The Builder Magazine 

December 1916 - Volume II - Number 12 


THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLE 

BY BRO. FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
PART II. 

DE MOLAY confessed only to spitting on the cross, denying the other allegations. He 
seems to have been led to this partial confession, which in a way was an evidence of 
weakness, by several considerations. One was fear of torture. Although De Molay 
appears to have been a man of personal courage in the battle field and was capable of 
dying a painful death with heroic resignation, as we shall see later, he seems to have 
shrunk from the threat of torture. He was also promised clemency if he would confess 
and he appears to have believed that a partial confession would open the door to 
freedom and enable him not only to save himself, but the other Knights. We must 
remember that De Molay throughout was conscious of his responsibility as Grand 
Master, and in all his actions he appears to have felt that he must consider not only 
himself but the brethren of the Order who were under his command. He also feared a 
definite charge of sodomy aimed against himself. There is no reason to believe that 
there was a slightest proof for such a charge but De Molay's enemies were active, 
ingenius, and unscrupulous. They had manufactured a case against him and they had 
witnesses ready to sustain the charge by perjured testimony. In those days escape was 
difficult if the tribunal desired to convict and there is little doubt that if De Molay had 
been tried upon this charge he would have been convicted. No matter how unjust such 
a conviction, it would have meant death and dishonor. It is no wonder that De Molay 
was not willing to face this. Under these circumstances he made his confession, but he 
declared that he would offer satisfactory explanation if only he could be allowed to 
submit it in person to the King or the Pope. What this explanation probably was we 
shall see later. It is needless to say, however, that De Molay was not permitted to 
make it, and his confession was held by his enemies for all it was worth and more. 


When Pope Clement heard of these proceedings he was extremely angry. He 
immediately issued an edict suspending the Grand Inquisitor, and sent a committee of 
cardinals to investigate and report. Unfortunately, however, the case had gone too far 



to be stopped, as the King perfectly well knew. Individuals might be punished, but in 
some way or another proceedings would have to go on. Philip was not in the least 
daunted by the Pope's anger or disturbed by his interference. He arranged for a 
conference between himself and Clement which was held in June, 1308. The King, 
who, throughout these proceedings shows himself to have been much the stronger 
personality of the two, took the aggressive by demanding of the Pope five extremely 
unpalatable things. 


1 . Canonization of Cele stine V. 

2. Condemnation of Boniface VIII for heresy. 

3. A general Council to take into comprehensive consideration the affairs of 
the Church. 

4. Papal absolution for De Nogaret. 

5. Removal of the papacy from Rome to Avignon. 


Clement yielded with regard to the canonization of Celestine, the absolution of De 
Nogaret, and the removal of the papacy. This was the beginning of the long residence 
of the popes at Avignon which is known in history as the "Babylonish Captivity." The 
condemnation of Boniface and the general Council were two things to which he was 
entirely unwilling to consent. In return for the relinquishment of these points he did 
exactly what Philip had foreseen and desired; he abandoned the defense of the 
Templars. 


After considerable negotiation a bargain was struck between the Pope and the King. 
Two sets of terms were agreed upon, one to be made public but not to bind either the 
Pope or the King, the other to be kept secret but to be regarded as binding. According 
to the first, which was a tissue of treacherous falsehoods, the Templars were to be 
taken from the French- authorities and placed in the hands of the Pope as representing 
the Church. The property of the Order was to be held in trust by the Church and the 
proceeds were to be used for carrying on the crusade; that is to say for the purpose for 
which it was originally intended. The suspension of the Grand Inquisitor and others 



who had been involved with him was to be removed. The terms of the private 
agreement were far different. The Church, on the plea that it had no facilities for the 
care of so large a number of prisoners, was to leave the persons of the Templars in the 
hands of the King. The properpty, instead of being held and administered by the 
Church, in trust, was to be held by Philip on behalf of the Church and was to be 
administered by a Board of Administrators, half of whom were to be appointed by the 
Pope and the other half secretly appointed by King Philip. In other words, the 
Templars and their goods were handed over to the tender mercies of the King. Such 
was the price in humiliation and dishonor which Clement paid for the title of 
Successor of St. Peter. 


The next act in this tragedy was the summoning of a Council to try the Order as a 
whole. Henceforth here were two processes simultaneously going on, one against the 
Knights as individuals and one against the Order as a coiporation. This gave 
opportunity for more treachery. 


As we have seen, the King had played the game with loaded dice from the beginning 
and now the dice were loaded even more heavily than ever, if such a thing were 
possible. A net was spread from which it was well nigh impossible for any one to 
escape, while the proceedings were extended to other countries. It is not necessary to 
go into the details of the story of the proceedings outside France. In a general way, so 
far as the individual Knights were concerned, they were similar to the French 
proceedings although conducted with varying degrees of severity according to the 
temper of the several monarchs who were concerned in the matter. Actions against the 
Order as a whole were covered by the proceedings which we are about to trace. 


Knights were summoned from far and near to come to the defense of the Order in its 
hour of trial. They were asked by the papal authorities to come and speak in its 
defense and they naturally understood that this implied personal immunity. They soon 
found, however, that nothing of the sort was intended. When each Knight appeared he 
was asked if he desired to defend the Order. If he said that he did he was immediately 
made a defendant, not only in the process against the Order but in the personal process 
against the Knights. If he took alarm and said that he did not wish to defend the Order, 
he was held as a witness, liable to examination under torture. 



Many Knights, trusting to their immunity as witnesses, withdrew their former 
confessions which, as will be remembered, were obtained under torture. They 
withdrew these confessions because they were false and because they desired to 
defend the Order as a whole against the charges to which they had personally pleaded 
guilty under compulsion. Considerable numbers of those who withdrew their 
confessions in this way were immediately burned as relapsed heretics. This, by the 
way, was the ordinary procedure in those days in the case of dealings with heresy. As 
a rule there was very little chance for the accused to escape. If he refused to confess 
he was convicted and burned on the testimony of others. If he confessed and withdrew 
his confession he was burned as a relapsed heretic. If heconfessed and did not 
withdraw the confession, he was burned as a confessed heretic. About the only 
difference was that in the last case he received absolution, which was supposed to 
save his soul, and was sometimes able to save his property for his family. Moreover, 
not content with the ordinary partiality of judicial proceedings in those days, the two 
sets of proceedings were made to play into each other and evidence obtained in either 
trial was used indiscriminately against the defendants in both. 


Interest centers largely around the tragic figure of De Molay. As we have already 
seen, he had been examined by the Grand Inquisitor in 1306 and had made a partial 
confession. He was kept in close confinement although he demanded an opportunity 
to appear before the Pope who, it will be remembered, was the only person in 
Christendom to whom he owed allegiance, and submit to him an explanation of the 
acts with which he was charged. 


In 1308 he was visited by three cardinals sent by the Pope. He was solemnly assured 
that he was now in the hands of the Church, from whose clemency and aversion to 
cruelty and bloodshed everything favorable could be expected. He was promised 
mercy by both the Pope and the King on the strength of a full and free confession. He 
renewed his confession, although he did not extend its scope, and threw himself on the 
mercy of the Church. He was given absolution by the cardinals, was restored to the 
communion of the Church, and was actually given the sacrament by the cardinals. 

This was distinctly stated by the cardinals in a report which they made to the Pope. 


In spite of all these facts, however, he was not set at liberty, though he vigorously 
demanded it and urged the fulfillment of the promises which had been made to him. 



In November, 1309, De Molay was brought before the Council which was trying the 
Order. Being asked if he would defend the Order he refused to plead. He appealed to 
the Pope, pleading the rights of the Order and demanding to be heard by the Pope in 
person. In response to the charge of idolatry he made solemn affirmation of 
orthodoxy. Being charged by De Nogaret with having dealings with the Saracens 
contrary to his vows and to the interests of Christendom, he said that the alleged 
dealings consisted only of truces and treaties made with them as incidents of warfare 
and for the sake of saving the Christians in the Orient from disaster. The charge of 
sodomy was brought up, but was not pressed with much vigor and the prosecution 
failed to establish it by even plausible testimony. De Molay then demanded to be set 
at liberty, claiming the failure of the accusations and the promises of both the Pope 
and the King. The request, however, was denied and he was sent back to his dungeon. 


The tedious proceedings against the Order dragged on for three years. Every effort 
was made to suppress the defense and to discourage or destroy the defendants of the 
Order. Again and again the chosen representatives of groups of Knights were either 
executed or silenced. Executions continually took place as the result of the other set of 
proceedings and care was taken that these executions should be as damaging as 
possible to the defense of the Order. 


The proceedings lasted until May 6, 1312, when the Pope, by a summary exercise of 
his authority, dissolved the Order. It is important to note that the Order was never 
condemned. The proceedings against the Order were never finished. While they were 
still going on the Pope intervened and put a stop to the proceedings and to the Order at 
the same time. Examination of the evidence shows that the charges were not 
substantiated, at least in any way which would appear to satisfy modem ideas. It is 
quite probable, however, that had the proceedings been allowed to come to their 
natural end the Order would have been condemned. It is difficult to see how the Pope 
and King could have permitted the proceedings to come to any other conclusion. 


The intervention of the Pope was for the particular purpose of saving the immense 
properties of the Order for the Church. By the law of that day the property of a 
condemned heretic passed not to the Church but to the State. If the Order of the 
Temple had been condemned for heresy its immense possessions would have passed 



to the rulers of the countries in which they were located and the Church would not 
have touched a penny. Dissolution of the Order, however, without condemnation 
threw its numerous properties, scattered over Europe and the east, into the hands of 
the Church. Pope Clement was not so sincere a defender of orthodoxy that he had the 
slightest intention of taking all his trouble for the puipose of enriching Philip of 
France and other kings of Europe. He preferred to let the Order go uncondemned, to 
leave the Knights to the tender mercies of kings and inquisitors, and to save the 
money for the Church. 


In this, however, he was only partially successful. It will be remembered that in 
France, at least, the King was the custodian of the property of the Templars and he 
succeeded in keeping a very large part of it. The same thing happened to a greater or 
less extent in the other countries. The Pope, however, succeeded in getting a portion 
of the wealth into his possession and a considerable part of this finally found its way 
into the hands of the Hospitalers. It is not to be understood that the Hospitalers were 
participants in the proceedings against the Templars. The Order of the Hospitalers was 
the greatest militant Order of Knights in existence except the Templars and the natural 
administrator of property given in trust for the crusades. 


De Molay remained in prison until December, 1313, when he was brought before 
three French cardinals. The old vague promises of mercy were made and De Molay 
once more renewed the old confession again without extending its scope. He was 
taken back to his dungeon and told that at a certain time the cardinals would make 
their final decision in the case. Trusting to the repeated promises which had been 
made, De Molay came before them on March 10, 1314, expecting liberation, probably 
accompanied by heavy penance and possibly other penalties. To his amazement he 
was sentenced to life imprisonment. De Molay, it will be remembered, had been in 
prison for seven years. Whether he had been actually tortured or not is not quite 
certain, but imprisonment itself was torture in those days and De Molay was not 
willing to face the prospect of a further imprisonment which could terminate only in 
his death. He was shocked, angry, and broken hearted at the treachery which he had 
met at the hands of both State and Church. As soon as the sentence was announced, 

De Molay arose in his place and retracted his confession, declaring that it was not 
true, that he had confessed only out of willingness to please the King and the Pope 
and a desire to help his brethren, and that he now wished to withdraw his confession, 
proclaim its untruth, and take the consequences. The cardinals, in confusion, 
adjourned their court until the next day. This was something entirely unexpected and 
they desired time to think it over. 



King Philip, however, had no intention of allowing his prey to escape him or of giving 
the cardinals the desired opportunity for meditation. That very night De Molay was 
taken from his prison by a detachment of the King's guards and burned at the stake on 
a little island in the Seine. In spite of the high-handedness of these proceedings, 
involving the invasion of the rights of the Church by taking its prisoner from its hands 
and putting him to death, the cardinals did not dare to raise a word of protest, so great 
was the ascendancy which the King had obtained over the Pope. It is stated by 
tradition that when De Molay went to the stake, he solemnly summoned the Pope and 
the King to meet him before the bar of eternal justice within one year. Whether or not 
this legend is true, it is true that within the year Clement and Philip were both in their 
graves. 


Whether for good or evil the Order of the Temple was suppressed forever. No other 
body of men ever enjoyed such wealth, such power, such privileges, and such 
immunities as had been enjoyed by the Templars. Whether they had used them wisely 
or not, it is not always easy to say. That they were in a very real sense injurious to 
both State and Church, we shall probably all agree. That the Templars did not deserve 
so cruel a fate as that which overtook them seems clearly established. In order to make 
this point clear, let us make a brief examination of the indictment drawn against the 
Order and the probable truth, or lack of it, in the charges. 


The indictment against the Order contained 117 articles, or counts as we should style 
them. This great number of counts was partly the result of technical repetitions. In 
many cases the same accusations were repeated in different forms, the first charging 
that a specified offense was committed by all of the Knights, the second that it was 
committed by most of them, and the third that it was committed by some of them. 


Stripped of verbiage and repetition the charges came down to the following: 
Denial of Christ. 

Defiling the Cross. 

Requiring indecent kisses from the candidates. 



Denial of the sacrament of the altar. 

Omission of the most significant words from the mass. 

Granting of absolution for sins, even when not confessed, by the Grand Master. 
Exacting an oath never to leave the Order. 

Holding secret conclaves. 

Permission to the members to practice sodomy. 

Actual practice of sodomy. 

Worship of Idols. 

Adoration of a cat. 

Use of cords which had been touched to an idol. 

Murder of candidates for refusing to take the oath of secrecy 
Murder of members for revealing the secrets ofthe Order. 

Confession only within the limits of the Order and not to outside priests. 

Failure to correct or reveal the evils which the members of the Order knew to exist. 
Failure to discharge the duties of hospitality which were incumbent upon the Order. 
Covetousness and rapacity in obtaining possession of the property of others. 

The indictment closed by alleging the confessions which we have already 
considered as proof of the truth of the charges. 


It would be tedious, perhaps, to examine the charges in detail, but a few of them 
should have carelul consideration. 



We know that the conclaves of the Order were held in secret and that no outsiders 
were admitted to their ceremonies. That was not a crime, but it was a cause of 
suspicion. 


We have no sufficient evidence either that candidates were murdered for refusing to 
take the oath or that members were murdered for revealing the secrets. In this respect, 
as in some others, the agitation reminds us of the anti-Masonic charges of a later time 
and especially of those connected with the name of Morgan. Fundamentally the same 
human characteristics are involved. 


Charges of immorality are certainly not substantiated by the evidence. That there were 
immoral individuals in the Order could hardly be denied. It would be impossible that 
so large a body of men should be free from unworthy members. It would be rash to 
deny that there were individual cases of sodomy. The crime was common in the 
middle ages and has always been the curse of celibate communities. That it was 
particularly common among the Templars or sufficiently common to blacken the fame 
of the whole Order is absolutely without proof. Indeed there is very little evidence in 
the trial bearing at all upon this point. 


The charge that the practice was permitted finds absolutely its only shadow of 
foundation in the fact that a section of the "rule" provides that when there were not 
sufficient accommodations for each Knight to have a separate bed, two might occupy 
the same bed rather than that one should lie upon the floor. 


The charge of covetousness and rapacity is natural. When a rich noble died and left all 
his property to the Order his heirs, naturally enough, were not particularly pleased. 
They doubtless had a good deal to say about undue influence and other things which 
we hear about today. That the action of the Order was particularly objectionable in 
this respect does not appear from the evidence. 


The charge of parsimony and lack of hospitality was abundantly refuted. 



The charge of heresy or the holding of forbidden beliefs was not proved and was 
always denied by the Knights. 


The omission of significant words from the mass or any other form of blasphemy was 
not only unproved but was vigorously denied by practically all of the witnesses. The 
charges relating to heresy are denied not only by the testimony of the witnesses but by 
the entire history of the Order. It is extremely probable that the cosmopolitan 
character of the Order and the contact of its members with men of many nationalities 
and of different faiths had the inevitable result of broadening their views and giving 
them a certain toleration and largeness of personal outlook. It is very difficult for a 
man who comes constantly in contact with all sorts and conditions of men and with a 
great number of national and racial types to continue a fanatic. During the whole 
course of their existence, however, the Knights were the foremost to shed their blood 
and spend their lives for the Christian faith, that is to say for orthodox Catholicism. 
They were the cutting edge of the crusading armies, rivaled in this regard only by the 
Hospitalers. Again and again detachments of the Knightswere cut down to the last 
man fighting for the cross and refusing to surrender to the infidel or even to flee from 
him. Men do not show such determination as this for a faith in which they do not 
believe. 


As for the matter of confession and absolution. We know that the rule of the Order 
especially provided that the members should have their own chaplains, to whom they 
should make their confessions when it was possible to do so. This rule was drawn up 
by St. Bernard and approved by the Pope. Obedience to it on the part of the Knights 
could hardly be considered a crime. It was abundantly proved that the Grand Master 
did not give ecclesiastical absolution. He did have the right to receive disciplinary 
confessions, to condone offenses against the Order, or to inflict disciplinary penance. 
This was a purely administrative matter and had nothing to do with clerical 
absolution. No Grand Master ever presumed to give clerical absolution. 


The charge of idolatry arose from a curious misapprehension. It was alleged that the 
Templars worshiped a brazen head. This head, it was said, had a white beard and 
rested upon a tall tripod. To this head the Templars were said to pray, and it was 
charged that the cords which they wore as a part of their habits were consecrated to it 



by being touched to it. The great church of the Templars in Paris possessed a very 
sacred relic. It was said to be the head of one of the 1 1,000 virgins who were martyred 
with St. Ursula at Cologne. It is interesting to know, by the way, that the legend of the 
1 1 ,000 virgins rests upon a misreading of an old Roman inscription. The inscription 
tells of "XI M Virgines." M was read as an abbreviation for "mille" but it was really 
the abbreviation for "martyres" and instead of being read 1 1,000 virgins it should have 
been read 1 1 virgin martyrs. However, the head in question was believed to be the 
head of one of the virgins, whether there were eleven or eleven thousand. This head 
was covered with a white linen cloth and was covered again by a gold or bronze case 
in the shape of a head. When the case was slipped over the head the linen cloth 
showed at the base of it. The relic was displayed on special occasions before the high 
altar of the church, mounted on a tripod. This was the bearded, brazen head which the 
Templars were said to worship. There were probably reproductions of this reliquary in 
other Temple churches. It is probable that the Templars were glad to consecrate their 
cords by touching them to this sacred relic as was a common practice in those days. 


The charge that indecent kisses were required is probably true, though not as a 
universal practice. This appears from a considerable number of depositions. This was 
done probably from one or both of two reasons. It may have been required as a test of 
obedience. It will be remembered that the Knight swore the three great vows of 
poverty, chastity, and obedience. Obedience was held to be absolute. Once the Knight 
had sworn he was under this bond and was bound to do without question anything that 
he was told to do by his knightly superior. His obedience was immediately tested by 
this requirement. The second reason is almost unintelligible today but is perfectly 
intelligible to anyone who is familiar with the life and habits of the middle ages. It 
was a rough joke, and it was the kind of thing that the medieval mind considered 
funny. Wit and humor as we know them were very rare in the middle ages. Their 
places were taken by unspeakable coarseness. Anyone who is familiar with the art, 
literature, and drama of the middle ages is only too familiar with this fact. The more 
filthy and indecent the story or incident the more it appealed to the rough humor of the 
time and the louder the laugh which it excited. Contrasts of rough buffoonery with the 
most solemn incidents appealed to the minds of the people of that age. It was only in 
accord with the habits of the time that after the solemn ceremonies of the initiation the 
candidates should be subjected to a bit of foolish buffoonery. 


There remains the charge of denial of Christ and defiling the cross. That there was any 
denial beyond the alleged defilement of the cross does not appear. That the candidates 
were sometimes, not always, commanded to spit upon the cross or otherwise defile it 



was confessed by De Molay and seems to be clearly established by other testimony. It 
will be remembered, however, that De Molay insisted that he could explain the fact, 
and the explanation appears in the testimony of some of the witnesses. Witnesses 
usually testified that they did not spit upon the cross but upon the ground near the 
cross, and some of them testified that when commanded to do so they refused. Those 
who refused were congratulated upon their courage and told that they would certainly 
be good soldiers of the cross. In other words the command to defile the cross was a 
test. The candidate having sworn obedience and having sworn to serve as a defender 
of the cross was immediately put to the most difficult and trying of all tests, a test 
which involved conflict of obligations. He was called upon to choose whether he 
would fulfill his vow of obedience at the expense of his vow of loyalty to the cross, or 
whether he would carry his loyalty to the cross so far as to break his oath of 
obedience. It must be remembered that this was an age in which obedience was a 
virtue and that the efficiency of the Order, or any similar body, depended upon the 
absolute obedience of its members to the orders which they received. As has already 
been pointed out the loyalty of the Order to the cross is written in blood on every page 
of its history, whatever may have occurred at the initiation. Undoubtedly the 
explanation De Molay would have made, if he had been given opportunity to do it, 
was the one just indicated, that this ceremonial requirement was a test and entirely 
void of any deeper significance. 


A survey of the charges and the evidence seems to show that the condemnation of the 
Templars was an act of great injustice and that the suppression of the Order was 
certainly not warranted by the charges which were brought against it. That the 
privileges and immunities of the Order worked to the weakening of the state, the 
impairment of the king's power and authority, the injury of the Church, and the 
lessening of the authority of the bishops, must be clear to anyone. That both Pope and 
King breathed easier after the Order had ceased to exist is entirely probable, but that 
its crimes were such as to deserve the treatment it received certainly does not appear 
from any facts in our possession or brought out at the trial. 


One question will at once arise in the minds of every Mason, "Did the Order survive 
its suppression and is there any direct connection between the ancient Templars and 
modem Templar Freemasonry?" 



So far as we have any evidence this question must be answered in the negative. 
Legend states that De Molay appointed a successor and a line of Grand Masters is 
named connecting the ancient and modem Orders. De Molay had no right to appoint a 
successor. The election of Grand Master is carefully provided for in the rule of the 
Order and no provision is made for any other form of procedure under any 
circumstances. There is no evidence whatever for the authenticity of the list which is 
sometimes given. 


Some of the Templars who survived joined other orders and some of them passed 
their remaining days in obscurity or imprisonment. There is no traceable connection 
between the ancient Knights of the Temple and any modern order. The most we can 
say is that it is possible that the traditions and even the secrets of the Order were 
cherished by its surviving members after the Order was dissolved. Men do not easily 
forget things which have been very dear to them, for which they have suffered, and 
for which they have seen their companions die. That there was any esoteric mle or 
belief among the Templars, we have no evidence. That there was a certain freedom of 
thought and breadth of view would be the inevitable result of that cosmopolitanism 
and contact with the outside world of which we have taken account. It may be that the 
survivors of the Order, hoping against hope that it might some day revive, may have 
communicated their hopes, their aspirations, their ritual, their views, and their secrets, 
if such there were, to their chosen friends and in this way the soul of the Order may 
have survived until it reappeared in other forms, and its ideas and ideals may have 
been influential some centuries later in the development of those movements which 
resulted in the transformation of Masonry from its old operative into its modem 
speculative form. But all this lies in the field of conjecture. As far as the sober 
historian can see the Order of the Temple ceased with the edict of May 6, 1312, which 
absolved the Order, and the tragedy of March 10, 1314, which ended the life of De 
Molay. 




THE APRON SYMBOLISM 


1 . More ancient than the Golden Fleece 



Whose story shines in classic lore: 

Or Roman Eagle— which portrayed 
Chivalric deeds in days of yore. 

2. More honored than the Knightly Star, 

Or Royal Garter, it must be; 

A symbol you should fondly keep 
From spot and stain forever free. 

3. It may be that in coming years, 

As time shall all your labors test: 

That laurel leaves of Victory 
Shall on your brow in honor rest. 

4. Yea, from your breast may jewels hang 
Fit any diadem to grace: 

And sparkling gems of beauty rare 
May on your person find a place. 

5. Nay more, perchance with coming light, 
Your feet may tread the path of fame: 
Which in our Mystic order leads 

To glory, and an honored name. 

6. Yes, on your shoulders there may rest 
The purple which we hold so dear: 

That ensign which our progress marks 



In high fraternal Circles here. 

7. But never more can you receive 
From mortal hand while here below: 

An emblem which such honor brings 
As this one— which I now bestow. 

8. Until your spirit shall have passed 
Beyond the pearly gates above: 

May this the "Badge of Innocence" 
Remind you of your vows of love. 

9. 'Tis yours to wear throughout your life, 
'Till death shall call your soul to God: 
Then on your casket to be placed, 

When you shall sleep beneath the sod. 

10. Its spotless surface is a type 
Of that which marks a noble mind: 

The rectitude of heart and life, 

Which in its teachings you should find. 

1 1 . And when at last your weary feet 
Shall reach the goal awaiting all: 

And from your tired nerveless grasp 
The working tools of life shall fall. 

12. May then the record of your life, 



Reflect the pure and spotless white 
Of this fair token which I place 
Within your keeping here tonight. 

13. And as your naked soul shall stand 
Before the great white throne of light; 

And judgment for the deeds of earth 
Shall issue there— to bless or blight; 

14. Then may you hear the Welcome Voice 
That tells of endless joys begun, 

As God shall own your faithfulness, 

And greet you with the words, "Well Done.” 
— N. A. McAulay. 




EVIDENCES OF SYMBOLSIM IN THE LAND OF THE INCAS 


BY BRO. HIRAM BINGHAM, YALE UNIVERSITY 


(Bom in Honolulu in 1875, Brother Bingham holds the degree of B.A.from Yale and 
Ph.D. from Harvard. He was Preceptor in History and Politics at Princeton in 1905. 
Explored Bolivar's Route across Venezuela and Colombia in 1906-7. Professor at Yale 
since 1915, also Lecturer in Diplomatic History at Johns Hopkins University. He was a 
Delegate to the Panama- American Scientific Congress at Santiago de Chile in 1908. In 



1909 he explored the Spanish Trade Route, Buenos Aires (Argentina) to Lima (Peru). 
He was Director of the Yale Peruvian Expedition of 191 1. Discovered Vitcos, the last 
Inca capital and made the first ascent of Mt. Coropuna, 21,703 feet above sea-level. He 
was also Director of two other Yale Peruvian expeditions, in 1912 and 1914-15. He is 
the author of the following works: - "Journal of an Exploration across Venezuela and 
Colombia"; "Across South America"; "In the Wonderland of Peru"; "The Monroe 
Doctrine, An Obsolete Shibboleth.") 


EVER since the publication of Prescott's charming classic, "The Conquest of Peru," that 
land has been surrounded by more of a romantic halo than any other in the southern 
continent. The marvelous civilization which the Incas had built up in their mountain 
fastnesses lacked one essential feature of great importance - the art of writing. There are 
no written records to give us accounts of what happened previous to the coming of the 
Spaniards, except such as were prepared by Spanish chroniclers and obtained by them 
from the mouths of native witnesses. There are no hieroglyphics carved on the stone 
monuments like those elaborate records that puzzle the Central American explorer. 


The civilization of the Incas reached its highest point in architecture and works of 
engineering. The feats performed by the ancient workmen were of almost incredible 
magnitude. Apparently they thought nothing of moving for a distance of several miles 
huge blocks of stone weighing from ten to twenty tons. 


Fortunately their architecture was of such a splendid type that extensive examples of it 
still remain to delight the eye and challenge the intellect. Among these are certain 
carved boulders which were places of worship, - ancient shrines that attracted pilgrims 
from far and near. It is generally supposed that these carved boulders antedate the Incas 
by many centuries. 


Although in Inca architecture great attention was paid to right angles, horizontals and 
perpendiculars, the houses being nearly always rectangular and the more beautiful walls 
laid out with exquisite artistic appreciation of such principles, there exist in the ancient 
carvings on the boulders evidences that the megalithic folk - as the pre-Incas are 
sometimes called - had a high appreciation of the symbolic numbers three, five and 
seven, and of the significance of right angles, squares and steps. 



The most interesting of all these ancient shrines is Nusta Isppana, near Vitcos, in the 
heart of the Vilcabamba country at the place where Manco, the last Inca, who was set 
up by Pizarro and rebelled against him, sought refuge. In the words of Prescott, "The 
royal fugitive took shelter in the remote fastnesses of the Andes." 


In 1911 I had the good fortune to be able to lead a Yale-Peruvian Expedition into this 
region, which is indeed one of the most inaccessible in all the highland country of 
South America. While our tasks included studies in geology, biology and anthropology, 
and we were prepared to make reconnaissance maps of this virtually unexplored region, 
one of our chief objects was the location of Vitcos, the capital of the last Inca. 


We were able to locate it because of the description of its principal shrine, the holiest 
place near Vitcos, which was described as follows by Father Calancha in an early 
Spanish chronicle. I give a free translation from the chronicle:- 


"Close to Vitcos, in a village called Chuquipalpa, is a House of the Sun, and in it a 
white stone over a spring of water (now called Nusta Isppana) where the Devil appears 
as a visible manifestation and was worshipped by those idolaters. This was the principal 
mochadero of these forested mountains. (The word "mochadero” is the common name 
which the Indians apply to their places of worship.") 


Now let us look at some of the features of this ancient shrine, the principal place of 
worship in this region. The photographs give a better idea of it than I can in words, but 
you will notice that on the north side of the rock its face has been cut awav. leaving in 
relief certain projections. Near the top are three arranged in a triangular position; 
beneath them is a row of seven - one toward the east being set off at a little distance 
from the other six, as though of more importance. Below these and leading down to 
what was formerly a pool of water, are two flights of stairs, of three and five steps. On 
the other side of the rock; that is, on the south side, is a series of carvings, the most 
conspicuous feature of which is a large square cut in the solid rock. It is surely highly 
significant that this ancient shrine which was undoubtedly the most sacred place for a 



very large extent of country, should have given such prominence to a representation of 
the square and the mystic numbers three, five and seven. 


An event occurred near here at the time of the Spanish Conquest which is also very 
interesting. It is related in full in the Royal Commentary, of the Inca Garcilasso de la 
Vega, who was Prescott's chief authority. Manco Inca was at war with the Spaniards 
from the year following their coming until 1546. Several Spanish refugees, whom one 
of the chroniclers calls "Fugitive Spanish rascals," having fled from the power of the 
Pizarros, were living with Manco Inca, in Vitcos. 


The Inca to entertain them had prepared a bowling-green near his palace, which was a 
few hundred yards from this ancient shrine. One day when playing with some of the 
Spanish refugees, the Inca got into a quarrel with them in regard to the game. One of 
the Spaniards, who had often lost his temper in playing before, became so rude and 
insolent toward the Inca that the latter - who was apparently fairly good-tempered - 
could not stand it. The Incas were sedate an not excitable and could hardly understand 
the wild fury of the Spaniard over this game. The Inca pushed the Spaniard violently 
away, bidding him consider with whom he talked in such a rude manner. The refugee, 
not considering in his passion either his own safety or that of his companions, picked up 
one of the bowls and struck the Inca on the head so as to kill him. 


The followers of the Inca, enraged at the death of their prince, at once attacked the 
Spaniards, who fled into a house and defended it with their swords until the Incas set 
fire to the thatched roof and forced the Spaniards to come out. They were then assaulted 
an killed by the soldiers of the Inca. What followed I shall endeavor to give as nearly as 
possible in the words of thelnca Garcilasso:- 


"When the followers of the Inca secured the dead bodies, out of pure madness they 
would have eaten them raw to show the wrath which they had against them, even 
though they were already dead. Nevertheless they determined that the bodies should be 
burned and that their ashes should be scattered downstream in order that there might not 
remain any trace nor vestige of them. But finally it was decided to cast them out into the 
fields in order that the birds of the air and beasts of the field might devour them. They 



decided on this, for they were not able to think of any greater punishment for the 
bodies." 


The enormity of the punishment and its highly revolting character were evidently 
selected by the Inca nobles as best fitting the enormity of the crime which had been 
committed in murdering their political and religious chief. To their minds the casting 
out of the bodies to be devoured by the vultures of the air and beasts of the field was 
evidently a more horrible penalty than that of having the bodies burned and the ashes 
scattered so that no remembrance of them might be left. It is surely extremely 
interesting to leam the details of the punishment which the Incas thought most nearly 
fitted the most serious crime of which they could conceive. 


Another ancient pre-Inca shrine is located not far from the city of Abancay. It is called 
Concacha and seems to be particularly devoted to presenting the symbolism of steps 
which are arranged in threes and fives. Unfortunately all recollection of the importance 
of this shrine and its significance has been lost. 


Finally let me call your attention to Machu Picchu and the most beautiful wall that 
exists in Peru, one of the most beautiful in the world. The photographs do not do it 
justice, but it is quite evident, I think, that here we have an ornamental wall constmcted 
with the utmost care and art. The general design is that of a square and part of a circle. 
The blocks of which the wall was constmcted were selected from the finest and purest 
white granite obtainable. Although it was made without steel or iron tools by people 
who understood only working stone with stone, such was their devotion to the 
principles of horizontals and right angles that we have this simple form of beauty 
exemplified to a remarkable degree. There is no cement or mortar used in this 
construction. The blocks were cleverly keyed together, their interior surfaces not being 
flat nor square, but irregular. One block fits into another so that the wall must stand or 
fall as a whole. 


It seems evident to me that the ancient race, who left such remarkable monuments in 
the Andes, must have appreciated some of the essential principles of the Craft. This race 
still exists. And it is the belief of those of us who have spent most time in the Andes, 
that the future of the Andean Republics depends on the millions of Indians living there 



today who are the descendants of the former builders. Unfortunately their present 
leaders, both civil and religious, have permitted them to become steeped in ignorance 
and immorality. Their tax gatherers are so interested in the revenue from alcohol 
(aguardiente) and cocaine (coco) that they willingly overlook the fearful evils which the 
unrestricted use of these two is working among the majority of their countrymen. With 
proper laws, suitable restrictions on the use of drugs and liquors, the blessings of 
education and morality, there is no reason why the great majority of the denizens of the 
Central Andes should not in time again enjoy some of the blessings of their glorious 
past. There is strength in the bone and sinew of this fallen race to enable it to be raised 
to that high level where it once worked. 


-o- 


THE PALACE 


When I was King and a Mason - a master proven and skilled - 
I cleared me ground for a Palace such as a King should build. 

I decreed and cut down to my levels, presently, under the silt, 

I came on the wreck of a Palace such as a King had built. 

There was no worth in the fashion - there was no wit in the plan- 
Hither and thither, aimless, the mined footings ran- 
Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone: 

"After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known." 


Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well-planned groundworks grew 



I tumbled his quoins and ashlars, and cut and reset them anew. 

Lime I milled of his marbles; burned it, slacked it, and spread; 

Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead. 

Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet as we wrenched them apart 
I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder's heart. 

As though he had risen and pleaded, so did I understand 

The form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned. 

When I was a King and a Mason - in the open noon of my pride, 

They sent me a Word from the Darkness - They whispered and called me aside: 
They said - "The end is forbidden." They said - "Thy use is fulfilled, 

"And thy Palace shall stand as that other's - the spoil of a King who shall build." 

I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves and my sheers. 

All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years. 

Only I cut on the timber - only I carved on the stone: 

After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known! 

- Rudyard Kipling. 





THE RODS 


BY BRO F. IDLERMAN, NEW YORK 


IDEAS are expressed only by signs. When ideas he may do so only by symbols. Our a 
man would convey to his brother his language is but a succession of signs. Words are 
symbols, signs of an idea. But we as free and accepted Masons choose also to speak to 
one another by material symbols. These stand for certain truths we hold as necessary 
to Masonry and fundamental to true manhood. These rods, borne by the stewards, are 
of value only as they are signs of ideas. As Masons we seek the interpretation of these 
ideas and desire faithfully to inculcate them in the minds of all who shall hereafter 
accept our vows. 


The first idea they symbolize is that of protection. The stewards, bearing these rods, 
meet the candidate at the door. He is thus assured that all his interests are to be safe- 
guarded. He may commit himself implicitly to the stewards, for the emblems of their 
office signify security and protection. This is among the highest comforts of man, to 
feel the safety vouchsafed by the confident strength of hiS brothers. It is suipassed 
only by the protection man realizes as he commits himself into the safe keeping of his 
Creator. David expressed the confidence in such a trust by the symbol of a rod, "When 
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with 
me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." 


There is corresponding obligation upon the part of the stewards. The implicit trust of a 
brother calls for a faithful discharge of your stewardship. The security you afford 
within the lodge must be widened by the daily conduct in society. Let it never be said 
of you as Emerson said of some of his generation: "What you are speaks so loud I 
cannot hear what you say." 



The second symbol is progress. You are to meet the candidate, not as stationary 
guards but as those who shall mark the path of progress as you advance from 
knowledge to knowledge in Masonry. The advance you assist him in making is 
unhasting and unresting. You are ever urging him to further light and wisdom. The 
rods you bear represent the divinely appointed state of man. Truth comes slowly but 
eternally. Man can never attain to perfect knowledge here. He must always confess 
"Now I know in part." To indicate by word or conduct that full knowledge is ours, is 
to arrest the purpose of the Creator in us. To symbolize in unforgettable fashion the 
progress of the mind toward the light is to render a service of incalculable worth to 
any man. 


The rods symbolize guidance. Neatly imbedded in the head of each rod is a star. From 
time immemorial the stars have been the guiding fingers for man. He has been guided 
by them across the trackless desert, through the tangled wilderness and over the 
snowbound waste of the long Polar nights. The deep sea has not been able to lose the 
sailor, for the friendly stars have led him unerringly to his port of entry. So the rods 
are set for the proper and true guidance in the truths of Masonry. But truth cannot 
exist apart from incarnation. A thousand blazing symbols of metal fashioned bring 
neither comfort nor light except they live in daily conduct. You who bear the emblem 
of guidance must of necessity incarnate the moral worth indicated by your high office. 


The symbols can only have meaning as they find the translation of their meaning first 
in the quality of merit in the men who bear them. Your dignity, fidelity and 
uprightness make meaningful and winsome all the moral virtue of protection, progress 
and guidance. Other offices, within the lodge, may be invested with more honor but 
your constant and necessary duties make incumbent upon you a most solemn and 
serious performance of the work assigned you. As you invest your office with this 
three fold significance, will you lift it out of mere perfunctory routine into high and 
noble symbolism. Those who take their first steps in Masonry under your tutelage will 
catch a vision of the sublimer possibilities and conserve for succeeding generations, 
the value of our worthy order. 





LEGATO 


"He drew a circle that kept me out— 

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. 

But love and I had the wit to win; 

We drew a circle that took him in." 

"Aye! draw ye circlet of love, 

To encompass forever 

'An heretic, rebel, a thing to flout'; 

Draw it 'round the wide cold earth— 

Religion, races, clans include— 

None of earth's creatures, leave standing without." 
"Say to warrior, 'pause awhile !' 

Benighted soul, 'here is light!' 

To ignorance, say, stupidity, fear, 

'Come ye, from your narrow house— 

Come and ye be made whole again— 

Come, learn of THAT, to love and revere.' " 


EPILOGUE 



"Incarcerate mind and thought? 

Come sentinels, e'en as the breath of birth; 


Seems ever, some must be always without— 
It is then, alas ! the WAY OF EARTH." 
—Dr. M. E. Walton. 

Huron, S. D., January 19, 1916. 

THE GREAT PRAYER 


The original of this composition is in the G.A.R. Hall Museum at the State House, 
Topeka, Kan. It was captured during the Civil War, at Charleston, S.C., by a brother 
of Mrs. S. B. Helmas of Kendallville, Ind. The poem is printed on heavy satin. 


THE LORD'S PRAYER 


Thou to the mercy seat our souls doth gather, 

To do our duty unto thee - Our Father, 

To whom all praise, all honor should be given; 

For Thou art the great God,- who art in Heaven, 
Thou by Thy wisdom rul'st the world's whole frame; 
Forever, therefore, - Hallowed be Thy name. 



Let nevermore delays divide us from 

Thy glorious grace but let - Thy kingdom gome. 

Let Thy commands opposed be by none, 

But Thy good pleasure and - Thy will be done. 

And let promptness to obey, be even 
The very same - in earth as 'tis in Heaven; 

Then for our souls, O Lord, we also pray, 

Thou wouldst be pleased to - give us this day 
The food of life, wherewith our souls are fed, 
Sufficient raiment, and - our daily bread, 

With every needful thing do Thou relieve us, 

And of Thy mercy pity - and forgive us 

All our misdeeds, for Him whom Thou didst please 

To make an offering for - our trespasses, 

And forasmuch, O Lord, as we believe 
That Thou wilt pardon us - as we forgive, 

Let that love teach, wherewith Thou dost aquaint us 
To pardon all - those who trespass against us; 

And though, sometimes, Thou find'st we have forgot 
This love for Thee, yet help - and lead us not 
Through soul or body's want, to desperation; 

Nor let earth's gain drive us - into temptation; 



Let not the soul of any true believer 
Fall in the time of trial - but deliver, 


Yea, save them from the malice of the devil, 
And, in both life and death, keep - us from evil; 
This pray we, Lord, for that of Thee, from whom 
This may be had - for Thine is the Kingdom, 

This world is of Thy work, its wondrous story, 
To Thee belongs - the power and the glory; 

And all Thy wondrous work have ended never, 
But will remain forever, and - forever. 

Thus we poor creatures would confess again, 
And thus would say eternally - Amen. 

THE ETERNAL SACRIFICE 


Wherever through the ages rise 
The altars of self-sacrifice, 

Where Love its arms has opened wide, 
And man for man has calmly died, 

I see the same white wings outspread 



That hovered o'er the Master's head. 


- J.C. Wittier. 




SYMBOLISM OF THE APRON 


This fair and stainless thing I take 
To be my badge for virtue's sake; 

Its ample strings that gird me round 
My constant Cable-tow are found; 

And as securely they are tied 
So may true faith with me abide; 

And as I face the sunny south 
I pledge to God my Mason's truth, 

That while on earth I do remain 
My apron shall not have a stain. 

This fair and stainless thing I raise 
In memory of Apprentice days, 

When on the checkered pavement wide, 



With gauge and gavel well supplied, 

I keep my garments free from soil, 
Though laboring in a menial toil; 

And as I face the golden west, 

I call my Maker to attest 
That while on earth I do remain 
My apron shall not have a stain. 

This fair and stainless thing I lower; 

Its 'Prentice aid I need no more, 

For laws and principles are given 
The fellow-craft direct from Heaven, - 
To help the needy, keep a trust, 
Observe the precepts of the just; 

And as I face the darkened north 
I send this solemn promise forth, 

That while on earth I do remain 
My apron shall not have a stain. 

This fair and stainless thing I fold, 

A Master Mason now behold, 

A welcome guest in every land, 



With princes and with kings to stand; 
Close tyled within my heart of hearts 
I keep all secret arts and parts, 

And try to walk the heavenly road 
In daily intercourse with God; 

As I fate the mystic east 
I vow by Him I love the best, 

That while on earth I do remain 
My apron shall not have a stain. 

This fair and stainless thing I doff: - 
But though I take my apron off, 

And lay the stainless badge aside, 

Its teachings ever shall abide, 

For God has given light divine 
That we may walk opposed to sin; 

And sympathy and brotherly love 
Are emanations from above; 

And life itself is only given 

To square and shape our souls for Heaven, 

The glorious temple in the sky, 

The grand celestial lodge on high. 



- Rob Morris. 


-o- 


THE GREAT LANDMARK 


It is an unchangeable ancient Landmark of the Fraternity that there is but one Masonic 
dogma. We construct a universal religious philosophy thereupon, as a part of which 
we teach belief in immortality, and endeavor to inculcate other tenets of our 
profession; but our sole dogma is the Landmark of Belief in a Supreme Being - 
omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, the creating and superintending Power of all 
things. No man may be a Freemason unless he is a believer in monotheism. No 
neophyte ever has been or ever shall be permitted vision of our mysteries or reception 
of our obligations until he has openly, unequivocally, and solemnly asserted this 
belief. Beyond that we inquire and require nothing of sectarianism or religious belief. 

- Melvin M. Johnson. 


— o — 


CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN - No. 3 


Edited by Bro. Robert I. Clegg, Caxton Building, Cleveland, Ohio 


OPERATIVE MASONRY - EARLY DAYS IN THE MASONIC ERA 



By R.I. Clegg 


WE Masons deem Masonry as being peculiarly religious, some Masons indeed being 
quoted to the effect that in their judgment Masonry is a religion. Who of us but at some 
time has heard of a brother in his enthusiasm saying "Masonry is a good enough 
religion for me"? But Masonry itself makes no such claim. At best it stands as the 
handmaid of religion, in all lands and among all faiths earnestly supporting and serving 
those accepted convictions of morality in which all good men agree. 


As was shown in the paper prepared for the November issue of the Bulletin of the 
National Masonic Research Society there was a time when in the church and outside 
these sacred precincts the craftsmen of old gave freely of their money, their numbers, 
and in fact of all their opportunities to advance the cause of the prevailing religion. It is 
only fair to suppose that in all other matters these workmen were equally advanced and 
aggressive. Some of these angles of their organizations and of their methods will be 
taken up in the present paper. 


Perhaps a word or two of special explanation is necessary at this stage. I am dealing 
with a period when many bodies of workmen copied each other's practices. For one 
reason of this similarity there was the common source of authority from whence they 
derived their characters. The Government gave them liberty to proceed for similar 
objects and in the attainment of these puiposes they would no doubt find it very 
desirable in meeting all the requirements of the law to follow in each other's footsteps. 
Thus the associations of carpenters, of ironworkers, of goldsmiths, of tanners, as well as 
of Masons and the other societies, had like officers and laws. Such little differences as 
crept in were occasioned by the inevitable problems incident to each trade and 
profession and the successive adjustments of them that periodically called for attention 
and settlement. 


The general construction of these bodies and their operation was known as the gild 
system. Common to all the recognized trades approved by the Government we can 
examine it as the exemplar of our own fraternity though Masonry was but one branch of 
it. I am also of opinion that Masonry has an earlier origin though at this moment I shall 
not venture into this far distant field of investigation and controversy. 



The various crafts were often termed "the mysteries." Subject to the same city and 
national government it frequently happened that the laws enacted for their control shed 
much light upon the purposes of the societies and the manner in which they were 
regarded by the citizens at large. 


An old ordinance of the city of London provided suitable punishment for those who 
were "rebellious, contradictory, or fractious" against the Masters of the Mysteries "that 
so such persons may not duly perform their duties." The preliminary part of the same 
enactment throws light upon the puipose of these early craft organizations. 


"Item, it is ordained that all the mysteries of the city of London shall be lawfully 
regulated and governed, each according to its nature in due manner, that so no knavery, 
false workmanship, or deceit, shall be found in any manner in the said mysteries; for the 
honor of the good folks of the said mysteries, and for the common profit of the people. 
And in each mystery there shall be chosen and sworn four or six, or more or less, 
according as the mystery shall need; which persons, so chosen and sworn, shall have 
full power from the Mayor well and lawfully to do and to perform the same." 


Then follow a series of fines and terms of imprisonment for such as "shall thereof be 
attained" of interfering with the carrying out of the above plan of craft administration. 


Why would the city take so direct an interest in the control of the crafts, you may ask. If 
so careful a supervision and recognition of the situation is taken then is it not likely that 
the very same fount of authority would have something to say as to the manner in 
which the members as well as their officers may be selected? 


You may also rightfully infer that the city then held something of the same relationship 
to the several crafts as is now occupied by the Grand Lodges. Such would appear to 
have been the case in very large measure. Consider if you please the following 



ordinance which accompanies the one just quoted in reference to the obedience and 
respect due to the Masters of mysteries: 


"Also, because as well in times past, out of memory, as also in modem times, the city 
aforesaid is wont to be defended and governed by the aid and counsels as well as of the 
reputable men of the trades-merchant as of the other trades-handicraft; and from of old 
it hath been the usage, that no strange person, native or alien, as to whose conversation 
and condition there is no certain knowledge, shall be admitted to the freedom of city, 
unless first, the merchants or traders of the city following the trade which the person so 
to be admitted intends to adopt, shall be lawfully convoked, that so, by such his fellow 
citizens, so convoked, the Mayor and Aldermen aforesaid, being certified as to the 
condition and trustworthiness of the persons so to be admitted, may know whether such 
persons ought to be admitted or rejected; the whole community demands, that the form 
aforesaid, so far as concerns the more important trades and handicrafts, shall in future 
be inviolably observed, that so no person in future may against the provision aforesaid 
be admitted to the freedom of the city." 


What Mason worth the name but will say with all his heart that it were well for us now 
that in selecting material for membership the choice should always be made in a 
manner to insure the obtaining of those persons upon whom the community may well 
rely for counsel, for defense, or for government. 


Here and there in traversing the directions found in these early ordinances of the gilds 
we find a glimmer at least by which light has been borrowed for the thoughtful Masons 
of the present day in making their explanations of various oldtime customs. Who, for 
instance, has not wondered at that secret that could not be given in the absence of one of 
the three possessors? 


Years ago in a foreign land I went as a boy with my grandfather to the meeting of a 
trade organization of which he was treasurer. The official chest of the society caught 
my eye. ft contained books and papers as well as other valuables of which 1 knew little 
or nothing. These did not particularly interest me. What did attract my especial attention 
was the fact that the box was secured by three locks. Why three when one was ample 
for such security as appeared necessary? But it was explained to me that the three keys 



were in the possession of each of three responsible officers of the organization and that 
the box could not then be opened unless these three officers with their respective keys 
were present. 


Such a custom is very old. In the reign of Edward II of England, 1307-1327, there was 
passed an ordinance by the City Fathers of London that "Also, it was demanded that the 
common seal should remain in future in a certain chest under six locks; of which locks 
three Alderman should have three keys, and certain reputable men of the Commonalty 
the three other keys." 


That a candidate for Freemasonry shall himself be a free agent is well known and is 
most desirable. We go further and require him to be freeborn. This does not appear to 
be a universal demand made of the initiate as in England, for example, the requirement 
is that he be a "freeman." There is an obvious distinction between the two and our 
practice in this country substantially exacts that both conditions shall exist. 


Here, again, the matter is of very old usage. "For avoiding disgrace and scandal unto the 
city of London" it was ordained in 1389 "that from henceforth no foreigner shall be 
enrolled as an apprentice, or be received unto the freedom of the said city by way of 
apprenticeship, unless he shall first make oath that he is a freeman and not a bondman. 
And whoever shall hereafter be received unto the freedom of the said city, by purchase 
or in any other way than by apprenticeship, shall make the same oath, and shall also 
find six reputable citizens of the said city, who shall give security for him, as such from 
of old hath been wont to be done. 


"And if it shall so happen that any such bondman is admitted unto the freedom of the 
said city upon a false suggestion, the Chamberlain being ignorant thereof, immediately 
after it shall have become notorious unto the Mayor and Alderman that such person is a 
bondman, he shall lose the freedom of the city and shall pay a fine for such his deceit at 
the discretion of the Mayor and Alderman, saving always such liberty as pertains unto 
the soil of the said franchise. 



"Also, if it shall happen in future, and may it not so chance, that such bondman, a 
person, that is to say, at the time of whose birth his father was a bondman, is elected to 
judicial rank in the said city, that of Alderman, for example, Sheriff, or Mayor; unless 
before receiving such promotion, he shall notify unto the Mayor and Alderman such his 
servile condition, he shall pay unto the Chamberlain one hundred pounds, to the use of 
the city, and nevertheless shall lose the freedom, as already stated." 


Riley in his edition of the "Liber Albus," the "White Book" of the city of London, 
further points out some qualifications of the Aldermen of the gild epoch which have an 
interest in our present study. Says he, "High honor was paid to the Aldermen in ancient 
times. Indeed, no person was accepted as Alderman unless he was free from deformity 
in body, wise and discreet in mind, rich, honest, trustworthy, free, and on no account of 
low or servile condition; lest perchance the disgrace or opprobrium that might be 
reflected upon him by reason of his birth, might have the additional effect of casting a 
slur upon the other Alderman and the whole city as well. And hence it is that from of 
old no one was made apprentice, or at all events admitted to the freedom of the said 
city, unless he was known to be of free condition." 


Contained in the Liber Albus is the oath of the Masters and Wardens of the mysteries. 
This I transcribe. It will be noticed that there is left a blank for the filling in of the name 
of the organization to which the testifying officials are accredited. 


"You shall swear, that well and lawfully you shall overlook the art or mystery of ... of 
which you are Masters, or Wardens, for the year elected. And the good rules and 
ordinances of the same mystery, approved here by the Court, you shall keep and cause 
to be kept. And all the defaults that you shall find therein, done contrary thereto, you 
shall present unto the Chamberlain of the city, from time to time, sparing no one for 
favor, and aggrieving no one for hate. Extortion or wrong unto no one, by color of your 
office, you shall do; nor unto anything that shall be against the estate and peace of the 
King, or of the city, you shall consent. But for the time that you shall be in office, in all 
things pertaining unto the said mystery, according to the good laws and franchises of 
the said city, well and lawfully you shall behave yourself. So God you help, and the 
Saints." 



These citations from the legal enactments of the time do not convey all that could and 
should be said of the middle ages. That is the era from whence we Masons have drawn 
so freely of inspiration, of ceremonial, and even of phraseology. Romantic were the 
industrial activities. From the candlestick upon the altar to the pinnacle of the lofty spire 
reaching high toward heaven, in the buildings of that day and especially the structures 
housing the worshippers of God, everything was done in the devotion of a simple 
straightforward truth of workmanship, a practical genius for constructional invention, 
the practice of a craft direct, faithful and self-respecting. 


Says Batchelder: "It was once the glory of art to be of service. It is difficult for us to 
fully realize the spirit of an age when art was actually practiced by a great mass of 
people; when carvers in stone and wood, workers in iron, textile weavers, potters, 
goldsmiths, found daily opportunity and incentive to bring invention to bear upon their 
problems, to apply creative thought to the work of their hands. It was a time when 
builders were architects; when workmen were designers; when contracts called for 
nothing more than sound materials and honest workmanship, - the art was thrown in as 
a matter of course." 


And he further gives us an illuminating insight of the conditions by which these 
workmen were trained. "The training received by the mediaeval craftsman was peculiar 
to the gild system of the time. Many of the masters whose names are familiar to us now 
in our study of the history of art were duly apprenticed to a craft as soon as they could 
read, write, and count. Often at an age of ten years they went to the home of the master 
workman, with whom their apprenticeship was to be served, where as was the custom 
of the time, they lived. The years of apprenticeship were years of hard work, often of 
drudgery; but in the great variety of commissions undertaken by the shops of the time 
an opportunity was presented to lend a hand at many interesting tasks. There seems to 
have been a spirit of cooperation among the various shops and workmen that the keen 
relentless competition of modem times does not permit. 


"After serving his apprenticeship a lad became a companion or journeyman worker, and 
finally tried for his degree, if it may be so termed, by submitting to an examination for 
the title of master workman. In this examination he was called upon not only to produce 
his masterpiece, but to fashion such tools of his craft as were necessary for its 
completion. The standards of the gilds were so high that to become a master meant the 
production of a piece of work satisfactory to the judges artistically as well as 



technically. This completed the education of a craftsman of the time, producing a 
workman who was encouraged at every step of his training to combine beauty with 
utility, technical skill with honest workmanship." 


Further on in speaking of the versatility of the old craftsmen, he proceeds: "When they 
in turn became master workmen, we know not whether to call them goldsmiths or 
bronze workers, carvers or sculptors, painters or architects, for their training was such 
that they could turn their hands to any of these with distinction. Orcagna could build a 
church, cut the stone, lay the mosaics, paint the frescoes, or carve the crucifix, and we 
know not where most to admire him. While Ghilerti was engaged in the production of 
the bronze doors for the Florentine baptistry, his journeymen were seldom so early at 
the foundry but that they found him there in his cap and apron. Brunelleschi watched 
the building of the cathedral from his bench long before he dreamed that it would be his 
part to crown it with its great dome; and when he and Donatello went to Ptome to study 
the antique, they replenished their empty purses by following their craft. What manner 
of architects were these who went to the quarries and picked out their own stones, who 
superintended the construction, directed the erection of scaffolds, who could teach 
others how to lay the mosaics or carve the ornament; and during leisure intervals wrote 
sonnets, built bridges, planned forts, and invented weapons of defense? When a master 
received a commission to build a church, a municipal palace, a fountain, or what not, he 
took with him his own journeymen and apprentices; and when the commission was an 
important one, he gathered about him to cooperate, in a spirit that knew little of rivalry 
or jealousy, the best master workers of his day." 


From this excellent description of the craft in the gild days much may be conjectured of 
the progress by which Masonry has become what it is today. To some of these angles of 
discussion I shall later return. That in the Craft there grew up a method of perpetuating 
the instruction slowly gained by the masters is only to be expected. These secrets of the 
trade would only be confided to the safe depositories of faithful breasts. 


Geometry and symbolism would be as they are now employed by expert designers for 
practically laying out their work. To me the mosaic pavement always suggests the 
cross- sectioned paper of the engineer. To me every symbol is an aid to the memory. All 
there is of Masonry breathes the craft soul of cooperative labor, the means and the 
machinery to impress upon the receptive mind lessons of moral and physical 
importance. 



We cannot in one such paper as the foregoing connect the middle ages with the 
transition period marked off for us by the Grand Lodge era ushered in by the celebrated 
union of 1717. 


Neither can we say much if anything now of that far earlier period of these geometrical 
builders of the Egyptian temples and pyramids, or of the Roman Collegia with its trades 
union methods, or of the mysteries of Greece and other lands. All have a bearing of 
much consequence upon our own fraternity. 


Freemasonry has inherited by a long line of descent a philosophy and a nomenclature, a 
ceremonial system, the outgrowth of innumerable heads of the wisest, and of hearts 
most devoted. Love and wisdom has been showered upon it in abundance. Years of 
many centuries have dignified it. A hale and useful age for it claims unbounded respect. 
Service is its purpose, betterment its aim. 


Even as the craftsmen of the past loved their craft, and through its medium turned 
rawest materials into forms of imperishable beauty, so were they cautious in their 
materials of membership, selecting them wisely and in their choice and government 
practicing such methods as were approved by civic and national authorities. Yea, so are 
we compelled by our profession to be equally discreet and skilful. By the correct 
selection and perfection of every element in the structure do we build aright the edifice 
Masonic. 


NOTES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH UPON OPERATIVE MASONRY 


The "Liber Albus" is a compilation from the archives of the city of London. Its 
references are of date prior to the year 1419. A translation from its original text in Latin 
and Anglo-Norman was made by Henry T. Riley and published by Richard Griffin and 
Co. in 1861. Occasionally found in public libraries but is now out of print and only to 
be purchased through those tireless bibliophiles, the book-hunters of Masonry. My dear 



friend, the late Scott Bonham, once urged his readers to buy the "Liber Albus" but at 
that time he was not aware that it was out of usual trade circles and only to be reached 
through old-book dealers. 


My references to Batchelder are to his delightful treatise on "Design in Theory and 
Practice," published by the Macmillan Co. of New York, London, and Toronto. I quote 
the 1910 edition. 


A most charming book on the gilds is that of the "Gilds and Companies of London" by 
George Unwin, and published by Methuen and Co., 36 Essex street, W.C., London. 
From this work I have not borrowed but my essay would have been much improved if I 
had had occasion to freely quote from Mr. Unwin. His work lends itself more aptly to 
another paper I have in mind. At present I need only call attention to several points of 
importance. First there is an excellent bibliographical list from which many references 
can be drawn to what material may be obtainable in your local libraries or for purchase 
from the book dealers. In the preface is an outline that may profitably be followed in the 
study of the gild system not only in Great Britain but on the continent. My Unwin has 
among his several chapters one dealing with a class of gilds that were neither merchant 
nor handicraft. Of such was the English Gild of Knights. There was also in France the 
organization for the preservation of peace, Fa Commune de la Paix. In puipose and in 
practice this association strongly resembled the body that provides the legend for the 
grade of Patriarch Noachite. 


I have not quoted from the "Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masons." This book 
published in 1 894 is, I understand, practically off the market. My own copy was 
secured through the author, Bro. Edward Conder, Jr. In London the book was published 
by Swan, Sonnenschein and Company, and in New York by Macmillan and Co. In the 
introduction Bro. Conder says: "The Worshipful Company of Masons of the City of 
London enjoys, beside the interest attached to it on account of its antiquity and 
continuity, the peculiar distinction, above all other gilds, of being one of the principal 
connecting links in that chain of evidence which proves that the modern social cult, 
known as the Society of Free and Accepted Masons, is lineally descended from the old 
Fraternity of Masons which flourished in the early days of monastic architecture, now 
known by the inappropriate title of Gothic. The history of this Company will I think 
conclusively prove that the traditions and moral teachings of the old Fellowship which 
undoubtedly existed in Britain in the 12th and 13th centuries, were preserved by the 



Masons Company of London, after the downfall of the Church, in 1530, until the 
middle of the 1 7th century - at which period non-operative masons and others carried 
on the old Society with considerable energy, their participation culminating, in 1717, in 
the establishment of a Grand Lodge, and the subsequent rapid formation of Lodges in 
all parts of the country." Maybe I shall later return to an examination of the evidence by 
which Bro. Conder proposes to prove his point. It was with such a thought in mind that 
I puiposely refrained from using on this occasion his temptingly quotable volume. 


"The Cathedral Builders" by Leader Scott is also not a readily obtainable book. For my 
own choice I can get along very well with a substitute, "The Comacines, Their 
Predecessors and Their Successors." Written by Bro. W. Ravenscroft in most readable 
style - its brevity is the only fault I can see in it. The publisher is Elliot Stock, 62 
Paternoster Row, E.C., London. Bro. Ravenscroft shows the symbols of the Comacines 
have a pertinent interest to Freemasons, as in the case of the lion, the knot of Solomon, 
the cable tow, etc. 


In Mackey's Encyclopedia, published by the Masonic History Co. of New York, look 
up the following references: Mysteries, Ancient; Osiris, Mysteries of; Egyptian 
Mysteries; Cabiric Mysteries; Oiphic Mysteries; Cavern; Essenes; Comacines; Druses; 
Dmidical Mysteries; Culdees; Chaldeans; Roman Colleges of Artificers; Gilds; 
Cologne, Charter of; Crusades; Oath of the Gild; Stone Masons of the Middle Ages; 
Strict Observance; Hund, Baron von; etc. 


The Ars Coronatorum or transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of London have 
scattered through their scholarly pages much of the keenest degree of interest in this 
line of investigation. A complete index is very desirable. The series of volumes is also 
very rare. Stray copies and partial sets are occasionally to be obtained. My reference to 
the practical use of the mosaic pavement in laying out a building is borne out by a paper 
in the "Ars" by Sir Caspar Purden Clarke whose experience in the Orient enabled him 
to see this method actually employed by the Eastern workmen. 


My brother engineers may be also interested in the fact that in an interview with the 
famous builders of bridges, Gustave Lindenthal, he explained the probable method by 
which the early builders managed to design safe constructions for their remarkably 



daring edifices, aqueducts and so forth. At that time the structural analysis by 
mathematical means was of course not so developed as at the present day. A method 
whereby weights suspended by cords; a sort of inverted balance, probably gave the 
early builders practical foothold for finding the direction and amount of the forces to be 
withstood by their structures. Such methods and the general system of proportions for 
buildings in common use were doubtless transmitted secretly to pupils and sworn 
associates. Here would be another means for the mutual protection and also for 
profitable prominence to clients of the craftsmen. 


My few suggestions above are by no means intended to exhaust all the sources of 
information on this subject. There are many others and I do not pretend to have 
enumerated what some of my brethren will consider obvious and of consequence. But 
as I shall come back to this topic, and as I hope to deal then with matters mentioned in 
certain of the foregoing references I take the opportunity of calling attention to them 
now. 


-o- 


SMALL LIBRARIES TRAVELING FOR SPECIAL RESEARCHES 


As your "Correspondence Circle Bulletin No. 1" seems to invite suggestions as to how 
Research Society and others may help along the home study, permit me to make this 
suggestion: 


Let there be made up a goodly number of small traveling libraries for different lodges 
that are willing to pay transportation charges - possibly a small rental as well - 
composed of books papers and pamphlets bearing upon subjects that individuals care to 
study about. For instance: I want to study: Early History of Masonry The Unknown 
Years of the Life of Christ, Masonic Order and The Bible. 



Let the great Masonic Library make me up a small traveling library containing matter 
pertaining to any one or all of these subjects and I will read my fill and write papers that 
may be read by other brethren, if they desire. Very truly, L.F. Knowles. 


Go after the nearest Masonic library, large or small. Put that proposition right up to 
them. Maybe there is no Masonic library of considerable size in your State but I shall 
refuse to believe anything of the sort until I am positively shown otherwise. The State 
that includes within its borders at least one such Mason as Trevanion W. Hugo of 
Duluth is not likely in any particular to lag in the procession. 


But if for any reason there is difficulty in getting the particular books you need, then 
appeal beyond the confines of your State. The late Scott Bonham, president of the 
Masonic Library Association at Cincinnati, Ohio, always held that his books were made 
for use and not to be mere shelf warmers. He delighted to send them to knowledge- 
seeking Masons. Never did he restrict them to the Masons of his own State. The Grand 
Lodge of Iowa has also under the skilful guidance of Grand Secretary Parvin at Cedar 
Rapids, evolved a system of library distribution active throughout the State. While I 
have no authority to say what the authorities would do in the event of an inquiry 
coming to them from beyond their jurisdiction 1 am confident that it would get very 
cordial consideration and if it were at all possible with due regard to all interests 
involved 1 am sure you would be well satisfied with the action accorded you. 


Your suggestion reminds me somewhat of the one submitted by Bro. Keplinger of 
Illinois. He pointed out the desirability of an up-to-the -present study of the Pyramids in 
their connection with Freemasonry. Both he and you have already done quite a little 
study along lines of unquestioned importance to your brother Masons. Can I not induce 
you to put into written form the results of your researches? I do not ask you to attempt 
to put on record all that you have discovered, a part of the story at a time is all that I 
would venture to suggest your preparation. Then read it to your respective lodges or to 
your local study clubs. Then after you have amended it following the discussion it 
receives, please forward each paper to us. 


STUDY CLUBS AND LODGE ORGANIZATION 



Have noticed in the September issue of THE BUILDER an open letter to the members 
by Brother Robert I. Clegg, which I have been much interested in as we have a little 
"get-together" meeting from time to time, and it doesn't seem that we are working on 
any particular lines whereby we receive any palpable benefits. 


It might be best to describe in detail what our meetings are for. As we live several miles 
from any organized Lodge of Freemasons, we find it difficult to attend Lodge with any 
regularity at all; and we have been meeting and trying to get together in a way that 
might develop into the organization of a Lodge at this place. But we find that it is a hard 
matter to keep all the brethren interested at the same time. 


Now your letter seems to me to open up a way whereby we might develop more interest 
and at the same time enable us to improve ourselves in Masonry, so if we did in time 
organize a Lodge, we would be better prepared to perform our Masonic duties. 


We will appreciate any suggestions that you might make, and if you think that an 
organization such as suggested in Brother Clegg's letter would be what we need, I will 
take steps immediately to see that all those Masons in this vicinity who are not 
members of the N.M.R.S. become members, as I am sure I would have no trouble in 
doing so, as they are all as anxious for some common ground to found an organization 
upon as I am. 


Trusting that you can help us in this matter and with best wishes for the success of the 
whole movement, I am, cordially and fraternally yours. E.F. Wade. Waune. Oreo. 


At the moment I do not possess any means at hand of determining the local population 
available to support a Masonic lodge in your immediate neighborhood. Obviously the 
best way to keep up the Masonic interest in your locality would be by the organization 
of a lodge and if this is at all feasible I would urge that you communicate with your 
Grand Secretary to that effect in order that you may start off in the right way. If, 



however, for any reason you are unable to do this, then you cannot do better than to 
hold the present get-together meetings until such time as the other plan may be carried 
into effect. 


Of course you will need to be all the more cautious about every one of you being 
Master Masons of officially approved lodges. In the absence of any lodge there is not 
the ready means of knowing through membership there of the standing of all your 
acquaintances. 


Having these preliminaries constantly in mind and with the list of any local members of 
the National Masonic Research Society, assemble your brethren. Agree upon a few 
necessary officers. The Secretary is the most important. Select one having plenty of 
patience, unstinted charity, enlarged energy, constant of courtesy, systematic of habits, 
punctual and ardent. Granted these and you have a treasure. If you can also have a 
President possessing a love for the knowledge of Masonry and an ability to draw forth 
the best that is in his membership and from all other sources, and to do these things with 
tact and success, you are again blessed. If moreover you have a group of brethren 
capable and willing to support your officers you have all the elements for proficiency 
and progress. 


But the more I think of your isolation, the more I deem it best that you should have the 
benefit at the earliest moment of the advice of your Grand Lodge officers as I have 
already mentioned. They will very probably offer advice whereby you can the better 
keep in touch with the Masonic work of your jurisdiction and this is indeed very 
important. This Bulletin of ours will monthly contain papers of instructive quality that 
may be read at your meetings and I shall be highly pleased to give you any additional 
information that may be conducive to the improvement of your gatherings. 


SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE DEGREES 


I have realized even since I have been received into this Fraternity the necessity of 
some uniform plan to study the history and symbolism of Freemasonry. I mean some 



plan that is not complicated and not too deep for the ordinary Mason who has never 
been so fortunate as to receive a good education. I am anxious to organize a study club 
in our little town. It would be hard to get a number interested, but I believe I can do it. 


I would like some plan that will start right in on the first degree which will teach its 
history and the origin of the symbolic meanings. Then advance to the second degree in 
the same way, and to the Master Mason, etc. I don't mean to run through them briefly, 
but to go into them in detail. 


I believe we could spend all this fall and winter on the first degree, as we would only be 
able to meet twice each month. I have read the "Builders," and I think it is great, but it 
might be a little hard for the man to understand who has never done much reading. 


I have been much interested in the study of Freemasonry for some time and have been 
an active worker, and I am willing to join this organization which proposes some plan 
to educate our members more and more in the teachings of the Order by a systematic 
study of its history, its tradition, its symbolism, and its meaning. 


We, who have been active workers, know the only way to acquire knowledge is to 
study, and it is surprising, as well as disappointing, the great number of members in our 
fraternity who have practically no knowledge as to its history and its teaching. So I 
believe the only way to make this Fraternity become stronger is to encourage more 
study by the individual member. No, I don't mean it to be the only way, but I mean it 
will be a great and important step to make it stronger. 


So if you can give me a start to organize a study club by giving me some textbook 
which will deal on the First Degree, or any other suggestion in which you might offer 
something good, I will make a hard effort to get several members of my Lodge - 
Novinger Lodge 583 in Missouri - interested in this work. 



Trusting I may hear favorably from you, and with best regards, I remain, yours 
fraternally, C. H. Charlton, P. M., Novinger Lodge 583, Novinger, Mo. 


No letter that has so far come to me has more clearly emphasized the necessity for the 
work undertaken by the National Masonic Research Society than yours. You correctly 
point out that textbooks are needed. But outside the indispensable Encyclopedia of 
Mackey what have we? Certain reprints already published by our Society are excellent 
but they are not exhaustive of the whole subject of Masonry and they do not pretend to 
be. As we proceed in the work of the Society we shall, every one of us, contribute from 
all sources information of the exact kind you desire. This task will take time. If you will 
read critically the little outline I have given for a Masonic course of study in the 
October Bulletin you will note the range to be covered by a comprehensive textbook. 


I have planned a series of papers on Masonry which were announced in the last issue. 
These have been thought out for the very puipose mentioned by you. They will not in 
all probability take the degrees in succession because there is some difficulty for me to 
deal intimately with each degree in print. One must be truly circumspect in committing 
to the printed page what he knows of the degrees. Perhaps you will do me the favor of 
advising with me in this regard. How far do you expect me to go? Please let me have 
the benefit of your reflections on this very important angle of the situation. 


Much can be presented to the brethren in this Bulletin. We can discuss the Monitor 
freely. Sundry significant facts hinging upon the ritual may also be set forth. But the 
application of many of these particulars must be remade by the brethren themselves. 
What they already know will shed light upon the additional information, an illumination 
unknown to the profane. Each of you readers of mine will see how limited I must be in 
what is here said at any time of the details of the three degrees mentioned by my good 
brother Charlton. 


He is emphatically right. Masonry is the more to a Mason the more he has of it. 
Masonry grows the stronger upon a Mason the deeper it is planted within him. We are 
Masons, first and last, because of what is in us. Enlightened knowledge, enlarged 
humanity, the soul in contact with agencies for good, these are the common aspirations 
of the brotherhood. Together, brethren! 



PLANNING A PRIMER FOR MASONS 


For the coming Masonic year it has been talked of in our Blue Fodge to introduce a 
series of lectures, perhaps as many as a dozen, which will be in the nature of a Masonic 
education. Feel that subjects should be so chosen and arranged that in a measure one 
will follow another in logical sequence, the whole being beneficial in many different 
ways. It is planned to have each about ten thousand words, MSS. of which will be 
submitted to a committee before delivery, and the whole twelve at the end of the year to 
be made up in book form, to be presented to each Master Mason as he is raised, thereby 
furnishing him with a textbook as it were for his future guidance or at least form a 
primer for his Masonic education. Sincerely and fraternally yours, F.G. Good S.W. 
Joppa Fodge 362, F. & A.M., Shreveport, Fa. 


My congratulations! You have indeed undertaken a splendid task. That you will 
perform it admirably and thoroughly is my hearty desire. If there is at any time and in 
any way an opportunity for me to contribute to so commendable an enterprise I and our 
Society will be delighted to do anything at our command. 


Just how do you propose to go about this project? I am taking it for granted that you 
will divide the work. To put the burden of this exploit upon only a few or of one or two 
of the brethren is not easily thinkable, the labor involved is too great. 


Maybe you will organize a number of studious Masons who will occasionally assemble 
to discuss the progress they have made in the preparation of the papers. Such a study 
club would indeed be a wonderful power for Masonic research. 


Some five years ago a Master of my acquaintance decided that once a month at least he 
would devote an hour at a meeting where a paper should be read. I contributed one of 
the early papers, the subject being "William Morgan." Since that time the custom has 



prevailed. Would that all these lectures had been preserved as is the intention of our 
Shreveport brothers to collect twelve. 


That the brethren will hear when they will not read is clear. Bro. Good's plan 
contemplates both methods. It is an ambitious undertaking, highly creditable and 
farsighted. 


THE LODGE AS A STUDY CLUB 


A considerable number of the Masons in Yonkers are heartily in favor of the furthering 
of Masonic research and study. There is, however, no room in Yonkers for a study club, 
as Jonkheer Lodge devotes a very considerable portion of the time of its meetings to 
Masonic history and study. 


I believe that better results might be obtained by using the existing Lodges, rather than 
by starting new organizations in the form of study clubs, and believe that by-laws such 
as Jonkheer has, would help the matter along in the various lodges. The by-laws read as 
follows :- 


Section 4 - The Master shall cause a portion of the Landmarks, constitution, statutes, 
and by-laws to be read in the Lodge at the first stated communication after his 
installation, and at such other times as he shall deem proper. 


Section 24 - At least one evening in each Masonic year shall be set apart by the Master 
for the consideration of matters pertaining to the history, archaeology and antiquities of 
Lreemasonry. 


Yours fraternally, D. D. Berolzheimer, 17 Battery Place, New York, N. Y. 



It is most gratifying to find lodges so progressive as to have not only provided in their 
bylaws for definite times and seasons for the study of Freemasonry, its history, its 
archaeology, and its antiquities, but carry them out to an extent that members can see no 
necessity for anything additional. Would that all lodges were equally well provided 
with bylaws requiring the exertion of energy along educational lines. 


Pressure of business in most lodges prevents any literary leanings of the kind becoming 
prevalent. Primarily, the puipose of the study club is to do what the lodge cannot find 
opportunity to supply. Several lodges may furnish sufficient material in membership to 
keep one study club a lively point of contact in any community. 


If a lodge is in a sparsely settled region and the work of initiation is not weighty there 
may be many evenings when at the regular sessions study club associations could be 
happily incoiporated under the direction of the Master. Our larger cities do not permit 
these variations in the proceedings. Work is too voluminous. Some other plan is 
required in such cases. 


A study club to make effective progress should meet often and regularly. An entire 
evening is not too long for the presentation of a paper and for its careful discussion. A 
lodge to devote as much time as this to the literary side of Freemasonry must either 
have considerable leisure left after the conferring of degrees or has a method of 
conducting its affairs that is not generally known. 


I am acquainted with one lodge in New York whose Master had the habit of giving at 
the meetings a little talk of say fifteen minutes. He was and is an exceptionally well- 
informed Mason and his addresses were contributions of distinctive value. They could 
not have the advantage of study club presentation, nevertheless. Time was wanting. 
Business exacted the minutes. Leisurely aground discussion was precluded. Herein is 
the need for the study club. Let us know all about the substitutes. We are all lodge 
members. Whatever the lodge can do to advantage we all want to know the particulars. 



MASONS FORGETTING ALL THEY EVER KNEW 


Your letter referring to the Correspondence Circle received, and in reply I wish to state 
that the Bulletin plan is good, and I hope that it will bring lots of brothers together. 
Presently I am trying to leave the city, therefore I am not in position to take up any 
Masonic work you speak about, but I hope I will be able to do so in the near future. 

May I ask what is the difference between a brother Mason who does not remember a bit 
of the Lodge work and a friend who is not a Mason at all? Respectfully and fraternally, 
S. Simone, 420 W. 2nd St., near Hill, Los Angeles, Calif. 


Not much, truly. But let us not be too critical about the brethren whose interests have in 
some way become divorced from active thought of Freemasonry. For example, I well 
remember one brother who came much against his will as a visitor to my lodge. Years 
ago he had taken the degrees in another State. Immediately after receiving the third 
degree he went upon the road as a representative of his firm. Since then he had never 
seen a degree conferred. Everywhere he was told that it was a difficult task to pass a 
lodge examination. Not feeling sure of his ground he never cared to undergo the ordeal. 
Many a time in his travels he wished that he was posted properly. At times he went 
home but his trips there were very short of stay, and then, too, there were other and 
usually more pressing matters to be handled. In my town he had business with one of 
the members of my lodge who prevailed upon him to come down and try his best. Some 
of his story preceded my investigation. He knew enough Masonry for the puipose. An 
excellent memory had forgotten no essentials. With patience, and he was fully entitled 
to that at the very least, he convinced the committee of his worthiness. An hour was 
spent by me afterwards in giving him all the light I could upon various methods of 
investigation he might meet and he was most grateful. But what shall be said of the 
brethren who had discouraged him theretofore? I know you will agree with me that a 
responsibility rests upon us all to see that Masons are informed. When your location 
permits, Brother Simone, I trust you will take hold of the work in which you have so 
evident an interest. 


FURTHER LIGHT FOR FREEMASONS 



The open letter on the back of the September issue of THE BUILDER appeals very 
much to me and as some of my Brethren have expressed a desire to take up the study of 
Masonry in a systematic manner I wish you would send me the list of members in my 
immediate locality and as much information for the formation of a study club as you 
can. 


I am not good at expressing myself, but I wish to say that I find a fund of information 
and "Light" in each issue. 


Thanking you for all that you may be able to do for us and wishing you and THE 
BUILDER continued success, I am, fraternally yours, A. M. Fluharty, W.M., Morning 
Light Lodge, No. 384, Manson, Iowa. 


Since the publication of the letter in the September issue I have prepared some 
additional suggestions for study club management that have appeared in the October 
number of THE BUILDER, and in the November issue of the Bulletin I have carried 
further the work. I trust that paper may be found of readable character. While only 
intended to answer a request for light on a hint previously given by me on that 
particular topic, yet it is on a little explored region of Masonic research and therefore 
ought to have no abatement of interest because of its pioneering work. 


I hope to take up in some detail an orderly consideration of Freemasonry in due season. 
These forthcoming papers as I have planned them will be of a style straightforward and 
simple enough to tell the tale Masonic with truth and terseness. Do not hesitate to write 
me whenever I can throw any further light upon the path. We are all students. Let us 
each contribute of his best, however poor that best may be. 


HOW ONE GROUP OF MASONS HAS GONE TO WORKS 



Congratulations on the "Bulletin." I believe its foundation is laid Masonically. 
Leadership is essential and when that leadership is executed by those who recognize the 
value of cooperation and draw their designs accordingly I feel a thrill of anticipation of 
Success. 


A leader cannot cooperate with himself. Those who look to him for leadership must 
contribute their mite. 


In this spirit and with a view of letting you know how a little group of students tried to 
start something, I will try to convey an account of our meagre efforts. 


Five of the brethren in our village held an informal meeting after our last stated 
communication, which was over at 8:30, and decided that we could study Masonic 
subjects to advantage at occasional meetings. 


The first question considered was "what particular phase of Masonic study will be most 
interesting to us?" 


It was decided that each brother state what he was most interested in finding out. One 
brother wanted to know about the authenticity of the legend of the third degree. In 
response to his query various Masonic writers were quoted and the point brought out, 
that, as writing about the esoteric work had ever been considered unlawful we really 
had little that was definite to base an opinion upon. Attention was also directed to the 
explanation given the candidate that "Masonry consists of a course of ancient 
hieroglyphical and moral instruction, taught according to ancient usage, by types, 
emblems and allegorical figures." 


The paper by John A. Thoipe on "Freemasonry, whence it came, etc." was read and 
discussed. I read a paper I had prepared on "What is Freemasonry and whence came it" 
which I carefully explained was only my personal opinion. Another brother wished to 



know where scriptural references to things of interest to Masons were to be found. (See 
Correspondence in this issue.) 


His request was complied with next day and a list of references given him. He promised 
to prepare a paper on the subject for some meeting of the group. 


Another brother wished to know what Masonry was doing now. Your scribe answered 
that his opinion was that it was trying hard to impress the full import of the answer to 
the second question of an E.A. on every Mason and that improvement in Masonry 
meant improvement in physical, mental and spiritual development. 


A paper by some member or some article of value was decided upon for future 
meetings and the general discussion which follows will bring out many points of 
interest and send us all to our authorities and induce us to search for more light. 


I, like many another, am groping around for something definite, but I believe our plan 
will eventually adjust itself to the capacity and needs of our group. 


My personal opinion is that each member of a study group should do his full share in 
contributing something of educational value in such a manner as to be of interest. 


We all have a tendency to follow lines of study of our own; consequently the study of a 
particular subject at any considerable length would probably become burdensome and 
uncongenial to some. 


At the best the study group is but an occasional gathering to glean the harvest of rich 
thought derived by the individual effort of its members. 



The individuals will benefit in the forum of fraternal discussion and the group will be 
cemented by additional ties of intellectual brotherhood. 


Hoping this has not become tiresome, I am, Yours in the spirit if not worthy in ability, 
Silas H. Shepherd, Hartland, Wis 


P. S. - 1 am only 42. 1 expect to know more at 52. 


P. P. S. - At times when our study group have nothing definite to work upon I have in 
view the reading and discussion of the following pamphlets and essays: 


Gould's "English Lodges before the Grand Lodge Era.” (Collected Essays.) 


Speth's "What is Freemasonry?" 


Lemerfs "Some of our Ancestors." 


Extracts from "A Masonic Curriculum" by Speth. 


Pound's "Causes of Divergence in Ritual." (Mass, proceedings, 1915.) 


Ossian Langis "Freemasonry and Mediaeval Craft Gilds.' (N. Y. proceedings 1916.) 



The reprinted series by the N.M.R.S. 


Morcombe's lectures on Symbolism. (Iowa Q. Bulletin, Vol. 3, Nos. 3, 4; Vol. 4, No. 

1 .) 


Selected readings from "Anderson's Book of Constitutions," Preston's "Illustrations," 
the "Old Charges" and other Masonic classics of value. 


Discussion on the articles in THE BUILDER. This is but a brief list of the many things 
of value. I hope some day to add to and classify. 


Perhaps you have a much more adequate list. 


A splendid start and a most excellent report is this. That explanation of what is 
comprised in the improvement of ourself in Masonry would from my point of view be 
hard to beat. Nothing more terse and true could well be framed. Your list of references 
for future work is good and fairly comprehensive. In fact you have some that are as yet 
strangers to me. So go ahead and please let us have further accounts of your progress. I, 
too, am not yet 52 and have much to leam. 


PROFITABLE POINTERS ON PLANS 


I am interested in Masonic topics and would be glad to join a club that is devoted to this 
field. The Correspondence Circle Bulletin should be of great value, not because I place 
such importance on methods and systems, but it may be the means of inducing the 
proper kind of organizers and leaders to start clubs. 



I am under the impression that the organization and administration of a club is a one 
man job, and that the interest shown by the members will be due to his ability as a 
leader, and his anticipation of their tastes and limitations. 


The set form of study that might be the most practical to give to city business men 
would very possibly not suit a lodge of working men of less education. Inspire men that 
are forceful, popular and systematic, let them organize and do 99 per cent of the 
planning and work and the club may grow and prosper. 


It's a great job for a "Man with a mission," as great a field to do good in as any pulpit 
offers. A well meaning but poorly talented man would make a failure, regardless of the 
fact that he might be well informed on Masonic subjects, and such a failure always 
makes it harder to reorganize. 


I am fortunate enough to be aware of my own limitations but there are others in this 
city, as well as in almost every locality, who could excite as much interest in Masonry 
as many of the preachers do in church work. 


The Builder has demonstrated its ability to find and collect interested men and I hope 
the Correspondence Circle will meet with equal success in starting the "leaders" to 
action. 


Assuring you of such service as is within my power, and looking forward to the 
progress of our desires, Fred W. Cochran 220 1/2 West Vernon, Los Angeles, Calif. 


It is a task to prepare an outline of study that will fit all needs or hopes, but we shall not 
despair if we continue to get the interest of such thoughtful Masons as yourself. Please 
go further, won't you, and tell me how I can best serve you. What are the topics that in 
your judgment should first get attention? In your intercourse with Masons what have 
you found to be most desired in the way of information ? This is a big country, all 



manner of men live in it. My own experience with them must be all too limited. Your 
help toward my better understanding is earnestly invited. 


HOW A START IN STUDY CLUB WORK MAY BE MADE 


List of members ofN.M.R.S. and copies of THE BUILDER containing your letter 
received. The response to my call was not as large as hoped for, but this did not deter 
the few of us that were present from starting. We thought best to begin with the tools 
we had on hand. All present were members of the N.M.R.S., and our Lodge had 
purchased ten or more copies of Bro J.F. Newton's work, "The Builders," so it was 
decided to take up the study of this book with the aid of the Questions compiled by the 
Cincinnati Masonic Study School which are found on page 128 of No. 6, Vol. 1, of 


THE BUILDER. 


For our first study we took up Questions 1 to 14, hunted up the answers before our 
second meeting at which time the questions were asked, the answer given from memory 
if possible, if not, it was read. If given from memory it was verified from "The 
Builders," then each was asked if there was any discussion of the thought presented. 

The discussions brought out many bits of information and the meeting was voted a 
success by those present. 


For our next meeting, (we meet the 1st, 3rd and 5th Saturday nights in each month), 
Questions 1 5 to 29 will be taken up in the same way and so on until we strike a line of 
thought we want to dig into a bit deeper. 


We sent the following letter to those who did not show up at our 1st or 2nd meeting: 


Sample of Letter Sent to Prospective Members of a Study Club. 



Dear Sir and Brother: - Can YOU answer the following: 


What was thought to be the shape of the world by the Egyptians in the early ages? 


What is said of the way the Temples of Egypt were built in early times ? 


What are the real foundations of Masonry? 


Give an outline of the Egyptian teachings. 


What was the central theme of the Egyptian faith ? 


What is said of eternity as an ideal of the early Egyptians ? 


What is said of the Cube, Square and CROSS? 


The answer to these can be found in THE BUILDERS by Bro. Jos. F. Newton. Also 
they will be taken up and discussed along with several others at the 3rd meeting of our 
Masonic Study Club, Saturday evening, 7:00 o'clock, at my office in Cottingham Bldg. 
We will be glad to have you with us whether you become a member or not. Fraternally 
thine, 


Trust that you will pardon such a lengthy letter but I thought perhaps that our plans 
would be a help to others who like ourselves were at a loss as to what and how to begin 



to study. Fraternally thine, J. A. Stiles, Morganfield Lodge No. 66, F. & A. M., 
Morganfield, Ky. 


Good enough, Bro. Stiles. Fine work, I say. You have done well. Do you find any part 
of Bro. Newton's book either difficult to understand or do you note any place on which 
you or your members seek more light than is afforded by the book itself? We all want to 
make the path easier to travel. In any way we can help, please do not fail to bring the 
matter to our attention either by letter to Anamosa or direct to me. Meantime, go 
forward even as you have already done so well. 


WHAT ABOUT THE LODGE BEING A STUDY CLUB? 


From East, West and South I am getting letters that convince me that in one respect at 
least I have failed utterly to make myself clearly understood. It is entirely my own fault, 
too. Here I am emphasizing Study Club organization as something beyond the ordinary 
Lodge routine. I have put so much weight upon this plan being carried on outside a 
tyled Lodge that several correspondents write to know why the scheme cannot be 
handled by the regular Lodge officers and the whole matter conducted on the Lodge- 
room floor. Of course it can. I'm positively ashamed of myself that I failed so absurdly 
to make that possibility absolutely clear. 


Some Lodges already do this successfully. Several Grand Lodges have considered that 
very angle of the situation. The Grand Master of Utah said on this point: "I believe a 
system of Masonic instruction and education can be introduced into our Lodges which 
will make the Lodge meetings more attractive and interesting, without interfering with 
the usual work. A carefully prepared and correct exposition of a Masonic subject, or a 
division or instalment thereof, approved by competent authority, read in open Lodge, 
and consuming not more than thirty minutes time, occurring say six times a year, 
would, in my opinion, be a useful and valuable addition to our Lodge proceedings." 


So it would, Bro. Cherry. Not the slightest doubt about it, in my humble opinion. But is 
not six times a year too few? Can we not do better? 



It is right here where the difficulty comes in. My notion of keeping up the interest is to 
plan for study meetings frequent enough to maintain a grip upon the attention of the 
brethren. At this stage Lodge facilities are prone to fall down hard. Take the average 
City Lodge. How much time is there to devote to anything outside the "work" and the 
"business?" When I was Master I found it almost impossible to handle all the 
initiations, the examinations, the committees, the funerals, the excursions, the charities, 
and so forth, to my liking without going into the operation of a Study Club Annex or of 
supplementary lectures. Most Masters of my acquaintance will, I am sure, agree with 
me. 


Where it can be done I do heartily approve of the use of the Lodge for all Masonic 
instruction that may possibly be given there. There can be no better place. Granted 
leisure for the puipose and what could be more seemly than the presentation of a 
suitable essay. An enthusiastic friend once said that he relished and cherished the idea 
that the makeup of a Masonic body should be such that it would be no rare thing for 
great discoveries in science to be first announced there, that fine artists of the Craft 
should there each submit their maguum opus and that every Lodge ought to be a center 
radiating the best there is in the whole scope of the arts and sciences. 


Well, why not? 


— o- 


TRAVEL SKETCHES 


BY THE EDITOR 


STRATFORD-ON-AVON 



WHAT a day was that on which I went to Stratford, to visit a tiny town and a mighty 
grave! It was like a dream come true, its soft bright hours like the stanzas of a poem in 
which echoes of unheard music linger. All the way down from London I mused on the 
mystery of genius, but found no key to the riddle of it. God breathes it; beyond that 
we cannot go. Dig how you will in the lore of Stratford, no fact, no hint turns up to 
account for a man whose genius is "an intellectual ocean whose waves touch every 
shore." It is a mystery the secret of which no one may fathom. 


My guide, philosopher and friend took pains that I should see everything, and to best 
advantage. Climbing into a cab, we turned away from the town out into the country. It 
was like riding through a park. Hedgerows neatly trimmed, a quaint cottage here and 
there, apricots on garden walls, birds singing, and over all the dreamy peace of 
English summer! Where we were going I did not know. Nor did I much care, wishing 
that the ride might be endless amid scenes so lovely - thinking of a boy who once 
wandered along these ways. After a little we turned a corner and stopped at a long, 
low cottage with a thatched roof and tiny windows, and flowers in the garden. 


Then I knew where we were and why we had come. It was the home of Ann 
Hathaway, where the boy had gone a-courting in the village of Shottery. Near the 
front door is a stone where Dickens once sat musing of that odd romance of long ago, 
remembering, no doubt, how the boy himself had afterwards said that it would be a 
good thing if every boy could be put soundly to sleep at fifteen, and not be allowed to 
wake up until he is twenty- three. Of a truth it would be safer, but think of the fun he 
would miss! Inside the cottage they show you the old kitchen, with its old fire-place 
but little changed since Will and Ann sat so close together on the seat near by, 
whispering all the sweet nothings that lads and lassies say when life is new and love is 
young. 


Thence we drove to Borden's Hill, a mile or more away, from which lay spread out, as 
in a picture, the town of Stratford, its rows of brick houses, its winding streets, its 
church-spire, half hidden by trees. It is a scene to haunt the heart forever, and 'tis no 
wonder that memories of it floated into all the plays and poems of the Bard of Avon. 
Nor is it strange that Shakespeare came back to this scene towards the end, wise 
enough to know when to quit and wishing to leave the earth where he had first learned 



to love it. Down the Hill we went, our next stop being at the house on Henley Street, 
where the seer was bom. Forty thousand people visit that house every year, coming 
from the ends of the earth to pay homage to a great memory. 


No one knows in what room the poet was bom, but tradition has consecrated the small 
chamber facing the street, on the first floor. Names have been scribbled over all the 
walls. Most of them mean nothing, but one finds those of Thackeray, Keen, and 
Browning, and in the room above the signatures of Walter Scott and Thomas Carlyle 
scratched on the window. No new names are allowed to be added. The back room, up 
stairs, contains the so-called "Stratford Portrait," now declared by Sidney Lee to have 
been painted from a bust in the eighteenth century. Below is the kitchen, one of the 
few rooms that has not been changed since the bard was a boy. Two rooms to the right 
are fitted up as a Museum, and contain early editions of the plays, portraits, and 
various relics. The Garden, at the back of the house, is filled with the trees and 
flowers mentioned in the plays. 


Passing along High Street we see the house in which Judith, the daughter of the poet, 
lived for thirty-six years. Further on stands the picturesque half-timbered Harvard 
House, once the home of Katharine Rodgers, mother of John Harvard - founder of 
Harvard University. On Chapel Street is the site of New Place, the house in which the 
poet resided when he returned to Stratford, and where he died. Only the foundation 
remains. Opposite New Place is the old Guild Hall, where the boy may have seen 
troops of strolling players perform; in the upper story of which was the Grammar 
School which he attended. At the end of Church Street we turn into the Old Town 
road which brings us to the Trinity Church, almost hidden amid trees on the bank of 
the Avon. 


As we entered the Church, two aeroplanes passed over the town, like huge birds. I 
wondered what Shakespeare would have said. Be sure that fertile fancy, in which 
Ariel had his birth, would have found a phrase to fit the fact. The Church is interesting 
in itself, and in its treasures of art, but chiefly, of course, for that it is the tomb of the 
greatest genius of the English race. As Washington Irving said of it long of old, "The 
mind refuses to dwell on anything that is not connected with Shakespeare. His idea 
pervades the place; the whole pile seems but as his mausoleum. The feelings no 
longer checked by doubt, here indulge in perfect confidence; other traces of him may 
be false or dubious, but here is palpable evidence and absolute certainty." 



Standing by that Grave on the north side of the chancel, I had such a sense of the 
reality of Shakespeare as I never had before. There, only a few feet below me, lay the 
actual dust of the Magician himself - divine dust, because his celestial spirit lent it 
Divinity, revealing all the heights and depths, the tragedy and comedy of this our 
mortal life. Who can pause beside that grave and doubt the triumph of the soul over 
death ? How could that creative mind, that busy heart, cease to be ? It is unthinkable ! 
Only two other spots on earth have touched me with a like sense of the reality of 
immortality: one is Westminster Abbey, and the other is the grave of Emerson in 
Sleepy Hollow. As I read the oft-quoted epitaph with its warning, I thought, instead, 
of that wonderful 146th Sonnet, in which he conquered death before he died. 


Nor must we forget the Memorial Theatre - that treasure-house of paintings of the 
Dramatist and his characters, which is also a library of Shakespearian books. From the 
top of the tower, reached by flights of steps and ladders, one sees another picture 
never to be forgotten. The town, the winding Avon, the summer beauty on the hills - it 
is as lovely as a dream. On one side of the theatre was a park, half full of men wearing 
the blue-gray uniform of wounded English soldiers - reminding us of the vast tragedy 
not far away. On the other side stands the Monument, erected in 1888 by Lord Gower 
- crowned with a giant image of the Poet, surrounded by figures representing Tragedy, 
History, Comedy, Philosophy. 


Of course, we saw the Fountain, the gift of an American in 1887, in honor of the 
genius of Shakespeare and the jubilee of Queen Victoria. On our way we met Marie 
Corelli out for an airing - a fat, chubby little lady she is, quite unlike her pictures. 
Reluctantly, with mingled joy and regret, we took the train for London. Always it is 
back to London, as of old all roads led to Rome. Now I know what the poet meant in 
his Rhymes of the Road, 


"Go where you may, rest where you will, 


Eternal London haunts you still." 



GEOMETRY 


Geometry, that is to say, the science of harmony in space, presides over everything. 
We find it in the arrangement of the scales of a fir-cone, as in the arrangement of a 
spider's living web; we find it in the spiral of a snail shell, in the chaplet of a spider's 
thread, and in the orbit of a planet; it is everywhere, as perfect in the world of atoms 
as in the world of immensities. 


- Henri Fabre. The Cufic of the Spider. 




THE ETERNAL RELIGION 


I offer this book to the sight, not of philosophers and wise men of the world, nor of 
great theologians wrapped in endless questionings; but to the simple and untaught, 
those who seek to love God rather than to know many things. For not by disputing, 
but by doing will He be known, and by loving. - Richard Rolle, 1316. 


-o- 


THE TRINITY IN COLOR 



BY BRO. S.W. WILLIAMS, P.G.H.P., TENN. 


IN the many-sidedness of Masonic study we all have been taught much relative to the 
NUMBER THREE. Volumes have been written in regard to its mysterious symbolism 
in its connection with the Religious systems of past ages. Its potency today is shown 
in the TRINITY OF DEITY - the FATHER, SON and HOLY GHOST - regarded 
most sacredly throughout the civilized World. 


Let us look at it from a different standpoint. The seven colors which form the 
Rainbow when perfect - RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO and 
VIOLET - are constructively evolved from what are known as the THREE PRIMARY 
COLORS - RED, YELLOW and BLUE. From these are all the others formed, 

WHITE is the presence of all color, while BLACK is the absence of all LIGHT 
(which makes color possible) and hence, is the absence of all color. Each of THE 
SEVEN has been awarded a symbolic meaning - but these three PRIMARY 
COLORS, in their symbolic significance, embrace all that there is in life for Man, 
from birth to eternity. 


Man begins life in the Innocence of Childhood - symbolized by WHITE - the presence 
of ALL COLOR - because he is "Made in the image of God" and to show his many- 
sided nature, crowned with an Immortal Soul. 


With Manhood, he enters the domain of the first of the primary colors - the RED - 
which signifies all that is strong and virile in Manhood; the flush of health and the 
physical force and power to DO and ACT. 


When the strength of Man faileth, he is said to be "In the sear and yellow leaf’ - 
hence, YELLOW is the symbol of AGE; and, when "He faileth, like autumn leaves to 
enrich our mother-Earth" - then it is that he enters the realm of the Blue color, which, 
as it nears Divinity, gradually loses its strength, being affected by the glorious 
whiteness of the Light of Heaven, till it becomes the Ultra-Violet - the Honce of the 
Angels and of those redeemed Souls who have found favor with God. 



WHITE denotes PURITY - INNOCENCE - GOD. And every Child that is born into 
the Garden of Innocence must pass out therefrom, into the World of work and strife, 
and assume the cares, the responsibilities, and the duties of Manhood, only to fall in 
the "Sear and Yellow leaf' and, as a reward of his efforts, he enters the BLUE Zone - 
the Spirit-land - from which he is to pass once more into the PURE, WHITE LIGHT 
which emanates from the Throne of the Father. The Circle has been completed, - and 
a Circlet of White, enclosing a triangle of RED, YELLOW and BLUE, would carry 
our thoughts through life - into Eternity. 


— o — 


INDIAN FREEMASONRY 

BY BRO. C. M. SCHENCK. COLORADO 


THE perversity in attaching through preconceived views a wrong significance to signs 
is illustrated by an anecdote found in several versions and in several languages, (1) 
(but repeated as a veritable Scotch legend by Duncan Anderson, esq., Principal of the 
Glasgow Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, when he visited Washington in 1853.) 


King James I. of England, desiring to play a trick upon the Spanish ambassador, a 
man of great erudition, but who had a crotchet in his head upon sign language, 
informed him that there was a distinguished professor of that science in the university 
at Aberdeen. The ambassador set out for that place, preceded by a letter from the King 
with instructions to make the best of him. There was in the town one Geordy, a 
butcher, blind of one eye, a fellow of much wit and drollery. Geordy is told to play the 
part of a professor, with the warning not to speak a word; is gowned, wigged, and 
placed in a chair of state, when the ambassador is shown in and they are left alone 
together. Presently the nobleman came out greatly pleased with the experiment, 
claiming that his theory was demonstrated. He said: "When I entered the room I raised 
one finger to signify there is one God. He replied by raising two fingers to signify that 
this Being rules over two worlds; the material and the spiritual. Then I raised three 



fingers, to say there are three persons in the Godhead. He then closed his fingers, 
evidently to say these three are one." After this explanation on the part of the 
nobleman the professors sent for the butcher and asked him what took place in the 
recitation room. He appeared very angry and said: "When the crazy man entered the 
room where I was he raised one finger, as much as to say I had but one eye, and f 
raised two fingers to signify that I could see out of my one eye as well as he could out 
of both of his. When he raised three fingers, as much as to say there were but three 
eyes between us, I doubled up my fist, and if he had not gone out of that room in a 
hurry, 1 would have knocked him down." (Garrick Mallery in First Annual Report of 
the Bureau of Ethnology, pages 337-338.) 


On record are many stories, related by honest and intelligent men, of instances where 
Masonic signs have been recognized by North American Indians, and today some well 
informed Masons believe that Masonry was known to these Indians before the coming 
of the white man, and that it still exists among them. Of how easy it is to mistake the 
meaning of signs the Aberdeen anecdote offers a good example. It very often happens 
that things are not what they seem to be. 


One of the believers in Indian Masonry was Dr. Charles E. Stone, a charter member of 
Yuba Lodge No. 39, of Marysville, California, with whom on the evening of February 
24, 1909, 1 visited his lodge. He was at that time eighty- two years of age, a Knight 
Templar, and a 33 degree Hon. Scottish Rite Mason. 


Among other things which he showed me was an album containing photographs of the 
charter members of the Lodge. He called attention to the picture of a man named 
Heath, whose life he said had been saved through the recognition of a Masonic sign 
by hostile Indians. In reply to my question, "How could the Indians have gained any 
knowledge of Masonry?" he replied, "Probably from the early French." 


In May, 1910, Brother Stone, who died a few months later, (December, 1910), 
repeated to me in a letter the story which he had told me in the Lodge room, from 
which letter I will quote: 



Marysville, Cal., May 23,1910. 


C.M. Schenck, 


Denver, Colorado. 
Illustrious Sir and Brother: - 


* * * In the year 1867 or 8, Bro. James Heath, a member of our Lodge, came to me 
and expressed a desire to join the Chapter of which I was an officer, giving as a reason 
that, a yeas or two before, he, with a party of friends, went on a prospecting trip in the 
State of Nevada. They had a good camping outfit, a four-horse covered wagon, and 
supplies to last for several weeks Heath was the driver and was one day left in a 
beautiful valley while the others went out to prospect. 


About 2 o'clock in the afternoon a band of Indians, finely mounted, appeared on a 
ridge above the valley, and he saw then were in hostile array, and said he hardly knew 
what to do, but thought if the G.H.S. would ever do any good, now was the time to try 
it; so he gave it, and the leader of the Indians at once dismounted, stuck a spear he 
carried, in the ground, and left the band, came down, took Heath by the hand, led him 
behind the wagon, and, as he expressed it, gave him more grips and signs than he 
knew, and wave him to understand that his party must leave and return to Virginia 
City. 


The Indians then remained with them a day or two and escorted them out of the 
hostile country, and until they were safely on their journey and in sight of Virginia 
City, when the Chief parted with his white Brother, taking his men with him and were 
soon out of sight. 



Bro. Crandell, who was at the time Grand Sr. Warden of our Grand Lodge, told me 
that, in crossing the plains in 1849 with a large company of emigrants, he and one 
other man were the only Masons, although there were several families in the 
company. The Comanches had war parties out, and were very troublesome, and had 
stolen stock, and killed several people. Crandell and his friend agreed, should the 
Indians make their appearance near them, to try Masonry as a means of protection. It 
was not long before they had an opportunity, as a large band came swooping toward 
them. He and his friend then made themselves known as Brothers, and two or three of 
the Indians responded and their company was never molested during the journey, and 
lost no stock; the Indians keeping faith with their white Brothers. 


Many years ago I read of a visit made in St. Louis by a delegation of Indian Chiefs, 
who were on their way to Washington to visit the Great White Father, as they termed 
the President of the U. S. In escorting these Indians about the city, they were taken to 
a Masonic Temple which had been recently erected. On being taken to the Lodge 
rooms, which had been decorated with Masonic Emblems on the walls and ceiling, 
they showed by signs and other expressions, that they were perfectly familiar with 
them. 


After Bro. James Heath had taken all the degrees in the Chapter, Council and 
Commandery, he said some more signs were given him by the Indian Chief, and I 
presume the Scottish Rite Degrees, or some of them, might have been conferred on 
the Red Man. 


Bros. Heath and Crandell's statements, which I had from their oven lips, I have given 
as nearly in their own words as possible: they made a lasting impression on my mind 
regarding the universality of our Order, and the protecting care it insures its members 
"wheresoever dispersed around the globe." 


All the Bros, mentioned have passed to the Celestial Lodge above, and I, the Elder 
Brother, am left to tell their experiences. All were old friends of the '49 period, and we 
"kept watch and ward together many years." 



Referring to my visit he wrote: The candlesticks which you saw used as Altar lights in 
our Lodge Room, (Yuba Lodge, No. 39, Marysville, California, visited Feb. 24, 

1909), were taken from a Buddhist Temples where they had probably been used for 
centuries, and were used at the institution of the first Masonic Lodge in Japan, under 
an English Charter, and called Nippon Lodge No. 1. Bro. Charles E. DeLong, our 
Minister to Japan, was present at that Ceremony, and was by that Lodge presented 
with the candlesticks, he furnishing others to replace them. Bro. DeLong also 
presented us the chain armor, spear and banner of a Japanese warrior of the older 
time. The American Flag, which you also saw, was the first American Flag to be 
carried through that Island when Bro. DeLong was allowed by that government to 
make a trip through their country. The flag-staff is of Japanese wood. 


Bro. Geo. W. Prescott, who visited Jerusalem and the Holy Land, presented us with 
the beautiful Corinthian pillar and the gavels. The base of the pillar is marble from the 
foundation of King Solomon's Temple; the shaft is of the Cedar of Lebanon, and the 
gavels are of olive-wood from the banks of the River Jordan. 


Very truly and affectionately yours, 


(Signed) C. E. Stone, 33 degree, Hon. 


That Brother Heath thought the Indians understood his sign, and that they were 
Masons, there can be no question. As to whether his conclusion was correct there is 
room for doubt. 


In Col. Garrick Mallery's paper on "Sign Language Among North American Indians," 
previously mentioned, on page 530 (Fig. 335) is a picture of an Indian giving a sign 
which is at least suggestive of the one used by Brother Heath. The accompanying text 
explains that it is the sign for "Peace; Friendship," made by elevating the hands at 
arms length above and on either side of the head. Observed by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, as 
made in Northern Arizona in 1871 by Apaches, Mojaves, Hualpais, and Seviches." 



This being so, is it not perhaps probable that the sign given by Brother Heath was 
interpreted by the Indians to mean "Peace; Friendship" ? If the friendly relations 
established through the medium of the sign, were followed by a good feed and other 
entertainment, it is easy to account for the Indians remaining with the party for a day 
or two and then escorting it safely out of the hostile country. You will remember that 
Brother Heath narrated that the Indian "led him behind the wagon and gave him more 
grips and signs than he knew," and that in later years the Indian Chief gave him some 
more signs, and he presumed that "the Scottish Rite Degrees, or some of them, might 
have been conferred on the Red Man." Of this it may be said that there are but few 
Masonic signs which are not found, although with an entirely different meaning, in 
the sign language of the American Indians. 


Illustrations of several such signs are given in Col. Mallery's paper above referred to. 
Note particularly Fig. 290 on page 467; Fig. 293, page 471; Fig. 309, page 487; and 
Fig. 336, page 531. 


In "The New Age" for September, 1910, (pages 244 and 245) in his article on "The 
Legend of Masonry Among the Osage Indians," Frederick S. Barde says: 


"A Scottish Rite Mason who has lived long in Oklahoma was asked if he believed the 
Osages knew anything of Masonry. He replied instantly that he did, and told of having 
recognized certain signs used by an Osage who had shown curiousity in examining a 
Masonic badge. This Osage could not speak English and talked through an interpreter. 
This Scottish Rite Mason had no familiar acquaintance with the Osages, and admitted 
that his belief was based largely on surmise, as he did not attempt to hold Masonic 
communication with the Indian. The observation and belief of this Mason is common 
to many others. A Mason ignorant of Osage customs and speech, watching attentively 
a conference of Osages, and departing without inquiry, might be convinced beyond 
the shadow of doubt that these Indians know something of Masonry. 


"All North American Indians have an inter-tribal means of communication, known as 
the sign language. It is so graphic and comprehensive that two Indians, wholly unable 



to understand each other orally, may converse easily and with certainty in this 
language. In it are two signs that correspond without appreciable difference to two of 
the most important signs of Masonry, both in the degree of Master Mason. 
Remarkable as it may be, the meaning of these Indian signs is practically the same as 
their Masonic counterparts, one being concrete and the other more or less abstract 


"But unhappily for the Osage legend, or its extension to other Indian tribes, a more 
inaccurate and misleading statement could hardly be made than to say that the Osages 
have even the slightest knowledge of Masonic secrets. From the Indian standpoint, 
one of these signs has a clear origin in a custom peculiar to a powerful tribe when in 
battle; the origin of the other, speculatively at least, may be traced to a daily 
phenomenon of nature. 


"The accuracy of this conclusion is upheld by Masons of inquiring minds who have 
lived for more than a quarter of a century among the Osages, speaking fluently both 
the sign language and the Osage tongue, and who are acquainted with the legend of 
Osage Masonry. They declare that they never found the least evidence of Masonry 
among the Osages, and believe firmly that the legend has no stronger foundation than 
the gestural coincidence between the two Indian and the two Masonic signs." 


What the two signs were, I have taken some pains to find out, but am still uninformed. 


In his book entitled "Indian Masonry," Robert C. Wright addresses his Preface "To the 
Brethren of the Craft," and begins it with: 


"This work is fraternally dedicated to you. In your kindly charge it is placed, hoping 
that when it has been measured by the plumb, square and level, it will be found good 
work, true work, square work, and just such work as you need and may pass to be 
used in the building up of the real Masonic structure." 



Here are a few extracts from the book: 


"Some time ago a brother said one day that he had seen Indians give Masonic signs, 
and this being doubted in spite of the brother's earnestness, an investigation was 
begun." (p. 1) 


"I have had Masons solemnly tell me that they had seen Masonic signs given by 
Indians and that they were Masons. This can be explained in two ways: first, the 
Indian had actually become a Mason or had learned the signs secretly from white men 
as negroes of the south had done- second, those brethren had taken as Masonic, signs 
made by the Indian for which he intended an entirely different meaning. There is great 
danger that the civilized understanding is mistaken or forced, and errors are more 
likely to happen from the hearsay of traders, interpreters and agents, who have made 
an Indian jargon, and insist that signs of their own making, adopted by the Indians, are 
universal." (p. 12) 


"Signs are very liable to be misunderstood; yet some of them have a startling likeness 
to ancient Masonic symbols." (p. 16) 


"There is no Indian Masonry. There is Indian Masonry. This wide difference I make 
clear when I say, no Indian Masonry as the average man understands it, but there is a 
deep Indian Masonry for him who seeks to find it." (p. 108) 


"There is no Indian Masonry in that small and narrow sense which most of us think 
of; that is, one who pays lodge dues, wears an apron like ours and gives signs so 
nearly like ours that we find him perforce a Mason in any degree or degrees we know, 
and which degrees we are too prone to watch, just as we do a procession of historical 
floats, which casually interest us, and maybe a little more so if we can but secure a 
place at the head of the procession, the true meaning of which we have but a faint idea 
about. This makes our own Masonry as meaningless as the interpretation of Indian 
signs by an ignorant trapper." (p. 109) 



Dr. Walter Rough, a Mason and an anthropologist who for twenty-seven years has 
been associated with the Smithsonian Institute, is reported to have expressed himself 
in so far as Masonry among the Hopi Indians is concerned, as told in the following 
extract from a newspaper article: 


"A Blue Lodge Mason entered one of the Hopi lodges. He came out thunderstruck. "I 
don't know where he got it," said the Blue Lodge man, "but that Indian buck in there 
knows as much Masonry as I do." Which is a lovely fable which helps to make guides 
rich. According to Dr. Hough, there aren't any Hebrew words or Masonic rites to be 
found in Hopi Pueblos. The resemblance is undeniable, but there is no common 
meaning or common origin." (Herbert Corey, in Denver Times of Oct. 1, 1913.) 


Brother Newton R. Parvin of the Masonic Library at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Grand 
Secretary of Iowa, has kindly furnished me with a list embracing thirteen books and 
magazine articles relating to Indian Masonry, which I shall be pleased to pass on to 
any of you who wish to delve deeper. 


In so far as a settlement of the question whether there was, or is now, any Masonry as 
we know it, known to uncivilized North American Indians, I will leave it as Stockton 
did in "The Lady, or the Tiger." You will remember that at the end of the story he told 
us: 


"The question of her decision is not to be lightly considered, and it is not for me to 
presume to set myself up as the one person able to answer it. And so I leave it all with 
you: Which came out of the open door, the lady or the tiger?" 



(1) This introduction and the version which I shall give you is taken from Col. Garrick 
Mallery's paper on "Sign Language Among North American Indians," printed in the 
First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1879-80.) 


LIST FURNISHED BY BROTHER PARVIN 
Sept. 23, 1913 


Barde, F.S., Legend of Masonry Among the Osage Indians. New Age, V. 13; pp. 242, 
245. 


Bromwell, H. P. H., Masonry Among the American Indians. American Tyler, V. 5; p. 

10. 


Freemasonry Among the Indians. New England Craftsman, V. 4; p. 90. 


Indian Masonry. American Tyler, V. 16; p. 160 


Masonry Among the American Indians. Evergreen, V. 3; p. 3. 


New Kind of Masonry. American Tyler, V. 15; p. 84. 


Newell, C., Masonry of the Red Man. Tyler Keystone, V. 21; pp. 1 13, 146, 168, 192, 
194. 



A Possible Relic of Indian Masonry. American Tyler, V. 7; p. 336. 


Some Unrecognized Masonry. American Tyler, V. 18 ; p. 404. 


Welles, T.F., Freemasonry Among the Indians. Trestle Board, San Francisco, V. 9; p. 
31. 


Welsh, Indian Freemasonry. Trestle Board, San Francisco, V. 2; p. 178. 


Wright, Robert C., Is there Masonry Among the Indians? Tyler Keystone, V. 20; p. 
523. V. 21; pp. 8,28. 


Wright, Robert C., Indian Masonry. 


— o- 


THE TWO ASHLARS BY BRO. F.C. HIGGINS, NEW YORK 


Our lodge is in every respect a symbolic workshop, furnished with all the tools 
belonging to the different grades of workmen, and with a trestleboard upon which are 
set forth the day's designs and the material upon which the labor of the brethren is to 
be expended. 



This symbolic material consists of the two ashlars, emblematic of the crude material 
and the finished product, which are placed plainly enough on view in New York 
lodges, but absent or almost unknown except to students in many other states. The 
oblong stones and nondescript slabs sometimes seen are noteworthy evidence that the 
age-old significance of the "cubical stone," which has played such a prominent role in 
the mythology and mysticism of the past, has almost run to oblivion in the modern 
craft. These stones should really be perfect cubes. The symbolism of the working 
tools is completely lost the moment such proportions are lost sight of or ignored. The 
ancient Hebrews had their own version of the great "number philosophy," which lent 
sanctity and expressiveness to the number 12. First of all, it was the number of their 
Twelve Tribes, who were doubtless a symbolical enrolment of all the heads of 
families under the zodiacal sign of the month in which they were born. It is certainly 
significant that the patriarchal system was founded upon this number, and later on 
many other dispositions were made that showed a particular reverence for the 
Chaldean plan of the universe based upon 12 signs. As one cube possesses six sides 
each of which is a perfect square, a number of remarkable mathematical and 
geometrical symbolisms were established based upon the fact that all the numbers, 
from one to 12 added together produce 78. This number is also the sum of 3 times 
"26," the numerical value of the "Great and Sacred Name of Jehovah" (JHVH). 


As each cube possesses 12 edges, the combined number require a 24-inch rule to 
symbolize their total outline. The breaking into different mathematical combinations 
of this supreme number, each significant of some one of the great ruling phenomena 
of nature, was seen in the symbolism of the use of an operative Mason's gavel in the 
dressing of building stones. 


The grand old mystery name of our Creator, called the Tetragrammaton (Greek for 
"four-letter name") had as its root the three letters J, H, and V, which as numbers were 
10, 5, and 6, or 21, the sum of the added numbers 1 to 6 represented by a single cube. 


This fact was made the basis of a curious legend, ought by the wise old rabbis into 
that marvelous compilation called the Talmud, from which more than a little of our 
Masonic material has been derived. 



The story is of the Patriarch Enoch (Hanok, father Methuseleh), whose name means 
"the initiator," 10, all accounts agree, lived 365 years, or a "year of years." A 
remarkable book attributed to him is often alluded to by the Hebrew commentators 
and early Christian "Fathers"; but no trace of it was ever found until in the last century 
it turned up in Abyssinia. It has been translated out of that strange African dialect into 
many tongues. The so-called Book of Enoch contains a remarkable recital of 
astronomical science as known to the ancients, told entirely in allegorical form, while 
the history of the Children of Israel is prophesied ( ?) under the allegorical simile of 
the remarkable doings of a singularly intelligent flock of sheep which which build a 
house for their shepherd, the whole reading very much like a children's fairy tale. 


The Talmudic legend of Enoch represents him as greatly disturbed at the news of the 
impending world Deluge," for fear the Name of God should be lost. He accordingly 
caused it to be inscribed upon a triangular plate of gold, and affixed it to a cubical 
stone, for the safe keeping of which he caused a series of nine arched vaults to be 
constructed, one beneath another, at the foot of Mt. Moriah (the holy mountain of the 
Jews, as Mt. Meru was of the Hindus). The rains came and the flood descended, and 
so washed the mud and silt over the site that it became completely obliterated. 


Centuries later, when King David was moved "to build an house unto the Lord," and 
actually set his workmen to dig the foundations thereof, the latter discovered the 
vaults, and descending therein brought to light the long-buried stone. 


Tradition also has it that the material of this stone was agate, which would at once 
connect it with the Hermetic philosophy; for agate, above all, was sacred to Hermes 
and Thoth or David. The latter, having been a warlike monarch, was not permitted to 
achieve that which he had begun and so bequeathed the cubical stone to his son 
Solomon, who made use of it as the cornerstone of the Temple. 


The imagery of this is plain enough in the fact that, not in a written or engraved 
inscription, but in the mathematical proportions of the cube itself, was to be found that 
wonderful Name which is, as it were, the foundation of the universe, of which man is 
a fleshly epitome and the Temple on Mt. Moriah a symbolic one. 



By knowing the use of the working tools of an E. A. the initiate might begin his labor 
of hewing and shaping the brute matter at his feet into stones fit for the builders' use; 
but when he had accomplished his task he was apprised that the symmetry and order it 
represented in its finished shape was "God": not a god whom he created, but a God 
whom his patient labor had revealed. 


The cube itself was an age-old symbol of the spiritual Man, as set forth in the 
Mahabarata of ancient India: 


A portion of Mine own Self, transformed in the world of life into an immortal Spirit, 
draweth round itself the senses of which the Mind, is the Sixth, veiled in Matter. 


Therefore we find the cube present in all the ancient mythologies, which were but 
racial cloaks for one and the same wisdom religion, understood by the priests of all 
countries alike as a symbol of the sixth sign of the zodiac, the characters portraying 
the great Mother of Wisdom and her divine son Man. 


It is the task of the apprentice to break through the shell of matter and liberate the 
Divine Word that dwells within by opening his own spiritual perceptions to the light 
of the Logos. As the priceless statues of Phidias and Praxiteles were once shapeless 
masses of unmeaning stone and the Parthenon a sea-worn crag, until gavel and gage, 
mallet and chisel, in the hand of inspiration had performed their tasks, so has always 
been the lesson of the cube in its unshapen and shapen forms to the apprentice Mason, 


-o- 


MAUNDY THURSDAY — A TOAST BY Bro. M.F. Funkhouser, Nebraska 



The chief claim of an Institution to some is the evidence of its Antiquity; to such the 
genealogical record of Masonry should be most gratifying. That it should antedate the 
Christian Era ought certainly to satisfy the most exacting enthusiast, but there are 
those who insist on even a more remote origin and who never tire of tracing its 
ramifications through the labyrinths of the Ancient Mysteries of India, Egypt and 
Greece, and exultingly picture it in detail, surviving, triumphant through all the 
vicissitudes and mutations of human affairs, outlasting the wreck and havoc of 
dynasties, the disruption of Empires, the downfall and rise of Republics, witnessing in 
successive ages the atrocities and death of tyrants and applauding the self sacrifice, 
devotion and triumph of patriots. 


How shall we gauge and measure the merit of such an Institution, with a foundation so 
broad and deep and firm that it has been thus perpetuated, though ever feared and 
frowned upon by ignorance and superstition, threatened by bigotry and assailed by 
intolerance. The jealous hate of despots has attacked it with fire and sword and its 
followers have been proscribed, persecuted, reviled, loaded with chains, thrown into 
dungeons and even burned at the stake— martyrs to aspiritual despotism which made 
Reason and Free Thought crimes, worthy of discipline and severe punishment, instead 
of a patient hearing and candid exposition. 


A sacred trust is attached to this rich inheritance, which we have received from our 
progenitors. A personal responsibility rests upon us for the preservation of the 
principles of civil and religious liberty— Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Free Speech, 
Free Thought, Free Conscience, Free Press and Free schools should be as dear to us as 
they were to our departed dead. We too, should be ready and willing to shed our 
blood, yea even give up our lives, in order that these sacred, God given rights and 
principles should continue to exist, grow, expand, and be a force and power for good, 
and that the permanency of our institutions should be established forever in this land 
of freedom and opportunity, where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of 
stars. Religion, morality and knowledge are necessary to make men happy and 
respectable, under any form of government. Masonry, as has been well said, is more 
than an institution, more than a tradition, more than a society. In truth, it is one of the 
forms of the Divine life upon earth; of no age, it belongs to all time; of no religion, it 
finds great truths in all. It has touched with grace and beauty the tender virtues of 
mercy and kindness. Its blessings have been felt in every nation, language and creed, 
and from its altars constantly arise the incense of a prayerful life. It has always stood 
for liberty, equality and fraternity. It has instituted no inquisitions, lighted no fires of 
persecution, antagonized no religion. It stands for the purity of womanhood and the 



sanctity of the home. As the citizen is the unit of the state, the fireside is the unit of 
civilization and woman is its Queen. All the higher interests of the race are in her 
keeping and the honor and chivalry of Masonry are thrown around her. 


The essence of Masonry is character, its goal, ideal manhood and its mission is "to 
teach men to know and practice their duties to themselves and their fellows." (This is 
the practical end of all philosophy and knowledge.) Its message is the dissemination 
of moral, political, philosophical and religious truth, and that honor and duty are the 
beacon lights to guide life's vessel over the stormy seas of time. 


It has a history, a literature and a philosophy. It also has a creed, the Fatherhood of 
God, the Brotherhood of Man and the Immortality of the Soul. Born almost in the 
very cradle of the race, the antique symbols of Masonry are vessels which have come 
down to us full freighted with the intellectual riches of the past. In the lading of these 
argosies are the best from the ports of every age and contain much to prove its claim 
to be acknowledged as the benefactor of mankind. 


When men begin to reflect, they begin to differ. The great problem then is to find 
guides who will not seek to become tyrants. In Masonry with its faith in man, hope for 
the future of humanity and loving kindness for its fellows is found a guide who ever 
endeavors to be beneficent, unambitious and disinterested. 


The onward march of the human race requires that the heights about it should blaze 
with noble and enduring lessons of courage, in which the hope of success and not the 
expectation of reward, should be the stimulating and sustaining power. Life's length, 
my brethren, is not measured by its hours and days, but by that which has been done 
therein for our Country and Mankind. 


One of the most marvelous, wonderful, significant and convincing reasons for 
Masonic perpetuity, is that it is the only institution in the world around whose altars 
the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the Brahmin and the follower of every creed 
(excepting only "that oiphan, that waif wandering the midnight streets of time, 



homeless and alone,"— the Atheist) may on terms of perfect equality, assume our 
sacred obligations and as brethren unite in prayers to the One God, who is above all 
others, leaving each of its initiates to look for the foundation of his faith and hope in 
the written scriptures of his own religion. 


The Sages of all the Ancient Races have ever had of necessity, a secret and Holy 
doctrine, which was not made known to the people at large,— when the stars were 
worshipped, the Initiates adored that which manifested itself as a star. When Fire and 
Light were objects of adoration by the multitude, the Adepts worshipped the Invisible 
Principle from which the Light emanated. 


To Masonry, as to other Institutions, there came at intervals, crises when it was 
deemed expedient and necessary to create higher degrees— a circle within a circle— to 
whose members alone the chief secrets could be entrusted. At such times infinite care 
was taken, while seeming to make the whole known to all, to conceal what was 
necessary by symbols and even trivial explanations, which led away from the truth, 
instead of toward it. 


The Inner circle of the Scottish Rite, modified to suit the modem conditions and 
requirements, is our Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, the Governing 
Body of Our Order to whom we all owe and willingly give loyal allegiance, and from 
whom we derive our authority to assist in propagating as the highest duty of 
Citizenship, an unselfish Patriotism, "that spirit of liberty which stifles the voices of 
despots, turns blind submission into rational obedience, dissipates the mists of 
superstition, kindles the flame of Art and pours happiness into the laps of the people." 


The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, as now constituted, came into being in 1786 
when the Grand Constitutions, which have governed the Rite since that date, were 
adopted. The number of degrees were increased to 32, with the addition of a 
governing degree, the 33rd. 



This Rite was in existence in France and other countries in Europe prior to 1762 and 
known as the "Rite of Perfection or Heredom." It was then composed of three degrees 
of the York Rite and twenty two others, the 18th being the Rose Croix, and the 25th 
the "prince of the Royal Secret." 


Scottish Masonry was introduced into America by Stephen Morin, who held a patent 
from this Rite of Perfection or Heredom, Orient of Paris, of the date of August 27th, 
1761. His title was "Grand Master Inspector." Besides the power to establish a 
symbolic lodge in America, the Grand Councils authorized him to confer the higher 
degrees, giving him the rank of Inspector over all the bodies of these degrees, with 
power of substitution, and to create Inspectors General in all places where the sublime 
degrees were not established. He confined his labors exclusively to the Scottish Rite 
and successive Deputy Inspectors were created by him, who in turn granted patents to 
other individuals. 


In April, 1795, John Mitchell was raised to the highest degree in Masonry and created 
Deputy Grand Inspector General. On May 25th, 1801, Inspector General Mitchell 
granted equal honors and a similar patent to Frederick Dalcho, a physician of 
Charleston, S. C., and also an officer in the United States Army. Six days later, on 
May 31st, 1801, there was organized at Charleston, South Carolina, with Col. John 
Mitchell as the First Sovereign Grand Commander, and Dr. Frederick Dalcho as 
Lieutenant Commander, a Supreme Council of the 33 rd for the United States of 
America, which on December 4th, 1802, issued a circular giving the Grand 
Constitutions of 1786 as the law of its existence and source of power, stating that the 
same had been ratified by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia and Grand Commander 
and who had delegated to this First Supreme Council, all the Masonic prerogatives 
which his Majesty himself possessed. 


To America alone the privilege was given for the establishment of two Supreme 
Councils, while to every other Country in Europe, but one was permissible. There are 
scattered over the world, in existence and in harmony with our own, twenty-nine 
regular Supreme Councils, every one of which has, mediately or immediately, flowed 
from our own Mother Council of the World, the limits of whose jurisdiction embraces 
thirty states and all the territories, organized and unorganized. This includes the 
Phillipines, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Oriental Empire of Japan, and only through 
our doors can the Army and Navy gain admission into the ranks of Scottish Rite 



Masonry. A patent issued by this Body is a sure passport to the confidence of Scottish 
Rite Masons and commands their respect in all lands and among all peoples. 


The Northern Supreme Council was established in August, 1813, and their jurisdiction 
is limited to fifteen states of the Union, but among these are included the most 
populous and thickly settled. A thorough understanding exists between the two 
Supreme Councils and they work together, without friction or jealousy. Since the 
organization of our Supreme Council, nearly 115 years ago, "the record of those who 
have been crowned active members is one to which we can point with just pride, not 
only because of their general high character, the good judgment and discretion 
displayed and good works done, but also because of the unique fact that not one ever 
has brought reproach on the Order— their Escutcheon is as bright and untarnished as 
when they first entered on the scene," exemplifying again the truth of the sentiment 
that the "noblest monuments that mark the progress of Mankind are not confined to 
those of marble, stone, and brass, but rather deeds of men." 


With such an Institution to inspire enthusiasm and loyalty, such an Ancestry to arouse 
and stimulate, with such leaders to counsel and direct, with such companions to 
encourage and assist; if we but earnestly endeavor to do our part of constantly 
diffusing our messages of wisdom and philanthropy, of philosophy and toleration; of 
voicing ever an appreciation of the dignity and discipline of labor; of disseminating, 
with discrimination, the doctrines containing profound truths for every department of 
life; belief in the existence of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the Immortality of the 
Soul,— insisting on and living up to a patriotism as loyal as i~s obedience to the law is 
unswerving; then we can rest assured that our Grand and Noble Order, clothed in 
majesty and power, shall continue to move down the great highways of History,— 
marching at the head of the procession of the World's events, the foremost exponent, 
teaching by example of civilized and Christianized freedom, its manifest destiny to 
light the torch of liberty till it illumines the entire pathway of the World, till human 
freedom and human rights become the common heritage of mankind. For in the 
language of our late Grand Commander, "the cause of human progress is our cause, 
the enfranchisement of human thought is our supreme wish; the freedom of human 
conscience, our mission; and the guarantee of equal rights to all peoples everywhere, - 
the end of our Contention." 


THE WISDOM OF WAITE 



The keynote of creation is modesty, and its spirit is that of concealment. 

There are depths of the universe which give up strange forms, as the sea gives up 
monsters. 

The light of the true world is darkness unto this. 

The universe exists for its intelligences; and for man— in so far as he can use it. 

Morality is not the end of life, but rather its beginning. 

Covetousness is a cardinal virtue when it is directed to imperishable things. 

The secret of eternal life is that of love, and the secret of love is to live in the lives of 
others, with and for them. 

All great books are sacraments, but all readers do not communicate worthily. 

Human life is the story of a great secret, but we are slowly unravelling the 
plot. 

—A. E. Waite. Steps to the Crown. 

EDITORIAL 


"PEACE ON EARTH" 



LONG ago, over the armed camp of the hard old Roman world, the Angels sang their 
prophetic hymn, proclaiming "peace on earth among men of good will." How far off it 
must have seemed in that day, like a faint echo of the bells of the City of God; how far 
off it seems today, when the earth is red with war and a pall of woe hangs over the race 
The world is still in twilight; and from beyond dim horizons comes ceaselessly the 
thunder of great guns. A hard frostlike surface of gaiety sparkles in our cities; and 
anxiety turns to laughter or to apathy for relief. After all the ages, the hope of peace on 
earth seems as vain as all the vain things proclaimed of Solomon. 


Nevertheless, the song of the Angels will come true. It is not a myth. It is not a 
mockery. Surviving ages of slaughter, of hating, of wild injustice, it returns to haunt us, 
foretelling a better tomorrow, proving in this last defeat its immortality. Because that 
music is so far off we know that it is not our own, but was sent into the soul of man by a 
Power as far above all our discordant noises as the stars are above the mist. It means 
much that we can hear it, despite the mad hell of the hour, and if we cease to love it 
chaos worse confounded will come again, making the Dark Ages eternal. If the time 
seems long delayed, we must lay it to heart that the vision will come true as fast as the 
world fills up with Men of Goodwill - and no faster. 


Finally, out of the welter of war, with its blood and fire and tears, its measureless 
misery and woe, its hideous nightmare of bigotry and brutality, its unspeakable cruelty, 
its slavery of hate, its orgy of lust, its senseless worship of Force; slowly, surely, sadly, 
after ages of tragedy are past, 


"We shall come, not blindly impelled, but free 
To an orbit of order at last, 

And a finer peace shall be wrought out of pain 
Than the stars in their courses know; 

Ah, me ! but my soul is in sorrow till then, 
And the feet of the years move slow." 



* * * 


A NATIONAL MASONIC CONFERENCE 


How can we best celebrate the founding of the mother Grand Lodge of England, in 
June, 1917 ? Looking forward to that day, which ought to give a new date to the history 
of Freemasonry, we venture to suggest a National Masonic Conference; not a legislative 
assembly, but a Feast of fraternal goodwill, a Festival of joy and wisdom in which to 
renew our vows, to cement our fellowship, and to lay far-reaching plans for the better 
use of Masonry in behalf of all that makes for private nobility and social welfare. Such 
an assembly, meeting in some central city easily accessible - Indianapolis, for example - 
representing every part of the country, and every rite and rank of the Order; presided 
over by that noble and distinguished Mason who for thirty years has been the Grand 
Master of Maryland; with a program carefully prepared, covering the questions of 
universal interest, and bringing together the best intellects of the Craft at home and 
abroad - such an assembly, we say, would give an impetus to Masonry that would be 
felt for years to come. 


Surely, if Masonry means anything at all, American Masons ought to be able to meet on 
St. John's Day without jealousy and without suspicion, celebrating the greatest event in 
the story of modern Masonry, and discussing ways and means whereby to make the 
spirit of Masonry more effective. Indeed, the very suggestion of the possibility of 
misunderstanding or objection shows how much such a Conference is needed, and how 
much it may do, equally for a better adjustment of inter-jurisdictional differences and 
for the promotion of a closer fellowship, a more concerted action, and the mobilizating 
of the influence of Masonry for the common good. An unofficial, voluntary 
Conference, drawn together by the spirit and need of the Fraternity, in memory of a 
great event, planning for a greater Masonry, if not why not? What valid or wise 
objection can be urged against it? Would not the deliberation of such an assembly 
report the best thought and practical wisdom of the Order, and mean an advance of 
Masonry everywhere? We shall be very glad to hear from our Members in regard to this 
proposal which seems to us to be worth while. 



* * * 


GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND 


Our readers will recall that we wrote last spring regretting the action of the mother 
Grand Lodge in suspending from Masonic fellowship Brethren of German birth during 
the period of the war. At a distance it looked as if the Grand Lodge had permitted 
political issues to invade its sanctuary in violation of its own Constitution, and we 
confess that it dismayed us. However, as so often happens, when all the facts are know 
it is the other way round. The fact that did not get into the record, and seemed not to 
have been mentioned in the discussions, was that German Brethren insisted upon 
bringing up the issues of the war in Lodge meetings. So much so that it became 
difficult, in some places, to hold a Lodge meeting in peace - for English Brethren were 
in no mood to debate such issues, much less in Lodge. Things came to such a state that 
Grand Lodge was appealed to for relief, and it passed the resolution referred to. No 
doubt there were Brethren of German birth who had no inclination to inject such 
questions into their Masonic fellowship, and who suffered hurt by the law. Perhaps 
another and better way might have been devised, but our point is that the Grand Lodge 
was intent on keeping all such issues out of the Lodge room, not bringing them in. After 
visiting England, and learning the situation, we feel that Masons everywhere never had 
more reason to be proud of the mother Grand Lodge than during the last two dreadful 
years. Its dignity, its patience, its loyalty to its own great principles were worthy of its 
great tradition; the more so, remembering the fact that the Grand Lodge of Teutonic 
countries severed relations with their Brethren in enemy lands at once and out right. So 
much in view of the fact, and for the sake of making the fact clear. 


* * * 


MORAL IDEALISM 


Masonry is moral idealism, by which is meant no vague and filmy dream, but a life-like 
portrait seen in advance of what men and society should be. Ideals, so far from being 



mere visions, are the most accurate results reached by means of the most painstaking 
calculation. It stands much in their favor that they come not from the brains of the evil, 
but from the intellects that are greatest. The greatest minds of each age have pleaded for 
Liberty because only the great minds can paint in advance the portrait of a free people. 
Many nations are now in the mire, lacking mind great enough to grasp a lofty ideal. 
Instead of being a mere romance, an ideal is the long mathematical calculation of a 
mind as logical as Euclid. Idealism is not the musings of a visionary; it is the calm 
geometry of life. 


* * * 


A NEW YEAR PRAYER 


O Thou Ancient of Days, whose years are throughout all generations, how frail we are 
in a world that was before we were bom; how fleeting in a world that will last when we 
are gone. Nevertheless we are Thine, thought into being by Thy loving kindness for 
some puipose beyond our fathoming, and Thou dost not forsake the work of Thy hands. 
Therefore we who live in the House of Time lift up our prayer for light and love and life 
eternal, seeking to know Thee by what we are and what we have in us of the true and 
everlasting. Waken us to hear in the depths of our own souls Thy voice of gentle 
stillness telling us that our mortal life has immortal meanings. 


Increase our faith as Thou dost increase our years, that the longer we live on the earth 
the nobler may our service be, the more willing our obedience, the more complete our 
devotion to Thy will. Grant us to be wiser tomorrow because of the failures of today; 
more trustful in the future by reason of the doubts that haunted us in the past; more 
forgiving because we so much need to be forgiven. Quicken our dull hearts to a more 
lively hope in Thy mercy; sanctify to us whatever may befall of trial or of danger; and 
grant us to love much, to love all, and most of all to love Thee, our Father and 
Redeemer. 



Mercifully hast Thou brought us to the end of another year, though many who were 
better than we have fallen into the great white sleep - many of whom we knew and 
loved. O let us not miss what might be done with the gift of a new year for the service 
and blessing of our fellows; let us not fail of the beautiful thing that might be made of 
it. Stir up the gift that is in us; make us wise with insight from on high to discern 
clearly, to endeavor uprightly, to endure heroically. If we fail much, may we at least 
leam humility and penitence, and so have a heart of pity and of hope for others who 
have failed. 


Forgive our mis-spent days, and help us to begin a new year with a new heart, a new 
hope, a new courage, and, if it may be, live more nobly, more faithfully, more kindly, 
more patiently, touched with a higher and holier puipose. And when the thread of our 
years is broken, when days and works are done, and the house of our dwelling is 
dissolved in death, O receive us by Thy mercy into the Home of the Soul, in His name 
Amen. 


J. F. N. 




A PRAYER IN TIME OF WAR 


(The war will change many things in art and life, and among them, it is to be hoped, 
many of our own ideas as to what is, and what is not "intellectual.") 


Thou, whose deep ways are in the sea, 
Whose footsteps are not known, 
To-night a world that turned from Thee 



Is waiting - at Thy throne. 

The towering Babels that we raised 
Where scoffing sophists brawl, 

The little antichrists we praised - 
The night is on them all. 

The fool hath said - The fool hath said - 
And we who deemed him wise, 

We who believed that Thou wast dead, 
How should we seek Thine eyes? 

How should we seek to Thee for power 
Who scorned Thee yesterday? 

How should we kneel, in this dread hour? 
Lord, teach us how to pray! 

Grant us the single heart, once more, 

That mocks no sacred thing, 

The Sword of Truth our fathers wore 
When Thou wast Lord and King. 

Let darkness unto darkness tell 
Our deep unspoken prayer, 

For, while our souls in darkness dwell, 
We know that Thou art there. 



- Alfred Noyes. London Daily Mail. 


— o — 


THE MISSION OF MASONRY 


Masonry also has her mission to perform. With her traditions reaching back to the 
earliest times, and her symbols dating further back than even the monumental history of 
Egypt extends, she invites all men of all religions to enlist under her banner and to war 
against evil, ignorance and wrong. - Albert Pike. 


— o — 


THE LIBRARY 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


IT is said that no Englishman understands American politics and that most of them are 
proud of their ignorance. However that may be, Lord Chamwood is an exception, as 
may be seen from his new "Life of Lincoln," which is the best biography of our 
prophet-President so far written in England. Joining a fine historical insight to a 
singularly lucid style, he portrays the background against which the tragedy of our Civil 
War must be studied; showing how far back the roots of schism ran in our history. This 
gives him opportunity to characterize the early leaders of the Republic, an art in which 
he is an adept, albeit we may not always agree with his estimates - as, for example, his 
too severe drawing of Jefferson. Still less can we subscribe to his rather low, if not 
biased, opinion of our Declaration of Independence. 



Of Hamilton, whom Talleyrand ranked with Napoleon, he has a very high estimate; and 
Burr he describes as "an elegant profligate, with many graces but no public principle," - 
to which all would say Amen. Coming to the great debate that led up to the war, Lord 
Chamwood tells us that Webster must have been "nearly a great man; he was always 
passed over for the presidency." Calhoun he regards as the "embodied intellect of his 
time," but, alas, a man "who is undisturbed in his logical processes by good sense, 
healthy sentiment or any vigorous appetite for truth," - again a too austere verdict. He 
accepts the Wolseley estimate of Lee, as a man of majestic presence, of sweet and 
simple nature; "one of the few men who ever impressed me with their natural, their 
inherent greatness." So we might go on through a long list, accepting or rejecting one 
picture after another, each one etched with deftness and skill. 


The great subject of the book is, of course, Lincoln, and barring a few minor errors as to 
his early life, it is a noble portrait, drawn with sympathy, insight, and warm 
appreciation, without idealization and without eulogy. Lincoln is presented to us as a 
real man, humble, modest, tender of heart, holding no bitterness, no hate, resisting the 
matchless generalship of Lee on one side, and on the other dealing with the rankest 
incompetency of leadership until Grant came to the rescue; struggling against adverse 
and counter-currents of feeling and events, lied about, defamed, ridiculed by men not 
worthy to touch his shoes - it is a great story, by whomsoever told, and here it is recited 
in a manner worthy of its nobility. If the reader will join with this biography the volume 
of "Personal Recollections of Lincoln," by Rankin, which ye editor edited last year, he 
will have an unforgetable picture of the man whom Lowell called "the First American." 




INITIATION 


So many Brethren have asked about brief introductions to philosophy, that we venture 
to call attention to one entitled "Initiation into Philosophy," by Emile Faguet, of the 
French Academy, as one of the best of its kind. It is planned and written for the 
beginner, and is designed to satisfy the initial curiosity of young men as to what 
philosophy is, what it has to tell us about life, and what its uses are. As such, it is 
written in a very lucid and happy style, giving a rapid sketch of the history of 



philosophy from the time of Thales down to the last century, avoiding as far as possible 
technical language; giving the keynote of each school of thought, and the main lines 
followed by each great thi nk er. "Initiation into Literature," by the same author, does the 
same service for the rich and picturesque field of poetry, story and drama. 


* * * 


THE GREEN MANSIONS 


One of the greatest living writers - now that Tolstoi is gone - is W.H. Hudson, albeit he 
is not widely known. Poet, naturalist, philosopher, magician, as a stylist he has few, if 
any, living equals. As a prophet of the great out-of-doors there is not another like him. 
Such stories as "The Green Mansions" and the "Purple Land" are books to read more 
than once, if one wishes to come very close to Mother nature in whose soft arms all 
must sleep at last. In proof of the spirit as well as the art of man, read this: 


"The blue sky, the brown soil beneath, the grass, the trees, the animals, the wind, the 
rain, the stars are never strange to me; for I am in and of and one with them; and my 
flesh and the soil are one, and the heat in my blood and in the sunshine are one, and the 
winds and the tempests and my passions are one. I feel the strangeness only with regard 
to my fellow men, especially in towns, where they exist in conditions unnatural to me, 
but congenial to them. In such moments we sometimes feel kinship with, and are 
strangely drawn to the dead, who were not as these; the long, long dead, the men who 
knew not life in towns, and felt no strangeness in sun and wind and rain." 


* * * 


GRAND LODGE LIBRARY 



The book to which we referred some time ago, "Treasures of the Grand Lodge of 
England," by Brother Dr. Hammond, is well along its way to completion, and will itself 
be a treasure, as we can testify after having examined some of the plates that are to go 
into it. There will be twelve pages of color illustrations, thirty- two pages of black and 
white plates, and a hundred pages of descriptive matter by Dr. Hammond, the Librarian. 
There will be two editions, one expensive and highly finished, and the other more 
popular - the prices have not been announced. It will no doubt find its way into Lodge 
libraries all over the land, as a kind of keepsake in celebration of the founding of the 
mother Grand Lodge. 


* * * 


BOOKS RECEIVED 


The Green Mansions, by Hudson. Alfred A. Knopf Co., New York. $1.50. 


Initiation into Philosophy, by Faguet. G. P. Putnams Sons, New York. $1.25. 


Those About Trench, by Lewis. Macmillan Co., New York. $1.50 


The New World, by Hugh Black. Revell Co., New York. $1.00 


Philosophy, What is it? by Jovens. G. P. Putnams Sons, New York. $1.00. 


Masonic Instructor, by Rabbi Eno Ytneves. Publisher not named 



Aspects of the Infinite Mystery, by Gordon. Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston. $1.50. 


"GIVE US MEN" 

Give us Men! 

Men from every rank, 

Fresh and free and frank; 

Men of thought and reading, 

Men of light and leading, 

Men of loyal breeding, 

The nation's welfare speeding; 
Men of faith and not of fiction. 
Men of lofty aim in action; 

Give us Men - 1 say again, 

Give us Men! 

Give us Men! 

Strong and Stalwart ones; 

Men whom highest hope inspires, 
Men whom purest honor fires, 



Men who trample self beneath them, 

Men who make their country wreath them 
As her noble sons, 

Worthy of their sires! 

Men who never shame their mothers, 

Men who never fail their brothers, 

True, however false are others; 

Give us men - 1 say again, 

Give us Men! 

Give us Men! 

Men, who when the tempest gathers, 
Grasp the standard of their fathers 
In the thickest fight: 

Men who strike for home and altar 
(Let the crowd cringe and falter), 

God defend the right! 

True as truth, though lom and lonely, 
Tender, as the brave are only; 

Men who tread where saints have trod, 
Men for Country - Home - and God; 

Give us Men - 1 say again - again - 



Give us such Men! 


By the Bishop of Exeter 




A LEGEND OF JERUSALEM 


There dwelt, so runs the legend, brothers twain, 

On Zion's hill long centuries ago. 

Below them Jordan's green and fertile plain, 

Against the cloudless blue gleamed Hermon's snow, 
Westward rose Carmel's purple ridge, and fair 
The vine-clad hills, the groves on either hand, 

The emerald slopes begemmed with blossoms rare, 
The distant glistening sea, the forests grand. 

Content they toiled in mutual love and peace, 

And being righteous, God upon them smiled, 

And blessed their labor with a rich increase, 

But unto Ephraim had given no child. 

Submissively he saw his hope expire; 



Sad oftentimes, yet questioning not God's ways, 
Though Reuben's dwelling held his heart's desire, 
A son, and daughters fair made glad his days. 

Thus sped the years; then came a time of blight, 
When labor of the fig and olive failed; 

Nor ripening clusters hung on sun-kissed height, 
And husbandmen their barren fields bewailed; 
Empty the fold, no herd within the stall, 

Famine and pestilence walked hand in hand; 
Shrouded each home by sorrow's sombre pall, 
And voice of mourning sounded through the land. 

Each heart was saddened by the other's grief 
When the brief toil of songless reapers done, 

So scant the harvest, numbering every sheaf, 

The sum sufficed not for the need of one; 

And each took earnest counsel with his heart 


When dawned the feast day set for prayer and praise, 
How secretly, some cheer he might impart 
To light the gloom of erstwhile joyous days. 



Moonlight's soft splendor silvered wave and wood, 
And Ephraim, deeming that his brother slept, 

Arose and hastening, gained the hill where stood 
The meagre, scattered shocks from mildew kept, 

A sheaf uplifting from his scanty store 
He sighed, "My brother, greater is thy need." 

Then to the farther field his burden bore, 

Nor dreamed that angels marked the kindly deed. 

Reuben had waited also for the night, 

And softly, silently, he took his way 
Where gaunt and shrunken in the yellow light, 

His ripened corn upon the hillside lay. 

"Brother beloved," he said, "how rich am I 
In ail thy lonely, loving heart doth crave, 

Half of this treasure on thy field shall he 
Thou shalt rejoice and say the dear Lord gave." 

Thrice had they passed each other in the night, 
Intent upon their mission; morning came, 

And still, O miracle, O wondrous sight, 

The sum of tented sheaves was still the same ! 



The fourth time, lo! the feet of both were set 
In the same path, where shadows interlaced, 
And midway, silently, the brothers met, 

Each understood, and weeping, they embraced. 

And on this hallowed spot, fair Zion's hill, 
Jerusalem was built, and to this day 
The legend beautiful, the pilgrims tell 
To travellers passing up the Holy Way. 

MRS. OTTO N. SCHULTE 
Ward Place, South Orange, N. J. 

MAKE THE VOYAGE ALONE 


You must make the voyage with self alone 
Into the beautiful realms of God, 

Though it lead you afar and away from home 
Into haunts that are seldom trod. 


It is nature's plan, it is nature's call, 



It is nature's way so true, 

And you, the consciousness in it all 
Must find what is TRUTH to you. 


L.B.M 


THE QUESTION BOX 


STORY OF FREEMASONRY 


In the September issue of The Builder are several questions on a book called "The 
Story of Freemasonry." Where can I get that book and what is the price? - H.H.H. 


From Brother John H. Cowles, 16th and S Streets, N. W., Washington, D C. The price 
is fifty cents. You will find it an interesting littie book. 


* * * 


RITUAL OF ANCIENT EGYPT 


Relative to the inquiry of G.R.D. as to the Ritual of Ancient Egypt, let me say that the 
"Book of the Dead" has been translated by E. A. Wallis Budge, and is published in 
three volumes, containing the Egyptian text and an English translation, with 
illustrations. "Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life," by the same author, is a popular little 
book with numerous extracts from the Book of the Dead. - D.H. 



* * * 


THE FIRST IDEALIST 


For further information regarding Akhnaton, I would refer G. D. to "Tell el Amame," 
by W. M. Flinders Petrie, who discovered the site of Akhnaton's capital which he built 
after he abandoned Thebes and Amun worship. This work, containing the results of 
Petrie's discoveries, illustrates and describes the short but brilliant period of 
mesopotamian influence on Egyptian art and religion. - D.H. 


* * * 


TALMUD AND VEDAS 


I would call the attention of J. A. K. to a small volume entitled "Treasures of the 
Talmud," by Hershon, which consists of a series of subjects compiled from the 
Babylonian Talmud. A specimen of the Vedic Literature is to be found in "Rig-Veda," 
by F. Max Muller. - D.H. 


* * * 


WHITE AND BLACK 



Will you advise me through your pages, (1) What is the present approximate number of 
Freemasons in the United States? (2) What percent of them are white and what percent 
are colored? - O.E.H. 


(1) There are, approximately, one million and a half Masons in the United States. (2) 
The latest facts at hand - 1913 - regarding colored Masons, estimates that they number 
91,668; no doubt they may safely be reckoned at one hundred thousand by this time. 
From which it is easy to figure out the percent. 


* * * 


CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE 


What were the Masonic emblems found under Cleopatra's Needle ? Are they illustrated 
anywhere? N.W.J.H. 


See article in The Builder, Vol. 1, p. 18, by Brother Baird, discussing the emblems 
found under the Needle when it was moved from Egypt to New York; the article is 
illustrated. The emblems found were as follows: - A polished Cube of syenite, a perfect 
Ashlar; a polished Square; rough and irregular block of syenite - a rough Ashlar; axis 
stone with figures - like a trestleboard; a marked stone; hard lime stone with a trowel 
cemented to the surface; a lead plummet. For an elaborate account, see "Egyptian 
Obelisks," by H. H. Gorringe, who had charge of the removal of the Needle, and who 
includes in his volume full accounts of all obelisks brought from Egypt to Europe, their 
measurements, inscriptions, and the methods of their transportation. 


* * * 


PHYSICAL QUALIFICATIONS 



I understand that after the Civil War, a few of the Grand Lodges permitted their 
subordinate Lodges to accept candidates for degrees that had been maimed during the 
war. (1) Will you please tell me what Grand Lodges did this, and if any of them are still 
allowing it. (2) Is there any jurisdiction where a man can enter, if he has lost an arm or a 
leg ? - H.M.M. 


(1) Such candidates might have been permitted to enter, though we do not recall any 
legislation to that end. If done at all it was doubtless by tacit understanding, not by 
formal law - that is, so far as we are aware. Perhaps some Members can furnish further 
facts. There was a time, along in the seventies, when Grand Lodges were rather lax on 
the subject, perhaps for the reason our Brother gives. (2) There are jurisdictions in 
which a man may enter who has lost an arm or a leg - if he has an artificial limb which 
permits him formally to fulfill the requirements. We are soon to publish all the facts in 
the case, covering all the jurisdictions - and it will be an interesting revelation. 


* * * 


DIFFERENCES OF RITUAL 


(1) Is the York Rite and the American Rite for the three degrees one and the same ? 

And is it the Ancient Rite as worked now? (2) Is the ritual of Pennsylvania the same as 
the Canadian work ? (3) What are your views as to the correct work of the three degrees 
of Masonry ? I find there is a vast difference in the work here and the work I have been 
used to, and it sets a man thinking what is the correct work. - G.M.T. 


As we are soon to publish a brilliant lecture on this subject, it will be sufficient for the 
present to give very brief answers to these large questions: - (1) There is no "ancient 
York Rite” now in existence, if by that is meant the work as known in York, England, 
from whence the name comes. Our American Rite is a modification of a work which 
has passed through many vicissitudes. (2) There are no doubt as many differences 



between the Pennsylvania and Canadian work as between the Pennsylvania ritual and 
that of other jurisdictions in the United States. Pennsylvania adheres, we believe, to the 
work of the "Ancients" as it was before the union of the Ancient and Modem Grand 
Lodges in 1813. (3) The best Masonic work is that which best conveys the spirit and 
tmth of Masonry; the ritual which makes the truth Masonry was meant to teach at once 
most impressive and most luminous. Such differences as exist have to do with matters 
of detail - everywhere the fundamental principles are the same. So much, awaiting the 
lecture which will do much to the clear and set us right. 


* * * 


THOMAS JEFFERSON 


Was Thomas Jefferson a Mason? Have just been looling over the October Builder, and 
on page 295 Brother Barry says of Washington's first cabinet, "all Masons but 
Jefferson." I confess that this rather jolted me, as the impression had always lurked in in 
my understanding that all but two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence 
were Masons - one of these two being a Catholic, and the other a Quaker. Clearly 
Jefferson was neither of these. Yet in the same issue, page 3 12, 1 am told that Jefferson 
was made a Mason in Paris. What is the tmth? - 


There is no proof, so far as we are aware, that Jefferson was ever made a Mason at any 
time or anywhere. He may have been made a Mason in Paris, but we asked to be 
shown. It serves no good purpose to claim as members of the Fraternity men of fame 
and historic importance - unless the facts are plain and unmistakable. Masonry does not 
need the patronage of great names, being great enough by virtue of its inherent beauty, 
its benignant spirit, and its service to humanity. If it can be established that Jefferson 
was a Mason, well and good - it would show that he was a man of discernment and 
good sense. It is the man, not the Order, who is honored in such cases. 


* * * 



ROYAL ARCH LITERATURE 


Please let me know where I can procure a little book that would be particularly 
interesting to Royal Arch Masons. - J.P.K. 


I am preparing an address on the Symbolism of the Keystone, and if you can render 
me any assistance I will appreciate it very much. - G.E.P. 


Unfortunately, the literature of the Chapter degrees, apart from history and ritual, is 
very meager and unsatisfactory. Brother Waite - than whom there is no greater 
interpreter of symbolism now living - has promised to contribute some articles to The 
Builder on this subject, and they will be awaited with eager expectation. English and 
American interpretations of the Royal Arch are quite different, as we pointed out some 
time ago. (The Builder, February and April, 1916.) Of course, we have the "Book of the 
Chapter," by Mackey; also "The Keystone," by Lawrence (Kenning & Son, 16 Great 
Queen St., London, W. C., $1.50); and the delightful essays of Brother G. W. Warvelle, 
Masonic Temple, Chicago - to name no others. What we need very much is a book of 
the right kind on the symbolism of the Chapter, after the manner of Mackey's book on 
the first three degrees. As for the Keystone, its symbolism is so obvious, so eloquent, 
that it ought to be easy to interpret. 


* * * 


NEGRO MASONRY 


Would you be kind enough to throw more light on the origin of Negro Masonry; 
whether or not they originally worked under charter granted by some Grand Lodge of 
Free and Accepted Masons; whether or not they are supposed to have carried with them 



the regular work in all of the 33 degrees; and the connection, if any, of Prince Hall with 
regular Masonry. - R.H. 


These questions have been the occasion of heated debates in times past, and need not be 
revived for two reasons: first, because hardly a single new fact can be added to the 
masterly thesis of the late W. H. Upton on "Negro Masonry," which grew out of a 
report to the Grand Lodge of Washington regarding the rights and status of Negro 
Masons. Second, it would bring up once more the vexed questions of recognition, 
which, as the late Theodore Parvin said, is a question of taste, not of laws. See "History 
of Freemasonry Among Colored People in America," by Grimshaw, (Macoy Co., New 
York), also "Prince Hall and his Followers," by G. W. Crawford, The Crisis, 70 Fifth 
Ave., N. Y., especially the letter by Pike quoted on pp. 84-86. Our Brother will find his 
questions answered in these books, especially the first. 


* * * 


THE BIBLE IN MASONRY 


Answering a Brother who asks for a list of Biblical allusions in the Masonic rituals, we 
have found the following; it may not be complete, but it will give him an interesting 
hour to look them up. 


Psalm cxxxiii; Psalm cxviii:22; Ezekiel xliv: 1-3-5; Matt. xxi:42; Mark vii:10; Acts 
iv: 11; Rev. ii: 1 7; Matt. xx:l-16; Psalm xxiv; Psalm cxxii; Chronicles vi, vii; Psalm 
xxiii; Isaiah xiii: 16; Exodus iii: 1 -6; Chronicles xxxvi: 11-20; Ezra i: 1-3; Exodus iii: 13- 
14; Psalm cxli; Psalm cxliii; Exodus iv:9; Haggai ii: 1-9-23; Zachariah iv:6-10; Amos 
ix: 1 1 ; Deuteronomy xxxi:24-26; Exodus xxv:21; Exodus xvi:23-24; Numbers xvii:10; 
Hebrews ix:25; Exodus vi:2-3; John i: 1 -5; Genesis xiv:12-24; Hebrews vii: 1 -6 17-20-1; 
1st Kings vii:48-50; 1st Kings vii:40; 1st Kings vi:27; Rev. xxii: 12-14; Psalm xv; Psalm 
lxxxvii; 1st Kings iv:l, 5, 6; 1st Kings v:17, 1 8; 1st Kings vii: 13-14- Ezekiel xxvii:9; 
Deuteronomy xxxi:24-26; Exodus xvi:33, 34; Numbers xvii:10; Numbers vii:89; 

Exodus xxv:40; Ezra iv; Nehemiah iv, v:l-20; Ezra v; Ezra vi, v:l-15; James iv:9-26- 



27; Matt, xxviv: 14-25; Matt. xxviv:36-49; Matt. xxviiv:24-37; Acts iv: 15-26; Acts 
xxxviiiv: 1-5; St. John xix, v:19; St. John xxv:24-28; Ephesians viv:10-17; John xxi.25- 
26; Psalms xii: 1 ; Psalms xxxiv:17-22; Psalms xliv:6; Psalms xliv:15; Psalms 
lxxxviii:10-l 1; Psalms xc:9, 10, 12; Psalms ciii: 14-17; I Cor. xv:51, 55; I Cor. xv:56, 
57. 


E.A. Degree - Amos vii:7, 8. 


F.C. Degree - Ecclesiastes xii: 1 , 7. 


M. M. Degree - Psalms civ: 14; Amos vii:7, 8. 


* * * 


SCOTTISH RITE PHILOSOPHY 


If you will permit me to ask you a few questions I will be very grateful. I would like to 
read Pike's "Morals and Dogma," but am unable to comprehend the more philosophical 
portions of it. What would you suggest as a preliminary course of reading - something 
in the way of a primer of philosophy. I am an ardent student of the Scottish Rite, and it 
seems to me that there is a message in it, but at times I wonder if there is. If you will 
answer these questions for me, it will help me much:- Is there a royal secret? What do 
you understand by the Holy Doctrine? Could it be supposed that there is any Masonic 
significance in the opening words of the Gospel of St. John ? - L.S.G. 


Thank you, Brother, for so frank a letter - many thousands of Masons would write the 
same kind of letters, if they were honest with themselves, or cared enough about the 
matter to bother to write at all. As for "Morals and Dogma," we have been saying of 
late that hardly any book is more in need of elucidation, and a more ill-arranged book 



we have seldom encountered. As it stands, it is more obscure than profound - as witness 
the fact that this Brother, like thousands of others, having received the degrees and 
studied the book, is uncertain whether there is a Royal Secret and a Holy Doctrine. Nor 
is it any lack of intelligence on his part. No; something is wrong with our method of 
teaching, and it is time that we took the matter in hand to devise a more successful - 
more sensible - way of setting forth the truth which the Scottish Rite has to teach. These 
words are written, not in a spirit of caiping criticism, but by one who loves the Rite, 
believes in it with all his heart, and would fain do something to make it more efficient 
in teaching the wise and good and beautiful truth committed to its care. Just because 
that truth is so important, so emancipating, we must "get it across," 'to use the talk of 
the street, and make it inhabit the minds of our young men. 


Now as to the letter: (1) We have several times mentioned books for beginners in the 
study of philosophy, one of the best being "Philosophy, What is it?" by F.B. Jovens. 
(Putnam's Co., New York). Read this along with the lectures of Prof. Pound on "The 
Philosophy of Masonry," and you will see that the philosophy of Masonry is simply its 
nature, its reason for being, its uses to the individual and to society. As Kant said long 
ago, philosophy does not discover truth; it sets it in order, relates it to other truth, and 
shows its practical value for life. When we ask, What is Masonry? What is it for? How 
can we use it? we are dealing with the philosophy of it. (2) Is there a Royal Secret? 
Indeed, yes; the royal secret of life every man possesses - all that Masonry can do is to 
make him aware of it and how to use it. The great secret of life, that which makes our 
thought valid, our faith firm, our hope sure and steadfast, what is it? What can it be, 
save the kinship of the soul with God? Let a man realize that fact - not as a vague 
theory regarding mankind in general, but in regard to himself - and how different this 
world is. It lights up like an aurora. (3) What do we understand by the holy doctrine ? 
Why, we expounded it only an issue or so ago, describing it as the Doctrine of the 
Balance - concerning which we have received more letters of thanks than for anything 
we have ever written in these pages. (4) Have the opening words of the Gospel of John 
a Masonic significance? Certainly; in that they tell of one Life in which the Lost Word 
was found in the only way in which it can ever be found on earth or in heaven. "The 
word was made flesh," - that is the whole of it; translating the truth into life and 
character! That is what Brother Waite means when he says, "From day to day we 
pronounce the Lost Word with our lips, but it remains lost until we utter it with our 
hearts." 


* * * 



UNIFORM WORK 


Dear Sir and Brother: - Having read "The Builder" since its first edition, and 
appreciating your desire to keep its editorial matter accurate and reliable, I feel assured 
that you will welcome and accept any corrections that may be submitted by the 
brethren, after due examination and corroboration by yourself. 


Referring to your valuable compiled table on standards of ritual, page 349, November, 
1916, edition, I note that you list Louisiana among the States exemplifying "Uniform 
Work." In this, I can personally testify, you are in error, in that the Grand Lodge of 
Louisiana recognizes and approves two separate and distinct standards of ritual and 
work in its Jurisdiction; both what is known as the York Rite and the Scottish Rite 
rituals are authoritatively exemplified in New Orleans, and I have personally witnessed 
the conferring of the three symbolic degrees in Lodges of both Rites in that City. 


The Lodges permitted to work under the Scottish Rite ritual are: 


Union, No. 172, working in English. 


Cervantes, No. 5, working in Spanish. 


Perseverance, No. 4, working in French. 


Dante, No. 174, working in Italian. 



Polar Star, No. 1, working in French. 


Germania, No. 46, working in German. 


All of the above Lodges are chartered, regular Lodges, under the jurisdiction of the 
Grand Lodge of Louisiana. Other Lodges in New Orleans work in the York Rite ritual. 
Both Rites are recognized by Chapter, Council, Commandery and Consistory. 


I am further informed that Scottish Rite Lodges exist in New York, Wisconsin and 
California, under regular charters by the Grand Lodges, but personally I have not 
visited these Lodges, although frequently in those States when traveling. I declined 
invitations to visit the New Orleans foreign ritual Lodges for several years, thinking 
them clandestine, until reliably informed that these Lodges were all "regular," and 
satisfying myself of this fact by legal information. I would regommend all of my 
brethren to witness the Scottish Rite symbolic degrees at the first opportunity; assuring 
that all properly certified Master Masons will receive a Masonic welcome, brotherly 
hospitality and entertainment of unusual interest to all searchers after more light. 


Sincerely and fraternally, 


Eugene T. Skinkle, 33d, Chicago. 


-o- 


CORRESPONDENCE 


BETTER LATE THAN NEVER 



Dear Brother Editor: - Will you be so kind as to allow me a short space in your columns 
that I may defend myself from the blame thrown upon me by a careless brother? 


The revival, if I am allowed to call it so, of the Cuban Masonry is a fact; with it came 
out a thorough literary spurt, and, taking Iowa as a model, a Masonic Manual is being 
written, inspiring our ideas in the already famous "The Builders" of your ever practical 
Grand Lodge. Together with it a valiant push was given to our Grand Lodge Library, 
several thousand volumes are already collected and the existing number of foreign 
proceedings and official publications carefully rearranged; on that account we came to 
the discovery of several missing volumes, among them Vol. I of the History of the 
Grand Lodge of Iowa. 


A few lines to the most obliging Grand Secretary, Bro. Parvin, brought the precious 
work and with it a surprise: the erudite Masonic scholar Joseph E. Morcombe, author of 
the volume, had done Cuba the great honor of mentioning her in it, but unhappily in 
doing so he was wilfully deceived by the carelessness of a brother Mason. 


In page 48 of the said volume, Bro. Morcombe inserts a paragraph from the 
correspondence report of North Dakota for 1903, which is intended to be a translation 
from a part of a previous Masonic Chart published by the undersigned in the 
Proceedings of Cuba for the year 1900, inserting subsequently the commentaries to it 
from the Brother correspondent of South Dakota. Unhappily neither of the 
correspondents are Spanish scholars and the victim of all this has been the over- 
confident Bro. Morcombe, who in a moment of unmasonic wrath galled me, in the 
History, inaccurate and as showing an exhibition of ignorance. If Bro. Morcombe 
should ever glance at these lines I am sure that he will repent of his insinuation, thrown 
upon me many years ago, but from which I could not before extricate myself, as his 
excellent History only reached me a few days hence. 


So runs the paragraph origin of this digression: "We find a Masonic pedigree, taken 
from the annual of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, showing the introduction of Masonry into 
the world. England is given as the root, and the date of its establishment as June 24, 



1717. Tracing the paternity of our own Grand Lodge of North Dakota, we find that 
England chartered Pennsylvania in 1730; Pennsylvania chartered Missouri in 1807; 
from Missouri sprang Iowa, 1840, and from Iowa, Dakota, in 1862." 


South Dakota intends to correct the above, as to the English derivation of Masonry, 
accepting the theory of the Scotch "Grand Mother Lodge Kilwinning" and, in what 
refers to the establishment of Missouri, whether it was done by Pennsylvania or 
Tennessee. Brother Morcombe, remembering the late Bro. Robbins (of Illinois) read the 
paragraph and probably said: "Masonry that does not speak English is no Masonry at 
all," and gave full credit to North Dakota, without ever giving a hearing to the modest 
Latin Mason to whom was adscribed so tremendous misconception, or ever trying to 
verify the alleged translation, since neither of the Dakota correspondents were Spanish 
scholars; but in doing so he failed, carrying into partnership the innocent Grand Lodge 
of Iowa that paid for the History. 


I did not say any such a thing as has been gratuitously ascribed to me, it is a question of 
Light not of Right or less of Might. Had the brethren read the note, inserted in large 
type at the foot of the chart, no chance for the flogging or ever for this correction were 
necessary. What I mentioned and the data given is intended for, is the origin of the 
pioneer or first lodge in which Masonic light shone in all countries. As you can see, this 
is a very different matter and explains readily why Pennsylvania is referred to. Is it true 
or not that Pennsylvania chartered Louisiana Lodge, at St. Genevieve, Mo. ? Is it true or 
not that the said Lodge, whether formed by Trench traders or not, or whether it had to 
surrender its charter soon afterwards, was the first regular lodge in Missouri? Is it true 
that Louisiana Lodge was chartered in 1807? If so, as nobody can question, I am right, 
perfectly right, in my assertions, the same with Missouri as with all the Grand Lodges 
mentioned. 


If we remember, regarding the American doctrine, that any Grand Lodge can gharter 
lodges in an unoccupied territory, having therefore concurrent jurisdiction in it with all 
other regular Grand Lodges, how can it be possible to trace a genealogical tree when 
many parents are to be accorded to an offspring ? If any of the Dakota correspondents 
can do that they will perform a marvel, as no human being can accomplish such a thing. 
It is also true that all the persons connected with this incident in the States did not take 
the trouble to verify the data appended; had they done so they gould have arrived to the 
conclusion that either they were wrong or I had to be sent to a mad house. 



More yet, how can any Mason say that a Grand Lodge can charter another Grand Lodge 
? We, Cuban Masons, novel as we are, cannot commit such a blunder; remember St. 
Paul and believe that Charity is the greatest of all virtues, and that is what I claim for 
me in this case. 


Hoping that you will consider mine a just cause, and, though convinced, as I am, that 
among my people many Sancho Panzas can be found, D. Quixote is to be met with not 
only among Spaniards but among other people also; Cervantes and Shakespeare were 
undoubtedly very bright stars in the XVI century, no wonder they both died together. 


Thanking you for this great favor I am sincerely and fraternally yours, 


F. de P. Rodriguez, Cuba. 


* * * 


THE SECRET, UNIFORM BALLOT 


(The following letter is so interesting, so valuable, that we venture to give it to the Craft 
without permission of the Brethren between whom it passed; trusting two noble hearts 
to forgive us a seeming disregard for the emenities. If they do not grant us pardon, well, 
we promise never to do so again - until another letter of equal interest and importance 
comes our way. Brethren had better have a care about writing sugh instructive letters 
and letting them pass through this office; for they will most certainly be waylaid - for 
which we have the example of the British Government.) 



Dear Brother: - You may recall that I once wrote you that I would like to give you my 
real reasons for thinking that Brother Pitt's position on "The Secret, Unanimous Ballot" 
was entirely wrong and unsupported by facts - that in what I had said previously, I had 
not gone below the surface. I will epitomize my views as follows: 


1 . The history of the Craft, during the first century of its existence, has been incorrectly 
written and only in recent times have the true conditions been brought out. 


2. The Premier Grand Lodge of 1717 was responsible, subsequently, for many 
alterations and variations in the work and practice. 


3. The Grand Lodge of Ireland preserved and continued the ancient working. 


4. The Ancient Grand Lodge of 1751 also practiced the ancient work and had the hearty 
support and sympathy of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. 


5. The Ancient Grand Lodge, and the Grand Lodge of Ireland, had a predominant 
influence in the American Colonies, and the work, as practiced in the United States is 
closer to the work of 1717-23 than that practiced in England today. From which I am 
convinced that instead of "The Secret, Unanimous Ballot" being an American 
innovation, the shoe is on the other foot and the Mother Grand Lodge is guilty of the 
innovation. 


With these premises enunciated I will enlarge on them, only remarking here that I will 
not burden this with references, but every quotation that I shall make is at my hand and 
can be verified by volume, number and page. 


Until comparatively regent time all we knew of the history of the Craft was gathered 
from the works of Anderson, Preston, Kloss, Findel, Rebold and Oliver, who all 



followed, more or less closely, in the path marked out by Anderson. Then arose a 
school of writers, such as Gould, Hughan, Lane, Woodford, Speth, Sadler, Conder and 
some others who, with infinite patience and a vast amount of skill, separated legends 
from facts and gave to the Fraternity a knowledge of Freemasonry that proved of rare 
fascination and a solid groundwork on which to base further studies. 


As bearing on the subject under inquiry I would give Brother Chetwode Crawley the 
first place, (with Brother Sadler as a strong second), and, looking at the changes that 
were made by the Premier Grand Lodge the best critic we have, as being free to note 
such changes, without fear of consequences. 


From my reading 1 am convinced that many changes were made in the work by the 
Premier Grand Lodge; that these changes were primarily responsible for the formation 
of the Ancient Grand Lodge; that the original work and ancient usages, as practiced 
1717-23, were preserved by the Grand Lodge of Ireland and later, by the Ancient Grand 
Lodge who, avowedly, practiced "Irish" Masonry. 


As throwing a side light on "Irish" Masonry it is of interest to note that during the 17th 
and early part of the 1 8th centuries, Dublin was as much an English city as any city in 
England itself. The customs and manners were essentially English and entirely distinct 
from the rest of Ireland. When the Grand Lodge of Dublin was formed, it was the 
counterpart of the one in London; the "Constitution" of 1723 were adopted and 
reprinted as Irish Constitutions; the same Brother served as Grand Master in London 
and later, in Dublin. Brother Crawley says: 


"As far as our researches have conducted us, no difference has been observed between 
the systems of Freemasonry practiced in England and Ireland before the year 1730. . . 
after that year, the case begins to change." 


In 1730, when Prichard's "Masonry Dissected" was published, it was adopted as the 
basis of the Irish ritual. As bearing on the authenticity of Prichard's work, two points are 
to be noted. First, certain words and names were (admittedly) transposed by the Premier 



Grand Lodge, to detect those seeking to gain admission by posting up on Prichard's 
work. Second, some few years ago, while seeking to obtain a copy of "Masonry 
Dissected," and having despaired of success, I wrote a Brother in England asking if he 
would send me a written copy of the one in his possession. His reply was, "his E. A. 
obligation prevented him from complying with my request." As the Brother referred to 
is one of the leading Masonic scholars of the day, and had favored me greatly before 
and since, I drew my own conclusions, which were verified when I was so fortunate as 
to secure a copy of the book itself. 


But the Irish preferred to follow the original work and have continued to do so to the 
present time; it was this fact that led me to use the words at the conclusion of my first 
article - to the Lodges holding under the Irish Constitution must we go today, for the 
purest Ancient Craft Masonry. 


During the stormy times, 1722-1723, in London, the Premier Grand Lodge was the prey 
of the Stuart and Jacobite factions, each seeking to gain control in the hope and 
expectation of using it in furtherance of their own political ends, and to the storm and 
stress of that period may safely be assigned the causes for that departure from 
Regulation VI, referring to the rule for admission into the Society. The Irish 
Constitutions of 1730 reprints Regulation VI, from Anderson's Constitutions of 1723 
verbatim, and while that of 1741 is a duplicate of the "New Book of Constitutions" of 
1738, the practice, as far as "unanimous consent" is concerned, has never varied. 


Another point that deserves attention is, that the work in Ireland has never been written 
or printed, but is passed (literally) from mouth to ear. Brother Crawley says he is "the 
accredited exponent of our Irish Ritual; the Ritual that served the Ancients as a standard 
and never was committed to writing. In the next place, that Ritual has been passed on to 
me by brethren who learned their lesson from the lips of the leaders of the Ancients of 
the last (18th) century." 


Prom my reading I am thoroughly convinced that Masonry, as practiced in Ireland 
today, is nearest to the Masonry as practiced just prior and subsequent to 1717, without 
entering into the question of degrees. Is it not a fair inference that where the esoteric 



work has been so carefully preserved, that the customs would have been preserved in 
like manner. 


Just a word as to innovations. Gould says: "The book (Constitutions of 1723) introduces 
three striking innovations. It discards Christianity as the (only) religion of Masonry, 
forbids the working of the Master's part in private Lodges, and arbitrarily imposes on 
the English Craft the use of two compound words - Entered Apprentice and Fellow 
Craft - which had no previous existence in its terminology. Against these deviations the 
brethren rebelled." 


If Article VI of the Old Regulations, had been an innovation, I think it would have been 
included in the above paragraph. 


All this as leading up to one point; that during the latter half of the 1 8th century, the 
influence of the "ancients," with its ritual and usages, largely predominated in the 
American colonies; then there was the influence of the Irish Military Lodges to be taken 
into consideration, together with the intimate connection existing between the Grand 
Lodge of Ireland and the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, all stamping Masonry in this 
country as being very distinct from that practiced in England by the Modem Grand 
Lodge. Politically, the "Ancients" were more in sympathy with the Colonies in their 
stmggle for independence, than were the Modems. This also would have its effect when 
the Fraternity threw off its allegiance - Masonic - to the Mother country. As stated by 
Brother Crawley: 


"It is hardly too much to say that towards the close of the last (18th) century the Grand 
Lodge of Modems stood isolated among English-speaking Grand Lodges. Even in the 
Colonies, where it had been first to plant Lodges, the more democratic organization of 
the Ancients, aided by the ubiquituous Military Lodges, in which Ireland had such a 
preponderance, rapidly and surely won its way to acceptance. It has been generally 
found more convenient to ignore this isolation than to accept the conclusions that must 
be drawn from it." 



Just a few words more and I will close. There is a point that has great weight with me, 
though it may not appeal so forcibly to others. When Anderson wrote the New Book of 
Constitutions, of 1738, 15 years had elapsed since he compiled the one of 1723. Prior to 
that year, no minutes had been kept of Grand Lodge Transactions, and subsequently, 
but the barest skeleton. 


Among English commentators I find the disposition to be very chary of accepting the 
statements contained in the New Book. No one knows the influences brought to bear on 
him in his later task, but we do know that changes crept in and in the years, became 
established usages in the Premier Grand Lodge until 1813 - the year of the Union - 
when they practically surrendered everything to the Ancients - the plurality of black 
balls being one of the few usages they saved. Brother Gould uses some very strong 
language in referring to Anderson's work in the Constitutions of 1738, rather evading 
the question of veracity by an implication of imbecility, owing to his declining years. 


Fraternally submitted, 


W.B.S. 


* * * 


THE FAME OF THE CRAFT 


(The following editorial from the Kansas City Journal, entitled "A Significant 
Departure," speaks for itself and also for the good name of the Craft, giving due praise 
to our Brethren in Georgia for their noble work. It is a pleasure to reproduce it, because 
the praise is so richly deserved, and, further, because we agree with the wise man who 
said that "no good thing can be praised enough.") 



A recent issue of The Builder, a Masonic publication, gives the details of an interesting 
and significant extension of the fundamental principles of the Masonic order to include 
all mankind, emphasizing the brotherhood of man, upon which all the great fraternal 
orders are based. The Scottish Rite bodies of Georgia have recently located at Atlanta 
the Scottish Rite Convalescent Hospital for Crippled Children, which is asserted to be 
the first institution of its kind established by any of the large fraternal orders for the 
benefit of all who need its services, regardless of fraternal affiliations and exclusively 
philanthropic in its operation. 


As its name implies, it is solely for the cure of crippled children, but no questions of the 
religious convictions of their parents, or of fraternal connection are asked. No payment 
is accepted for the services rendered which are along the lines of Kansas City's Mercy 
hospital. The only considerations are the curability of the little patient and the inability 
of the parent to pay for surgical and hospital treatment. The best physicians in the South 
are included in the faculty and The Builder gives many touching instances of 
remarkable cures already effected. 


The project is intensely interesting on its merits, challenging the sympathy of all who 
want to see the mournful sum of human pain reduced - and particularly those who pity 
the sufferings of little children. But it is especially significant because it represents a 
wide departure from the principles and policies of most of the great fraternal and 
religious bodies - especially the former. Institutions of this sort are maintained by many 
of the great orders and ecclesiastical denominations throughout the country. All of these 
do an immense amount of good within the special scope of their membership. There are 
Masonic and Odd Fellow and Pythian and Woodcraft homes; many of the big crafts 
have national institutions where aged and dependent members may spend their last days 
in comfort. There are Catholic and Protestant and Jewish homes and hospitals and 
retreats and though it is not to be understood that lines are too rigidly drawn, yet some 
name is inscribed above the portal of most or all of these institutions. These orders and 
denominations spend in the aggregate tens of millions of dollars, primarily for the relief 
of members, but the doors of many of these homes and hospitals swing wide for the 
sufferer or dependent who is not bound to the order or to the church by fraternal or 
denominational ties. The Scottish Rite experiment in Georgia is, for all that, a pioneer 
in what is may be hoped will be a movement more generally adopted which, while 
taking special care for "them of the household of religious or fraternal faith," will 
nevertheless seize the opportunity to teach the great truth, broader than any order or any 
denomination, that God is the father of all and that every man is not only the brother of 
every other man but is his keeper as well. The Scottish Rite bodies of Georgia have 



reflected immense credit upon themselves and upon the order they represent in blazing 
the way in which it is hoped many other feet will walk. 


— o — 


ON THE SEVERAL LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES 


The Grammar rules instruct the tongue and pen; 
Rhetoric teaches eloquence to men; 

By Logic we are taught to reason well; 

Music has charms beyond our power to tell. 

The use of numbers numberless we find; 
Geometry gave measure to mankind; 

The Heavenly System elevates the mind. 

All these and many secrets more, 

The MASONS taught in days of yore.