple tree. Surely such a terrible threat will 
induce him to write the article we wanted him to write for The Builder which will be 
most welcome he may be sure. Brother Lemert of the Masonic Lecture Bureaux has 
also made some researches in this interesting field, and we shall be glad to know his 
findings. - The Editor.) 

O. HENRY’S LAST POEM. 

(Found among his papers after his death.) 

Hard ye may be in the tumult 
Red to your battle hilts; 

Blow give for blow in the foray, 

Cunningly ride in the tilts. 

But when the roaring is ended 
Tenderly, unbeguiled - 
Turn to a woman a woman's heart 
And a child's to a child. 

Test of the man if his worth be 
In accord with the ultimate plan 
That he be not, to his marring, 

Always and utterly man. 

That he bring out of the tumult, 



Fitter and undefiled, 

To a woman the heart of a woman - 
To children the heart of a child. 

Good when the bugles are ranting 
It is to be iron and fire, 

Good to be oak in the foray - 
Ice to a guilty desire. 

But, when the battle is over 
(Marvel and wonder the while) 

Give to a woman a woman's heart 
And a child's to a child. 

— o — 

FAITH 

If I, from my spyhole, looking with purblind eyes upon the least part of a fraction of the 
universe, yet perceive in my one life's destiny some broken evidences of a plan, and 
some signals of an over-ruling goodness, shall I then be so mad as to complain that all 
cannot be deciphered? 

- R.L. Stevenson 

— o — 

GOD’S WORLD. 

God must be glad that one loves his world so much - 

I can give news of earth to all the dead 

Who ask me: - last year's sunsets, and great stars 



That had a right to come first and see ebb 
The crimson wave that drifts the sun away - 
Those crescent moons with notched and burning rims 
That strengthened into shaip fire, and there stood, 
Impatient of the azure - and that day 
In March, a double rainbow stopped the storm - 
May's warm, slow, yellow moonlit summer nights - 
Gone they are, but I have them in my soul ! 

- Robert Browning. 

A FRIEND IN NEED 

“A friend in need” - my neighbor said to me - 
“A friend indeed is what I mean to be; 

In time of trouble I will come to you, 

And in the hour of need you'll find me true.” 

I thought a bit and took him by the hand: 

“My friend,” said I, “you do not understand 
The inner meaning of that simple rhyme, 

A friend is what the heart needs all the time.” 

- Henry van Dyke. 


EACH HIS OWN HELL. 



Let this much be stated as to those who deliberately and willingly sell their birthright 
for a mess of pottage, making a brazen compromise with what they hold despicable, lest 
they should have to win their bread honorably, men need to spend no declamatory 
indignation upon them, They have a hell of their own; words cannot add to the 
bitterness of it. 

- John Morley 


THE LIBRARY 

“IN A NOOK WITH A BOOK” 

(In spite of the fact that many books have piled up waiting for attention, while we have 
been reviewing “The Great Work” - or, some insist, reviling it - we are glad to sit still 
while Brother Lobingier, of Shanghai, China, reads a page from Zola; the more so 
because he comes from afar, and also because what he reads contains within it a 
striking suggestion of the necessity for Masonic Research and for the deepening and 
better ordering of Masonic thought. Of course, Zola did not know Masonry from the 
inside, else he would not have thought of it as a rival Church, much less a sect 
competing with other sects. Nevertheless, the point he raises asks for deep pondering, 
and never more so than today.) 


EMILE ZOLA ON MASONRY. 

The late Emile Zola was proposed for membership in the French Academy but, largely 
thru prejudice, he failed to attain that coveted distinction. Nevertheless, if not an 
“immortel” he was at least an “intellectuel” and his novels, which were much on the 
“problem” order, exerted a powerful influence not only in France but thruout the 
civilized world, 

It is interesting as well as profitable to leam the attitude of such a man toward our 
ancient craft. M. Zola evidently knew only the continental variety and that entirely from 
the outside. In his celebrated novel entitled “Rome” (part of a famous trilogy including 
“Fourdes” and “Paris”) M. Zola thus describes his hero's (and probably his own) 
conception of the subject: 



“Freemasonry had hitherto made him smile; he had believed in it no more than he had 
believed in the Jesuits. Indeed, he had looked upon the ridiculous stories which were 
current - the stories of mysterious, shadowy men who governed the world with secret 
incalculable power - as mere childish legends. In particular he had been amazed by the 
blind hatred which maddened certain people as soon as Freemasonry was mentioned. 
However, a very distinguished and intelligent prelate had declared to him, with an air 
of profound conviction, that at least on one occasion every year each Masonic Lodge 
was presided over by the Devil in person, incarnate in a visible shape! And now, by 
Cardinal Sarno's remarks, he understood the rivalry, the furious struggle of the Roman 
Catholic Church against that other Church, the Church over the way. Although the 
former counted on her own triumph, she none the less felt that the other, the Church of 
Freemasonry, was a competitor, a very ancient enemy, who indeed claimed to be more 
ancient than herself, and whose victory always remained a possibility. And the friction 
between them was largely due to the circumstance that they both aimed at universal 
sovereignty, and had a similar international organization, a similar net thrown over the 
nations, and in a like way mysteries, dogmas, and rites. It was deity against deity, faith 
against faith, conquest against conquest: and so, like competing tradesmen in the same 
street, they were a source of mutual embarrassment, and one of them was bound to kill 
the other. But if Roman Catholicism seemed to Pierre to be worn out and threatened 
with ruin, he remained quite as sceptical with regard to the power of Freemasonry. He 
had made inquiries as to the reality of that power in Rome, where both Grand Master 
and Pope were enthroned, one in front of the other. He was certainly told that the last 
Roman princes had thought themselves compelled to become Freemasons in order to 
render their own difficult position somewhat easier and facilitate the future of their 
sons. But was this true ? Had they not simply yielded to the force of the present social 
evolution ? And would not Freemasonry eventually be submerged by its own triumph - 
that of the ideas of justice, reason, and truth, which it had defended through the dark 
and violent ages of history? It is a thing which constantly happens; the victory of an 
idea kills the sect which has propagated it, and renders the apparatus with which the 
members of the sect surrounded themselves, in order to fire imaginations, both useless 
and somewhat ridiculous. Carbonarism did not survive the conquest of the political 
liberties which it demanded; and on the day when the Catholic Church crumbles, 
having accomplished its work of civilization, the other Church, the Freemasons' 

Church across the road, will in a like way disappear, its task of liberation ended. 
Nowadays the famous power of the Lodges, hampered by traditions, weakened by a 
ceremonial which provokes laughter, and reduced to a simple bond of brotherly 
agreement and mutual assistance, would be but a sorry weapon of conquest for 
humanity, were it not that the vigorous breath of science impels the nations onwards 
and helps to destroy the old religions.” 



Masons as well as Catholics may find little to indorse in this. But does it not contain 
material for serious reflection? Particularly does it not strengthen the position of those 
who would lift Masonry above the plane of mere ritualism? It is certainly true, as the 
famous novelist here suggests, that the only institution with a future is one which 
ministers to some real human need. 

Charles Sumner Lobingier, 33rd Degree Hon. 

Shanghai, China. 

* * * 


QUESTIONS 

I am eighty years of age, and have read with much interest your address to “The 
Patriarchs.” Perhaps you will be kind enough to tell me what you think is the best 
book on old age. 

- J.K.P. 

Beyond doubt the best, bravest, wisest book on old age is “Over the Teacups,” by 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, both because of the sweetness of its spirit, and for the fact that 
Dr. Holmes was an old man when he wrote it. We once heard a dear old lady say that 
she was willing to live as long as she could keep her front teeth and her sense of 
humor. Well, she lost her teeth - and got new ones - but she never lost her sense of 
humor. Nor did Dr. Holmes. You will also enjoy “The Round of the Clock,” by W. R. 
Nicoll, which discusses each period of life, with the names of great men and what they 
did at different ages. It is a very delightful and fruitful book of essays. 

* * * 

I regard it as the duty of the Master of every Lodge to urge The Builder upon the 
attention of his Brethren. As a method of furthering the work and spirit of 
Freemasonry, may I suggest that in each issue you publish a column of pithy, 
instructive, quotable paragraphs relating to the Craft and its work, so that the Lodges 
which desire to do so may carry the message in whole or in part to the Brethren by 
means of notices and communications. 

- L.S.P. 


Thank you for so good a suggestion, which we shall keep in mind. Perhaps some 
Brother will take this delightful duty as his share of the work; he would find it 



congenial and inspiring. We nominate Brother Parvin, if he is not too busy, for he has 
more treasures of this kind stored away in his mind than ever any magician of the East 
dreamed of. Do we hear a second? - it is carried unanimously! 


* * * 

What caused the break between the Catholic Church and the Masonic fraternity? - 
N.R.M. 

Rightly to answer your question would require a whole article. Perhaps you cannot do 
better than get two pamphlets by Brother R. J. Lemert, of the Masonic Lecture Bureau, 
Helena, Montana, entitled “Catholicism and Freemasonry” and “A Sign and a 
Summons.” They sell for fifteen cents each, and will furnish you with a brief and vivid 
historical discussion of the question. 

* * * 

In the Builders (page 61) there is a note in which you say that Schure, TK and Dr. 
Buck are misleading. That is rather severe, is it not ? Please explain further what you 
mean. - H.H.J 


How the text and the note to which it refers could be so misunderstood is hard to know. 
The discussion has to do with the Secret Doctrine and the claim of some, as in the case 
of Schure, that Jesus was an initiate of some ancient School of Masters from whom he 
learned his Gospel. Since this is all a conjecture, without even a hook upon which to 
hang an item of evidence, we said it is misleading; and added, “though not 
intentionally” so. Furthermore we pointed out that those who have led our race furthest 
along the way to the Mount of Vision were initiates into eternal truth, not by grace of 
some coterie of esoteric experts, but by the grace of God and the divine right of genius. 

* * * 

Please tell me the origin of the feasts of the two Saints John among Masons, and 
something of their meaning. - W.B.N. 

Of the Masonic feasts of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist much has been 
written, but to little account. In pre-Christian times the Roman Collegia were wont to 
adopt pagan deities as patrons. When Christianity came, the names of its saints - some 
of them martyrs of the order of Builders - were substituted for the old pagan gods. Why 
the two Saints John were chosen by Masons - instead of St. Thomas, who was the 
patron saint of architecture - has never been made clear, though legend has been busy in 
trying to explain it. None the less, it is in accord with the fitness of things, since John 



the Baptist was a stem prophet of righteousness, and John the Evangelist the Apostle of 
Love. Righteousness and Love - righteousness of character, and love of God and man - 
surely those two words do not fall short of telling the whole duty of a man and Mason. 
Howbeit, these two feasts, coming at the time of the summer and winter solstices, are in 
reality older than Christianity, being reminiscences of the old Light Religion in which 
Masonry had its origin. 

* * * 

Some of us have come to depend on The Builder to tell us what books are worth while, 
not only in Masonry, but in other fields as well; and you have not failed us once. What 
in your judgment is the best novel of the year? 

- H.P.C. 

It would be hard to find anything in recent fiction of more real power and worth than 
“The Harbor,” by Ernest Poole, not only for its fresh and vivid insight, and its skill in 
drawing character, but also for its symbolism. And don't forget to read the article on 
“Quack Novels and Democracy,” by Owen Wister - himself one of our master novelists 

- in the June Atlantic Monthly. It is worth going miles to read. 

* * * 


ARTICLES OF INTEREST. 

A Poet and Lreemason: John A. Joyce. London Lreemason. 

Indian Art and Architecture, by Edith K. Harper. Occult Review. June. 

A Plea for Masonry, by C. H. Merz. American Tyler-Keystone. 

“Grand Lodge of all England” at York, by J. S. Carson. Virginia Masonic Journal 

“Lather Taylor” Chaplain of Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, New England Craftsman. 

Original History and Symbolism of the Mark Master Degree, by John Lishel. Masonic 
Observer. 

Last Days of John Paul Jones, by G. P. Brown. The Trestle Board. 


* * * 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Spoon River Anthology, by E. L. Masters. Macmillan Co. 

The Bible and the Anglo-Saxon People, by Wm. Canton. E. P. Dutton & Co. 
Poems of Progress, by J. H. West. Tufts College Press, Boston. 

The Mysticism of Music, by R. Heber Newton. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

The Divine Mystery, by Allen Upward. Houghton Mifflin Co. 

Religion in the Making, by Samuel G. Smith. Macmillan Co. 

* * * 


CONTINUATION OF QUESTIONS ON “THE 
BUILDERS” 

Compiled by “The Cincinnati Masonic Study School.” 

71. Which art is considered in the study as presented in “The Builders” and what is it 
called ? Page 5. 

72. Is the idea recent or old as regards: “Tools and implements of architecture teach 
wise and beautiful truths ?” Page 27. 

73. Where did all the arts have their home in ancient times, and how were they 
diffused? Page 73. 

74. Why is it thought that from the beginning architects were members of secret orders? 
Page 73. 

75. For what length of time has architecture been related to religion ? Page 73. 

76. What is said of the Colleges of Architects? Page 82, 83. 

77. What famous Collegium was uncovered in Pompeii in 1878? Page 83. 



78. How are the emblems of Roman College of Architects now regarded by those who 
know their meaning ? Page 84. 

79. Were all members of the College of Architects, Christians ? Page 85. 

80. What led to the persecution of Master Masons and the breaking up of the College of 
Architects and their expulsion from Rome? Page 85. 

81. Who are supposed to have been the missing link between the College of Architects 
of ancient Rome and the Cathedral Builders ? Who and what were they? Page 86, 87. 

82. What happened when the College of Architects were broken up and expelled from 
Rome ? Page 86. 

83. What is said of the designers of the great cathedral, who were they and who 
executed the work? Page 89. 

84. Do you regard Fergusson's hostile criticism of Freemasonry, in his book, “History 
of Architecture,” as prompted by knowledge or ignorance of the orders Page 90. 

85. To whom is honor as designers of great Edifices due and who wrongfully received 
the credit? Why? Page 98, 99. Why does this statement bear weight? Page 98, 99, 114, 
115. 

86. What comparison is made between the Cathedral Builders and the Guild Masons ? 
Page 97. 

87. How did the Cathedral Builders characterize the menace of ecclesiasticism, and the 
abuses current in the church? Page 99. 

88. What does the English writer, Hope, say of the Freemasons in regard to their effort 
to enrich architecture after Roman times? Page 115. 

88a. Who instructed the ecclesiastics of the middle ages in architecture? Page 114. 

89. When and how did the Gothic style of architecture come to be introduced ? Page 
120. 

89a. Which of the Arts is considered the most exalting? Page 153. 

90. In what years did the Masons build the famous London Bridge and the Westminster 
Abbey? Page 123. 



91 . What is said of how the ancient Brethren set about to build an abbey or cathedral? 
Page 135, 136 


92. In building a cathedral or any other building what part of the work was done by the 
apprentice, the Fellow and the Master Masons each ? Page 137. 

93. What reference, to the principle of acting on the square, have we dating back to the 
fifth century before Christ? Page 30. 

94. How far back is the oldest classic of China (The book of History) which has 
Masonic references? Page 29. 

95. What proof do the early Roman and later English style of buildings offer as to the 
antiquity of Freemasonry? Page 98. 

96. What is said of the legend and the antiquity of Masonry ? Page 110. 

97. In what year do we find the first trace of Masonry in America? Page 206. 

97a. Was Bobby Bums a Mason? Page 226. 

98. What is said of Masonry being older than any living religion and what caused it to 
become the great Brotherhood that it is ? Page 233. 

99. Why has Freemasonry been permitted to become old ? Page 244. 

100. What is an atheist? What is an agnostic? What is materialism ? Page 267, 268. 

101. What lies upon the altar of Masonry ? Page 265, see also 261 note. 

102. What references are there in the Bible, relative to the materials and working tools 
of the Mason ? Page 31, 32: 

103. What large stone was the emblem of Buddha among the Hindus ? Page 28. 

104. What is said of natural and artificial barriers in relation to the Brotherhood of 
Man? Page 288. 

105. Was there early Masonic teaching in China in symbolical building? Page 31. 

106. What was the condition of affairs just before the Christian Era? Page 50. 



107. To whom did primitive Christianity appeal and where was it seldom given a 
hearing? Page 85, 221, 221 note. 


108. When and what condition made it possible for the church to influence Masonry? 
Was it entirely successful? Page 101. 

109. When did Freemasonry break with the Roman Catholic Church and why? Page 

101 , 102 . 

109a. What induced the Grand Orient of France to remove the Bible from its Altar and 
erase from its ritual all reference to Deity? Page 261, Note 1. 

110. What caused the church to arouse its animosity toward the Masons? Page 122. 

111. What is the meaning of Cowans and Eavesdroppers? Page 138. 

111a. Why is Masonry more than a political party, social cult or church, and why do 
some men give up their church when they enter Masonry ? Page 230, 251, 252. 

112. What was the testimony of Cicero in regard to happy hopes for the hour of death 
by a man's learning in the house of the hidden Place? Page 52. 

113. What did Confucius Teach? Page 29. 

114. What is said of Masonic Charity in the year 1733 ? Page 188. 

115. What services did the Comacines render ? How were they organized and 
governed? What were their symbols, regalia, and of what were they the keepers ? Page 
88 . 

116. Whom and in what capacity did the Comacine Masters serve ? What was their 
creed ? Page 101. 

117. What is said of the records of old craft Masonry and what period do they cover? 
Page 102. Did they confer more than one degree? 

118. What was the purpose of Old Charges and Constitutions? Page 102, 103. 

119. Where can detailed information, relative to the Old Charges, be found? Page 103. 

120. Why was the name of the Master-artist omitted from the Old Charges of 
Masonry ? Page 109. 



120a. What makes the “Old Charge” of 1723 memorable ? Page 177, 178. 


121. When do the “Old Charges” begin their account of Masonry in England and about 
what years? Page 116. 

121a. What is the “Charge” as contained in the Constitutions of 1723 ? 

122. What is said of vanished civilizations, where art and science and religion reached 
unknown heights? Page 6. 

122a. When were the “Old Constitutions” revised? Page 204. 

123. Why does a man refuse to think of death as the gigantic coffin-lid of a dull and 
mindless universe descending upon him at last? Page 25. 

123a. What is one of the hotly debated questions in Masonic history? Page 141, 196, 
197. 

124. Who does Albert Pike say framed the three degrees of Masonry and why ? To 
whom did they communicate these secrets? Page 193. 

124a. Was the legend of the Third Degree known prior to 1717? Page 149. 

125. In what years did friction arise among the Masons of England, what was the reason 
and how does it happen that in spite of all this Masonry goes steadily marching on? 

Page 214, 215. 

125a. Why the “York” rite? Page 216 note. 

126. What makes a man aware of that divinity within him ? Page 270, 293. 

127. What was taught by the Druids as far north as England in regard to life after 
death ? Page 49. 

128. Why would it be wrong or what good would it do for one who understood the 
mysteries and the secrets contained to give or try to give them to any one who was not 
“Duly and truly prepared” to receive them ? Page 59. 

129. What is said of the Dionysian Artificers? Page 72. 

130. What is said of the mysteries as practiced by the Dionysian Artificers? Can it be 
verified ? Page 77, 78. 



131. What is known of the Druses now inhabiting the Lebanon district? Page 78. 

132. What result flows from bigotry and dogmatism ? Page 273. 

132a. Describe the transition we call Death. Page 278. 

133. What Masonic emblems are found carved on ancient sarcophagi? Page 83. 

134. What does Emerson say that God and Nature does for us ? Page 57. 

135. What are the real foundations of Masonry both Material and Moral ? Page 15. 

136. How did man thi nk out his Faith ? Page 27. 

136a. What is the sure proof and prophet of life's own high faith? Page 270. 

137. In former times what sort of freedom did Masons enjoy in contrast to the other 
people ? Page 88. 

138. What is the difference between the Freemason and the Guild-mason? Page 98. 

139. What was the difference between the conformity and uniformity during the Middle 
Ages in regard to freedom of thought, etc. ? Page 100. 

140. When did Benjamin Franklin become a Freemason? Page 200, 207. 

141. How did Masonry help to shape the institutions of this Continent? Page 222, 224, 
225. 

142. What is the most fundamental of all truths after we examine the foundations of 
Masonry? Page 260, 26 L 

143. Will Freemasonry ever swerve one jot from its ancient and eloquent demands till 
all men are free in body, mind and soul ? Page 272. 

144. What in times past was a higher crime than murder ? Page 273. 

145. Why does Masonry make all mankind free with whom it comes in contact? Page 
273. 

146. What makes men free? Page 271, 272, 273, 274, 275. 

146a. What is the result of Despotism ? Page 273. Of Bigoted Dogmatism? Page 273. 



147. What is the faith of humanity? Page 279. 

148. State the relation of Real Friendship to Masonry. Page 284 to 290. 

149. If those who doubt and deny are to be wooed to the faith, if the race is ever to be 
led and lifted into a life of service by what art must it be done? Page 291. 

BUILDING THE BRIDGE AT TWILIGHT. 

An old man, going a lone highway, 

Came at the evening, cold and gray, 

To a chasm vast and deep and wide, 

The old man crossed in the twilight dim, 

The sullen stream had no fear for him; 

But he turned when safe on the other side 
And built a bridge to span the tide. 

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near, 

“You are wasting your strength with building here: 

Your journey will end with the ending day, 

You never again will pass this way; 

Why build this bridge at evening tide?” 


The builder lifted his old gray head - 



“Old friend, in the path I have come,” he said, 
“There followeth after me today 
A youth whose feet must pass this way. 

This chasm that has been as naught to me, 

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be; 

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim - 
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him 

- Selected. 

WANTED, A MAN. 

Ah, God, for a man with heart, head, hand, 
Like some of the simple great ones gone 
Forever and ever by, 

One still strong man in a blatant land, 
Whatever they call him - what care I ? - 
Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat - one 
Who can rule and dare not lie ! 

- Tennyson. 

THE RIDDLE. 

Hearken the eager strife - 
Hustle and hurry, morn till night; 



Calm content, or fear and fright. 
Somewhere a frown, somewhere a smile, 
Making the world glad all the while. 
Faith in the Goodness ruling all, 

Hope in the future's glad'ning call; 
Darkness cov'ring the face of earth, 
Clouds replacing the rosy mirth. 

Here a bubble of childish joy, 

There a beggar - of Fate the toy. 

Wealth and poverty, side by side, 

Spirit humble, and pandered pride. 

Kings and classes, the great and small, 
Years recording the rise and fall, 

Done to the lyre, the drum and fife. 

This is existence, with mystery rife - 
We call it life ! 

- Wm. Eben Schultz, Conn. 

THE VOICE OF GOD. 

Stern Daughter of the Voice of God ! 

O Duty ! if that name thou love 
Who art a light to guide, a rod 



To check the erring, and reprove; 

Thou, who art victory and law 
When empty terrors overawe; 

From vain temptations dost set free; 

And calm' st the weary strife of frail humanity! 
- Wordsworth.