The Builder Magazine 

January 1928 - Volume XIV - Number 1 


The Shadow of the Vatican BY DR. LEO CADIUS 

THIS series of articles is written by a member of the Roman Church. 

He is still a member of that Church end has no desire to leave it. 

The articles do not touch on any matter of faith or doctrine, and while severely 
critical of the administration are in no sense an attack upon the church itself. 

His purpose in writing them is the hope that the abuses he describes and the 
conditions which foster them may be removed. 

Our purpose in publishing them is to give our readers an intimate inside picture of 
the actual working of the ecclesiastical machinery which may help them to judge to 
what extent the doubts and apprehensions that exist in the minds of many 
American Freemasons are well founded. 

It is the author's opinion that the reforms he proposes would not only be to the 
advantage of Roman Catholics but would largely remove the suspicions of so 
many thoughtful non-Romanist American citizens. 


THERE exists among the American non-Catholics a considerable amount of 
antagonism to the Roman Catholic Church. In the opinion of the average American 
Catholic this is due to inherited blind prejudice, to misinformation concerning 
Catholic doctrines and practices, to sectarian jealousy and similar causes. This is 
no doubt very frequently the case, but not always. 


These articles propose to show that non-Catholic apprehension of the growing 
power and prestige of the Roman Church in this country is not altogether 
unjustified. Certain features of her present constitution render her a formidable 



menace to the freedom of the American Republics They are also an insult to the 
national self-respect of the American Catholics themselves. These objectionable 
features could be easily eliminated without doing violence to the original basic 
constitution of the Church which we Roman Catholics consider divine, that is, 
instituted by Jesus Christ, and for that reason unchangeable. 


I am optimist enough to believe that if the Vatican could be induced to make 
concessions to the reasonable demands of modern democracy, national self-respect 
and national self- determination, a good deal of the opposition to the Roman 
Church would vanish. We might look forward then to a continuous period of 
religious peace and mutual good-will, and that is what every right-minded person 
desires. As matters stand at the present, the American Catholics themselves live in 
fear of religious persecutions which will curtail their freedom. Such a thing ought 
to be avoided. Why not discuss the problem openly and in all good nature and 


arrive at a mutually satisfactory understanding that will insure for us a permanent 
religious peace? 


THE ITALIAN HEGEMONY IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 


According to our Catholic textbooks of theology, the Roman Catholic Church is a 
monarchy, an absolute monarchy; we may add the most absolutistic of all 
monarchies. All power and authority is concentrated in one person, the Roman 
Pontiff, more commonly called the Pope. He is surrounded by advisory boards of 
his own selection, the College of Cardinals, the various Congregations and 
Commissions. He is not bound by their findings. There is no Synod or Parliament 
to limit his powers. He may convoke an Ecumenic Council of all the Bishops of 
the Earth. They may unanimously pass a decision or define a doctrine. He can 
summo jure, by a supreme right, reject their unanimous decision and force them to 
subscribe to his own decision which may be diametrically opposed to theirs. It is 
true he is only infallible when he speaks ex cathedra. But he is to be obeyed 
whether he speaks ex cathedra or not. Very few of the papal decrees fall under the 
ex cathedral class. Most of them belong to the non- infallible category. But they 



are to be obeyed just the same. Any Catholic who presumes to oppose them will be 
excommunicated, if the Vatican finds it worth while. 


The Pope's position is therefore assuredly a most favored one. To fill this most 
privileged of all offices has been for more than four centuries the cherished 
monopoly of a small body of Italian ecclesiastics, the Italian Cardinals. The Roman 
Catholic Church is a world organization, an international body if ever there was 
one but its supreme government is reserved to one race, the Italian. 


The method by which the Italians have kept themselves in power has the merit of 
classical simplicity. Each Italian Pope, in creating new Cardinals, saw to it that his 
compatriots retained the majority in the Sacred College. This Italian majority 
would upon the demise of a Pope elect with unfailing regularity an Italian for his 
successor. This happy result was then credited to the Holy Ghost, who is believed 
to have a voice in the selection of Popes and Bishops, in fact, to guide and direct 
that selection. From the facade of St. Peter in Rome, then, the joyful news would 
be announced to an expectant world: habemus papam! "We have again a Pope!" 
Thanksgiving services would be held in every parish throughout the Catholic 
world. 


The last non-Italian Pope was Hadrian VI, a native of Utrecht in Holland. He was a 
saintly, exemplary Pontiff, a shining contrast to his immediate predecessors and his 
immediate successors. He was unpopular with the Romans. This was in 1523. 


The seventy years during which, in the fourteenth century, the Popes, all 
Frenchmen, resided in Avignon, through the connivance of the Kings of France, 
have been styled the Babylonian captivity of the papacy. 


The four centuries of uninterrupted Italian domination, beginning in 1523, may be 
called the Egyptian bondage of the Church. It has been a period of tribulation 
during which she has become fettered and gradually stripped of her worldly 



possessions in almost every country. On the other hand, she has been spared the 
curse of a schism and by reason of her poverty has advanced spiritually so that, 
despite the colossal defection due to rationalism and religious indifferentism, her 
present prospects are splendid. It would be useless to discuss the merits or demerits 
of the Italian monopoly of the papacy. God alone knows on what side of the ledger 
the balance is to be looked for. One thing is certain, that such monopoly is unjust 
and unfair to the non- Italian nations. 


As a curiosity it may be mentioned that the youthful but very energetic and 
flourishing church in the United States has so far been privileged to cast a single 
vote at the election of a Pope. That was the vote of Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop 
of Baltimore, at the conclave in 1903, in which Pius X was chosen to succeed Leo 
XIII. It matters very little whether American Cardinals participate in a conclave or 
not. They, like all other non-Italian Cardinals, must cast their vote for an Italian 
candidate or waste it. Their vote, therefore, has only a complimentary and 
complementary value. That is all the power, or shadow of a power, the Holy Ghost, 
whom the Italian Oligarchy regards as its flunky. 


It is significant of the incredible mental enslavement of modem Catholics - there 
prevailed quite a different spirit in the Middle Ages - that nowhere in the world 
does the Catholic press and Catholic public opinion dare to protest against the 
Italian mononoly. 


THE SELECTION OF AMERICAN BISHOPS 


While the American Catholics have practically no voice in the election of a Pope, 
the latter has everything, positively everything, to say in the appointment of 
American Bishops. 


Until recently, in the case of a vacant bishopric, two ecclesiastical bodies were 
empowered to express a preference for a successor. They were the so-called 



irremovable pastors of the diocese and the bishops of the particular ecclesiastical 
province. Each body would select three names to be recommended to Rome. 


For instance, when Archbishop Feehan of Chicago died in July, 1902, the twelve 
irremovable rectors of the Archdiocese chose, by secret ballot, three candidates to 
fill the vacancy. The bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Chicago, that is, the 
bishops of Alton, Belleville and Peoria, all in the state of Illinois, forwarded 
another list of three candidates to Rome. Bishop Quigley of Buffalo happened to 
be one of these three candidates. He was selected by the Vatican as Archbishop of 
Chicago. The Vatican was not required to consider these two lists, but quite 
frequently it would consult them. 


This custom of sending names to Rome has been abolished. The Vatican has 
thereby taken from the American common clergy the last semblance of 
representation. As regards the American laity, it never had a voice in the affairs of 
the Church. In the place of according the American Catholics more freedom and 
respecting their wishes in the appointment of bishops, as would be in keeping with 
the spirit of the time, the Italian Oligarchy is steadfastly centralizing its power and 
tightening its stranglehold on the American Church. 


At whose recommendation, then, does Rome choose the American bishops? 


Influential members of the American hierarchy are, no doubt, frequently consulted. 
For instance, if a bishop of the ecclesiastical province of Baltimore dies, the 
Archbishop of Baltimore may succeed in placing his choice in the vacant episcopal 
chair. He may, and again he may not. 


A certain American archbishop, now dead - let us call him Mulholland - was 
credited with having filled twenty-one vacancies in the American hierarchy with 
favorites of his. Most of them were poor episcopal timber, some of them utterly 
unfit. Hence the clergy humorously sumamed Mulholland "the episcopal abortion 



clinic," his nominees being thus delicately designated as abortive in regard to their 
high office. 


Here is how Archbishop Mulholland filled a certain vacancy in his ecclesiastical 
province. The clergy and the laity of the orphaned diocese forwarded a monster 
petition to the Vatican that the Vicar General, a very able and popular priest, be 
appointed bishop. The "interference" displeased Mulholland who, moreover, 
entertained a dislike for the said Vicar General. He promptly used his strong 
influence with the Vatican to have a certain Father Fullrath appointed. The 
following trifling incident will shed light on Bishop Fullrath's character. Getting 
worsted once in an argument with a priest, he was so completely overcome by his 
temper that he spat in the priest's face. Now, even the fiercest anti-Catholic will not 
harbor so low an opinion of the Catholic episcopate as to consider such a man a 
typical bishop. This poor prelate is clearly insane, not far from a raving maniac. 
Still, he has been permitted for considerably over a decade to torment his diocese, 
clergy and laity alike. He may afflict them for another decade or more. 


Religious orders and associations, notably the Jesuits and the Sulpicians, no doubt 
have had, and are still having, their fingers in the American hierarchic pie. These 
two organizations specialize in educational work. Naturally, they like to see pupils 
of theirs - who are not members of their organization however - promoted to 
bishoprics. The Sulpicians are an association of French, Canadian and American 
priests with headquarters at Issy, near Paris, France. At the beginning of the 
present century, over twenty American bishops were believed to be proteges of 
theirs. 


European governments, European prelates, European noblemen, European 
noblewomen, sisters and nieces of Italian cardinals, European scholars and others 
are also believed to have placed favorites of theirs, usually naturalized American 
citizens, in American episcopal sees. 


The following story is current among the American clergy. It was at the beginning 
of the world war that a certain important American bishopric adjoining the 



Canadian frontier became vacant. The Vatican was about to appoint for the post a 
certain native American prelate of German extraction. The British government got 
wind of the matter and intimated to the Vatican that it would regard the 
appointment of a German American to so influential a position right at the 
Canadian border as a distinctly unfriendly act. The Vatican yielded and appointed 
man of non-German descent. The Kaiser's government duly learned of the affair 
and in turn protested to the Vatican. To placate the Wilhelmstresse, said German- 
American prelate was shortly afterwards promoted to a very important 
Archbishopric somewhat remote from the Canadian boundary. 


The story may be fiction, but it could easily have happened. American Catholics 
see nothing wrong or unusual in the interference of European governments in the 
affairs of the American Church. 


To sum it up: American and European prelates and monks, European monarchs, 
European statesmen, European scholars, European noblemen, European petticoats 
all are credited with having placed favorites of theirs in American episcopal sees. 


There is one class of people that is utterly innocent of ever having nominated 
American bishops. That class is composed of the common clergy and laity of the 
American Catholic Church - American Catholics, in short. 


ZAMBO 


But why should their wishes be consulted? These innocent lambs will welcome 
with parades, banners and brass bands any and every shepherd whom the Vatican 
has been pleased to place over them at the recommendation of some known or 
unknown Tom, Dick and Harry, or Rosina, Peppina and Carmela, or - if persistent 
and widespread whispers are true at the recommendation of Simon the Magician. 



An employee of the Chicago Tribune tells me that in the office of that great paper 
the following motto is hung up in a conspicuous place: "See to it that the sucker 
does not get an even break ! " 


That same motto could be displayed to great advantage in the Vatican, the seat of 
the world's greatest autocracy. An autocracy has always and everywhere bred 
suckers. Who could imagine a Czar, a Kaiser, a Sultan of the olden days, without 
an entourage of courtiers and sycophants? The Vatican, being the most absolutistic 
and most solidly founded of all autocracies, is naturally a paradise for suckers. 


The Popes, of course, know it. Of the good and humble Pope Pius X (who died in 
1914) the following incident was recorded by the daily press: Upon his accession 
to the papal throne, he had his three spinster sisters brought to Rome where he 
rented for them an apartment in the vicinity of the Vatican. A young Italian 
ecclesiastic immediately secured an apartment in the same building. The Pope 
heard of it and suspecting the Monsignore to be prompted by ambitious designs, he 
strictly forbade his sisters to associate with him or even to talk to him. 


The leading element in the American Church is composed of the Irish Americans. 
They are, as everybody knows, gifted with a particularly keen sense of humor. The 
utterly ridiculous system by which American Bishops are selected could not fail to 
intimate to Pat some of its ludicrous possibilities. And thus the following naughty 
little story originated: 


For the last fifteen years or so the Vatican has in the matter of the appointment of 
American Bishops been guided by the advice of Cardinal Simoni. This part of the 
story is by all accounts not fiction, however, but fact. The name Simoni, of course, 
is fictitious as are the other names in this little tale which, let us hope for the rest, is 
also pure fiction. 



Cardinal Simoni, residing in Rome, has a spinster sister who presides over his 
household. Signorina Peppina is her name, she has a little pet dog, a French 
poodle, named Zambo. Next to her Most Eminent Brother, there is nothing so dear 
to Signorina Peppina as her little Zambo with his bright and sweet features, "angel 
face" she calls him in the exuberance of her affection. 


Somehow or other, American ecclesiastics who were anxious to be promoted to a 
nice bishopric, or, if they were already bishops, to an archbishopric, found it 
expedient to court the good-will of Signorina Peppina. In deference to the old 
admonition, "Love me, love my dog," they do not fail to extend their ingratiating 
attentions to cute little Zambo. They stroke caressingly his fur, tenderly pat him on 
his carefully groomed head, playfully kiss his paw. It is even claimed - a gross 
fabrication, no doubt - that the attitude of this little poodle occasionally decides the 
appointrrtent. If he, for Heaven knows what reason, shows an aversion to a 
candidate, or his procurator, and distrustfully growls at him, his chances are 
doomed. While the glad wag of the tail and a friendly welcoming bark may secure 
the appointment to the bishopric or archbishopric. 


The great and prosperous American Archdiocese of Cosmopolis becomes vacant. 
Bishop Murphy of X is Cosmopolis becomes vacant. Bishop Murphy of X is one 
aspirant to the dignity, Bishop Stark of Y another, and there are fifty or a hundred 
more who are believed to have a prospect. 


Bishop Murphy sends Monsignore Cashman to Rome to promote his candidacy, 
Bishop Stark sends Monsignore Longreen. Cashman arrives first on the ground and 
pleads his cause with so remarkable an effusion of golden eloquence that within a 
few days he secures the appointment for his master. Everything is arranged and the 
cable boy is getting ready to flash the important news to the United States that His 
Holiness, the Pope, has appointed Bishop Murphy of X to be Archbishop of 
Cosmopolis. Monsignore Cashman pays a farewell visit to Signorina Peppina. He 
carries with him a little box with exquisite jewelry, stones of the purest ray serene, 
an envelope containing a substantial block of thousand lire notes, and a suitable 
present for Zambo. All went well so far, but now something truly tragic happens. 
As he is making a deep farewell bow to the Signorina, he has the misfortune, big, 
heavy man that he is, of stepping on the snow-white, busy, silky tail of little 



Zambo who had been frisking and frolicking behind the Monsignore's feet and was 
at that moment scratching off the effects of a flea bite. That fateful flea bite! The 
poor poodle emits a succession of high-pitched howls that pierce like so many 
stabs the motherly heart of Signorina Peppina. The Monsignore offers his most 
profuse apologies. But the Signorina was disconsolate. And so, shortly, was the 
Monsignore, for the appointment of Bishop Murphy to the archepiscopal see of 
Cosmopolis was cancelled. 


The same day on which this indescribable tragedy was enacted, Monsignore 
Longreen arrives in Rome. He calls at the American College and here learns to his 
most profound consternation that Bishop Murphy had been promoted to 
Cosmopolis. But his sorrow was destined to be short-lived, for the same evening he 
is advised at the headquarters of a certain religious order that the appointment had 
been revoked. Electrified by this great news, he sets out the next morning with 
hope-swelled bosom to the residence of Cardinal Simoni, and, needless to say, 
does not neglect to pay his respects to Signorina Peppina and her Zambo. For the 
latter he has a diamond studded collar, the masterpiece of a Paris jeweler. He 
acquits himself of his task with so fine and deft a touch that he readily obtains the 
appointment of Bishop Stark. 


Bishop Stark, now Archbishop of Cosmopolis, takes possession of his metropolitan 
see. He enters the great city of Cosmopolis like a conquering hero. The 
valedictorian committees from his former diocese - in which he was, incidentally, 
extremely unpopular - and the reception committees from Cosmopolis fill several 
special trains. The press agent has done his stuff. The people of Cosmopolis see in 
their new archbishop a second St. Ambrose, in fact, a very close imitation of Jesus 
Christ Himself. Hundreds of thousands line the streets and shout their welcomes to 
him. The Mayor of Cosmopolis and the Governor of the State drop devoutly on 
their knees before him and reverentially kiss his ring. Fifty thousand Catholic men 
march in parade with flying banners, followed by a still larger number of pupils the 
parish schools, colleges and academies with flags and scarfs in the national colors. 
In a great public banquet the new Archbishop is feted by the most prominent 
citizens of Cosmopolis, representing all colors, races and creeds. All these honors 
would have been Bishop Murphy's if his procurator, Monsignore Cashman, had not 
stepped on Zambo's tail. 



Moral to American Catholic ecclesiastics who nurse an ambition to climb higher in 
the hierarchy: Do not step on Zambo's tail. 


THE CORPORATIONS SOLE 


The Catholic Church in the United States is divided into 14 archdioceses and 91 
dioceses. Most of then corporations sole, that is corporations in which all power is 
vested in one individual, the Archbishop, Bishop, respectively. 


Some of them are financially strong. I inquired once of an official of one of the 
largest banks in Chicago about the credit of the Archdiocese of Chicago. "It is 
rated all the way from fifty millions to two hundred millions of dollars," was the 
reply. At another bank I was told that one hundred million dollars was a 
conservative estimate. Credit, of course, does not mean cash assets. The 
Archdiocese of Chicago has debts. They are covered many times over by the real 
estate value of the church property. 


This large credit does not include that of the more than four dozen of religious 
orders, monks and nuns, that are conducting educational and charitable institutions 
in the Archdiocese. Their holdings represent an aggregate investment that runs 
easily into eight figures. 


The legal title of the Archdiocese of Chicago is: Catholic Bishop of Chicago. It 
was created by a special act of the legislature of the State of Illinois in 1845. It is a 
privileged corporation. The Securities Commission of the State of Illinois has the 
power to investigate corporations operating in that state. But it has no power to 
investigate the corporation sole know as Catholic Bishop of Chicago. That right is 
reserved to the Pope of Rome. 



The Archdiocese of Chicago has never issued a financial statement. No American 
diocese ever has so far as I know. If the clergy and the people want to obtain a 
glance of their financial standing, they will have to petition the Pope. Such petition 
has never been sent to Rome and never will be. Nobody dares to take the initiative. 
This applies presumably to every American diocese. 


When the Pope picks out arbitrarily an Archbishop of Chicago, he appoints him 
thereby sole custodian of a gigantic credit conservatively estimated at one hundred 
million dollars. With this credit the new Archbishop can do as he pleases. He can 
use it for personal uses. It is all left to his conscience and his discretion. He is 
accountable only to the Pope, who will not investigate. And if he could be induced 
to order an investigation, he would no doubt let Zambo select the investigating 
commission. 


Since its establishment in 1845, the See of Chicago has had seven Bishops, 
Archbishops since 1880. Of these seven, two have gone insane, the Bishops 
O'Regan and Duggan. In such a corporation sole there is always a vast financial 
credit at stake. It is all risked on the mental health and business judgment of one 
individual, the Bishop or Archbishop. 


If I mention here the Archdiocese of Chicago as an example to illustrate a certain 
phase in the state of the Catholic Church in the United States, it is because I 
happen to be better acquainted with it than with any other American diocese. I 
have nothing to say about the present Archbishop of Chicago or his predecessors in 
office except that two of them became insane. 


As we have seen, the Pope selects the American Bishops arbitrarily at the 
recommendation of Zambo or of God knows whom. The office of an Archbishop 
of New York, Chicago, Boston or Philadelphia may look like a big "job" to an 
ordinary mortal. It is quite a negligible position in the eyes of the Italian dignitaries 
at the Vatican. There are over a thousand dioceses in the world and many of them 



larger than New York with its Catholic population of a million and a half, not 
including the million Catholics of Brooklyn. The Pope cannot be expected to know 
the individual he chooses to fill a vacant American bishopric. He has to rely upon 
the recommendation of his advisers, a coterie of Italian ecclesiastics said to be 
centered around Zambo. If Zambo wags his tail at a candidate, the latter will 
qualify for office. He will be entrusted at the same time with the very considerable 
credit of a powerful American corporation sole to do with as he pleases. If Zambo 
growls at the candidate, he will not qualify. 


By Zambo, of course, I mean the system. But, for all I know, the little French 
poodle may be very much of a reality. In an immense concern like the Catholic 
Church all possible things have happened and are likely to happen again. 


In ancient Rome, previous to the time of the Caesars, a few powerful politicians or 
military leaders would distribute the provinces among themselves and their 
henchmen. After a successful election, consuls like Sulla, Cinna, Caesar, Pompey, 
Lepidus would divide the spoils: "You take Spain, you Gaul, you Asia Minor, you 
Africa," and so on. 


In modem Rome the Italian ecclesiastics distribute American ecclesiastical 
provinces and corporations sole ad libitum - all for the glory of God. 


The little Fortnightly Review, published by Mr. Arthur Preuss at St. Louis, 
Missouri, plays sometimes the role of an enfant terrible in American Catholic 
journalism. It prints news that the other Catholic papers prefer to ignore. Mr. 
Preuss - for the rest strictly orthodox and rather conservative - may justly style 
himself the chronicler of the neglected tmth. 


In the number of Feb. 1, 1924, the Review had the following item: 



A Petition With a Lesson 


About the middle of December there was filed at the Massachusetts State House a 
bill that would take away from Cardinal O'Connell the custodianship of the church 
property of the Archdiocese of Boston and give the same to a board of trustees, to 
consist of the Archbishop of Boston; his vicar general; a member of the Knights of 
Columbus, to be elected by the grand knights of the diocese a member of the 
Catholic Order of Foresters to be elected by the chief rangers of that organization; 
and a woman, to be a member of the female auxiliary of the Ancient Order of 
Hibernians, and to be elected by the presidents of the various branches. 


The two clergymen, according to the bill, would hold their places permanently, but 
the other trustees would be elected for terms of two years each. The salary of the 
archbishop, as chairman of the board of trustees, would be $15,000 a year, that of 
the other trustees, $5,000 each. Another provision of the bill is that the present 
corporation sole shall immediately give an accounting to the new board of trustees 
of all church funds and all property! (See Boston Herald, Dec. 19, 1923.) 


This bill, which was filed by Senator H. S. Clark upon petition of George F. A. 
McDougall, of Dorchester, a Catholic layman is a plain symptom of 
dissatisfaction, not to say distrust on the part of the Catholic laity of the 
Archdiocese of Boston, inspired largely, we believe, by the famous Keith bequest. 


According to the Review, young Paul Keith, son of the founder of the Keith 
theatres, bequeathed to Cardinal O'Connell of Boston real estate and personal 
property appraised by the Massachusetts Probate Court at $1,892,056.00. The 
actual value is more. 


It would seem that some of the Catholics of Boston were curious to find out 
whether the Cardinal had appropriated the money for himself or turned it over to 



the Archdiocese. They will have to wait a long time before their curiosity will be 
gratified. 


The bill introduced by Senator Clark was withdrawn by him shortly afterwards. 

The day is far off on which American Catholics will be granted an insight into their 
diocesan finances. They dare not displease the hierarchy. And each and every 
member of their hierarchy is chosen arbitrarily by a foreign autocrat, the Holy 
Father in Rome, in whose election not a single American citizen had a vote. 


And little Zambo is the Pope's right hand "man" in the administration of the 
Catholic Church in the United States. 


STATUS OF AMERICAN PRIESTS 


As has been stated, the Archdiocese of Chicago is a corporation sole created by a 
special act of the legislature of the State of Illinois. The legal status of a priest is 
that of a servant of the corporation sole. The Archbishop can remove him from his 
pastorate as an employer dismisses a servant or other employee. If the pastor 
refuses to vacate the rectory, the Archbishop invokes the law. The civil court will 
issue an order, a writ of restitution, requiring the sheriff to eject the pastor. This is 
typical of the other American dioceses. 


But there is the Canon Law of the Church that guarantees certain rights to the 
"common" clergy. One of these provisions specifies that the bishop cannot remove 
a pastor without a canonical cause and a canonical procedure. Such causes are 
heresy, unworthy conduct, inefficiency, physical disability, and the like. 


The code of Canon Law is a most admirable collection of laws that every jurist will 
admire. In Europe it is more or less faithfully observed, because in most countries 



there exists an agreement between State and Church. The bishops have to watch 
their step. 


In the United States it is different. The Church and State are separated. The bishops 
are unhampered as long as they keep in the good graces of Zambo, who is the 
Pope's unofficial plenipotentiary deputy, and consequently the Supreme Head of 
the Church in the United States. As far as this country is concerned, then, the 
Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church is a farce. There are cases when it is 
observed. But these cases are the exceptions and exceptions merely prove the rule. 


If an American pastor feels that he has been unjustly deprived by his bishop and 
resolves to defend his canonical rights, he will find that all the chances are against 
him. In the first place, he has to look for an ecclesiastical court of appeal. If he 
belongs to a diocese, not an archdiocese, then the archbishop of the particular 
ecclesiastical province is the immediate court of appeal. For instance, if a pastor of 
the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, which belongs to the ecclesiastical Province of 
Cincinnati, wants to appeal, then the Archbishop of Cincinnati, as the metropolitan, 
is the judge to appeal to. But if the priest belongs to an archdiocese, for instance, 
Chicago, he has no immediate court to appeal to. It is true, according to Canon 
Law an archbishop is required, upon assuming office, to appoint a judge of appeal 
for his archdiocese. Some neighboring bishop would be the proper man for that 
office. He has to be approved by the Vatican and would then be the permanent 
judge of appeal for that archdiocese. But no American archbishop has taken the 
trouble of designating a judge of appeal. Nor has the Vatican seen fit to remind 
them of their duty. Hence a pastor of an archdiocese, having no immediate judge of 
appeal, will have to have recourse to the Papal Delegate in Washington. But the 
Delegate is a very busy man. Few priests have ever received any satisfaction from 
him. 


AN UNEQUAL CONTEST 


In litigation between bishop and priest, the bishop defrays the expenses from the 
diocesan treasury, in a prosperous diocese he can appropriate hundreds of 



thousands of dollars for that purpose, should it be necessary, and nobody is wiser 
of it. For, as has been -said before, an American bishop issues no financial 
statement. He is accountable to the Pope only, who never investigates. The bishop 
can, at the expense of the diocese, hire the best legal talent both in Civil and Canon 
Law. He can engage the services of a detective agency to annoy the "rebellious" 
pastor. 


The latter, on the other hand, has to search his own pockets for the necessary funds 
for the litigation. If he is impecunious, as most priests are, there will be no 
litigation. Few are familiar with Canon Law. The bishops do not encourage the 
study of it. If a litigant pastor makes one false step, overlooks the merest 
technicality, the case is killed. Canonists are scarce: to consult one it is not unusual 
for a priest to travel five hundred miles: the bishop can afford to summon one; 
many a bishop has a canonist for his secretary. 


Litigation often lasts several years. During that time the bishop resides in comfort 
in his sumptuous mansion and lives on the fat of the land. The ousted priest is, 
pardon the expression, like a stray dog. No pastor in his diocese dares to take him 
in for fear of incurring the ire of the bishop. If the latter is known to be a favorite 
of Zambo, no bishop in the whole country dares to grant him an asylum. 


If the Civil Law should favor him, he nevertheless cannot avail himself of it. For 
any Catholic, be he priest or layman, who presumes to cite a bishop in a civil court, 
is ipso facto excommunicated. A bishop may arraign a priest or layman before the 
civil court, but not vice versa. 


He may plead the case before the court of public opinion, if he can succeed in 
arousing interest. Public opinion, however, usually takes it for granted that a 
bishop is good and just and will not discipline a priest without due cause. The 
general public has no idea what peculiar characters have slipped into the hierarchy 
by kissing, in person or by proxy, the paw of Zambo. It would be a miracle if it 
were otherwise - what can you expect under the Zambo system? Still, I am glad to 
state that, in my honest opinion, most of the American bishops mean to be just, and 



many of them are even kind-hearted. But some of our highest dignitaries are 
thoroughly detested by their clergy. The nearer to the Church the further from God 
is a good old Catholic saying that is not without a grain of truth. About these 
matters the general public is left in the dark. The daily press will not hesitate to 
publish facts, or even mere charges, that militate against a priest, but it will not 
dare to print anything unfavorable to a bishop. 


THE SERVITUDE OF THE SECULAR CLERGY 


The Catholic clergy is divided into two classes, the diocesan priests and the monks. 
The latter constitute about one-fourth of the total. These religious orders are little 
democracies embedded in the great world autocracy of the Catholic Church. They 
elect their own superiors. But the diocesan priests, and that means the great bulk of 
the American Catholic Clergy, have no voice in the selection of their superiors, the 
bishops. They have to accept whomsoever Zambo places over them. 


To sum it up, the bulk of the American Catholic Clergy lives in a state of servitude 
or semi-slavery. When the padrone (bishop) is kind, just and prudent, this 
paternalistic form of government works admirably. Nothing better could be 
desired. But when he is an arrogant tyrant, he can mop the floor with his subjects. 
They will submit to it. There is no redress against him as long as he knows how to 
keep on the right side of Zambo. That is not difficult for a strong corporation sole 
with vast financial resources. 


These American priests are at the mercy of their bishops who owe their powerful 
position to the Holy Father in Rome, the greatest of the world's autocrats. He 
appointed them arbitrarily at the recommendation of Zambo or of God knows 
whom. These American priests, generally well-treated, though often ill-treated, 
serfs - but always serfs - of the appointees of a foreign autocrat, are the principals 
of parish schools in which more than two million children of America are being 
educated. These serfs, subjects of the most absolutistic of foreign autocrats, are 
instilling into the minds of over two million American children the principles of 
democracy, equity and national self-respect. 



(To be continued) 


— o — 


The Masonic Activities of Robert Burns 


By BRO. ALBERT FROST, England 


W.BRO. FROST, who is P. P. A. D. C. of. West Yorkshire, England, and has 
attained the thirtieth degree of the Scottish Rite (which means a great deal more in 
England than it does in this country), is an authority on the life and work of Robert 
Bums. Part of the substance of the present article appeared some time ago in the 
London "Masonic Record," but it has been re-written and a good deal of new 
information incorporated. As the birthday of the famous poet comes in January, a 
day much regarded by all Scots and those of Scottish descent the world over, the 
occasion is fitting. There were a number of valuable articles on the subject in the 
early numbers of THE BUILDER but there has been nothing in recent years, so the 
present article will, we believe, prove very interesting to our readers. 


THE fact that the immortal Robert Burns was a "Son of Light" is well known 
throughout the Fraternity the world over, but that he was a very zealous and 
enthusiastic Mason is not so generally known. From the day of his initiation at the 
age of 22 to the time of his death, his interest in the Craft never subsided. 

Wherever he chanced to be located we find him identified with a lodge, as we shall 
see later. The "true spirit" was evinced in him from the commencement of his 
Masonic career, and with a fervor and magnetism which were characteristic of his 
sparkling nature. 



He was initiated in St. David's Lodge, Tarbolton, on July 4, 1781 - a village a few 
miles distant from Alloway Kirk, Ayrshire, where he first saw the light of day. 
Whether the ceremony was conducted at the Bachelor's Club, or at the Cross Keys 
Inn, otherwise known as Manson's Tavern, is an open question. The brother who 
had the distinction of conferring the initiatory rites was Alexander Wood, a tailor 
of Tarbolton. The minute recording the event is brief to a degree - "Robert Burns in 
Lochly was entered an apprentice Joph Norman, M". He was passed and raised in 
the same lodge in October of the same year, the record being likewise brief: 


Robert Burns in Lochly was passed and raised, Henry Cowan being Master, James 
Humphrey Senr Warden, and Alex Smith Junr, Robert Wodrow, Secy, and Jas 
Manson Treasurer and John Tannock Taylor and others of the brethren being 
present. 


Probably "Taylor" is an error of transcription and should be "Tyler." 


James Humphrey was a "character" in the lodge, possessing a remarkable genius 
for censoring Ministers of Religion, and a propensity for expressing adverse views 
on Theological subjects. Often did he find himself at grips with Burns, whose 
opinion is expressed in the "Epitaph on a noisy polemic": 


Below thie stanes lie Jamie's banes 
O, Death, it's my opinion, 

Thou ne'er took such a bleth'rin' bitch 
Into thy dark dominion. 


Formerly there were two lodges in Tarbolton - St. David's and St. James', which 
became united under the name of St. David's in June, 1781, a month before Burns' 



initiation. The following year Burns and others seceded and reconstructed under a 
Charter from "Mother Kilwinning" St. James' Lodge, the present number of which 
is 135 - "Tarbolton Kilwinning, St. James'." The meetings were held at the Cross 
Keys, of which Bro. Manson was the Landlord and also the Treasurer of the lodge. 
If anything remains of this historic building it is but the ruins, which should at any 
rate have been preserved in memory of its glorious past, and particularly so in view 
of Burns' wish expressed so touchingly, and with an almost broken heart in his 
"Farewell" to the brethren: 


And you, Farewell! whose merits claim, 
Justly, that highest badge to wear ! 
Heav'n bless your honor'd, noble Name 
To Masonry and Scotia dear! 

A last request, permit me here 
When yearly ye assemble a' - 
One round, I ask it wi' a tear, 

To him the Bard that's far awa.' 


Masonic pilgrims from all quarters of the Globe turn their faces towards the 
commodious premises which the lodge now possesses, for in it there remains quite 
a collection of valuable relics of the Poet. The old Minute Book containing records 
in his own handwriting under his own signature. The Chair which he occupied as 
Master: the Gavel he used, and the Apron and Jewel which he wore. The 
Candlesticks are there, and an old Tyler's sword of the period. The Bible he 
presented to the lodge is preserved; but probably the possession most treasured is 
the letter he wrote from Edinburgh in August, 1787, regretting that it was beyond 
his power to be present, concluding with the verse: 



Within this dear mansion may wayward contention 
And withered envy ne'er enter. 

May secrecy round be the mystical bound 
And Brotherly Love be the center. 


The reviving of St. James' Lodge called Bums into very early prominence, for 
within three years of joining the Craft he became the Deputy Master, often 
conducting the proceedings of the lodge: 


Oft honour'd with supreme command, 
Presiding o'er the Sons of Light. 


Whether he attained to the position of R.W. Master is doubtful; it is more than 
likely that some local dignitary was the nominal head of the lodge, whilst the 
duties were principally conducted by Burns or some other officer of the lodge. 
Being so, it is quite permissible for the Minutes to be silent on the subject. 


The congenial companionship of Burns and his unswerving devotion to the Order, 
became landmarks to the brethren. If any proof of his devotion is wanted take a 
single instance of his anxiety to assure the attendance at the Annual Meeting and 
Procession which were held on June 24 - Lodge Tarbolton, Kilwinning St. James'. 
Fearing his friend Dr. Mackenzie would consider his duty to his patients weighed 
heavier with him than his duty to the lodge, Burns addressed to him a note in verse 
as a reminder of the occasion, which had its effect: 


Friday first's the day appointed, 

By our Right Worshipful Anointed 



To hold our grand procession 
Our Master and the Brotherhood 


Would a' be glad to see you. 


Evidence of his good humor and congeniality is no where better expressed than in 
his address to the De'il." With affected seriousness he narrates the alarming 
consequences of collusion with that dreaded personage. The stanza runs: 


When Masons' mystic word an' grip 
In storms an' tempests raise you up 
Some cock or eat, your rage maun stop 
Or strange to tell 

The youngest brother ye wid whip 
Aff straught to hell. 


His bursts of eloquence on many occasions were popular diversion at the festival 
board; his facetious improvisations a source of wonder and merriment to all the 
brethren - more particularly to those who came under his magic spell. When in 
serious mood, the poetry which made him famous sprang from his lip and heart 
like "fragrance on the breeze." There is scarcely any side of human nature upon 
which he did not exercise his innate genius. His poems are a library in themselves - 
and must be the envy of all psychologists, whose science will never be understood 
without some supernatural manifestation. 


He possessed an insight which is given to few, but even he realized how men can 
so easily be misinterpreted. With the very best of intentions one may become the 
greatest offender. 



O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie' us 
To see oursel's as ithers see us. 

It wad frae many a blunder free us. 

The social friendly honest man - 
Whate'er he be 

'Tis he fulfils, great nature's plan, 
And none but he. 


As a farmer in Mossgiel, Burns was a failure, and he decided to test his fortune in 
Jamaica where he had obtained a post as Book-keeper on an Estate. He took 
farewell of St. James' Lodge, Tarbolton, in a lyric so touching and so noble that by 
the time he got to the last stanza the tears were rolling down the cheeks of the 
brethren. It was sung to the tune, so popular at the time, "Good Night and joy be 
wi' you a'," and with such a pathos and passion as to produce a profound lasting 
impression: 


Adieu! a heart-warm fond adieu! 
Dear brothers of the mystie tie! 
Ye favoured, ye enlightened few, 
Companions of my social joy! 
Tho' I to foreign lands must hie 
Pursuing Fortune's slidd'ry ba', 



With melting heart and brimful eye, 
I'll mind you still tho' far away 


There is a difference of opinion as to who was responsible for Burns being diverted 
from his intention to migrate to Jamaica. It is however more than likely that it was 
his staunch friend and counsellor Prof. Dugald Stewart who turned his thoughts in 
the direction of the Scotch Metropolis. With such an influential introduction to the 
brethren of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, Edinburgh, he was assured of a 
hearty fraternal welcome. His straightened circumstances were the means of his 
close friend Bro. Garvin Hamilton rendering him financial assistance in the 
publication of his poems. 


the poor man's friend in need, 

The gentleman in word and deed. 


The first edition was published in 1786 (Kilmarnock) followed by a second edition 
twelve months later. So successful was this issue, that Bro. William Creech, the 
publisher, was enabled to hand over to the Poet a sum of money which exceeded 
his vainest expectations. Smellie was the printer; Alex Nasmyth the painter and 
Bengo the engraver - all brother Masons. By this success the current of his life is 
turned and he - 


Takes a share wi' those that bear 
The Mallet and the Apron. 


From this time Bums became a deservedly popular member of the lodge. Hailed 
and toasted - on one occasion by the Grand Master as "Caledonia's Bard" - he 
grew in general favor. Without assuming affecting airs he bore his honors with 



dignity. His conduct and manners were commendable; his intellectual energies 
were stimulated and he merited the acknowledgments which were showered upon 
him. He always rose to speak with an ovation; his forcible and fluent language - 
almost invariably unpremeditated - met with general approbation. 


It was no small distinction for Robert Bums to be appointed Poet-Laureate of the 
lodge. Although his innate genius would have found recognition in any sphere, it is 
very appropriate that many illustrious Freemasons of nearly a century and a half 
ago should discover this "Ploughman Poet," by whom they were not only 
immortalized, but who in no small measure ennobled and enriched the Order by his 
many references to it. There is a vein mnning through many of his later 
productions which nothing but Freemasonry could have inspired, and his 
association with the Brotherhood very materially assisted in the development of his 
talents. 


Of his contemporaries we know but little. Lexicons and Encyclopedias make little 
mention of them. In his satires Bums himself gives us the best insight into the 
character of many of them. Even Lyon's Freemasonry tn Scotland (1) makes but 
scant reference to them. Of their eminence, however, there is no doubt. 


Amongst those who were proud to call Burns their companion and friend are Lord 
Elcho, Earl of Glencairn, Earl of Eglinton, Earl of Buchan, Sir William Forbes, 
Alex Cunningham, and many others whose names bespeak some importance in 
Scottish Freemasonry, and of whom short biographical sketches are to be found in 
"A Winter With Burns" published in the year 1846. 


The photograph reproduced from the rare mezzotint is very interesting insomuch as 
it gives what may be taken to be a true representation of those present on March 1 , 
1787 - the great occasion of Bums' Inauguration, and typically depicts varieties of 
dignity and of expression and affability, presenting him in the light in which he 
was regarded by his brethren during the time he formed the center of attraction. 

The original painting is hung in the Freemasons' Hall, Edinburgh, and is well worth 
a visit to see. 



Alex Ferguson, Provincial Grand Master of the Southern District at this time, and 
also Master of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, is seen in the photograph presenting 
the poetic wreath to Bums, who has been conducted to the Chair to receive it. 


The figure and face of Bums are pronounced to be a most faithful likeness; his 
gracefulness and modesty are characteristically delineated. The D.C. is William 
Nicol, Professor of Languages, who gave Burns tuition in Latin, immediately 
behind whom stands Louis Gauvin, a French Tutor of high repute. He taught Burns 
the French language, and afterwards expressed his conviction that no ordinary 
pupil could acquire in three years what Bums assimilated in three months. Other 
Masonic luminaries depicted are, Grand Master Sir William Forbes on the Master's 
right; James Dalrymple; Sir John Whiteford; Lord Monboddo. In the forefront is 
Lord Napier who laid the foundation stone of the College of Edinburgh, in which 
ceremony the Craft took no small part. James Boswell, the biographer of Dr. 
Johnson, is seen with clasped hands in the center of the picture, whilst standing to 
the left is Nasmyth, the Landscape Painter. A prominent figure is Francis Grose the 
Antiquary, who is in conversation with James Gregory, the talented Physisian. 
Scarcely any of these brethren escape notice in Burns' lyrics. 


It would appear that the gathering was more of an informal character typifying a 
free and easy style. Whether in the ordinary lodge meetings the brethren were so 
placed is questionable, but if the manner in which the Minutes of the Canongate 
Kilwinning Lodge were kept is any criterion, then we should imagine that 
informality was the order of the day, for although it is on record that the W.M. 
proposed Burns as a joining member on Feb. 1, 1787, yet there is no subsequent 
minute of his appointment to the Poet-Laureateship a month later. The first 
mention of his having held the office is recorded in the Minutes dated Feb. 9, 1815. 
The omission may be accounted for by the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge not being 
singular in its slackness. 


The Minutes for many years prior to the period of Burns' attendance are brief to a 
degree, and this may account for the infrequency of the allusions to him who was 
not then the distinguished Poet he afterwards became. It will not, however, be 



denied that the Inauguration did actually take place, as the lodge has 
unimpeachable testimony from the brethren who were present on the occasion, and 
saw him wear the jewel of his office - evidence of the event. 


It may be noted that prior to the publication of Freemasonry in Scotland (1) an 
interesting correspondence took place on the subject of the Laureateship between 
the Author and the Secretary of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, which goes to 
show that Lyon preferred to go into print with a distinct bias against Bums' 
appointment, rather than sift the evidence provided, with the result that not only 
was Burns depreciated but the lodge also. Why this should have been so is not 
easily comprehensible. If Lyon had any doubts on the generally accepted 
connection of Burns with the lodge they could have been removed at the time - 
instead of which we have a "History" which so far as Bums is concerned is not 
impartial; making isolated statements that do not convey the actual facts to the 
reader. The Secretary of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, Bro. H. E. Peacock, 
wrote to Lyon at the time of the preparation of his History: 


It is my duty to inform you that there is ample evidence of the Poet's association 
with this Lodge, to which Lyon replied: I recognise the satisfactory nature of the 
evidence, but your delay prevents my being able to submit a slip of my remarks - 
the printers being close up to that particular part of my MSS. 


If this be the sole reason why Lyon so summarily dismisses Burns from his History 
then it is still more difficult of comprehension. 


W.J. Hughan states: 


On March 1st, 1787, Bro. Burns was invested as Poet-Laureate of the Canongate 
Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2, Edinburgh - the painting to commemorate the event 
having been executed by Bro. Watson, a member of the same lodge. 



So great a Freemason as Hughan must have had sufficient grounds for his 
assertion. 


If further evidence be needed it is provided by the Minutes of Canongate 
Kilwinning Lodge under date Jan. 16, 1835, which state: 


It was proposed by R.W. Bro. M'Neill, Master, and seconded by W. Bro. Turnbull, 
Substitute Master, that it was expedient that the honorary office of Poet-Laureate 
of the Lodge, which has been in abeyance since the death of the immortal Brother 
Robert Burns should be revived, and that James Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd, on 
whom his poetic mantle has fallen should be respectfully requested to accept the 
appointment as the highest tribute to his genius and priorate worth which the 
brethren had it in their Power to bestow. 


Neither can the records contained in that priceless little volume, A Winter With 
Bums, be discredited. The narrative rings so tme, and it was so widely circulated at 
the time that it was rather late in the day - 27 years afterwards - for Lyon to doubt 
its accuracy, and at a time when very few of his contemporaries were alive. 


Alexander Ferguson, the hero of the Song of the Whistle (the original manuscript 
of which was sold by auction in Edinburgh in March, 1887, for two hundred and 
thirty guineas), was the brother who conferred upon Bums the title of Poet- 
Laureate. The lodge Minutes dated March 1, 1787, bear witness to this - signed by 
himself and also Charles More, Deputy Master, and John Mellor, Advocate. J. W., 
William Dunbar - writer to the signet, was Senior Warden, and afterwards in some 
"tattered rhymes," Bums himself mentions the Laureateship in the following lines: 


Latin Willie's reek noo raise, 



He'd seen that nicht Rab crowned with Bays. 


I have dwelt on this aspect of the Poet's Masonic career at some length because my 
researches leave me with the confirmed opinion that the incident is well 
authenticated; but notwithstanding this it is a pity that there should have been left 
room for doubt. 


Incidentally, I may mention that there is in the Library of the Quatuor Coronati 
Lodge A Collection of Masonic Songs and Entertaining Anecdotes by Garvin 
Wilson, Poet-Laureate of the Lodge St. David. This was published in 1788 and 
dedicated to the Rt. Hon. and Most Wor. Lord Elcho - Grand Master of Scotland 
1786-1787. 


Therefore it may be that whilst the office was not officially recognized by the 
Grand Lodge of Scotland it was a title not uncommonly given as an honorary one 
to those who made the entertainment for the brethren. 


Let us follow the Poet a little further afield. Proud as Tarbolton is that Bums was 
their offspring, yet that pride is shared by others also, Edinburgh probably taking 
first place; afterwards Kilmarnock, where he became a joining member of Lodge 
St. John Kilwinning. Whilst it has been stated by one writer that Burns' poem 
commencing "Ye Sons of Old Killie" had reference to Canongate Kilwinning 
Lodge, it will not now be denied that it bears direct reference to Kilmarnock, of 
which "Killie" is an abbreviation. Bro. William Parker is W.M. and proposes Burns 
as an Honorary Member, which is unanimously received. Bums is called upon to 
make acknowledgment, and that spontaneous effusion is the result: 


Ye sons of old Killie assembled by Willie, 
To follow the noble vocation 



Your thrifty old mother has scarce such another 
To sit in that honoured station. 

Ye powers who preside o'er the wind and the tide, 

Who marked each element's border 
Who formed this frame with beneficent aim 
Whose Sovereign statute is order! 

Another brother of the Kilmarnock Lodge is Tam Samson, a worthy old sportsman, 
who confides to Burns his fears that his end is near at hand, and expressed a wish 
to die and be buried on the Moors. On the inspiration of the moment Burns 
composed the Elegy: 

The Brethren o' the mystic Level 
May hing their head in wofu' bevel 
While by their nose the tears will revel 
Like ony bead 

Death's gien the Lodge an unco devel, 

Tam Samson's dead ! 


Tam was not altogether pleased at being numbered amongst the dead, whereupon 
Bums promptly added the "Per Contra": 



Go, Fame, an' canter like a filly 
Thro' a' the streets an' neuks o' Killie, 

Tell ev'ry social, honest billie 
To cease his grievin' 

For yet, unskaith'd by Death's gleg gullie, 

Tam Samson's livin! 

For nine years afterwards the worthy Samson lived to revel in the limelight into 
which the Poet had thrown him. 


Bums visited the "Ancient" Lodge at Stirling, but the page in the attendance 
register bearing his signature is missing, which is taken as conclusive evidence of 
his visit. He was also a joining member of Loudoun Kilwinning Lodge Newmilns - 
on the nomination of Garvin Hamilton. In October, 1786, he attended a Lodge at 
Som and later at Irvine. In 1787 along with his friend Robert Ainslie he was 
admitted a Royal Arch Mason at St. Abb's Lodge, Eyemouth - at an "encampment" 
specially convened to do honor to the Poet. 


At other lodges he was not an infrequent visitor. The last five years of his life were 
spent at Dumfries, where he was made a Freeman of the Burgh. In 1788 he became 
a member of St. Andrew's Lodge held in that town which he attended with 
regularity, taking part in the ceremonies and subsequently attained to the Chair of 
Senior Warden. His last recorded attendance is within three months of his death. 
The Minutes state that Bums was "the most distinguished brother, the Lodge has 
been privileged to receive within its portals." 


Although no mention is made of his decease, it is more than likely that the brethren 
paid a last appropriate tribute to the memory of so distinguished a brother. The 



Apron he wore and the Gavel he used, together with the Minute Book, by some 
unknown means got into the auction room. Fortunately they were rescued by the 
timely intervention of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, Grand Master 1873-1881, who 
presented them to Grand Lodge, where they now form part of an interesting 
collection of Masonic relics. 


Far from uninteresting is the incident of his affection for "Highland Mary" - Mary 
Campbell. To her memory he subscribed some of his most beautiful inspirations. 
The Bible he presented to her was inscribed with his Masonic Mark. After finding 
its way to Canada it was sent back home to be deposited in the Monument erected 
to the Memory of Burns on the Banks of the Doon, where it is now to be seen. The 
Bums' Family Bible is in possession of the Tmstees of the Monument, by whom it 
was purchased 26 years ago (1900) for 1500 pounds, and is now one of the most 
valued treasures of Alloway Cottage. 


Undoubtedly Bums' connection with Freemasonry in Edinburgh was the most 
interesting era of his life. Certain it was that during this period his genius was 
appreciated and rewarded. Of his consummate love for, and interest in, the Order, 
there remains no shadow of doubt, and had it not been for his revolutionary 
political views, openly expressed whilst being in the Excise, and his disgust of 
conventional prejudice, he would have risen to a great height in the social sphere 
without the loss of his most ardent admirers. There is always the possibility of 
being wrong in viewpoints, no matter how convinced one may be that he is right. 
In Burns' case he was probably wrong. In any event, he had the courage of his 
convictions: 


A fig for those by law protected! 
Liberty's a glorious feast! 

Courts for cowards were erected 


Churches built to please the Priest. 



Bums died prematurely at the age of 37, on 21st July, 1796, at his residence in 
Dumfries, and his remains were interred in a humble grave. Afterwards they were 
transferred to the Mausoleum in the same churchyard. Shortly before his death he 
wrote: 


The pale moon is setting beyond the white wave 
And time is setting with me. 


A lodge bearing the name of "Robert Burns' Lodge," constituted before the union 
in 1818, probably gives some significance to the fact of the monument being 
erected to the Poet's memory in 1820 - 24 years after his death. At Doon Brig, the 
vicinity of his birthplace, the foundation stone was appropriately laid by Sir Alex 
Boswell, "Worshipful Deputy Grand Master, of the most Antient Mother Lodge 
Kilwinning," at which ceremony the Masonic Lodges in Ayrshire were without 
exception represented. A full account of this is given in "Preston's Illustration of 
Masonry." 


A good edition of Bums' Poems is that published by the Oxford University Press, 
edited by J.H. Robertson, in which they are placed in order of popularity, and it is 
significant that the "Address to the De'il," "Tam Samson's Elegy," and the "Lament 
for Earl of Glencairn" are amongst those considered to be his highest 
achievements. 


In the vale of human life 
The victim sad of fortune's strife 
I thro' the tender gushing tear 
Should recognize my Master Dear 
If friendless, low, we meet together, 



Then, Sir, your hand - my friend and Brother. 


NOTE 


(1) This is the short title. The work is generally cited as History of the Lodge of 
Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel), No. 1, by David Murray Lyon. 


— o — 


A PRAYER IN THE PROSPECT OF DEATH 


O Thou unknown, Almighty Cause 
Of all my hope and fear! 

In whose dread presence, ere an hour 
Perhaps I must appear! 

If I have wander'd in those paths 
Of life I ought to shun - 
As something, loudly, in my breast, 
Remonstrates I have done - 


Thou know' st that Thou has formed me 



With passions wild and strong! 

And list'ning to their witching voice 
Has often led me wrong. 

Where human weakness has come short, 

Or frailty stept aside, 

Do Thou, All-good - for such Thou art - 
In shades of darkness hide. 

Where with intention I have err'd, 

No other plea I have, 

But, Thou art good, and Goodness still 
Delighteth to forgive. 

[Robert Bums] 

— o — 

The Man, Burns 

THAT Robert Burns lived his life as well as made poetry about it and that he was 
accepted by his own people, not only in the form of a cult since his death, but also 



during his lifetime are two things that are remarkable about him. Primarily a lyric 
poet, his songs dealt with life as he lived it and those who heard them responded. 
He was closely in touch with reality and his verse was not moulded in accord with 
any preaching fashion. For this reason, perhaps, it is ageless. He was a moralist at 
heart, though his behavior caused much scandal among the conventional and 
straitlaced. He appeals to all who set reality above hypocritical propriety and 
respectability, and because of this he will probably be read and appreciated as long 
as the English language is spoken. 


The following brief notes on the life of Bums are drawn entirely from the 
Cambridge Edition of Bums' works. It is in no wise original work but purely a 
condensation of the material contained in the introduction to this volume of his 
poems. For this reason, as much as any other, it must be read with more 
understanding than is generally accorded to a biographical sketch. Readers must 
remember the times in which Burns lived, the conditions surrounding his life, and 
then judge, not by present day standards, but by the standards of the time. It is 
impossible to make allusions to this phase of Burns' life in the space allotted and 
the fairness of the readers must be trusted to make up for any lack of explanatory 
material. 


Robert Burns was bom on the 25th of January, 1759, and was the eldest of seven 
children. His father, William Bumess (or Burnes), and his mother, Agnes Brown, 
came of yeoman stock - one a native of Kincardinshire, the other of Ayrshire. 
William Burness began life as a gardener, and was plying his trade in the service of 
one Fergusson, the then Provost of Ayr, when, with a view of setting up for 
himself, he took a lease of seven acres in the parish of Alloway, and with his own 
hands built a two-roomed clay cottage. In December of 1757 he married Agnes 
Brown, his junior by eleven years. She was red-haired, dark-eyed, square-browed, 
well-made, and quick-tempered. He was swarthy and thin; a man of strong sense, a 
very serious mind, the most vigilant affections, and a piety not even the Calvinism 
in which he had been reared could ever make brooding and inhumane. 


The Scots peasant lived hard, toiled incessantly, and fed so cheaply that on high 
days and holidays his diet consisted largely in preparations of meal and vegetables 
and what is technically known as "offal". He was, however a creature of the Kirk; 



the noblest ambition of Knox was an active influence in the Kirk; and the parish 
schools enabled the Kirk to provide its creatures with such teaching as it deemed 
desirable. William Burness was a very poor man, but he had the right tradition; he 
was a thinker and an observer; he read whatever he could get to read; he wrote 
English formally, but with clarity; and he did the very best he could for his 
children in the matter of education. Robert went to school at six; and in May of 
1765 a lad of eighteen, one John Murdoch, was engaged by Mr. Burness and four 
of his neighbors to teach, and accordingly began a little school at Alloway. 
Murdoch was an intelligent pedagogue, especially in the matter of grammar and 
rhetoric; he trained his scholars to a full sense of the meaning and the value of 
words; he even made them turn verse into its natural prose order and substitute 
synonymous expressions for poetical words. One effect of his method was that 
Robert, according to himself, "was absolutely a critic in substantives, verbs, and 
participles," and, according to Gilbert, "soon became remarkable for the fluency 
and correctness of his expression, and read the few books that came in his way 
with much pleasure and improvement." 


Robert had had about two and one-half years of Murdoch's tuition when the school 
broke up and Robert and his brother fell into their father's hands, and for divers 
reasons, Gilbert says, "we rarely saw anybody but the members of our own 
family," so that "my father was for some time the only companion we had." It will 
scarce be argued that this sole companionship was wholly good for a couple of 
lively boys; but it is beyond question that it was rather good than bad. The elder 
Bumes conversed with the boys on all subjects as if they had been men and was at 
great pains, as they accompanied him in the labors of the farm, to lead the 
conversation to such subjects as might tend to increase their knowledge or confirm 
their virtuous habits. 


Robert was a voracious reader and no book was so voluminous as to slacken his 
industry, or so antiquated as to damp his research, with the result that before he 
was very far in his teens he had a competent knowledge of ancient history with 
something of geography, astronomy, and natural history. At thirteen or fourteen 
Robert and Gilbert were sent to Dalrymple Parish School to better their 
handwriting. The summer after the writing-lessons at Dalrymple, Robert spent 
three weeks with Murdoch at Ayr, one over the English Grammer, the others over 
the rudiments of French. This latter language he was presently able to read, for the 



reason that Murdoch would go over to Mount Oliphant on half- holidays, partly for 
Robert's sake and partly for the pleasure of talking with Robert's father. Thus was 
Robert schooled. It is plain that in one, and that an essential particular, he and his 
brother were exceptionally fortunate in their father and in the means he took to 
train them. 


The next years form a period of stress and hardship. Shortly before the breaking up 
of Murdoch's school the elder Burns had leased a farm at Mount Oliphant. The 
land was the poorest in Ayrshire, and inasmuch as the venture was started on 
borrowed money things did not progress as well as they might. To add to the 
difficulties the generous master died about 1775 and the Burns family fell into the 
hands of a factor. According to Robert Burns this factor is pictured in the "Tale of 
Twa Dogs." Fortunately the lease had only two more years to run and in 1777 
William Burnes removed his family to Lochile. The nature of the bargain was such 
as to throw a little ready money in his hand at the commencement or the affair 
would have been impracticable. The next four years the family lived in 
comfortable circumstances and at this place Robert's gay and adventurous spirit 
began to free itself. His admirable talent for talk found fit opportunities for 
exercise and display. The reaction set in and he took life as gallantly as his 
innocency might, wore the only tied hair in the parish and was recognizable from 
afar by his fillemot plaid. He was made a "Free and accepted Mason", founded a 
Bachelors Club, and took to sweethearting with all his heart and soul and strength. 
He had begun with a little harvester at fifteen, and at Kirkoswald he had been 
enamoured of Peggy Thomson to the point of sleepless nights. His love rarely 
settled upon persons who were richer than himself, or who had more consequence 
in life. To condescend upon one's women is an ideal to some men, it certainly was 
so with Robert Bums. Apparently he held it was an honor to be admired by him; 
and when a short while hence (1786) he ventured to celebrate, in rather too realistic 
a strain, the Lass of Ballochmyle, and was rebuffed for his impertinence - it was so 
felt in those unregenerate days - he was, 'tis said, extremely mortified. 


It is no more than natural that this period should see the beginning of his poetry. 
The wonder is that so little of it was deemed too good for the fire. His loves during 
these Lochlie years, whether plain or pretty, were all goddesses to him, but it was 
not until after this period that he began rhymiing to any purpose. We are assured 



that his Lochlie love affairs were all "governed by the strictest rules of modesty 
and virtue, and from which he never deviated until his twenty- third year." 


It was natural and honorable in a young man of this lusty and amatory habit to look 
around for a wife and to cast about him for a better means of keeping her than 
farm- service could afford. In respect of the first he found a possibility in Elison 
Begbie, a Galston farmer's daughter, at this time a domestic servant, on whom he 
wrote (they say) his "Song of Similes," and to whom he addressed some rather 
stately, not to say pedantic, documents in the form of love- letters. For the new line 
in life, he determined that it might, perhaps, be flax-dressing; so, at the midsummer 
of 1781 he removed to Irvine, a little port on the Firth of Clyde, which was also a 
center of the industry in which he hoped to excel. Here he established himself, on 
what terms is not known, with one Peacock, whom he afterwards took occasion to 
describe as a "scoundrel of the first water, who made money by the mistery of 
Thieving"; here he saw something more of life and character and the world than he 
had seen at Mount Oliphant and Fochlie; here, at the year's end, he had a terrible 
attack of vapours; here, above all, he formed a friendship with a certain Richard 
Brown. According to him, Brown, being the son of a mechanic, had taken the eye 
of "a great man in the neighbourhood", and had received "a genteel education, with 
a view to bettering his situation in life." His patron had died, however, and he had 
perforce to go for a sailor. He had known good luck and bad, he had seen the 
world, he had the morals of his calling, at the same time that "his mind was fraught 
with courage, independence, and magnanimity, and every noble and manly virtue"; 
and Bums, who loved him and admired him, not only "strove to imitate him" but 
also "in some measure succeeded". Brown was Mephisto to Bum's Faust and 
"here", says the Bard, "his friendship did me a mischief, and the consequence was 
that soon after I assumed the plough, I wrote the enclosed Welcome." This 
enclosure, to Moore, was that half- humorous, half-defiant, and wholly delightful 
Welcome to His Fove-Begotten Daughter, through which the spirit of the true 
Bums - the Burns of the good years: proud, generous, whole- hearted, essentially 
natural and humane - thrills from the first line to the last. 


Bums returned to Fochlie in March, 1782. The prosperity of the preceding years 
was coming to a close and through a quarrel that went to the courts the elder 
Bumes was dispossessed. Thus was the quarrel ended and with it ended the career 
of William Bumess. He died in February of 1784. Robert and Gilbert secured 



another farm - Mossgiel - in Mauchline Parish, two or three miles from Lochlie in 
the late days of 1783 which would seem to show that in spite of the serious state of 
the affairs of their father, the family credit was not impaired. 


William Burness had paid his children wages during his tenancy of Lochlie and the 
elder four, by presenting themselves as his creditors for wages due, were enabled 
to secure a certain amount of "plenishing and gear" wherewith to make a start at 
Mossgiel. It was a family venture, in whose success the Burnesses were interested 
all and severally, and to which each one looked for food and clothes and hire (the 
brothers got a yearly fee of 7 pounds apiece); and, as all were well and thoroughly 
trained in farming work, and had never lived other than sparely, it was reasonable 
in them to believe that the enterprise would prosper. That it did not begin by 
prospering was no fault of Robert's. He made excellent resolutions, and what was 
more to the purpose, he kept them - for a time. He "read farming books" (thus he 
displays himself), he "calculated crops", he "attended markets"; he worked hard in 
the fields, he kept his body at least in temperance and soberness, and, as for thrift, 
there is Gilbert's word for it, that his expenses never exceeded his income of 7 
pounds a year. It availed him nothing. Gilbert is said to have been rather a theorist 
than a sound practician; and Robert, though a skilled farmer, cared nothing for 
business, and left him a free hand in the conduct of affairs. Luck, too, was against 
them from the first; and very soon the elder's genius was revealed to him, and he 
had other than farmer's work to do. Robert could do his work, and prided himself 
on the straightness of his furrows; he was, however, scarcely cut out for a 
successful farmer except, it may be, under certain special conditions. He was 
bursting with intelligence, ideas, the consciousness of capacity, the desire to take 
his place among men; and in Mauchline he found livelier friends and greater 
opportunities than he had found elsewhere. Being a Scot, he was instinctively a 
theologian; being himself, he was inevitably liberal-minded; born a peasant of 
genius, and therefore a natural rebel, he could not choose but quarrel with the Kirk 
- especially as her hand was heavy on his friends and himself - and it was as a 
Mauchline man that the best of his anticlerical work was done. Then, too, he was 
full of rhymes, and they must out of him; his call had come, and he feel to obeying 
it with unexampled diligence. It is from Mauchline, too, that his affair with Betty 
Paton over and done with, and, to anticipate a little, his affair with Jean Armour 
left hanging in the wind, he starts on his career as amorist at large. 



In the November of 1784 Elizabeth Paton bore him a daughter - "the First 
Instance", so he wrote above his Welcome, "that entitled him to the Venerable 
Appellation of Father." The mother is described as very plain-looking, but of an 
exceedingly handsome figure; rude and uncultivated to a great degree, with a 
strong masculine understanding, and a thorough, though unwomanly, contempt for 
any sort of refinement; withal, so active, honest, and independent a creature that 
Mrs. Burns would have had Robert marry her, but "both my aunts and Uncle 
Gilbert opposed it," in the belief that "the faults of her character would soon have 
disgusted him." Thus it was that the marriage was not concluded. 


It was at Mossgiel that the enormous possibilities in himself were revealed to 
Bums; and it was at Mossgiel that he did nearly all his best and strongest work. 

The revelations once made, he stayed not in his course, but wrote masterpiece after 
masterpiece, with a rapidity, an assurance, a command of means, a brilliancy of 
effect, which makes his achievement one of the most remarkable in English letters. 
In all of his work, however, he had the good sense to concern himself with the life 
he knew. The way of realism lay broadly beaten by his ancestors, and was natural 
to his feet; he followed it with vision, with humor, with inspiration and sympathy, 
and with art; and in the sequel he is found to be one in the first flight of English 
poets after Milton, Chaucer, Shakespeare. 


Elizabeth Paton's child was born in the November of 1784. In April of that year, a 
few weeks after the general settlement at Mossgiel, he made the acquaintance of 
Armour the mason's daughter, Jean. She was a handsome, lively girl; the 
acquaintance ripened into love on both sides; and in the end, after what the dates 
prove to have been a prolonged and serious courtship, Jean Armour fell with child. 
Her condition being discovered, Bums, after some strong revulsions of feeling 
against - not Jean, one hopes, but the estate of marriage - gave her what he 
presently had every reason to call "an unlucky paper," recognizing her as his wife; 
and, had things been allowed to drift in the usual way, the world had lacked an 
unforgotten scandal and a great deal of silly writing. This, though, was not to be. 
old Armour - "a bit mason body, who used to snuff a guid deal, and gey af en tak' a 
bit dram" - is said to have "hated" Burns; so that he would "reyther hae seen the 
Deil himsef cornin' to the hoose to coort his dochter than him." Thus a 
contemporary of both Armour and Bums; and in any case Armour knew Burns for 
a needy and reckless man, the father of one by-blow, a rebel at odds with the 



Orthodox, of whom, in existing circumstances, it would be vain to ask a 
considerable living. So he first obliged Jean to give up the "unlucky paper", with a 
view to unmaking any engagement it might confirm, and then sent her to Paisley, 
to be out of her lover's way. In the meanwhile Bums himself was in straits, and he 
had half a dozen designs in hand at once. Mossgiel was a failure; he had resolved 
to deport himself to the West Indies; he had made up his mind to print, and the 
Kilmarnock Edition was setting, when Jean was sent into exile. Worst of all, he 
seems to have been not very sure whether he loved or not. The tangle which 
resulted from this doubt on his part is interesting, but too lengthy to be detailed 
here. It ended by the deserter finding himself deserted and his pride, inordinate in a 
peasant, was cut to the quick. In effect, his position was sufficiently distracting. He 
had made oath that he would not marry Jean; then he had practically married her; 
then he found that nobody wanted her married to him - that, on the contrary, he 
was the most absolute "detrimental" in all Ayrshire; when, of course, the marriage 
became the one thing that made his life worth living. He tried to persuade old 
Armour to think better of his resolve; and, failing, ran "nine parts and nine-tenths 
out of ten stark staring mad." He took occasion to refer to Jean (to David Brice; 
12th June, 1786) as "poor, ill-advised, ungrateful Armour"; vowed that he could 
"have no nearer idea of the place of eternal punishment" than "what I have felt in 
my own breast on her account"; and finally confessed himself to this purpose: "I 
have tried often to forget her: I have mn into all kinds of dissipation and riot ... to 
drive her out of my head, but all in vain." Long before this, however - as early, it 
would seem, as some time in March - his "maddening passions, roused to tenfold 
fury", having done all sorts of dreadful things, and then "sunk into a lurid calm", he 
had "subsided into the time-settled sorrow of the sable widower", and had lifted his 
"grief- worn eye to look for - another wife". In other words, he had pined for female 
society, and had embarked upon those famous love-passages with Highland Mary. 


Little is known about Mary Campbell, though she forms an interesting episode in 
the life of Burns. The speculation and theorizing which have run rampant 
concerning her makes interesting reading, but one cannot advance one theory and 
reject the others. Space will not permit of this, and it is sufficient to say that they 
were never married. 


By this time the end of Mauchline, and of much besides, was nearer than he knew. 
Probably sent to press in the May of 1786, the Kilmarnock Volume was published 



at the end of July. Most of, if not all, the numbers contained in it were probably 
familiar to the countryside. Some had certainly been received with "a roar of 
applause"; Bums, who was not the man to hide his light under a bushel, was given 
to multiplying his verses in MS. copies for friends; he had been "read into fame" 
by Aiken the lawyer; so that Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was, in a sense, 
as "well advertised" as book could be. Its triumph was not less instant than well- 
deserved; the first issue, six hundred copies strong, was exhausted in a month. But 
Bums himself, according to himself, and he was ever punctiliously exact and 
scmpulous on the score of money, was but 20 pounds in pocket by it; the 
Kilmarnock printer declined to strike a second impression, with additions, unless 
he got the price of the paper in advance; and for some time it seemed that there was 
nothing but Jamaica for the writer, Local Bard and Local Hero though he were; so 
that he looked to have sailed, in mid- August, and again on the 1 st September, and 
at some indeterminate date had "conveyed his chest thus far on the road to 
Greemock", and written that solemn and moving song - far and away the best, I 
think, and the sincerest thing he left in English - The Gloomy Night is Gathering 
Fast. 


But for one or another reason, his departure was ever deferred; and, though on the 
30th October (some ten days, it is surmised, after the death of Mary Campbell), he 
was still writing that, "ance to the Indies he was wonted," he'd certainly contrive to 
"mak' the best o' life wi' some sweet elf," on the 18th November, "I am thinking for 
my Edinburgh expedition on Monday or Tuesday come s'ennight " In effect, an 
"Edinburgh expedition" was natural and inevitable. 


He reached the capital on the 28th November, and was hospitably entertained by 
Richmond - to the extent, indeed, of a bedfellow's share in the clerk's one little 
room in Baxter's Place, Lawnmarket. Through Dalrymple of Organefield he got 
access to Lord Glencaim and others - among them Harry Erskine, Dean of Faculty, 
and that curious, irascible, pompous ass, the Earl of Buchan, and Creech, the 
publisher, who had been Glencaim's tutor, and who advertised the Edinburgh 
Edition on the 14th December. He saw everybody worth seeing, and talked with 
everybody worth talking to; he was made welcome by "heavenly Burnett" and her 
frolic Grace of Gordon, and welcome by the ribald, scholarly, hard- drinking wits 
and jinkers of the Chrochallan Fencibles. He moved and bore himself as easily at 
Duglad Stewart's as in Baxter's Place, in Creech's shop, with Henry Mackenzie and 



Gregory and Blair, as at that extraordinary meeting of the St. Andrew's Lodge, 
where, at the Grand Master's bidding, the brethren assembled and drank the health 
of "Caledonia and Caledonia's Bard - Brother Bums." To look at "he was like a 
farmer dressed to dine with the laird"; his manners were "rustic, not clownish"; he 
had "a sort of dignified plainness and simplicity." 


What is really wonderful is the way in which Bums kept his head in Edinburgh 
Society, and stood prepared for the inevitable reaction. Through all the "thick, 
strong, stupefying incense smoke", he held a steady eye upon his future. In the 
long-mn his magnaminity suffered a certain change. The peasant at work scarce 
ever goes wrong; but abroad and idle, he is easily spoiled, and soon. Edinburgh 
was a triumph for Burns; but it was also a misfortune. It was a center of 
conviviality - a city of clubs and talk and goodfellowship, a city of harlotry and 
high jinks, a city, above all, of drink; a dangerous place for a peasant to be at large, 
especially a peasant of the conditions and the stamp of Bums. He was young, he 
was buckishly given, and he was - Bums. 


After residing some months in Edinburgh he began to estrange himself, not 
altogether, but in some measure, from the society of his graver friends. ... He 
suffered himself to be surrounded by a race of miserable beings who were proud to 
tell that they had been in company with Burns, and had seen Bums as loose and as 
foolish as themselves. It is evident that the distractions and the triumphs of 
Edinburgh continued the work which the mistakes and follies of Dumfries were to 
finish ten years later. 


The Edinburgh edition floated - Bums cleared about 450 pounds from it - he fell in 
with Mrs. M'Lehose; he instantly proposed to "cultivate her friendship with the 
enthusiasm of religion". This affair lasted for some time and seems to have been 
one sally of these years which was wholly honest and straight. It must be confessed 
that this was due to the woman and not to the man. 


Very early in 1788, Jean Armour - brought some time in the preceding summer 
"pop, down at my feet, like Corporal Trim's hat" - was expelled from her parents' 



house and took refuge at Tarbolton Mill. There Burns found her on his return, and 
thence he removed her to a house in "Mauchline toun," to the particular joy, a short 
while after, of Saunders Tait. A very perplexing series of circumstances follow. 

The Edinburgh widow and the reunited Jean Armour occupy his affections 
alternately. Some time after 7th March, 1788, he escorts Jean to a place of 
seclusion, and the affair is closed when he marries her on April 7th. 


Meanwhile he had taken Ellisland, a farm in Dumfriesshire, of Miller of 
Dalswinton, with an allowance from his landlord, a worthy and generous man, of 
300 pounds, for a new steading and outhouses. His marriage at last made formal 
and public on the 5th August, 1788, the bride and bridegroom appeared before the 
Session, acknowledged its irregularity, demanded its "solemn confirmation," were 
sentenced to be rebuked, etc., and were finally "absolved from any scandal" on the 
old account. It was not until November, however, that Bums and Jean set up their 
rest in Dumfriesshire; and even so, they had to go, not to their own farmhouse, it 
was not ready for them until August of 1789, but to a place called "The Isle," about 
a mile away from it. By the end of July, 1789, Burns had resolved to turn his 
holding into a dairy farm to be mn by Jean and his sisters, and to take up his 
gaugership in earnest; and on the 10th of August he learned from Graham of Fintry 
that he was appointed exciseman for that district of Dumfriesshire in which 
Ellisland is situate. The work was hard for he had charge of ten parishes and must 
ride two hundred miles a week to get his duty done. He developed into an officer at 
once humane and vigilant and it is told of him that he could always wink when 
staring would mean black min to some old unchartered alewife (say), hiss first 
year's "decreet" - his share, that is, of the fines imposed upon his information - 
was worth some fifty or sixty pounds. 


He was unable, however, to overcome the amorous ways of his youth and while he 
married Jean in the April of 1788, Anne Park bore him a child just ten days before 
Jean was delivered of his second son (in wedlock) - on; the 9th of April, 1791. Jean 
was magnanimous, and while no one knows what became of Anne Park, it is; 
known that her child was nursed with Jean's own. It is furthermore worthy of note 
that Anne Park is the last of Burns' mistresses who has a name. It is known that this 
was not the last, and he kept up his trick of throwing the lyric handkerchief till the 
end. All through his last illness he is tenderly solicitous about his wife, be it 



remembered; yet the deathbed songs for Jessie Lewars are the best of those closing 
years. 


Whatever the sequel, it may fairly be said for Ellisland that Burns and Jean were 
happy there, and that it saw the birth of Tam o' Shanter and the perfecting, in the 
contributions to Johnson's Museum, of the Vernacular Song. The last we know, 
was Burns' work; but he had assistants, and they did him yeoman service. 


The story of the Dumfries period is one of decadence; and, even if it were told in 
detail, would tell us nothing of Burns that we have not already heard or are not all 
too well prepared to leam. In a little town, where everybody's known to everybody, 
there is ever an infinite deal of scandal; and Burns was too reckless and too 
conspicuous not to become a peculiar "sock-shoy" for the scandal-mongers of 
Dumfries. That he fought against temptation is as plain as that he proved incapable 
of triumph, and that, as Carlyle has wisely and humanely noted, the best for him, 
certain necessary conditions being impossible, was to die. 


The precisian has naught to do at this grave-side; and to most of us now it is 
history that while there was an infinite deal of the best sort of good in Burns, the 
bad in him, being largely compacted of such purely unessential defects as 
arrogance, petulance, imprudence, and a turn for self-indulgence, this last 
exasperated by the conditions in which his lot was cast, was not of the worst kind 
after all. Yet the bad was bad enough to wreck the good. The little foxes were 
many and active and greedy enough to spoil a world of grapes. The strength was 
great, but the weaknesses were greater; for time and chance and the necessity were 
ever developing the weakness at the same time that they were ever beating down 
the strength. That is the sole conclusion possible. And to the plea, that the story it 
rounds is very pitiful, there is this victorious answer: that the Man had drunk his 
life to the lees, while the Poet had fulfilled himself to the accomplishing of a 
peculiar immortality so that to Bums death came as a deliverer and a friend on the 
twenty-first of July, 1796. This sketch may well be concluded with the following 
verses from his own Epitaph: 



Is there a man whose judgment clear 
Can others teach the course to steer, 

Yet runs himself life's mad career 
Wild as the wave? 

Here pause - and, through the starting tear, 
Survey this grave. 

The poor inhabitant below 

Was quick to learn and wise to know, 

And keenly felt the friendly glow 
And softer flame; 

But thoughtless follies laid him low, 

And stained his name. 

Reader, attend! Whether thy soul 
Soars Fancy's flights beyond the pole, 

Or darkling grubs this earthly hole 
In low pursuit; 

Know, prudent,- cautious, self-control 


Is wisdom's root. 



O 


The Compasses 


BY BRO. S. PFRIMMER, Indiana 


SITTING in the little library of Pisgah Lodge, No. 32, Corydon, Indiana, the first 
week in May, 1927, browsing through the annual reports of the Grand Lodge of 
Indiana, I came across Past Grand Master Gay's Review of the proceedings of the 
Grand Lodge of Montana for 1925. Bro. Gay wrote with seeming enthusiasm and 
approval as follows: "The splendid report on the subject of 'Compass or 
Compasses?' is given by Bro. R. J. Lemert, which concludes with the following 
recommendation which was adopted: 


"This is perhaps the ancient symbolism of the Square and Compass, and we should 
not destroy or becloud it by over- anxiety to conform to the etymologies of the 
outer world. Much of the most Sacred symbolism of our institution has been lost 
forever through the honest but unskilled tinkering of amateur ritualists. Let this 
Grand Lodge not add to the confusion within the Temple. 


"For these and other reasons, with which the committee was not willing further to 
burden the Grand Lodge, it was recommended that the word 'Compass' be once 
again given sanction in preference to 'Compasses' wherever it appears in our work, 
written or unwritten." 


At once the question arose, why should Reviewer Gay refer to this action of the 
Grand Lodge of Montana with such enthusiasm and apparent approval ? Upon 
inquiry, I was informed that the Grand Lodge of Indiana had a few years ago 
adopted a ritual which used the word "Compass" instead of "Compasses," but a 



record of this action had failed to appear in the Grand Lodge report. This at once 
opened up a field of investigation. I had been giving the degree lectures for forty- 
nine years, always using the word "Compasses" and had never had its correctness 
questioned. I did not know what practice prevailed in the Masonic world and for 
the purpose of discovering this I wrote to the Grand Secretaries of the Grand 
Lodges with which Indiana has fraternal relations. I have received sixty-eight 
answers. Of these sixty-two Grand Secretaries answer that the word in use in their 
Grand Jurisdictions is "Compasses." Six say "Compass." I am giving a list of the 
Grand Jurisdictions with answers and comment, if any: 


Alabama - Compasses. 

Alberta - Compasses. 

Arkansas - Compasses. "Compass" is the nautical instrument for steering. 

Arizona - Compass. 

British Columbia - Compasses 
California - Compass. 

Colorado - Compasses. 

Connecticut - In Connecticut the preferred terminology is the plural, Compasses. 
Delaware - Compasses. 

District of Columbia - Compasses. 

England - 1 return your letter of the 4th of July with the word "Compasses" inserted 
therein, this being the method of description in the English Jurisdiction. P. Coville 
Smith, Grand Secretary. 

Florida - Our Monitor gives it Compasses. 

Georgia - Compasses. 

Guatemala - Compasses is called in this Jurisdiction. 

Idaho - Compasses. 



Iowa - Compass. 

Ireland - In reply to yours of the 29th ultimo, the Masonic Emblem referred to is 
known under the Irish constitution as the Compasses. H. C. Shellard, Grand 
Secretary. 

Illinois - Compasses. 

Kansas - Compasses. 

Kentucky - Compasses. 

Louisiana - Compasses. 

Maine - Compasses. 

Manitoba - Compasses. 

Maryland - Compasses. 

Massachusetts - Compasses. 

Michigan - Compasses. 

Minnesota - Compass. I am well aware that the best authorities sanction the word 
"Compasses", and I am personally of the opinion that the same is the only correct 
designation. 

Missouri - Compasses (Monitor). 

Mississippi - Compasses. 

Montana - Compass. 

Nebraska - Compass. Although the authorities seem to be nearly all against us. 
Nevada - Compasses. 

New Brunswick - Compasses. 

New Hampshire - Compasses. 

New Jersey - Compasses. 



New Mexico - Compasses (Monitor). 

New South Wales - Compasses. 

New York - Compasses. 

New Zealand - Compasses. 

North Carolina - Compasses. 

North Dakota - Compasses. 

Nova Scotia - Compasses. 

Ontario - Compasses. 

Ohio - Compasses. Past Grand Master Belt, Chairman of the Ritual Committee for 
Ohio, in answering the question "Compasses" says, "I never heard any other from 
anywhere on earth." 

Oklahoma - Compasses 

Oregon - Compasses always in all work. 

Pennsylvania - Compasses. 

Prince Edward Island - Compasses. 

Quebec - we invariably give it in the plural, Compasses, as distinctive from a 
Mariner's compass. 

Queensland - Compasses. 

Rhode Island - Compasses. 

Saskatchewan - Compasses. 

Scotland - Compasses. 

South Australia - Compasses. The great Oxford dictionary supports this usage. 
South Carolina - Compasses. 



South Dakota - Compasses 
Tasmania - Compasses. 

Tennessee - Compasses. 

Texas - Compasses. 

Utah - Compasses. 

Vermont - Compasses. 

Victoria - Compasses. 

Virginia - Compasses, never Compass. 

Washington - Compasses. 

Western Australia - Compasses. 

West Virginia - Compasses. 

Wisconsin - Compasses. 

Wyoming - Compasses. 

After completing this survey, the compiler turned his attention to Masonic 
dictionaries and encyclopaedias. 


The first volume of Oliver's Universal Masonic Library (30 volumes) is a Masonic 
Dictionary. In this dictionary, the word "Compasses" only is used, and this seems 
to be true in all of Dr. Oliver's writings, so far as I have been able to discover. 


Albert G. Mackey, in his monumental work, Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, seems 
invariably to use the word "Compasses." The following quotations from this work 
are given under the heading: 



COMPASSES. As in Operative Masonry the Compasses are used for the 
admeasurement of the architect's plans, and to enable him to give those just 
proportions which will ensure beauty, as well as stability to his work; so, in 
Speculative Masonry, is this important implement symbolic of that even tenor of 
deportment, that true standard of rectitude which alone can bestow happiness here 
and felicity hereafter. Hence, are the compasses the most prominent emblem of 
virtue, the true and only measure of a Mason's life and conduct. 


And under 


SQUARE AND COMPASSES: These two symbols have been so long and so 
universally combined to teach us, as says an early ritual, "to square our actions and 
to keep them within due bounds," they are so seldom seen apart but are so kept 
together either as two great lights, or as a jewel worn once by the Master of the 
Lodge, now by the Past Master. 


Again, we find this: 


The Bible, square and compasses are technically said to constitute the furniture of 
a lodge. 


And also: 


GREATER LIGHTS: The Bible, and the Square and Compasses. 


Bro. William L. Boyden's Little Masonic Dictionary says, 



COMPASSES: one of the most prominent of the emblems of Masonry. 


SQUARE AND COMPASSES: the badge of the fraternity. 


The furniture of a lodge, the Bible, Square and Compasses. 


GREAT LIGHTS: the Bible, Square and Compasses. 


Bro. Charles H. Merz, author and editor of the Sandusky Masonic Bulletin, in his 
unique book, Ask Me, Brother, says the furnishings of a lodge are 


The Holy Bible, Square and Compasses. 


And again: 


The word "Compass" may be used only to indicate the cardinal points; as a 
geometrical instrument, the word in Masonry is always "Compasses." 


One of the important products of Masonic learning in the last century was Bro. 
Mitchell's Common Law of Masonry, and in an inserted Dictionary of Masonic 
terms uses the word "Compasses" only. 



A letter from the Grand Librarian of the Grand Lodge of England, the oldest Grand 
Lodge in the world, says: 


In reply to your letter, the use of the word "Compasses" (in the plural) by 
Freemasons of the English Constitution is in no way a use peculiar only to the 
Craft. It is the proper English designation of this particular instrument used by 
many professions and trades besides its symbolic employment by Freemasons. The 
word "Compasses" is, however, really an abbreviation, for colloquial conveniences 
of the full name which is "a pair of Compasses", just as the word "Scissors" 
describes, for shortness sake, a "pair of Scissors", another instrument which like 
the Compasses consists of more than one distinct part and so may rightly be 
denominated in the plural. 


The Secretary of Grand Master's Lodge, No. 1, in the jurisdiction of the Grand 
Lodge of England, says: 


So far as my observation and research have gone the word "Compasses" is always 
used and not "Compass." 


The Secretary of St. John's Lodge, No. 1, Boston, Massachusetts, reputed to be the 
oldest lodge in America, writes that they use the word "Compasses" and he 
presumes they have always done so. 


Bro. Lionel Vibert, Editor of Miscellanea Latomorum and Past Master of Quatuor 
Coronati Lodge, says: 


The facts are pretty clear. Compass in the singular means for us the Mariner's 
compass. The emblem is the Compasses. 



We now turn to "the etymologies of the outer world." Chamber's Encyclopaedia 
has: 


COMPASS, Mariner's is the name given to the instrument by which sailors are 
enabled to steer their course on the ocean and out of sight of land. 


Much more is given, but no reference to the mathematical instrument. 


And then says, 


COMPASSES, instrument for transferring and marking off distances, or for 
drawing circles, etc. 


The International Encyclopaedia has four pages devoted to "Compass" - not once 
referring to the mathematical instrument And follows this with 


COMPASSES, a mathematical instrument for transferring or marking off distances 
(and for this purpose often called "dividers") or for drawing circles. The common 
compasses or dividers are composed of two rods or legs joined together by a pivot 
joint at one end and pointed at the other. 


The Encyclopaedia Americana says: 



COMPASS, MARINER'S: an instrument to ascertain directions at sea by means of 
the attraction of the earth for a movable magnet or a set of magnets. 


Considerable space is given to a discussion of the subject, but no reference is made 
to the geometrical instrument. But this is followed by another heading: 


COMPASSES: mathematical instrument used for describing circles, measuring 
lines, etc. 


The Funk and Wagnalls Standard Encyclopaedia says: 


COMPASS or Mariner's compass, a magnetic instrument used to indicate the 
direction of a ship with respect to the magnetic N. and S. line. 


This discussion continues for four columns. No reference is made to the 
architectural instrument. 


Then comes: 


COMPASSES, instruments for transferring and marking off distances or for 
drawing circles, etc. 


The following letter was written to the Editor of the Standard Dictionary: 



Under the word "Compass" in the Standard Dictionary, you provide for thirteen 
definitions. You use twelve of them in defining things other than the mathematical 
instrument. After the number 7, you say, "see Compasses." And then in regular 
alphabetical order you say, "Compasses, noun, plural. An instrument consisting of 
two branches or legs, etc." 


Are we not justified in concluding that you mean that "compasses" is one of the 
few nouns that have no singular? Chamber International, Funk and Wagnalls, The 
Americana, Mackey's (Masonic) Encyclopaedias, as well as Oliver's (Masonic) 
dictionary, all confirm this view. While Webster's, the Century and Stormonth's 
dictionaries practically do so. 


I shall be greatly obliged to you for a reply. 


To which the Editor replied: 


Yes, compasses and scissors are words in the same class. "Compass" singular has a 
totally different meaning. 


The Century Dictionary defines "Compass" under 10 headings. Under number 8, it 
says: 


A mathematical instrument for describing circles or for measuring figures, 
distances between two points, etc.; commonly plural. Compasses consist of two 
pointed legs, etc. and then quotes Milton - 


"In his hand He took the Golden Compasses, prepared In God's eternal store, to 
circumscribe This Universe and all created things." 



Webster's Dictionary devotes 10 headings to the definition of "Compass." Nine of 
them refer to other things than the geometrical instrument. After number 8 it says: 


8 (usually plural). An instrument for describing circles transferring measurements, 
consisting in its simple form of two pointed branches or legs, joined at the top by a 
pivot; called also pair of compasses. Compasses have generally one pen or pencil 
point, those with two sharp metal points for measuring are specifically called 
dividers. 


Then in regular alphabetical order comes this: 


COMPASSES, noun, plural. An instrument for describing curves, measuring, etc. 


GEOMETRY OR MASONRY, ORIGINALLY SYNONYMOUS TERMS 


Bro. H. L. Haywood's pamphlet, The Walrus and the Carpenter, which is included 
in the Dollar Masonic Library, gives us a glimpse of the mathematics of Masonry. 
Writing of the Forty- seventh problem of Euclid and its reputed discoverer, the 
Great Pythagoras, Bro. Haywood says: 


There is more substantial evidence to show that he founded a School of 
mathematics to make special studies of the righted- angled triangles. That theorem 
which showed up in Euclid as the forty-seventh proposition was attributed to him - 
in itself sufficient to establish ever enduring fame for any man. This proposition, 
you will recall holds that the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides of a right- 
angled triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse. For ages before 
Pythagoras the Egyptians had known on the basis of a rule of thumb that any 



triangle, the sides of which are in units of 3, 4, and 5 is a right-angled triangle; it is 
possible that Pythagoras generalized this into his own theorem. 


The importance of this theorem in the history of mathematics, and even in the 
history of exact thinking in general, cannot be exaggerated. "No proposition in the 
whole of mathematics has had such a distinguished history," writes Bertrand 
Russell one of the greatest of all living mathematicians. "Everything in geometry, 
and subsequently in physics, has been derived from it by successive 
generalizations." 


This problem at once becomes intensely interesting, and important to every Master 
Mason. The symbolism of Masonry being so closely connected with the 
mathematical sciences, I wrote to the Department of Mathematics of a number of 
Universities and Colleges asking what name they applied to the geometrical 
instrument used in describing circles. Here is the result so far as obtained: 


Amherst College - Compasses. 

University of Arizona - A pair of Compasses. A pair of Dividers. This is not a 
magnetic Compass. 

University of Arkansas - Compasses. 

Birmingham-Southern University - Compasses. 

Brown University - Compasses. 

Cambridge (England) University - Compasses. 

University of California - Either but Compasses more common. 

Chicago University - Dividers or Compasses 

Columbia University - This is known as Compasses, i.e., an instrument often called 
Compass, but "Compasses" is scientifically correct, the magnetic needle, a circle or 
space being a Compass. The above is also referred to often as a pair of Compasses. 



University of Colorado - Plural drawing instrument for measuring, describing 
circles, etc. (Webster). 

Connecticut Agricultural College - Compasses. Dartmouth 
University - Compasses. 

University of Delaware - Compasses. Compare the word scissors. 

Earlham College - Compasses. 

George Washington University - Compasses. See Funk & Wagnalls, or any other 
good dictionary. J. T. Erwin. 

University of Georgia - Compasses. R. P. Stephen. 

Hanover College - Usually plural. 

Howard Payne University - Dividers 

University of Illinois - Pair of Compasses. Not Compass. 

Indiana University - Compasses. 

Indiana Central University - Compasses. 

Iowa State University - Dividers or Compasses. 

University of Kansas - Compasses. 

University of Kentucky - Compasses. 

University of Maine - Compasses. 

University of Manitoba - A pair of Compasses. 

U. S. Military Academy - Pair of Compasses or Compasses. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Compasses. 

University of Michigan - 1 prefer the plural Compasses, or a pair of Compasses. 



University of Minnesota - This looks like a pair of Compasses. 

University of Missouri - Compasses. 

University of Montana - Compasses. See dictionary. 

U.S. Naval Academy - Compasses. (See Webster.) 

University of Nebraska - Compasses. 

University of Nevada - Compasses. 

University of North Dakota - Compasses. 

University of Notre Dame - An instrument used in drawing, for describing arcs, 
circles, etc., is called "Compasses". An instrument used in surveying, for 
determining courses and directions from a magnetic needle is called "Compass". 

Oakland City College - Compasses. 

Oberlin College - The term applied to the above is Compasses or a pair of 
Compasses. Ohio State University - Compasses. 

University of Oklahoma - Compasses. 

University of Oregon - Compasses 

University of Pennsylvania - Pair of Compasses. 

Princeton University - Compasses (or Dividers). 

Purdue University - If used in drawing, "a pair of Compasses". If used in 
measuring, "a pair of Dividers". 

Rollins College - Compasses. 

Rose Polytechnic Institute - Compasses. 

University of South Carolina - Compass 

University of Southern California - Compasses. 



University of Tennessee - Compasses. 

University of Utah - Compasses. 

Taylor University - Compasses. 

University of Vermont - Compasses. 

University of Virginia - Compasses. 

Wabash College - 1 would call the above "Compasses" or "a pair of Compasses." 
University of Washington - Compasses is technically correct. I prefer the term "a 
pair of Compasses". 

Western Reserve University - Compasses. 

West Virginia University - A pair of Dividers or Compasses. 

Wyoming University - (Pair of) Compasses. 

Yale University - Pair of Compasses or Dividers. 

DIVIDERS is given in dictionaries and by mathematicians as synonymous with 
COMPASSES. 


The following excerpts are taken from Brothers and Builders, Bro. Joseph Fort 
Newton, and will form a fitting conclusion to this article: 


THE HOLY BIBLE 


Upon the Altar of every Masonic Lodge, supporting the Square and Compasses, 
lies the Holy Bible. The old, familiar Book, so beloved by so many generations, is 
our volume of Sacred Law and a Great Light in Masonry. The Bible opens when 
the Lodge opens; it closes when the Lodge closes. No Lodge can transact its own 



business, much less initiate candidates into its mysteries unless the Book of the 
Holy Law lies open upon its Altar. Thus the book of the Will of God rules the 
Lodge in its labours, as the Sun rules the day, making its work a worship. 


THE SQUARE 


The Holy Bible lies open upon the Altar of Masonry, and upon the Bible lie the 
Square and Compasses. They are the three Great Lights of the Lodge, at once its 
Divine warrant and its chief working tools. They are symbols of Revelation, 
Righteousness, and Redemption, teaching us that by walking in the light of Truth, 
and obeying the law of Right, the Divine in man wins victory over the earthly. 
How to live is the one important matter, and he will seek far without finding a 
wiser way than that shown us by the Great Lights of the Lodge. 


The Square and Compasses are the oldest, the simplest, and the most universal 
symbols of Masonry. All the world over, whether as a sign on a building or a 
badge worn by a brother, even the profane know them to be emblems of our 
ancient Craft. Some years ago, when a business firm tried to adopt the Square and 
Compasses as a trade-mark, the Patent Office refused permission, on the ground, as 
the decision said, that "there can be no doubt that this device, so commonly worn 
and employed by Masons, has an established mystic significance, universally 
recognized as existing; whether comprehended by all or not, is not material to this 
issue." They belong to us, alike by the associations of history and the tongue of 
common report. 


Nearly everywhere in our Ritual, as in the public mind, the Square and Compasses 
are seen together. If not interlocked they are seldom far apart, and the one suggests 
the other. And that is as it should be, because the things they symbolize are 
interwoven In the old days when the earth was thought to be flat and square, the 
Square was the emblem of the Earth, and later, of the earthly element in man. As 
the sky is an are or a circle, the implement which describes a Circle became the 
symbol of the heavenly, or skyey spirit in man. Thus, the tools of the builder 
became the emblems of the thoughts of the thinker- and nothing in Masonry is 



more impressive than the slow elevation of the Compasses above the Square in the 
progress of the degrees. The whole meaning and task of life is there, for such as 
have eyes to see. 


THE COMPASSES 


In our study of the Square we saw that it is nearly always linked with the 
Compasses, and these old emblems, joined with the Holy Bible, are the Great 
Lights of the Craft. If the Lodge is an "Oblong Square" and built upon the Square 
(as the earth was thought to be in olden time), over it arches the Sky, which is a 
circle. Thus, Earth and Heaven are brought together in the Lodge - the earth where 
man goes forth to his labor, and the Heaven to which he aspires. In other words, 
the light of the Revelation and the law of Nature are like the two points of the 
Compasses within which our life is set under a canopy of Sun and Stars. 


— o — 


THE BUILDER January, 1928 


The Kabala 


Bv BRO. L. F. STRAUSS, Massachusetts 


IN the May number of THE BUILDER last year appeared an article entitled The 
Essenes; in July was published Freemasonry and the Essenes. These two articles 
constitute a kind of introduction to this one. In Freemasonry and the Essenes 
attention was called to Masonic terminology and nomenclature of Hebrew- 



Aramaic origin. A repetition here of this list may be of interest; furnish food for 
thought. 

Adonai - Lord; used by the Jews in place of Jehovah, the name of God. 

Adon Hiram - A don i ram - The Lord is exalted. 

Ahiah - 1 Kings iv, 3 

Ahiman - Rezon. Derived from a very old and obsolete Hebrew word and used as 
title to a book of instruction in the Grand Lodge of York. [Actually it first appears 
as the title of the Constitutions of the "Ancient" Grand Lodge in London, compiled 
by Lawrence Dermott. Ed.] 

Abbadon 

Abda 

Abif 

Aholiab 

Balgulkal - obsolete Hebrew 
Bel 

Bendekar 

Bereith 

Boaz 

Breastplate 
Cedars of Lebanon 
Cherubim 


Chased 



Cohen 


Emeth 

Enoch 

Ephod 

Levite 

Manna 

Melchizedek 

Melech 

Miter 

Mizraim 

Maamah 

Peleg 

Pentalpha - Solomon's Seal 

Rabboni 

Sabbaoth 

Sanhedrim 

Seal of Solomon 

Sephiroth 

Shaddai 

Shamer 


Ephraimites 



Ezel 

Gabaon 

Gedaliah 

Giblim 

Haggai 

Hiram Abif 

Immanuel 

Jachin 

Jacob's Ladder 
Jah 

Jehosaphat 

Jeharak 

Kabbala 

Kadosh 

Kamea 

Lebanon 

Shekel 

Shekinah 

Shiboleth 

Shield of David 


Signet of Serubbabel 



Tabernacle 


Tetragammaton 
Tomb of Adoniram 
Solomon's Seal 
Tubalcain 

Twelve Lettered Name 

Two Lettered Name 

Zabud 

Zadok 

Zedekiah 

Zeredha 

Zerubbabel 


To this list of Masonic terms we will add the word Ain Soph, one of the most 
important figures in the Zohar (crown of the Kabala). This term Ain Soph was 
referred to in an article entitled the Freemason's Vision of God, by W. W. Covey 
Crump, a clergyman of the Church of England and Master of Quatuor Coronati 
Lodge. This also appeared in THE BUILDER for last May. 


Now what is, what means, what is contained in the Kabala? We will give a brief 
outline of the "idea" as reflected in the minds of recognized "authorities." 


Webster's Dictionary, abridged definition: Esoteric Theosophy. 



Encyclopedia Brittanica: An interesting exposition is here given; four lengthy 
pages. But - in the opinion of Strauss - after reading these four pages, the average 
reader, even the scholar, will know as little or as much as before. This selection of 
the information given in the Encyclopedia Brittanica may be of value to the 
innocent reader: 


In the Middle Ages, especially during the first period of the Renaissance and again 
at the period of the Reformation this Kabala was something of a factor, especially 
in the minds of Pico di Mirandola, Johann Reuchlin, Cornelius Agrippa, 
Theophrastus, Paracelsus, Robert Fludd, etc., etc. Through Mirandola's power of 
persuasion Pope Sixtus wanted Kabala taught to divinity students of the Holy 
Roman Catholic Church. 


Some points given in the Encyclopedia Brittanica should be of interest to students 
of Philosophy and Theology, and to seriously minded members of the Order of 
Free and Accepted Masons. 


Article in the Catholic Encyclopedia, "A little scratched will serve" (Bacon- 
Shakespeare). We will give a few significative excerpts: 


1 . Its application has greatly varied in course of time and it is only since the 
eleventh and twelfth centuries that the term Kabala has become the exclusive 
appellation for the system of Jewish religious philosophy which claims to have 
been uninterruptedly transmitted by the mouths of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Elders, 
etc., ever since the creation of the first man. 


2. Several of its doctrines recall to mind those of Pythagoras Plato, Aristotle, the 
Neo Platonists of Alexandria, the oriental or Egyptian Pantheists and the Gnostics 
of the Earliest Christian Church [Capitalization is by Strauss]. 



German Encyclopedias; Brockhaus and Meier: one-fourth of a page. Contents - 
Negation. 


La Grande Encyclopedic : In the opinion of Strauss this Encyclopedia is the fairest, 
the best, the most impartial published in Europe or America. On our "subject" we 
find six large pages. 


The true Caballe dates in reality, as we will see later, only from the thirteenth or 
fourteenth centuries. But its origines are very ancient. 


Why print "Does not date in reality only from the thirteenth or fourteenth 
centuries" and then "But its origins are very ancient"? Should not origines 
constitute a kind of beginning? 


The Gnosticism of the Jews is found already in the Old Testament, and the 
foundation of its metaphysical theory and the colors in which it is clothed. 
Everyone knows what an important part is played by Wisdom in the different 
books of the Bible in Proverbs, the Book of Job, the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of 
Siraeh and in the Wisdom of Solomon. [The last two mentioned being in the 
Apocrypha.] 


One of the most striking proofs of the influence exercised by secrets, doctrines and 
mystical ideas upon the Jews of Palestine towards the end of the second Temple is 
furnished by the sect of the Essenes. 


The Glory, or the Word, which under the influence of Plato and the Stoics became 
with Philo the famous Logos or the Word. . . . [The italics are by Strauss.] 



The Zohar was earlier considered as a very ancient work. It was usually attributed 
to Simeon ben Jochai (2nd Cent.) but today there is no doubt that it was bom in 
Spain at the end of the thirteenth century, etc., etc. 


Wrong; the name Zohar saw then the light of day, but contents, doctrines, 
propounded were transmitted orally centuries B. C. 


La Grande Encyclopedic gives a very lengthy and learned exposition of the 
doctrines, the idea found in the Kabala. Time and space does not permit here an 
elaborate presentation or a critical view. 


Encyclopedia Universal Ilustrade Americana Europea says of the Kabala that it 
was: 


1. An oral tradition among the Jews that explained the sense of the Holy 
Scriptures. 


2. In the ancient Jewish literature the whole body of religious doctrine with the 
exception of the Pentateuch. 


3. At the beginning of the tenth century of our era the cabala was considered as a 
secret science, a system of Theosophy. 


This Spanish- American Encyclopedia devotes four full pages and, strange as it 
may seem, gives an impartial presentation of the case. Nueva Encyclopedia 
Italiana. Two pages. Presentation is not deliberately unfair, principle of hypothesis 
is strongly accentuated, contents not of sufficient value (opinion of Strauss) to be 
given space in THE BUILDER, or time in the mind of the reader. 



The Encyclopedia Americana: Presentation free from bias. Four pages. 


Cabana designates the mystic law of the Jews and the practice based thereon. 


Historically considered the Cabala antedates by many centuries the work devoted 
to the exposition of its theorists and the inculeation of its practices, etc., etc. 


Indications are plentiful in both the Apocrypha and the pseudo-Epigrapha, notably 
in the Enoch books and the Testaments of various Bible heroes pointing to the 
acceptance and currency of Cabalistic concepts at the time these extra canonical 
books were composed, etc. 


Jewish of the late pre-Christian, and Christian Gnosticism of the early Christian 
centuries may be looked upon as its predecessors. 


The Neo Platonic and Pythogorean character of the book's theorizing is evident. To 
some sectaries the affirmation of the treatise seemed too strongly anthropomorphic. 
They therefore posited between God and Universe a Mediator the PRINCE of the 
WORLD, to whom they imputed all acts of creation and to whom they referred the 
corporeal description of God found in the Bible.... 


In brief, the main contentions of the Kabala are these: God is unknowable in His 
own essence. He is the EN SOPH the limitless, infinite. He is the HIDDEN OF 
ALL HIDDEN. He is the negative as far as he is cognizable by man, etc., etc 
[Capitalization is by Strauss.] 



The Americana gives quite a philosophical interpretation: A knowledge, an 
understanding of the real, the inner, meaning of the Kabala cannot of course be 
expected. 


Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings. Six large pages. 
Selections follow: 


The famous admonition of Sirach not to see that which is too wonderful for thee, 
etc., etc. 


This would seem to imply a tendency to Esoteric doctrines on the part of the 
Essenes. 


Kabalism denies the "Creatio ex nihilo" and the possibility of knowing God, etc., 
etc. 


Presentation is fair, free from "conscious" bias; good intention but Christian 
Orthodoxy - "Fundamentalism" - color the vision. 


The New International Encyclopedia: 


The designation for a mystical system of philosophy, which arose among the Jews 
at the beginning of the common Era, as a reaction against the sober and austere 
form assumed by Rabinnical Judaism. It attained a great vogue after the twelfth 
century, spread among Christian scholars in the 1 5th and 1 6th centuries and still 
prevails among the Jews of Eastern Europe though now dying out, etc., etc. 



More than "a little scratched," therefore will not serve. 


Now again, what is the Kabala? 


When L.F. Strauss became a member of the Ancient or Modern "Order of Free and 
Accepted Masons," when he studied and examined carefully what had been 
presented to his physical ears; when he - did what is generally expected from a 
scholar - such as he is supposed to be - made some extensive researches; Strauss 
rubbed his eyes to ascertain whether he was dreaming or was really awake. Next he 
examined his intellect and then scrutinized his "NOUS" (Supraconscious self) to 
make sure that everything was all right in the upper story of L. F. Strauss. 


Masonic nomenclature, Masonic symbolism taken, borrowed, "stolen," from what 
might be called the innermost shrine of Judaism. A shrine, the existence of which, 
in the opinion of Strauss, was no longer known or recognized, was in fact, decried 
and rejected by official Christianity. L.F. Strauss, through strange exceptional 
course of events had been made to see that what is called Christianity may be 
likened unto a jewel taken from this innermost shrine or unto a child reared and 
trained for its mission by the Builders, the Guardians of this Shrine. 


As L.F. Strauss had intimated in previous articles, a society and organization 
known in history as the Essenes, but whose real name, whose self-designation was 
Banaim (which term means Builders or Masons) was the Builder, the Providential 
Guardian of this Sacred Shrine. 


A number of secular, half-informed critical historians, make Jesus an Essene; John 
the Baptist is universally recognized as a member of these Essenes, John the 
Evangelist shows himself a member of this order by his presentation of the Gospel. 
The Apostle Paul informs us that he had sat at the feet of Gamaliel, a distinguished, 
a prominent member of this brotherhood. In Paul's presentation of the figure of 
Melchizedek there stands revealed a definite knowledge and a willing, joyful, 



acceptance of Essenic, that is Kabalistic, Weltanschauung philosophy, theosophy 
religion. There cannot be a doubt in the mind of a careful unbiased student that St. 
Clement and Origen, two of the most prominent Church- fathers, and some other 
leaders of primitive Christianity had been initiated into Essenic Kabalistic wisdom, 


Upon the table upon which this article is written lies a book recently discovered, 
and considered a treasure, by L.F. Strauss. A treasure, because this book is in a 
way a star witness. In its presentation of Masonic lore this book affirms, confirms, 
the main view and interpretations of L.F. Strauss. The author of this book is Albert 
Pike, in whose memory a Masonic monument has been erected in Washington. The 
title, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of 
Freemasonry. 


This book by Albert Pike is a great work, a wonderful, a most marvelous 
presentation of the garb, the dress in which were, are, clothed the doctrines, the 
ideals of Ancient and Modem Freemasonry. Albert Pike in the opinion of L.F. 
Strauss had not only entered the outer court, but his mental eye had been opened, 
he had a distinct inner vision of a glorious temple, and even of an inner shrine, 
which, in the opinion of L.F. Strauss, Albert Pike had actually tried to enter. 


Albert Pike in this book makes many favorable references to the Essenes; in one 
place he has even given the name, the word Banaim, without seeming to recognize 
its significance and relation. He refers to the connection of our two Johns with the 
Order of Essenes, its teachings and activities. 


This book by Albert Pike contains with appendix more than a thousand pages. In 
this short article a full presentation of the "case," the Weltanschauung, of our 
author (a recognized leader in Freemasonry) cannot of course be given. We will 
also state that on some points the belief, the philosophy, the Weltanschauung of L. 
F. Strauss is somewhat different from the interpretation given by Albert Pike. The 
latter's references to some Graeco-Roman sages, especially to Pythagoras, 
produced an inner and outer smile, in the mind and upon the lips of L. F. Strauss. 



What interests us, however, in the work of Albert Pike, are his many references to 
the subject now under consideration, the Kabala. In a way this Kabala constitutes 
the foundation, furnishes the basic principles of the Masonic doctrines, ideas and 
ideals presented to the reader. As this book contains, as already stated, more than a 
thousand pages, a few quotations only can be given. 


Kabala consecrates the alliance of the Universal reason and the Divine Word. . . 


Kabala contains a doctrine of logical, simple, absolute.... 


Kabala contains a source of many doctrines.... 


Kabala furnished the material for the Roman de la Rose. KABALA gives to 
MASONRY secrets and symbols.... 


Kabala an entire perfect, unique theology in the secret traditions. 


Kabala in active realization, the magic of words, is "Hermeticism." 


Kabala taught the unity of God and embodied a pure Philosophy. 


Kabala teaches the emanation of all from infinite light. . 



Kabala the Ancient of Days existed before everything... . 


Kabala the Hebrew traditional philosophy.... 


Kabala the supreme Being in the Unknown Father. . . . 


Kabala the Key of the occult sciences and gave birth to the Gnostics. 


Kabalistic doctrines known to the Templars.... 


Kabalistic and Hermetic Rose Croix.... 


Kabalistic books furnished the doctrine of the Hermetic philosophers. 


Hermetic Philosophy, whose principles and teachings, ideas and ideals, in the 
opinion of Strauss are in accord with the doctrines given in Kabala, existed (again 
in the opinion of Strauss) thousands of years before the Kabala was conceived. 


This Universe, this world of ours (again in the opinion of Strauss) existed much 
longer than the average man imagines. Continuing quotations from Pike: 


Kabalistic doctrines concealed under its emblems in the Apocalypse. 



Kabalistic doctrine, like Masonry, tends towards spiritual perfection 


Kabalistic doctrine of emanation, the origin of the Christian Trinity. 


Kabalists have chiefly studied the question of the nature of Deity and the beginning 
of the Universe. . . 


Kabalists' opinion concerning souls is Platonism and comes from the Chaldeans. . . 
. [Nix! Strauss.] 


Cabalistic clavicules, Ezekiel and the Apocalypse have occult explanation. 


Cabalistic expressed the perfect number, 10, by a Tau cross.... 


Albert Pike gives us also numerous references to the Zohar (in a way the crown of 
the Kabala). These references are too lengthy and too significative to be given in 
this brief article. 


In correspondence with our Bro. R. J. Meekren, L. F. Strauss was given the 
information that Bro. Pike had obtained his knowledge about Occultism and the 
Kabala largely from Maurice Constant, whose nom de plume was Eliphas Levi. 


This caused L. F. Strauss to investigate Eliphas Levi, and Strauss was pleased and 
feels grateful to his informant. 



After a brief investigation he will say this: Eliphas Levi was one of the few 
favorites of Fortune who had come near the ideal expressed by Nietsche in Also 
Sprach Zaratsushtra, near the position in store (ultimately) for the members of the 
Genus homo, near the position recognized by the great ones, the Philosophers, the 
Prophets of the race; of which position Bulwer Lytton gives us a vivid glimpse in 
his strange book entitled Zanoni: a position to which Campanella refe in some of 
his writings. [See Sonnets, translated by J.A. Simonds and Civitas Solis.] This 
Campanella spent thirty years of his life in a dungeon, the prisoner "Our Holy 
Father the Pope" and the Holy Inquisition. 


The philosophy, the theology, the doctrines enshrined, stored up in this position, 
could be given or to a selfish untutored world in a form veiled, very much veiled. 
The Platonists, Origen definitely informs us, when called upon to choose, preferred 
to express the selves in too veiled a manner rather than too plainly or openly. 


Giordano Bruno has seen far and deep. Had expressed himself too openly? And 
was he therefore punished by "Providence"? 


Jacob Boehme, one of the greatest of seers, was, harmless; because his vision is 
beyond the reach, above the understanding of the multitude and the intellectual 
critics. 


Cosmic Consciousness by Maurice Bucke, contains most valuable information for 
those already initiated. 


This book, La Clef Des Grands Misteres, is a most markable presentation of a 
wonderful world, of a subject usually called Occultism, Mysticism, occasionally 
even Spiritualism. Our author presents his ideas, his interpretation of this strange 
world in three hundred and fourteen pages. 



"Eliphas Levi" had glimpses of a superworld which glimpses disclosed to him a 
realm, strange and wonderful; but he, in the opinion of Strauss, was not a trained 
philosopher, did not fully realize the meaning and interpret correctly the scientific 
cosmic significance of the things he saw with his inner eye. A few extracts: 


One very important from first part:, 


God Himself creates Himself eternally, and the Infinite which He fills with His 
work is an infinite and incessant creation. 


This word "infinite," like most people's clothes, covers a multitude of "sins", or 
rather misunderstandings, errors, mistakes. 


The second part of this book is devoted to a something our author calls a 
supplement, and is entitled Articles Sur La Kabbale. 


A few excerpts which Strauss thinks of interest: 


Catholic Dogma is derived from, based upon the Kabala, but carefully veiled and 
modified. 


The word, God, expresses an ideal unknown in itself but well known under the 
diverse ideas which man makes, conceives, and expresses under the name, God. 


The Kabala which is the Mother of Exact Sciences, does admit a doubt when 
authorizing a hypothesis and speaking the religious sense and the name by which 



Man expresses his idea of the Infinite and the Invisible, the Kabala, we declare 
predicates His necessary existence because the verb indicates Being, as reflection 
indicates body 


Kabala distinguishes between the real Being of God and the human conception or 
idea, to which is given the name Adonai or Jehovah. . . . 


It is for this that the Kabbalists have distinguished the real being of God from the 
idea of him in the [mind] of man. 


Eliphas Levi was born a member, a son of the Catholic church. He remained a 
good Catholic, not, of course, in the eyes, the judgment, of Our "Holy Father the 
Pope." Some of his views will not be endorsed by American Protestants. 


Protestantism, for instance, is able to produce enthusiasm only rarely and in 
isolation. 


Protestantism is a religious negation rather than an affirmation. 


Predilection, prejudice, ideas instilled into our mind during our childhood, continue 
as a force, as a factor, in our opinion, our interpretation, even in the mind of an 
Eliphas Levi. 


Men who are too good or too liberally minded are disabled [lit. out of the conflict]. 


Sad but true ! 



Truth is set in the concourse [put where all can see] but those who find her are 
condemned to silence, otherwise everything would be ended. 


Endorsed by Strauss. 


It is for this that it mras said by the Christ, "I speak in parables that seeing they 
should not see, and hearing they should not understand. Otherwise they would be 
converted and would be saved." 


Satis, satis! Enough, enough. 


Eliphas Levi is considered, by our Editor, to have been the teacher, the guide of 
our good brother and recognized leader, Albert Pike. Ergo, the words of both 
should be of interest to the brothers of the Order of Free and Accepted Masons and 
to the readers of THE BUILDER. 


But frankness ! What will, what would be, the benefit derived from the reading of 
the works by these great authors for the large majority of living members of the 
genus homo, even if or when these readers are also members of our Masonic 
Society? 


The things presented, the ideas, the doctrines, the subjects discussed are so strange, 
so mysterious, so incomprehensible to the mere intellect. We are here reminded of 
the sage's declaration, Wer den Dichter will verstehen muss in Dichter's Lande 
gehen. Who would the poet understand must travel to the poet's country. In fact, in 
the opinion of L. F. Strauss, the ideas, the doctrines, the subjects presented by 
Eliphas Levi, or Albert Pike, are about as strange, as mysterious and 



incomprehensible as are, to the large majority of our brothers, the ceremonies, 
forms, and nomenclature used in our lodges. Why this opus and modus operandi? 
What justification, what purpose? We mentioned the declaration by Plato and 
Origen. But have we not also the words of the Master given in the sermon on the 
Mount, "Do not give that which is holy to dogs. Cast not pearls before swine;" and 
the words of the Apostle Paul: "You are still babes and cannot stand strong meat" 
(or shall we say "drink?"). Why this secrecy? 


The time for revelation, for publication had not yet come. In correspondence with 
our editor, this brother was informed that Arthur Waite (in the opinion of Strauss a 
great writer, a great student, a great theosophist, a good Mason) had secured in his 
(our Editor's) mind, an improved appreciation, a higher valuation, of our present 
subject, "The Kabala." 


Arthur Waite has written many wonderful books of interest to searchers after Truth 
and especially of special value to members of Masonry. Will here recommend: 


The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, The Occult Sciences, The Real History of 
the Rosicrucians and The Secret Doctrines of Israel, i.e., The Kabala. 


We might here also mention the great work published a few years ago by a noble 
Frenchman, P. Vulliaud, of one of whose books our Editor expressed in 
correspondence a favorable opinion. The book now in our mind is entitled Fa 
Cabbage Juif. A "great" work, two large volumes. Fa Cabbage Juif presents a 
learned exposition of Mysticism, in general, and Jewish Esoteric Occultism in 
particular. A brilliant description of a most marvelous temple. Our Frenchman, in 
the opinion of Strauss, even saw an inner shrine which he, our Frenchman, failed to 
enter. 



The second half of the second volume is devoted to a learned, a scholarly 
refutation, of the claim of Masonry, to a connection, a relation, with La Cabbage 
Juff. 


The idea! La Cabbage Puff, the divinely revealed wisdom that has furnished to the 
Holy Roman Catholic Church some of its most important dogmas and doctrines! 
How preposterous! What a presumption! we must here, of course, take into 
consideration that our noble Frenchman was born a Catholic, wished to be 
considered a faithful son of his Church, and did not want to offend Our Holy 
Father, the Pope, in his official court. 


This present article is intended as a kind of introduction to a subject - the Kabala. 
L. F. Strauss here wishes to call again attention to the three other introductory 
articles published in THE BUILDER, one in the month of May, the other in July, 
the third in the December edition. 


For the benefit of the forgetful reader, or new readers of THE BUILDER, the 
writer wishes to emphasize a few points: the nomenclature, the symbolism, used in 
the Masonic Lodge, is taken from a something called The Kabala. 


An organization known in history by the name Essenes, are the fathers of this 
Kabala. The popular name of these Essenes was Chasidim, the self-designation 
was Banaim, which name or word means in English, Builders, Masons. 


Kind readers recall, reflect: Maha Banaim. 


As a kind of "reference" to the reliability, the trustworthiness, of this Kabala, 
Strauss will reiterate: The heliocentric doctrine "quoted" in the July number was an 
integral part of the Essenic secret doctrines. 



A doctrine of evolution which contained features recognized by William James, 
but which was not elucidated on account of not yet being scientifically established, 
was also a part of Essenic teachings. 


In the textbook not yet written, this kind, this form, these basic principles of 
evolution - wie die gute Mutter schafft - as Goethe said - will be given in the 
textbooks, the school books of future generations. 


As scientific astronomical progress made possible and assured acceptance of 
heliocentric doctrine, and prevalent theories of the doctrine of evolution - although 
considered still by some unbiblical - so, the progress made in modern astronomy, 
the discoveries, the doctrines of Theodor Fechner (whose main work has been 
translated by Strauss), whose strange metaphysics the Encyclopedia Brittanica 
calls the master key to "Modem Thought." (This should read "future" thought in 
the opinion of Strauss.) Some features in the doctrine of Relativity make possible 
and advisable the publication of some of the secrets, some of esoteric doctrines 
enshrined in a work called the Kabala, the fountainhead, the textbook of Free 
Masonry. 


So in a subsequent article L. F. Strauss intends to give in plain language, with 
simple words, some highly interesting Kabalistic doctrines. 


— o — 


EDITOR! AF 


R.J. MEEKREN, Editor in Charge 



E.E. Thiemeyer, Research Editor 


BOARD OF EDITORS 

LOUIS BLOCK, Iowa 
ROBERT I. CLEGG, Illinois 
GILBERT W. DAYNES, England 
RAY V. DENSLOW, Missouri 
GEORGE H. DERN, Utah 
N.W.J. HAYDON, Canada 
R.V. HARRIS, Canada 
C. C. HUNT, Iowa 
CHARLES F. IRWIN, Pennsylvania 
A. L. KRESS, Pennsylvania 
F. H. LITTLEFIELD, Missouri 
JOSEPH E. MORCOMBE, California 
ARTHUR C. PARKER, New York 
J. HUGO TATSCH, Iowa 
JESSE M. WHITED, California 
DAVID E. W WILLIAMSON Nevada 

THE VATICAN AND ITS SHADOW 



WE begin the New Year and the new volume of THE BUILDER by presenting the 
first installment of "The Shadow of the Vatican." Our readers will now be able to 
judge for themselves what the character of these articles really is. There seems to 
be no object in repeating what was said on this subject last month as to the reasons 
that have led us to publish them, but it may be as well to insist once more that we 
take no responsibility for the author's statements. We are satisfied that he is in a 
position to know what he is talking about, and we have every ordinary everyday 
assurance that he is a man of probity and honor, but this does not absolve our 
readers from making their own judgment upon his work. 


One condition in his Church upon which he strongly animadverts seems, according 
to recent news items, to have been removed, formally at least, and that is the Italian 
dominance in the College of Cardinals. We say formally for the fact that the new 
appointments now place the Italian Cardinals in a bare minority will obviously not 
end their power of control. But it is a step towards an administrative reform, and it 
is not impossible that the shadow of these articles has gone before, and had 
something to do with the inauguration of the new policy. This is not at all 
impossible (we will not venture to say improbable) as they have been read in 
manuscript by several influential churchmen, and have been much talked about 
privately. 


We say again that it is our belief that the revival of administrative autonomy in 
different countries, and especially, of course, in America, in the Roman Church, 
would remove as a consequence most of the features that rouse the apprehensions 
of Protestants and nonRomanists generally. As things now are this Church is not 
only extra-national, but is also highly centralized and ruled absolutely from a 
foreign country; and this again, not only in matters of faith and doctrine, which in 
itself might be tolerable, but also in matters of administration down even to minor 
details. And this it is that inevitably makes everyone who does not accept the Papal 
claims either in spiritual or temporal affairs justifiably suspicious. 


But there is one thing that must be constantly borne in mind and that is that this 
condition is one for the action of the citizen and not of the Mason. It is the 



neutrality of Freemasonry in regard to religious creeds that is the chief count in the 
indictment against it, for this neutrality is felt to be more dangerous than hostility. 
Masons as such must never be tempted to leave this impregnable position. As 
citizens they must act as their duty dictates according to the best information they 
can obtain. 


* * * 


THE T.B. SITUATION 


THOSE who have taken the trouble to read the pages of the Northeast Comer 
during recent months will have gathered that the obstacles, confronting the 
National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association have been increasing rather 
than diminishing, and becoming more and more insurmountable as time went on. 
As the Grand Lodge of New Mexico was the prime mover in the formation of the 
Association it was felt by the Board of Governors that before any final steps were 
taken a full report of the whole situation should be presented to the Grand Lodge at 
its next communication. 


Several courses of action are possible, but it seems obvious that with the general 
refusal of the other Grand Lodges of the country to cooperate it will be useless to 
try and continue along the present lines, and trying to meet the need through the 
agency of an official national organization. 


Under the circumstances it will be best to defer all comment until after the report 
of the Association has. been considered by the Grand Lodge of New Mexico. But it 
may be as well to recall here what THE BUILDER undertook to do in support of 
this cause, and the reasons for so doing. When the Association was organized the 
first step was the essential one of bringing the situation to the attention of the 
Masonic Fraternity and making the need for some action in the matter as widely 
known as possible. Two avenues were available, and both were attempted. The 



first was the regular official channel of correspondence with the Executives of the 
various Jurisdictions. The other, intended to gain the support of the members of the 
Craft at large, without which no official action could be either decided or 
continuous, was the medium of the Masonic Press. 


Unfortunately comparatively few of the Masonic periodicals of the country were 
willing to give much space or emphasis to the subject. An occasional paragraph 
would appear here and there; gradually to become more and more infrequent, until 
latterly all mention of the subject has been entirely dropped with very few 
exceptions. In saying this we are merely stating a fact without the least intention of 
making any criticism. We presume for one thing that, as in the case of the Grand 
Lodges, the Association failed to convince the editors and proprietors of the 
various Masonic Journals. The reasons for this failure are doubtless complex. They 
may be the same as those which caused the majority of the Grand Lodges to 
withhold support or they may be quite different, we do not know, and not knowing 
do not presume to judge. We suspect however that they were widely different in 
different cases. 


Another condition entered into the situation. Of only a few Masonic periodicals 
can it be said that they have a truly national circulation, and of those few we 
believe that there is little question that THE BUILDER is most evenly distributed 
throughout the whole country. Besides that, its readers comprise the most 
thoughtful and influential members of the Craft. 


It seemed therefore, once the need was made clear, that it was our duty as Masons 
to use our exceptionally favorable position to support the movement, and it was for 
this reason that we placed a certain amount of space in our pages at the disposal of 
the N.M.T.S.A. so that their message could be fully presented to our readers in any 
way that seemed to them most fitted to produce results. Lor the contents of the 
Northeast Corner the Editors of THE BUILDER have no responsibility, other than 
the general one of giving this opportunity to the Association to approach our 
readers. We have fully supported the work in its general aspects in the editorial 
columns, and have from time to time emphasized those features of the problem that 
seemed to us most essential. 



So far as we can gather from letters received during the whole period that the 
Northeast Corner has been a regular department of THE BUILDER, a majority of 
our readers have approved this action. Indeed if the proportion of our 
correspondents who favored it to those who did not is at all representative of our 
readers as a whole it would not be too much to say that the latter form a minority 
quite negligible in point of numbers. And such objection as has been offered has 
not been disapproval of the T. B. Campaign itself or of any doubt of the pressing 
nature of the problem, but solely on the grounds that it was not appropriate in a 
magazine expressly devoted to Masonic Research. 


The force of this we concede. We can only repeat what we said on this point at the 
very first, that though this is not a matter of research, yet we are all Masons before 
we are students, and our Masonic duties have the prior claim upon us. It seemed 
then, as it seems now, a matter of obligation that we should do whatever lay in our 
power to help. And in any case, if this subject has proved to be of interest to any 
substantial number of our readers, it would be justified on that score alone, even if 
they were not a majority. It is hardly possible to make everything that appears in 
THE BUILDER of equal interest to 

every one of our readers. Any reader of any periodical must inevitably find some 
of its contents dull ,or uninteresting, and the only practical ideal is to arrange it that 
everyone may find something that appeals to him in each issue. 


Before leaving the subject we may add that we have received unofficial 
information that the work of the N.M.T.S.A. has at last borne some definite fruit. 
We understand that at the recent meeting of the Grand Lodge of Texas an 
assessment of twenty-five cents per capita was levied for the relief of tubercular 
Texas Masons. Restricted in scope as this action is it is yet a great step in the right 
direction and we congratulate the Texas brethren on having taken it. If only every 
other Grand Lodge would follow this example and proceed to make adequate 
provision for their own tuberculars the problem will be solved in what after all may 
prove to be the most satisfactory way. Providing of course that the tubercular 
Masons now in the "Tuberculosis Triangle" are transported back to their own states 
as soon as provision has been made for them. This is essential, for it must never be 
forgotten that the problem is not an academic one, but that hundreds of our 



brethren are slowly dying of disease and privation in the Southwest and that the 
pressing and urgent need is to provide them some adequate relief. If the means so 
far suggested to this end will not serve, others must be devised. 


THE NORTHEAST CORNER 

Bulletin of the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association 

Incorporated by Authority of the Grand Lodge of New Mexico, A.F.&A.M. 
MASONIC TEMPLE, ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. 

OFFICERS AND BOARD OF GOVERNORS 

HERBERT B. HOLT, Past Grand Master, President 
RICHARD H. HANNA, Vice-President 
JAFFA MILLER, Vice-President 
FRANCIS E. LESTER, Vice-President 
WILBUR L. ELSER, Executive Secretary 
ALPHEUS A. KEEN, Secretary 
JOHN W. BOWMAN, Treasurer 



ROBERT J. NEWTON, Editor, Manager N.M.T.S.A.. Las Cruces, New Mexico 


The Tuberculosis Triangle 


By BRO. ROBERT JESSUP NEWTON, New Mexico 


THE following article is reprinted from the "Journal of the Outdoor Life." It is a 
general presentation of the problem by one who is thoroughly familiar with all its 
aspects. Whether national or local sanatoria are the better means for meeting the 
need, or whether a combination of both, the point that it is necessary to grasp is 
that it is a national and not a local question. If every state and every city was 
equipped to took after its own people, the need would be met of course, but what is 
to be done with the sufferers already in the Southwest? 


PLACE a ruler upon the map of the Southwestern United States and draw a line 
from San Antonio to Denver, 815 miles; then a second line from Denver to Los 
Angeles, 850 miles, and a third line from Los Angeles back to San Antonio, 1220 
miles, and you have enclosed within a vast triangle approximately 350,000 square 
miles of mountains and valleys, high tablelands, or mesas, and deep canyons, 
deserts and irrigated valleys, ranging from sea level to peaks more than two miles 
high. This great empire is the "Tuberculosis Triangle," famous throughout the 
whole world, as the "Promised Land" of health and healing to the unfortunate 
victims of the Great White Plague. 


Even before the days of the gold rush to California and, in fact, more than a 
century ago, the migration for health began. It is continuing and increasing today. 
The biographies of many men who later became prominent in the history of the 
Southwest show that they came as health-seekers. The pioneers of this pilgrimage 
sought the semi-arid climate of Southwest Texas and the old Spanish city of San 
Antonio, and as the passing of years brought settlements and safety throughout the 
entire "Triangle," those who followed after them pushed on to the Pacific Coast 



and spread out over the whole of this vast area, until today there is scarcely a town 
in Western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California and Colorado, 
which has not its quota of health- seekers. 


The belief that tuberculosis is curable prevailed five hundred years before Christ. 
Hippocrates wrote that, "phthisis, taken early, can be cured." The belief that change 
of climate is beneficial existed at least as far back as the first century of the 
Christian era. Celsus, a Roman writer who lived in the first half of the First 
Century, A. D., author of a comprehensive encyclopedia, of which only the eight 
books de medicina have come to us, in which he gives an account of the whole 
medical system of the time, recommended change of climate and life at sea. Galen, 
a celebrated Greek physician, bom about A. D. 130, long the supreme authority in 
medical science, advised a dry hill country. Another writer of ancient days said, "If 
you have a phthisis go into a high mountain, take a cow and live on the fruit of the 
cow." 


There is a deeply grounded belief in this country, among sick and well, that 
consumptives can be cured, or their lives prolonged, if they will go to the 
Southwest. That popular faith in the healing virtues of the climate of the 
"Tuberculosis Triangle" is well-founded, is proven by the experience of many 
thousands who are now living in this and region. Concrete evidence of the 
restoration to health of many thousands exists in the cities and towns they have 
built in the Southwest, for the growth and development of many communities from 
sleepy Mexican villages, or Indian pueblos, into live and hustling American 
municipalities is largely due to the consumptives who, having recovered their 
health, had sufficient intelligence to remain within the confines of the 
"Tuberculosis Triangle." 


Many of these cities and towns with a real appreciation of what has made them 
grow and prosper have capitalized the experiences of their citizens and advertised 
their climate as their greatest asset. While this advertising and publicity is 
addressed to the wealthy and the well-to-do, it has equal drawing power for the 
poor and the indigent and has helped to develop and intensify a problem that has 
assumed serious proportions and that is becoming more serious every year. 



The poor man with tuberculosis, and most of them are poor, believes that if the 
climate of the Southwest is good for his well-to-do brother of this "Grand Lodge of 
Sorrow," it is equally good for him. So he sets forth with the high hope and 
optimism, which is symptomatic of tuberculosis, and often with a wife and several 
children, to "chase the cure." He proposes to seek "light work" or to "rough it," 
little realizing that there are fifty or more candidates for every "easy" job, and that 
ranch work is strenuous and impossible for a man who is A.W.O.L. from the 
hospital and the grave. So they start out like the seekers of the pot of gold at the 
end of the rainbow, and to most of them the search is fruitless. They come to grief 
and after a year or more of suffering, prolonged beyond the time they would have 
lived at home, for it is hard to die even of tuberculosis in the Southwest, they come 
to journey's end in a ward of some county hospital or poor farm where they find 
shelter f or the last few months or weeks of life. 


THE NUMBER OF TUBERCULOSIS MIGRANTS 


How many have come in a century of migration will never be known. How many 
come every year? How many are now living in the Southwest? No one can say. 
Estimates can be made but they would be only estimates. Even the number of those 
who die cannot be given, for complete and accurate death records are not kept in 
all places. 


In a survey made by the United States Public Health Service in 1913 and 1914, 
facts were secured from health authorities, county and municipal officials, charity 
societies, hospitals and every agency having any contact with the tuberculous. 
Definite information could be secured only about those who, because of indigency, 
were forced to appeal to some agency for help and Who were a liability to 
Southwestern cities and towns. Little information could be gathered about those 
who were an asset to these communities, those who brought capital and new life 
into the business of the Southwest. 



It was estimated, by the Public Health Service investigators, that there were 30,000 
consumptives in Western Texas, 27,000 in New Mexico and 20,000 in Southern 
California. No estimates were made for Arizona and Colorado. Just prior to this 
survey the National Tuberculosis Association estimated that 10 per cent of the 
population of the Southwest was tuberculous, or had come to the West because 
some member of their family was afflicted. The number of deaths of tuberculous 
migrants does not give any real idea of the number of living cases in the Southwest 
for hundreds and thousands go home to die. 


Study of the death records by the Public Health Service investigators in 1913-1914 
of three principal cities showed an increasing number of migrants coming to these 
cities each year during the preceding ten years and led to the following conclusion: 


"The actual number of cases migrating is increasing, and this in spite of the 
dissemination of information regarding the curability of the disease in other 
climates and the erection of large institutions for its treatment in the East." 


Ten years later Miss Jessamine S. Whitney, an investigator for the National 
Tuberculosis Association, came to the same conclusion. This would seem to 
indicate a continuous increase in the number of sick coming to the Southwest 
during the past twenty years. 


On Feb. 6, 1926, the United States Census Bureau stated that the approximate 
population of the territory embraced within the "Tuberculosis Triangle" on Jan. 1, 
1920, was 2,912,000. If the estimate made by the National Tuberculosis 
Association more than ten years ago is applied to the present population of the 
"Triangle" there would be more than 300,000 people living in this territory because 
they or some member of their families have, or have had tuberculosis. 


CLASSIFICATION OF MIGRATORY CONSUMPTIVES 



The migratory consumptive has been divided into four classes by one of the writers 
of the Public Health Reports. The consumptive of wealth and ample means is 
placed in the first class, for he often becomes an asset to the community in which 
he locates. The second class is composed of those who have only moderate means, 
and who, if they recover, may also become, in time, productive citizens of their 
adopted city. Indigent consumptives, both those Who are indigent when they arrive 
and those who may become indigent after their arrival, are placed in a third class, 
and the fourth class is composed of the tuberculous tramps. 


Those of the first and second class may again be divided into three subdivisions of 
hopeless, doubtful and favorable cases. The hopeless, rich or poor, should never 
make the journey. But who is competent to say which cases are hopeless when 
every Southwestern city and town has a number of more or less prominent citizens 
who proudly tell you of their coming to the Southwest "on a stretcher" and who 
have recovered their health. The doubtful cases may do well, if no unforeseen 
contingency, physical or financial, arises, while the favorable cases might have 
fared equally well at home. 


Of the indigent cases there can be only two classes, doubtful and hopeless, for 
chances for recovery are in direct proportion to the amount of aid which may be 
extended to the patient by some agency and also to his physical condition. Within 
the geographical "Tuberculosis Triangle" there is an economic Triangle and its 
three points are money, intelligence and climate. He who wins into the first 
Triangle of tuberculosis must also be able to enter into the second, for without 
money and intelligence to use it climate is of no avail. 


Consumptives of the first and second class do not enter into this tragic problem 
unless through a change of circumstances they "graduate" into the third and 
indigent class. They have contributed much to the building up of the West. Their 
money, initiative and intelligence have built cities and towns. 



There are those who claim that this influx of capital and of people more than 
offsets the cost of caring for the indigents who come. This might be true if a 
balance could be struck somewhere and the profits, if any, devoted to the care of 
the indigents. While this is the oldest part of the country in history, it is new in 
modern civilization and lacks the public institutions supported by general taxation 
that are long established entities of northern municipalities. It also lacks the highly- 
organized, completely financed charity societies to aid the public welfare work. 
Therefore, the care of these cases is a problem that defies solution. 


(To be continued) 


— o — 


THE STUDY CLUB 


A pamphlet on "How to Organize and Maintain a Study Club" will be sent free on 
request, in quantities to fifty 


Constitution and By-laws for Study Clubs 


THERE have been numerous requests in recent months for a draft of a Constitution 
and By-laws suitable for adoption by Study Clubs. In answer to these 
correspondents we are publishing herewith such an outline. It is a modification of 
the Constitution and By-laws of an organization now functioning and comes well 
recommended by the brethren in that group. 


The fact that it is short and permits of much elasticity is very much in its favor. It 
must be borne in mind that a Study Club should not be overburdened with officers, 



committees and general organization. It must be flexible and informal to as great a 
degree as is possible. 


ARTICLE I 
NAME 


Section 1 . The name of this Club shall be 


ARTICLE II 


OBJECT AND PURPOSE 


Section 1. To seek further light in Masonry. 


Sec. 2. To study and familiarize ourselves with the Allegoric and Symbolic 
meaning of the Masonic Ritual and the history of Freemasonry from such books as 
authorized and originate from constituted authority. 


See. 3. To report on assigned topics which will be followed by discussions at 
regular intervals. 


ARTICLE III 



MEMBERSHIP 


Section 1 . The membership of this Club shall be limited to all Master Masons in 

good standing of the Masonic District, who are desirous of gaining further 

knowledge in Masonry. 


Sec. 2. All Masters and Past Masters are Honorary Members of this Club. 


ARTICLE IV OFFICERS 


Section 1. The officers of this Club shall be a President, VicePresident, Secretary, 
treasurer, Study Director and Assistant Study Director. 


ARTICLE V DUTIES OF OFFICERS 


Section 1 . The President shall preside at all the meetings. 


Sec. 2. The Vice-President shall assist the President and preside in his absence. 


See. 3. The Secretary shall keep a faithful and accurate record of the proceedings 
of all the meetings. Attend to all the correspondence of the Club. Receive all 
moneys collected from the members and pay same to the Treasurer and take his 
receipt therefor. 



Sec. 4. The Treasurer to receive all moneys from the Secretary and pay out same 
by order of the President with the vote of the members present. 


See. 5. The office of the Secretary and Treasurer may be combined until such time 
as their duties require separation. 


Sec. 6. The Study Director and Assistant Study Director shall assign Study Topics 
and prepare questions for discussion. 


ARTICLE VI 


DUES AND FUNDS 


Section 1 . Each application for membership shall be accompanied with a fee of 

$ 1 . 00 . 


Sec. 2. The dues of the Club shall be ten cents per month per member payable at 
each regular meeting. 


See. 3. Additional funds of this Club may be derived from assessments, if, when, 
and as necessary, by a two-thirds majority vote of the members present. 


ARTICLE VII MEETINGS 



Section 1 . The place of meeting shall be at the 
by a majority vote. 


in unless otherwise specified 


See. 2. The regular meetings of this Club shall be held on the of each month. 

The meetings shall be called to order at 7:30 p. m. and closed at 9:00 p. m. 


See. 3. Special meetings may be called at the order of the President. Special 
meetings not to exceed more than one in any calendar month. 


ARTICLE VIII ELECTIONS 


Section 1 . The election of Officers shall take place at the regular meeting in 

December and they shall be installed the same evening. 


ARTICLE IX 


Section 1 . Robert's Rules of Order shall govern the business procedure in this Club. 


ARTICLE X 


Section 1 . This Constitution may be amended only at a regular meeting and by a 
two-thirds vote of the members present, provided such amendment be presented 
and read at the regular meeting next previous to being voted upon. 



It is quite possible that in most places even this form of constitution is more 
complex than the need will call for. For example, the President and Director might 
in many cases profitably be combined as well as that of Secretary and Treasurer. 
Article IX is quite possibly unnecessary; the business of the Club outside of the 
study and research work will naturally be very slight, and no questions of order 
will be at all likely to arise. In regard to the discussions on topics assigned no rules 
are required but those of the ordinary courtesies of debate. They must naturally be 
as free as possible to give everyone the fullest opportunity of contributing his quota 
to the discussions. This is the end to be constantly kept in view, that every member 
is to take his part in the proceedings, and nothing calculated to hinder this should 
be admitted. 


* * * 


STUDY PROGRAMS 


The Grand Lodge of Saskatchewan, through its Committee on Masonic Study and 
Research, is continuing the work which began so auspiciously this fall. The outline 
program for the work of the present season was published in full in THE 
BUILDER. We have the detailed outlines for all of the topics, including January, 
on file in this office and will be very glad to furnish them to those who were 
interested in this work. 


It would be well to publish these more detailed outlines in full in this department 
but their nature makes it inadvisable to do so. 


The outlines are valuable aids to Study Clubs who find themselves confronted by 
the problem of what to study, though it must be borne in mind they are prepared to 
meet the needs of a specific Grand Lodge and may need some modification before 
being entirely suitable for use in a subordinate lodge owing allegiance to some 
other Grand jurisdiction. 



Once more we congratulate the Grand Lodge of Saskatchewan upon the efficiency 
of its Masonic Study and Research Committee. 


* * * 


RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN GLENDALE 


We are just in receipt of advice from the Glendale Masonic Research Club that the 
Worshipful Master of one of the two lodges interested in this organization has seen 
fit to appoint members of the club on the Lodge Committee on Masonic Education. 
This may constitute a tip for the Masters of other lodges. 


This live wire organization has accomplished much in the seven months of its 
existence and the plan calls for a presentation of their latest activities in a 
forthcoming number of THE BUILDER. 


— o — 


THE LIBRARY 


The books reviewed in these pages can be procured through the Book Department 
of the N.M.R.S. at the prices given, which always include postage. These prices are 
subject (as a matter of precaution) to change without notice; though occasion for 
this will very seldom arise. Occasionally it may happen, where books are privately 
printed, that there is no supply available, but some indication of this will be given 



in the review. The Book Department is equipped to procure any books in print on 
any subject, and will make inquiries for second-hand works and books out of print. 


LABOUR AND REFRESHMENT. Edited by J. S. M. Ward, M. A. Published by 
The Baskerville Press, Ltd., 161 New Bond St., London. 1926. Cloth, table of 
contents, index, illustrated. Price $4.00. 


“THE purpose of this book," the editor informs the reader, "is to indicate subjects 
which will appeal to various types of men, and to show how such subjects can 
conveniently be compressed into a reasonable space." The purpose has been 
accomplished, and the subjects dealt with range from an enquiry as to whether the 
Christian Mysteries are extinct to a discussion, contributed by Bro. V. S. Stevens, 
of the meaning of Brotherhood in Freemasonry, with two pieces of fiction thrown 
in for good measure. 


The Rev. W. A. Wigram, D. D., contributes two papers, one concerning the 
Ancient Mysteries in Modem Greece, and the other dealing with the migration of 
Phoenician deities, as well as a review of Bro. Ward's book, "Who Was Hiram 
Abif," which has already been dealt with in these columns. "What Is Freemasonry" 
is the title of another chapter in which W. Bro. H. V. Watch, of Sydney, Australia, 
develops an effective parallel between the teachings of the Craft and the hidden 
mysteries of nature and science. 


Bro. R. V. Harris, the Historian of the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, is responsible 
for an article on the Early History of Freemasonry in Canada, and although it 
contains a mass of dates and facts the writer has -succeeded in presenting his 
information in an interesting and connected narrative. We notice one slight error, 
Lieut. Guinnett, the first Provincial Grand Master of Quebec, held his commission 
in the 47th Regiment, not the 27th, an error which can safely be attributed to the 
printer. In asserting that Lodge No. 156, warranted in 1755 by the "Moderns" in 
the 8th or King's Regiment, was the first military lodge warranted by that body, 
does Bro. Harris disregard the lodge established by it in 1750 and attached to the 
31st Foot because it did not actually possess a documentary Warrant? Bro. Harris 



refers to the service held in the Recollet (not Recollect) Church on the installation 
of the Duke of Kent as Provincial Grand Master of Lower Canada, but so that an 
incorrect inference may not be drawn from this fact it should be borne in mind that 
this building, which was the property of the Recollet Fathers, was used jointly by 
the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities at that period. 


To turn to Bro. Ward's own contributions to the volume. Bro. Ward is an enthusiast 
in the endeavor to connect the modem Craft with the past, and in searching for the 
"missing links" catches at every straw to bolster up his ingenious theories. He 
appears to be a disciple of that early school of Masonic writers whose works, in the 
light of modem criticism, are no longer acceptable, and the strained parallels and 
overdrawn coincidences which he puts before the reader with such frequency are 
not only unconvincing but irritating. It is to be regretted, too, that a writer of his 
attainments should permit himself to fall into those inaccuracies which, with but 
little care, he could avoid. 


In his discussion of the descent of Freemasonry through the Companionage, Bro. 
Ward relies on the Livre du Compagnonnage, published by Perdiguier in 1841 (this 
was the second edition, not the first, which appeared a year earlier), but supports 
the claim that it possessed the Hiramic Legend. His quotation from Gould in 
rebuttal of the belief that the legend was introduced into the Companionage from 
Freemasonry does not carry conviction, and Bro. Ward's witness-in-chief 
(Perdiguier, 3rd Edn. 1887) himself expresses the view that it was borrowed from 
the Craft, while Saint Leon (1901) gives the whole text of the legend, which is 
clearly taken from a French translation of a contemporary English Lecture. Bro. 
Ward tells us that the guilbrette is really the greeting known to all Master Masons, 
but the similarity is not very profound, nor is it conceded that the guilbrette was 
actually given to a deceased companion. Much is made of the "howling" at the 
funeral of a companion, but this was not a practice confined to the Companionage, 
nor was it common to all three branches for the Sons of Solomon (which included 
the Masons) did not howl at all. No reference is made to the use of soubriquets to 
designate the various classes forming the Companionage, and with this practice in 
mind, the use of the word "Louveteaux" as applied to sons of companions loses the 
significance which it is suggested it possesses. 



In "The Passing of the Operatives" Bro. Ward strongly sustains the contention put 
forward a few years ago by Bro. Clement Stretton, and rejected from lack of 
evidence, that the Modern Operatives possessed and had worked continuously 
from the pre-Grand Lodge era the original rites of the Craft. The production of a 
Minute Book of the Warrington Operative Stone Masons' Society, founded in 
1832, is not evidence of the earlier existence of the Operative Ritual, and will fail 
to convince the critics of the merits of Bro. Stretton's views as Bro. Ward 
scornfully anticipates. 


A. J. B. M. 


* * * 


SPLENDOR. By Ben Ames Williams. Published by E. P. . Dutton & Co., New 
York. Cloth, 570 pages. Price $2.65. 


IN general it may be said that readers of fiction are divided into two classes: those 
who read solely for the story and those who seek the motive which may lie beyond 
the printed page. In other words, there are readers of lines and others who endeavor 
to read between the lines. Unfortunately the readers in the latter class are as few as 
the worth while books which are at present being produced for them. 


It is this last group who will find welcome relief from the usual type of best seller 
in Ben Ames Williams' Splendor. I seriously doubt the possibility of Mr. Williams' 
work becoming a member of the most popular class, though more readers who 
were capable of enjoying the work would help to subject it to this distinction and 
would consequently elevate the plane of American fiction. 



The story as it appears in print is nothing as compared to the unprinted background 
from which it rises. I have always admired Mr. Williams as a spinner of yarns, and 
he has told his tale with the usual facility in the work under discussion. It is more 
of a character sketch, better, a group of such sketches, than a tale, though it has a 
plot which is ample and well worked out. Perhaps not in precisely the same station 
in life, nor under the same conditions have each of us seen this drama of life 
unfold, nevertheless we all know the characters in the tale as friends. Mr. Williams 
has pictured each of them with such clarity that they are easily recognized. 
Doubtless this contributes, in no small measure, to the enjoyment of the book. 


There are so many phases of the book which are worthy of more than passing 
mention that another volume could be written in describing it. Among other things 
there is a picture of and a tribute to the world of journalism such as has appeared 
before in cases all too rare. The period in which the action takes place - from about 
1870 to the present day - is one which is interesting because of the revolutionary 
changes which have taken place. The newspaper world felt this transition; it was 
reflected in transportation systems, and in modes of private travel as well - the 
horse, the bicycle and the automobile. The family life of the world at large was 
influenced materially by the change iii lighting equipment, from gas to electricity. 
Other things there are, but we have accepted all of this as a matter of course, and it 
is only when we have a rare moment of contemplation that we realize the wonders 
which have taken place in the past half century. 


There is a certain Splendor in this march of progress. Mr. Williams has presented it 
in an intangible way, the more charmingly because of the intangibility. One sees 
the hero of his tale as a son of a blacksmith, enjoys with him the sparks which fly 
from the anvil into the neutral gloom of his father's shop, and becomes a part of 
this childish splendor. We continue to live through the trials, and tribulations of an 
ordinary, it might almost be said mediocre, existence; through youth with its 
ambitions, love and marriage; through a fatherhood, the joys of which are marred 
by death and a frustrated ambition; through manhood and its joys in the life of the 
children and its grief as they part for college, and later marriage. One cannot help 
but see a renewal of the more youthful happiness in the joys of grandchildren. But 
behind all of this stalks the terror of a decline - comes the day when there is no 
longer forward progression in the business world and a backward step sets in. 

There is nothing unusual in all this as it is pictured on the pages of a book, but 



behind it all is a certain something, which comes to mind time and time again. It is 
ephemeral; it has no lasting quality; it cannot be mirrored in cold black letters; 
there is a warmth, a satisfaction, a joy in the life we see. This is Splendor. 


* * * 


SOME THOUGHTS ON BUDDHISM. WHY I BELIEVE IN BUDDHISM. By 
Alice Leighton Cleather. 


DID JESUS VISIT INDIA AND TIBET? By Basil Crump. Privately printed. 


THOSE who without knowing much about the subject are interested in Buddhism 
will find considerable material in small compass in the first two of these little 
pamphlets, the first of which has a number of illustrations - chiefly of different art 
types of the Buddha from various oriental countries. The author has especially 
studied the cult in China, where according to the ordinary authorities, it exists only 
in a debased form. She however presents an entirely different picture. 


In the second pamphlet her subject leads naturally to a revelation of part of her 
own personal experience. Like so many other devotees of this religion she was 
directed towards it, apparently, by the works of Madame Blavatsky. Dissatisfied 
with an inadequate presentation of Christianity which she, in company with 
thousands of others, finds repellent, and not inclined to look for the underlying 
reality and truth in her hereditary faith, she found eventually a spiritual home in the 
system founded by Sakya Muni. The upholders of narrow and unspiritual dogmatic 
systems have much to answer for, even though they are so certain that their 
orthodoxy is the only path to salvation. On the other hand if the earnest seekers 
after truth would work as hard to find out the truth about Christianity as they do to 
master exotic cults, they might find that what they sought for was right at hand. 

Still it is only too natural to reject the gold when it is presented in the form of an 



unattractive ore, to throw away the chaff without stopping to sift out the good 
grain. 


The third pamphlet contains a discussion of the claims that have been made at 
various times that Jesus, previous to his three years' ministry in Palestine, had 
visited India and Tibet; and had thence derived much, if not all, of his teaching. 
The author rejects the Tibetan part of the story entirely, on the authority of the 
explorer Sven Hedin, with whose views he seems to agree. In regard to India be 
appears inclined to leave the question undecided, admitting the case is not proved, 
but evidently feeling that it may be true nevertheless. This is only natural, as if the 
central figure of the Christian religion could be shown to have been taught by the 
occult schools of the far east, Christianity could be made out to be only an 
adaptation or secondhand version of the true religion. This conclusion would not, 
however, necessarily follow, even if the truth and antiquity of these legends were 
demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt. And that they ever will be, or can be, 
seems highly improbable. 


The general tone of the pamphlet is to be commended. Too many writers of the 
author's school of thought indulge in mere assertions, just as so many Masonic 
writers have done - and still do. Mr. Crump however does endeavor to limit 
himself to the evidence and to go no further than it warrants. But in reality the 
problem he deals with is very complex, and it is possible to account for the 
traditions without admitting their historical truth. 


* * * 


DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP. By Willa Cather. Published by 
Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Cloth, 303 pages. Price $2.65. 


WHEN Imperialism meets Republicanism, or more precisely, when Monarchy 
meets Democracy, there is likely to be a struggle; not merely a wrestling match 



where the pinning of the shoulders for a matter of five seconds or so constitutes a 
victory, but a matching of grips where victory means life, and defeat, oblivion. 

Such was the stage which was set for Monsignor Jean Marie Latour, when he was 
sent as a missionary priest to the New Mexican wilderness of 1861. The territory 
which was to constitute his parish, or diocese, had for centuries been under Spanish 
control, and was accordingly a part of the Episcopal see of Mexico. There was no 
mere battle, but a war, in which the first victory only foreshadowed other struggles 
to come. The first task to confront Father Latour was to establish himself in his 
new charge. But there is no need to tell the story, let those who may be interested 
seek information in the original. 


The book is less of a tale than the picture of a character; and one sometimes feels 
that the two-fisted, hard-drinking, heavy-weight champion of the Lord, Father 
Joseph Valliant, should have been the hero instead of the gentle Monsignor Latour. 
The latter seems out of place in the roughness which surrounded him, and perhaps 
would have been better qualified for a village cure in his native Auvergne. The will 
of God, published through a committee of Cardinals, ruled otherwise however, and 
it was not until late in life that Father Joseph donned his own mitre. Perhaps some 
day we shall have the story of how he carved his diocese from the wilderness to the 
north; and what a story it will be! 


On the whole, however, there is little complaint that can be made of the story given 
us. If, at times, Miss Cather falls into the attitude of a highly devoted member of 
the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, it is not often enough to be irritating, and her 
ability as a skillful story teller overshadows it all. The writing throughout is in her 
best style; simplicity without ornamentalism and yet relieved of monotony, could 
characterize the technical side of the work. As a piece of writing it is her best 
work. T. 


* * * 


HAPPINESS. By William Lyon Phelps. Published by E.P. Dutton & Co., New 
York. Cloth, 49 pages. Price $1.10. 



THE pot of gold at the rainbow's foot, which, in many cases, symbolizes 
happiness, has no real place in this short essay by Dr. Phelps. It will take no more 
than an hour to read, but one can spend many pleasant days contemplating the 
material of which it is composed. Coupled with Dr. Phelps' definition, which is 
really not a definition of happiness, but a description of a happy person, and which 
reads as follows: "The happiest person is the person who thinks, the most 
interesting thoughts" should be another one, "The City of Happiness is in the state 
of mind." The elaboration of the first of these definitions composes the subject- 
matter of the essay, which is in Dr. Phelps' most pleasing style. No further 
recommendation should be necessary. 


T. 


— o — 


THE QUESTION BOX 
and CORRESPONDENCE 


STAMPS 


The stamps I received from the readers of THE BUILDER the last year helped me 
to have a year of much joy. 


I am still flat on my back but free from pain. 



At Christmas time most of the post offices will use what are known as pre- 
cancelled stamps, the kind with cities names printed over the face of each stamp. 


I would be happy to have you and your friends save them for me. All I ask is that 
they do not peel them off the wrapping paper or cut into the perforation teeth at the 
sides. 


James H. Cooke, P.O. Box E, Carmel, Cal. 


Unfortunately this letter was not received in time to insert in the December 
number, so that we fear the stamps on Christmas parcels this year, unless already 
saved, will have been permanently filed in the W.P.B. or its domestic equivalent. 
However, we are very glad to know that readers of THE BUILDER have 
remembered Bro. Cooke during the past year and trust they will not forget him in 
1928. 


* * * 


THE BIBLE IN MASONRY 


Could you give me any information concerning the time when, and circumstances 
attending, the introduction of the Holy Bible as the Great Light in Masonry? 


C. J. W., California. 



At the beginning of last century, Webb placed the Bible with the S. and C. under 
the two heads of Great Lights of Masonry and Furniture of the Lodge. Browne's 
Master Key, published not long before Webb's Monitor, spoke of it only as part of 
the Furniture, as also Preston in his Illustrations of Masonry. A work published in 
1760 which might be described as an illicit ritual, has in its account of the initiation 
an address by the Master to the Candidate in which the Great Lights include the 
Bible, but in the appended lecture or catechism, these are called Furniture, and the 
Great Lights are said to be what have since been called lesser lights. Lesser lights 
are not mentioned, so far as we recall, before the publication of Webb's Monitor. 
Instead three "Fixed Lights" are spoken of which seem to have been explained as 
three windows to the lodge, E.,S. and W. In 1730, another illicit ritual speaks again 
of the Furniture as in the 1760 Lecture, the Great and Fixed Lights are also the 
same. 


These Great Lights were spoken of in France, and presumably elsewhere in 
Europe, but not the Fixed Lights nor the Furniture. About 1730 in Scotland, or 
precisely, in the old Lodge of Dumfries, there is some evidence that the B. S. & C. 
were described as the three pillars of Masonry. A description also of the Bible as 
the foundation or support of the ladder of the Theological Virtues is also met with, 
in the latter part of the 1 8th century. 


In France the Holy Book was not the Bible but the Book of the Gospels - or 
possibly the New Testament. There are indications that this was also the original 
practice in the British Isles, especially before the Reformation. But it is very 
possible it persisted in places into the 1 8th century. 


In primitive or pre-Grand Lodge Masonry the candidate was probably required to 
take two or three oaths or solemn promises. The first was to abide by and keep the 
ancient charges. This he promised with his hand on the book as they were read to 
him. Another was to be a loyal law-abiding citizen, and to aid and assist his 
brethren. The third was an obligation to secrecy. This last was probably in quite a 
different form from the others, and the book may not have figured in it at all. 



It has been suggested that the book on which the first oath was taken was the Book 
of Charges itself, this however needs more evidence, as it does not seem very 
probable in itself. 


In conclusion it would seem that the Bible, or the Book of the Gospels, whichever 
may have been used, was introduced first not as a symbol but simply as an 
additional sanction to the oath. That once admitted as part of the necessary 
furniture of a lodge it finally came to be regarded as the Great Light was under all 
the circumstances inevitable, but the process has never yet been fully traced. 


* * * 


THE RELATIONS OF SWEDISH MASONRY 


I am in receipt of your kind letter of July 2 1 and will say that I will be pleased to 
see those letters you mention published in THE BUILDER, and the sooner the 
better. 


Only a couple weeks ago I received a letter from the secretary of Michigan 
Consistory, A. & A. S. R., dated April 28, 1927, and a letter from the secretary of 
Zion Lodge, No. 1, enclosing a letter from the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge 
of Michigan dated June 20, 1927. 


The contents of these letters I think ought also be published for the information of 
American Masons. For that reason I enclose copies of these two letters and submit 
them to you for publication with the letters that have already appeared in THE 


BUILDER. 



Referring to the statement in the first letter I would like to add that I heard from a 
man last week, that the Grand Lodge of Sweden is in fraternal relations with the 
Grand Lodge of New York, U.S.A. If such be the case - and that can be 
investigated then - 1 would like to know why is not and can not the Grand Lodge of 
Michigan be in fraternal relation with the Grand Lodge of Sweden. It seems to me 
that the Grand Lodge of Michigan should have the same right to such fraternity as 
the Grand Lodge of New York. 


Eric H. Peterson 


Mr. Herbert L. Smith, Secretary. 

New Masonic Temple, 

Detroit, Mich. 

Dear Bro. Smith: 

I am in receipt of yours of the 29th instant with copies enclosed of letters from Bro. 
Eric H. Peterson. 


The fact is that the Grand Lodge of Michigan is not in fraternal relations with the 
Grand Lodge of Sweden, in fact then are very few if any of the Grand Lodges in 
the United State that are in fraternal relations with the Grand Lodge of Sweden 
consequently, I do not see any way to help Bro. Peterson out. It is unfortunate, 
indeed, the condition he is in if he is going t continue his residence in Sweden. Of 
course, if he comes back to this country or removes to any other country where we 
hav4 fraternal relations with their Grand Lodge, he could speedily be taken care of. 
I very much regret the situation he is placed in, but as above stated, I know of no 
way to help him out. 



Sincerely and fraternally yours, 


Lou B. Winsor, Grand Secretary, 
Grand Lodge of F. & A. M., Michigan. 


Mr. Eric H. Peterson, 
Villastad, Sweden. 


Dear Bro. Peterson: 


It is true that ALL FREEMASONS do not recognize each other as 
FREEMASONS. Whether or not Freemasonry fails because of this is a debatable 
question. No doubt that is the original intention, and is yet, and it is gradually 
working to that end. It is something akin to the saying of the great Roosevelt, who 
said, "I do not believe in war, but suppose the other fellow does not believe as I 
do?” 


Perhaps it is also true that "All Grand Jurisdictions of Freemasonry in the world 
should take it as their duty to communicate with each other and to recognize each 
other." But suppose one or more Grand Jurisdictions does not so think? The 
membership in either is helpless, is it not? I am sure that the spirit of Americanism 
would gladly take, and no doubt has taken, steps to be in fraternal relationship with 
all Grand Jurisdictions throughout the world. Here is where the great "slogan" of 
"Brotherly Love" comes in on the part of our great American Freemasonry. 
Brotherly love for all mankind is the basic principle upon which American 
Freemasonry is founded. BUT suppose our brotherly love is not acceptable? Does 



that minimize Freemasonry here in America? There is no doubt that Scottish Rite 
Masonry of Michigan and the United States desires fraternal relationship the world 
over. Our "Brotherly Love" to all mankind does not entitle us to visitation in other 
jurisdictions where we have no fraternal correspondence. We may have charity for 
our neighbor, but he may refuse our admission to his household. . . . 


Fraternally yours, 

Walter N. Glass, Secretary, 

Michigan Sov. Cons., Valley of Detroit. 


The Grand Lodge of New York appears to be in fraternal correspondence with 
most of the European Grand bodies with the exception of those in Latin countries 
and Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Consequently it would seem that Bro. 
Peterson's informant was in error on this point. 


* * * 


THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA AND THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN 


In regard to the article in the December issue of THE BUILDER about the Knights 
of Malta. I am a member of the Knights of Malta, as well as a member of the 
National Masonic Research Society, and I thank you for the space you have given 
in THE BUILDER for information about the Knights of Malta. However, I will say 
that I have never heard anyone addressed as His Eminence, which is the first 
question asked. The next question raised is to the proper title of address of the 
members in the United States; the only one I have ever known given is Sir Knight 
Companions for the members, and Sir Knight Commander and so on for the 
officers. 



The Grand officers are addressed as Grand Sir Knight. I enclose an application 
blank, which has some history of the Order on it, any of which you are welcome to 
publish, as well as anything in this letter. Any further information that I can give 
you will be glad to do so. 


R. P. Myers, Pennsylvania. 


Bro. Myers has misunderstood the subject of Bro. Bennett's questions. The further 
communication that immediately follows will show that the latter has found the 
answer to them himself, at least in part. 


In the historical notes on the form sent by Bro. Myers it is claimed that the English 
branch of the Order is the sole legitimate existing "Language" and that the 
American Order of the Knights of Malta was instituted by the Scottish Branch of 
the English "Language." The claim may be based on facts, but we would warn our 
readers that it would hardly be safe to accept it without satisfactory evidence. The 
American Order even if legitimately descended has apparently been affected by the 
Masonic Order of Knights of Malta as it has practically the same officers, with 
presumably the same functions. The existing branches of the Order of St. John, 
Roman Catholic and Protestant both, do not have these officers and have nothing 
like a ceremony of initiation. Bro. Bennett says in his letter that: 


The Knights of Malta, known officially as "Knights of the Order of the Hospital of 
St. John of Jerusalem," is the oldest military order in Europe. It was founded in 


1048. 


The Order is governed by what is known as a Grand Master. It consists of seven 
chapters, six of which are in Europe and one in the United States. The American 



chapter was recently established in New York City with ten charter members. 
Cardinal Hays, Archbishop of New York, is the head of the chapter. 


It is stated that the American chapter is the first one to be established in three 
hundred years. 


There are two Protestant branches of the Sovereign Order of Malta, one in England 
and one in Germany. None can become members in Europe of any of the branches 
of this Order except nobles of long and high degree. It is the most exclusive, and 
the most important military order in the world. The doors of the oldest and highest 
of the European nobility open as if by magic to all members of the Knights of 
Malta. 


In Masonry a degree known as the Knight of Malta is conferred in a Commandery 
of Knights Templar. 


The Purpose of the Roman Catholic branch of the Knights of Malta is to raise 
funds for charitable uses. The Great War has caused such great changes in Europe, 
especially among the old nobility, that the Grand Master of the Order, with the 
sanction of the Pope of Rome and his advisers (probably at their suggestion), 
thought it necessary to establish a chapter in the United States, to elect to it 
American multimillionaires so as to obtain funds for charitable purposes, and thus 
making them "cousins" of the old European nobility. 


A further letter has been received from Bro. Bennett with additional information 
regarding the advertising the Order of St. John seems to be obtaining recently. He 
writes: 



Mention of the Order of Malta, or reference to it, is lately being made in many 
publications. It is surprising how widespread this is, it almost reaches the plane of 
propaganda. 


Last night I took up the December National Geographic Magazine, and in the 
leading article, "Pageant of Jerusalem," was the following: 


"Taking a car, we rode down the Bethlehem road toward the citadel. On the right, 
high above the Opthalmic hospital, flies the flag of the Venerable Order of the 
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. [Also known as the Knights of Rhodes and the 
Knights of Malta.] Eight hundred years ago noble knights and occasionally fair 
ladies set forth from England, France, Germany, Austria and other parts of Europe 
to wrest the Holy Land from the Saracens, and under the flag of the Knights played 
a great part in the history of the city. 


"Today the Grand Priory in the British Realm is living up both to the traditions and 
motives of the Order: Pro Fide (for the Faith) and Pro Utilitate Hominum (for the 
Service of Man). It maintains the eye hospital to which people come from all parts 
of Palestine, Transjordiana, Syria and even Irak." 


* * * 


ARMY AIR CORPS MASONIC CLUB, HAWAII 


This communication from a small group of Masons, isolated in the midst of the 
Pacific Ocean, is exceedingly interesting. It could be wished that brethren nearer 
home would make as good use of their opportunities to make an advance in 
Masonry. 



Twenty-four hours "as the ship flies," but seven days by steamer from San 
Francisco, in the vast waters of the Pacific, are situated the Hawaiian Islands. In 
this group of Islands is the Island of Oahu, and as a possession of the United 
States, Old Glory flies on the tropical breezes. Following this beautiful flag, as 
thousands of Master Masons do, there is a group of Flying Hirams stationed on a 
small island called Luke Field in the heart of Pearl Harbor. 


These flying brothers, isolated from the larger portion of Oahu Island, dwell in 
unity as Master Masons and have formed a club known as the "Luke Field Masonic 
Club." They meet once monthly at a dinner and discuss subjects of interest and 
enjoy the good fellowship of their brethren. 


The club's membership numbers sixty or more members, and enjoys the prestige of 
having as a member the Past Commander, Major P. E. Von Nostrand, 32d, and 
Post Adjutant Lt. Leon E. Sharon, 32d. 


Surely in this remote district this brotherly companionship out of military formality 
can be appreciated by all. 


The Editor's articles in THE BUILDER have served, on several occasions, as 
excellent subjects for discussion and general comment. 


The present officers of the club are: 


President, Bro. O.R. Kelsey; Vice-Presidents, Bro. Boyd Ertinne and Bro. Alfred 
Granger, while the Secretary and Treasurer is the present writer. 



Wallace H. Williams. 


* * * 


THE HOLY CROSS AND SIGMA CHI 


Bro. G. N. Black did not find the reply to his letter by E. E. T. particularly helpful 
as he was already aware of the facts stated therein. He still thinks that there may 
have been some connection between the members or some of them, of the Danish 
Lodge Hellige kors (Holy Cross) in the Island of St. Croix and the founders of the 
Sigma Chi Fraternity, and he would like to get into communication with any 
members of the latter who are interested in seeking for its origins. This Danish 
lodge was instituted in or about the year 1775, and its history is quite fully treated 
in a paper by Bro. Rasmussen in A. Q. C., vol. 37.