The Builder Magazine 

September 1919 - Volume V - Number 9 


ACCESSION OF SOLOMON: BUILDING OF THE 
TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM, B.C. 1017 

BY HENRY HART MILLMAN 

After many weary years of travail and fighting in the wilderness and the land of 
Canaan, the Jews had at last founded their kingdom, with Jerusalem as the capital. 

Saul was proclaimed the first king; afterward followed David, the "Lion of the tribe of 
Judah." During the many wars in which the Israelites had been engaged, the Ark of 
the Covenant was the one thing in which their faith was bound. No undertaking could 
fail while they retained possession of it. 


In their wanderings the tabernacle enclosing the precious ark was first erected before 
the dwellings for the people. It had been captured by the Philistines, then restored to 
the Hebrews, and became of greater veneration than before. It will be remembered 
that, among other things, it contained the rod of Aaron which budded and was the 
cause of his selection as high-priest. It also contained the tables of stone which bore 
the Ten Commandments. 


David desired to build a fitting shrine, a temple, in which to place the Ark of the 
Covenant; it should be a place wherein the people could worship; a centre of religion 
in which the ark should have paid it the distinction due it as the seat of tremendous 
majesty. 


But David had been a man of war; this temple was a place of peace. Blood must not 
stain its walls; no shedder of gore could be its architect. Yet David collected stone, 
timber, and precious metals for its erection; and, not being allowed to erect the temple 
himself, was permitted to depute that office to his son and successor, "Solomon the 
Wise." 



At this time all the enemies of Israel had been conquered, the country was at peace; 
the domain of the Hebrews was greater than at any other time, before or afterward. It 
was the fitting time for the erection of a great shrine to enclose the sacred ark. Nobly 
was this done, and no human work of ancient or modem times has so impressed 
mankind as the building of Solomon's Temple. 


SOLOMON succeeded to the Hebrew kingdom at the age of twenty. He was 
environed by designing, bold, and dangerous enemies. The pretensions of Adonijah 
still commanded a powerful party: Abiathar swayed the priesthood; Joab the army. 
The singular connection in public opinion between the title to the crown and the 
possession of the deceased monarch's harem is well understood. (1) Adonijah, in 
making request for Abishag, a youthful concubine taken by David in his old age, was 
considered as insidiously renewing his claims to the sovereignty. Solomon saw at 
once the wisdom of his father's dying admonition: he seized the opportunity of 
cmshing all future opposition and all danger of a civil war. He caused Adonijah to be 
put to death; suspended Abiathar from his office, and banished him from Jerusalem; 
and though Joab fled to the altar, he commanded him to be slain for the two murders 
of which he had been guilty, those of Abner and Amasa. Shimei, another dangerous 
man, was commanded to reside in Jerusalem, on pain of death if he should quit the 
city. Three years afterward he was detected in a suspicious journey to Gath, on the 
Philistine border; and having violated the compact, he suffered the penalty. 


Thus secured by the policy of his father from internal enemies, by the terror of his 
victories from foreign invasion, Solomon commenced his peaceful reign, during 
which Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his figtree, 
from Dan to Beersheba. This peace was broken only by a revolt of the Edomites. 
Hadad, of the royal race, after the exterminating war waged by David and by Joab, 
had fled to Egypt, where he married the sister of the king's wife. No sooner had he 
heard of the death of David and of Joab than he returned, and seems to have kept up a 
kind of predatory warfare during the reign of Solomon. Another adventurer, Rezon, a 
subject of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, seized on Damascus, and maintained a great part 
of Syria in hostility to Solomon. 



Solomon's conquest of Hamath Zobah in a later part of his reign, after which he built 
Tadmor in the wilderness and raised a line of fortresses along his frontier to the 
Euphrates, is probably connected with these hostilities. (2) The justice of Solomon 
was proverbial. Among his first acts after his accession, it is related that when he had 
offered a costly sacrifice at Gibeon, the place where the Tabernacle remained, God 
had appeared to him in a dream, and offered him whatever gift he chose: the wise king 
requesting an understanding heart to judge the people. God not merely assented to his 
prayer, but added the gift of honor and riches. His judicial wisdom was displayed in 
the memorable history of the two women who contested the right to a child. Solomon, 
in the wild spirit of Oriental justice, commanded the- infant to be divided before their 
faces: the heart of the real mother was struck with terror and abhorrence, while the 
false one consented to the horrible partition, and by this appeal to nature the cause was 
instantaneously decided. 


The internal government of his extensive dominions next demanded the attention of 
Solomon. Besides the local and municipal governors, he divided the kingdom into 
twelve districts: over each of these he appointed a purveyor for the collection of the 
royal tribute, which was received in kind; and thus the growing capital and the 
immense establishments of Solomon were abundantly furnished with provisions. Each 
purveyor supplied the court for a month. The daily consumption of his household was 
three hundred bushels of finer flour, six hundred of a coarser sort; ten fatted, twenty 
other oxen; one hundred sheep; besides poultry, and various kinds of venison. 
Provender was furnished for forty thousand horses, and a great number of 
dromedaries. Yet the population of the country did not, at first at least, feel these 
burdens: Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, 
eating and drinking, and making merry. 


The foreign treaties of Solomon were as wisely directed to secure the profound peace 
of his dominions. He entered into a matrimonial alliance with the royal family of 
Egypt, whose daughter he received with great magnificence; and he renewed the 
important alliance with the king of Tyre. (3) The friendship of this monarch was of the 
highest value in contributing to the great royal and national work, the building of the 
Temple. The cedar timber could only be obtained from the forests of Lebanon: the 
Sidonian artisans, celebrated in the Homeric poems, were the most skilful workmen in 
every kind of manufacture, particularly in the precious metals. 



Solomon entered into a regular treaty, by which he bound himself to supply the 
Tyrians with large quantities of com; receiving in return their timber, which was 
floated down to Joppa, and a large body of artificers. The timber was cut by his own 
subjects, of whom he raised a body of thirty thousand; ten thousand employed at a 
time, and relieving each other every month; so that to one month of labor they had 
two of rest. He raised two other coips, one of seventy thousand porters of burdens, the 
other of eighty thousand hewers of stone, who were employed in the quarries among 
the mountains. All these labors were thrown, not on the Israelites, but on the strangers 
who, chiefly of Canaanitish descent, had been permitted to inhabit the country. 


These preparations, in addition to those of King David, being completed, the work 
began. The eminence of Moriah, the Mount of Vision, i.e., the height seen afar from 
the adjacent country, which tradition pointed out as the spot where Abraham had 
offered his son (where recently the plague had been stayed, by the altar built in the 
threshing-floor of Oman or Araunah, the Jebusite), rose on the east side of the city. Its 
nigged top was levelled with immense labor; its sides, which to the east and south 
were precipitous, were traced with a wall of stone, built up perpendicular from the 
bottom of the valley, so as to appear to those who looked down of most terrific height; 
a work of prodigious skill and labor, as the immense stones were strongly mortised 
together and wedged into the rock. Around the whole area or esplanade, an irregular 
quadrangle, was a solid wall of considerable height and strength: within this was an 
open court, into which the Gentiles were either from the first, or subsequently, 
admitted. A second wall encompassed another quadrangle, called the court of the 
Israelites. Along this wall, on the inside, ran a portico or cloister, over which were 
chambers for different sacred puiposes. Within this again another, probably a lower, 
wall separated the court of the priests from that of the Israelites. To each court the 
ascent was by steps, so that the platform of the inner court was on a higher level than 
that of the outer. 


The Temple itself was rather a monument of the wealth than the architectural skill and 
science of the people. It was a wonder of the world from the splendor of its materials, 
more than the grace, boldness, or majesty of its height and dimensions. It had neither 
the colossal magnitude of the Egyptian, the simple dignity and perfect proportional 
harmony of the Grecian, nor perhaps the fantastic grace and lightness of later Oriental 
architecture. Some writers, calling to their assistance the visionary temple of Ezekiel, 
have erected a most superb edifice; to which there is this fatal objection, that if the 
dimensions of the prophet are taken as then stand in the text, the area of the Temple 
and its courts would not only have covered the whole of Mount Moriah, but almost all 



Jerusalem. In fact our accounts of the Temple of Solomon are altogether 
unsatisfactory. The details, as they now stand in the books of Kings and Chronicles, 
the only safe authorities, are unscientific, and, what is worse, contradictory. 


Josephus has evidently blended together the three temples, and attributed to the earlier 
all the subsequent additions and alterations. The Temple, on the whole, was an 
enlargement of the tabernacle, built of more costly and durable materials. Like its 
model, it retained the ground-plan and disposition of the Egyptian, or rather of almost 
all the sacred edifices of antiquity: even its measurements are singularly in unison 
with some of the most ancient temples in Upper Egypt. It consisted of a propylaeon, a 
temple, and a sanctuary; called respectively the Porch, the holy Place, and the Holy of 
Holies. Yet in some respects, if the measurements are correct, the Temple must rather 
have resembled the form of a simple Gothic church. 


In the front to the east stood the porch, a tall tower, rising to the height of 210 feet. 
Either within, or, like the Egyptian obelisks, before the porch, stood two pillars of 
brass; by one account 27, by another above 60 feet high, the latter statement probably 
including their-capitals and bases. These were called Jachin and Boaz (Durability and 
Strength). (4) The capitals of these were of the richest workmanship, with net- work, 
chain-work, and pomegranates. The porch was the same width with the Temple, 35 
feet; its depth 17 1/2. The length of the main building, including the Holy Place, 70 
feet, and the Holy of Holies, 35, was in the whole 105 feet; the height 52 1/2 feet. (5) 


Josephus carries the whole building up to the height of the porch; but this is out of all 
creditable proportion, making the height twice the length and six times the width. 
Along each side, and perhaps at the back of the main building, ran an aisle, divided 
into three stories of small chambers: the wall of the Temple being thicker at the 
bottom, left a rest to support the beams of these chambers, which were not let into the 
wall. These aisles, the chambers of which were appropriated as vestiaries, treasuries, 
and for other sacred puiposes, seem to have reached about half way up the main wall 
of what we may call the nave choir: the windows into the latter were probably above 
them; these were narrow, but widened inward. 



If the dimensions of the Temple appear by no means imposing, it must be 
remembered that but a small part of the religious ceremonies took place within the 
walls. The Holy of Holies was entered only once a year, and that by the High-priest 
alone. It was the secret and unapproachable shrine of the Divinity. The Holy Place, 
the body of the Temple, admitted only the officiating priests. The courts, called in 
popular language the Temple, or rather the inner quadrangle, were in fact the great 
place of divine worship. Here, under the open air, were celebrated the great public and 
national rites, the processions, the offerings, the sacrifices; here stood the great tank 
for ablution, and the high altar for burnt-offerings. 


But the costliness of the materials, the richness and variety of the details, amply 
compensated for the moderate dimensions of the building. It was such a sacred edifice 
as a traveller might have expected to find in El Dorado. The walls were of hewn stone, 
faced within with cedar which was richly carved with knosps and flowers; the ceiling 
was of fir-tree. But in every part gold was lavished with the utmost profusion; within 
and without, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, in short, the whole house is described as 
overlaid with gold. The finest and purest that of parvaim, by some supposed to be 
Ceylon was reserved for the sanctuary. Here the cherubim, which stood upon the 
covering of the Ark, with their wings touching each wall, were entirely covered with 
gold. 


The sumptuous veil, of the richest materials and brightest colors, which divided the 
Holy of Holies from the Holy Place was suspended on chains of gold. Cherubim, 
palm-trees, and flowers, the favorite ornaments, everywhere covered with gilding, 
were wrought in almost all parts. The altar within the Temple and the table of 
shewbread were likewise covered with the same precious metal. All the vessels, the 
ten candlesticks, five hundred basins, and all the rest of the sacrificial and other 
utensils, were of solid gold, yet the Hebrew writers seem to dwell with the greatest 
astonishment and admiration on the works which were founded in brass by Huram, a 
man of Jewish extraction, who had learned his art at Tyre. 


Besides the lofty pillars above mentioned, there was a great tank, called a sea, of 
molten brass, supported on twelve oxen, three turned each way; this was seventeen 
and one-half feet in diameter. There was also a great altar, and ten large vessels for the 
purpose of ablution, called Wavers, standing on bases or pedestals, the rims of which 
were richly ornamented with a border, on which were wrought figures of lions, oxen, 



and cherubim. The bases below were formed of four wheels, like those of a chariot. 
All the works in brass were cast in a place near the Jordan, where the soil was of a 
stiff clay suited to the puipose. 


For seven years and a half the fabric arose in silence. All the timbers, the stones, even 
of the most enormous size, measuring seventeen and eighteen feet, were hewn and 
fitted, so as to be put together without the sound of any tool whatever; as it has been 
expressed, with great poetical beauty: 


"Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric grew." 


At the end of this period, the Temple and its courts being completed, the solemn 
dedication took place, with the greatest magnificence which the king and the nation 
could display. All the chieftains of the different tribes, and all of every order who 
could be brought together, assembled. 


David had already organized the priesthood and the Levites; and assigned to the 
thirty-eight thousand of the latter tribe each his particular office; twentyfour thousand 
were appointed for the common duties, six thousand as officers, four thousand as 
guards and porters, four thousand as singers and musicians. On this great occasion, the 
Dedication of the Temple, all the tribe of Levi, without regard to their courses, the 
whole priestly order of every class, attended. Around the great brazen altar, which 
rose in the court of the priests before the door of the Temple, stood in front the 
sacrifices, all around the whole choir, arrayed in white linen. One hundred and 
twenty of these were trumpeters, the rest had cymbals, harps, and psalteries. Solomon 
himself took his place on an elevated scaffold, or raised throne of brass. The whole 
assembled nation crowded the spacious courts beyond. The ceremony began with the 
preparation of bumt-offerings, so numerous that they could not be counted. 


At an appointed signal commenced the more important part of the scene, the removal 
of the Ark, the installation of the God of Israel in his new and appropriate dwelling, to 
the sound of all the voices and all the instruments, chanting some of those splendid 



odes, the 47th, 97th, 98th, and 107th psalms. The Ark advanced, borne by the Levites, 
to the open portals of the Temple. It can scarcely be doubted that the 24th psalm, even 
if composed before, was adopted and used on this occasion. The singers, as it drew 
near the gate, broke out in these words: Lift up your headset O ye gates, and be ye 
lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. It was answered 
from the other part of the choir, Who is the King of Glory? The whole choir 
responded, The Lord of Hosts, he is the King of Glory. 


When the procession arrived at the Holy Place, the gates flew open; when it reached 
the Holy of Holies, the veil was drawn back. The Ark took its place under the 
extended wings of the cherubim, which might seem to fold over, and receive it under 
their protection. At that instant all the trumpeters and singers were at once to make 
one sound to be heard in praising and thanksgivings to the Lord; and when they lifted 
up their voice, with the trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, 2nd praised 
the Lord, saying: For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever, the house was filled 
with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister 
by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. Thus the 
Divinity took possession of his sacred edifice. 


The king then rose upon the brazen scaffold, knelt down, and spreading his hands 
toward heaven, uttered the prayer of consecration. The prayer was of unexampled 
sublimity: while it implored the perpetual presence of the Almighty, as the tutelar 
Deity and Sovereign of the Israelites, it recognized his spiritual and illimitable nature. 
But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold heaven and the heaven 
of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built? It then 
recapitulated the principles of the Hebrew theocracy, the dependence of the national 
prosperity and happiness on the national conformity to the civil and religious law. As 
the king concluded in these emphatic terms: Now, therefore, arise, O Lord God, into 
thy resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord God, be 
clothed with salvation, and thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away 
the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant. The cloud 
which had rested over the Holy of Holies grew brighter and more dazzling; fire broke 
out and consumed all the sacrifices; the priests stood without, awestruck by the 
insupportable splendor; the whole people fell on their faces, and worshipped and 
praised the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is forever. 



Which was the greater, the external magnificence, or the moral sublimity of this scene 
? Was it the Temple, situated on its commanding eminence, with all its courts, the 
dazzling splendor of its materials, the int numerable multitudes, the priesthood in their 
gorgeous attire, the king, with all the insignia of royalty, on his throne of burnished 
brass, the music, the radiant cloud filling the Temple, the sudden fire flashing upon 
the altar, the whole nation upon their knees ? Was it not rather the religious grandeur 
of the hymns and of the prayer: the exalted and rational views of the Divine Nature, 
the union of a whole people in the adoration of the one Great, Incomprehensible, 
Almighty, Everlasting Creator? 


This extraordinary festival, which took place at the time of that of Tabernacles, lasted 
for two weeks, twice the usual time: during this period twenty- two thousand oxen and 
one hundred and twenty thousand sheep were sacrificed (6) every individual probably 
contributing to this great propitiatory rite; and the whole people feasting on those 
parts of the sacrifices which were not set apart for holy uses. 


Though the chief magnificence of Solomon was lavished on the Temple of God, yet 
the sumptuous palaces which he erected for his own residence display an opulence 
and profusion which may vie with the older monarchs of Egypt or Assyria. The great 
palace stood in Jerusalem; it occupied thirteen years in building. A causeway bridged 
the deep ravine, and leading directly to the Temple, united the part either of Acra or 
Sion, on which the palace stood, with Mount Moriah. In this palace was a vast hall for 
public business, from its cedar pillars called the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It 
was 175 feet long, half that measurement in width, above 50 feet high; four rows of 
cedar columns supported a roof made of beams of the same wood; there were three 
rows of windows on each side facing each other. Besides this great hall, there were 
two others, called porches, of smaller dimensions, in one of which the throne of 
justice was placed. The harem, or women's apartments, adjoined to these buildings; 
with other piles of vast extent for different puiposes, particularly, if we may credit 
Josephus, a great banqueting hall. 


The same author informs us that the whole was surrounded with spacious and 
luxuriant gardens, and adds a less credible fact, ornamented with sculptures and 
paintings. Another palace was built in a romantic part of the country in the valleys at 
the foot of Lebanon for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt; in the luxurious 
gardens of which we may lay the scene of that poetical epithalamium, (7) or collection 



of Idyls, the Song of Solomon. (8) The splendid works of Solomon were not confined 
to royal magnificence and display; they condescended to usefulness. To Solomon are 
traced at least the first channels and courses of the natural and artificial water supply 
which has always enabled Jerusalem to maintain its thousands of worshippers at 
different periods, and to endure long and obstinate sieges. (9) 


The descriptions in the Greek writers of the Persian courts in Susa and Ecbatana; the 
tales of the early travellers in the East about the kings of Samarcand or Cathay; and 
even the imagination of the Oriental romancers and poets, have scarcely conceived a 
more splendid pageant than Solomon, seated on his throne of ivory, receiving the 
homage of distant princes who came to admire his magnificence, and put to the test 
his noted wisdom. (10) This throne was of pure ivory, covered with gold; six steps led 
up to the seat, and on each side of the steps stood twelve lions. 


All the vessels of his palace were of pure gold, silver was thought too mean: his 
armory was furnished with gold; two hundred targets and three hundred shields of 
beaten gold were suspended in the house of Lebanon. Josephus mentions a body of 
archers who escorted him from the city to his country palace, clad in dresses of Tyrian 
purple, and their hair powdered with gold dust. But enormous as this wealth appears, 
the statement of his expenditure on the Temple, and of his annual revenue, so passes 
all credibility, that any attempt at forming a calculation on the uncertain data we 
possess may at once be abandoned as a hopeless task. No better proof can be given of 
the uncertainty of our authorities, of our imperfect knowledge of the Hebrew weights 
of money, and, above all, of our total ignorance of the relative value which the 
precious metals bore to the commodities of life, than the estimate, made by Dr. 
Prideaux, of the treasures left by David, amounting to eight hundred millions, nearly 
the capital of our national debt. 


Our inquiry into the sources of the vast wealth which Solomon undoubtedly possessed 
may lead to more satisfactory, though still imperfect, results. The treasures of David 
were accumulated rather by conquest than by traffic. Some of the nations he subdued, 
particularly the Edomites, were wealthy. All the tribes seem to have worn a great deal 
of gold and silver in their ornaments and their armor; their idols were often of gold, 
and the treasuries of their temples perhaps contained considerable wealth. But during 
the reign of Solomon almost the whole commerce of the world passed into his 
territories. The treaty with Tyre was of the utmost importance: nor is there any 



instance in which two neighboring nations so clearly saw, and so steadily pursued, 
without jealousy or mistrust, their mutual and inseparable interests. (11) 


On one occasion only, when Solomon presented to Hiram twenty inland cities which 
he had conquered, Hiram expressed great dissatisfaction, and called the territory by 
the opprobrious name of Cabul. The Tyrian had perhaps cast a wistful eye on the 
noble bay and harbor of Acco, or Ptolemais, which the prudent Hebrew either would 
not, or could not since it was part of the promised land dissever from his dominions. 
So strict was the confederacy, that Tyre may be considered the port of Palestine, 
Palestine the granary of Tyre. Tyre furnished the shipbuilders and mariners; the 
fruitful plains of Palestine victualled the fleets, and supplied the manufacturers and 
merchants of the Phoenician league with all the necessaries of life. (12) 


(1) 1 Kings, i 

(2) I Kings, xi, 23; I Chron;, viii, 3. 


(3) After inserting the correspondence between King Solomon and King Hiram of 
Tyre, according to I Kings, v, Josephus asserts that copies of these letters were not 
only preserved by his countrymen, but also in the archives of Tyre. I presume that 
Josephus adverts to the statement of Tyrian historians, not to an actual inspection of 
the archives, which he seems to assert as existing and accessible. 


(4) Ewald, following, he says, the Septuagint, makes these pillars not standing alone 
like obelisks before the porch, but as forming the front of the porch, with the capitals 
connected together, and supporting a kind of balcony, with ornamental work above it. 
The pillars measured 12 cubits (22 feet) round. 


(5) Mr. Fergusson, estimating the cubit rather lower than in the text, makes the porch 
30 by 15; the pronaos, or Holy Place, 60 by 30; the Holy of Holies, 30; the height 45 



feet. Mr. Fergusson, following Josephus, supposes that the whole Temple had an 
upper story of wood, a talar, as appears in other Eastern edifices. I doubt the authority 
of Josephus as to the older Temple, though, as Mr. Fergusson observes, the 
discrepancies between the measurements in Kings and in Chronicles may be partially 
reconciled on this supposition. Mr. Fergusson makes the height of the eastern tower 
only 90 feet. The text followed 2 Chron., iii, 4, reckoning the cubit at 1 foot 9 inches. 


(6) Gibbon, in one of his malicious notes, observes, "As the blood and smoke of so 
many hecatombs might be inconvenient, Lightfoot, the Christian Rabbi, removes them 
by a miracle. Le Clere (ad loe.) is bold enough to suspect the fidelity of the numbers." 
To this I ventured to subjoin the following illustration: "According to the historian 
Kotobeddyn, quoted by Burekhardt, Travels in Arabia, p. 276, the Khalif Moktader 
sacrificed during his pilgrimage to Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 350, forty 
thousand camels and cows, and fifty thousand sheep. Barthema describes thirty 
thousand oxen slain, and their carcasses given to the poor. Tavernier speaks of one 
hundred thousand victims offered by the king of Tonquin." Gibbon, eh. xxiii, iv, p. 96, 
edit. Milman. 


(7) I here assume that the Song of Solomon was an epithalamium. I enter not into the 
interminable controversy as to the literal or allegorical or spiritual meaning of this 
poem, nor into that of its age. A very particular though succinct account of all these 
theories, ancient and modern, may be found in a work by Dr. Ginsberg. I confess that 
Dr. Ginsberg's theory, which is rather tinged with the virtuous sentimentality of the 
modem novel, seems to me singularly out of harmony with the Oriental and ancient 
character of the poem. It is adopted, however, though modified, by M. Renan. 


(8) According to Ewald, the ivory tower in this poem was raised in one of these 
beautiful "pleasances," in the Anti-Libanus, looking toward Hamath. 


(9) Ewald: Gesehichte, iii, pp. 62-68; a very remarkable and valuable passage. 



(10) Compare the great Mogul's throne, in Tavernier; that of the King of Persia, in 
Morier. 


(11) The very learned work of Movers, Die Phonizier (Bonn, 1841, Berlin, 1849) 
contains everything which true German industry and comprehensiveness can 
accumulate about this people. Movers, though in such an inquiry conjecture is 
inevitable, is neither so bold, so arbitrary, nor so dogmatic in his conjectures as many 
of his contemporaries See on Hiram, ii, 326 et seq. Movers is disposed to appreciate 
as of high value the fragments preserved in Josephus of the Phoenician histories of 
Menander and Dios. Mr. Kenriek's Phoenicia may also be consulted with advantage. 


(12) To a late period Tyre and Sidon were mostly dependent on Palestine for their 
supply of grain. The inhabitants of these cities desired peace with Herod (Agrippa) 
because their country was nourished bar the king's country (Acts xii, 20). 


— o- 


BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, ASSISTANT EDITOR "THE FREEMASON," 
LONDON 


PART IV THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES INITIATORY RITES 


TWO important facts must be set down with regard to the Mysteries: first, the general 
custom of all Athenian citizens, and afterwards of all Greeks generally and many 
foreigners, to seek admission in the only possible manner, viz., by initiation; and, 
second, the scrupulous care exercised by the Eumo (l)pides to ensure that only 
persons duly qualified, of irreproachable, or at any rate, of circumspect character 
passed the portals. In the earlier days of the Mysteries it was a necessary condition 
that the candidates for initiation should be free-born Athenians, but, in course of time, 
this rule was relaxed, until eventually strangers and foreigners, slaves and even 



courtesans were admitted, on condition that they were introduced by a mystagogue, 
who was, of course, an Athenian. An interesting inscription was discovered a few 
years ago demonstrating the fact that the public slaves of the city were initiated at the 
public expense. Lysias was able without any difficulty to secure the initiation of his 
mistress Metanira, who was then in the service of the courtesan Nicareta. There 
always prevailed, however, the strict rule that no one could be admitted who had been 
guilty of murder or homicide, wilful or accidental, or who had been convicted of 
witchcraft, and all who had incurred the capital penalty for conspiracy or treason were 
also excluded. Nero sought admission into the Eleusinian Mysteries! but was rejected 
because of the many slaughters connected with his name Apollonius of Tyana was 
desirous of being admitted into the Eleusinian Mysteries, but the hierophant refused to 
admit him on the ground that he was a magician and had intercourse with divinities 
other than those of the Mysteries, declaring that he would never initiate a wizard or 
throw open the Mysteries to a man addicted to impure rites. Apollonius retorted: "You 
have not yet mentioned the chief of my offenses, which is that, knowing as I do, more 
about the initiatory rites than you do yourself, 1 have nevertheless come to you as if 
you were wiser than 1 am." The hierophant when he saw that the exclusion of 
Apollonius was not by any means popular with the crowd, changed his tone and said: 
"Be thou initiated, for thou seemest to be some wise man that has come here." But 
Apollonius replied: "I will be initiated at another time and it is (mentioning a name) 
who will initiate me." Herein, says Philostratus, he showed his gift of precision, for he 
glanced at the one who succeeded the hierophant he addressed and presided over the 
temple four years later when Apollonius was initiated. 


Persons of both sexes and of all ages were initiated and neglect of the ceremony was 
regarded almost in the light of a crime. Socrates was reproached for being almost the 
only Athenian who had not applied for initiation. Persians were pointedly excluded 
from the ceremony. Athenians of both sexes were granted the privilege of initiation 
during childhood on the presentation of their father, but only the first degree of 
initiation was permitted. For the second and third degrees it was necessary to have 
arrived at full age. So great was the rush of candidates for initiation when the 
restrictions were relaxed that Cicero was able to write that the inhabitants of the most 
distant regions flocked to Eleusis in order to be initiated. Thus it became the custom 
with all Romans who journeyed to Athens to take advantage of the opportunity to 
become initiates. Even the Emperors of Rome, the official heads of the Roman 
religion, the masters of the world, came to the Eumolpides to proffer the request that 
they might receive the honour of initiation and become participants in the Sacred 
Mysteries revealed by the goddess. 



While Augustus, who was initiated in the year B. C. 21, did not hesitate to show his 
antipathy towards the religion of the Egyptians, towards Judaism and Druidism, he 
was always scrupulous in observing the pledge of secrecy demanded of initiates into 
the Eleusinian Mysteries, and on one occasion, when it became necessary for some of 
the priests of the Eleusinian temple to proceed to Rome to plead before his tribunal on 
the question of privilege, and, in the course of the evidence to speak of certain 
ceremonial in connection with the Mysteries of which it was not lawful to speak in the 
presence of the uninitiated, he ordered everyone to leave the tribunal so that he and 
the witnesses alone remained. The Eleusinian Mysteries were not deemed inimical to 
the welfare of the Roman Empire as were the religions of the Egyptians, Jews, and 
ancient Britons. 


Claudius, another imperial initiate, conceived the idea of transferring the scene of the 
Mysteries to Rome and, according to Suetonius, was about to put the project into 
execution, when it was ruled that it was obligatory that the principal scenic 
presentation of the Mysteries must be celebrated on the ground trodden by the feet of 
Demeter and where the goddess herself had ordered her temple to be erected. 


The initiation of the emperor Hadrian took place in A. D. 125, when he was present at 
the Lesser Mysteries in the spring and at the Greater Mysteries in the following 
autumn. In September A. D. 129, he was again at Athens when he presented himself 
for the third degree, as is known from Dion Cassius, confirmed by a letter written by 
the Emperor himself, in which he mentions a journey from Eleusis to Ephesus made at 
that time. Hadrian is the only imperial initiate who persevered and passed through all 
three degrees. Since he remained at Eleusis as long as it was possible for him to do 
after the completion of his initiation it is not rash to assume that he was inspired by 
something more than curiosity or even a desire to show respect. 


It is uncertain whether Antonin was initiated, although from an inscription it seems 
probable that he was and that he should be included in the list of royal initiates. Both 
Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, father and son, were initiated at the same time, at 
the Lesser Mysteries in March, A. D. 176, and at the Greater Mysteries in the 
following September. Septimus Severus was initiated before he ascended the throne. 



There was, as stated, three degrees, and the ordinary procedure with regard to 
initiation was as follows: 


In the flower month of spring, Anthesterion, corresponding to February- March, an 
applicant could, if approved, become an initiate into the first degree and participate in 
the Lesser Mysteries at the Eleusinion at Agra, near Athens. The ceremony of 
initiation into the Lesser Mysteries was much less elaborate than the ceremony of 
initiation into the Greater Mysteries. The candidates had to keep chaste and 
unpolluted for nine days prior to the ceremony, to which they came offering sacrifices 
and prayers and wearing crowns and garlands of flowers. Immediately prior to the 
celebration of the Lesser Mysteries those about to be initiated were prepared by 
mystagogues, the teachers selected from the families of the Eumolpides and the 
Keryces, and instructed in the story of Demeter and Persephone, the character of the 
purification necessary and the preparatory rites, the fast days, with particulars of what 
food could and must not be eaten, and the numerous sacrifices to be offered up under 
the direction of the mystagogues. Without this preparation no one could be admitted 
to the Mysteries. There was, however, neither secret doctrine nor dogmatic teaching in 
the instruction given. Revelation came through contemplation of the sacred objects 
displayed by the hierophant, and by the communication of mystic formulae; but the 
preparation demanded of the initiates, the secrecy imposed, the ceremonies at which 
they assisted in the dead silence of the night created a strong impression and lively 
hope in regard to the future life. No other cult in Greece, still less the cold Roman 
religion, had anything of the kind to offer. In fasting from food and drink before and 
after initiation the candidates attached to this voluntary privation no idea of 
maceration or expiation of faults: it was simply the reproduction of an event in the life 
of the goddess Demeter. Purity was an indispensable condition for all who would 
enter the temples. Bowls or vases of consecrated or holy water were placed at the 
entrance for the purposes of aspersion. In cases of special impurity a delay of one or 
more days in the preparation became necessary and unctions of oil or repeated 
immersions in water were administered. In the preparation of candidates for initiation, 
purification assumed an exceptional importance. Hence several writers have 
maintained that the primary aim of initiation was the acquirement of moral purity. The 
outward physical purity, the result of immersion prior to initiation, was but the symbol 
of the inward purity which should result from initiation. The duty of the mystagogues 
was to see that the candidates were in a state of physical cleanliness and to see that 
that condition was maintained throughout the ceremony. According to the inscriptions 
there appear to have been temples or buildings set apart for the cleansing of 



candidates from special impurities. After initiation into the Lesser Mysteries the 
neophyte was permitted to go as far as the outer vestibule of the temple. In the 
following autumn, if of full age, he could be initiated into the Greater Mysteries, into 
the second degree, that of mysta. This, however, did not entitle the recipients of that 
honour to join in all the acts of worship or to witness the whole of the ceremonial at 
Eleusis. A further year had to elapse before the third degree could be taken, before 
they could become epoptae, and see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears 
the whole of the Greater Mysteries. The Lesser Mysteries were celebrated at Athens 
on the hill of Agra, to the right of the Stadium in a temple dedicated to Demeter and 
Persephone. Occasionally when the number of candidates was very large the Lesser 
Mysteries were celebrated twice in the year in order to give those too late for the 
ceremony in Anthesterion another opportunity before the Greater Mysteries were 
held. 


At the next celebration of the Greater Mysteries, after having sacrificed to Demeter, 
the initiate received the second degree and became numbered among the mystae. The 
preliminary to this degree was bathing in the river Ilissus, after which the Daduchos 
instructed each candidate to place the left foot on the skin of an animal which had 
been sacrificed to Zeus, in which position the oath of secrecy was taken. Jevons, in his 
Introduction to the Study of Religion, says that no oath was demanded of the initiated 
but that silence was observed generally as an act of reverence rather than as an act of 
purposed concealment. There seems, however, to be conclusive evidence that an oath 
of secrecy was demanded and taken, at any rate, in the second and third degrees, if not 
in the first. Moreover, there are on record several prosecutions of citizens for having 
broken the pledge of secrecy they had given. Aeschylus was indicted for having 
disclosed in the theatre certain details of the Mysteries, and he only escaped 
punishment by proving that he had never been initiated and could not therefore have 
violated any obligation of secrecy. A Greek scholiast says that in five of his tragedies 
Aeschylus spoke of Demeter and therefore may be supposed in these cases to have 
touched upon subjects connected with the Mysteries; and Heraclides of Pontus says 
that on this account he was in danger of being killed by the populace if he had not fled 
for refuge to the altar of Dionysos and then begged off by the Areopagites and 
acquitted on the ground of his exploits at Marathon. An accusation was brought 
against Aristotle of having performed a funeral sacrifice in honour of his wife in 
imitation of the Eleusinian ceremonies. Alcibiades was charged with mimicking the 
sacred Mysteries in one of his drunken revels, when he represented the hierophant; 
Theodoms, one of his friends, represented the herald; and another, Polytion, that of 
the torch- bearer; the other companions attending as initiates and being addressed as 
Mystae. The information against him ran: 



Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the ward of Laeais, accuseth Aleibiades, the son of 
Clinias, of the ward of Seambonis, of sacrilegiously offending the goddess Ceres and 
her daughter Persephone by counterfeiting their Mysteries and shewing them to his 
companions in his own house, wearing such a robe as the high priest does when he 
shows the holy things; he called himself high priest, as did Polytion, torch-bearer; and 
Theodoms, of the ward of Phygea, herald; and the rest of his companions he called 
persons initiated and Brethren of the Secret; therein acting contrary to the rules and 
ceremonies established by the Eumolpides, the heralds and priests at Eleusis. 


Aleibiades did not appear in answer to the charge, was condemned in his absence and 
his goods were confiscated. There was quite a panic about this time B. C. 415. Many 
prominent citizens, Andocides included, were prosecuted. He was included in the 
indictment against Aleibiades. "This man," said his accuser, "vested in the same 
costume as a hierophant, has shown the sacred objects to men who were not initiated 
and has uttered words it is not permissible to repeat." Andocides admitted the charge, 
turned king's evidence, and named himself and certain others as the culprits. He was 
rewarded with a free pardon under a decree which Isotmides had issued but those 
whom he named were put to death or outlawed and their goods confiscated. 

Andocides afterwards entered the temple and was charged with breaking the law in so 
doing. He defended himself before a court of heliasts, all of whom had been initiated 
into the Mysteries, the president of the Court being the Archon Basileus. The 
indictment was lodged by Cephisius, the chief prosecutor, with the Archon Basileus 
during the celebration of the Greater Mysteries, when Andocides was at Eleusis. He 
was acquitted and it is asserted that Cephisius failed to obtain one-fifth of the votes of 
the Court, the consequence being that he had to pay a fine of 1 ,000 drachmae and to 
suffer permanent exclusion from the Eleusinian shrine. 


Diagiras was accused of railing at the sanctity of the Mysteries of Eleusis in such a 
manner as to deter persons from seeking initiation and a reward of one talent was 
offered to any one who should kill him or two talents to anyone who should bring him 
alive. 


An ancient theme of oratorical composition and one set even in the sixth century of 
the Christian era was: 



The law punishes with death whoever has disclosed the Mysteries: some one to whom 
the initiation has been revealed in a dream asks one of the initiated if what he has seen 
is in conformity with reality: the initiate acquiesces by a movement of the head: and 
for that he is accused of impiety. 


Every care, therefore, was taken to prevent the secrecy of the Mysteries from 
becoming known to all save initiates. They have, however, come to light in a great 
measure through the ancient writings and inscriptions. Step by step and piece by piece 
the diligent researcher has been rewarded by the discovery of disconnected and 
isolated fragments which, by themselves, supply no precise information, but, taken in 
the aggregate, form a perfect mosaic. Though it was strictly forbidden to reveal what 
took place within the sacred enclosure and in the Hall of Initiation it was permissible 
to state clearly the object of initiation and the advantages to be derived from the act. 
Not only was the breaking of the pledge of secrecy given by an initiate visited with 
severe, sometimes even capital, punishment, but the forcing of the temple enclosure 
by the uninitiated, as happened sometimes, was an offence of equally heinous 
character. By virtue of the unwritten laws and customs dating back to the most remote 
periods the penalty of death was frequently pronounced for faults not grave in 
themselves, but solely because they concerned religion. It was probably by virtue of 
those unwritten laws that the priests ordered the death of two young Arcanians who 
had penetrated, through ignorance, into the sacred precincts. This was in B. C. 200 
and Rome made war upon Philip V of Macedonia on the complaint of the government 
of Athens against that king who wished to punish them for having rigorously applied 
the ancient laws to those two offenders, who were found guilty of entering the 
sanctuary at Eleusis, they not having been initiated. No judicial penalty, however, was 
meted out to the fanatical Epicurean eunuch, who, with the object of proving that the 
gods had no existence forced himself blaspheming into that part of the sanctuary into 
which the hierophant and hierophantide alone had the right of entry. Aelianus states 
that a divine punishment in the form of a disease alone overtook him. Horace declared 
that he would not risk his life by going on the water with a companion who had 
revealed the secret of the Mysteries. 


One of the essential preliminaries to initiation into each degree was fasting. Two days 
prior to initiation into the second and third degrees were spent by the candidate in 
solitary retirement when a strict fast was observed. It was a "retreat" in the strictest 
sense of the word. Fasting was practised, not only in imitation of the sufferings of 



Demeter when searching for Persephone, but because of the danger of the contact of 
holy things with unholy, the clean with the unclean. Thus it was held that even to 
speak of the Mysteries to the uninitiated would be as dangerous as to allow such 
unclean persons to take part in the ceremonies. Hence the punishment meted out by 
the State was in lieu of, or to avert, the divine wrath which such pollution might bring 
on the community at large. At the entrance to the temple tablets were placed 
containing a list of forbidden foods. The list included several kinds of fish, including 
the whistle-fish, gurnet, crab and mullet. The whistle- fish and crab were held to be 
impure, the first because it laid its eggs through the mouth and the second because it 
ate filth which other fish rejected. The gurnet was rejected because of its fecundity as 
witnessed in its annual triple laying of eggs, but, according to some writers, it was 
rejected because it ate a fish which was poisonous to mankind, ft is believed that other 
fish were forbidden but Prophyry was probably exaggerating when he says that all 
fish were interdicted. Birds bred at home, such as chickens and pigeons, were also on 
the banned list as were beans and certain vegetables which were forbidden for a 
mystic reason which Pausanias said he dared not reveal save to the initiated. The 
probable reason was that they were connected in some way with the wanderings of 
Demeter. Pomegranates were, of course, forbidden from the incident of the eating of 
the pomegranate seeds by Persephone. 


The candidates were carefully instructed in these rules beforehand. Originally the 
instruction of the candidates was in the hands of the hierophant, who, following the 
example of his ancestor, Eumolpus, claimed the privilege of preparing the candidates 
as well as that of communicating to them the divine Mysteries. But the constantly 
increasing number of applicants made it necessary to employ auxiliary instructors, and 
this work was given over to the charge of the mystagogues, who prepared either one 
individual or a group of candidates, the hierophant reserving to himself the general 
direction of the instruction. In the course of the initiation ceremony certain words had 
to be spoken by the candidates and these were made known to them in advance, 
although, of course, apart from their context. 


Admission to the second degree took place during the night between the sixth and 
seventh days of the celebration of the Mysteries, when they were led into the temple 
precincts and the second Archon opened the ceremony with prayers and sacrifices. 
The candidates were crowned with myrtle and on entering the building an edifice so 
vast and capacious as to exceed in area the largest theatre of the period they purified 
themselves by immersing their hands in the consecrated water. The priests, vested in 
their sacerdotal garments, then came forward. During the first part of the ceremony 



the candidates were assembled in the outer hall of the temple, the temple proper being 
closed. Then a herald came forth and proclaimed: "Away from here all ye that are not 
purified, and whose souls have not been freed from sin." If any who were not votaries 
had by chance entered the precincts they now left for if discovered afterwards the 
punishment was death. In order to make certain that no intruders remained behind all 
who were present had to answer certain specified questions. Then all again immersed 
their hands in the consecrated water and renewed the pledge of secrecy. Next they 
took off their ordinary garments, and girded themselves with the skins of young does, 
whereupon the priests wished them joy of all the happiness their initiation would 
bring them and then went away. Within a few minutes the building was plunged in 
total darkness. Suddenly terrific peals of thunder resounded, shaking the very 
foundations of the temple; vivid flashes of lightning lit up the darkness and displayed 
fearful forms, while dreadful sighs, groans, and cries of pain resounded on all sides, 
like the shrieks of the condemned in Tartarus. The novices were taken hold of by 
invisible hands, their hair was tom, and they were beaten and thrown to the ground. At 
last a faint light became visible in the distance and a fearful scene appeared before 
their eyes. The gates of Tartams were opened and the abode of the condemned lay 
before them. They could hear the cries of anguish and the vain regrets of those to 
whom Paradise was lost forever and could, moreover, witness their hopeless remorse. 
They saw, as well as heard, all the tortures of the condemned. The Furies, armed with 
relentless scourges and flaming torches, drove the unhappy victims incessantly to and 
fro, never letting them rest for a moment. Meanwhile the loud voices of the 
hierophant, who represented the judge of the world, was heard expounding the 
meaning of what was passing before them and warning and threatening the initiates. It 
may well be imagined that all these fearful scenes were so terrifying that very 
frequently beads of anguish appeared on the brows of the novices. At length the gates 
of Tartams closed and the innermost sanctuary of the temple lay open before the 
initiates in dazzling light. In the midst stood the statue of the goddess Demeter 
brilliantly decked and gleaming with precious stones; heavenly music entranced their 
souls; a cloudless sky overshadowed them; fragrant perfumes arose; and in the 
distance the privileged spectators beheld flowering meads, where the blessed danced 
and amused themselves with innocent games and pastimes. Among others writers the 
scene is described by Aristophanes in The Frogs: 


Heracles: The voyage is a long one. For you will come directly to a very big lake of 
abysmal depth. 


Dionysos: Then how shall I get taken across it? 



Heracles: In a little boat just so big; an old man who plies the boat will take you 
across for a fee of two oboles. 


Dionysos: Oh dear! How very powerful those two oboles are all over the world. How 
did they manage to get here? 


Heracles: Theseus brought them. After this you will see serpents and wild beasts in 
countless numbers and very terrible. Then a great slough and over-flowing dung; and 
in this you'll see lying anyone who ever yet at any place wronged his guest or beat his 
mother, or smote his father's jaw, or swore an oath and foreswore himself.... And next 
a breathing of flutes shall be wafted around you, and you shall see a very beautiful 
light, even as in this world, and myrtle groves, and happy choirs of men and women, 
and a loud clapping of hands. 


Dionysos: And who are these people, pray? 


Heracles: The initiated. It was regarded as permissible to describe the scenes of the 
initiation, and this has been done by many writers, but a complete silence was 
demanded as to the means employed to realize the end, the rites and ceremonies in 
which the initiate took part, the emblems which were displayed, and the actual words 
uttered and the slightest divergence rendered the offender liable to the strongest 
possible condemnation and chastisement. 


In the course of the ceremony the hierophant asked a series of questions to which 
written answers had been prepared and committed to memory by the candidates. Holy 
Mysteries were revealed to the initiates from a book called Petroma, a word derived 
from petra, a stone, and so called because the writings were kept enclosed between 
two cemented stones. The garments worn by the candidates during the initiation 
ceremony were accounted sacred, and equal with incantations and consecrated charms 
in their power to avert evils. Consequently, they were never cast off until torn and 



tattered. Nor was it usual, even then, to throw them away but it was customary to 
make them into twaddling clothes for children or to consecrate them to Demeter and 
Persephone. 


Admission to the third degree took place during the night between the seventh and 
eighth days of the celebration of the Mysteries. This, the final degree with the 
exception of those called to be hierophants, was known as the degree of epoptie. 
Exactly in what the ceremonial consisted, save in one particular presently to be 
described, little is known. Hippolytus is practically the only authority for the main 
incident of the degree. Certain words and signs were communicated to the initiated 
which, when pronounced after death, were held to ensure the eternal happiness of the 
soul. 


The most solemn part of the ceremony was that which has been described by some 
writers as the hierogamy or sacred marriage of Zeus and Demeter, although some 
have mistakenly referred to it as the marriage of Pluto and Proseiphine. During the 
celebration of the Mysteries the hierophant and the hierophantide descended into a 
cave or deep recess and, after remaining there for a time, returned to the assembly, 
surrounded seemingly by flames, the hierophant displaying to the gaze of the initiated 
an ear of corn and exclaiming in a loud voice: "The divine Brimo has Wiven birth to 
the holy child Brimos: the strong has Drought forth strength." 


"The Athenians," says Hippolytus, "in the initiation of Eleusis show to the epoptes the 
great, admirible, and most perfect mystery of the epoptie: an ear of com gathered in 
silence." The statement is so clear as to leave no doubt whatever on the subject; 
indeed, it has never been called into question. The presentation of the ear of com was 
part of the Mysteries of Eleusis and it was reserved for the epoptes. 


Much has been made of this incident by many who can see no beauty in pre-Christian 
or non-Christian forms of religion, their comments being based mainly on a statement 
of St. Gregory Nazianus, who stands alone in discerning lewdness in the Eleusinian 
ceremonial. He says: 



It is not in our religion that you will find a seduced Cora, a wandering Demeter, a 
Keleos, and a Triptolemos appearing with seipents; that Demeter is capable of certain 
acts and that she permits others. I am really ashamed to throw light on the nocturnal 
orgies of the initiations. Eleusis knows as well as the witnesses the secret of this 
spectacle, which is with reason kept so profound. 


Apart from this isolated statement the Eleusinian Mysteries have not been charged as 
many ancient rites were with promoting immorality. In his account of the doings of 
the false prophet Alexander of Abountichos, Lucian describes how the impostor 
instituted rites which were a close parody of those at Eleusis and he narrates the 
details of the travesty. Among the mimetic performances were not only the Epiphany 
and birth of a god but the enactment of a sacred marriage. All preliminaries were gone 
through and Lucian says that but for the abundance of lighted torches the marriage 
would actually have been consummated. The part of the hierophant was taken-by the 
false prophet himself. From the travesty it is evident that in the genuine Mysteries in 
silence, in darkness, and in perfect chastity the sacred marriage was enacted and that 
immediately afterwards the hierophant came forth and standing in a blaze of torchlight 
made the announcement to the initiates. 'When came the words from the hierophant: 


I have tasted, I have drunk "cyceon." I have taken from the cystus and after having 
tasted of it I placed it in the calathos. I again took it from the calathos and put it back 
in the cistus. 


This formula, notwithstanding its length, became the "pass word" of the perfect 
initiate. 


Dr. Jevons maintains that this ear of corn was the totem of Eleusis and this view has 
been adopted by M. Reinach who says: 


We find in the texts a certain trace not only of the cult but of the adoration and the 
exaltation (in the Christian meaning of the word) of the ear of corn. 



But he has omitted to quote the texts on which he relies for this assertion. It would be 
interesting to know why among all the plants which die and revive in the course of a 
year, wheat was chosen for preference, why the ear more than the grain, why it should 
be emphasized that it was gathered, for what reason the spectacle was reserved for the 
epoptae and in what manner it secures or ensures for the individual a blissful existence 
after death. The demonstration presupposes that the preceding rites and ceremonies 
were leading up to this supreme display. This practically ended the third degree save 
that then the epoptae were placed upon exalted seats around which the priests circled 
in mystic dances. The day succeeding admission into the final degree was regarded as 
a rigorous fast at the conclusion of which the epoptae also drank of the mystic kukeon 
and ate of the sacred cakes. 


The Greeks laid great stress upon the advantages to be derived from initiation. Not 
only were the initiates under the protection of the State but the very act of initiation 
was said to assist in the spreading of good will among men, keep the soul free from 
sin and crime, place men under the special protection of the gods, and provide them 
with the means of attaining perfect virtue, the power of living a spotless life, and 
assure them of a peaceful death and everlasting bliss hereafter. The priests assured all 
who participated in the Mysteries that they would have a higher place in Elysium, a 
clearer understanding, and a more intimate intercourse with the gods, whereas the 
uninitiated would always remain in outer darkness. Indeed, in the final degree the 
epoptae were said to be admitted to the presence of and converse with the goddesses 
Demeter and Persephone. Initiates were placed under the immediate care and 
protection of the goddess Demeter. Initiation was referred to frequently as a guarantee 
of salvation conferred by outward and visible signs and by sacred formulae. 


According to Theo of Smyrna the full or complete initiation consisted of five steps or 
degrees: 


Again, philosophy may be called the initiation into true sacred ceremonies, and the 
tradition of genuine mysteries; for there are five parts of initiation; the first of which is 
previous purgation; for neither are the Mysteries communicated to all who are willing 
to receive them, but there are certain characters who are prevented by the voice of the 
crier, such as those who possess impure hands and an articulate voice, since it is 



necessary that such as are not expelled from the Mysteries should first be refined by 
certain purgations, hut after purgation the tradition of the sacred rite succeeds. The 
third part is denominated inspection. And the fourth which is the end and design of 
inspection is the binding of the head and fixing the crown: so that the initiated may, 
by this means, he enabled to communicate to others the sacred rites in which he has 
been instructed; whether after this he becomes a torchbearer, or an inteipreter of the 
Mysteries, or sustains some other part of the sacerdotal office. But the fifth which is 
produced from all these, is friendship with divinity, and the enjoyment of that felicity 
which arises from intimate converse with the gods. According to Plato purification is 
to be derived from the five mathematical disciplines, viz., arithmetic, geometry, 
steretometry, music, and astronomy. 


The fee for initiation was a minimum sum of fifteen drachmas, in addition to which 
there were the usual honoraria to be bestowed towards the various officiating 
ministers to which reference has already been made. Presumably, also, gifts in kind 
were made annually to the principal clergy for an inscription of the fifth century B. C. 
found at Eleusis reads: 


Let the hierophant and the torch-bearer command that at the mysteries the Hellenes 
shall offer first-fruits of their crops in accordance with ancestral usage.... To those 
who do these things there shall be many good things, both good and abundant crops, 
whoever of them do not injure the Athenians, nor the city of Athens, nor the two 
goddesses. 


The Telestrion or Hall of Initiation, sometimes called "The Mystic Temple," was a 
large, covered building, about 170 feet square. It was surrounded on all sides by steps 
which presumably served as seats for the initiated while the sacred dramas and 
processions took place on the floor of the hall. These steps were partly built up and 
partly cut in the solid rock: in latter times they appear to have been covered with 
marble. There were two doors on each side of the hall with the exception of the north- 
west where the entrance was cut out of the solid rock, a rock terrace at a higher level 
adjoining it. This was probably the station of those not yet admitted to full initiation. 
The roof of the hall was carried by rows of columns which were more than once 
renewed. The Hall itself did not accommodate more than 4,000 people. The building 
was, perhaps, more accurately designed by Aristophanes as "The house that welcomed 
the mystae." Strabo's phrase for it was "The holy enclosure of the mystae" and he 



carefully distinguishes it from the temple of Demeter. It was not the dwelling place of 
any god and, therefore, contained no holy image. It was built for the celebration of a 
definite ritual and the Eleusinian Hall of Initiation was therefore the only known 
church of antiquity if by that term we understand the meeting place of the 
congregation. 


CLOSING 

In the west at set of sun, 

When the craftsmen's work is done 
In the lodge; 

To the westward, one by one, 
Unworthy there are none 
In the lodge; 

And the warden pays the sum 
That is due to ev'ry one, 

In the lodge. 

By the level, plumb and square, 
And the aprons that we wear 
When we meet, 


On the level each will share 



In the ancient lodgeroom there 
As we act 

By the plumb, you are aware 
We are all upon the square, 
When we part. 

May heaven's blessings rest 
On the hearts that are opprest, 
Here and there; 

May brotherly love prevail, 
May our efforts never fail, 

Is our prayer. 

And in that lodge above, 
Where joy and peace and love 
We shall see, 

The world's Redeemer there - 
Our Master in the chair - 
So mote it be. 

- O. B. Slane, Illinois. 





This earth would be changed into a paradise if, instead of hating, human beings loved; 
if, instead of speaking evil of one another, they spoke only good; if, instead of 
grasping and holding, they gave away. - James Stalker 


— o — 


MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS 
BY BRO. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 


MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN 


THE minutes of Willamette Lodge No. 2, of Portland, Oregon, of the date of December 
9th, 1853, show that Captain George B. McClellan, U.S.A., Second Lieutenant Henry 
C. Hodges, U.S.A., and Mr. J. F. Winter, a Civil Engineer in government employ, were 
initiated, passed and raised in that lodge under a dispensation issued by the Grand 
Master, John Elliott. 


McClellan was a Captain of Engineers and prepared plans for most of the fortifications 
in that region. His work was so deeply appreciated that he was detailed to examine and 
report on the fortification of important parts of Europe, which work he amplified and 
which appeared in two volumes entitled "The Art of War in Europe," published by the 
government about 1860. As an engineer McClelland was at that time almost without a 
peer. 


The equestrian memorial of the General, and its pedestal, are in bronze. It is situated at 
the intersection of Connecticut and California Avenues in Washington, D. C. The statue 
was modeled by Fred Monnies and is a most beautiful and splendid piece of work. It 



was built by authority of Congress at a cost of $50,000. The memorial was unveiled in 
1906 without any ceremony whatever. 


General McClellan commanded the Second Army Corps (the Army of the Potomac) 
which he organized and disciplined and which was the largest Army ever assembled up 
to that time. Its numbers were greatly increased, however, after General Grant had 
relieved General McClellan of the command. 


General McClellan was popular not only in the Army but amongst the general public 
until he was nominated for the Presidency, when, as might be expected, political 
opponents availed themselves of the privilege of abuse. But, after nearly half a century 
had passed, when history had been revised and time had softened the invectives of his 
former opponents, Congress, in its wisdom, authorized the erection of this beautiful 
memorial to our modest soldier- brother, Major General McClellan. 


— o- 


LIFE'S STRANGENESS 


BY BRO. H. L.HAYWOOD, IOWA 

Now fall the evening shadows round about the trees, 
And filter like a mist upon the solemn stream; 

The solid rocks are touched with eerie mysteries; 

The ground beneath my feet begin to sigh and dream; 
The ground beneath my feet is fluttering like wings 



For some unearthly touch is on these common things; 

Is on the shrubs and grasses and on the rippled sands, 

Is in the air about me and on the faded hill; 

Ah, whence can be the coming of all those ghostly hands, 
Which evening's twilight shadows with subtle magic fill? 

Ah, whose can be those fountains behind the shadow's screen 
From which is poured the glamour upon this common scene ? 

'Tis vain to ask the "whither," 'tis vain to ask the "why"; 

No mortal ever guessed it, no mortal ever can; 

Our lives are sunk in wonder and always will there ply 
This subtle sense of magic about the soul of man. 

For man hath never yet discovered once the key 
Which opens to himself his own seifs mystery. 

We are compound of marbles and angels never knew 
The reason for our being, the secret of our ways; 

No angel ever guessed it nor ever mortal drew 
From out the depths of being the reason for our days; 

We are compound of shadow, of half lights, and of change, 
And life is half a dreaming and whollv is it strange. 





Nothing can work me damage, except myself. The harm that I sustain I carry about me, 
and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault. - St. Bernard. 

MASONRY IN GENERAL 

BY BRO. L. B. MITCHELL, MICHIGAN 

Masonry, in general, is qualified in size, 

It builds its Temples round the world where glow the kindly skies; 

Where governments set boundaries, therein the Craftsman go 
And rear the mystic canopies that shelter those who "know." 

Masonry, in general, is qualified in kind 
As something that is leading to and helping men to find 
The Brother way that "carries on" to others yet the cheer 
Who, by free will may in due form within its courts appear. 



Masonry, in general, is qualified in soul, 

Its spirit, all the world around pleads for a common goal,- 
The time when nothing can divide save that which stains the heart . 

When men can find each one his way, but all, within its Art. 

Masonry, in general, is qualified in grace, 

'Twould give to those who would be true their ever rightful place; 

It would be tolerant to all upon the moral plane 

That looks beyond and on and on to greater heights attain. 

Masonry, in general, is qualified in heart, 

It holds within its throb the key that opens to its Art, 

'Tis qualified in every way, and that is saying trite 

What otherwise somehow is hard to put in "black and white." 

— o — 

Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting and there is no jovial 
companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and the laughter abundant. 


- Washington Irving. 





CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN No. 30 


DEVOTED TO ORGANIZED MASONIC STUDY 


Edited by Bro. H. L. Haywood 


THE BULLETIN COURSE OF MASONIC STUDY FOR MONTHLY LODGE 
MEETINGS AND STUDY CLUBS 


FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE 


THE Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information: 

THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. In another paragraph is explained how 
the references to former issues of THE BUILDER and to Mackey's Encyclopedia may 
be worked up as supplemental papers to exactly fit into each installment of the Course 
with the papers by Brother Haywood. 


MAIN OUTLINE: 


The Course is divided into five principal divisions which are in turn subdivided, as is 
shown below: 


Division I. Ceremonial Masonry. 



A. The Work of the Lodge. 

B. The Lodge and the Candidate. 

C. First Steps. 

D. Second Steps. 

E. Third Steps. 

Division II. Symbolical Masonry. 

A. Clothing. 

B. Working Tools. 

C. Furniture. 

D. Architecture. 

E. Geometry. 

F. Signs. 

G. Words. 

H. Grips. 

Division III. Philosophical Masonry. 

A. Foundations. 

B. Virtues. 

C. Ethics. 


D. Religious Aspect. 



E. The Quest. 

F. Mysticism. 

G. The Secret Doctrine. 

Division IV. Legislative Masonry. 

A. The Grand Lodge. 

1. Ancient Constitutions. 

2. Codes of Law. 

3. Grand Lodge Practices. 

4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges. 

5. Official Duties and Prerogatives. 

B. The Constituent Lodge. 

1. Organization. 

2. Qualifications of Candidates. 

3. Initiation, Passing and Raising. 

4. Visitation. 

5. Change of Membership. 


Division V. Historical Masonry. 



A. The Mysteries— Earliest Masonic Light. 

B. Studies of Rites— Masonry in the Making. 

C. Contributions to Lodge Characteristics. 

D. National Masonry. 

E. Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study. 

F. Feminine Masonry. 

G. Masonic Alphabets. 

H. Historical Manuscripts of the Craft. 

I. Biographical Masonry. 

J. Philological Masonry— Study of Significant Words. 


THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS 


Each month we are presenting a paper written by Brother Haywood, who is following 
the foregoing outline. We are now in "First Steps" of Ceremonial Masonry. There will 
be twelve monthly papers under this particular subdivision. On page two, preceding 
each installment, will be given a list of questions to be used by the chairman of the 
Committee during the study period which will bring out every point touched upon in 
the paper. 


Whenever possible we shall reprint in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin articles 
from other sources which have a direct bearing upon the particular subject covered by 
Brother Haywood in his monthly paper. These articles should be used as supplemental 
papers in addition to those prepared by the members from the monthly list of 
references. Much valuable material that would otherwise possibly never come to the 
attention of many of our members will thus be presented. 



The monthly installments of the Course appearing in the Correspondence Circle 
Bulletin should be used one month later than their appearance. If this is done the 
Committee will have opportunity to arrange their programs several weeks in advance 
of the meetings and the brethren who are members of the National Masonic Research 
Society will be better enabled to enter into the discussions after they have read over 
and studied the installment in THE BUILDER. 


REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS 


Immediately preceding each of Brother Haywood's monthly papers in the 
Correspondence Circle Bulletin will be found a list of references to THE BUILDER 
and Mackey's Encyclopedia. These references are pertinent to the paper and will 
either enlarge upon many of the points touched upon or bring out new points for 
reading and discussion. They should be assigned by the Committee to different 
brethren who may compile papers of their own from the material thus to be found, or 
in many instances the articles themselves or extracts therefrom may be read directly 
from the originals. The latter method may be followed when the members may not 
feel able to compile original papers, or when the original may be deemed appropriate 
without any alterations or additions. 


HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS 


The lodge should select a "Research Committee" preferably of three "live" members. 
The study meetings should be held once a month, either at a special meeting of the 
lodge called for the purpose, or at a regular meeting at which no business (except the 
lodge routine) should be transacted— all possible time to be given to the study period. 


After the lodge has been opened and all routine business disposed of, the Master 
should turn the lodge over to the Chairman of the Research Committee. This 
Committee should be fully prepared in advance on the subject for the evening. All 
members to whom references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be 



prepared with their papers and should also have a comprehensive grasp of Brother 
Haywood's paper. 


PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS 


1 . Reading of the first section of Brother Haywood's paper and the supplemental 
papers thereto. 


(Suggestion: While these papers are being read the members of the lodge should make 
notes of any points they may wish to discuss or inquire into when the discussion is 
opened. Tabs or slips of paper similar to those used in elections should be distributed 
among the members for this purpose at the opening of the study period.) 


2. Discussion of the above. 


3. The subsequent sections of Brother Haywood's paper and the supplemental papers 
should then be taken up, one at a time, and disposed of in the same manner. 4. 
Question Box. 


MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS 


Invite questions from any and all brethren present. Let them understand that these 
meetings are for their particular benefit and get them into the habit of asking all the 
questions they may think of. Every one of the papers read will suggest questions as to 
facts and meanings which may not perhaps be actually covered at all in the paper. If at 
the time these questions are propounded no one can answer them, SEND THEM IN 
TO US. All the reference material we have will be gone through in an endeavor to 
supply a satisfactory answer. In fact we are prepared to make special research when 
called upon, and will usually be able to give answers within a day or two. Please 



remember, too, that the great Library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa is only a few miles 
away, and, by order of the Trustees of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Secretary places it 
at our disposal on any query raised by any member of the Society. 


FURTHER INFORMATION 


The foregoing information should enable local Committees to conduct their lodge 
study meetings with success. However, we shall welcome all inquiries and 
communications from interested brethren concerning any phase of the plan that is not 
entirely clear to them, and the Services of our Study Club Department are at the 
command of our members, lodge and study club committees at all times. 


QUESTIONS ON "THE MIDDLE CHAMBER IN SPECULATIVE MASONRY" 


I In what light have you heretofore interpreted the existence of the "Middle Chamber" 
of Solomon's Temple as a literal fact or simply as a symbol ? What is Sir Charles 
Warren's opinion ? What is Mackey's opinion regarding it ? Do you agree with them ? 
If not, what reasons have you for disagreeing with them ? 


II What is the modem biblical interpretation of the term "chamber" as used in the 
present connection ? How many such chambers were there in the Temple, and what 
were their uses ? Were they used as "paymaster's offices," or as chambers of 
instmction? 


What is a "myth" ? Were our ceremonies contrived as vehicles for the conveyance of 
historical facts to candidates ? What thought should we continually bear in mind while 
pursuing our Masonic studies ? 



ITT Of what is the Middle Chamber a symbol? What does it represent in the Second 
degree ritualism? How are we benefited by "learning” or education ? 


What part does the Second degree occupy in Ancient Craft Masonry? Would the 
system have been complete without it? Have you gained a new conception of the 
Second degree from this section of Brother Haywood's present study paper from that 
which you formerly held of it ? 


IV How were builders organized in medieval times, and for what purpose ? Why were 
they intrusted with signs, words and grips? Why were they called "operative" 

Masons? 


Why were persons who had no connection with the building trades admitted into the 
Order prior to 1717? What attracted them to it? What was the result of their 
admittance? 


V How does Brother MacBride describe the transition from operative to speculative 
Masonry? 


What influence had the speculative element on the operative organization ? 


What did the non-operative element undertake to do after their acceptance into the 
organization, according to Brother Waite ? How were Kabalistic and Rosicmcian 
ideas and symbolisms introduced into the Order? 


VI What did Speculative Masonry inherit from the operatives? Was all of our 
philosophy and mysticism handed down from the operatives ? 



What was the work of the operative Mason, and what were his wages? What is the 
work of the speculative Mason, and what are his wages? 


Do you believe with those who claim that the race cannot be improved; that because 
evils of one kind and another have always existed, that they are always to remain with 
us? What is the mission of Masonry ? 


SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES 


Mackey's Encyclopedia: 


Middle Chamber, p. 483. 


THE BUILDER: 


Vol. IV. What a Fellow Craft Ought to Know, p. 178; Symbolism of the Three 
Degrees, p. 267. 


SECOND STEPS BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD 


PART V THE MIDDLE CHAMBER IN SPECULATIVE MASONRY 


I WHAT the Middle Chamber is a symbol, and not a bit of history, there is every 
evidence to show. Sir Charles Warren, while Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of 
Research, gave expression to the opinion of the best modem scholars in saying that 



"There was never a Middle Chamber in the Temple. . . As the Fellow Crafts were only 
employed during the building of the Temple, they could not have used this chamber 
for the service mentioned (you will recall, reader, what this service is supposed to 
have been) even if it had existed.... Even if this chamber had existed they would not 
have been allowed to desecrate it by use as a pay office." 


Albert Mackey, who was one of the most conservative of men, and who wrote his 
"Symbolism of Freemasonry" some twenty years before Brother Warren delivered his 
speech, took the same position. As we may read in that work, "The whole legend is, in 
fact, an historical myth, in which the mystical number of the steps, the process of 
passing to the chamber, and the wages there received, are inventions added to or 
ingrafted on the fundamental history contained in the sixth chapter of Kings, to 
inculcate important symbolic instruction relative to the principle of the Order." 


II 


The passage in the book of Kings to which Mackey here refers, is in the authorized 
version of the bible as follows: "They went up with winding stairs into the Middle 
Chamber." Modem biblical scholarship has shown that the term here translated 
"chamber" really means a "story" and that there were three such stories on one side of 
the Temple composed of small rooms in which the priests kept their vestments, 
utensils, etc. That workmen were paid their wages in this middle story, or that Fellow 
Crafts were there prepared for a higher grade, there is not a hint in the record to show. 
This account of the matter, as Mackey has said, is "an historical myth." 


But what of it ? A myth has been defined as "philosophy in the making." It is an 
allegorical piece of fiction designed to convey some abstract teaching. The purpose of 
our ceremonies is not to furnish history but truth, and that tmth is nowise affected by 
the accuracy or inaccuracy of the narrative behind which it is veiled. To remember 
this in all connections will save one from those pitfalls of literalism into which so 
many earlier Masonic students fell. 



ITT When understood simply as a symbol, the Middle Chamber stands for that place in 
life in which we receive the rewards of our endeavors. This is the broadest sense of it; 
its narrower sense, as found in the Second degree lecture, is that it represents the 
wages of education, of mental culture, for learning is described as the peculiar work of 
the Fellow Craft. Learning stores the mind with facts, preserves one from bigotry and 
superstition, offers to one the fellowships of great minds, quickens perception, 
strengthens the faculties, gives one, in short, a masterful intellect. It is into the 
possession of such riches as these that the Winding Stairs of the Liberal Arts and 
Sciences brings a man at last. 


We may rejoice that William Preston gave this teaching so large a place in our 
lectures, for without it Masonry would have been wholly inadequate as a complete 
system of life. Ignorance is a sin, in most cases at least, and the sooner we thus regard 
it the better it will be for all of us, Masons and profane. In olden days when men had 
so few opportunities for learning it was inevitable that the common man should be 
ignorant; but in these days with public schools, correspondence schools, cheap books 
and periodicals, and free libraries, a man who remains content with not possessing the 
best that has been thought and said in the world is wholly without excuse. Always and 
everywhere men should have in the house of life a winding stair of art and science up 
which to climb into a middle chamber wherein to hold converse with the good and 
great of all ages ! 


IV In medieval times the builders were organized into a secret fraternity composed of 
separate lodges for the puipose of self- protection and for preserving the secrets of the 
trade, and men were given words, grips and tokens on their admittance to a lodge. 

This fraternity had an ancient traditional history and it used its tools and trade 
processes as emblems and symbols whereby to teach a code of morality far above the 
average ethical standards of the time. This was called operative Masonry because its 
followers were engaged in the work of actual building. 


At the time of the Reformation ecclesiastical building, in which the Freemasons were 
mostly engaged, fell into a decline and during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
the operative lodges began to receive a large number of members who had no 
intention of engaging in practical building, but were attracted by the history and 
symbolism of the Order. In course of time this speculative element outnumbered the 
operative so that, at the Revival of 1 7 1 7, Masonry became a wholly speculative body. 



The details of this picture may be filled out by a remarkable paragraph in Brother 
MacBride's "Speculative Masonry" (page 124): 


"The view we wish to consider is, that down through the Roman Collegia and the 
medieval craft gilds, along with certain traditions, there was probably transmitted 
some of the symbolism of the Ancient Mysteries, and that the great quickening of 
intellectual life in the sixteenth century, resulting from the social and political 
upheaval of the Reformation, gave new life and a more developed form to the 
symbolic speculative element within the old craft lodges. The mental activities of men 
had so long been dribbed, cabined and confined' under ecclesiastical rule that, having 
burst its bonds, it fairly revelled and rioted in all sorts of ways. Hence we find 
Cabalism, Theosophy, Alchemy and Astrology receiving attention and support from 
the learned scholars of the age.... The spirit of enquiry was rampant, and ill-directed as 
it was in many respects, it had on the whole a wonderfully stimulating effect.. 

Science, in all its branches, expanded and developed; literature, art, and social and 
political life acquired fresh vigor. It is from this period we can mark the presence of 
the speculative element in the old craft lodges. Our view is, that the seed of our 
present speculative system, lying latent in these old lodges, was quickened into life 
through the influence of the Reformation period and, later on, in 1717, developed into 
the present organized form." 


On another page of the same work Brother MacBride gives a more specific 
description of the moral and symbolic germ in the craft gilds which later expanded 
into speculative Masonry: 


"Taking the Old Charges and reading them over one cannot fail to be impressed with 
the moral precepts they contain, and how the speculative bulks over the purely 
operative parts. In every ease the Mason is charged first of all to be true to God, the 
king and to his fellows. Stealing and vice are explicitly named to be avoided. 
Falsehood and deceit are condemned and the general impression left after reading 
these ancient documents is that they are not those of a mere trades union or operative 
gild. There is an element in them, apart from and above the operative work, that refers 
to conduct and morals, and it is in this, more than anything else, that their relationship 



with modem Masonry shows itself. After all, what is the purpose of our speculative 
system but to shape life and conduct to noble ends." 


V In the foregoing passages Brother MacBride takes the position that speculative 
Masonry is the expansion of a germ that lay in operative Masonry. Other writers, 
while holding to this, also believe that the nonoperatives, accepted during the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, brought with them an entirely new element. 
Brother Arthur Edward Waite speaks for these writers in his little booklet "Deeper 
Aspects of Masonic Symbolism": 


"The interest in operative Masonry and its records, though historically it is of course 
important, has preceded from the beginning on a misconception as to the aims and 
Symbolism of speculative Masonry. It was and it remains natural, and it has not been 
without its results, but it is a confusion of the chief issues. It should be recognized 
henceforth that the sole connection between the two arts and crafts rests on the fact 
that the one has undertaken to uplift the other from the material plane to that of morals 
on the surface, and of spirituality in the real intention.... My position is that the traces 
of symbolism which may in a sense be inherent in operative Masonry did not produce; 
by a natural development, the speculative art and craft, though they helped 
undoubtedly to make a possible and partially prepared field for the great adventure 
and experiment." 


On another page of the same book Brother Waite contends that among the men who 
were accepted into the operative lodges were many "Latin- writing" scholars who 
brought with them ideas and symbolisms from Kabalism and Rosicracianism. With 
this position Albert Pike and many other authorities are agreed. 


Brother Waite's argument, it seems to me, does not contradict, but rather supplements 
Brother MacBride's position. If this be the case we may say that from operative 
Masonry our speculative system has received an organization, a moral element, and 
certain emblems and symbols derived from the building art; but there is an element of 
philosophy and mysticism in our ritual, in the Third degree more especially, derived 
from other sources. 



VI Leaving for future articles a discussion of the mystical and philosophical element, 
we may examine here only the elements inherited from the operative gilds. The 
operative Mason used actual tools to erect structures of wood and stone; for this he 
received material wages. The speculative Mason uses moral, mental and spiritual 
forces to erect himself into a nobler manhood and society into a nobler Brotherhood; 
his wages consist in the enrichment of his own and his race's life. 


These words are familiar enough to every Mason, indeed, they have become almost 
hackneyed and threadbare, but familiarity must not be permitted to blind us to the 
radical (I had almost said the revolutionary) character of this teaching. For it implies 
that human nature may be modified, reformed, regenerated; and the world, likewise. 


The cry of the reactionary, the obstructionist, the ultra- conservative, has ever been, 
"As the world is, so it has always been, so it will ever be. Poverty, vice, ignorance 
these are fated things, built into the nature of the race, and can in no wise be 
improved." Against this position Masonry throws itself with all its weight, and 
contends that out of the stuff of the Present a nobler Future can be made; that a man's 
nature is plastic material out of which a better man can be fashioned; that the world of 
today is a rough quarry out of which may be hewn the stones for a Temple of 
Tomorrow, in which a God may be found to dwell. If this philosophy of Masonry be 
true; as we Masons are most profoundly convinced that it is, it gives us the one Great 
Hope of Man, the one certain pledge of Progress. 


-o- 


A CATHOLIC TREATISE ON MASONRY 


FROM THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA 



PART III- OUTER WORK OF FREEMASONRY: ITS ACHIEVEMENTS, 
PURPOSES AND METHODS (CONTINUED) 


THE chief organization which in France secured the success of Freemasonry was the 
famous "League of instruction" founded in 1867 by Bro. F. Mace, later a member of 
the Senate. This league affiliated and imbued with its spirit many other associations. 
French Masonry and above all the Grand Orient of France has displayed the most 
systematic activity as the dominating political element in the French "Kulturkampf ' 
since 1877 (see also Chr.,1889, 1, 81 sq.). From the official documents of French 
Masonry contained principally in the official "Bulletin" and "Compte-rendu" of the 
Grand Orient it has been proved that all the anticlerical measures passed in the French 
Parliament were decreed beforehand in the Masonic lodges and executed under the 
direction of the Grand Orient, whose avowed aim is to control everything and 
everybody in France ("que personne ne bougera plus en Frence en dehors de nous," 
"Bull. Gr. Or.," 1890, 500 sq.). "I said in the assembly of 1898," states the deputy 
Masse, the official orator of the Assembly of 1903, "that it is the supreme duty of 
Freemasonry to interfere each day more and more in political and profane struggles." 
"Success (in the anti-clerical combat) is in a large measure due to Freemasonry; for it 
is its spirit, its programme, its methods, that have triumphed." "If the Bloc has been 
established, this is owing to Freemasonry and to the discipline learned in the lodges. 
The measures we have now to urge are the separation of Church and State and a law 
concerning instruction. Let us put our trust in the word of our Bro. Combes." "For a 
long time Freemasonry has been simply the republic in disguise," i. e., the secret 
parliament and government of Freemasonry in reality rule France; the profane State, 
Parliament, and Government merely execute its decrees. "We are the conscience of 
the country"; "we are each year the funeral bell announcing the death of a cabinet that 
has not done its duty but has betrayed the Republic; or we are its support, encouraging 
it by saying in a solemn hour: I present you the word of the country ... its satisfecit 
which is wanted by you, or its reproach that to-morrow will be sealed by your fall." 
"We need vigilance and above all mutual confidence, if we are to accomplish our 
work, as yet unfinished. This work, you know ... the anti- clerical combat, is going 
on. The Republic must rid itself of the religious congregations, sweeping them off by 
a vigorous stroke. The system of half measures is everywhere dangerous; the 
adversary must be crushed with a single blow" (Compte-rendu Gr. Or., 1903, 
Nourrisson, "Les Jacobins," 266-271). "It is beyond doubt," declared the President of 
the Assembly of 1902, Bro. Blatin, with respect to the French elections of 1902, "that 
we would have been defeated by our well-organized opponents, if Freemasonry had 
not spread over the whole country" (Compte-rendu, 1902, 153). 



Along with this political activity Freemasonry employed against its adversaries, 
whether real or supposed, a system of spying and false accusation, the exposure of 
which brought about the downfall of the Masonic cabinet of Combes. In truth all the 
"anti-clerical" Masonic reforms carried out in France since 1877, such as the 
secularization of education, measures against private Christian schools and charitable 
establishments, the suppression of the religious orders and the spoliation of the 
Church, professedly culminate in an antiChristian and irreligious reorganization of 
human society, not only in France but throughout the world. Thus French 
Freemasonry, as the standard-bearer of all Freemasonry, pretends to inaugurate the 
golden era of the Masonic universal republic, comprising in Masonic brotherhood all 
men and all nations. "The triumph of the Galilean," said the president of the Grand 
Orient, Senator Delpech, on 20 September, 1902, "has lasted twenty centuries. But 
now he dies in his turn. The mysterious voice, announcing (to Julian the Apostate) the 
death of Pan, today announces the death of the impostor God who promised an era of 
justice and peace to those who believe in him. The illusion has lasted a long time. The 
mendacious God is now disappearing in his turn; he passes away to join in the dust of 
ages the other divinities of India, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, who saw so many 
deceived creatures prostrate before their altars. Bro. Masons, we rejoice to state that 
we are not without our share in this overthrow of the false prophets. The Romish 
Church, founded on the Galilean myth, began to decay rapidly from the very day on 
which the Masonic Association was established" (Comp te -rendu Gr. Or. de France, 
1902, 381). 


The assertion of the French Masons: "We are the conscience of the country," was not 
true. By the official statistics it was ascertained, that in all elections till 1906 the 
majority of the votes were against the Masonic Bloc, and even the result in 1906 does 
not prove that the Bloc, or Masonry, in its anti-clerical measures and purposes 
represents the will of the nation, since the contrary is evident from many other facts. 
Much less does it represent the "conscience" of the nation. The fact is, that the Bloc in 
1906 secured a majority only because the greater part of this majority voted against 
their "conscience." No doubt the claims of Freemasonry in France are highly 
exaggerated, and such success as they have had is due chiefly to the lowering of the 
moral tone in private and public life, facilitated by the disunion existing among 
Catholics and by the serious political blunders which they committed. Quite similar is 
the outer work of the Grand Orient of Italy which likewise pretends to be the 
standard-bearer of Freemasonry in the secular struggle of Masonic light and freedom 
against the powers of "spiritual darkness and bondage," alluding of course to the 



papacy, and dreams of the establishment of a new and universal republican empire 
with a Masonic Rome, supplanting the papal and Caesarean as metropolis. The Grand 
Orient of Italy has often declared that it is enthusiastically followed in this struggle by 
the Freemasonry of the entire world and especially by the Masonic centres at Paris, 
Berlin, London, Madrid, Calcutta, Washington ("Riv.," 1892, 219; Gruber, "Mazzini," 
215 sqq. and passim). It has not been contradicted by a single Grand Lodge in any 
country, nor did the German and other Grand Lodges break off their relations with it 
on account of its shameful political and anti-religious activity. But though the aims of 
Italian Masons are perhaps more radical and their methods more cunning than those of 
the French, their political influence, owing to the difference of the surrounding social 
conditions, is less powerful. The same is to be said of the Belgian and the Hungarian 
Grand Lodges, which also consider the Grand Orient of France as their political 
model. 


Since 1889, the date of the international Masonic congress, assembled at Paris, 16 and 
17 July, 1889, by the Grand Orient of France, systematic and incessant efforts have 
been made to bring about a closer union of universal Freemasonry in order to realize 
efficaciously and rapidly the Masonic ideals. The special allies of the Grand Orient in 
this undertaking are: the Supreme Council and the Symbolical Grand Lodge of France 
and the Masonic Grand Lodges of Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Hungary, 
Portugal, Greece; the Grand Lodges of Massachusetts and of Brazil were also 
represented at the congress. The programme pursued by the Grand Orient of France, 
in its main lines, runs thus: "Masonry, which prepared the Revolution of 1789, has the 
duty to continue its work" (circular of the G. O. of France, 2 April, 1889). This task is 
to be accomplished by the thoroughly and rigidly consistent application of the 
principles of the Revolution to all the departments of the religious, moral, judicial, 
legal, political, and social order. The necessary political reforms being realized in 
most of their essential points, henceforth the consistent application of the 
revolutionary principles to the social conditions of mankind is the main task of 
Masonry. The universal social republic, in which, after the overthrow of every kind of 
spiritual and political tyranny," of "theocratical" and dynastical powers and class 
privileges, reigns the greatest possible individual liberty and social and economical 
equality conformably to French Masonic ideals, is the real ultimate aim of this social 
work. 


The following are deemed the principal means: (1) To destroy radically by open 
persecution of the Church or by a hypocritical fraudulent system of separation 
between State and Church, all social influence of the Church and of religion, 



insidiously called "clericalism," and, as far as possible, to destroy the Church and all 
true, i. e., superhuman religion, which is more than a vague cult of fatherland and of 
humanity; (2) To laicize, or secularize, by a likewise hypocritical fraudulent system of 
"unsectarianism," all public and private life and, above all, popular instruction and 
education. "Unsectarianism" as understood by the Grand Orient party is anti-Catholic 
and even anti-Christian, atheistic, positivistic, or agnostic sectarianism in the garb of 
unsectarianism. Freedom of thought and conscience of the children has to be 
developed systematically in the child at school and protected, as far as possible, 
against all disturbing influences, not only of the Church and priests, but also of the 
children's own parents, if necessary, even by means of moral and physical 
compulsion. The Grand Orient party considers it indispensable and an infallibly sure 
way to the final establishment of the universal social republic and of the pretended 
world peace, as they fancy them, and of the glorious era of human solidarity and of 
unsurpassable human happiness in the reign of liberty and justice (see "Chaine 
d'Union," 1889, 134, 212 sqq., 248 sqq., 291 sqq.; the official comptes rendus of the 
International Masonic Congress of Paris, 16-17 July, 1889, and 31 August, 1 and 2 
September, 1900, published by the Grand Orient of France, and the regular official 
"Comptes rendus des travaux" of this Grand Orient, 1896-1910, and the "Rivista 
massonica," 1880- 1910). 


The efforts to bring about a closer union with Anglo-American and German 
Freemasonry were made principally by the Symbolical Grand Lodge of France and 
the "International Masonic Agency" at Neuchatel (directed by the Swiss Past Grand 
Master Quartier La Tente), attached to the little Grand Lodge "Alpina" of Switzerland. 
These two Grand Lodges, as disguised agents of the Grand Orient of France, act as 
mediators between this and the Masonic bodies of English-speaking and German 
countries. With English and American Grand Lodges their efforts till now have had 
but little success (see Intemat. Bulletin, 1908, 119, 127, 133, 149, 156; 1909, 186). 
Only the Grand Lodge of Iowa seems to have recognized the Grand Lodge of France 
(Chr. 1905, II, 58, 108, 235). The English Grand Lodge not only declined the offers, 
but, on 23 September, 1907, through its registrar even declared: "We feel, that we in 
England are better apart from such people. Indeed, Freemasonry is in such bad odour 
on the Continent of Europe, by reason of its being exploited by Socialists and 
Anarchists, that we may have to break off relations with more of the Grand Bodies 
who have forsaken our Landmarks" (from a letter of the Registrator J. Strahan, in 
London, to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts: see "The New Age," New York, 1909, 
I, 177). The American Grand Lodges (Massachusetts, Missouri, etc.), in general, seem 
to be resolved to follow the example of the English Grand Lodges. 



The German Grand Lodges, on the contrary, at least most of them, yielded to the 
pressure exercised on them by a great many German brothers. Captivated by the 
Grand Orient party on 3, June, 1906, the Federation of the eight German Grand 
Lodges, by 6 votes to 2, decreed to establish official friendly relations with the Grand 
Lodge, and on 27 May, 1909, by 5 votes to 3, to restore the same relations with the 
Grand Orient of France. This latter decree excited the greatest manifestations of joy, 
triumph and jubilation in the Grand Orient party, which considered it as an event of 
great historic import. But in the meantime a public press discussion was brought about 
by some incisive articles of the "Germania” (Berlin, 10 May, 1908; 9 June, 12 
November, 1909; 5, 19 February, 1910) with the result, that the three old Prussian 
Grand Lodges, comprising 37,198 brothers controlled by the protectorate, abandoned 
their ambiguous attitude and energetically condemned the decree of 27 May, 1909, 
and the attitude of the 5 other so-called "humanitarian" German Grand Lodges, which 
comprise but 16,448 brothers. It was hoped, that the British and American Grand 
Lodges, enticed by the example of the German Grand Lodges, would, in the face of 
the common secular enemy in the Vatican, join the Grand Orient party before the 
great universal Masonic congress, to be held in Rome in 1911. But instead of this 
closer union of universal Freemasonry dreamt of by the Grand Orient party, the only 
result was a split between the German Grand Lodges by which their federation itself 
was momentarily shaken to its foundation. 


But in spite of the failure of the official transactions, there are a great many German 
and not a few American Masons, who evidently favour at least the chief anti-clerical 
aims of the Grand Orient party. Startling evidence thereof was the recent violent 
worldwide agitation, which, on occasion of the execution of the anarchist, Bro. Ferrer, 
31, an active member of the Grand Orient of France (Barcelona, 13 October, 1909), 
was set at work by the Grand Orient of France (Circular of 14 October, 1909; "Franc- 
Mac. dem." 1906, 230 sqq.; 1907, 42, 176; 1909, 310, 337 sqq.; 1910, an 
"International Masonic Bulletin," Berne, 1909, 204 sq.), and of Italy (Rivista 
massonica, 1909, 337 sqq., 423), in order to provoke the organization of an 
international Kultunkampf after the French pattern. In nearly all countries of Europe 
the separation between State and Church and the laicization or neutralization of the 
popular instruction and education, were and are still demanded by all parties of the 
Left with redoubled impetuosity. 



The fact that there are also American Masons, who evidently advocate the 
Kulturkampf in America and stir up the international Kulturkampf, is attested by the 
example of Bros. J. D. Buck, 33, and A. Pike, 33. Buck published a book, "The 
Genius of Freemasonry," in which he advocates most energetically a Kulturkampf for 
the United States. This book, which in 1907, was in its 3rd edition, is recommended 
ardently to all American Masons by Masonic journals. A. Pike, as the Grand 
Commander of the Mother Supreme Council of the World (Charleston, South 
Carolina) lost no opportunity in his letters to excite the anti-clerical spirit of his 
colleagues. In a long letter of 28 December, 1886, for instance, he conjures the Italian 
Grand Commander, Timoteo Riboli, 33, the intimate friend of Garibaldi, to do all in 
his power, in order to unite Italian Masonry against the Vatican. He writes: "The 
Papacy . . . has been for a thousand years the torturer and curse of Humanity, the most 
shameless imposture, in its pretence to spiritual power of all ages. With its robes wet 
and reeking with the blood of half a million of human beings, with the grateful odour 
of roasted human flesh always in its nostrils, it is exulting over the prospect of 
renewed dominion. It has sent all over the world its anathemas against Constitutional 
government and the right of men to freedom of thought and conscience." Again, "In 
presence of this spiritual 'Cobra di capello,' this deadly, treacherous, murderous 
enemy, the most formidable power in the world, the unity of Italian Masonry is of 
absolute and supreme necessity; and to this paramount and omnipotent necessity all 
minor considerations ought to yield; dissensions and disunion, in presence of this 
enemy of the human race are criminal." "There must be no unyielding, 
uncompromising insistence upon particular opinions, theories, prejudices, professions: 
but, on the contrary, mutual concessions and harmonious co-operation." "The 
Freemasonry of the world will rejoice to see accomplished and consummated the 
Unity of the Italian Freemasonry" (Official Bulletin, September, 1887, 173 sqq.). 
Important Masonic journals, for instance, "The American Tyler-Key stone" (Ann 
Arbor), openly patronize the efforts of the French Grand Orient Party. "The absolute 
oneness of the Craft," says the Past Grand Master Clifford P. MacCalla 
(Pennsylvania), "is a glorious thought." "Neither boundaries of States nor vast oceans 
separate the Masonic Fraternity. Everywhere it is one." "There is no universal church, 
no universal body of politic; but there is an universal Fraternity, that Freemasonry; 
and every Brother who is a worthy member, may feel proud of it" (Chr., 1906, II, 

132). Owing to the solidarity existing between all Masonic bodies and individual 
Masons, they are all jointly responsible for the evil doings of their fellow-members. 


Representative Masons, however, extol the pretended salutary influence of their order 
on human culture and progress. "Masonry," says Frater, Grand Orator, Washington, 
"is the shrine of grand thoughts of beautiful sentiments, the seminary for the 



improvement of the moral and the mental standard of its members. As a storehouse of 
morality it rains benign influence on the mind and heart" (Chr., 1897, II, 148). 
"Modem Freemasonry," according to other Masons, "is a social and moral reformer" 
(Chr., 1888, II, 99). "No one," says the "Keystone" of Chicago, "has estimated or can 
estimate the far reaching character of the influence of Masonry in the world. It by no 
means is limited to the bodies of the Craft. Every initiate is a light bearer, a center of 
light" (Chr., 1889, II, 146). "In Germany- as in the United States and Great Britain 
those who have been leaders of men in intellectual, moral and social life, have been 
Freemasons. Eminent examples in the past are the Brothers Fichte, Herder, Wieland, 
Lessing, Goethe. Greatest of them all was -I. W. von Goethe. Well may we be proud 
of such a man" ("Keystone," quoted in Chr., 18 , II, 355), etc. German Masons (see 
Boos, 304-63) claim for Freemasonry a considerable part in the splendid development 
or German literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These claims, 
however, when critically examined, prove to be either groundless or exaggerated. 
English freemasonry, being then at a low intellectual and moral level and retrograding 
towards orthodoxy, was not quantified to be the originator or a leading factor in the 
freethinking "Culture or Enlightenment." German Masonry, then dominated by the 
Swedish system and the Strict observance and intellectually and morally degenerated, 
as Masonic historians themselves avow, was in no better plight. In truth the leading 
literary men of the epoch, Lessing, Goethe, Herder, etc., were cruelly disabused and 
disappointed by what they saw and experienced in their lodge life (Gruber [6], 141- 
236). Lessing spoke with contempt of the lodge life; Goethe characterized the 
Masonic associations and doings as "fools and rogues"; Herder wrote, 9 January 1786, 
to the celebrated philologist Bro. Heyne: "I beat a deadly hatred to all secret societies 
and, as a result of my experience, both within their innermost circles and outside, I 
wish them all to the devil. For persistent domineering intrigues and the spirit of cabal 
creep beneath the cover" (Boos, 326). 


Freemasonry, far from contributing to the literary greatness of these or other leading 
men, profited by the external splendour which their membership reflected on it. But 
the advantage was by no means deserved, for even at the height of their literary fame, 
not they, but common swindlers, like Johnson, Cagliostro, etc., were the centres round 
which the Masonic world gravitated. All the superior men belonging to Freemasonry: 
Fichte, Fessler, Krause, Schroder, Mossdorf, Schiffman, Findel, etc., so far as they 
strove to purge lodge life from humbug, were treated ignominiously by the bulk of the 
average Masons and even by lodge authorities. Men of similar turn of mind are 
stigmatized by English and American Masonic devotees as "materialists" and 
"iconoclasts" (Chr., 1885, 1, 85; 1900, II, 71). But true it is that the lodges work 
silently and effectually for the propagation and application of "unsectarian" Masonic 



principles in human society and life. The Masonic magazines abound in passages to 
this effect. Thus Bro. Richardson of Tennessee avers: "Freemasonry does its work 
silently, but it is the work of a deep river, that silently pushes on towards the ocean, 
etc." (Chr., 1889, 1, 308). "The abandonment of old themes and the formation of new 
ones," explained Grand High Priest, J. W. Taylor (Georgia), "do not always arise from 
the immediately perceptible cause which the world assigns, but are the culmination of 
principles which have been working in the minds of men for many years, until at last 
the proper time and propitious surroundings kindle the latent truth into life, and, as the 
light of reason flows from mind to mind and the unity of purpose from heart to heart, 
enthusing all with a mighty common cause and moving nations as one man to the 
accomplishment of great ends. On this principle does the institution of Freemasonry 
diffuse its influence to the world of mankind. It works quietly and secretly, but 
penetrates through all the interstices of society in its many relations, and the recipients 
of its many favors are awed by its grand achievements, but cannot tell whence it 
came" (Chr., 1897, II, 303). The "Voice" (Chicago) writes: "Never before in the 
history of ages has Freemasonry occupied so important a position, as at the present 
time. Never was its influence so marked, its membership so extensive, its teaching so 
revered." "There are more Masons outside the great Brotherhood than within it." 
Through its "pure morality" with which pure Freemasonry is synonymous, it 
"influences society, and, unperceived, sows the seed that brings forth fruit in 
wholesome laws and righteous enactments. It upholds the right, relieves the 
distressed, defends the weak and raises the fallen (of course, all understood in the 
Masonic sense above explained), so, silently but surely and continually, it builds into 
the great fabric of human society" (Chr., 1889, II, 257 sq.). 


The real force of Freemasonry in its outer work is indeed, that there are more Masons 
and oftentimes better qualified for the performance of Masonic work, outside the 
brotherhood than within it. Freemasonry itself in Europe and in America founds 
societies and institutions of similar form and scope for all classes of society and 
infuses into them its spirit. Thus according to Gould (Concise History, 2) 
Freemasonry since about 1750 "has exercised a remarkable influence over all other 
oath-bound societies." The same is stated by Bro. L. Blanc, Deschamps, etc., for 
Germany and other countries. In the United States, according to the "Cyclopedia of 
Fraternities," there exist more than 600 secret societies, working more or less under 
the veil of forms patterned on Masonic symbolism and for the larger part notably 
influenced by Freemasonry, so that every third male adult in the United States is a 
member of one or more of such secret societies. "Freemasonry," says the 
"Cyclopedia," p. v, "of course, is shown to be the mother- Fraternity in fact as well as 
in name." "Few who are well informed on the subject, will deny that the Masonic 



Fraternity is directly or indirectly the parent organization of all modern secret 
societies, good, bad and indifferent" (ibid., p. xv). 


Many Anglo-American Freemasons are wont to protest strongly against all charges 
accusing Freemasonry of interfering with political or religious affairs or of hostility to 
the Church or disloyalty to the public authorities. They even praise Freemasonry as 
"one of the strongest bulwards of religion" (Chr., 1887, II, 340), "the handmaid of the 
church" (Chr., -1885, II, 355) "the handmaid of religion" (Chr., 1887, 1, 119). "There 
is nothing in the nature of the Society," says the "Royal Craftsman," New York, "that 
necessitates the renunciation of a single sentence of any creed, the discontinuance of 
any religious customs or the obliteration of a dogma of belief. No one is asked to deny 
the Bible, to change his Church relations or to be less attentive to the teaching of his 
spiritual instructors and counsellors" (Chr., 1887, II, 49). "Masonry indeed contains 
the pith of Christianity" (Chr., 1875, 1, 1 13). "It is a great mistake to suppose it an 
enemy of the Church." "It does not offer itself as a substitute of that divinely ordained 
institution." "It offers itself as an adjunct, as an ally, as a helper in the great work of 
the regeneration of the race, of the uplifting of man" (Chr., 1890, II, 101). Hence, "we 
deny the right of the Romish Church to exclude from its communion those of its flock 
who have assumed the responsibility of the Order of Freemasonry" (Chr., 1875, 1, 

1 13). Though such protestations seem to be sincere and to reveal even a praiseworthy 
desire in their authors not to conflict with religion and the Church, they are 
contradicted by notorious facts. Certainly Freemasonry and "Christian" or "Catholic" 
religion are not opposed to each other, when Masons, some erroneously and others 
hypocritically understand "Christian" or "Catholic" in the above described Masonic 
sense, or when Masonry itself is mistakenly conceived as an orthodox Christian 
institution. But between "Masonry" and "Christian" or "Catholic" religion, conceived 
as they really are: between "unsectarian" Freemasonry and "dogmatic, orthodox" 
Christianity or Catholicism, there is a radical opposition. It is vain to say: though 
Masonry is officially "unsectarian," it does not prevent individual Masons from being 
"sectarian" in their non-Masonic relations; for in its official "unsectarianism" 
Freemasonry necessarily combats all that Christianity contains beyond the "universal 
religion in which all men agree," consequently all that is characteristic of the Christian 
and Catholic religion. These characteristic features Freemasonry combats not only as 
superfluous and merely subjective, but also as spurious additions disfiguring the 
objective universal truth, which it professes. To ignore Christ and Christianity, is 
practically to reject them as unessential framework. 



But Freemasonry goes farther and attacks Catholicism openly. The "Voice" 

(Chicago), for instance, in an article which begins: "There is nothing in the Catholic 
religion which is adverse to Masonry," continues, "for the truth is, that Masonry 
embodies that religion in which all men agree This is as true as that all veritable 
religion, wherever found, is in substance the same. Neither is it in the power of any 
man or body of men to make it otherwise. Doctrines and forms of observance 
conformable to piety, imposed by spiritual overseers, may be as various as the courses 
of wind; and like the latter may war with each other upon the face of the whole earth, 
but they are not religion. Bigotry and zeal, the assumptions of the priestcraft, with all 
its countless inventions to magnify and impress the world ... are ever the mainsprings 
of strife, hatred and revenge, which defame and banish religion and its inseparable 
virtues, and work unspeakable mischief, wherever mankind are found upon the earth. 
Popery and priestcraft are so allied, that they may be called the same; the truth being, 
that the former is nothing more nor less than a special case of the latter, being a 
particular form of a vicious principle, which itself is but the offspring of a conceit of 
self sufficiency and the lust of dominion. Nothing which can be named, is more 
repugnant to the spirit of Masonry, nothing to be more carefully guarded against, and 
this has been always well understood by all skillful masters, and it must in truth be 
said, that such is the wisdom of the lessons, i. e. of Masonic instruction in Lodges, 
etc." (Chr., 1887, 1, 35). In similar discussions, containing in almost every word a 
hidden or open attack on Christianity, the truly Masonic magazines and books of all 
countries abound. Past Grand Deacon J. C. Parkinson, an illustrious English Mason, 
frankly avows: "The two systems of Romanism and Freemasonry are not only 
incompatible, but they are radically opposed to each other" (Chr., 1884, II, 17): and 
American Masons say: "We won't make a man a Freemason, until we know that he 
isn't a Catholic." (Chr., 1890, II, 347: see also 1898, 1, 83). 


With respect to loyalty towards "lawful government" American Masons pretend that 
"everywhere Freemasons, individually and collectively, are loyal and active 
supporters of republican or constitutional governments" ("Voice" quoted in Chr., 

1890, 1, 98). "Our principles are all republican" ("Voice" in Chr., 1893, 1, 130). 
"Fidelity and Loyalty, and peace and order, and subordination to lawful authorities are 
household gods of Freemasonry" ("Voice" in Chr., 1890, 1, 98); and English 
Freemasons declare, that, "the loyalty of English Masons is proverbial" (Chr., 1899, 1, 
301). These protestations of English and American Freemasons in general may be 
deemed sincere, as far as their own countries and actual governments are concerned. 
Not even the revolutionary Grand Orient of France thinks of overthrowing the actual 
political order in France, which is in entire conformity with its wishes. The question 
is, whether Freemasons respect a lawful Government in their own and other countries, 



when it is not inspired by Masonic principles. In this respect both English and 
American Freemasons, by their principles and conduct provoke the condemnatory 
verdict of enlightened and impartial public opinion. We have already above hinted at 
the whimsical Article II of the "Old Charges," calculated to encourage rebellion 
against governments which are nor according lo who wishes of Freemasonry. The 
"Freemason's Chronicle" but faithfully expresses the sentiments of Anglo American 
Freemasonry, when it writes: "If we were to assert that under no circumstances had a 
Mason been found willing to take arms against a bad government, we should only be 
declaring that, in trying moments, when duty, in the Masonic sense, to state means 
antagonism to the Government, they had failed in the highest and most sacred duty of 
a citizen. Rebellion in some cases is a sacred duty, and none, but a bigot or a fool, will 
say, that our countrymen were in the wrong, when they took arms against King James 
II. Foyalty to freedom in a case of this kind overrides all other considerations, and 
when to rebel means to be free or to perish, it would be idle to urge that a man must 
remember obligations which were never intended to rob him of his status of a human 
being and a citizen" (Chr., 1875, 1, 81). 


Such language would equally suit every anarchistic movement. The utterances quoted 
were made in defence of plotting Spanish Masons. Only a page further the same 
English Masonic magazine writes: "Assuredly Italian Masonry, which has rendered 
such invaluable service in the regeneration of that magnificent country," "is worthy of 
the highest praise" (Chr., 1875, 1, 82). "A Freemason, moved by lofty principles," says 
the "Voice" (Chicago), "may rightly strike a blow at tyranny and may consort with 
others to bring about needed relief, in ways that are not ordinarily justifiable. History 
affords numerous instances of acts which have been justified by subsequent events, 
and none of us, whether Masons or not, are inclined to condemn the plots hatched 
between Paul Revere, Dr. J. Warren and others, in the old Green Dragon Tavern, the 
headquarters of Colonial Freemasonry in New England, because these plots were 
inspired by lofty purposes and the result not only justified them, but crowned these 
heroes with glory" (Chr., 1889, 1, 178). "No Freemason," said Right Rev. H. C. Potter 
on the centenary of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch, New York, "may honourably 
bend the knee to any foreign potentate (not even to King Edward VII of England, civil 
or ecclesiastical (the Pope), or yield allegiance to any alien sovereignty, temporal or 
spiritual" (Chr., 1889, II, 94). From this utterance it is evident that according to Potter 
no Catholic can be a Mason. In conformity with these principles American and 
English Freemasons supported the leaders of the revolutionary movement on the 
European continent. Kossuth, who "had been leader in the rebellion against Austrian 
tyranny," was enthusiastically received by American Masons, solemnly initiated into 
Freemasonry at Cincinnati, 21 April, 1852, and presented with a generous gift as a 



proof "that on the altar of St. John's Lodge the fire of love burnt so brightly, as to flash 
its light even into the deep recesses and mountain fastnesses of Hungary" ("Keyotone" 
of Philadelphia quoted by Chr., 1881, 1, 414; the '-Voice" of Chicago, ibid., 277). 
Garibaldi, "the greatest Freemason of Italy" ("Intern. Bull.," Beme, 1907, 98) and 
Mazzini were also encouraged by Anglo-American Freemasons in their revolutionary 
enterprises (Chr., 1882, 1, 410; 1893, 1, 185; 1899, II, 34). "The consistent Mason," 
says the "Voice" (Chicago), "will never be found engaged in conspiracies or plots for 
the puipose of overturning and subverting a government based upon the Masonic 
principles of liberty and equal rights" (Chr., 1892, 1, 259). "But," declares Pike, "with 
tongue and pen, with all our open and secret influences, with the purse, and if need be, 
with the sword, we will advance the cause of human progress and labour to 
enfranchise human thought, to give freedom to the human conscience (above all from 
papal 'usurpations') and equal rights to the people everywhere. Wherever a nation 
struggles to gain or regain its freedom, wherever the human mind asserts its 
independence and the people demand their inalienable rights, there shall go our 
warmest sympathies" (Pike [4], IV, 547). 


(To be concluded) 




SCHENECTADY'S OLDEST MASONIC LODGE PLANS 
HIGHER EDUCATION FOR BOYS IN UTICA HOME 


Following the report rendered by its representative to the recent meeting of the Grand 
Lodge of the State of New York and the visit paid by several members of the lodge to 
Utica early this week, a resolution was adopted by St. George's Lodge, No. 6, F. and A. 
M., at its stated communication last night, providing for a scholarship at Union College, 
to be known as the "St. George's Lodge, No. 6, F. and A. M. Scholarship." 



This scholarship is for a full four years' course leading to any of the degrees conferred 
in course at Union College and is available during any of the years, 1919, 1920, 1921, 
1922 or 1923, for any boy of the Masonic Home at Utica, having the necessary 
qualifications for matriculation at the college during any one of the years specified. 


The amount of the scholarship is dependent upon the academic standing maintained by 
the student to whom the scholarship is awarded, as follows: For an average minimum 
standing in all subjects for any one year, $200 annually; for an average grade of 85 per 
cent in all subjects, $250 annually; for an average grade of 90 per cent, $300 annually. 


This scholarship may be renewed from time to time as occasion may demand. 


There are at present at the Home in Utica about 200 boys, all of whom attend the public 
schools at Utica, as well as a similar number of girls. The standing maintained by these 
children in the public schools is above that of the average student. 


St. George's and Union College are among the two oldest and historic institutions of 
their kind in the nation, the birth of both dating back to Colonial times. The lodge was 
established in 1774, getting its charter from the Grand Lodge of England and the 
college was founded but a few years later, in 1795, so that the personnel of the two 
institutions have played a large part in the life of the community. President Charles A. 
Richmond of the college has expressed his delight at this manifestation of co-operation 
in this education work. 


- Schenectady (N.Y.) Union Star. 




SWEET MASONRY 



BY BRO. L. B. MITCHELL. MICHIGAN 


Sweet Masonry, earth's precious best to your own heart and mine, 
The trysting place of happy cheer, the sacred mystic shrine 
Where we may on the Level meet and close the door to care 
And just forget for one sweet while all else save heart repair. 

Sweet Masonry, a world its own where flowers ever bloom, 
Perennials through storm and shine for every day of gloom. 

Its orbit swings around the Light in such peculiar way 
That there is naught but fragrance in the dawning of its day. 

Sweet Masonry, built into form by altruistic Art 
It is a Temple gracious to the pleadings of the heart; 

The Middle Chamber of its soul clean-swept and garnished glows 
And in its light no hurtful thing may dare to seek repose. 

Sweet Masonry, just Masonry, the undiluted kind, 

Unknown as ventures of the world, is what we love to find, 

And pray that ne'er to it may come, though spacious be the plea 
That which at last may break the heart of true fraternity . 





EDITORIAL 


A PRACTICAL MASONRY LOR A PRACTICAL WORLD 


THROUGH the advent of the Masonic Service Association of the United States it may 
be said that Masonry of America is launching out on a new venture. What is in store 
depends largely upon the co-operative spirit among the Craft manifesting itself in such 
a manner as will warrant that whatsoever it undertakes to do will be done successfully. 


The war, as no other agency, brought home the Institution's limitations in doing 
efficient work in a time of national emergency. We are now assured that in the future 
the benevolent and fraternal enterprises of the Craft will not be of a sectional character. 
United in body as well as in spirit, the co-ordinated effort of concentrative genius is to 
save us from the embarrassment of helplessness when we are conscious of national 
duties to be performed, and never again are we to find ourselves inadequately equipped 
or prepared to face them. 


Masonry in the future therefore will be avowedly more closely identified with whatever 
work there is to be done that will be of national scope and character. The rapidity of the 
growth of the fraternity is making demand that the mission and puipose of 
freemasonry be restated in no uncertain terms. This has become provokingly 
imperative, probably owing to the fact that in the making of many Masons Masonic 
principle, aspiration and effort has too frequently been obscured by aesthetic enjoyment 
of the ceremonials. As an illustration of this we may simply say that in passing through 
a forest we fail to observe the strength and beauty of the various trees of which the 
forest is composed. Doubtless many varieties of impressions have been left upon the 
new Mason, and on his part there has likely been a reasonable appreciation Df the 
lectures in which the great fundamentals of right living have been dwelt upon. But there 
is need of more than the assent of the intellect to certain stated principles. There must 
be such apprehension of their necessity for life in all its phases that the initiate will feel 



the compunction of translating them into his own life and conduct. Hence the demand 
for stating clearly the Masonic principles and testing its adequacy for meeting the new 
problems of life with which the world revolution has brought us face to face. 


That the Masonic Service Association of the United States is a move in the right 
direction we confidently believe. For the first time in the history of American Masonry 
we witness an attempt to abolish the provincialisms hitherto known among us as the 
chief promoters of jurisdictional jealousies, and the militant deniers of the necessity of 
practicing on a large scale that which is declared among us theoretically as being a 
world necessity. 


From now on a solidarity of interests will be championed by a solidarity of effort. Our 
immediate program then demands that we enlighten ourselves and instruct carefully 
those who come within our gates on the social and individual determinative power of 
Masonry. We must demonstrate the reasonableness of its philosophy, the claim of its 
ethical principles upon the conscience and the practicability of obedience to its 
principles in the common affairs that minister to the good of mankind. Such a task as 
that which confronts us is, no doubt, much beyond the conceptions of many Masons 
who are in our midst, and whose measure of the significance of Masonry is epitomized 
in the joy of seeing yet another Mason made. 


Let us repudiate the lethargy that too often characterizes us in the realm of the intellect 
and the spirit. Let us know and realize for ourselves the nature and puipose of this great 
Institution of which we are a part. We are not prophets, but we say with confidence that 
unless once more the Spirit of the Craft grips us and proves itself to be indispensable to 
our happiness and welfare Masonry, as an institution, is doomed. Its glory will depart, 
and over our portals we may well write "Ichabod." We are in the throes of the 
revaluation of things and Masonry with everything else will be subjected to the analysis 
and judgment of those who are to be the re-makers of this old broken world. That they 
will find much in Masonry of the necessary material for the erection of the Temple of 
Humanity, who of those that have delved into Masonic philosophy, history and 
achievement, will deny? If the potency of the Craft for the reconstruction period is to be 
discovered through us, what serious and weighty obligations are indeed ours! A 
practical Masonry for a practical world is the urgent need. We must relegate to where 
he belongs the dogmatic speculator and consign to keep him company those whose 
chief joy seems to consist in quarreling about the millinery and the genesis of the Craft. 



If to be a Mason is indeed to be a Builder, no time like our own has challenged his skill, 
zeal and ingenuity. Surely the vision is such among all the brethren as to warrant our 
day being the greatest ever known in service to humanity. 


Robert Tipton. 


* * * 


CO-ORDINATION NEEDED 


The greatest need of the Masonic Fraternity today is co-ordination or unity of effort and 
purpose. The war is over, and we are rapidly returning to a pre-war basis. As the 
confusion and turmoil subsides we are being given to sober consideration, and are 
confronted with the fact that much of the effort of Masonry that would have been of 
real service during the war, failed because of lack of co-ordination. Instead of 
Freemasonry becoming a factor in war activity, we had in the United States, forty-nine 
separate groups, each posing as Freemasonry and endeavoring to gain recognition in 
war service. Much criticism has been directed against the War Department and the 
authorities in Washington, because of the fact that Freemasonry was not permitted to 
construct buildings in cantonments, and to become otherwise recognized among the 
great institutions which sought to render service to our soldiers. It has been contended 
that the refusal to permit Freemasonry to participate in these enterprises was due to 
sinister influences in Washington. The state authorities, however, declare that 
Freemasonry had not presented itself in organized form, and that instead, forty-nine 
groups of individuals, each posing as representatives of Freemasonry, sought to engage 
in war activity and that it was quite impossible for the Government to recognize one of 
these groups without recognizing all. The truth about the matter is that Freemasonry 
failed in a way, because it lacked central organization. Each group devised plans all of 
its own and sought to carry them out without regard to other Masonic interests. A fair 
example of this is shown in a friendly controversy which arose between the Supreme 
Council of the Southern jurisdiction and the Grand Fodge of New York. Each 
organization sought to go overseas in the interest of our soldiers, and each set up the 
claim of recognizing the Masons of the country. It was only when these two great 
institutions joined their interests, that they were enabled to accomplish their mission. 



The time has arrived in our Masonic evolution, when Freemasonry can no longer be 
considered as bound by state rights, or limited to groups of individuals. To secure 
proper recognition of the institution as a vital factor in human activity, there must be 
organization and co-ordination of effort. 


In the period of reconstruction and readjustment which is taking place, Freemasonry 
should divorce itself from the old idea of state rights and commence to plan for a unity 
of puipose. This can only be accomplished through some sort of central organization; 
call it whatever you may. Before Freemasonry is going to gain recognition as a world 
force, it must break down the barriers of jurisdiction which envelope each Grand Lodge 
and must subscribe to a general platform of basic principles. This does not mean the 
formation of any National Grand Lodge, but it does mean that there is needed a 
National Council of Administration which shall formulate a plan to which all the Grand 
Lodges of the United States may subscribe, and along which they may work for the best 
interests of Freemasonry. 


Forty-nine groups of Masons each raised monies for war puiposes, and each group 
made expenditures which were, no doubt, beneficial and helpful to those reached, but 
how much greater would have been the benefit had all these diversified efforts been 
merged into one direct puipose? Not only would there have hoon finsMeial saving but 
the fraternity would have been enabled to secure that recognition which was denied it 
because of its disorganized condition. 


Dr. Ralph H. Wheeler, of Chicago, had this idea in mind when he organized the Illinois 
Masonic Council of Defense, and suggested at that time the necessity of a National 
Organization along similar lines. He had no more than made the suggestion, until a lot 
of Masons commenced to get out their sledge hammers and vigorously knock the 
enterprise, charging that it was merely a scheme of the promoter to exploit himself into 
a National Presidency - a charge which bears close kin to much of the argument against 
a National Grand Lodge. 



George L. Schoonover, Grand Master of Iowa, is another man who has lifted himself 
out of the Masonic rut, and last Fall called a meeting of Grand Masters in his State to 
consider ways and means of establishing a National Council of Administration. Brother 
Schoonover has seen the necessity of unified Masonic effort. 


There is today a tremendous effort among the Christian churches of the world to merge 
into one great Church of Christ with a central organization and a singleness of puipose. 
Peter Ainslee, one of the leaders of this movement, said in this city last Sunday, that 
within five years this great movement will have bom fruition, and that there will be in 
this country but one Church devoid of denominationalism and sectarianism. This 
enterprise, when presented to the Pope of Rome, was flatly turned down because the 
Catholic church has today one of the most thoroughly organized systems of co- 
ordinated effort which the world knows anything about. 


It is now time for the Freemasonry of the United States to lay aside its prejudice, to 
forget narrow traditions of the past, and commence to lay a foundation for a great 
organized effort which will make the fraternity a potent factor in the affairs of the 
world. 


Delmar D. Darrah, in The Illinois Freemason. 




THE YOUNGER BROTHER 


BY BRO. GERALD A. NANC ARROW, INDIANA 


When we have a younger brother 



Who is learning his new part, 

Let us, as we prompt and question, 

Teach him also from the heart; 

As he learns his new-found science 
Let us teach him, too, the art. 

Let us aid him in the shaping 
And the smoothing of his block; 

Let us spread a binding mortar 
And thus add a firmer rock 
To our structure: Make him granite 
By the knowledge we unlock. 

Show him more than words and phrases, 
More than empty form and shell, 

Let him see the wealth of beauty 
In the lessons which we tell; 

Help him move toward strength and service 
And to meet his trials well. 


— o — 



Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, 
And hope without an object cannot live. 


-o- 


THE LIBRARY 


EDITED BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD 


The object of this Department is to acquaint our readers with time-tried Masonic books 
not always familiar; with the best Masonic literature now being published; and with 
such non-Masonic books as may especially appeal to Masons. The Library Editor will 
be very glad to render any possible assistance to studious individuals or to study clubs 
and lodges, either through this Department or by personal correspondence; if you wish 
to leam something concerning any book - what is its nature, what is its value, or how it 
may be obtained - be free to ask him. If you have read a book which you think is worth 
a review write us about it; if you desire to purchase a book - any book - we will help 
you get it, with no charge for the service. Make this YOUR Department of Literary 
Consultation. 


A VANISHING RACE 


“The American Indians" by William Harvey Miner can be obtained from the author, 
3518 Franklin Ave., St. Louis. Published by Cambridge University Press. 


THE present writer knows nothing about Indians. Few men do. Two or three of 
Coopers' tales, a calendar, a movie picture now and then, some traditions, and a parade 
on circus day, such are the sources of information available to most persons. Needless 



to say, the popular idea of the red man is nothing but a travesty. The American Indian, 
before the white man came with his new devices, his strange customs, and social order 
so different, was a real man, as much a man in his own way as any white man. He had 
his own peculiar civilization and he was seemingly happy. 


The Indian is today being preyed upon by every imaginable variety of human haipy; he 
is child-like, easily deceived by a white man's wiles and all that; he needs friends. He 
does not need charity. Least of all should he be treated like an inferior being. He has a 
right to a country of his own, to a social order in which he can be happy, and to an 
industrial system which accords with his own nature. 


Such of our readers as are interested in these strange brethren of ours will read with 
profit the little treatise, beautifully written and tastefully printed, which has been written 
by Mr. Miner. If the writer knew Indians as well as he knows the author of this book he 
himself could write such a treatise; it would not, however, be so scholarly, so 
comprehensive. How my friend managed to compress so much information into 150 
pages is still a mystery to me. It is there: that I know: chapters on Indian sociology, 
tribes, mythology, and all that. There is a list of books on the subject so complete that 
Methusaleh himself would be kept reading all his days. And there is a complete index, a 
thing to delight a student. The chapter on mythology will most interest a Mason. As to 
Indian Masonry there never was, of course, any such impossible thing. 


* * * 


THE WAR IN THE HEART 


"Soul Crises" by James William Robinson. Published by The Gorham Press, 194-200 
Boylston St., Boston, Mass., at $1.25. 



The author of this volume is a Mason and a preacher, which means that he is doubly 
serious concerning the great matters which alone count. He understands, as does every 
teacher of morals or religion, that the war is not over and will not be over for 
generations to come. The military crisis is past; the political crisis is now being faced; 
the soul crisis will be with us for many years to come. 


What is a "soul crisis" ? The term is awkward but it means something. It means that a 
man may call into question his own ideals, that he may find his most deeply rooted 
convictions crumbling, that he may pass through some cataclysmic physical or spiritual 
change, or is conscious of the possibility of such an experience. Needless to say, the 
war has precipitated such a critical experience in many a soul, as well as in the world as 
a whole. This war is nothing to boast about; it is nothing to gloat over; it is nothing to 
be proud of; it was the most terrible catastrophe that ever befell the earth; the mere 
magnitude of it does not redeem it. It was totally unnecessary; ten million young men 
are dead who might and should now be alive. A group of mad imperialists, leading a 
weak world to the brink, shoved it over; the world may hate those men but it must now 
face the fact that it is a far from perfect world. 


To be alive in such a world; to find the ancient laws and the old order going to pieces, 
calls into question many former convictions in an honest mind. The author of this book 
has tried to face this predicament and to answer the agonized questions called forth by 
such a situation. He has not answered all the questions, nor even some of the more 
pressing ones, but he has made a manly attempt, and the book is worth reading. 


* * * 


ATHEISM AND THE WAR 


"Religion and the War," edited by E. Hershey Sneath, and written by members of the 
Faculty of the School of Religion, Yale University. Published by the Yale University 
Press, 120 College Street, New Haven, Conn. Price $1.00. 



Now that the war is over, organized religion is on the defensive. Why didn't Christianity 
stop the war? Why was a war necessary in a Christian world? Such questions as these 
are being bruited about, much to the discomfiture of many persons. Those who believe 
in Christianity are trying to show that it has never broken down; those who believe in 
atheism are trying to show that Christianity has gone to pieces permanently. The 
members of the Faculty of the School of Religion of Yale University are interested in 
such matters. They have said something worth reading. 


The volume, described at the head of this little review, contains ten essays written by 
ten different men, among them being Charles Reynolds Brown, B. W. Bacon, Harlan P. 
Beach, and Williston Walker. These men, none of them, have any very flaming thing to 
say; they are all a bit confused; they offer no one; single profound truth as a relief for the 
mind-ache of those countless thinkers who have been so perturbed by the world 
catastrophe: but they offer many suggestions and hints which men will find useful, 
interesting and helpful. 


What can be said about religion and the war that is of much permanent value? Little can 
be said just now while our minds are so upset; a little later we shall all come back again 
to our own self-possession of thought and life, and then we may begin to read rightly 
the lessons of the war. Religion could not prevent the war as things were, that goes 
without saying: it means that we have never yet found a religion that is strong or true 
enough to govern the hearts of men, which is only another way of saying, the world. 

But such a religion is coming; God is; truth is; spiritual power is; when we become 
clean and courageous enough we shall live a religion that is true. There will be no wars 
then. 


* * * 


THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF UNIVERSALISM 



"The Social Implications of Universalism," by Clarence R. Skinner. Published by the 
Murray Press, Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. 


This little book, written by a friend of the present writer, is worth many times more than 
its modest price of fifty cents, for it presents in simple language an ideal of religion 
which is actually workable. It is high time that religion were becoming lowly enough to 
give an account of itself in dollars and cents. By that, one may mean in a broad way, it 
should be known by its present results more than by its hopes and dreams. Professor 
Skinner is a theological teacher of a new order, one who understands that religion is 
life, a life seeking freedom from poverty, disease, and superstition. The lover of a fixed 
Deed will quarrel with the author but the sooner such a quarrel is started, the better for 
the world, because there is literally not one hard and fast creed in existence that does 
not shut out some light from the searching soul. Moreover creeds are often unnecessary. 
To know God as a Friend, to know your neighbor as a brother, to have a great self- 
respect for yourself, this is religion, and this religion, simple as it is, is the everlasting 
religion. This little volume is one syllable in a new bible which is being written now by 
all sincere and earnest religious teachers. Mr. Skinner does not use "Universalism" in 
any sectarian sense but merely as a symbol of the largest possible hopes for our whole 
human family here and hereafter. 


— o- 


SEPTEMBER BOOK LIST 


It is becoming more and more difficult each year to procure standard and authentic 
books on Masonic subjects for the reason that many of the earlier works are out of print 
and second-hand copies are in many instances unobtainable. Many individual Masons, 
as well as lodges and study groups, are constantly asking us to recommend suitable 
publications for the foundation of Masonic libraries or additions to those already 
started. To accommodate these brethren and other members of the Society who are in 
search of such material we shall publish in this department each month a list of such 
books as we have in stock. The prices quoted include postage. 



1915 bound volume of THE BUILDER 


$3.00 


1916 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3 .00 

1917 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3 .00 

1918 bound volume of THE BUILDER 3.50 

Mackey's Encyclopaedia, 1918 edition, two volumes, black Fabrikoid binding 
15.00 


The Builders, a story and study of Masonry, by Brother Joseph Fort Newton. 
1.50 


Philosophy of Masonry, by Bro. Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Harvard Law 
School 1.25 


Symbolism of Freemasonry, Mackey 3.15 

True Principles of Freemasonry, Grant 2.00 
Speculative Masonry, MacBride 2.00 


Early History and Antiquities of Masonry, Fort 7.50 

Concise History of Freemasonry, Robert Freke Gould, English Edition 4.50 


1 722 Constitutions (reproduced by photographic plates from an original copy in the 
archives of the Iowa Masonic Library, Cedar Rapids.) Edition limited to 1,000 
copies 2.00 



"The Story of Old Glory, The Oldest Flag," by P.G.M. Barry, Iowa, red buffing 
binding, gilt lettering, illustrated 1 .25 


"The Story of Old Glory, The Oldest Flag," paper covers .50 


Further Notes on the Comacine Masters, Ravenscroft, illustrated .50 


Symbolism of the Three Degrees, Street, (pamphlet) .35 


Symbolism of the First Degree, Gage, (pamphlet) . 1 5 


Symbolism of the Third Degree, Ball, (pamphlet) .15 

Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism, Waite, (pamphlet) .15 




TRITE AND SLY 


What is Masonry to us if 'tis not abounding cheer 

All the blessed year around in the precious now and here? 



It should be to consciousness Love's sweet rippling undertone 
Ringing right into our lives nature's best, her very own. 

It will be all this and more if we truly qualify, 

For the Art just waits on us, faithful, gentle, true and sly. 


L.B.M. 


-o- 


THE QUESTION BOX 


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


The Question Box and Correspondence Column are open to all members of the Society 
at all times. Questions of any nature on Masonic subjects are earnestly invited from our 
members, particularly those connected with lodges or study clubs which are following 
our "Bulletin Course of Masonic Study." When requested, questions will be answered 
promptly by mail before publication in this department. 


INTRODUCTION OF MASONRY INTO ARIZONA, IDAHO 
NEW MEXICO, OKLAHOMA AND WASHINGTON 



I am making a study of Masonic history and would like the following information: 
From what jurisdictions was Masonry introduced into the States or Territories of 
Washington, Idaho New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma? 


W.P.M., Texas. 


The first lodge in Arizona was "Aztlan Lodge" located at Prescott, chartered by the 
Grand Lodge of California, October 1 1, 1866. The Grand Lodge of California later 
chartered "Arizona Lodge No. 257" at Phoenix, October 16, 1879, and "Tucson Lodge 
No. 263" at Tucson, on October 15, 1881. The Grand Lodge of New Mexico chartered 
"White Mountain Lodge No. 5” at Globe, on January 18, 1881. 


The first lodges in Idaho were constituted under warrants issued by the Grand Lodges 
of Oregon and Washington. 


The Grand Lodge of Missouri chartered the first three lodges organized in New 
Mexico. 


The first lodges in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) were chartered by the Grand 
Lodges of Arkansas and Kansas. 


The first lodges in Washington were chartered by the Grant Lodges of Missouri and 
Oregon. 


* * * 


INTERESTED IN THE CATHOLIC ARTICLE ON MASONRY 



I have been reading with much interest and profit (as I always do each issue) the July 
number of THE BUILDER, just received. The idea to print in full the article on 
Masonry from the Catholic Encyclopedia is a splendid one; it bristles with points of 
interest for a Masonic student to investigate and probably report upon. 


Will you please give in the next instalment the exact reference of this Encyclopedia - 
title, date of publication, edition etc. ? This would help in determining if this is an up- 
to-date Catholic opinion or not. It probably is recent, as they refer to literature of 1906 
and 1907, etc. 


The interesting account by Brother Bingham of his visit to the Canongate Kilwinning 
Lodge No. 2, Edinburgh, brings back to me the memories of a visit to this same lodge 
in 1910 when I had the privilege of seeing the work in the First degree. T.G.L., 
Minnesota. 


The title of the work referred to is "The Catholic Encyclopedia, Special Edition under 
the auspices of the Knights of Columbus Catholic Truth Committee," published by 
"The Encyclopedia Press, Inc.," Nest York City. Copyrighted in 1912 and 1913. This is 
probably the latest edition as our set was purchased about two years ago. The work 
comprises fifteen volumes. 


* * * 


THE GROWTH OF THE OBLIGATIONS 


Is there any information to be obtained which accounts for the growth of the obligations 
on the Third degree to their present forms, and describing their origins? 



N.W.J.H., Ontario. 


Possibly so, but we have never seen anything written on the subject. A very logical 
reason for such growth has been advanced by Brother Haywood in his article on "The 
Obligation" in the June, 1918, issue of THE BUILDER wherein he states that "as the 
Institution grew in numbers new duties would arise, new conditions would have to he 
met, and the candidate would be required to obligate himself accordingly." There is one 
section in the obligation which the writer took in another State that is not in the Iowa 
obligation but which might very well be inserted, in his opinion. It is easy to see how 
the obligations might have been added to as new Grand Lodges were organized from 
time to time, and new rituals adopted. Where a number of men from different States 
were assigned the task of compiling a new ritual for a new Grand Lodge each would 
undoubtedly have his own ideas as to the composition of the obligations and a 
discussion of the various sections would lead to the incoiporation in the new work of 
the best features of the old work to which they had been individually accustomed and at 
the same time one or more of the committee might have one or two new ideas which 
they believed should be adopted and thus the new obligation would contain something 
that the old ones lacked. 


* * * 


THE QUESTION OF ISSUING THE "CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN" 
SEPARATE FROM "THE BUILDER" 


I am deeply interested in the articles by Brother Haywood and such other matter as 
appears in each issue of the "Correspondence Circle Bulletin” section of THE 
BUILDER, and would like to know when the "Bulletins" will be issued in book form 
for Masonic libraries. While I have every one of them so far issued in THE BUILDER 
yet it is difficult at times to readily find a particular article on a certain topic. 


R.M.C.C., Ohio. 



We have had in contemplation for a long time the question of issuing the 
Correspondence Circle Bulletin separate from the regular issues of THE BUILDER but 
the continual rising costs of printing material and labor have interfered with our plans in 
this connection Brother Burleson has also boosted our postage rates again effective July 
first. For these reasons our plans must of necessity be deferred for the present. The 
subjects of the articles appearing in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin may be easily 
found by a reference to the yearly bound volume indexes. 


-o- 


CORRESPONDENCE 


THE OBLONG SQUARE 


The many and various statements appearing in THE BUILDER from time to time on 
the subject of the "Oblong Square," as well as the variety of the opinions expressed, 
lead me to think that the subject is one of general interest and that a few additional 
words may not be out of place. I must take issue with the statement of Brother Charles 
H. Fisk of Kentucky in the July issue of THE BUILDER. He says the proper wording, 
geometrically and scientifically correct, is "the angle of an oblong." This expression is 
more objectionable than the one it seeks to replace. It implies that an oblong has only 
one angle and it does not have the sanction of usage as does the term which he 
criticizes. Then too the great English mathematician, Todhunter, says the word 
"oblong" is not now used in Geometry, and that the word "rectangle" has taken its 
place. Therefore if we must bring our terminology down to present day usage and 
change with every breath that blows, to be "geometrically and scientifically correct" 
we should say "an angle of a rectangle." A rectangle has four right angles, and the step 
of the Apprentice and that of the Fellow Craft each form one of these angles. 



Brother Fisk says, "A square is a square, an oblong is an oblong; each has angles and 
all of them right angles, but there never has been known an oblong square or a square 
oblong." If there were no other definition of oblong but the restricted one of a right- 
angled figure, longer in one direction than the other, and no definition of a square but 
that of a figure with four sides all equal and all its angles right angles, no one would 
take issue with this statement, but this is not the ease, and if Brother Fisk holds that, 
Masonically or otherwise, the term "oblong square" never had a legitimate meaning, 
he is certainly far from the right track. We find the expression in the earliest rituals of 
Masonry and continued down to the present day. We also find it in well recognized 
literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. An expression so commonly 
used must have had a well understood meaning to those who so used it and we have 
no right to assume that they were ignorant of the proper use of the words they used. 
The very fact that they so used it is evidence that such use was proper, and it should 
be our purpose to ascertain the meaning of the term as so used. 


To the man who says that a horse is a four-footed animal and a saw is an instrument 
for cutting and who refuses to recognize any other definition, it is useless to try to 
explain the meaning of the word "saw-horse." He will probably say that "a saw is a 
saw and a horse is a horse, but there has never been known a saw-horse or a horse- 
saw." 


What are the facts ? we find the term "oblong square" actually used by recognized 
Masonic authorities and in literature, and this fact demands an explanation and 
justifies an attempt to ascertain what was meant by the term. It is found more than 
once in the literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One illustration, 
easily accessible to the general reader is found in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, second 
or third pages of chapter seven (according to the edition consulted). He describes the 
court enclosed for the tournament as "forming a space of a quarter of a mile in length 
and about half as broad. The form of the enclosure was an oblong square." Sir Walter 
Scott used the term here to describe a field whose length w as twice the breadth. 
Unless the expression had a definite, well understood meaning at that time it is not 
likely that he would have so used it. 


In Masonry it is frequently found in the old rituals and the early Masonic writers 
recognize it as a term well understood in the same sense that it is used by Sir Walter 
Scott quoted above. 



Note the following quotations from rituals of the eighteenth century. Here is one dated 
1730: "The form of a lodge is a long square." This would imply that the word "square" 
at that time did not necessarily mean "having equal sides." Slight differences in the 
wording of the ritual caused some sharp disputes between the Ancients and Modems 
of this period, but they both agree in giving the form of a lodge as an "oblong square." 
(Rituals of 1740, 1760 and 1767 have been consulted on this point.) The old rituals 
also describe the drawing of "the lodge" on the floor of the room where the 
communication was held. This drawing was done with chalk, charcoal or clay, and 
after the degree was conferred the newly admitted brother was required to wash it out 
and mop it up. The drawing is always described as an "oblong square." It had three 
steps at the west end, the first called the Entered Apprentice step, the second the 
Fellow Craft step and the third the Master's step. Each was called the step of an 
oblong square. The candidate was taught to approach the East on the first, second or 
third step of an "oblong square" according to the degree which he was receiving. 


In the April BUILDER for 1916, 1 advanced the opinion that at one time the word 
"square" meant "right-angled" and the term "a square" referred to a four-sided figure 
having foul right angles, without regard to the proportionate length of adjacent sides. 
This being so it would be necessary to distinguish between a square having equal 
sides and one whose sides were greater than its breadth; hence the introduction of the 
prefixes "oblong" and "perfect." This is merely an opinion and I give it for what it is 
worth. In support of it I again call attention to the references given above. It is also 
supported by Jonson's Dictionary, published in 1765, in which the leading definition 
of a square is "having right angles" and he gives a quotation in which a rectangle is 
referred to as a "square." Take the following quotation from the King James version of 
the Bible: "All the doors and posts were square with the windows" (I Kings, 7:5). The 
word "square" here evidently means rectangular. (I use the word "rectangular" in the 
modem sense of having four right angles and longer in one direction than the other. 
The original meaning of rectangle was "having one or more right angles.") 


Perhaps the derivation of the words we are considering will help us to arrive at their 
meaning. The word "oblong" is from "ob" meaning "before" or "facing," and 
"longus," meaning "long," and the original meaning of the word "oblong" was "longer 
than broad" and had no reference to right angles. This is still the principle definition 
given in the dictionary. Another definition still found in the modem dictionary is 
"elliptical." Neither of these definitions imply a right angle. The term "oblong," 



though now used to define what is commonly called a rectangle, is also frequently 
used to define a symmetrical figure having one principal axis longer than the others as 
the leaf of a tree. 


The word "square" is from the Latin "ex" meaning "from" or "out of," and "quadms," 
meaning "one fourth part." The original meaning of "square" was "the fourth part of a 
circle," as it is even now used in Masonry, or, as it is sometimes stated, "an angle of 
ninety degrees." Thus the word "square" would mean as Jonson defines it, "having 
right angles." That the word is still used in that sense, note the following definitions 
found in a modem unabridged dictionary: 1 . A quadrilateral space marked out on a 
board, paper or the like. 2. A pane of glass. 3. The part of a book cover that projects 
beyond the edges. 4. A quadrilateral area bounded by streets. 5. An open place or area 
formed by the meeting of streets. 6. A park. None of these definitions necessarily 
imply a figure having equal sides. In fact most of these so-called squares do not have 
equal sides. A pane of glass called a square is usually oblong, though occasionally it is 
a perfect square in shape. Thus it would be perfectly proper to say of one square of 
glass that it is an oblong square, and of another that it is a perfect square. The squares 
of our cities are usually oblong Since they are longer in one direction than another. 
Still they are called squares, and it is perfectly proper to say "Madison is an oblong 
square, but Greene's is a perfect square." The intersection of streets are called squares, 
but occasionally one of the streets so intersecting is narrower than the other, thus 
making the square formed by the intersection an oblong one. 


From the foregoing definitions and from the derivation of both words it would seem 
that these two words originally had other meanings than the ones now commonly 
given to them; but even if the principle meanings were unchanged, it is a fact that 
there have been and still are other meanings which justify the term "oblong square." It 
is usage that determines the meaning of words, and Masons, as part of their 
vocabulary, have used and still use the term "oblong square." Trades and other 
organizations frequently make use of a term in a sense peculiar to that trade or 
organization and different from the commonly accepted definition of the term. 
Therefore even if the term "oblong square" had no other Sanction than Masonic usage, 
it would be perfectly proper for Masons to use it in their own way as a Masonic term. 
We have many terms used in a sense peculiar to Masonry, such as "hele," "eable- 
tow," Cowan." To my mind the retention of these old terms in our ritual is a proof of 
the antiquity of the order and illustrates how knowledge is preserved from generation 
in our ceremonies. 



C. C. Hunt, Iowa 


* * * 


A STUDY CLUB IN NEW ZEALAND 


As a fellow worker in the same quarries you will be pleased to learn that I have been 
successful in getting the Lodge of Instruction, attached to Dunedin Lodge No. 93 1, E. 
C., established on a sounder basis. Instead of being a mere rehearsal of ceremonial it is 
now a study club as well, and from the enthusiasm already displayed by the members it 
promises to be a successful one. I have been elected Preceptor and shall do my best to 
inculcate the study of Lreemasonry, which has to some extent been neglected in the 
past. 


In addition to the lectures given in the Lodge of Instruction it will, I think, be possible 
to have lectures in the lodge itself and a Question Box is already spoken of. 


Although possibly more adapted to American Masonry, I find THE BUILDER a real 
help in my studies of Freemasonry, and I congratulate the Society on producing a 
journal of such excellence and trust that nothing may interfere with the good work 
which is appreciated not only at home but abroad. 


A. W. Oxley, New Zealand 


* * * 



REVEAL MASONRY TO MASONS 


Dear Brother Schoonover: 


Your editorial in THE BUILDER for July must awaken a train of thought that has been 
slumbering in the minds of many Masons for a considerable period of time. The great 
question confronting the younger Masons of today is whether Masonry consists of 
reciting a ritual by rote or living a life guided by Masonic light. If our work is no greater 
than initiating candidates who shall memorize the ritual that they in turn may assist in 
initiations, passings and raisings, then Masonry has become a husk. If, on the other 
hand, our work and first thought is to make Masonic principles dynamic then Masonry 
becomes the golden grain. But to the greater number of Masons whom I know the work 
of the lodge leaves a ritualistic impression rather than an impression that stimulates 
moral impulses. 


My own conception of Masonry is that the ritualistic teachings provide the individual 
Mason with a key that he is to use in opening the door of a Masonic life and practise. 
Yet most Masons seem to spend their lives in doing two things; first in letting their key 
corrode, second in polishing their key. One is the rusty Mason, the other the bright 
Mason. Only a few Masons ever think of using the key; yet what a wonderful door is 
opened and how vast the vaults of wisdom, truth and beauty that are revealed! 


The exceptional Mason discovers these things by the use of the Masonic key, but how 
few there are who sit in the lodge and recite the ritual who realize what the use of the 
key has revealed to the perhaps unknown "exceptional" brother who sits with them. 


It would seem to me that Masonry lost its greatest opportunity to serve humanity in the 
fighting period of the World War, not because any person or hostile element prevented, 
but because Masonry for so many years had been gilding its scabbard that, when the 
world's greatest need for militant Masonry came, Masonry found its blade rusted in its 
burnished sheath. 



Masonry is still great and still capable of serving the world but until Masons know more 
about what Masonry really is the greatest strength will not come. The duty of all Grand 
Masters and of all Masters of lodges is to reveal Masonry to Masons. Failure to do so 
means that Masonry will lose vitality. You, sir, and other noble men have warned 
Masonry and challenged Masonic leadership. There are thousands of Masons who will 
look for the quickening of the Craft, because you and others have broken the silence 
and spoken for them. With You and all who would have Masonry live as a vitalizing, 
impulse-directing element in the lives of men, I have a great longing to see Masonry 
rise to an institution greater than its mechanism. 


I thank you for your editorial and for the vigor with which you penned it. Arthur C. 
Parker, New York. 


* * * 


REVIVAL OF A DORMANT LODGE IN CHINA 


The following account of the revival of a lodge in China which has been dormant for a 
period of forty-five years shoul be of interest to THE BUILDER readers: 


RESUSCITATION OF LODGE 
"ST. ANDREW IN THE FAR EAST" 


With the restoration of peace and the return to normal conditions, Freemasonry in the 
Far East, and especially in Shang-hai, is likely to witness considerable development. 
There has been a movement in one or two directions for the creation of new lodges, and 
one of these came to fruition last night in the resuscitation of Lodge St. Andrew in the 
Far East, No. 493 S.C. A rule in the constitution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland 



provides that a dormant lodge can be resuscitated, in the discretion of the Grand Lodge, 
on the application of one member. 


Although Lodge St. Andrew in the Far East has been dormant for forty-five years, one 
original member, and a P.M., is still fortunately left in Shanghai in the person of Wor. 
Bro Brodie A. Clarke. About a year ago an application, backed by a petition of some 
twenty other brethren, for the reopening of Lodge St. Andrew in the Far East was made 
by Bro. Clark, and after due consideration this request was granted by the Grand Lodge 
and in November last a duplicate of the original charter was given into the care of Wor. 
Bro. J.E. Inch, who was then in Edinburgh and had had an interview with the heads of 
the Grand Lodge, for conveyance to Shanghai. 


At a meeting of the signatories to the petition yesterday afternoon Bro. Inch handed the 
duplicate charter to Bro. Clarke, who then formed a lodge, which immediately 
proceeded to the election of officers and the arrangement of other necessary details. 
With the installation of the newly-elected R.W.M. and the investiture of officers, which 
took place in the Masonic Hall in the evening in the presence of about a hundred 
brethren representing all the constitutions working in Shanghai, the lodge formally 
came to life again. The Master-elect was Wor. Bro. J.E. Inch, and the installation 
ceremony was most impressively performed by Wor. Bro. S.C. Young, P. M. of Lodge 
Saltoun, assisted by the Past Masters of Lodges Cosmopolitan and Saltoun, the other 
Scottish lodges in Shanghai, the R.W.M. of Lodge Cosmopolitan, Wor. Bro. Chisholm, 
afterwards investing the junior officers. 


Interesting speeches were delivered after the ceremony, in the course of which it was 
mentioned that Lodge St. Andrew in the Far East had been founded in 1869, that its 
original members included several of the most honoured names in the history of 
Shanghai, all now deceased except Wor. Bro. Brodie Clarke, and that the resuscitation 
of the lodge would probably soon be followed by a further development of Scottish 
Freemasonry in North China. 


There are now three lodges working under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of 
Scotland in Shanghai - Lodges Cosmopolitan, St. Andrew in the Far East, and Saltoun, 
with one in Chefoo, St. Andrew. 



Charles S. Lobingier, China. 


* * * 


THE REAL SECRET OF MASONRY MUST BE LEARNED BY INITIATION 


I believe that the real secret of the Fraternity is to be found in the vital elements of the 
lessons of each degree, and the relations which the lessons of the different degrees 
bear to one another. 


It must be obvious to every brother, that there is one part of each ceremony which is 
essentially secret, and no good can come from any discussion round this point; I 
mean, the methods of recognition. In every secret society there are means by which 
one member may know another of the same degree or grade, and these secrets are held 
by obligation. This, however, is far from the real secret of Freemasonry. 


Apart from this, there are three really good reasons for keeping the rituals and legends 
of any arcane society as secret possessions. These reasons are as follows: 


(1) The knowledge might be dangerous to an uninitiated public. 


(2) Secrecy has been the custom and tradition from former times. 


(3) By having some previous knowledge of the ceremony, the effect of initiation on 
the candidate might be reduced. 



Let us consider each of these in turn. The first manifestly does not apply to any 
Masonic organization. In the case of a society, possessing powerful magical formulae, 
which would be dangerous to those who had not been taught how to use them, we can 
see an excellent reason for secrecy, but in Masonry, there is, happily, no ceremonial 
magic (notwithstanding the declamations of certain anti- Masonic publications). Our 
secrets are of a mystical nature, and although it may be possible to trace hermetic 
references in some of our ceremonies, Masonry and Magic are as poles apart. 


The second reason carries, however, a great deal of weight. We are proud that our 
society has come dozen to us as a secret organization from the most remote antiquity. 
Although there may be parts and points which we are not debarred from exposing to 
the profane, sentimental reasons cause the proud member of a society older than the 
Golden Fleece or the Roman Eagle or the Order of the Garter, or, in fact any other 
Order in existence, to keep secret every jot and tittle by which a hint of our teachings 
may reach uninitiated ears. This will appeal to some, more than to others; the majority 
will probably hold that, as Masonry has ever been a secret science, it is our duty, as 
the present custodians, to hand it on as we have received it. To my mind, this is one of 
the strongest arguments in favour of absolute secrecy. I believe that I am right in 
saying that the Grand Lodge of Ireland allows none of its rituals to be printed, in 
cypher or otherwise, and I can only deplore the fact that the same state of affairs does 
not exist elsewhere. This does not, however, show us where the true secret of 
Freemasonry is to be found. 


In my opinion, the key to the real secret of the Order is the third reason given above; 
that is to say, the effect on the candidate. The work of the Order is to make better 
men. We do this by giving them a graduated system of learning, and here I think we 
find the real secret. It is not the tokens or signs; it is not the positions of the officers of 
the lodge; it is not the thousand and one points which may arise in the wording of the 
ritual; but it is the lessons of the degrees in relation to each other and the method by 
which those lessons are conveyed to the mind of the candidate. 


It is of the utmost importance that the candidate for initiation should have no previous 
knowledge of the lessons of the degrees; otherwise, when his time comes, he will fail 
to learn aright those of the Apprentice. The Entered Apprentice should have time and 



opportunity to learn the lessons of that degree before proceeding onwards; similarly in 
the case of the candidate for higher degrees. The necessity for a period for study is 
realized by the Grand Lodge of Italy, under whose jurisdiction an Entered Apprentice 
must wait for three years before passing to the Second degree, when there is a further 
wait of at least two years before he can be raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master 
Mason. 


The real secret of Masonry cannot be disclosed; it is incommunicable and can only be 
learned by actual initiation. I think that there is no harm in outlining some of the 
tenets of the Craft to the profane, neither do I consider the interpretation of Masonic 
symbols in the press as harmful, provided that both are done with due caution. 


C. C. Adams. England. 


* * * 


MASONIC TEACHINGS IN THE WORKS OF GREAT AUTHORS 


Your correspondent, W.L.F., Ohio, in the July issue of THE BUILDER, asks if certain 
writers, among them Carlyle, were Freemasons. The following poem by Goethe is 
translated by Carlyle and is to be found in "Past and Present," book iij, chapter 15. 
From it I should judge that it is probable, very probable, that our author, as well as 
Goethe, was a brother. The original author calls it "Mason Lodge." 


"The Mason's ways are 
A type of existence, 
And his persistance 
Is as the days are 



Of men in this world. 


The future hides in it 
Gladness and sorrow; 

We press still thorowe, 
Naught that abides is 
Daunting us, - onward. 

And solemn before us, 
Veiled, the dark Portal, 
Goal of all Mortal: 

Stars silent rest o'er 
Graves under us silent! 

While earnest thou gazest, 
Comes boding of terror, 
Comes Phantasm and error, 
Perplexes the bravest 
With doubt and misgiving. 

But heard are the Voices, - 
Heard are the sages, 



The world and the ages: 
Choose well: your choice is 
Brief and yet endless. 

Here eyes do regard you 
In Eternity's stillness; 

Here is all fulness, 

Ye brave to reward you; 
Work and despair not." 

E.W. Pickford, Ontario. 

* * * 


522,733 ROYAL ARCH MASONS IN THE UNITED STATES 


The statistics of Royal Arch Masonry as given on page 198 of the July number of THE 
BUILDER are incorrect as the number of Royal Arch Masons in Texas, Virginia and 
Pennsylvania are not included; besides the statistics given are nearly two years old. 


The number of Royal Arch Masons in the United States, according to the compilation 
of Albert K. Wilson, Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter of Kansas, for the year 
ending December 31, 1918, is 522,773. 



Wm. F. Kuhn, Missouri. 


— o — 

OUR SELF-MADE WORLD 

BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA 

Whose heart is gray with dust and me 
Sees everywhere his own mildew; 

That one whom selfishness hath bound 
Is by that self hedged all around; 

And he whom pride has overthrown 
Will find his pride o'er all is grown; 
While he whom sin hath claimed within, 
Will see his earth rot down with sin. 

By equal token, virtues eyes 
Sees its own self in earth and skies. 

Unto the pure all things are pure, 

And to the joyful joy is sure; 



Where'er we look ourselves we see, 
Such is the fixed fatality; 

No truth beneath this saying delves; 
Our world is molded by ourselves.