Note: This material was scanned into text files for the sole purpose of convenient electronic research. This material is NOT intended as a reproduction of the original volumes. However close the material is to becoming a reproduced work, it should ONLY be regarded as a textual reference. Scanned at Phoenixmasonry by Ralph W. Omholt, PM in May 2007.
CLAUSEN’S COMMENTARIES
on
MORALS and DOGMA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ...............................................................xvii
What Is the Scottish Rite? ...................................... 1
Our Historical Roots ............................................. 9
Secret Master-Fourth Degree ............................... 19
Perfect Master-Fifth Degree ................................. 25
Intimate Secretary-Sixth Degree ........................... 31
Provost and Judge-Seventh Degree....................... 39
Intendant of the Building-Eighth Degree ............... 45
Elu of the Nine-Ninth Degree .............................. 51
Elu of the Fifteen-Tenth Degree ........................... 57
Elu of the Twelve-Eleventh Degree....................... 63
Master Architect-Twelfth Degree .......................... 69
Royal Arch of Solomon-Thirteenth Degree............. 75
Perfect Elu-Fourteenth Degree ............................. 81
Knight of the East, of the Sword or
of the Eagle-Fifteenth Degree............................ 89
Prince of Jerusalem-Sixteenth Degree .................... 95
Knight of the East and West-Seventeenth Degree ...101
Knight Rose Croix-Eighteenth Degree ...................107
Pontiff-Nineteenth Degree ................................... 115
Master of the Symbolic Lodge-Twentieth Degree ....121
Noachite, or Prussian Knight-Twenty-first Degree ..127
Knight Royal Axe, Prince of Libanus
Twenty-second Degree ....................................... 133
Chief of the Tabernacle-Twenty-third Degree .........139
Prince of the Tabernacle-Twenty-fourth Degree ......145
Knight of the Brazen Serpent-Twenty-fifth Degree..151
Prince of Mercy-Twenty-sixth Degree .................... 159
Knight Commander of the Temple
Twenty-seventh Degree .....................................165
Knight of the Sun, Adept-Twenty-eighth Degree ....171
Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew
Twenty-ninth Degree ......................................... 177
Knight Kadosh or Knight of the White and
Black Eagle-Thirtieth Degree .............................183
Inspector Inquisitor-Thirty-first Degree .................. 195
Master of the Royal Secret-Thirty-second Degree .... 203
Index......... ... . ... . ........ . ... . ... ... ... ..... . . . ........ .... ..... ..251
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ILLUSTRATIONS
House of the Temple ............................................................. v
Henry C. Clausen, 33°
Sovereign Grand Commander ..............................................ix
Map of Early Days................................................................. 6
Fourth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ............. ..... 19, 23
Plate ......................................... .... 21
Fifth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ........ 25, 29
Plate........... 27
Sixth Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron ................ 31, 35
Plate .............................................. 33
Seventh Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ..................39, 43
Plate .............................................. 41
Eighth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ..................45, 49
Plate .............................................. 47
Ninth Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron ................ 51, 55
Plate .............................................. 53
Tenth Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron ................57, 61
Plate .............................................. 59
Eleventh Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron ................ 63, 67
Plate .............................................. 65
Twelfth Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron ................ 69, 73
Plate .............................................. 71
Thirteenth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron .................. 75, 79
Plate ........................................... ... 77
Fourteenth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ..................81, 85
Plate .............................................. 83
Fifteenth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron, Girdle .......89, 93
Plate .............................................. 91
Sixteenth Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron ................95, 99
Plate .............................................. 97
Seventeenth Degree Symbol, Cordons, Apron ...........101, 105
Plate ..............................................103
Eighteenth Degree Svmbol, Collars, Apron s......107, 110, 111
Plate ............ .. . ...................... .....109
Nineteenth Degree Svmbol, Cordon, Apron, etc. ......115, 119
Plate . ........... .... .... ... ........... .....117
Twentieth Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron. .... ........ 121, 125
Plate ..............................................123
Twenty-first Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ...............127, 131
Plate ........ .....................................129
Twenty-second Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ...............133, 137
Plate ..............................................135
Twenty-third Degree Symbol, Belt, Apron ..................139, 143
Plate ..............................................141
Twenty-fourth Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron, etc....... 145, 149
Plate ..............................................147
Twenty-fifth Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron ......151, 154, 155
Plate ..............................................153
Twenty-sixth Degree Symbol, Order, Apron ...............159, 163
Plate ..............................................161
Twenty-seventh Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron, etc. ........165, 169
Pla to .............................................. 167
Twenty-eighth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ...............171, 175
Plate ..............................................173
Twenty-ninth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron ...............177, 181
Plate ..............................................179
Thirtieth Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron, etc. ........183, 187
Plate ..............................................185
Thirty-first Degree Symbol, Collar, Apron, etc. ........195, 199
Plate ..............................................197
Thirty-second Degree Symbol, Cordon, Apron, Girdle,
etc. .........................203, 207, 208, 209
Plate ..............................................205
Illustrations for the Commentaries were conceived and designed by Brother Robert E. Bartlett, 33°.
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PREFACE
There is need for a more modern discussion of the actions and thoughts of Sovereign Grand Commander Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma and for a concise interpretation of its significance. The monumental work was published in 1871, over 100 years ago. It was an inspired and classical compilation of Pike's own research and the writings of others, but that now should be related to our language and style and setting in time. The changes since 1871 have been prodigious. Heraclitus was ever so correct when he wrote some 500 years before Christ that nothing is permanent except change.
Mankind has progressed or retrogressed to our current and critical problems. These involve the things with which the Scottish Rite deals-human behavior. For example, how can we contain our population explosion, end the threats of war and nuclear holocausts, forefend against world famine, control the misery of physical disease and mental sickness, stop pollution of our bodies and environment, improve the lot of our poor in home and purse?
There is also the problem of whether civilization, even with knowledge, will act to save itself. Walter Lipmann wrote perceptively that not only is "the supreme question before mankind how our culture can save itself from catas
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trophe but also that we must do more than find the answers." We must discover also how men can "make themselves willing to save themselves."
Truly, ways must be found to motivate men to be not only able, but willing. We must activate the knowledge. Even if there are at hand the physical, biological and behavioral technologies adequate for the purpose, people still must be persuaded to use them. In other words, how do we induce members of our culture to work for survival?
Physical and biological technology has not supplied the answers. The problems with which we are now confronted so demonstrate. Religions have moved from threats of hellfire to an emphasis on God's love. Governments have turned away from compulsions to inducements. Where, then, shall we look?
The answer to this question will be found, I think, in the remarkable discovery of William James, father of modern American psychological science. He was at one time professor of anatomy, psychology and philosophy at Harvard University- combining body, mind and soul-one of this country's most profound thinkers. He gave us a great guide in these words: "The greatest discovery of my generation is that we have learned we can alter our lives by altering our attitudes of mind."
The answer, therefore, is not more miracles of science and technology but an inspired application of Masonic teachings that will alter our lives for the better. This is the world-of-tomorrow potential breakthrough. We must return to a faith in man himself-to the concept that he has within himself the requisite corrective capacities.
Russell Conwell (1843-1925), founder of Temple University, gave the most popular lecture ever delivered in the United States, "Acres of Diamonds," over 5,000 times. It produced over $6 million for charitable purposes. The simple lesson overflows with human interest and inspires people to practice the principle of self-reliance. It tells how our weary search through the highways and byways of the
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world for fame and fortune brings us back finally to a surprising discovery in our own backyards.
How, then, can Masonry release man's inner capacities? This volume attempts to give a glimpse of where the answers can be found. It is designed as a valuable teaching tool that will heighten perception and awareness toward living in Socrates' famous phrase, "the examined life." Morals and Dogma, combined with our rituals, provides Initiates, members and students with spiritual lessons of tremendous value, philosophies of the ages and down-to-earth basic truths that can enrich and activate human behavior.
Therefore, I have summarized into short, capsule forms the successive chapters of Morals and Dogma and then I have authored my own commentary thereon. These summaries and commentaries are designed to increase the participation and input of our members-not to supplant Morals and Dogma-but to stimulate its research as a source of knowledge and inspiration. They are intended as a supplementary aid in a completely new approach and, like concept teaching, present in numerical sequence the basics of each degree structured for self-study, group discussion and lectures. Participants may relate the information to their own personalized experiences. The commentary program thereby lends itself to persons and groups of all ages and backgrounds. It is not intended as a substitute for the degrees nor as a revelation of cabalistic or esoteric hints and allusions, but it does make more explicit the fundamentals. Only serious study and participation in a portrayal of our degrees can reveal how we reshape human behavior.
Moreover, in the classic phrase, Masonry cannot teach; it can only help us learn. This is done in the course of several developmental stages. But if the Initiates become locked or lost in the progress, Masonry can help them break loose and start forward again on the correct path. The earnest and perceptive Scottish Rite seeker of truth can learn from our degrees, for example, the futility of dependence either upon persons or things, or upon approval or disapproval. Independence leads to self-reliance. The truly self-reliant is not subject to adverse manipulation or undue influence. He is in control of himself and enjoys freedom and dignity. This induces, in turn, more effective moral and modern behavior.
In keeping with our view that man has inner capacities that can supply answers to our problems, we use a self-help approach founded upon an intuitive feeling that we can reach the inner self. We will find there a refuge from external evils, just as peace and quiet are found at the eye of a hurricane. There the sun shines and birds fly. Put your trust in your own inherent capacities.
Emerson, in his "Essay on Self-Reliance," points the way:
"A man should learn to watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages."
After Buddha attained his own enlightenment, he said to his followers:
"Be a lamp unto your own feet; do not seek outside yourself."
Jesus expressed the same opinion and said: "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, to there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."
What is needed first, therefore, is an increase of self-understanding-a discovery of your inner selves and of your own essential natures. Where better can this be learned than through your Scottish Rite? You learn there is no need to lean upon others. You are first-rate, front rank-in the forefront, not second-string. The Scottish Rite Degrees develop full trust in your own innate capacities so that you are never overwhelmed, nor overcome by helplessness, nor the desperate victim of despair. When man has faith in himself he learns to reject unreality. Like Alice in Through the Looking Glass, the mirror reflects competitive unreality in front; but behind is found reality-the folly of competitive success and failure, approval and disapproval. You can learn to be self-reliant, to stand upon your own feet-not dependent leaners upon persons or things outside yourselves. Then, in essence, you shall be free and possess initiative and confidence and live in the present.
Sir William Osler (1849-1919), the great philosopher-physician, when a young man in medical school in Montreal, became sadly discouraged about his future career. Then one day he accidentally read a few words by Carlyle that transformed his life. They struck home like a revelation turning point. Numerous times he repeated them to himself, wrote them down in notebooks and quoted them to his friends. He felt they changed his attitude toward life and were responsible for what turned out to be a most successful and happy career. He became devoted to science and professed a profound religious faith. His tangible achievements included diagnostic wizardry and brilliant research, writing and teaching. When he died in 1919 the Journal of the American Medical Association said: "The years have added to his glory. No one has in any way taken his place as the World's best doctor."
The words of Carlyle that had such great influence in Osler's life were these:
"Our main business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand."
Later, those words were the inspiration for Osler's encouraging talks to students when he taught that we should "live in day-tight compartments," not worrying about yesterday's nor tomorrow's happenings.
Our degrees drive home with dramatic impact the teaching of great truths. There you will find your own directive approach and the satisfactions and benefits and
enrichments you will enjoy as a self-reliant human being. As such, your life also will show to the world the behavioral solutions that can cure the ills of our day.
Hence, you are asked to use your mind to the fullest. Think through the meanings of each degree as suggested in these summaries and commentaries. Apply them to yourself. Supplement your studies with further research. Let your actions then bespeak that you are in fact as well as in name a Scottish Rite Mason. Thus, you will discover the true secrets.
And now, "To work, my brethren, yonder sounds the gong!"
. GJC4v
Sovereign Grand Commander
What Is the Scottish Rite?
You may ask at the outset, what is the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry? I am constrained to reply, like the wit, that it is impossible to think about when you come to think about it! I can tell you first what it is not. It is not the formal organization. Nor is it our magnificent temples. Nor is it a severely secret society. Nor is it merely ritual. Perhaps we should content ourselves with the standard definition of Masonry that it is "a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols."
Our overall mission can be summarized thus;
To seek that which is the most worth in the world; To exalt the dignity of every person, the human side of our daily activities and the maximum service to humanity;
To aid mankind's search in God's Universe for identity, for development, and for destiny; And thereby achieve better men in a better world, happier men in a happier world, and wiser men in a wiser world.
Our ultimate goal, simply stated, is mankind's moral and spiritual and intellectual development.
Historically, the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry as we know it evolved as the Rite of Perfection over 200 years ago on the Continent of Europe under the Constitutions of 1762. Later, the Grand Constitutions of 1786 were enacted and became the creative and derivative laws for us and all our descendant Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Our Supreme Council was organized at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1801 as the Mother Supreme Council of the World, and hence all regular and recognized Supreme Councils throughout the world must trace their pedigree to us.
But the actual roots of the Scottish Rite go far deeper. Tracing them is a romantic and exciting quest for adventure in the realm of the mind and the spirit. It is a superb story of success-more intriguing than the storied search for the Holy Grail and more rewarding than a successful probe for the philosopher's stone.
Our teachings and symbols preceded our formal organization by thousands of years. They go deep into ancient ages. The signs, symbols and inscriptions come to us from across long, drifting centuries and will be found in the tombs and temples of India to those of Nubia, through the Valley of the Nile in Egypt down to its Delta, as well as in what was then known as Chaldea, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome and even in Mexico and Yucatan. The Scottish Rite, therefore, is a treasure house in which there is stored the ageless essence of immutable laws, the accumulation of thousands of years of Masonic experience.
We learn our mission in a system of progressive degrees of instruction. We teach our members the highest ethics, the wise expositions of philosophy and religion, the
blessings of charity. Our code of personal conduct stems from the precepts of chivalry, the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. We reveal truly the wisdom of the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries and their symbols of words and phrases long considered lost. These were the truths that Plato, Pythagoras, Socrates, Homer and other
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intellects of the ages held in high esteem, that have reappeared in later religions, and that never were disclosed until after timely preparation and purification of selected and trusted Initiates.
Our degrees represent the study and reflection of many men during many years and at heavy cost, the culling of hundreds of volumes for effective portrayals and illustrations, and more labor than the accumulated endeavors of a lifetime engaged in efforts to attain eminence or riches. Our members therefore receive a gift of the greatest value. They gain a comprehensive knowledge of our heritage of history, philosophy, religion, morality, freedom and toleration, and of their relationship to their Creator, their country, their family and themselves. These well may lead also to that understanding of identity, clarity of mind and energy of will that propel toward personal success in life.
We carry out our mission in a series of spiritual, charitable and moral programs. We make living, breathing, vital parts of our activities the recovery and maintenance of moral standards and spiritual values, the pride of patriotism and love of flag and country, the dispensing of charity without regard to race, color or creed. Our Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children at Atlanta was the forerunner of the vast chain of Shrine hospitals across the Nation.
We stand for positive programs but fight with moral courage and enthusiasm every force or power that would seek to destroy freedom, including spiritual despotism and political tyranny. We believe and teach that sovereignty of the state resides in control by the people themselves and not in some self-appointed dictator or despotic totalitarian. We therefore advocate complete separation of church and state, absolute freedom and protection of religion, press and assembly, and the dignity of every individual. Those we consider vital for the ultimate liberties and independence of our people.
Ours, therefore, has been a strong voice for human dignity, political justice, moral values and civic responsibility. Through our teachings millions of men and women have discovered an opportunity to lead more rewarding lives. The example of our actions has been as stirring and inspiring as that of our collective commitment to true human progress.
Today our Mother jurisdiction, of which I am Sovereign Grand Commander, includes 35 of our United States and all our Territories and Possessions abroad.
Of the four million Masons in the United States, there are over a million Scottish Rite members. Our Mother jurisdiction comprises more than 660,000 members who belong to so-called Valleys in 218 cities. We have clubs in many more. They meet frequently for executive, administrative and evangelistic purposes as provided by our Statutes. Their control and management is under elected officers who, in turn, are supervised by our Inspectors General or Deputies. The Inspectors General of our Mother Jurisdiction, now numbering 30, meet as our Supreme Council every two years in a Session over which I preside. When it is not in session I discharge the functions of our Supreme Council, in pursuance of our Statutes.
Our House of the Temple in Washington, an awe inspiring, monumental structure, is the nerve center of our organization. We also have at our Headquarters the Department Heads, administrative branches and staff. These include our world-famed Grand Secretary, Director of Education, and Managing Editor of The New, Age, our monthly magazine.
I should say a word also as to membership in our Order. We welcome and initiate inquiries from Master Masons of regular and recognized Lodges. Thereby we grow and expand the light. Our Officers and committees devote long hours in evaluating and deciding upon those we feel should progress beyond the screening process and become entitled to pass through the mystic gate of Scottish
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Rite Masonry. All who seek entry are commended for their interest and vision.
Sponsorship and standards of character, morality and training are required, of course, but every candidate will receive serious consideration. Thus we assure compliance with our time-tested standards and selection process.
A new member is made welcome and invited to participate in our activities.
And so, to end as we started when we sought a definition:
To me, the Scottish Rite can be likened to a tree of sparkling symbolic jewels, surmounted with the Blazing Star of Truth that displays the dazzling splendor of the Mystic Doctrine of the Universe, and the reflected glory of the Deity.
Hence, inspired by our accomplishments of the past and encouraged by our endeavors of the present, we go on to even more monumental achievements in the great tomorrow- toward our greater Scottish Rite destiny.
Our Historical Roots
While winging my way to Puerto Rico with our Grand Secretary General for an official workshop and visitation in February 1973, I felt the spur of my own admonition that history is the heritage and patrimony of mankind in its lessons of the past that give us priceless inspiration for the future. As we search for such inspiration there is need for Scottish Rite historical explorations and, as new discoveries are made, for corrections and additions to our literature. So, after Puerto Rico we flew to Jamaica and researched in those fertile cradle sources of American Scottish Rite origins. These are my findings on the early days of the Rite.
Ecossais (Scottish) Masonry bubbled to the surface in some form at various times and places in Scotland, England and France. It seems impossible to trace the original wellspring but we know now that a confluence of tributary streams flowed into a reservoir at Bordeaux, France. This developed into regular units there known as the Rite of Perfection that Stephen (Etienne) Morin was empowered in 1761 to bring into the Western Hemisphere. The label of "Ecossais" or "Scottish" put upon these developments did not refer to Scotland but gave them the status of an established brand. Through Morin's first appointment about 1765 in the West Indies of Henry Andrew Francken as Deputy Grand Inspector General, and the successive descendant appointments, there finally was established at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1801 the first Thirty-third Degree Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Today all the regular and recognized Supreme Councils that exist in the world stem from this source.
Bordeaux apparently was the oldest provincial Masonic center in Europe and it was the home of Morin. He was made a Mason there in Loge Francaise, which had been created December 13, 1740 and later was named La Francaise Elue Ecossaise. This was the eldest of more than fifty daughter Lodges of Loge L'Anglaise, a Lodge that British Masons founded at Bordeaux in 1732. These daughter Lodges gave birth to a proliferation of degrees that resulted in the progenitors of our Scottish Rite.
The original reason for the organization of separate Lodges to confer these "higher" degrees may have been a desire to limit the membership to those of the Christian faith. Anderson's Constitutions of 1723 had widened the field of Masonry to men of all denominations that believed in the Deity and in the hope of immortality. In this connection it should be observed the ultimate Scottish Rite Constitutions of 1786 similarly opened the doors to men of all religions and provide that only four of the governing nine need profess the prevailing religion.
These Lodges also may have been set up as a refuge and bypass from cruel operations under the famous Papal Bull "In Eminenti" of 1738 that decreed a ban and punish ment on Masons and Masonry and any who helped them. Morin was a Roman Catholic, as were most of these early French Masons.
Later, these Lodges flourished and blossomed in the fertile fields of Masonry for more important reasons. They became repositories for revelations through sequential de grees of great truths derived from the arcane wisdom of the
10
ages, including discoveries original Freemasonry concealed in the secret knowledge, symbology and Lesser and Greater Mysteries that came down across drifting centuries, even long before the riddle of the Mystic Sphinx first puzzled men's minds.
Ancient French manuscripts contemporary to the period prove that since about 1740 Bordeaux was the mother and controller of these Scottish Degrees and had warranted daughter organizations under various regulations. These descendants included the following: Paris 1747; Cap, San Domingo 1748; St. Pierre, San Domingo 1750; Port La Paix, San Domingo 1752; St. Marc, San Domingo 1753; Les Caye de Fond L'Isle a Vaches, San Domingo 1757; Perigueux, France 1759; New Orleans, U.S.A. 1763 (pursuant to request of 1756).
Morin presided over Loge Parfaite Harmonie, which was an offshoot of Loge Francaise and believed to be the first to confer degrees as high as Perfection. This actually was a Lodge of Perfection working the additional degrees only. It was not related to the Grand Lodge of France since at that time none of the Bordeaux Lodges was a constituent of that Grand Body. In natural sequence, Morin became active in a Sovereign Grand Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret (Twenty-fifth Degree).
As a traveling representative for the Sevres porcelain factories and the distributor of a religious publication, Morin had made several trips to the French West Indies. Being poised for departure again in 1761, the Grand and Sovereign Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem, in conjunction with the Council of the Emperors of the East and West, founded at Bordeaux, issued to Morin a now celebrated Patent with broad discretionary powers. This created him a Grand Inspector General and conferred upon him the powers of propagation of Bodies and Lodges and the appointment of Deputies, with the right to confer the degrees of the Rite of Perfection.
Morin left Bordeaux as planned, but the voyage was interrupted when the British captured his ship. Taken to London, as a private citizen he was allowed freedom. He attended Lodges in England and Scotland and met Earl Ferrest (Ferres), England's Grand Master, who endorsed Morin's Patent. Finally, he sailed again and this time arrived safely at Jacmel, San Domingo, in 1763.
From his fertile Patent, Morin commenced planting the seeds of the Scottish Rite in the West Indies like a veritable "Johnny Appleseed." This he did with inspirational zeal and venture. About 1765 and in virtue of his powers he created as his first Deputy Henry Andrew Francken, who held a number of public offices in Kingston, Jamaica. The title Morin gave him was Deputy Grand Inspector General. As such, Francken went to North America in 1766 or 1767 and promoted Scottish Rite activities at New York and Albany. He communicated the degrees to Moses M. Hayes. The Minutes of the Albany Lodge which Francken founded in 1767 show him to have visited it also in 1768. Significantly, in proof of an alliance with Berlin and Frederick the Great, the Albany Lodge Minutes of a September 3, 1770 meeting read, in part: "Br. Stringer Depy. Inspr. acquainted the body that he had received an order from the Founder to transmit the Minutes of the Lodge and the state thereof, to be forwarded to Berlin . . ."
In his later days, Stephen Morin's fortunes changed for the worse. He experienced some difficult times before he died. John Gillieron, his foremost creditor, was granted Letters of Administration on January 23, 1772, two months after Morin's death. Morin was buried on November 17, 1771 at Kingston, Jamaica, in the Anglican Parish Church or burial yard.
By special dispensation of Francken, on January 2, 1768, Lieutenant Augustin Prevost of the 60th Royal American Regiment was Initiated into the Rite of Perfection at Albany. In February 1774, at Kingston, Francken appointed the same Augustin Prevost, now Colonel of the
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Regiment, a Deputy Grand Inspector General. It was Prevost who appointed new Deputies and made the organized Rite available to Scotland and England.
Later, in 1781 at Charleston, South Carolina, Francken communicated degrees to Barend M. Spitzer of Georgia. These Deputy Grand Inspectors General met in 1794 for a Sublime Council at Philadelphia and in 1795 conferred the degrees on Moses Cohen. He, in turn, communicated them to Hyman L. Long in 1795. It was Long who, as Deputy Grand Inspector General, granted Letters Patent to the Comte Auguste de Grasse-Tilly and on the same date, acting for the Princes of Masonry at Kingston, granted a Patent to de Grasse's father-in-law, Jean Delahogue, authorizing the establishment of a Body at Charleston. This was organized on January 3, 1797. Comte Auguste de Grasse-Tilly was the son of the French Admiral, Comte Francois de Grasse, Marquis de Tilly, Comte de Provence, Prince d'Antibes, who commanded the French fleet, defeated by the English Admiral, Lord Rodney, at the "Battle of the Saints," but who contributed to the final and decisive American victory at Yorktown. Young de Grasse went to Saint Domingue to claim and supervise a sugar plantation he had inherited from his father.
Fleeing native uprisings in San Domingo and finding refuge in Charleston, South Carolina, de Grasse and Delahogue helped to found a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret there in 1797. Returning to Saint Domingue in 1798 or 1799, de Grasse served as a soldier under General Hedouville. After being taken prisoner and then released because he had become an American citizen, de Grasse returned to Charleston.
While at Charleston, de Grasse and Delahogue in all probability helped organize our Supreme Council as the Mother Supreme Council of the World. We have in our Archives a manuscript that Delahogue wrote in 1798 and 1799, authenticated by de Grasse, setting forth a copy of
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the Constitutions of 1762. This document is supposed to be a copy of that which Morin delivered to Francken in 1768. Morin either took a draft copy with him when he left for America in 1761 or he received a copy of the Constitutions after his arrival in 1763. The Commissioners who compiled the 1762 Constitutions also drafted and promised to send Morin a copy of the Secret Constitutions of August 27, 1761, which was the date of Morin's Patent. These Secret Constitutions were expanded into the Constitutions of 1762.
On April 2, 1795 Barend M. Spitzer, as Deputy Grand Inspector General, granted to John Mitchell a Patent as Deputy Grand Inspector General. Mitchell was justice of the Quorum and a Notary Public in South Carolina and late Colonel and Deputy Quartermaster General of the United States Army. On May 25, 1801 Mitchell, as Deputy Grand Inspector General, granted to Frederick Dalcho a Patent as Deputy Grand Inspector General.
Mitchell and Dalcho then organized and opened at Charleston, South Carolina, on May 31, 1801, the first and Mother Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. On December 4, 1802 this Supreme Council issued a circular that announced its completed organization and gave the Grand Constitutions of 1786 as the law of its existence and the source of its powers. From this there are derived all regular and recognized Supreme Councils in the World.
The development and expansion of degrees into those of our Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite thus evolved out of Bordeaux's Rite of Perfection, out of Paris' aristocratic Chapter of Clermont that the Chevalier de Bonneville founded at the College of the Jesuits in 1754, out of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, and out of several other tributary systems. Later, my predecessor, the renowned Sovereign Grand Commander and classical scholar, Albert Pike, brought order out of chaos and edited or rewrote the rituals for these degrees.
On February 21, 1802 the Charleston Supreme Council
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granted to de Grasse a Patent as Sovereign Grand Inspector General and declared that he was Grand Commander for life of the Supreme Council of the French West Indian Islands with power to establish other Scottish Rite organizations under the Grand Constitutions.
In 1802 de Grasse returned to Saint Domingue -serving as a Captain of Cavalry under General Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law, and later under the Comte de Rochambeau- and it was from there that a year later a British blockader took him as a prisoner to Jamaica. After spending about seven months at Kingston, Jamaica, he established a Supreme Council of the Windward and Leeward Islands at Port-au-Prince in 1803. Returning to France in 1804, he went to Bordeaux and established the Supreme Council of France in the same year, of Italy in 1805, of Spain in 1809, and of Belgium in 1817.
From the foregoing it follows that the activities and energies of Francken during some fifteen years as the Senior Deputy Grand Inspector General primarily were responsible for planting the Scottish Rite firmly upon North American shores. He carefully selected his descendant Deputy Grand Inspectors General. Earlier in Jamaica he had been appraiser, marshal and Sergeant-at-Mace in the Admiralty Court. After he returned to Kingston from North America in 1769, personal losses, sickness and the subsequent hurricanes of 1784 and 1785 caused him some ups and downs, but later he was appointed Customs Inspector, Master of Revels, Assistant Judge of the Court of the Common Pleas for Port Royal, and Supreme Court Commissioner. He died at Kingston on May 20, 1795. In view of the labors, leadership and promotional successes of Morin and Francken, I felt they deserved lasting tribute and recognition and hence caused a plaque to be erected to their memory in the Anglican Parish Church, Kingston, Jamaica. For, their zealous endeavors over so many years furnished a springboard that truly launched the Scottish Rite into a creative and developing orbit, first
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in the United States and then around the world. With prophetic vision they aroused in key men a dynamic impulse for an expanding Scottish Rite. They carried into the darkness and passed into other hands a living flame that continues to illuminate Scottish Rite Freemasonry with ever-increasing brilliance. This led to the outstanding achievements we enjoy and for which we are so grateful today, just as though we were inheritors of great wealth under a will. Our Scottish Rite of the Mother jurisdiction is now the fastest-growing and most dynamic Masonic system encircling the globe.
LODGE OF PERFECTION
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SECRET MASTER
FOURTH DEGREE
Summary:
You now take your first step into our sanctuary in search of truth and knowledge, the most genuine and real of human treasures. You are reminded that your progress depends upon your secrecy, obedience and fidelity; secrecy for the security of obligations, duties, oaths, communications; obedience for the laws that reflect the will and judgment and benefit of the people, not the edicts of the tyrant or those that are contrary to God and nature; fidelity for the faith and to promises plighted family, friends, country and Masonry. Thereby you will avoid the diverting allurements of pleasure and indolence and permit the mandates of your obligations to be fulfilled. You must seek, read, study, reflect, digest and discriminate. The light of knowledge develops the soul of man and
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assures the reward of his aspirations for continuance after death. In the faithful pursuit of these ideals you will serve yourself, your fellow members, country and mankind.
Commentary:
The first division of our Degrees, from the Fourth to the Fourteenth, includes those known as the Ineffable Degrees.
The appointments and furniture of the Lodge in the Fourth Degree form a setting of deep mourning, symbolizing grief and tears for the loss of the Grand Master. The story is retold of the criminal interruption in the labors of building the Temple of Solomon. The one gigantic mind was murdered and the word was lost. King Solomon, confronted with suspension of the work, starts in Masonic progressive fashion toward the burial of his brother, then to completion of the Temple, and finally to mete out justice to the assassins.
The presiding officers are a Master representing King Solomon and an Inspector representing Adoniram, Inspector of the workmen and the first Secret Master. The candidate, finally shown the Holy of Holies behind closed gates, is told the mystic meaning of its sacred elements. He may infer that while at this time he is barred from entry, there may come a time when the gates will be opened unto him.
This Degree presents a powerful lesson in teaching fidelity to dWy even at the risk of death, and the sudden cessation of life when death arrives without warning. While able to do so, we should review our personal philosophy and define our lifetime obligations to ourselves, our families, our country and our God. We should
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Plate-Secret Master, Fourth Degree:
The Bible describes the room called "the Most Holy Place." In the oracle "he made two cherubims each ten cubits (fifteen feet) high. . . . And he set the cherubims (winged sphinxes) within the inner house: ... the wing of the one touched the one wall and the wing of the other ... touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house. And he overlaid the cherubims with gold." (1 Kings 6: 23, 27, 28.)
"And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord. . . to the most holy place ... under the wings of the cherubims." (1 Kings 8: 6.)
travel with assurance toward a form of immortality and a submission to Divine judgment for acts and omissions of our lives.
Sir William Osler, to whom reference already has been made, possessed such a personal philosophy and deep religious faith. His son had been killed in action during World War I. When Osler himself was hospitalized in 1919 for a severe, final illness, he knew better than the attending physicians how it would end. Yet, he faced death serenely. After he died there was found among his effects a slip of paper upon which he had written these words:
"The Harbor almost reached after a splendid voyage, and with such companions all the way, and my boy awaiting me."
Ask yourselves, do you agree that you exist? If you do, must there not have been a Creator called God? Is not your creation itself the best proof? Or are you the mere vestige of an accident, or a machine, or a beast, or greater than a Creator? Or are you the poor victim of a cruel, blind, evolutionary process, coming from nowhere, a nothing, doomed to eternal extinction?
No! You are a towering example of man's ability to burst out of an animalistic state. You are an ensouled immortal, imprisoned for a time within an ensouled body, but rejoicing in a God-given dignity, traveling bravely upon an ever-ascending, happier, spiritual plane.
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PERFECT MASTER
FIFTH DEGREE
Summary:
Industry and honesty are homely virtues that become a Perfect Master. Life is far too short and fleeting to waste time in idleness, follies or dissipation. To learn and to do combine and develop the potential human soul with inherent force and power. Satan finds mischief for idle hands. Honesty still is the best policy and an honest man still is the noblest work of God.-This virtue should be reflected in contracts, business dealings, payment for services and acceptance of an honest day's pay only for an honest day's work. So live and deal and act that when you go before God no man was poorer because you were richer; no man had less rank, influence, reputation or affection because you had more.
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Commentary:
In this Degree we witness solemn preparations for a more decent interment of the Grand Master. King Solomon ordered the remains brought to the Temple and a suitable tomb erected as befitted the eminent virtues of the Grand Master. Funeral orations of King Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre expressed grateful tributes to the departed as a man of great abilities in many fields and the central character of the Hiramic Legend. His life also symbolized the virtues of industry, honesty, charity, freedom and spiritual power.
Examples of the Lost Symbol abound in unselfish, vital contributions to humanity. Consider the mother who became lost in a blizzard while carrying her baby over the
hills of South Wales. A search party found her frozen to death beneath the snow. Surprisingly, she had on no outer garments. They soon discovered why. She had wrapped these around her baby. When they unwrapped the child he was alive and well. He grew up to become Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War I, one of England's great statesmen. His mother had given her life to save David Lloyd George.
Another woman also had the key to the Master's Word. Dressed in rags, she was passing along the streets of a French town, holding by the hand her barefoot little boy. Suddenly she stooped to pick up an object from the ground, tucking it quickly within the folds of her ragged garments. In so doing shy, aroused the suspicions of a nearby policeman. He rudely demanded that she show him what she had concealed. The poor, frightened woman cast down her eyes and revealed a jagged fragment of a broken bottle. She said, "I was thinking only of the barefoot children."
The setting and symbolic color for this Degree remind us that while we die in sin we may revive in virtue. We therefore always should act with regard to justice, equity,
honesty and integrity and reaffirm our abiding belief in the
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P F/gaq;e~33°
Plate-Perfect Master, Fifth Degree:
The two kings lead the procession of workers from the vicinity of the Temple to the new tomb. "Solomon (had) ... 1,400 chariots." (2 Chron. 1, 14.) Models for this painting were an ancient chariot and harness unearthed in Egypt.
Hiram cast the pillars Jachin and Boaz [341/2 feet high ] and ten bases of brass with wheels. (1 Kings 7:15,16, 21, 27, 30.) He sculptured and cast in brass an altar and 12 oxen upholding an immense brass basin [which held 10,000 gallons of water. 1 (2 Chron. 4: 3, 4.)
immortality of the soul. Thus, we symbolically raise the departed from the coffin and place him at the holy altar as a Perfect Master.
A glance upward at the stars in the heavens may strengthen our faith. As Longfellow tells us in "Evangeline":
"Silently, one by one,
In the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars,
The forget-me-nots of the angels."
The universe is creating continually. As we participate in the process we partak of the Creator-the Divine of God. This participation as co-Creator is itself a form of man's immortality regardless of whether, as we believe, his spirit survives the body. We exist and create. Being greater than self is man's true destiny, dignity and grandeur.
Mans will to believe in something greater than self is the springboard from which we can touch the Divine. Talk with men of faith. Read the books that tell of spiritual achievements. Meditate as you gaze at the stars of the first magnitude. Then you, too, may attain that conclusive spiritual revelation which is the highest human development.
So, also, should we conduct ourselves on the assumption of life after death. The folly of not preparing is told in the tale of a king who sent his beloved jester, Wamba, on a journey. "Go abroad," he said, "and see all that there is to be seen. Take with you this golden wand, and if you meet a greater fool than yourself, present it to him." On his return, Wamba found the king in his last illness. "I, too, am going on a long journey," said the king, "an even longer one than yours." "Are all your preparations made?" asked Wamba. "No," answered the king, "I have made no preparations." "Then, surely," said Wamba, "it is to you I must give the golden wand."
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INTIMATE SECRETARY
SIXTH DEGREE
Summary:
In this Degree we learn to reject the worldly, the covetous and the sensual, the severe, the censorious and the injurious in favor of duty, charity and toleration. In our personal lives we should practice those virtues and the Golden Rule, with peace and loving kindness toward our parents, children, friends, neighbors, employees and business associates, not for popular acclaim but for our own inner satisfaction. Organizations should reflect harmony as the strength and support of all societies, especially of ours. Ideally, we thus should witness the elimination of dissensions, disputes and quarrels and a world without war. Thoughts should be focused upon that which is good and healthy. In short, we are told how we can reshape our thinking into joyful channels of charity, self-control and success.
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Commentary:
This Degree demonstrates that wrong thinking leads to wrong results. King Solomon promised to Hiram, King of Tyre, certain towns in Galilee. The latter, on inspecting them and not knowing that it was Solomon's intention to improve them first, was displeased with their barren characteristics. Coming to Jerusalem for the funeral of the Grand Master and viewing en route the desolate state of the towns, Hiram angrily assumed that Solomon had defrauded him. Seeing him thus enraged, a Captain of the Guards feared for Solomon and so stationed himself that in secret he could observe the Audience Chamber. Hiram discovered this and, in a rage, remonstrated to Solomon, who denied the surveillance. But Hiram revealed the spying Captain and, about to kill him, was prevented from doing so when Solomon promised a fair trial for the offender and also related his plans for rehabilitating the substandard towns. Hiram then begged Solomon's forgiveness and asked that the Captain be forgiven, since actually he deserved commendation for his loyalty. Whereupon the Captain was appointed Confidential Secretary to the two kings in replacement of that office which the murdered Grand Master had held.
The quintessence of our Scottish Rite teachings is healthy thinking. These words are used in a sense of signifying a state of mind that is harmonious with a philosophic belief from which there flows a confident approach to life.
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We can attain that condition of confident living through application in our daily affairs of those secure patterns of behavior that are disclosed in our degrees.
Application means more than merely wishing. Any success-starved person can do that. Instead, it requires an active response to the urge for something beyond the self. From this foundation there are specific steps that can be taken. For example, we can talk with those people who may suggest out of their experience and wisdom the paths best suited to us. We can use the powerful tools given us in our Scottish Rite rituals, lessons that impart the highest levels of thought. We can commune in silent meditation and seek reserves of psychic strength. Through conscious effort we can strengthen our positive approaches toward life's instinctive fears and doubts. In short, we can think our way to success.
The opposite is also true. You can assume such a critical role that destructive ill health results. Amid a thousand pleasant scents such a person singles out one solitary smell for complaint. Once Churchill was building a wall and put a critic in his place. When told that the wall was crooked, Churchill gave this stinging reply: "Any fool can see what's wrong. But can you see what's right?"
Lack of giving is another unhealthy attribute. It violates the great secret of life that to get we must give, and give without the slightest expectation of receiving. The ungiving person so often denies articulation to the most basic of all human needs: a craving for love.
Closely allied is the person who is stingy with praise or compliments. They forget that while actions speak louder than words, a lack of both can be devastating. Approval and appreciation should be verbalized.
Then, too, he who merely eats and breathes and sleeps, and who strives always to satisfy only his own needs, is afflicted with an unhealthy greed. He is in a ruthless quest for gratification. The selfish man seeking public office, or climbing over unfortunate victims for
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money, or striving unfairly for status, or existing solely for personal pleasure, will awake in the end to a realization of self-defeating futility. Regardless of how natural and all too human this may be as part of our psyche, we can control the situation through inhibition-simply say "no" to the unhealthy impulse.
Especially, therefore, in this world of questioning of authority, of morals, of institutions, of values and of life purpose, we should pursue the healthy mind. It gives more meaning to life than bigger production, higher sales, more take-home pay. It will exemplify in our daily behavior the workable philosophy of the Scottish Rite in relation to our present-day knowledge.
There is a creative approach to Masonic self-help -ways in which we can multiply our personal development. We can work on ourselves through systematic per sonal effort. It leads to the spiritual side of the Scottish Rite "miraculous" way. This is derived from a source of limitless energy, a phenomenon that can be explained only as coming from a Supreme Power, amply demonstrated in documented records of inspirational transformations.
Consider a scientist who up to his fiftieth year was an unhappy, ineffective man. Unimportant, unknown, living in a world of gloom and failure, he was afflicted also with painful, blinding headaches. He took stock and realized that something was seriously wrong. He reread those words of William James: "We might have to give up our philosophy of evil, but what is that in comparison with gaining a life of goodness?"
The scientist determined to put this doctrine to the proof. For one month he would make a careful and honest experiment. During that time he would control his thoughts. He would think only of the happy, pleasing, bright incidents and days of his past. In thinking of the present, he would attend only to the desirable elements of his home, his work and his opportunities. For the future,
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he would regard every worthy ambition as within his grasp.
At the end of only eight days of faithful application, he felt a tingling transformation-an expectation of important discoveries. He knew then the experiment of healthy thinking was succeeding. Even his headaches disappeared. He felt happy and contented, and he made others happy with his more attractive personality. The outward transformation of his life from his changes of thought surprised him even more than the inward improvements. Eminent scientists recognized his merits; his works were published. He was elected to the presidency of a great scientific society. He demonstrated that great unseen forces can work for man, even as Paul revealed in his perceptive saying: "All things work together for good to them that love God."
Truly, this was an experiment worthy of emulation.
PROVOST AND JUDGE
SEVENTH DEGREE
Summary:
From this Degree we learn that impartial justice protects persons, property, happiness and reputation. It involves punishment and the possibility also of retribution and repentance for wrong done and evil perpetrated. Every criminal, every teller of idle words, and every doer of evil deeds stands revealed in his naked guilt before God. There is divine as well as man-made justice. What has been done or omitted never can be obliterated. It is a momentous truth that wrong and injustice once done or omitted cannot be undone. The consequences are eternal. Wrong contains its own retributive penalty. Reparation or remorse may result in forgiveness, but the deed or omission is never erased. Masonry endeavors to restrain men from injustice, wrong and outrage, and when this restraint fails, seeks for the fallen the type of justice that is tempered with mercy and pity. We should not look with scorn upon the disgraced offender; rather, there should be concern as to how he may be reclaimed. Remember that you, too, someday may appear before the bar of justice if you have not already done so; or perhaps you have escaped apprehension! Those invested with the power of judging, whether as judge or
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jury, should act patiently, uprightly and impartially, devoid of prejudice, preconception and personal considerations, and carefully weigh the facts and arguments before proceeding to decision. Our great goal is finding the most effectual means of preventing and dealing with wrong and injustice, and of enforcing the laws of God and man.
Commentary:
The murdered Grand Master had been supervising a vast number of craftsmen engaged in construction of King Solomon's Temple and, in so doing, had settled their quar rels and disputes and had administered justice. Following his death, King Solomon appointed Provosts and Judges to perform these functions. Meetings were held in the Middle Chamber of the Temple. They, in effect, held court and applied to Phoenician and Hebrew alike the same law and endeavored to do equal justice to all. They kept their records in a box of ebony, the key to which the Chief Provost and Judge held.
As we all act as judges from time to time, we should endeavor to do justice in decisions, in judgments, and in our intercourse and dealings with other people. Since what is done or omitted in assessing and determining justice can never be undone, we must always act with deliberation and impartiality, and decide with a single eye on equity. The consequences of what we say and do here are eternal in character. Punishment is not the execution of a sentence; rather, it is the culmination of a cause the offenders themselves have set in motion.
Our moral and mental character as formed in life determines what our fate will be in the domain of eternal
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justice. A man's thought, word or deed will return according to the law of cause and effect. He has made his own record for good or evil. This is beyond recall. We sow the seed and this inexorably brings to harvest our own crop. Therefore, he who hurts another only harms himself. Retribution is a self-inflicted penalty. As Schoepenhauer put it in his figure, man is a wild beast who fastens his fangs into his own flesh.
There is, however, the inspiring assurance that we can control the remedy for evil and the increase for good through the curative powers of purity and love and reason, and striving for spiritual realization. In that sense, we of the Scottish Rite believe that "Man is the master of his own destiny."
We are singularly fortunate in that we can fight for justice in this life and achieve memorable victories, drawing lessons from our Scottish Rite teachings as guideposts. The perceptive student will see that behind the clash of armies and ideologies there lies a struggle against injustice. We in this life can pursue the never-ending and exhilarating quest for human justice. Its meaning may involve many ingredients when we behold the traditional symbolic figure with familiar scales that are in balance. There is a deeper meaning in this than the mere symbolic, as you will learn later. The concept is crucial for there must be harmony and balance, and equilibrium of equality and peace.
What we call justice cannot be defined with any simply stated ideals. It is far from static. Our present standards have been developed over the ages and through the agonies of experience. The Roman praetor transformed crude customs into a consistent legal system. Merchants even in ancient times made far-reaching contributions through their customs and binding contracts. St. Paul, bound with thongs, on being brought into the castle for examination by scourging, asked the Centurion, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?" Thus, he gained the benefit of laws that were
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similar for all Roman citizens everywhere. When Justinian took the throne in A.D. 527, he commissioned a work which became the bible of Western law, it being his hope thereby to restore the grandeur of Rome and of Roman law. After the fall of the Roman Empire, and the passage of centuries, the private citizens themselves, like the vigilantes of a later day, administered law.
The Lords of England similarly aroused themselves in defense of their rights, and on June 15, 1215 went upon the rolling meadows of Runnymede and forced King John unwillingly to affix his seal to the Magna Carta. Four hundred years later the courts, like the Lords of England, spoke courageously to James I, the King, in defense of the English common law. Summoned to his presence, he accused them of impertinence and demanded that in the future they obey his orders rather than the edicts of the courts. All but one fell to their knees and so promised. Standing alone, the fearless Sir Edward Coke, towering over his prostrate colleagues, replied, "When the case happens, I shall do that which shall be fit for a judge to do."
Our American Colonies initiated legal reforms in the course of which John Peter Zenger fought for freedom of the press, although attacks were aimed at despised British officials. Andrew Hamilton's ringing eloquence won the day. On the same spot where Zenger had stood trial 54 years earlier, James Madison on May 4, 1789 proposed the Bill of Rights to our Constitution. This Bill had its forerunner, England's Magna Carta, but ours is unique in that it is written as the first ten amendments into the Constitution of the United States.
More important than the list of rights themselves is the concept of man's inalienable, God-given rights that the fundamental laws of a nation must protect.
Thus, we also can put into practice in our daily lives our devotion to justice, which has for its heart a reverence for the brotherhood of the individual man, a Masonic teaching for the conditions of human life.
INTENDANT OF THE BUILDING
EIGHTH DEGREE
Summary:
Masonry reduces to practice the great principles of God's inherent love, charity, morality and kindness. But many times the symbols and the ceremonies deliberately have multiple meanings. The truth then is concealed in hints and allusions that are designed for discovery only in stages and through organized and systematic reflection and study. It is futile to advance unless we learn the lessons already given in work and ceremonies and communications and the related jurisprudence. Thus, we proceed toward our ultimate goal of Perfection, the name of our first fourteen degrees. But the Scottish Rite is practical. The world itself is God's handiwork and hence essentially good. In truth, it is the beginning of heaven and part of immortality. We should weigh the world's evil against the good; the misanthropy, the melancholy and the despair as opposed to the contentment, the blessings and the happiness. Compare our afflictions with those of they who are less fortunate. Our faults are more truly reflected in the
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mirror of enemies than that of friends. We have high duties to perform and an inspiring destiny to fulfill upon this earth as a noble field of action.
Commentary:
This Degree portrays, as do others, the problem of resuming the duties which the murdered Grand Master had been performing. Among these were those of superin tendent of construction, or Intendant of the Building. In searching for a replacement, King Solomon interviewed the five favorite craftsmen among the workmen of the Grand Master. The selection fell to Adoniram, who had taken advantage of opportunities presented to gain knowledge, wisdom, experience and fairness to employees. Thus he was ready to assume further and higher responsibilities for completion of the great work of the dead Grand Master.
We learn that work must be organized and systematized, and that progression must proceed by stages. This is but a truism that has been reflected in man's prog ress upon the earth. It is now said that man has lived here many, many millions of years. During that time, he has progressed as a nomad, a food collector, a hunter and then a builder. He first fashioned crude tools and utensils of stone, bone and wood; next he molded clay and loam; then he discovered the casting of bronze and copper and, finally, iron. Along the line, he learned to till the soil and reap the harvest, to capture and domesticate wild animals, to build dwellings and villages and cities. He has survived
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four ice ages and three warmer interglacial periods. The last ice age ended about 8000 B.C.
All the splendor and all the mystery of this miraculous story of man is deeply imbedded in you-lives on in you-as in a seedbed. We all have experienced unexpect edly, unexplainably, rooted deep in the past, a feeling of kinship with places and persons. There is within you -destined to endure forever-the wisdom of the Delphic Oracle, the truth of Atlantis, the thousands upon thousands of legacies that you have inherited from your ancestors during their existence upon this earth. Within the span of your own lifetime, thus extended, you may have followed in the footsteps of your primeval ancestors as they walked the walls of Jericho, so ancient that even the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew not its origins. You may have stood on top of its tower, four thousand years older than the first pyramid. You may have worked with your ancestors in an intense desert heat as they stoked the fires in the smelting ovens of King Solomon, or built the towers of Sardis in the bronze age of 800 B. C. Today you can view in southern France the mysterious and fascinating caverns where your ancestors over 25,000 years ago painted, colored and carved upon walls of their cave homes the pictures and designs of buffalo, deer, horses and symbols. This creative artistry, motivated by a religio-magical impulse, holds excitement for us since, aside from antiquity, it marks the end of the Cro-Magnon man's period as a mere toolmaker. It is mute evidence of his entry into the era of true humanity.
And so we plan and progress. Your brain is a greater computer than could ever be built. A group of experts in the field of computer design were asked what science would have to devise as equivalent equipment to compete with one human brain. They figured that, in a lifetime, if parts were as miniaturized as those used in a rocket to the moon, the machine would be as big as the United Nations building in New York, with a cooling system that had an
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