The Builder Magazine 

March 1915 - Volume 1 - Number 3 


THE MASTER’S WORD AND THE ROYAL ARCH 

BY BRO. S. W. WILLIAMS, GRAND HIGH PRIEST OF TENNESSEE 

"The MASTER'S WORD * * * is the reward of study and devotion, and has never 
been obtained on any other terms. It has never been conferred in the ritualistic degrees 
of the Lodge, and never will or can be. It is the establishment of understanding in the 
Soul of man between that higher self in him, and the MORE and Beyond Self from 
which he draws his life, and from which his intuitions spring. This is the Real 
Initiation: At-One-Ment." ("Mystic Masonry." by J. Buck.) 

Let us see. The Blue Lodge symbolizes this Life, from the Cradle to the Grave. From 
our entrance upon the Stage of Life's great Drama, 'till its close, when "Exeunt 
Omnes" is the order of the Greatest of Stage Managers, and the "Curtain of Life" is 
run down. The Chapter comes next in the Masonic System— capped with the Royal 
Arch— formerly, and we might say correctly, termed the HOLY ROYAL ARCH, for 
such it surely is. 

The Past Master's degree has no place in the Masonic System— being merely a 
complimentary degree— a sort of enabling Act to qualify the Candidate for the Royal 
Arch degree. The Mark and Most Excellent Master's degrees are amplifications of the 
Work of the Blue Lodge and have no part in the consecutive work leading up to the 
Royal Arch in the position they now occupy. 

Mackey and other teachers tell us that the Royal Arch degree is the symbolic 
representation of the state after death. Life's vanities and follies have passed away; 
even the first Temple, erected with such care through Life, has succumbed, and decay 
and desolation only appear in its stead. 

Masonry is a search for Light— More and MORE LIGHT as we ascend the rounds of 
the Ladder— and Masonic Light is TRUTH ETERNAL. In his "Search" the Seeker will 
discover profound secrets of which he was previously ignorant. They had never been 
explained in the Lodge and NEVER WILL BE. However, they are there for all who 
will not only "Ask," but earnestly "Seek" for them. It must be personal, self 
sacrificing, painstaking and consecrated service, otherwise we shall fail in our search 



for these Treasures of Masonry that are never more than hinted at in the Lodge and 
never explained. 


This is one of the things that each man "must do for himself' and if not undertaken in 
the proper spirit, he will find the Door securely barred against him— and he will 
"knock" in vain. Thus, if we do not attain the FULLNESS of Light, it will be our own 
fault— we have not properly used all of the "Working Tools" that were given us in the 
Lodge and were there so carefully explained. 

The Symbolism of the Royal Arch. 

The City of Jerusalem and its first Temple in the Royal Arch symbolize our Spiritual 
Natures— Pure and Innocent— fresh from the hand of our Father in Heaven. 

By contact with the World it becomes corrupted by Sin— crumbles under the assaults 
of the enemy, and we become prisoners— slaves— just as our ancient brethren did to 
the Chaldeans. 

After a period of repentance we determine to lead a new life, and with this end in 
view, leave our Babylon -where we have been enchained by the Powers of Sin —to 
start life afresh. 

Our journey across the Desert, with its trials and tribulations, represents our first 
efforts to rebuild our Lost Character, and once more become good and true, and pure 
before God and Man, i.e.— to rebuild the Temple which we have once destroyed. 

We struggle on— each day is fraught with cherished memories of by-gone years— and 
each night, as we lie down to rest beneath the Starry decked Canopy of Heaven, finds 
us nearer our Goal— nearer HOME. 

Finally, we reach the spot where we have dreamed that we shall reap our reward. 
There, standing on the Mount of Olives, we see -NOT the prosperous, well regulated 
City that we remember, with its impregnable fortifications, soaring Towers, marble 
Palaces and magnificent Temple erected to the Most High God, but a mass of 
unrecognizable ruins. 

At first, we are disheartened, shocked, discouraged -but, remembering our good 
resolutions, we turn to the God of our Fathers for strength— and then take up in real 
earnest our Work in Life— willing to make any sacrifice to win, and offer unto Him 
our services in "Any part of the Work— even the most difficult." 



Under His guidance, we are directed where to begin our labors. It is a hard task, this 
digging among the mins— this removing the rubbish which Sin and Vice have fastened 
upon our Souls— but we bravely press on and are finally rewarded by finding the 
Keystone of an Arch. It is the Keystone of Faith in the Arch of God's Promises 
attained by Loyal and Devoted Service. We take it up and offer it to the Master, who 
encourages us, but tells us there is still more work for us to do if we would win the 
coveted prize— this time more trying and more dangerous. 

We return to the scene of our labors— this time to penetrate this Arch— and, searching 
amid the accumulated damp and slime of years, find three squares which we take up 
to Him who is directing the Work. They prove to be the Squares of Virtue, Morality 
and Brotherly Love. 

We are put to a further test of our sincerity purpose and asked if we would be willing 
to again penetrate this Arch in search of further treasures. Our answer you well 
remember— and we are told "Go — and rest assured that your valuable services will not 
be unrewarded." 

Gaining strength and courage with each successful effort, we once more return to the 
scene of our labors. This time we are more favored— the Sun is now in a position to 
shine into the Arch and we discover, in a remote corner, a strange Box, all covered 
with Pure Gold, upon whose top and sides are certain mysterious characters which we 
do not understand. 

We take this up and lay it before the Master — and then is brought to Light the 
Treasure of the Ages — the Long Lost M. M. Word — the symbol of that Divine Love 
and Tmth which passeth all human understanding. 

Then it is that we hear those blessed words calling us to our reward: 

"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into that higher and holier Life, 
where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary findeth rest." 

Then we are permitted to enter "That Temple not made with hands eternal in the 
Heavens." 

We have expiated our Sin and have been forgiven — and God has fulfilled his 
promise and called us Home. The Story of the Royal Arch Degree is of the 
Reclamation of a Lost Soul — Redeemed by Trust in God's Love, attested by a Life of 
Faithful and devoted Service. 


Light From the East. 



We learn from Students of the Great School of India where many of the most ancient 
Mysteries are still preserved in their original purity, that, surrounding this Earth is a 
Circle of Darkness, and beyond that, seven Spheres of Light, corresponding to the 
Colors of the Spectrum— beginning with the RED and ending with the VIOLET. 
Beyond this, the Violet gradually fades away and merges with and into a Realm of 
Light of ineffable Purity and Whiteness— millions of times whiter than anything that 
Mortals can imagine. 

All of these Spheres are inhabited by the Spiritual bodies of Men. Some never get 
through the Realm of Blackness; others struggle onward and upward— gradually 
getting higher and higher in the Spheres of Color —all struggling to attain the Light 
which is hidden from the eyes of mortals until their Spiritual sight is prepared to 
behold it in all its glory. 

TO REVIEW— Thus, we find the Blue Lodge furnishes Rules and Precepts to be 
followed in this life; and concludes with the sublime lesson of Death and a 
Resurrection to a Glorious Immortality— a life beyond the Grave. Here the Royal Arch 
follows and carries the symbolism into that after life— going back far enough to 
connect the one with the other. 

St. Paul tells us "There is a Natural Body and there is a Spiritual Body."— I.Cor. XV- 

44. 

The Spiritual Body, with the Soul (its Guide) left the Physical Body at the close of the 
Master Mason's degree, and then passes into the "Valley of the Shadow" —the Realm 
of Darkness— representing the Bondage of Sin in Babylon. Aided by the Wings of 
Faith in God's Promises and guided by the Star of Hope, it finally enters the first of 
the seven Veils of Light— the Red. Here, freed from the Bonds of Sin for the first time 
since childhood, it begins its journey through the Spheres with that "fervency and zeal 
which should actuate all Royal Arch Masons." 

As the journey proceeds, the Red begins to fade and merges into an Orange which 
betokens the first realization of hardship and weariness— and a weakening of the first 
flush of enthusiasm which was present at the start. 

We come to the "Bend of the River" and face the perils and hardships of the Desert. 
This is symbolized by the Yellow in the list of Colors. (A yellow flag at the Masthead 
of a ship at sea is a sign of sickness— of distress and suffering on board) And, were it 
not that the Spirit becomes stronger and Purer with each obstacle that is overcome, 
many would (and indeed, very many do) fall by the wayside. Fortitude, in the shape of 
a kindly guide, comes to our assistance and the end of the Desert journey is reached. 



"We shall now turn our faces to the South— passing through Syria and toward 
Damascus. 

Once more are we to feast our eyes upon GREEN Hills and fertile valleys— 
unforgotten through the years of exile. 

Grand old Lebanon comes into view, rearing its lofty peak into the azure BLUE of a 
tropical sky and here we find a host of Helpers— TRUTH, CONSTANCY, 

FIDELITY, FRIENDSHIP and HOPE— to welcome and cheer us on our way. 

Passing down the Valley of the Jordan many familiar scenes greet the eye and the 
Spirit is filled with thankfulness at being once more permitted to view our native land. 
We kneel and pour forth a prayer of thanksgiving to the God of our Fathers. 

Presently a single ray of RED (the Color of ZEAL and enthusiasm) comes down the 
spheres to us with the thoughts of our years of bondage— and the RED, mingling with 
the Blue in its deepest shade, makes the Heartsease (Indigo Purple) with all its blessed 
promises of Glories yet to come. 

Still pressing on, we climb the Mount of Olives; and there stand in the VIOLET! All 
about us are the Angels of Purity and Meekness. There are blessed recollections 
passing to and fro like the rustle of Angels' Wings-and the Guide says "Let us press 
on." 

A PRAYER. 

I kneel not now to pray that Thou 
Make white one single sin, 

I only kneel to thank Thee, Lord, 

For what I have not been— 

For deeds which sprouted in my heart 
But ne'er to bloom were brought, 

For monstrous vices which I slew 


In the shambles of my thought. 



So for the man I might have been 
My heart must cease to mourn— 
'Twere best to praise the living Lord 
For monsters never bom, 

To bend the spiritual knee 
(Knowing myself within) 

And thank the kind benignant God 
For what I have not been." 

—Harry Kemp. 

BEETHOVEN. 

O Psalmist of the weak, the strong, 

0 Troubadour of love and strife, 
Co-Litanist of right and wrong, 

Sole Hymner of the whole of life, 

1 know not how, I care not why, 

Thy music brings this broil to ease, 
And melts my passion's mortal cry 
Into satisfying symphonies. 

Yea, it forgives me all my sins, 

Fits life to love like rhyme to rhyme, 
And tunes the task each day begins 



By the last trumpet-note of Time. 
—Sidney Laniel. 


"So many gods, so many creeds, 

So many paths that wind and wind; 
While just the art of being kind 
Is all this sad world needs." 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MASONRY 

Five Lectures Delivered under the Auspices of the Grand Master of Massachusetts 
Masonic Temple, Boston 

BY BROTHER ROSCOE POUND, PROFESSOR OF JURISPRUDENCE IN 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

III 

OLIVER 

KRAUSE'S philosophy is concerned chiefly with the relation of Masonry to the 
philosophy of law and government. Oliver's philosophy of Masonry deals rather with 
Masonry in its relation to the philosophy of religion. In order to understand this we 
need only note that Krause was by profession a philosopher and that the main work of 
his life was done in the philosophy of law and of government while, on the other 
hand, Oliver was a clergyman. As in Preston's case, Oliver's general philosophical 
ideas came to him ready-made. He flowed with the philosophical current of his time. 
He did not turn it into new channels or affect its course as did Krause. Hence here, as 
with Preston, we may conveniently consider Oliver's philosophy of Masonry under 
three heads: 1. The man; 2. The time; 3. His Masonic philosophy as a product of the 
two. 

1. The man. George Oliver was bom at Pepplewick in the county of Nottingham, 
November 5, 1782. His father was a clergyman of the established church and his 



mother was the daughter of a country gentleman. Hence he had the advantage of a 
bringing up under conditions of culture and refinement. He was educated at 
Nottingham and made such progress that at twenty-one he was made second master of 
the grammar school at Caistor in Lincolnshire. Six years later he was made head 
master of King Edward's grammar school at Great Grimsby. In 1813 he took orders 
but continued to teach. In 1 8 1 5 he was given a living by his bishop as the result of an 
examination and at the same time, as the phrase was, was put on the boards of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, as a so-called ten-year man. That is he was given ten years in 
which to earn his degree. Thus in 1836 he was able to take his degree of doctor of 
divinity. In the meantime he was successively promoted to parishes of more and more 
importance till he became rector of Wolverhampton and prebendary of the collegiate 
church. In 1 846 the lord chancellor gave him an easier and more lucrative living. He 
died in 1866 at the age of eighty four. 

Beginning in 1811 Oliver was a diligent student of and a prolific writer upon 
antiquities, particularly ecclesiastical antiquities and his writings soon brought him a 
high reputation as an antiquary. It is worth while to give a list of the more important 
of these books since taken in connection with the long list of his Masonic writings it 
will afford some idea of his diligence and activity. I give only those which have been 
considered the more important. 

1. History and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Beverley. 2. History and 
Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton. 3. History of the Conventual 
Church of Grimsby. 4. Monumental Antiquities of Grimsby. 5. History of the Guild of 
the Holy Trinity, Sleaford. 6. Dmidical Remains near Lincoln. 7. Guide to the 
Dmidical Temple at Nottingham 8. Remains of the Ancient Britons between Lincoln 
and Sleaford. 

To these must be added a great mass of papers and notes on antiquarian matters 
published between 1811 and 1866. And be it remembered the author was, while most 
of these were writing, a teacher studying during his leisure hours in preparation for 
orders and later for his degree and when the remainder were written was rector of an 
important parish, a magistrate, a surrogate for the bishopric of Lincoln and a steward 
of the clerical fund for his diocese. This sounds like one man's work and a good 
measure at that. To it, however, we have to add a Masonic literary career even more 
fruitful and more enduring in its results. 

Oliver was made a Mason at the age of nineteen. This statement, startling to the 
modem Masonic ear, requires explanation. As Masonic usage then stood a "lewis," 
that is the son of a Mason, might be initiated by dispensation before he came of age. 
The privileges of a lewis have never been defined clearly. He was supposed to have a 
right of initiation in precedence over all other candidates. Also in England and France 



he was supposed to have the right to be initiated at an earlier age, namely eighteen. 

The constitutions are silent on this point but the traditional custom was to grant a 
dispensation in the case of a lewis after that age. It is hard to say how far this usage 
has ever obtained in America. At present it is not recognized. But there is evidence 
that it obtained in the eighteenth century as, for example, in the case of George 
Washington who was initiated at the age of twenty. At any rate Oliver became a 
Mason in this way at the age of nineteen being initiated by his father in St. Peters 
Lodge at Peterborough in 1801. 

Oliver's father was a zealous and well-informed Mason and a ritualist of the literal 
school, that is of the type who regard literal expertness in ritual as the unum 
necessarium in Masonry. Accordingly Oliver was thoroughly trained on this side— 
which indeed is indispensable not only to Masonic advancement but, I suspect, to 
Masonic scholarship— and as a result of his thorough knowledge of the work and his 
tireless activity his rise in the Craft was rapid. 

In 1 809 Oliver established a lodge at Grimsby where he was the master of the 
grammar school and chiefly by his exertions the lodge became strong and prosperous. 
He was master of that lodge fourteen years. Thence successively he became 
Provincial Grand Steward (1813); Grand Chaplain (1816); and Deputy Grand Master 
of Lincolnshire (1832). The latter office he held for eight years. It should be 
remembered that the post of Provincial Grand Master was reserved in England for the 
nobility. It is interesting to know in passing that the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts 
gave him the honorary title of Past Deputy Grand Master. 

The list of Oliver's Masonic writings is very long. He is the most prolific of Masonic 
authors and on the whole has had the widest influence. He began by publishing a 
number of Masonic sermons but presently as one may suspect by way of revolt from 
the mechanical ritualistic Masonry to which, as it were, he had been bred he turned his 
attention to the history and subsequently to the philosophy of the Craft. 

His first historical work is the well-known "Antiquities of Free Masonry: comprising 
illustrations of the five grand periods of Masonry from the creation of the world to the 
dedication of King Solomon's temple." This was published in 1823. 

Then followed in order: 

2. The Star in the East, his first philosophical work, designed to show the relation of 
Masonry to religion. 


3. Signs and Symbols, an exposition of the history and significance of all the Masonic 
symbols then recognized. 



4. History of Initiation, twelve lectures on the ancient mysteries in which Oliver 
sought to trace Masonic initiation and ancient systems of initiation to a common 
origin; a matter with respect to which recent anthropological and sociological studies 
of primitive secret societies indicate that he may have hit the truth much more nearly 
than we had been supposing of late. 

5. The Theocratic Philosophy of Masonry, a further development of his ideas as to the 
relation of Masonry to religion. 

6. A History of Free Masonry from 1829 to 1840, intended as an appendix to Preston's 
Illustrations of Masonry which he had edited in 1829. 

7. Historical Landmarks and Other Evidences of Masonry Explained, by far his 
greatest work, a monument of wide reading and laborous research. 

8. Revelations of a Square, a bit of Masonic fiction. 

9. The Golden Remains of the Early Masonic Writers, an elaborate compilation in five 
volumes. 

10. The Symbol of Glory, his best discussion of the object and purpose of Masonry. 

1 1 . A Mirror for the Johannite Masons, in which he discusses the dedication of lodges 
and the two Sts. John. 

12. The Origin and Insignia of the Royal Arch Degree. 

13. A Dictionary of Symbolic Masonry, the first of a long line of such dictionaries. 

14. Institutes of Masonic Jurisprudence. 

He also published a "Book of the Lodge," a sort of ritualistic manual similar to the 
monitors or manuals so well known today. Likewise he was a constant contributor to 
English and even to American Masonic periodicals. 

Probably no one not by profession a writer can show such a list, bearing in mind how 
many of the foregoing are books of the first order in their class. 

Unhappily Oliver's views of Masonic law were not in accord with those which 
prevailed in England in 1840. In consequence when in that year Dr. Crucefix, one of 
the most distinguished of nineteenth-century English Masons, was suspended by the 
Grand Lodge and retired from Masonic activity Oliver also incurred the displeasure of 



the authorities by claiming the right, though a Provincial Deputy Grand Master, to 
take part in a public demonstration in honor of Crucefix in which a large number of 
prominent Masons joined. This led to his losing his office by the action of the 
Provincial Grand Master and to his withdrawing from active connection with the 
Craft. But English Masons soon came to see the soundness of Oliver's views as to the 
independence which Masonry must allow to the individual in his belief and opinion as 
to what is Masonic law. Accordingly four years later nearly all the Masons in the 
kingdom joined in subscribing for a presentation of plate to Oliver in recognition of 
his great services to the Craft. But justice was not done to Oliver as it was to Preston 
possibly because Oliver was not the type of man to urge it for himself as Preston 
would have done. In consequence Oliver was out of touch with active Masonic work 
for the last twenty two years of his life. That this was in no way due to improper 
obstinacy on his part is, I think, manifest from merely looking at his portrait— which 
radiates benevolence and amiability. Moreover all accounts of his personality agree 
with the impression one gets from the portrait. All accounts bear witness to his 
lovableness, his geniality, his charitableness and his readiness to oblige. All who have 
written of him testify that he was in the highest degree unassuming, unaffected and 
easy of approach. That such men as Krause and Oliver should suffer from the 
jealousies which greater knowledge seems to engender in those who regard ability to 
recite the ritual with microscopic fidelity as the sum of Masonry is not wholly to be 
wondered at. The breadth which such knowledge inevitably brings about threatens the 
very foundations of the literalism which the strongest men in our lodges have been 
taught or have taught themselves is the essence of the institution. But it is strange and 
is an unhappy commentary upon human nature that the arrogant, ambitious Preston 
could at length obtain justice which was denied to Krause and to Oliver. 

Summing up Oliver's personality, everything confirms the impression which one 
derives from the portrait. He was a warm-hearted man, of zealous antiquarian 
enthusiasm, of deep faith and of thoroughgoing religious convictions. We must 
remember each of these traits when we come to consider his philosophy of Masonry. 
So much for the man. 

Now for the time. 

The dominant philosophy everywhere when Oliver wrote was what is known as 
romanticism. In England, which at this period was still primarily taken up with 
religious rather than with philosophical or scientific questions, romanticism was 
especially strong. Thinkers of the generation after Kant objected to his critical 
philosophy on the ground that it lacked vitality. They asserted that the living unity of 
the spirit was violated by his analyzings and distinguishings. They pointed to religious 
faith on the one hand and to artistic conception and creation on the other hand as 



methods which unlike the critical philosophy did full justice to life. In other words the 
age of reason in which Preston wrought and wrote was over and for a season at least 
men ceased to expect all things of reason, intellect and knowledge and began to 
expect all things of what they called spirit. The younger thinkers especially were filled 
with enthusiasm at this idea of deducing all things from spirit and did not see that they 
were simply seeking for a new philosopher's stone. They expected through the idea of 
the spirit to establish a complete unity of all things, to break down the existing 
separation between science, religion and art and to reconcile all discords. Such an idea 
of knowledge rightly may be called romantic. It stands before us sublime and distant. 

It rouses our enthusiasm or our zeal to achieve it, and influences us by its exaltation 
rather than by any prospect which it affords us of clear and sober realization. That a 
whole generation should have been content to put its ideal of knowledge in this form 
seems difficult to explain even by reaction from the over-rationalism of the preceding 
century. Probably the general upheaval brought about by the French Revolution must 
be taken into account and the golden age of poetry which accompanied this 
philosophical movement must not be overlooked. Indeed the connection between the 
romantic philosophers, the romantic poets and the romantic musicians is very close. It 
is not an accident that what I may fairly call romantic Masonry appears at the same 
time. This will be manifest especially when I come to speak of Oliver's views as to the 
relation of Masonry to religion. 

One of the most representative of the German romantic philosophers argued that all 
separation between poetry, philosophy and religion was superficial and arbitrary. He 
argued that while the poet regards philosophy as an expounding of the poetry of life 
which is to be found in all things, the philosopher regards poetry as a pictorial form, 
perceived intuitively, of the thought which moves in all things. But, he said, religion is 
a phase of the same quest for unity. Let me quote his words since they bear strongly 
upon Oliver's views: "If it is allowed that the task of thought is to show us the unity of 
all things, can philosophical endeavor differ in its essence from the religious yearning 
which likewise seeks to transcend the oppositions and unrest of life ?" 

This romantic philosophy came into England chiefly through the poet Samuel Taylor 
Coleridge (1772-1834) who wrote while Oliver's chief literary activities were in 
progress and died about six years before the most important and significant of Oliver's 
writings. The relation of the one to the other is so clear that a moment's digression as 
to Coleridge is necessary. 

In his youth Coleridge tells us he had been a disciple of the eighteenth-century 
rationalists. But he was repelled by the attempt, so characteristic of the eighteenth 
century, to reduce mental phenomena to elementary functions by means of analysis 
and to discover mechanical laws for all consciousness. If this could be done, he said, it 



would destroy the unity and activity of the mind. At this time he came in contact with 
the German romantic philosophy and turned in the new direction. Indeed he was a 
romanticist by nature. He revelled, it has been said, in ideas of the absolute in which 
the differences and oppositions of the finite world blended and disappeared. He was a 
poet and a preacher rather than a thinker and rarely got beyond intuition and 
prophecy. Hence there is more than a little truth in the saying of one of his critics that 
he led his generation through moonshine to orthodoxy and to a more pronounced 
orthodoxy than had formerly obtained. It is said that the Anglo-Catholic or Puseyite 
movement of the nineteenth century, which carried Newman and so many other 
English scholars into the church of Rome, was a result of Coleridge's ideas. 

What, then, were the characteristics of the philosophy of the time and place in which 
Oliver wrote ? 

1 . Speculation and imagination were the chief organs of thought. The poetic passed 
for the only real. Enthusiasm passed for scholarship. 

2. Reason abdicated for a season. Conviction, intuition and faith were regarded as 
justifying themselves. 

3. In the same way tradition became something which justified itself. This is seen 
particularly in the so-called Oxford movement and the Catholic reaction in England. It 
is seen also in the position of the time as to the English constitution which Dickens 
has satirized in the person of Mr. Podsnap. 

4. Reconciliation of Christianity with philosophy became a recognized problem. For 
example, Coleridge took this for his chief work. 

All of these features may be seen in Oliver's Masonic writings. The defects of his 
historical writing, for example, which have utterly debased popular Masonic history 
are the defects of a romanticist. A warm imagination and speculative enthusiasm 
carried him away. In common with his philosophical teachers he had thrown off the 
critical method and had lost the faculty of discriminating accurately between what had 
been and what he would like to believe had been. On the other hand, in Masonic 
philosophy, where pure speculation was allowable, these qualities had a certain value. 
Mill says of Coleridge that his was one of the great seminal minds of his time. In the 
same way Oliver more than anyone else set men to thinking upon the problems of 
Masonic philosophy. His style is agreeable. He is always easy to read and often 
entertaining. A multitude of readers, who would be repelled by Krause's learned but 
difficult pages, have rejoiced in Oliver. Hence he has given a form and direction to 
Masonic speculation which still persist. 



Turning to Oliver's philosophy of Masonry three important points may be noted: 1 . 

His theory of the relation of Masonry to religion; 2. His theory of Masonry as a 
tradition coming down to us from a pure state prior to the flood; 3. His theory of the 
essentially Christian nature of our institution. 

Let me take these up in order. 

1 . It has been said that reconciliation of knowledge with religion and unifying of 
religion with all other human activities was a favorite undertaking of the romantic 
philosophy. It was natural, therefore that a clergyman should be attracted to this type 
of thought and that a zealous churchman and enthusiastic Mason who had learned 
from Preston, whose book he edited, that Masonry was knowledge, should convert the 
problem into one of relating Masonry to religion and of reconciling them. Oliver's 
mode of doing this was highly ingenious. Religion and Masonry, he would say, are 
identical in their end and they are identical in their end with knowledge. Each is a 
manifestation of the spirit, the absolute, that is of God. God, he would say, is manifest 
to us, first, by revelation and thus manifest we know Him and know ourselves and 
know the universe through religion. Second, He is manifest to us by tradition, and in 
this way we know Him and know ourselves and know the universe through Masonry. 
Third, He is manifest to us through reason, and in this way we know Him and know 
ourselves and know the universe through knowledge or, as we have come to call it, 
science. In common with the romanticists he sought to throw the entire content of life 
into one interconnected whole; and this he found in God or in the absolute. 
Accordingly to him Masonry was one mode of approach to God, the other two being 
religion and science. If Krause's triad was law, religion, morals, given effect by state, 
church, Masonry, Oliver's is revelation, tradition, reason, expounded, handed down, 
developed and inteipreted by religion, Masonry and science. 

2. Oliver's theory of Masonry as a system of tradition seems to have been derived 
from Hutchinson. The latter deserves a moment's digression. 

William Hutchinson (1732-1814), an English lawyer, is perhaps the earliest Masonic 
philosopher. In 1774 by permission of the Grand Lodge, which then insisted upon a 
right to censor all Masonic writing, Hutchinson published his chief Masonic work 
entitled "The Spirit of Masonry." Oliver himself has said that this book was "the first 
efficient attempt to explain in a rational and scientific manner the true philosophy of 
the order." Hutchinson's doctrine was that the lost word was symbolical of lost 
religious purity due to corruptions of the Jewish faith. He held that the master's degree 
symbolized the new law of Christ taking the place of the old law of Judaism which 
had become dead and corrupt. By a bit of fanciftd etymologsr he derived Hiram 
(Huram) from the Greek heuramen (we have found it) and Acacia from the Greek 
alpha privative and Kakia (evil)— Akakia, freedom from evil, or freedom from sin. 



Thus, he says, the Master Mason "represents a man under the Christian doctrine saved 
from the grave of iniquity and raised to the faith of salvation." Hutchinson influenced 
Hemming, who wrote the lectures of the Ancients and a trace of this influence may be 
seen in America in the interpretation of the blazing star in our lectures. 

Clearly enough Oliver got his cue from Hutchinson. But Hutchinson had identified 
religion and Masonry. This Oliver, as a clergyman of the established church, could not 
allow. Instead Oliver sought to unify them, that is while keeping them distinct to make 
them phases of a higher unity, to make them expressions of what is ultimately, though 
not immediately, one. This he did as has been seen by regarding each as a mode of 
approach to God. That conception led to his theory of Masonry as a body of tradition. 

Briefly stated Oliver's theory is this. He held that Masonry was to be found as a body 
of tradition in the earliest periods of history as recorded in Scripture. This tradition 
according to his enthusiastic speculations was taught by Seth to his descendants and 
was practiced by them as a pure or primitive Masonry before the flood. Thus it passed 
over to Noah and his descendants and at the dispersion of mankind was divided into 
pure Masonry and spurious Masonry. The pure Masonry passed through the patriarchs 
to Solomon and thence to the present institution. On the other hand, the pure tradition 
was corrupted among the pagans and took the form of the mysteries and initiatory 
rites of antiquity. Accordingly, he held, we have in Masonry a traditional science of 
morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. 

3. Again taking his cue from Hutchinson, though the old charges to be true to holy 
church gave him some warrant— Oliver insisted that Masonry was strictly a Christian 
institution. He believed of course that Christianity was foretold and in a way revealed 
in the Old Testament and that the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, was clearly 
expounded therein. In the same way he held that the earliest of Masonic symbols also 
taught the doctrine of the Trinity and that the Masonic references to the Grand 
Architect of the Universe were references to Christ. Indeed in his system this was 
necessary. For if religion, which to him could mean only the Christian religion, and 
Masonry were to be unified it must be as setting before us different manifestations of 
the same God. There could be but one God and that triune God, the God of his 
religion, he held was made known to us by revelation, by tradition and by reason. 

Thus Oliver's interpretation of revelation determined his interpretation of the other 
two. If we bear this in mind we may accept his general philosophy without accepting 
this particular doctrine. For it needs only to postulate a more universal and more 
general religion than he professed, a religion above sects, creeds and dogmas to hold 
that such a religion along with Masonry and along with reason leads to God. 

Moreover Hindu and Mahommedan may each put his own interpretation on revelation 
and join in believing in these three modes of knowing the absolute. Mackey 



reproaches Oliver for narrowness and sectarianism. But the possibilities of his 
Masonic philosophy are as broad as could be desired. It was too soon in 1840 to ask a 
clergyman to go further in its application than he went. 

What then are Oliver's answers to the three fundamental questions of Masonic 
philosophy? 

1 . What is the end of Masonry, for what does the institution exist? Oliver would 
answer, it is one in its end with religion and with science. Each of these are means 
through which we are brought into relation with the absolute. They are the means 
through which we know God and his works. 

2. How does Masonry seek to achieve its end? Oliver would answer by preserving, 
handing down and interpreting a tradition of immemorial antiquity, a pure tradition 
from the childhood of the race. 

3. What are the fundamental principles by which Masonry is governed in achieving its 
task? Oliver would say, the fundamental principles of Masonry are essentially the 
principles of religion as the basic principles of the moral world. But in Masonry they 
appear in a traditional form. Thus, for example, toleration in Masonry is a form of 
what in religion we call charity; universality in Masonry is a traditional form of what 
in religion we call love of one's neighbor. 

As has been said, Krause's was a philosophy of Masonry in its relation to law and 
government. Preston's was a philosophy of Masonry in its relation to knowledge. 
Oliver's is a philosophy of Masonry in its relation to religion. Neither of the others has 
had a tithe of the influence which Oliver's philosophy has exerted upon Masonic 
thought. And on the whole his influence has been valuable and stimulating. A critic 
has said that "all he had to give was transcendental moonshine which shed a new light 
on old things for many a young doubter and seeker, but which contained no new life." 
In a sense this is so. Oliver's Masonic philosophy is an obvious product of a 
clergyman in the age of the romantic philosophy who had read and reflected upon 
Hutchinson. And yet it is not true that there is no new life in Oliver. Except for Krause 
nothing so well worth while has been pointed out for Masonry as the end which 
Oliver found for us. I cannot but feel that it is a great misfortune that his philosophy is 
being peddled out to a new generation in grandiloquent fragments through Grand 
Lodge orations and articles in the Masonic press instead of being apprehended as a 
whole. 


NAPOLEON 



Here was an experiment, under the most favourable circumstances, of the powers of 
the intellect without conscience. He did all that in him lay, to live and thrive without 
moral principle. It was the nature of things, the eternal law of man and the world, 
which balked and ruined him; and the result in a million experiments would be the 
same. 

- Emerson 

THE SACRAMENT. 

"The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, 

In whatso we share with another's need; 

Not what we give, but what we share, 

For the gift without the giver is bare; 

Who bestows himself with his alms feeds three— 

Himself, his hungering brother, and Me." 

— J. R. Lowell. The Vision of Sir Launfall 


ERNST AND FALK 

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF G.E. LESSING (1778) BY LOUIS 
BLOCK, 

PAST GRAND MASTER OF MASONS IN IOWA 

[Truly, Lessing was a prophet. Almost it would seem that this second dialogue was 
written yesterday, or this morning, so pertinent is it to the present situation among 
nations, and so eloquent of the mission of Masonry. With what crystal clear insight 
that noble German saw what Masonry means to humanity, how it offers the only basis 
upon which men of all races and faiths may meet and live amicably together; and how 
by its very genius it becomes, as the Old Charge in the Book of Constitutions said, 
"the Centre of Union and the Means of conciliating true Friendship among persons"- 



-and, equally, among nations— "that must have remained at a perpetual distance." 
Also, straight as a line of light, his vision goes to the truth that the basis of human 
society and the state is spiritual, and that, at bottom, all issues are religious issues. 
Hence the wisdom of the Old Charges— and most of all the great Charge of the Grand 
Lodge of England— concerning "God and Religion," and their emphasis upon "that 
Religion in which All Men Agree." Hear now the simple wisdom of a great Mason 
who, over a century ago, lived and wrote so unselfishly, not for the glory or profit of 
one race, but for the good of human beings wheresoever dispersed throughout the 
earth.— The Editor.] 

Second Discourse. 

Ernst— Well, where have you been? And still you have not the butterfly ? 

Falk— It lured me from bough to bough as far as the stream— all at once it was on the 
other side. 

E. — Yes, yes. There are such charmers. 

F. — Have you thought it over ? 

E. — Thought what over? Your puzzle? Nor shall I catch it, that pretty butterfly! And it 
shall give me no further concern. Once to talk about Free Masonry with you, but 
never again! For I see well you are like them all. 

F. — How like them all ? They do not all say this. 

E. — Don't they? Then there must surely be heretics among the Free Masons ? And you 
are one of these? Still all heretics have something in common with the Orthodox. And 
that is what I was talking about. 

F. — About what were you talking? 

E. — Orthodox or heretical Free Masons— they all play with words, let themselves be 
questioned and answer without answering. 

F. — ' Think so? Now then, let us talk about something else! For once you have torn me 
out of a cozy condition of dumb astonishment— 

E.— Nothing is easier than to put you back into that condition. Just let yourself down 
here by me and look ! 



F.— Now what? 


E. — The life and the moving to and fro and round about these ant-hills. What industry 
and yet what order! Every one carries and pulls and shoves and no one hinders 
another. Just see! They even help one another. 

F. — The ants live in society like the bees. 

E. — And in a still more wonderful society than that of the bees. For they have no one 
among them who holds them together and rules them. 

F. — Therefore it must be true that order can exist without government. 

E. — When each one knows how to rule himself, why not ? 

F. — Will it ever come to that among men ? 

E.— Very hardly ! 


F.— Too bad ! 


E. — Assuredly ! 

F. — Get up and let us be going ! For they will be crawling all over you, these ants, and 
just now there occurred to me what I must ask you at this time. I have no idea at all 
what you think about it. 

E. — About what? 

F. — About the civil society of men. How do you look at it ? 

E. — As something very good. 

F. ~ Incontestably. But do you take it as an end or as a means? 

E. — But I don't understand you. 

F. ~ Do you believe that men were created for the state, or that the state was created for 
men ? 

E.— Some appear inclined to assert the former. The latter, however, may be nearer the 
truth. 



F.— That is what I think, too. The state unites men, so that through this union, and in 
this union, each single man may enjoy all the better and more surely his share of 
happiness. The sum total of the joy of each member is the happiness of the state. 
Aside from this there is no happiness. Any other good fortune of the state for which 
even a few members suffer and must suffer is merely the cloak of tyranny. Nothing 
else ! 

E.--I wouldn't want to say that out so loud. 


F.— Why not ? 


E. ~ A truth that each one decides according to his own condition can easily be 
misused. 

F. ~ Do you know, Friend, that you are already half a Free Mason? 

E. --I ? 

F. — You. For you declare truths that one had better keep to himself. 

E. — But what he still might tell. 

F. — The wise man cannot tell that which he had better keep back. 

E. — Well, as you will Let us not get upon the Free Masons. I don't want to know 
anything more about them. 

F. — Forgive me! You see at least my readiness to tell you more about them. 

E. — You are joking— Good! The civil life of man and all state constitutions are nothing 
but means for human happiness. What then? 

F. — Nothing but means! and means discovered by man; although I will not deny that 
nature has everything so arranged that man must very soon stumble upon these 
discoveries. 

E.— This then brought it about that some considered human society to be nature's end. 
For all our desires and all of our deeds, even to the last one, lead along the road that 
nature travels. So they decided. As if nature would not bring forth the proper means! 
As if nature had more in view happiness as an abstract conception— such as the state, 
the fatherland, and the like— than the real happiness of each single being. 



F.— Very good! You are coming to meet me along the right road. Now then, tell me if 
the state constitutions are expedients of human origin, shall they alone escape the fate 
of all other human expedients? 

E. — What do you mean by the fate of human expedients? 

F. — That which is inseparably bound up with all human expedients, and which 
distinguishes these from divine and infallible instruments. 

E. — And what is that? 

F. — That they are not infallible. That they not alone often do not accomplish their 
puipose but even bring to pass the very contrary result. 

E. — An example! if one occurs to you. 

F. — Ships and sea- voyages are means for reaching far lying lands, and at the same time 
become the reasons why many men never arrive there. 

E. — For instance, those who suffer ship-wreck and are drowned. Now I think I 
understand you. But we know very well why so many single men fail to achieve their 
happiness through a state constitution. State constitutions are many; one is therefore 
better than the others; another is very faulty, contending openly with its own objects 
and the best is perhaps yet to be discovered. 

F. ~ Undoubtedly! Suppose the best constitution that can be conceived of to have been 
established; suppose all the men in the whole world to have adopted this constitution; 
do you not think that even then that out of this very best constitution itself there must 
still arise things highly hurtful to human happiness and of which man in his natural 
state unfortunately knew nothing? 

E. ~ I should think that if such things could arise out of the best constitution that then it 
would be the best constitution. 

F. — And that a better one would still be possible? Well, then, I will take this better one 
for the best and repeat my former question. 

E.— You seem to have been striving from the very outset to make clear the accepted 
conclusion that every human expedient such as you declare a state constitution to be, 
can be nothing else than faulty. 


F.~Just that. 



E. — And it would be hard for you to name one of those hurtful things that— 

F. — That must of necessity arise from the best state constitution? Oh, ten instead of 
one! 

E. — Just one, first! 

F. — Well then, we will suppose the best constitution to have been discovered; we will 
suppose all men in the world to be living under this constitution would all of the men 
in the world for this reason constitute but one state? 

E. — Hardly. Such an enormous state would be incapable of administration. It would 
therefore have to be divided into several smaller states which would all be governed 
by the same laws. 

F. — That is, men would even then continue to be called Germans and Frenchmen, 
Hollanders and Spaniards, Russians and Swedes. 

E. — Most surely ! 

F. — Now there you have it already, for then it would be true, would it not, that each of 
the smaller states would have its own peculiar interests and that each citizen would 
have at heart the interests of his own particular state? 

E. — How could it be otherwise ? 

F. — These different interests would often come into collision, just as they do now, and 
two me two members of different states would be just as little able to approach each 
other with unprejudiced minds, as is today a German a Frenchman, or a Frenchman an 
Englishman. 

E. — Very likely. 

F. ~ So that, now when a German meets a Frenchman, a Frenchman an Englishman, or 
the reverse, it is no longer simply a case of the meeting of two men who on account of 
their like natures are drawn to one another, but it is a case of the meeting of two 
particular kinds of men, who are conscious of one another's differing tendencies, 
which in turn makes them cold, reserved, and suspicious toward each other, even 
before they have had the slightest thing to do, or to share, with one another. 


E.— That is unfortunately true. 



F.— Now it is also true that the very thing which unites men in order to insure their 
happiness by means of such a union, at the same time divides them. 

E. — Yes, if you understand it that way. 

F. ~Take a step further! Many of the smaller states would have widely varying 
climates, consequently widely differing needs and desires, widely varying habits and 
customs, greatly differing moral standards and consequently very dissimilar religions. 
Don't you think so? 

E. — That is a tremendous step ! 

F. — Men would none the less still be Jews, Christians and Turks, and the like. 

E. — That is something I dare not deny. 

F. — If they were that, then they would also conduct themselves toward one another in a 
way no different from that in which our Jews and Christians and Turks have always 
treated one another. Not as mere men toward mere men, but as one class of men 
toward another class, who are contending for certain spiritual preferences, and 
founding principles upon these that would never have occurred to the natural man. 

E. — That is very unfortunately very probable also. 

F. — Only probable? 

E. — For I thought, as you have assumed, that as all states could have one constitution, 
so they could also all have the same religion. Yet now I cannot see how it can be 
possible for them to have the same constitution without having the same religion. 

F. — Neither can 1. 1 simply assumed that, in order to cut you off in your flight. One is 
as absolutely impossible as the other. One state, several states; several states, several 
constitutions; several constitutions, several religions. 

E. — Yes, yes, so it seems. 

F. ~ So it is. Now note the second evil which civil society, wholly contrary to its 
intention, brings forth. It cannot unite men without dividing them, cannot divide them 
without establishing chasms between them and running dividing walls through them. 

E.— And how terrible these chasms are! How insurmountable are often these barrier- 
walls ! 



F.— Let me add still a third. It is not enough that civil society should divide and 
separate men into different peoples and religions— a division into a few great parts, 
each one of which would be an entity in itself, would always be better than no entity 
at all— but, no! civil society must continue its separating process even in each one of 
these parts and so on to infinity. 

E. — How is that? 

F. — Or, do you think that a state can be conceived of without differences in rank or 
station ? Be it good or bad, nearer or farther from perfection, it would still be 
impossible that each member of it should bear the same relation to the others. Even if 
they all had a share in the making of the laws, still each could not have the same 
share, at least not the same direct share. There would therefore be superior and 
inferior members. If at the outset all of the possessions of the state could be equally 
divided between them such an equal division would not survive two generations; one 
would know better than another how to use his property, and at the same time he 
might be compelled to divide his more poorly managed possessions among a larger 
number of descendants than would the other. There would therefore be richer and 
poorer members. 

E. — That is clear. 

F. — Now consider how much suffering there is in the world that arises out of this very 
difference in rank and station! 

E. — How I wish I could still dispute that! But what reason would I have for 
contradicting you? Well, now, men are only to be united through separation, only to 
be held in union by never ceasing division. Now that is even so. It can not be 
otherwise. 

F. — That is just what I have been saying. 

E. — Well then, what are you trying to do, to disgust me with civilized life, make me 
wish that the thought of uniting themselves into nations had never occurred to men? 

F. — Do you understand me so badly? If civilized society had but the one good that in it 
alone human reason could be developed, it would still bless us in spite of far greater 
evils. 


E.— He who would enjoy the fire, says the proverb, must endure the smoke. 



F.~ By all means! But because with fire smoke is unavoidable, dare we for that reason, 
invent no chimneys ? And he who invented the chimney, was he for that reason an 
enemy of the fire ? See, that is what I am after. 

E. — After what? I don't understand you. 

F. — The comparison was still very fitting. If man can be united in nations only through 
such divisions, are they for that reason good, these divisions ? 

E. ~ Certainly not. 

F. — Are they then sacred— these things that divide ? 

E. — How sacred ? 

F. ~ So that it is forbidden to lay hand upon them ? 

E. — For the purpose of—? 

F. — For the purpose of not letting them become any greater than necessity demands. 
For the puipose of rendering their results as harmless as possible. 

E. — How could that be forbidden ? 

F. — But it also cannot be commanded, commanded by civil laws— for civil laws never 
reach beyond the confines of a state. And this is the very thing that lies beyond all 
boundaries and all states. Consequently it can only be an opus supererogatum and it is 
only to be desired that the wisest and best in each state would voluntarily undertake 
these operi supererogato. 

E. — Not only to be desired, but very greatly to be desired. 

F. — I thought so ! Very greatly is it to be desired that in every state there should be 
men superior to the judgment of the populace who know exactly just when patriotism 
ceases to be a virtue. 

E. — Very greatly to be desired ! 

F. — Very greatly is it to be desired that there should be men who do not submit to the 
dictates of the religion in which they were born, and who do not believe that 
everything which they look upon as good and true must therefore be good and true. 


E.— Very greatly to be desired! 



F.— Very greatly is it to be desired that in every state there should be men whom civic 
pomp does not blind and civic paltriness does not disgust, and in whose society the 
lofty gladly unbend and the lowly boldly lift their heads. 

E. — Very greatly to be desired ! 

F. — And if it should be fulfilled, this desire ? 

E. ~ Fulfilled ? Of course here and there now and then you will find such a man. 

F. — Not only here and there, not only now and then. 

E. ~ At certain times, in certain lands perhaps a few more. 

F. — What if there were even now such men everywhere, and must at all times be such 
men ? 

E. — God willing ! 

F. — And what if these men did not live in a state of barren distraction, nor always in an 
unseen church ? 

E. ~ Beautiful dream ! 

F. — To make it short— and these men should be the Freemasons ? 

E. — What's that you say ? 

F. — What if it should be the Freemasons, who as a part of their work were endeavoring 
to close up, as far as possible, these gulfs by which men were kept strangers to one 
another? 

E. — The Freemasons? 

F. ~ I said, as a part of their work. 

E. — The Freemasons? 

F. — Oh, forgive me! I had again forgotten that you didn't want to hear anything more 
about the Freemasons. They, are just now beckoning us to breakfast. Come along. 

E.— Not yet! Just a moment! The Freemasons, you say— 



F.— The conversation brought me back to them against my will. Forgive me! Come 
on! There in the larger circle we will no doubt find matter for a more profitable 
conversation. Come on. 


“SOLEMN STRIKES THE FUNERAL CHIME” 

AN EXPOSITION - BY THE EDITOR 

HOW many tender memories these old familiar words evoke in the mind of a Mason. 
Often in the open lodge - alas, all too often beside the open grave - he has heard them 
march with slow, majestic step to the measure of the Pleyel Hymn. Never were words 
and melody more fitly blended, and they induce a mood pensive indeed, but not 
plaintive, rich in pathos without being poignant - a mood of sweet sadness caught at 
that point where it stops short of bitter, piercing grief. Yet few know when it was 
written and by whom, though many must have paused to muse over the faith of which it 
sings. 

The hymn was written by David Vinton, a lecturer on Masonry and teacher of the ritual 
in the first quarter of the last century, whose field of labor was in the South, chiefly in 
North Carolina. Unfortunately, his path through life was dogged by the demon of drink, 
which left stains upon his character for which he was expelled by a Lodge in North 
Carolina. He died, so Mackey records, in Shakertown, Kentucky, in July, 1833, but 
Morris dates his death six years earlier and says that it occurred near Russellville, Ky. 
Morris adds this pathetic fact: "Nor were his own most beautiful words sung over his 
grave, on account of lapse from a life of sobriety." 

In 1816 Vinton issued a volume entitled "The Masonic Minstrel, a Selection of 
Masonic, Sentimental, and Amorous Songs. Duets, Glees, Canons, Rounds and 
Canzonets, Respectfully Dedicated to the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of 
Free and Accepted Masons," with an appendix containing a short historical sketch of 
Masonry and a list of all the Lodges in the United States. It was printed for the author 
by H. Mann and Company, Dedham, Mass., and more than twelve thousand copies 
were sold to the Craft. This volume contained his funeral dirge set to the melody of the 
Pleyel hymn. As Mackey remarks, "This contribution should preserve the name of 
Vinton among the Craft, and in some measure atone for his faults, whatever they may 
have been." 

From the preface of the Minstrel we leam that Vinton was appointed by Mount Vernon 
Lodge, in Providence, to procure a book of songs for use in the Lodge, and this 
suggested the book to his mind, the more so when he was unable to find any book to 



meet the need. This quaint volume, yellow with age, and alternating quickly from grave 
to gay, from lively to severe, tempts comment, did time permit; but our concern here is 
only with his dirge. Originally it had eight stanzas, only four of which are used in our 
ritual and burial service, and Vinton little thought that his lines would be sung for a 
decade, then laid aside, then taken up again and sung wherever a Brother Mason is laid 
to rest, "in the land called America." 

II 

Whether we hear this hymn in the tyled recesses of the Lodge, or on a green sward out 
under the sky, our hearts answer to its appeal. Albeit in less stately strain and more 
tender tone, it strikes the same note that sounds through the 90th Psalm - that mighty 
funeral hymn of the human race - with its chant of the swift death of mourning flowers, 
of the vanishing of man, and the hush of profound sleep to which all things mortal 
decline. How helpless man is, pursued by Time and overtaken by Death - his life a 
vapor that melts, his span of years a tale that is soon told. There is here that nameless 
sorrow, that unutterable sadness which lingers in all mortal music whatsoever, and will 
linger in it while yet we walk in the dim country of this world where Death seems to 
divide divinity with God. Evermore, in hours however trivial or tragic, in moods 
pensive or gay- 

" Solemn strikes the funeral chime, 

Notes of our departing time; 

As we journey here below, 

Through a pilgrimage of woe." 

Touched by the twilights of time, the singer meditates and prays. He sees that the vast 
machinery of Nature carries forward the entire human race, and, without fail, drops 
them into one final sleep. Yet each departs alone - the father without the child, the wife 
without the husband, the judge without the court, the statesman unattended, the babe 
with no arm around it, aye, and king and peasant alike; and all walk one dark, inevitable 
path. In what silence and dignity they go, their faces all turned in one direction, 
following the footprints of a many-millioned multitude into the infinite. We who are 
compelled to watch their moving figures are powerless to detain them, and can only say 
farewell and then weep. 

"Mortals now indulge a tear, 


For mortality is here; 



See how wide her trophies wave, 


O'er the slumbers of the grave." 

With all our philosophy and wit, death remains a bitter, old, and haggard fact which no 
man may either evade or avert. There is something appalling in the masterful negation 
and collapse of the body. It is profound. It is pathetic. Words are futile, and there is in 
that last silence what makes them seem foolish. What avails it what any man may have 
to say about death ? The real question is, what are we to say to it, whether or not we 
shall let it have the last word. 

"Not all the preaching since Adam 

Has made Death other than Death." 

Heart and flesh fail; and the generations come and go, following the forlorn march of 
dust. Truly, as for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth; 
for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. 

Ill 

Suddenly the shadow lifts, light shineth in darkness, and we see how true it is that the 
soul of man is the one unconquerable thing upon this earth. How wonderful is this 
ancient, high, heroic faith which refuses to admit that the grave is the gigantic coffin lid 
of a dull and mindless universe descending upon it at last. Life tries it, sorrow 
beshadows it, sin stains it, and yet it is victorious. When doubt deepens this faith 
becomes more profound, and out of the blackest tragedy it rises with a song of triumph. 
So it has been from the far time when the oldest book in the world was written, and so it 
will be until whatever is to be the end of things. 

"Here, another guest we bring; 

Seraphs of celestial wing, 

To our funeral altar come; 

Waft a friend and brother home." 

Such faith is not a mere surrender; it is a force prophetic of its own fulfillment. At its 
touch the graveyard becomes a cemetery - that is, a sleeping chamber - and dark Death 
an All Man's Inn where a fellow pilgrim takes lodging for a night. Those whom we call 
the dead are the guests of God, whose love is the keeper of unknown revelations. Also, 



our singer sees that the social life of man, its warmth of sympathy, its sanctity of 
friendship, its dear love of man for his comrade, has enduring value. Because this is so; 
because life is brief at its longest, and broken at its best, it must be filled with Truth and 
Love; that so we may bring to the Gate in the Mist something too noble to die. Hence 
the wise prayer: 

"Lord of all below, above, 

Fill our souls with Truth and Love; 

As dissolves our Earthly Tie, 

Take us to Thy Lodge on High." 

O Death, where is thy victory? Our trust is in God, that He who made us what we are 
will lead us to what we ought to be. Higher faith there is none. Even so, Masonry rests 
its hope upon the ultimate Reality, the first truth and the last, and it is therefore that its 
singer sees, amidst the fluctuating shadows of this twilight world, an august, 
incomprehensible destiny for man. As a song of triumph the four stanzas omitted from 
this historic hymn are worthy of remembrance: 

"For beyond the grave there lie 

Brighter mansions in the sky! 

Where, enthroned, the Diety 

Gives man immortality. 


There, enlarged, his soul will see 
What was veiled in mystery; 
Heavenly glories fill the place, 
Show his Maker face to face. 


God of life's eternal day! 



Guide us, lest from Thee we stray, 
By a false, delusive light, 

To the shades of endless night. 

Calm, the good man meets his fate, 
Guards celestial round him wait; 
See! he bursts these mortal chains, 
And o'er death the victory gains." 


MASONRY AT WORK 

[Beautiful is the Spirit of Masonry, and tireless in its labors. It never sleeps and it takes 
no vacations. If by some celestial art one could trace its influence, and make record of 
its gracious ministries, what a testimony it would be. But that Spirit is as modest and 
shy as it is unwearying in its served, using grips and signs the better to hide its charities. 
Nevertheless, in times of trial and crisis it is dramatically revealed, and men see, for a 
brief time, what it means. Therefore ye editor proposes to have a regular department in 
this journal wherein to make record of notable instances of Masonry at work, and he 
invites his readers to assist by furnishing examples, such as the one given below - 
instances of relief, of rescue, of brotherly service and sacrifice in peace and in war - if 
so the "human touch" may be felt in the midst of our studies of philosophy, history, and 
symbol.] 

Here follows a brief digest of facts of which elaborate record may be read in the 
Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Michigan. While out hunting in Nov., 1909, Brother 
Harry Brownell disappeared, and as it was feared that some fatal accident had befallen 
him, strict search was made, but to no avail. Whereupon the Craft of Michigan raised a 
fund of $1672 for relief and search, but no trace of the missing man was found. Finally, 
one Sunday morning in November, 1913, while walking in the woods near Newberry, 
Brother Irving Weber was attracted by a shoe lying close to the road. The singular 
circumstance excited his curiosity, and upon closer examination he found the skeleton 
of the long lost brother. Opening the vest, he discovered a soft-nosed bullet 
mushroomed against some pencils in the pocket, showing that the ball had passed 



through the body and lodged in the vest pocket. Evidently, a hunter, mistaking him for 
an animal, had shot him in the back and ran away and left him. The remains were taken 
to St. Charles and buried by his home Lodge, No. 313. 

Of the relief fund, $376 remained on hand unused. Upon inquiry it was found that the 
family of Brother Brownell were left in need, and this sum was presented to his wife on 
Christmas morning. It was a complete suiprise to the young wife, whose tears told of 
her gratitude. During the long search for the body of Brother Brownell, his father-in- 
law, Brother Jay Doty, had mortgaged his little home for $950 to aid in the search. No 
sooner had this sum been expended than he was smitten with almost total blindness, 
incapacitating him for doing any kind of work. In due course the mortgage was 
foreclosed, and Brother Doty was without a home. Once again the Masons took the 
matter in hand, St. Charles Lodge subscribing a fund with which it purchased a little 
home, and with the aid of other Lodges paid for it, giving Brother Doty a clear title. 
Such is the spirit of Masonry in Michigan; and the only reason given for this ministry in 
the report is as follows: " 

"We should, as God prospers us as an institution and as individuals, be ready and 
anxious to aid those who are not fortunate or who have fallen by the wayside. We are 
our brother's keeper, and we cannot pass by on the other side when we see him in sore 
distress. If we do, we are not possessed of the Masonic Spirit, nor does the love of God 
dwell in us." 

Knowledge is the solace of the intellect as religion is the comfort of the soul, and its 
acquisition is not a toil but an indescribable delight. 


- G. W. Speth. 


GOING TO BED. 

There is a hall in every house, 

Behind whose wainscot gnaws a mouse; 
Along whose sides are empty rooms, 
Peopled with dreams and ancient dooms. 



When down this hall you take your light, 
And face, alone, the hollow night, 

Be like the child who goes to bed, 
Though faltering and half adread 
Of something crouching crookedly 
In every corner he can see 
Ready to snatch him into gloom, 

Yet goes on bravely to his room, 
Knowing, above him, watching there, 
His Father waits upon the stair. 

- Madison Cawein. 


ROADS OF MASONIC RESEARCH 

By Bro. R.I. Clegg of Ohio 

MASONRY is a prolific subject for discussion. Mention any angle of it and at once 
there is scope for abundant speculation, for cautious investigation, and for rigidly 
intensive and extensive study. Highways and byways there be through most delightful 
dales of dallice where the easy-going student may rest and refresh himself. Hills, too, 
there are whose loftiest crags defy scent save only to the hardiest of ambitious 
climbers. To each according to his taste, to every one according the test, all having 
their reward in proportion to the capacity and capability of him who seeks. 

From this broad sweep of the field Masonic it is easy to see how our society may by 
the flood of incoming suggestions be overwhelmed to a degree where performance 
must lag behind all promises. Editorial willingness to supply all desired information 
will wait perforce upon limited space. A plan by which inquiries can be assigned to 



competent and co-operative brethren to answer by correspondence is one method of 
dealing with that branch of the situation where for any reason the printed page is too 
tardy or otherwise insufficient. If queries or suggestions do not get early attention 
some of our members will perhaps naturally assume that their particular choice 
receives not the consideration worthy of it. Moreover, on the other hand, it is easy to 
reach a rut and stay there notwithstanding the high standard set at the start. Many 
essays are too often imitative and not initiative in either matter or manner. To avoid 
the whirlpool or the rock will call for all the Masonic enthusiasm, energy, and 
equipment of our editorial pilot. 

Suppose we set down a few items toward which the taste of at least one Mason is 
inclined. The number of them is not comprehensive but merely illustrative. Neither is 
the order in which they are mentioned any indication of their relative importance. The 
appended queries are readily increased. 

What is the present status of the Morgan question? Have the various references to his 
appearance in other lands— such as the one at Smyrna mentioned in the biography of 
Ren Perley Poore— been conclusively cleared up? That the Anti-Masonic situation 
may have had a great dependence upon purely political matters is probable but how 
far has this been established? What foundation is there for the account by Father 
Eisenberg of a connection of the Jesuite with the Morgan mystery? Is there on record 
anywhere and what is the report of that early Committee of the Grand Lodge of New 
York appointed to collect and submit all the obtainable information on this subject? 
Did Col. King, John Whitney, Samuel Chubbuck, or Eli Bruce commit to anyone 
additional information not already ventilated by Rob Morris, W.L. Stone, Josiah 
Drummond, Thurlow Weed, John Ross Robertson, or other of the better known 
writers? 

What about Leo Taxil? Has any Roman Catholic study of him appeared since he 
recanted from that faith? If so, would it be worth reproduction in synopsis or in 
extenso? Perhaps Benno Loewy or some other equally well-informed brother— if any 
there be— could be induced to give us an up-to-the-times character study and 
biographical account of this curious individual. 

The monitorial work of the Scottish Rite bears strong impress of the philosophy of 
Eliphaz Levi. An American investigation at first hand of the work of this mystic 
should not be lacking in attraction if sympathetically and skillfully performed. 

What a fascinating subject would be the study of Masonic plays, operas, songs, and 
stories ! Mozart's "Zauberflote," Gounod's "Queen of Sheba," Dumas' "Balsamo" 
drama, and many others could probably to great advantage be reproduced. Especially 



would the words and music composed by Mozart for the ceremonies of his lodge be 
well deserving of record. 

Much has been written upon the Old Charges and the Regius Manuscript but a 
complete modem rendering, particularly of the latter, is badly wanted. Put into 
twentieth century English these old treasures would have added value and a greatly 
enlarged circle of students. Hughan's "Old Charges" will in due course be reprinted by 
the Lodge of Research at Leicester, England. 

How many and many a time does the story appear about a Pope being a member of 
the Masonic fraternity. Pew Masonic magazines have failed to give it space at some 
time during lo these long years. Well, what are the facts ? Of late an effort has been 
made to filter the fiction out of this ancient tale. Lor sundry items of much interest 
about this hardy perennial blossom of the field Masonic thanks are due my good 
brethren Messrs. Shaver of Topeka, and Evans of Denver. Some of these days the data 
will be jotted down in shape for publication. Meantime any new or old contribution on 
this topic will be most thankfully received and in due course passed along to "The 
Builder." 

What is the historic relation of the Church of Rome to the Craft and to its predecessors 
? That there is a singular and suggestive connection between them mnning back into a 
remote past is very probable, and that their earlier relations may have been most 
amicable and cooperative is equally plausible. No one can consider similar 
symbolism, also the quaint reminders of the one set of ceremonies by the other, 
without an abiding impression that in the one body the other has found much. 

Has the theory of Craft origins not paid too little respect to the probable deposition 
within the operative body of cathedral builders of the teachings and practices of the 
persecuted and disappearing Knights of the Temple? From whence naturally comes 
the Commandery if not by some such route ? Do the early accusations against the 
Templars not indicate certain rigorous tests of obedience and courage employed in 
their initiatory ceremonies ? 

Is it not both desirable and feasible to briefly digest the several authoritative Masonic 
Codes? One State will not admit a candidate if lacking a finger. In another he would 
not be rejected if he lacked a finger but could not be admitted if he was without a 
hand. One State permits the officer's jewels to be suspended by pin, cord or ribbon 
and their aprons are blue. Another State calls for the white lambskin apron and the 
ribbon-hung jewel for officers. A stereopticon is forbidden in one State and permitted 
in another. One Grand Chapter requires its Royal Arch Masons to wear scarlet 
bordered aprons while another approves aprons entirely red. One Grand Chapter has 
legislated upon the dimensions of certain of its furniture and properties. Others leave 



the whole matter to the individual tastes of the subordinate Chapters. Some Grand 
Lodges approve of rituals, others don't. Several require certificates of membership 
from visiting brethren. These and many others are instances showing a diversity of 
practice that maybe would in time become simplified and systematized were there any 
synopsis made and regularly remade of these differences. 

What are the conditions of Masonry in other countries? Can we somehow get an 
insight of their ceremonies? For instance, there is no Scottish Rite in Germany but 
there is an Inneren Orient. What does this last most nearly compare to in our 
American series of degrees? How far does the German civil law interfere with the 
fraternity? The Rectified Rite is not unfamiliar to me but cannot discuss it in print. 
Could we not get that admirable and scholarly Mason, Edouard La-Tente, to give us a 
comparative paper on the Rites of Continental Europe? Maybe that facile linguist, 

Jose Castellot, at present head of the Scottish Rite of Mexico, might be induced to tell 
us of Masonry as practiced between the Straits of Magellan and the Rio Grande. Of 
the three governing bodies of the Craft in France and their relative puiposes few 
American Freemasons are fully informed. Much misinformation is among us on this 
subject. A first step toward mutual respect is to be better informed. And our 
knowledge ought to include an acquaintance with the propaganda waged vigorously in 
France and Belgium against Freemasonry by the Abbe Tremontin and his Anti- 
Masonic followers. Our admiration for Latin Freemasonry will not be lessened when 
we understand the activity and force of the foes it faces. 

What of Cemeau? Little is known. Dr. Reid, in his history of Washington Lodge, in 
the City of New York, has about a couple of pages devoted to Cemeau. Bro. Albert 
Pike has in the first ten volumes of the proceedings of the Southern Masonic 
Jurisdiction, and in his several pamphlets, dealt freely with Cemeauism but of its 
founder we find little beyond the accounts of the clash between De la Motta and 
Cemeau. In the earlier reports of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvannia there is to be 
found mention of Cemeau because the lodge in the West Indies to which he is 
accredited was acting under authority of the officials at Philadelphia. But there is 
much data to be unearthed. What was Cerneau's trouble with the Grand Lodge of 
Havana before he left Cuba for the United States? What was the report of the 
Committee appointed by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania to look into that dispute? 

A committee was appointed but I have not discovered its conclusions. Of course I 
have read the report of a Committee on Cemeau appointed by the Grand Orient of 
France. The two reports would, combined, clear up a foggy episode in the progress of 
American Freemasonry. 


Through what changes have our ritualistic ceremonies passed? There is immense 
difficulty in treating such a topic by the medium of the printed page. That it can 



adequately be done is very doubtful. There is more promise in classifying the work by 
Grand Jurisdictions so that a resident in any state or county might have a guide as to 
what ceremonies were most akin or least alike to those already familiar to him. Even 
at this stage, and certainly beyond it, the propriety of discussion without the tyled door 
is debatable. 

Has anything of a comprehensive character been published on the progress of the 
monitorial work? The story of the Conservators and of like enterprises would be most 
instructive to many. 

Down in the vault of the great library at Cedar Rapids is hidden much ritualistic 
material including the Bowers-Hughan manuscript, the Gilles Fellowcraft lecture, and 
hundreds of others. A catalogue of this abundance would be an interesting 
contribution and might exhibit at least the date when each item was in use and where 
it had its vogue and its survivals. 

Let me not overlook a keen survey of topics treatable, topics upon which much more 
could be desired than is commonly found in print, that was published in the Palestine 
Bulletin by A. G. Pitts. A long life work stretches far away ahead of anyone doing full 
justice to but a tithe of the items mentioned by Bro. Pitts. Much the same can be said 
of these raised in my present contribution and the number of them could be easily 
increased, a selection only being attempted. As opportunity may serve the writer will 
do his best as on other occasions to add to one or another of these subjects such facts 
as he can unearth. In this case he very gladly lends such help as he has at command 
and will ever be most appreciative of the labor of others in similar fields of endeavor. 

A careful reading of all the foregoing leads the writer to consider two additional 
points. As in the case of the esoteric work there is much that cannot well be ventilated 
in the printed page. Would it not be well each year or bi-annually to call a convention 
of the members of the Society? If such meetings were held at Cedar Rapids, 
Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Cincinnati, New York, or other cities possessing 
large Masonic libraries, the attendants at these conventions would not only have the 
benefit of these splendid collections but would enjoy companionship with kindred 
souls under most favorable conditions for the examination and discussion of the 
various questions such a body would handle. As to the time of year, and whether these 
gatherings should be coincident with the assemblies of other national or state Masonic 
meetings, need not be further dwelt upon now. Out of this idea of a national 
convention naturally evolves the thought of lesser sessions to be held wherever a few 
members of the Society can be assembled. Some one member in each section should 
be given a list of the local members and asked to get them together occasionally. How 
often and how regularly these meetings should be we will not now determine. A start 
is the main thing. 



The second point is one approached with considerable diffidence. To my mind it is of 
the utmost importance. Yet few may agree with me. But here is the point: Too little 
emphasis is put upon the value of definitions. Let us take the classic instance 
attributed to Mackay. It is often quoted as "Freemasonry is a system of morality, 
veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols." It is captivating rhetoric but marks no 
essential difference between Christianity, or almost any other of the world's great 
religions, and Freemasonry. We may say that Freemasons reverence God, honor the 
Craft, and love their neighbors; Freemasonry being the institution inculcating these 
duties. This is too diffuse for a definition. Nevertheless there is one more extended 
that may be acceptable to some of the brethren. Take the thirteenth chapter of 
Corinthians, that well known discussion of charity, and substitute Freemasonry for 
that oft misapplied word. This also may easily be criticized as a definition though 
worthy of consideration as an expression of Masonic faith. 

The brethren will surely admit that the word "Freemasonry" is too loosely applied. If a 
Chinese literateur employs the square as a figure of speech it is too readily assumed 
that there is in China a Masonry like unto ours. Because fundamental truths are taught 
in Freemasonry there are those who look upon it as being from a remote age the 
preserver of all the verities of religion. We need not here and now decide how far we 
can fairly go in this direction. But to keep us in the path we require the light of 
consistent definitions, something more than the usual output of the dictionaries, and a 
trifle less aspiring than that very partial conviction which seeks to credit it with 
everything in sight. 

Humble, gentle, merciful, just and devout souls are everywhere of one religion, and 
when death hath taken off the mask, they will know one another. —William Penn. 

Masonry is Friendship, Love, and Integrity— friendship which rises superior to the 
fictitious distinctions and arrangements of society, the prejudices of religion, and the 
pecuniary conditions of life; love which knows no limit, no inequality, no decay; 
integrity which binds a man to the eternal law of duty. —A. C. L. Arnold. 

"All else for which the old builders sacrificed has passed away— all their living 
interests, and aims, and achievements. We know not for what they labored, and we see 
no evidence of their reward. Victory, wealth, authority, happiness— all have departed, 
though bought by many a bitter sacrifice. But of them and their life and their toil upon 
earth, one reward, one evidence, is left to us in those gray heaps of deep wrought 
stone. They have taken with them to their graves their powers, their honors, and their 
errors; but they have left us their adoration." —John Ruskin. The Lamp of Sacrifice. 



THE HEART OF GOD. 


I stood in the heart of God; 

It seemed a place that I had known: 

(I was blood-sister to the clod, 
Blood-brother to the stone.) 

I found my love and labor there, 

My house, my raiment, meat and wine, 
My ancient rage, my old despair— 

Yea, all things that were mine. 

I saw the spring and summer pass, 

The trees grow bare, the winter come; 
All was the same as once it was 
Upon my hills at home." 

—William Vaughn Moody. 

THE HEART OF MAN. 


Then suddenly in my own heart 
I felt God walk and gaze about; 



He spoke; His words seemed held apart 
With gladness and with doubt. 


Here is my meat and wine, he said, 
My love, my toil, my ancient care; 
Here is my cloak, my book, my bed, 
And here my old despair. 

Here are my seasons: winter, spring, 
Summer the same, and autumn spills 
The fruits I look for; everything 
As on my heavenly hills. 

—William Vaughn Moody. 


EDITORIAL 

LETTER OF GREETING 

I hasten to tender my best wishes for the success of the new Society which has been 
founded by the Masonic scholars of the State of Iowa. The efforts of the late Theodore 
Sutton Parvin in the cause of Masonic Research have been ably continued by his son, 
your present Grand Secretary, and among the elder Brethren in your Grand Jurisdiction 
a spirit of inquiry with respect to the past of our Masonic Inheritance has taken firm 
root. Of this there is an example in point which is afforded by the formation of the 
Society whose literary organ it will be your privilege to conduct. 



I do not think the editorial chair could be better filled. Your record as a writer of the 
Craft is a bright one; you are a ripe Masonic scholar, and have the power of expressing 
yourself with vigor and lucidity in the mother tongue of Freemasonry. All omens, 
therefore, point in the direction of the new Society being admirably served by the 
journal whose province it will be to record the progress of the Association, the labors of 
which are having their beginning with the current year. 

As an Honorary Member of the Grand Lodge of Iowa for more than a quarter of a 
century, I am, have been, and shall ever remain deeply interested in all its proceedings, 
and that the important step it has recently taken with regard to the further development 
of Masonic Science may constitute another and lasting claim on the gratitude of all who 
are anxiously looking for "more Light," is my earnest Bravery 


ROBERT FREKE GOULD 

WORDS OF CHEER 

SURELY no first issue of a journal ever received more bouquets, and fewer brickbats, 
than the initial number of The Builder; and this is obviously due to the kindness of the 
Craft, and also to the deeply felt need for such a journal and the Society which it 
represents. Ye editor and secretary have been literally overwhelmed by innumerable 
letters of congratulation and goodwill, expressing appreciation, and offering the most 
hearty co-operation, and they take this opportunity of replying, since it would be 
impossible to do so otherwise, and of thanking the brethren for their words of good 
cheer. 

Every feature of The Builder has met with praise, including its size, its design, its paper, 
type and cover, and almost every article it contained. Hardly a letter but has expressed 
gratitude for the lecture of Brother Pound, and eager anticipation of the other four 
lectures in the series - which moves us to announce that we have secured his series of 
lectures of the. Symbolism of Masonry, to appear later. Ye editor is sincerely grateful 
for all the good words about his little Foreward, which ran a neck and neck race with 
"Ernst and Falk" in the minds of our readers. Many suggestions have been offered, all 
of them timely and valuable, but hardly a single criticism - except from Brethren who 
are impatient and want everything done at once; an impatience due to their deep 
interest. Typical of hundreds of others is this most gracious letter from Past Grand 
Master Hepner, of Montana: 

"I have carefully read the initial number of The Builder, and allow me to assure you that 
if the succeeding numbers are as good as the first, you will have the finest Fraternal 



Magazine ever published; every line of it is worthy of study by every member of the 
Craft, and its readers should reach into many thousands in numbers." 


Instead of keeping these letters to ourselves, the editor and secretary feel that it is but 
fair that the Society should know what impression The Builder has made; and hence 
this brief catena of extracts telling from many points of view how and why the Society 
and its journal are appreciated. Often The Builder is praised as much for what it does 
not contain as for what it publishes, and we have deliberately selected the most 
conservative letters, lest our readers think us extravagant. 

"As to the aim and object of the Society, I am in full accord. Co-operation upon the 
lines indicated in the Foreword must bring good results, and will fill a want lonfir felt in 
the United States. There are several Societies of the kind in England, and all are doing 
good work." - Julius F. Sachse, Philadelphia. 

"I fully appreciate the vast field that you are pioneering. You will have to furnish 
'Mellen's Food' for the infants, and strong meat for the adults, and until you get the 
'range' you will as often fire in the air over the heads of your constituents as you will 
shoot their boots off. But time, patience and perseverence will finally accomplish all 
things, and in the future you and your fellow- workers of the Grand Jurisdiction of Iowa 
will go down in history as the foster-fathers of true Masonic advancement." - H. F. 
Evans, Denver. 

"The Builder starts off with the right spirit for constructive work in Masonry. The 
Foreword is splendid. After many years' work along educational lines in Masonry, I at 
last feel the encouragement which comes from a closer relation thus established with 
Brethren, widely scattered though they may be." - Thomas M. Stewart, Cincinnati. 

"The absence of personal mention of bodies and individuals, which takes up ninety per 
cent of the average Masonic journal, is pleasing indeed. But more satisfactory to me is 
the policy inaugurated and embodied in the line, 'We drew a circle that took him in.' 
May this policy always be continued in The Builder." - J. Otis Ball, Evanston, 111. 

"I think the first issue of The Builder alone worth the price. Indeed I am afraid the price 
is too low, and unless the membership grows apace it will be necessary to mark it up. I 
believe and confidently hope that this movement will be a boon in Masonic circles, 
which we have needed for years." - Thomas A. Hines, Montgomery, Ala. 

Indeed, it would be easy to fill one whole issue of The Builder with letters of like kind 
and spirit, but these are enough to show that this Society has struck a responsive chord 
in the heart of the Craft, and that it has a great work to do in advancing Masonry. Many 
thanks, Brethren, one and ah; and we are sure that every member will do his part in 



spreading news of the Society and its journal, thereby making it more effective in 
behalf of an Order whose spirit of Freedom, Friendship and Fraternity is the hope of 
humanity. Both for himself, and for our hard-working and enthusiastic secretary, 
without whose investment of time, energy and money this Society would never have 
been founded, ye editor extends fraternal greetings and goodwill. 

THE PEDAGOGY OF MASONRY- 

More and more it becomes clear that the problem before this Society - and before the 
Order generally, for the matter of that - is the problem of the pedagogy of Masonry. So 
far no one has solved that problem satisfactorily, albeit much has been done in that 
direction by means of books, pamphlets, oral and written lectures, study clubs, and 
various other methods. Still, we have not yet formulated a definite, systematic, practical 
course of Masonic study for the use of young Masons who ask, as perhaps a half 
thousand have asked ye editor of late: How should we begin the study of Masonry, and 
where ? Moreover, as a chief reason for the existence of this Society is the working out 
of this very problem, for some time to come that task will be its primary undertaking, 
the more so because so many young Masons, new to the Order and its wonderful 
history and philosophy, are numbered among its members. 

Therefore ye editor has planned a symposium on the subject of How to Study Masonry, 
and has asked a number of eminent Masons - some of them university men who have 
had long experience in teaching - to contribute to it, with the intent of bringing the best 
thought, experience and method of the Order to bear on the problem. When completed 
and published in full, as it will be in the Builder - beginning with the next issue - it is 
believed that this symposium will be one of the most suggestive and valuable 
documents in the literature of the Order. Meanwhile, that we may have the benefit of 
the widest experience and the most fruitful suggestion, we throw the door open to the 
whole Society, inviting contributions to this symposium from every quarter; and no one 
should hesitate because he has not been asked by letter to contribute. 

What we want is the net result of the experience and counsel of the Craft, and with this 
in hand the Society will formulate and publish a detailed program by which a young 
Mason of average ability and training may begin the study of Masonry, and pursue it 
step by step intelligently, on a basis as sound pedagogically as it is Masonically, and 
thus come to know the story of this great Order, its development, its symbolism and 
philosophy. Time will be needed to work out this plan in all its details, but it not only 
must be done but can be done, and this Society can render no more important and far- 
reaching service to the Order. 



LIFE OF PIKE- 


Here is good news. At last there is to be a biography of Albert Pike, written by his 
daughter, Mrs. Lilian Pike Roome, whose service to the memory of her distinguished 
father will evoke the gratitude of Masons of every rite and rank who hold him in 
veneration, alike for his character and his genius. They will welcome every detail of the 
life of a man who devoted his extraordinary powers to the Order which he loved, and 
who wrought in its Temple as a Michel Angelo of Masonic architecture - the master 
genius of American Masonry. Many years have come and gone since he disappeared 
from mortal vision, and other men and other scenes have come upon the stage; but Pike 
still lives, as he wished to live when he said: "I wish my monument to be builded only 
in the hearts and memories of my brethren of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite." 

There will be no conflict between the labors of Mrs. Roome and the little book which 
ye editor has long had in mind, and to which reference was made in the first issue of the 
Builder. His work, should he find time to complete it, would be more a study than a 
biography, an estimate, at once sympathetic and critical, of Pike as a Masonic thinker 
and artist. No purer, nobler man has stood at our altar or left his story in our traditions. 
He was the most eminent Mason in the world, not only by virtue of his high rank, but 
by the richness of his culture, and the enduring quality of his achievement. Nor will the 
Order ever permit to grow dim that stately, grave, and gentle soul. 

BRIEFER NOTES- 

By the kindness of Sir W. J. Chetwode Crawley, Grand Treasurer of the Grand Lodge 
of Ireland, we have the advanced proofs of an essay from his pen, discussing "The 
Legend of the SS Quatuor Coronati." It embodies the first attempt at connecting 
mediaeval Freemasonry with the followers of Wycliff, the progenitors of the English 
Reformation, and also the earliest authentic and authorized association of Solomon with 
the Guild Legend. It is one of the most brilliant and important papers in recent Masonic 
Research, but as it would not be proper to anticipate its publication in the Transactions 
of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, we reserve more extended notice of it until a later date. 

It is good to know that we are to have a biography of Robert Collyer, one of the noblest 
preachers of his day and an ardent Freemason. It will be written by John Haynes 
Holmes, at the request of the family of Dr. Collyer. There was about Collyer, as Carlyle 
would say, something of the eternal. All who heard him carried a lingering, haunting 
suggestion that somehow, through this man, there came an echo of a voice divinely 
clear. He was a man of winning words and melting moods, as rich in pathos as in 
humor, and ye editor is one of the many thousands who can never forget him nor lose 
the impress of his rare and beautiful genius. 



By all means let us have a question box, as so many have suggested, in which such 
questions as may properly be asked and answered in print may be taken up and 
discussed. Meantime, not a few may be glad to know of a little journal devoted to that 
very thing, "Miscellanea Latomorum or Masonic Notes and Queries," printed for 
private circulation by L. Upcott Gill & Son, Drury Lane, London, W. C., annual 
subscription five shillings. This little paper will be found very useful in many ways. 

Of course, we cannot promise to deal with questions not Masonic, though a number of 
such inquiries have already reached this office; as for example, one brothel asks for a 
little brief of what English literature has to say about the evil of gambling. Well, there is 
Scott's "St. Ronan's Well," and especially George Eliot's story of Fred Vincy in 
"Middlemarch," not to mention Dickens' "Old Curiosity Shop," which are among the 
most impressive exposures of the imbecility and disaster of gambling. 

A certain minister who wishes to remain nameless - and we do not blame him - 
confides to ye editor that Masonry is an invention of Satan, and that Masons are on their 
way to perdition. His letter recalls the saying of Father Taylor, who was a good 
Methodist and a great humorist, when he said that it would not do to send Emerson to 
hell. Why, said he, the tide of immigration would set in that way. 

Let a man leam to look for the permanent in the mutable and fleeting; let him learn to 
bear the disappearance of things he was wont to reverence, without losing his 
reverence; let him leam that he is here, not to work, but to be worked upon; and that, 
though abyss open under abyss, and opinion displace opinion, all are at last contained in 
the Eternal Cause: 

"If my bark sink, 'tis to another sea." 

- Emerson 

WHEN THE GAVEL SOUNDS TO CLOSE. 

How many of us Masons 
Live according to our creed; 

How many lend a helping hand 



To a brother when in need ? 


How many of us Masons 
Have the lodge alone in mind 
With the work so letter perfect 
The great TRUTH we'll never find ? 

How many of us Masons, 

Both of high and low degree, 

Are just button- wearing members 
Even as you and me? 

How many of us Masons 
Have the true idea at heart, 

And each is striving daily 
To do his humble part ? 

How many of us Masons, 

When the gavel sounds to close, 

Carries with him from the lodge room 
Better thoughts as home he goes ? 

- James T. Wray, Worshipful Master, Evanston, 111. 

MERCIFUL GOD. 

When the victors and the vanquished are weeping for their dead, 
When are hushed the vindications, the last wild prayers are said, 



When from heaps of desolation, so late a fair domain, 

To the wondering stars arises the incense of the slain, 

O Thou of everlasting love, whose name we vainly call, 

In Thy long-suffering tenderness have mercy on us all. 

Do Thou dispel the primal fear, drive out the horde of hates, 

And wake the Joy of Brotherhood for which this sad world waits. 
- J.F.N. 

IS IT MASONRY? 

Is it Masonry 

To dare to take God's name in vain, 

Or be careful of our speech; 

From evil thoughts and words refrain, 

And practice what we preach ? 

Is it Masonry 

To boast of your fine jewels, 

Or purify your heart; 

To be a man and Mason 
And act a Mason's part? 

Is it Masonry 

To fail to help your brothers, 

Or your obligations fill? 



To leave it for the others, 


Or mean and say 'I will?' 
- F.G. Oliver, Georgia. 


THE LIBRARY 

"IN A NOOK WITH A BOOK" 

UTTERLY cast down by the gigantic tragedy of world-war, equally by the magnitude 
of its horror and by his own inability to grasp it as a whole - so vast are its issues and so 
rams the stage on which it is enacted - ye editor took down the epical drama of Thomas 
Hardy, "The Dynasts." (Macmillan Co.) He wished to re-read it, having just read an 
account of how it was acted on the stage in London recently - a feat he did not believe 
possible - and he is grateful for having done so, albeit he rejects more firmly than ever 
the Lucre tian philosophy that runs through it. 

Here is a drama of the ten years of the Napoleonic wars, in three parts, nineteen acts, 
one hundred and thirty- five scenes, and more than five hundred characters. The action 
ranges over all Europe where the great battles were fought, through camps, in courts, in 
parliament, and not a great figure in any of the lands involved at the time is missing 
from the cast; hardly a high-lighted incident in the struggle is omitted. Truly, a 
wonderful achievement of genius, almost as if the historical tragedies of Shakespeare 
were rolled into one stupendous drama. By a miraculously swift panorama the scene 
unfolds, and we are now in Trafalgar, now at Leipsig, now at the burning of Moscow, 
now at Waterloo; now hearing Wellington swear, now watching Pitt die - the while 
those long dead men talk in a speech but slightly changed from the records of State 
papers, memoirs, and letters of long ago. 

Not only so - and this is what held ye editor as by a spell - we are shown the whole 
picture from above and without the world, as it is discussed by disembodied 
intelligences who sit aloft and aloof, watching the drama and offering interpretation in 
stately comment. The Spirit of the Years, the chorus of the Pities, the Ironic Spirit, the 
Shade of the Earth, and the Spirit of Rumor hold high conclave, describing the acts of 
the drama with vividness of crisp detail, and debating their meaning. Always the Pities 
are wondering why such things can be as the Dynasts do, how the people can be so 
sacrificed to the rulers and have no profit of it all; while the Ironic Spirit mocks. The 
Spirit of the Years has no explanation save that it is so. And ever recurs the insistence 



that the Power which moves the show, Dynasts as well as their tools, works 
unknowingly, purposelessly, blindly, even as the Dynasts do in the end. 


With this fatalistic atheism ye editor has no affinity - holding, rather, with Whitman, 
that we may know the universe as "roads for traveling souls," and also "that they go 
toward the best, toward something great" - none the less he rose from a retreading of 
"The Dynasts" and turned to the contemplation of the present war with a more cosmic 
view of it, seeing history r epeating itself in the large and in detail, catching hints of 
recurrences of events and similitudes, and forefeeling the good working itself out 
through war, the Dynasts working their own undoing, and the people awakening to be 
no longer duped into mutual murder. So mote it be. 

* * * 

By chance, as we say, the next book opened was a noble volume on "Greek 
Philosophy," by John Burnet, (Macmillan Co.) and as luck would have it, ye editor, 
turning through the many pages, fell upon the analysis and discussion of "Phaedms" - 
that grand argument for the immortality of the soul, to which hardly a single reason has 
been added since that far off time - and he heard Socrates saying that such an argument 
ought to close with prayer. Whereupon he uttered that brief and wise prayer, putting 
into a few words all his desire: 


"O beloved Pan, and all ye other gods of this place, grant me to become beautiful in the 
inner man, and that whatever outward things I have may be at peace with those within. 
May I deem the wise man rich, and may I have such a portion of gold as none but a just 
man can either bear or employ. Do we need anything else, Phaedrus ? For myself I have 
prayed enough." 

"Make the same prayer for me, too," said Phaedrus," for the possession of friends 
should be share and share alike." 

How beautiful, how wise, reminding one of the prayer of two boys whereof we read in 
the old "Katha Upanishad" of India: "May He protect us both. May He enjoy us both. 
May our wisdom grow bright together." One may search the collects of the Church in 
vain for a parallel to this - the dear love of man for his comrade joined with a sense of 
care for the joy of God. 



Rich in learning, this volume is so original in its interpretations that it will provoke 
debate, especially its efforts to disentangle Socrates from Plato in the dialogues. There 
is a noteworthy chapter of Pythagoras, "the man who first united science with religion," 
and he is given a higher place in the pantheon of philosophy than ever before - above 
even Socrates himself. Ye editor will return to this volume at another time, taking up 
the analysis of "Philebus," the dialogue in which Plato expounds his philosophy of 
numbers, if so he may clear the air in respect of the use of numbers as spiritual symbols, 
about which there has been so much fog in Masonic thought. 

* * * 

What is poetry ? It is music associated with pleasurable ideas, said Edgar Poe, who had 
more music and fewer pleasurable ideas than almost any man - his song having chiefly 
to do with the beauty of death, or else the death of beauty. Macaulay, who was sane to a 
fault - hopelessly sane - held that poetry is a form of insanity. Whereas Charles Lamb, 
who knew more about both poetry and insanity, made it a point to refute Macaulay. 
Perhaps we cannot do better than accept the definition of Wordsworth, that poetry is the 
breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; and if we say life instead of knowledge it is 
perfect. 

Now ye editor is a lover of poetry - though he would not go as far as Lanier and say that 
poets are the only truth-tellers - and he has no patience with those who say that we have 
no great poetry today. Why, only the other day he opened a slender volume called "The 
Lonely Dancer," by Richard Le Gallienne, and read lines as perfect as ever were 
moulded by human lips. There is the song "To a Bird at Dawn," to which no one may 
fear to apply the term great - lines addressed to the "little creature of soft wings" in 
whose small feathered throat "sings the long epic of the world." They are worthy of 
Shelley or Keats, yet they came to birth in our time, and will be singing a hundred years 
hence: 

"And there is something, the song saith, 

That makes me unafraid of death." 

* * * 

Speaking of poetry, here are the "Collected Poems" of Arthur Edward Waite, so well 
known and highly honored among Masons - a man to whom this world is an infinite 
parable, a place of sacraments and symbols; to whom the beauties of a beautiful 
creation are always the vesture and the vesture only, of a world Unseen. The processes 
of Nature and the ritual of the seasons appeal to him as a great rite forever in the 



performing, and this sense of the wonder and bloom of the world gives glow and color 
to his song, and withal a richness of suggestion and finish of form. For example: 


"Why hint so deeply, O mind within, 

Of the going forth and the coming in 
Of doves through an arch unbidden? 

Do I not know that the whence and where 
Of the life of man may be symboled there ? 

But in light so bright and on sward so fair 

O let what is hidden be hidden." 

* * * 

Of a truth, Algernon Blackwood - he who wrote that divinely beautiful story of "The 
Prisoner of Fairyland," wherein, if a man read with a mind "unwumbled," he will find 
his child-heart again - is a past-grand master of weird and ghostly stories. His new 
book, "Incredible Adventures" - and well-named it surely is - contains five "long-short" 
stories, each of which deals with the occult. The most remarkable is entitled "A Descent 
into Egypt," and tells how the remotest past lays hold of an excavator who penetrates 
the tombs of ancient dynasties, until the present world becomes indifferent to him. 
George Islay leaves his true soul at Thebes, and only a shell walks the streets of 
London. Egypt has a dangerous spell, we are told, for her worshippers. Behind the 
stillness of hot, windless days, behind the peace of calm, gigantic nights, it lurks 
unrealized, monstrous and irresistible. The stream of life runs backward and the heart 
lives backwards. The pilfering of her ancient dead Egypt suffers still; she, in revenge, 
preys at her leisure on the living. Ay, it gives one the creeps to read about it. 

* * * 

If only one could remember all the striking phrases the startling and quick flashing of 
insight, which he meets in books, what a rich mind would be his reward. Here is a story, 
reflecting much of nobility and love and a restrained and quiet humor - "Faces in the 
Dawn,' by Hagedom - in which ye editor found these words which set him musing a 
whole evening, and the more he mused the more they meant: 



"There are not two worlds, one outside the house and one inside; there are not two 
struggles. There is only one struggle, the struggle for spiritual growth and none of us 
can fight it for others, and none of us can fight it alone." 

* * * 

BOOKS RECEIVED. 

Practical Mysticism, by Evelyn Underhill. Dent and Sons, London. 

The King of the Dark Chamber, by Tagore. Macmillan Co., New York. 

The Rise of the American People, by R. G. Usher Century Co., New York. 

Vitruvius: Ten Books on Architecture, translated by M. K. Morgan. Harvard 
University Press. 

Jacques de Molay, by Charles Francis Lamb. 

Fraternity, by J. R. Hutchins, Ardmore. Okla. 

RESTORED TO LIGHT 

A faint light shining for a space; 

A breath of wind upon the face; 

A stirring in the mist; a sigh; 

A sense of distance, height and sky; 

A little wave of melody ! 

O but how beautiful to see 
The light leaf dance upon the tree, 

The bloom upon the hedgerow stirr'd 
By the transport of a singing bird, 



And - after darkness and eclipse- 
The sun upon the sails of ships, 

All up and down the dancing sea ! 

O but how beautiful to hear 
A little whisper in the ear, 

A smaller voice than note of bird, 

A still small voice, a mighty word, 

A whisper in the heart to say 
That God is not so far away ! 

- A. E. Waite. 

THE VERDICT. 

"The verdict which accumulates 
From lengthening scroll of human fates, 
Voice of earth to earth returned, 

Prayers of Saints that inly burn,- 
Saying, What is excellent, 

As God lives, is permanent; 

Hearts are dust, heart's loves remain; 
Heart's love will meet thee again." 


- Emerson.