The Builder Magazine

February 1917 - Volume III - Number 2

 

THE INITIATORY RITES OF DRUIDISM

BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, EDITOR LONDON FREEMASON

THE mode of life adopted by the Druidical priests made easy the transition from Pagan to Christian monasticism. To all intents and purposes the Druids formed a Church and their ecclesiastical system seems to have been as complete as any other systems of which records have been preserved, whether Christian or non-Christian. The rank of the Arch, of Chief, Druid was that of pontifex maximus, and, apparently, he held his position until death or resignation, when his successor was elected in a manner similar to that in which a pope at the present day is elected, although some writers assert that the Arch Druid was elected annually. Caesar states that: "when the presulary dignity becomes vacant by the head Druid's death, the next in dignity and reputation succeeds; but, when there are equals in competition, election carries it."

 

Many Druids appear to have retired from the world and lived a hermit existence, in order that they might acquire a greater reputation for sanctity. Martin in his Description of the Western Isles has pointed out that in his time, in the most unfrequented places of the Western Isles of Scotland, there were still remaining the foundations of small circular houses, intended evidently for the abode of one person only, to which were given the name of "Druid's Houses" by the people of the country. Many of the Druids also appear to have lived a communal life, uniting together in fraternities and dwelling near the temples which they served, each temple requiring the services of a considerable number of priests.

 

Ammianus of Marseilles describes them in the following words:

 

"The Druids, men of polished parts, as the authority of Pythagoras has decreed, affecting formed societies and sodalities, gave themselves wholly to the contemplation of divine and hidden things, despising all worldly enjoyments and confidently affirmed the souls of men to be immortal."

 

Not a few, however, lived in a more public and secular manner, attaching themselves to kindly courts and the residences of the noble and wealthy. The Druids had thus a close affinity both with the monastic order and religious congregations of the Church of Rome, known as the regular clergy, and those living unrestricted by special vows, and known as the secular clergy.

 

The period of noviciate and the character of the training of an aspirant to the Druidical priesthood was as lengthy and as rigorous as that of an aspirant to membership of the Society of Jesus. It lasted for twenty years, and, although the candidates were, in general, enrolled from the families of nobles, many youths of other ranks in life also entered voluntarily upon the noviciate, and, very frequently, boys were dedicated to the priestly life by their parents from an early age.

 

The ceremony of initiation, so far as can be gathered from the scanty authentic records available, was arduous and solemn. The aspirant first took an oath not to reveal the mysteries into which he was about to be initiated. He was then divested of his ordinary clothing and vested with a tri-coloured robe of white blue, and green, as emblematic of light, truth and hope. Over this was placed a white tunic. Both were made with full length openings in the front, and, before the ceremony of initiation began, the candidate had to throw open both tunic and robe, in order that the officiating priest might be assured that he was a male.

 

The tonsure was one of the ceremonies connected with initiation. As practiced in the Roman Church, the tonsure, the first of the four minor Orders conferred upon aspirants to the priesthood, is undoubtedly a Druidical survival. There is evidence of its practice in Ireland in A. D. 630, but it does not appear to have become a custom in England until the latter part of the eighth century. The tonsure was referred to by St. Patrick as "the diabolical mark" and in Ireland it was known as "the tonsure of Simon the Druid." It differed greatly from the modern form. All the hair in front of a line drawn over the crown from ear to ear was shaved or clipped. All Druids wore short hair, the laymen long; the Druids wore long beards, the laymen shaved the whole of the face, with the exception of the upper lip. The tonsure was also known in Wales as an initiatory rite. In the Welsh romances known as the Mabinogion, we find, among the Brythons, a youth who wished to become one of Arthur's knights whose allegiance was signified by the king, with his own hand, cutting off his hair.

 

The initiation took place in a cave because of the legend which existed that Enoch had deposited certain invaluable secrets in a consecrated cavern deep in the bowels of the earth. There is still to be seen in Denbighshire one of the caves in which Druidical initiations at one time took place. After taking the oath, the candidate had to pass through the Tolmen, or perforated stone, an act held to be the means of purging from sin and conveying purity. All rocks containing an aperture, whether natural or artificial, were held to be the means of conveying purification to the person passing through the hole. At Bayon Manor, near Market Rasen, in Lincolnshire, there is a petra ambrosiae, consisting of a gigantic upright stone resting upon another stone and hollowed out so as to form an aperture sufficiently large for a man to pass through. This stone is believed to have been used by the Druids in the performance of their sacred rites. Some writers have imagined that the prophet Isaiah was referring to a practice similar to this when he wrote (I, 19): "And they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." All such orifices as these were consecrated with holy oil and dedicated to religious uses, when the distinguished name of lapis ambrosius was given to each.

 

The candidate was then placed in a chest or coffin, in which he remained enclosed (apertures being made for air circulation) for three days to represent death. From this chest he was liberated on the third day to represent his restoration to life.

 

The sanctuary was then prepared for the further ceremonies of the initiation, and the candidate, blindfolded, was introduced to the assembled company during the chanting of a hymn to the sun and placed in the charge of a professed Druid, another, at the same time, kindling the sacred fire. Still blindfolded the candidate was taken on a circumambulation nine times round the sanctuary in circles from east to west, starting at the south. The procession was made to the accompaniment of a tumultuous clang of musical instruments and of shouting and screaming and was followed by the administration of a second oath, the violation of which rendered the individual liable to the penalty of death.

 

Then followed a number of other ceremonies, which typified the confinement of Noah in the Ark, the death of that patriarch, and other incidents, the candidate eventually passing through a narrow avenue, guarded by angry beasts, after which he was seized and borne to the water, symbolical of the waters on which the Ark of Noah floated. In this water he was completely immersed, and, on emerging from the water on to the bank on the side opposite to that from which he had entered, he found himself in a blaze of light. He was then presented to the Arch Druid, who, seated on his throne or chair of office, explained to him the symbolical meaning of the various ceremonies through which he had passed.

 

This ceremony of initiation was similar to that of the Egyptian rites of Osiris, which was regarded as a descent into hell, a passage through the infernal lake, followed by a landing on the Egyptian Isle of the Blessed. By its means men were held to become more holy, just, and pure, and to be delivered from all hazards, which would otherwise be impending. The cave in which the aspirant was placed for meditation before he was permitted to participate in the sacred mysteries was guarded by a representative of the terrible divinity, Busnawr, who was armed with a naked sword, and whose vindictive wrath, when aroused, was said to be such as to make earth, hell, and even heaven itself, tremble.

 

Dionysius tells us that when the Druidesses celebrated the mysteries of the great god, Hu the Mighty, they passed over an arm of the sea in the dead of the night to ascertain smaller contiguous islets. The ship, or vessel, in which they made the passage represented the Ark of the Deluge; the arm of the sea, that of the waters of the flood; and the fabled Elysian island, where the voyage terminated, shadowed out the Lunar White Island of the ocean-girt summit of the Paradisiacal Ararat.

 

After the initiation was completed the candidate retired into the forest where the period of his noviciate was spent, his time being devoted to study and gymnastic exercises. There were various steps, or degrees, and it was necessary for the Druid to pass through the degrees of Vate and Bard before becoming a full-fledged Druid. Prior to the conferring of each degree the candidate was confined within cromlechs without food for thirty-six hours. The caves in which all the ceremonies were performed were like the Druidical temples above-ground, circular in form.

 

The three degrees of Vate, Bard, and Druid were regarded as equal in importance, though not in privilege, and they were distinct in purpose. There is little doubt that knowledge was confined mainly, if not altogether, to the professed Druids. Caesar says that they disputed largely upon subjects of natural philosophy and instructed the youth of the land in the rudiments of learning. By some writers the Druids are credited with a knowledge of the telescope, though this opinion is based mainly upon the statement of Diodorus Siculus, who says that on an island west of Celtae, the Druids brought the sun and moon near to them. Hecataeus, however, informs us that they taught the existence of lunar mountains. The fact that the milky way consisted of small stars was known to the ancients is often adduced in support of the claim to antiquity of the telescope. Idris, the giant, a pre-Christian astronomer, is said to have pursued his study of the science from the apex of one of the loftiest mountains in North Wales, which, in consequence, received the name which it now bears--Cader Idris, or the Chair of Idris. Diodorus Siculus is also responsible for the statement that the Saronides (Druids) were the Gaulish philosophers and divines and were held in great veneration and that it was not lawful to perform any sacrifices except in the presence of one of these philosophers.

 

Mr. P. W. Joyce, in his Social History of Ancient Ireland, says that in Pagan times the Druids were the exclusive possessors of whatever learning was then known and combined in themselves all the learned professions, being not only Druids or priests, but judges, prophets, historians, poets and even physicians. He might have added: "and instructors of youth," since education was entirely in their hands. Even St. Columba began his education under a Druid and so great was the veneration paid to the Druids for the knowledge they possessed that it became a kind of adage with respect to anything that was deemed mysterious or beyond ordinary ken: "No one knows but God and the holy Druids."

 

The Druids were the intermediaries between the people and the spiritual world, and the people believed that their priests could protect them from the malice of evilly-disposed spirits of every kind. The authority possessed by the Druids is easily understood when it is remembered that they were possessed of more knowledge and learning than any other class of men in the country. "They were," says Rowlands in Mona Antiqua Restorata, "men of thought and speculation, whose chief province was to enlarge the bounds of knowledge, as their fellows were to do those of empire into what country or climate soever they came."

 

Kings had each ever about them a Druid for prayer and sacrifice, who was also a judge for determining controversies, although each king had a civil judge besides. At the Court of Conchobar, King of Ulster, no one had the right to speak before the Druid had spoken. Cathbu or Cathbad, a Druid once attached to that Court, was accompanied by a hundred youths, students of his art. After the introduction and adoption of Christianity the Druid was succeeded by a bishop or priest, just as the Druidesses at Kildare were succeeded by the Briggitine Nuns. Martin, who wrote his Description of the Western Islands of Scotland in 1703, tells us that:

 

"Every great family of the Western Islands had a chief Druid who foretold future events and decided all causes, civil and ecclesiastical. It is reported of them that they wrought in the night time and rested all day. Before the Britons engaged in battle the Chief Druid harangued the army to excite their courage. He was placed on an eminence whence he addressed himself to all standing about him, putting them in mind of all great things that were performed by the valour of their ancestors, raised their hopes with the noble rewards of honour and victory and dispelled their fears by all the topics that natural courage could suggest. After this harangue the army gave a general shout and then charged the enemy stoutly."

 

The position of Arch Druid was at one time held by Divitiacus, the Eduan, the intimate acquaintance and friend of Caesar, who is believed to have inspired the account of Druidism given by Caesar in De Bello Gallico. The British Arch Druid is said to have had his residence in the Isle of Anglesey, in or near to Llaniden. There the name of Tre'r Dryw, or Druidstown, is still preserved and there are still there also some of the massive stone structures which are invariably associated with Druidism. The Courts of the Arch Druids were held at Drewson, or Druidstown. The principal seat of the French Druids was at Chartres, the residence of the Gallic Arch Druid, at which place also the annual convention of Gaulish and British Druids was held. There was also a large Druidical settlement at Marseilles. It was here that Caesar, in order to put an end to Druidism in Gaul, ordered the trees to be felled. . There is no record of a head priest or Arch Druid amongst the Irish Druids.

 

Dr. John Jamieson, in his Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees of Iona, which was published in 1870, says that twenty years previously there was living in the parish of Moulim, an old man, who although very regular in his devotions, never addressed the Supreme Being by any other title than that of Arch Druid. He quotes this as an illustration of the firm hold which ancient superstition takes of the mind.

 

Druids had the privilege of wearing six colours in their robes and their tunics reached to their heels, while the tunics of others reached only to the knees. Kings and queens reserved to themselves the right of wearing robes of seven colours; lords and ladies, five; governors of fortresses, four; young gentlemen of quality, three; soldiers, two; and the common people, one. When the Druids were officiating in their priestly capacity, they wore each a white robe, emblematic of truth and holiness as well as of the sun. When officiating as a judge, the Druid wore two white robes, fastened with a girdle, surmounted by his Druid's egg encased in gold, and wore round his neck the breastplate of judgment, which was supposed to press upon his breast should he give utterance to a false or corrupt judgment. A golden tiara was upon his head and two official rings on his right hand fingers. On ordinary occasions the cap worn by the Druid had on the front a golden representation of the sun under a half moon of silver, supported by two Druids, one at each cusp, in an inclined posture.

 

The mode of excommunication was to expose the erring member to a naked weapon. The Bards had a special ceremony for the degradation of their convicted brethren. It took place at a Gorsedd when the assembled Bards placed their caps on their heads. One deputed for the office unsheathed his sword, uplifted it and named the delinquent aloud three times, adding, on the last occasion the words: "The sword is naked against him." After these words were pronounced the offender was expelled, never to be re-admitted, and he became known as "a man deprived of privilege and exposed to warfare."

 

----o----

MASONRY AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES

 

BY BRO. J.W. NORWOOD, KENTUCKY

 

MUCH has been said and written about Freemasonry among the Indians, the Arabs, the Chinese, the Australians and even the Africans. The recognition of Masonic signs and the use of various Masonic symbols in the rites of these people have given color to the supposition that they had Masonry, not of the sort we moderns can recognize as such to be sure, but sufficient to convince students that "the landmarks" are there.

 

If by Freemasonry we mean merely the grand lodge system established in 1717, then all these tales of white Freemasons saving their lives among savages or in strange countries by the use of Masonic signs, mean nothing. But if the legends of our Order have any significance whatever, then Freemasonry is very ancient though it has been arranged and rearranged in the form of rites and degrees many times. And if this is true, that no man can say when or where it first began, then it is not folly to investigate the evolution of what we now term Freemasonry. Stanley in Africa, travelers in Australia, shipwrecked sailors on the coast of Arabia, have been reported as meeting with primitive Freemasonry.

 

The Chinese have frequently been referred to as having a rite they claim to be the most ancient on earth. Chinese classics abound in references to the square and compasses used speculatively. And as often denials have come from Masonic notables, declaring it could not be so.

 

Here is an anecdote that may illustrate why students of Freemasonry are not so sure the Chinese may not have what they claim. In San Francisco there is a lodge of what is popularly called the "Chinese Freemasons." Needless to say they do not themselves call it so, though they recognize kinship with the great fraternity.

 

A number of years ago, the writer had a conversation with a gentleman who had traveled extensively in this country, Alaska and Mexico. He had visited this lodge of "Chinese Freemasons." He was admitted in company with a friend, editor of a daily paper and a 32d Scottish Rite Mason, who merely vouched for the man as a Mason.

 

My informant stated that he saw the opening and closing in three degrees but no initiatory ceremonies. Aside from the general disposition and number of officers, he did not observe much that reminded him of our Masonry.

 

I asked him about the signs given in the three degrees. He arose and proceeded to give me the signs as he declared the Chinese made them. They were identical with those of the three degrees save that they were given with two hands where we give them with one. There were no due guards. My friend was astonished that he had overlooked this fact. He was no student. He was not a close observer.

 

 He did remark that his Scottish Rite friend had told him the grand hailing sign was the same with ours but the words accompanying it were different and sounded like those words Jesus uttered on the cross and which have been a puzzle to linguists--"Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabacthani." The Chinese translated them "Brother, Brother, has thou forsaken me?" They declared that they were not Chinese or even Sanskrit. No one could say whence they originated, but they had come down from time immemorial.

 

A number of years ago, the Masonic Home Journal reported an instance of "Chinese Masonry" according to which a mandarin had captured some white prisoners, including an English general who made the sign. He was recognized by the Mandarin and advanced upon the five points. He was well treated.

 

In Louisville, Kentucky, the writer once had the pleasure of seeing a young Korean about to return to his country as a Christian missionary, raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. When called upon for remarks, he said that he had wanted to become a Mason in order to surprise his father and brothers in Korea, for his family had been Masons for thousands of years. Their system and rite differed, but the Masonry was there.

 

If we begin with the formation of the modern Grand Lodge system of government in London, 1717, and trace backward, we will find many curious things connected with that era which cannot be relegated to the rubbish by contemptuous or skeptical writers.

 

Nothing has been more clearly proven than that one source of the rite then formed by Drs. Anderson, Desaguilers and others, was the operative gild.

 

These gilds can trace their history back through the middle ages to ancient Rome and Greece, when they were connected with various mysteries, as in the case of the builders of Solomon's Temple, who were actual Tyrians and built similar temples throughout Asia Minor. They were under the jurisdiction of the Dionysian priesthood then as their successors were governed by the clergy during Christian times.

 

But there was another source from which Freemasonry drew its inspiration--the Hermetic philosophy. The "Hermeticists," whether Astrologers, Alchemists, Rosicrucians, Theosophists or Kabbalists, used the same symbols or many of them, and explained them in much the same way as the ancient Chinese, the Egyptians and Hindus.

 

Prior to the "Revival" of 1717, this "Hermetic" element is to be found giving expression to itself in Elias Ashmole's "Astrologers" on the "esoteric" side and to the "Royal Society" on the exoteric. To both of these associations and their members, closely affiliated with the "Masons Company" in London at that time, the subsequent Revival owed much. The idea of the founders of modern Masonry in 1717, seems to have been to divest the degrees of all mysterious terms and ambiguous language, make it universal and open to all men of average intellect, so that a common platform could be established upon which men of all creeds could stand without being diverted by too much study of inessentials.

 

As Dr. Charles Merz has recently suggested in his excellent little booklet, "The House of Solomon," the Rosicrucian movement of Andrea seemed to have been the inspiration of the English forerunners of the Masonic system of 1717. Francis Bacon's "New Atlantis" had a powerful influence upon the Elizabethan age because of his description of "The House of Solomon" on Bensalem island.

 

But before Francis Bacon's time, there were other ideals written about Solomon's Temple. The "Mystics" and "Hermetics" of the Christian era find their parallels in similar philosophers in all ages.

 

Perhaps no more striking instance showing the connection between the gilds and philosophical societies can be found than in the use of the two pillars represented as standing before the Temple by both. The legends connected with these pillars should alone be sufficient to convince one of their antiquity, even had we not the evidence left by the gilds in Christian Cathedrals and pagan temples back into prehistoric times. The Totem poles of savage rites today are survivals of this ancient custom and from the Totem pole our modern pillars doubtless sprang.

 

To the student and scientific observer, Freemasonry is an evolution. Because it is a "progressive science," many have imagined that any rearrangement of its degrees, its symbols or its ceremonies would destroy the "landmarks." Such a suspicion does little credit to one's understanding of Freemasonry or its spirit. The landmarks are the tenets of Freemasonry--not some peculiar form of ceremony.

 

From the signs of recognition, the symbols by which certain primitive facts in nature were preserved in a "universal language" among early peoples, to our modern use of them even while so few understand or care about their meaning, is a long step.

 

It is not to be expected that a primitive people possessing these but not the standards of education of the more enlightened races, should have kept pace with modern research and progress in civilization.

 

As a nation evolves so does its scientific, religious, and philosophical standards. Freemasonry, the repository of truth as understood by its votaries, naturally undergoes variation in form according to the deposit made in its archives. One system can no more hope to become the dictator of other systems than one lamp can hope to shine all other lamps out of existence.

 

Like Christianity, which some of the early Christian Fathers declared had existed from time immemorial and long before the advent of the Great Master whose name they adopted, Freemasonry is a thing of the heart and mind which has also existed from time immemorial.

 

It cannot be confined within arbitrary jurisdictions. The most that our modern system can hope to do is to clear away the rubbish from our speculative lodges and say, "This is the system of degrees we will recognize as Freemasonry and this alone, for here we have some approach to a standard of form and ceremony. All others we will not call Freemasonry."

 

In Orthodox Jewish circles, the Rabbis are almost as much opposed to Freemasonry as the Roman Church, though for a different reason.

 

To them it is too much like their own rituals, symbols and ceremonies--too much like taking sacred things and imitating them.

 

The Jewish rituals have in them the elements of the Masonic but applied to religious and racial uses entirely.

 

Take the ceremony of laying on the tphillin or "phylactery" as the Bible puts it. There one may find the "Word," the "Substitute," the "Ark" the sign of the Fellowcraft, and even the "flight of winding stairs" of fifteen steps, together with much more pertaining to the Masonic degrees. The three lights and the Master's sign are to be found in another ceremony and so one might continue through these ancient Mosaic ceremonies and duplicate practically everything to be found in Masonic ritual.

 

But even here we must go back to Egypt where Moses was educated to discover the origin of these things. There the "Holy Royal Arch" is no less prominent than the very sign of the Fellowcraft above alluded to. Egypt has left the records of a Masonry where may be found all our signs and most of our words.

 

The writer is acquainted with a gentleman who many years ago spent some time in Palestine and Arabia in Masonic research. His description of his own initiation into what the Arabians claim to be a Freemasonry as old as the pyramids, embraced certain signs, and simple dogmas, exactly like those of our Masonry. The rite was much simpler. There was no splendid regalia, but the initiates of the Arabic degrees keep their obligations to the letter and lay down their lives if need be, for a brother.

 

Another very profitable field of research for those who are interested in studying the evolution of this thing we now call Freemasonry is to be found in philology--study of word derivations. One is astounded at the almost universal dispersion of certain well known Masonic terms, never used in any other connection.

 

The word "Jehovah" for example is discovered to be practically world wide and age old. Its pronunciation differs, but not the "landmarks" by which it may be identified. The Jewish JHVH or YHWH, is the same as the "Jah" whom the Phoenician father-in-law of Moses worshiped and served as priest. It is identical with the Roman JOVE, or Yowe. The Greek IAO, the Druid HU, the Chinese YAO and the seven vowels of India and Egypt, find repetition among American Indians and in African and Australian cults.

 

So HIRAM (Hebrew Ch'Huram) goes back to the ancient name for LIGHT as world wide as the pillars of Hermes.

 

And John is to be seen in the Etruscan Janus, whose temple consisted of these two pillars; in the Chaldean Ea-n whom the Greeks called Oahnnes and in other names of "gods."

 

Such studies invariably convince the open minded, that while rituals and ceremonies undergo many changes in the course of evolution, the teachings inculcated have never undergone material change because they are the result of profound research by the world's greatest masters of science and philosophy.

 

The speculative or spiritual use of the square and compasses is the same today as when the Chinese sages urged statesmen and those who sought knowledge to use them for a nobler purpose than the operative Mason.

 

The philosophers and fathers of Masonry used the Masonic symbols as BUILDERS and the craft has always been the BUILDERS craft. Only when we desert the plan outlined for BUILDING the temple of Humanity will we infringe the "landmarks" which are the same today as thousands of years ago. Methods of building and styles of architecture may and will change. The material changes with every age and we hope gets better. But the injunction to first make each part perfect and fit for the temple of the whole, stands as true today as when the science of architecture was first discovered.

 

When we arbitrarily dismiss the use of Masonic signs and symbols by others than regular Freemasons from mind, let us not forget that they are the common possession of "Negro Masonry" and various unrecognized rites today we deem "spurious" or "clandestine." Dr. Oliver was accustomed to dub the Masonry of the ancients as "spurious," but where there is something "spurious" it must of necessity follow that there is a "true" and "regular." Unless there existed an "authentic" rite, there could be no imitator.

 

----o----

 

"WHENCE CAME YOU?"

 

Daily this question is asked by Masons without the slightest thought as to its real meaning. It is fitting that the answer we make to it in the lodge is well nigh unintelligible, for it is about as intelligible as any ever given it or as probably ever will be given it. Who can answer the question "Whence came you?" Who has ever answered it ? Who will ever answer it ? Equally baffling and profound is that companion question, familiar in some jurisdictions, "Whither art thou bound?" Equally an enigma is the answer we give it. Simple as these questions appear, they search every nook and cranny and sound every depth of every philosophy, every mythology, every theology, and every religion that has ever been propounded anywhere by anybody at any time to explain human life. They allude to the problems of the origin and destiny of mankind; they lie at the foundation of all the thinking and of all the activities of man except such as are concerned with the purely utilitarian question "What shall we eat and wherewithal shall we be clothed?" All our better impulses, all our loftier aspirations, all our faiths, all our longing for and striving after a nobler state of existence, either in this or a future life, are but attempts to answer these two questions. They are the supreme questions which men have been asking themselves and each other ever since men were able to think and to talk, and they are the questions which men will continue to ask oftenest and most anxiously until the time when we are promised that we shall know even as we are known. It is thus that study and reflection bring out the beauty and the profound significance of the simplest of Masonic formulae. --Bro. O. D. Street, Alabama.

 

----o----

 

THE HEART OF GOD

 

O great heart of God

Once vague and lost to me,

Why do I throb with your throb tonight,

In this land, eternity?

 

O little heart of God

Sweet intruding stranger,

You are laughing in my human breast,

A Christ-child in a manger.

--Vachel Lindsay.

 

----o----

 

THE IMMEASURABLE

 

We have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence that is unmeasured by its works. Love is inexhaustible, and if its estate is wasted, its granary emptied, still cheers and enriches, and the man, though he sleep, seems to purify the air, and his house to adorn the landscape and strengthen the laws. People always recognize this difference. We know who is benevolent by quite other means than the amount of subscriptions to soup societies.

 

--Emerson.

 

----o----

 

THE FELLOWSHIP OF MASONRY

 

BY BRO. JOHN LEWIN MCLEISH, OHIO

 

 AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE HYDE PARK MASONIC CLUB

 

MASONRY is an earnest fellowship of tried and true men, cognizant of human failures in the past, conscious of human limitations in the present, and animated by the loftiest human aspirations for the future. That Mason who best understands the real, the esoteric meaning of our gentle philosophy, is best equipped to further the highest ideals of brotherly love, relief and truth, for which Masonry stands.

 

The sleeping giant of Masonry is awakening at last. The Spirit of Masonry is permeating the Mighty Fellowship, arousing them to the call of humanity in a time of trial, the like of which this generation of the Sons of Men had never thought to face.

 

Amidst stress and storm, in the olden days, when men harbored suspicion and hate, and Nations knew not Peace, nor Brotherly Love, nor Divine Truth, sprang the Spirit of Masonry to evolve a philosophy of Moral and Social Virtues which should cement the Sons of Men of diverse Nations by unbreakable bonds of Fellowship.

 

For centuries, the propagation of a Secret Doctrine, "older than the oldest Church, more enduring than the most ancient Religion," slowly spread, girdling the globe, gathering into its Great Brotherhood the very best of every civilization until today', when it stands a Mighty Force, well equipped to properly fight the battles of Humanity, fearless in its sublime principles, and assured of ultimate achievement of its highest ideals, because of its practical application of that Great Masonic Dogma, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Its very vitality is dependent absolutely upon unfaltering Faith in the Grand Architect of the Universe, cemented by those ties of true Masonic Fellowship quite unbreakable even in death.

 

It is fortunate that this is so. New problems today confront the Sons of Men. Mighty issues must be faced by the Nations of the World including our own. Ours the task to minister to the peoples of Europe, emerging supine from the dread cataclysm of War. We must meet their pressing need and extend the hand of true Masonic Fellowship the underlying principle of which is Masonic Charity. We are one of the World's Great Forces ever struggling along a common highway of Human Utilitarianism. There are others less constructive. That particular Force which proves itself best fitted to cope with the new needs of Humankind, will longest endure. Gauging future probabilities by past performances, this Masonry of ours will not be found wanting.

 

Let us consider for a moment the strength of the Mighty Fellowship of which it is our privilege to form a component part.

 

 In the United States we number nearly two million brethren of forty-nine Sovereign Grand Lodges. The very smallest of these in our Federal District has jurisdiction over thirty lodges. In England the Grand Lodge has subordinate 2578 lodges. In Canada, eight Grand Lodges guide the destiny of more than 100,000 Masons. In Germany too are eight Grand Lodges, in South America six, in Australia six, in India five, in the West Indies three, in Mexico, Liberia, Egypt, Central America, Hungary, Servia, France and Italy one each. Our craft is numerically strong in Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Portugal. From such figures you will perceive the Universality of the Great Brotherhood, sense its wondrous potentiality for good, as the lines of Fellowship are drawn closer, ever closer, a happening sure to come with the termination of the present World War.

 

One of our greatest weaknesses, is the failure of many Masons, through indifference, lack of time,--environment,--or opportunity, to familiarize themselves with the glorious history and traditions of an Order whose main motif has been the making of Better Men and in consequence a Better Humanity during the centuries of its existence.

 

There are those raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason, and hurried through the higher degrees of the Scottish or the York Rites, who glean but the slightest knowledge of the history and meaning of Masonry. Proudly they wear the emblems of our Order, with a dim conception that they stand for something intangible, that through force of our numbers they demand respect, and cannot but give them a somewhat superior standing in the mass. Ask these brethren to explain the symbolism of the emblems, or put to them the pointed questions: "What is Masonry doing today? What does it stand for? What has it ever done?" They are lost for reply. They do not know.

 

For each individual Brother, Masonry is what he makes it. None of its deeper philosophy will unfold itself to his ken, without individual effort. Once in his life, to him individually is imparted the instruction of the Worshipful Master. To him is given an enactment of the Solomonic and Hiramic legends so beautifully set forth in our Ritualistic Drama. Much or little of the strange ceremonies performed for his enlightenment he may grasp. For some, the little that they carry from the lodgeroom on the night of their "raising," is indeed of small value. As well expect a candidate, rushed through the thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite in the few days alloted the Annual Reunion, to grasp the full beauty, the hidden meanings and real philosophy of that Ancient and Accepted Ritual unless later, he shall follow up the lessons hurriedly hinted at with a thoughtful reading of the classic "MORALS AND DOGMA," of Albert Pike. or a less pretentious manual of instruction.

 

Although I take it for granted most of you are more or less familiar with the splendid history of our Fellowship, a brief reference to the history of Masonry from its beginning may not prove unwelcome. The arduous labors of thoughtful Masonic students collaborating in groups like the Ars Quatuor Coronati Lodge of London, the Lodge of Research of Leicestershire, England, our National Masonic Research Society of Iowa, and the Cincinnati Masonic Study School--has once for all dispelled any lurking doubts entertained as to the true Antiquity of Masonry.

 

Let the Father of Masonic Philosophy, Albert Pike, impart to you his conception of Freemasonry:

 

"It began to shape itself in my intellectual vision into something more imposing and majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It seemed to me like the Pyramids in their loneliness, in whose yet undiscovered chambers may be hidden for the enlightenment of coming generations, the Sacred Books of the Egyptians, so long lost to the world: like the Sphynx half buried in the desert. . . In its Symbolism which, and its Spirit of Brotherhood are, its essence, Freemasonry is more ancient than any of the world's living religions. It has the symbols and doctrines which, older than himself, Zarathrustra inculcated, and it seemed to me a spectacle sublime, yet pitiful . . the Ancient Faith of our Ancestors, holding out to the world its symbols once so eloquent, and mutely and in vain asking for an interpreter. . . And so I came at last to see that the true greatness and majesty of Freemasonry consist in its proprietorship of these and its other symbols: and that its symbolism is its soul."

 

History shows clearly close connection between the Faiths and Philosophies of widely separated peoples. This is due to the fact that human nature never changes. It is the same now as it was in the prepyramidal days of ancient Egypt. Now, even as then, Man is groping blindly yet none the less determinedly in his endless Quest for Truth.

 

In the long ago, before the age of books, Man expressed himself in Architecture through the use of various symbols, as the Swastika of the Chaldees, the Triangle of the Egyptians, the Triple Tau of the Hebrews, the Cross of the Christians, the Square, Compasses, Plumb, Level and Circle of the Architects, blood brothers of the Accepted Masons.

 

In 1818 an archeologist, Giovanni Belzoni undertook the excavation of the Tombs of the Kings at Biban-el-Maluk, on the outskirts of what was once the thriving and populous City of Thebes. The result of his efforts was to establish the existence of Masonry among the ancient Egyptians; a Masonry working upon the same basic principles as our Modern Masonic Philosophy.

 

Some of Belzoni's most convincing "finds" were in the Hall of Beauties, a stone chamber 20 feet by 14 feet in the tomb of Pharaoh Osiris. The walls were profusely adorned with painted pictures in relief, the old hieroglyphic symbol-writing of ancient Egypt which has thrown much light upon the customs and manners of antiquity. Belzoni's discoveries established that the original form of the Egyptian Masonic Apron was triangular: that the triangular and serpent aprons were exclusively royal: that this tomb of Pharaoh Osiris was dedicated to the Masonic Mysteries blended and united with emblems of discoveries, inventions and sciences in general, progressively as they took place: that Freemasonry in the earlier ages was very different from what it is now, and that at the time of Pharaoh Osiris, it had attained to a grandeur unknown in Europe.

 

Later discoveries in Egypt, as the finding of Masonic Emblems in the foundations of the Obelisk confirmed Belzoni's claim that Masonry was an Existent Fellowship in Ancient Egypt. On this point one of our greatest Ohio Masons, the late Enoch T. Carson, has written:

 

"Masonic Archeologists, and students of its history and mysteries, are not startled at these discoveries. They know the Order is of great antiquity. The general doctrinal features, . . its cosmopolite character, its recognition and teaching of the Universal Brotherhood of Men, are substantially the same today as they were in the remote ages of antiquity. Its particular ritualistic ceremonies have undergone many and very great changes. These have been modified to a greater or lesser extent to correspond with the wants and tastes of particular nationalities. . . Those who believe that our Masonic Institution had no existence anterior to 1717 are literary knaves and dunces. . . Several learned works have been written to prove that Masonry sprung from, or is a continuation of the Ancient Egyptian Mysteries or Osiris Worship in a modified form. . . To the student of history, its origin is lost in the remotest ages of antiquity: but its principles and doctrines are fresh and grateful to the moral sensibilities of true humanity in whatever clime they may be promulgated, even as they were in the Poets' Golden Age, when Humanity was a Universal Brotherhood." . . This from so profound an authority as was Bro. Carson.

 

The acceptance of the Egyptian Origin of Freemasonry makes it easier for us to understand its transmission to the Hebrews after the Captivity and its spread through subsequent civilizations. Like all philosophic peoples, the Egyptians believed in a life after death. To them Death meant the DAWNING OF A SOUL. The very network of their drama of Faith based on the coming, death and resurrection of Osiris, is strangely suggestive of a certain impressive lesson taught in one of our sublime degrees today.

 

It is well known that the Hebrews drew the inspiration for much of their philosophy from Egypt. In their own version of the old, old story, tradition has woven a beautiful legend of a certain widow's son, all centering about the greatest world event of King Solomon's time, the building of the temple on Mount Moriah.

 

Nor did the spread of Egyptian influence end with the Hebrews. We can find traces of it in the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece, and in those of Syria and Persia. All are possessors of a similar legend of a death and a resurrection. And about each one of the diverse Dramas of Faith is a Code of Morality, veiled in symbolism and protected by the secret signs and words of explanation possessed only by the initiate. Tolerant of the contemporary beliefs of the Profane, the primitive Masonic Mysteries under other names, drew into the Great Fellowship of Antiquity, many eager souls of many nations questing LIGHT.

 

We come now to the borderland between Ancient and Modern Masonry.

 

In its various ramifications, the Secret Doctrine was carried by the Tyrians from Mount Moriah where they had participated in the building of King Solomon's Temple, back to their homeland. They who had had a hand in the most stupendous architectural undertaking of ancient times, now formed themselves into a Society known as the Dionysian Architects.

 

Presently the sway of Rome began to extend itself over the ancient world. The Roman legions came to Tyre. With them they took back to the City of the Seven Hills, many of those skilled workmen who had developed Architecture to a high degree until then not dreamed of in Rome. In the home of the Caesars they imparted their wondrous skill to others and in time an Order akin to their own, The Collegia sprang into being. These too were fraternities of skilled artificers closely correlated, and protected by the same Secret System as their instructors. A somewhat significant characteristic of each of these Roman Collegia was the fact that each had its Master, its Wardens, a Secretary and a Treasurer, and a Quorum of three, as a requirement to meeting. The Square, the Plumb, the Level, the Cube, the Compasses and the Circle were symbolic emblems of the Roman Builders. Secrecy was a keynote of their organization.

 

In the days when Christianity was forbidden Heresy in still-pagan Rome, many of The Collegia became affiliated with the strange new Cult. For a time, the Emperor Diocletian purposely permitted himself to be blind to their departure from the ancient Faith to that of the Nazarene. When four of their most influential members refused to erect a statue to the God Aesculapius, Diocletian inaugurated a vigorous campaign for their undoing. Four of the Masters and one Apprentice suffered a horrible death. It is these Four who today are gratefully remembered by the Craftsmen of Europe, as our First Masonic Martyrs. After them is named the greatest Lodge of Research in the world, the Quatuor Coronati of London.

 

Such of the brethren of the Collegia as escaped fled to an impregnable refuge on Lake Como. Here they kept their secret organization alive perpetuating it as the Comacine Gild which flourished during the Dark Ages.

 

After Charlemagne, when the spread of Christianity led to an immense revival in building as a fine art, expressing itself in the erection of great Cathedrals, the Comacines followed in the wake of the Clergy, availing themselves of their ancient privileges as Free Men to go whither they might desire.

 

Out of their wanderings resulted the Cathedral Builders or Free Masons--the old Operatives--who traveled from city to city, from nation to nation, welcomed by all and recognized as the only Gilds quite competent to express the Spirit of the Times in speaking stone. Their organization was that of Lodges, with a Master, Fellowcrafts and Apprentices.

 

Apprentices were required to serve seven years before they might become Fellowcrafts. Then there was due examination and only such as were found duly and truly prepared, worthy and well-qualified were passed. Another characteristic was that each Mason had his own individual mark. Many of these you may see today in some of the great Cathedrals of Europe.

 

Perhaps I can best explain the great dependence of Freemasons upon Symbolic Expression by following the example of Ossian Lang and quoting from that masterly Chapter in Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame." It takes its title, "THIS WILL KILL THAT," from the gloom of one of its leading characters, the Archdeacon, as he contrasts a crudely printed book, one of the first of its kind, with the towers and gargoyle-decorated walls of the Church, supreme consummation of Masons' handiwork, to gloomily exclaim as he points to the printed page, "This will kill that." Says Victor Hugo:

 

"The human race has had two books, two registers, two testaments-- Architecture and Printing--the Bible of Stone, and the Bible of Paper. Up to the time of Gutenberg, Architecture was the chief and universal mode of writing. In those days if a man was born a poet, he turned architect. GENIUS, scattered among the masses,--kept down on all sides by feudality,--escaped by way of Architecture, and its Iliads took the form of Cathedrals. From the moment that printing was discovered, architecture gradually lost its virility, declined and became denuded. Being no longer looked upon as the one all-embracing sovereign and enslaving art, architecture lost its power of retaining others in its service. Carving became Sculpture,--Imagery, Painting,--the Canon, Music. It was like the dismemberment of an Empire on the death of its Alexander,--each province making itself a kingdom."

 

While Masonry expressed itself in the handiwork of the Compagnons as our craftsmen were called in France, of the Comacines in Italy, and the Vehmgerichte in Germany, Gothic Architecture springing up in England after the Norman Conquest in 1066, gave an equal degree of prosperity to the Freemasons there. And as early as 1600 it was quite common in England for Operative Lodges to admit Speculative members.

 

Although engaged in the service of the Church the Freemasons did not even in medieval days wholly approve of the Church. Upon some of the highest cornices of their handiwork they have indelibly cartooned this contempt. For example Findel says: "In the St. Sebaldus Church of Nurembourg, is a carving showing a nun in the embrace of a monk. In Strassburg an Ass is reading Mass at an altar. In Mecklenburg may be seen priests grinding dogmas out of a gristmill, and the Apostles in well-known Masonic attitudes. At Brandenburg you may see a fox in priestly robes preaching to a flock of geese."

 

With the Reformation came a distinct break between Church and Freemasonry.

 

A direct off-shoot of the traveling Freemasons were City Gilds which embodied much of the philosophy, and some of the brotherhood features, of our Order. Still they were quite distinct. They sometimes worked for the Freemasons. To enter the older and more artistic fraternity they must prove possessed of unusual skill. There can be no doubt of our direct descent from the medieval craftsmen of whose splendid symbolism I have tried to give a glimpse. Says Joseph Fort Newton in his classic of the Blue Lodge:

 

"Masonry was then at the zenith of its power: in its full splendor: the Lion of the tribe of Judah its symbol, strength, wisdom and beauty its ideals. Its motto "to be faithful to God and the Government." Its mission to lend itself to the public good and fraternal Charity. Keeper of an ancient and high tradition, it was a refuge for the oppressed, and a teacher of art and morality to mankind."

 

It was when the Freemasons took Liberty for a slogan that the Church looked askance. In the more Catholic countries Freemasonry was frowned upon.

 

Newton stresses the fact that membership in the old Operative Lodges implied "honesty, trustfulness, fidelity, chastity and temperance: Fealty to the brotherhood: Regard for Secrecy: Reverence in God."

 

The organization of the lodges was perfect. The Master's word was Law. They had a distinctive uniform--a rather picturesque crew with skin-tight leather breeches, high boots, dark tunics and peaked hats: for arms short swords and a heavy walking stick.

 

It is a disputed point as to how many degrees the Operative Masons had. This much we know. Their work was simpler, less formal than it was after becoming Speculative.

 

The gradual acceptance into the Order of men of prominence, influence, intellectuality and wealth, marks the evolution into Modern Masonry which took place in the year 1717, on St. John's day. In time the purely Speculative Masons outnumbered the older Operatives. At first the Operatives were differentiated by the title of Freemasons, the Speculatives by the name of Accepted Masons. Their union in 1717 explains our latterday nomenclature F. & A. M.

 

As the Age of Man's Self-Expression in Buildings of Stone Waned, and Freemasons no longer wrought in the language of Symbolic Carving, their successors clung to the old traditions and applied the centuries-old philosophy handed down from the days of Ancient Egypt by word of mouth, to the Building of Spiritual Temples, each man being his own Architect therefor.

 

It was the custom in those early days of Speculative Masonry for lodges to meet in taverns, and so the first four lodges assembling to form the First Grand Lodge of England, were those that met at "The Goose and Gridiron Ale House in St. Paul's Churchyard; The Crown Alehouse in Parker's Lane; The Apple Tree Tavern in Covent Garden and The Rummer and Grape Tavern."

 

In those days the tavern was a most important place in city life. Bishop Earle a writer of the 17th century says aptly: "Taverns are the busy man's recreation, the idle man's business, the melancholy man's sanctuary, and the stranger's welcome."

 

Some of the most eminent men of the day, nobles, gentlemen, editors, poets and philosophers foregathered at these taverns "the broachers of more news than hogsheads, more jests than news." As Macauley truly puts it, "The Coffee House was the Londoner's home and those who wished to find a gentleman, commonly asked not whether he lived in Fleet Street or Chancery Lane, but whether he frequented The Grecian or The Rainbow."

 

An eminently fitting place at that time for the meetings of a Masonic Lodge which in the early days numbered among the brethren many of the regular patrons of these old London Landmarks.

 

A very interesting description of London Taverns and Masonry is to be found in Vol. XIX Ars Quatuor Coronati Researches.

 

From now on, Speculative Masonry becomes the only Masonry we know-- an organization of worthy men, humanitarian in their sympathies, moral in their Code, practicing brotherly love, relief and truth, the three cardinal principles of Masonic Fellowship.

 

The example of Merrie England was followed by other lands. Grand Lodges had their being in Ireland in 1729, Scotland 1736, Berlin 1744, France 1736 and so on through the Universal Empire of Freemasonry.

 

In America the first Charter was issued to a Deputy Provincial Grand Master for New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1730. One of our early historic lodges met at the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston. It was here the brethren of St. Andrew's planned and carried out the Boston Tea Party.

 

When we cast aside the yoke of England, our Lodges forsook all obedience to England's Grand Lodge. Each State formed its own Masonic Sovereignty. With the exception of the Anti-Masonic agitation sweeping the country in the middle twenties, Masonry has made a steady advance.

 

Now has it occurred to you to wonder why our Brotherhood has withstood the storm and stress of all time, why it has drawn into its membership some of the best of every generation of the Sons of Men ? Does not Albert Pike explain it when he says:

 

"MASONRY ALONE preaches TOLERATION, the right of Man to abide by his own Faith, the right of all States to govern themselves. . . It rebukes alike the monarch who seeks to extend his dominions by Conquest, the Church that claims the right to suppress Heresy by fire and steel, and the Confederation of States that insist on maintaining a union by force and restoring Brotherhood by slaughter and subjugation."

 

Masonry has been variously defined. With Bro. Newton I rather prefer the German definition:

 

"MASONRY is the activity of closely united men, who, employing symbolical forms borrowed principally from the mason's trade, and from architecture, work for the welfare of mankind, striving morally to ennoble themselves, and others, and thereby to bring about a universal league of mankind, which they aspire to exhibit even now on a small scale."

 

Our Masonic Ideal is growing more and more humanitarian. We are face to face with the realization that in a measure we are directly responsible for Man's well or ill being.

 

More and more the deeper Masonic Thinkers are awakening to the fact that if Masonry would hold its own as a World-Force, it must exert its great influence and strength in the Arena of World Politics. Conditions have not yet come to a point in this country to compel Masons to have part actively in politics as such. And yet, all other things being equal, I would lay it down as an unwritten law implied by our obligations, when Brother Masons are Candidates for Office, Always give them the preference with your Ballot before other men. Only so may the Craft withstand the growing encroachments of Clericalism upon our daily life and ideals and most upon our American Political Life.

 

Under this phase our Latin American Brethren have blazed the trail. They through united action drove the hated Spanish Inquisition from the shores of the New World. In Mexico, Masons since 1833 have had their own particular platform, later formulated as the Laws of Reform into the Constitution of 1857, that same Constitution for which Madero gave his life, for which Carranza is fighting now. Social Service is another latter day call upon the craft. In some cities, Masonic Social Service has been developed to the highest degree of efficiency.

 

He who would best serve Masonry must be tireless in his efforts. Maintain close connection with your Lodge; Make the visiting stranger feel at home; Aid the Master in devising ways and means to vary the monotony of the ceaseless grinding of our Degree Mills, endless repetition, an unavoidable consequence nowadays because of the Wave of Masonic Enthusiasm overspreading the country. If you would better fit yourself for the Fellowship of Freemasonry as an Active Worker, inform yourself of its splendid traditions, its history, aims, and present day activities.

 

All this is possible through our readable Masonic Magazines, and periodicals for those of you pressed for time, and the weightier tomes of Masonic Lore for the Booklover. You will soon learn there is much that we must do. We Masons are just finding ourselves.

 

I might consume hours telling of the problems to he met. Perhaps most of you know better than I many of them now staring us in the face. Signs of Unrest are all about us. How to meet new issues, new conditions, Masons may find by keeping in close contact with their Lodges, their Chapters, their Masonic Clubs and subsidiary organizations where the best of the brethren meet to take council together, and plan for the future, while showing an unrelaxing interest in the present.

 

There is much more to Masonry than the continuous repetition of Ritualism. While that has its function, in reminding us of the Great Philosophy which has successfully weathered the storms of centuries, and contributed its quota to the making of Better Men, Squarer Men, Truer Men, yet it has failed utterly and its beauty and rhythmic charm has had no meaning to him who came merely to be raised from a dead level to a living perpendicular, if he passes out again to the Profane, to flaunt his emblem proudly, while altogether out of touch with the Brotherhood, with the lodge, with himself--a Button Mason indeed, who comes no more to lodge unless it be to dine.

 

There is no more splendid Fellowship than that of Masonry--the glorious interlacing Fellowship of Man with the Great Architect of the Universe, the invisible, incorporeal ONE GOD--and next the Fellowship of Man with Men, the mutual recognition of Brotherhood. Such a Fellowship expresses both human ideals and spiritual aspirations.

 

All through the long centuries Masonry has borne the Secret Doctrine of Fellowship teaching Man to live in harmony with Man.

 

I have spoken of the Great Quest all Masons have made, all Masons are making, that steady secret search which some have found, and some have not, the goal.

 

To each man is the Secret Doctrine unraveled insofar as he senses his proximity to his God, his brotherly responsibility for his kind.

 

WHEN IS A MAN A MASON ?

 

Find the answer in that Blue Lodge Classic, The Builders, by Bro. Joseph Fort Newton:

 

"When he can look out over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope and courage . . which is the root of every virtue. When he knows that down in his heart, every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive and to love his fellow-man. When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrow, yea, even in their sins, knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds. When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all, to keep friends with himself. . . When he can be happy and highminded amid the meaner drudgeries of life. . . When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid without response. . . When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope. . . When he has kept faith with himself with his fellowman, with his God: in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song, . . glad to live, but not afraid to die. . Such a man has found the ONLY REAL SECRET OF MASONRY, and THE ONE which it is trying to give all the world."

 

----o----

 

"SIT LUX"

 

"'Let there be light ! the great Creator spoke,

And at the summons slumbering nature woke,

While from the east the primal morning broke.

Back rolled the curtains of the night,

And earth rejoiced to see the light.

"'Let there be light ! through boundless realms of space

Beneath its touch arise new forms of grace;

Warmth, life, and beauty with its beams keep pace.

Where e'er it shines, with fresh delight

All things reflect the genial light.

"'Let there be light! the Master's lips proclaim,

And heart and hand unite in glad acclaim

To hail th' enrollment of a brother's name.

While he beholds with ravished sight

The glories of the perfect light.

"'Let there be light! and let the Bible's glow

Pervade our thoughts--through all our actions show--

Around our hearts its warming influence throw.

So shall our steps be led aright,

If guided by that holy light.

" 'Let there be light! though we see dimly here,

The shining gates are ever drawing near,

And send their glory down our pathway drear.

Beyond--shall heaven our eyes requite

With its divine, transcendant light.' "

 

--Thomas W. Davis, Mass.

 

----o----

 

THE BASIS OF BROTHERHOOD

 

It is not possible to create a true and genuine Brotherhood upon any theory of the baseness of human nature. There can be no real Brotherhood without mutual regard, good opinion and esteem, and mutual allowance for faults and failings. It is those only who learn habitually to think better of each other, and who look habitually for the good that is in each other, and who allow and overlook the evil, who can be Brethren one of the other, in any true sense.--Albert Pike.

 

----o----

 

DR. BUCK -- A MILITANT MASON

 

BY BRO. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, IOWA

 

TAPS are sounded all too often in our noble army of Builders, as one by one our veteran leaders and students pass into "the Eternal East." Few names are more widely known in our Fraternity, and none more highly honored, than that of Dr. J.D. Buck, whose death at the mellow age of seventy-eight takes from us a man distinguished alike in Medicine and in Masonry, as indefatigable in his studentship as he was tireless in his benevolence. He was a man of fine character, of forthright intellect, faithful and true in all the fellowships of life, respected as a citizen, beloved as a friend, honored as a Mason; and if we were asked to sum up his long life in a single phrase it would not be hard to find-- the search for truth and the service of mankind.

 

Self-made and self-trained, he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and, his mind, far-ranging by nature, journeyed into many a replete field of research in quest of truth -- passing through more than one phase betimes, as he advanced from system to system in his pilgrimage. Original without being creative, what it lacked in orderliness it made up in the vigor and daring with which it dealt with first principles and ultimate issues in science, philosophy, economics and religion--as witness the names and number of his published works. What his final conclusions were may be found, no doubt, in the book which he left unfinished, and we are sure it was written in that style virile and direct, touched at times with beauty and fire, which is familiar to all who have followed his pen.

 

Truly it was a great privilege to have carried an open mind and a kind heart over so long a span of years, watching the revolutionary changes of thought and life between 1838 and 1916.  Better still, our Brother filled his years to the brim with fruitful labors as a citizen, a scientist, a teacher, and a friend of his race, leaving the world better than he found it, helping forward every good cause. Here follows a brief sketch of his life wherein the leading facts are recited, which his Brethren will want to know:

 

Dr. J.D. Buck was born in Fredonia, N. Y., Nov. 20, 1838. His early education was obtained at Belvidere Academy, Belvidere, Ill., to which place his parents had removed. Later he attended the Janesville, Wis., Academy. The early death of his father made it necessary for him to quit school and assume the responsibility of the bread winner for the family, at an age when most boys are in high school. His work at bookkeeping was stopped at the age of seventeen, because of failing health; and fearing lung trouble he took to the pine woods of Michigan. He worked at lumbering and swung an ax during the summer. In the winter he taught school, and studied along those fundamental scientific lines which later served to distinguish his work as original in medicine as well as in the field of general literature.

 

At the age of 23 he enlisted, at the first call for Civil War' Volunteers, in Merrill's Horse, Company H., a regiment recruited at Battle Creek, Mich. Later his health failed, and for three months he lay in the hospital at Camp Benton, Mo., from which point he was honorably discharged and sent home. On return of his health, he again taught school in the winter, and worked as a master carpenter during the summer, in this way not only aiding the support of his mother and in the discharge of her responsibilities but he began the study of medicine with Dr. Smith Rogers at Battle Creek, Mich., later attending Hahnemann Medical College at Chicago, and graduated in 1864 from the Cleveland Medical College.

 

In October, 1865, he was married to Melissa Clough at his old home and place of birth, in Fredonia, N.Y. In 1866 Dr. Buck was made instructor in Physiology and Histology in his Alma Mater at Cleveland, receiving no remuneration at that time nor at any time during forty years of teaching medicine in Cleveland and later in Cincinnati, as this was before the days of endowed medical schools and state medical departments connected with the universities. Notwithstanding the call to duty in teaching medicine, the demands upon him ever increased, and the rare judgment he brought to bear upon his cases, slowly and surely, made of him the reliable physician and that rare jewel, a sympathetic consultant, to whom the profession long continued to turn in times of doubt and difficulty.

 

In August, 1870, Dr. Buck removed to Cincinnati. In 1872 he called the meeting of physicians which, at Dr. Pulte's office in Cincinnati, resulted in the founding of Pulte Medical College of which Dr. Buck was the Registrar and Professor of Physiology from its organization to 1880. He was then made Dean and Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine which position he held almost up to the time, a few years ago, when the Pulte Medical College was absorbed by the Ohio State University.

 

Some twenty years ago he took up the study of psychology as a basis for his work in medicine in the department of nervous and mental diseases, to which department he was made Professor in Pulte Medieal College. As a part of his study he made a thorough and exhaustive investigation of hypnotism and spiritualism, and from a purely scientific standpoint concluded that they were both destructive in their very nature and tendency, and therefore not to be made the basis of either the teaching or the cure of nervous or mental troubles.

 

Pursuing his search, but ever mindful of his duty to his profession, he went from the philosophy of DesCarte and of Schopenhauer to the Vedas of Old India, in the search for the kind of knowledge which would best aid man to help himself. That he found something others, equally earnest, have missed may be understood by reading his first book, "The Study of Man," or any one of the other volumes coming from his pen.

 

While for the past year he was not actively in the practice of medicine, he has been putting in some spare time on another book dealing with that ever present problem of economics, but the shadow of death has dimmed the light which would have been thrown upon the topic by his handling of the material.

 

"To be a good man and true" is the first great lesson a man should learn, and over 40 years of being just that in example, Dr. Buck won the right to lay down the precept. This he has done in the kindliest manner possible in the ethical teachings which abound in all his books, and his frequent essays on ethics, economics and other timely topics attest the vigor of his mind, the kindness of his heart and the bigness of his soul.

 

Dr. Buck was an Ex-President and has been a member of the Cincinnati Literary Club for 44 years, and was devoted to its work and its traditions. He was President of the Am. Section of the Theosophical Society during that period in his career when investigating the theosophical teachings. He was repeatedly honored by his local and State and National Medical Societies, and was an Ex-President of the Am. Institute of Medicine.

 

There is no need to add that Dr. Buck was an active and influential member of every Rite of our historic Order, holding the highest rank both in the esteem of his Brethren and in the gift of the fraternity --including the honorary Thirty-Third Degree of the Scottish Rite in its Northern Jurisdiction. Indeed, he was a recognized leader of a definite school of Masonic thought and propaganda; and while we have never been able to agree with all the conclusions of the school which he represented, we are none the less appreciative of its services to the Craft--knowing that Truth is larger than the formula of any one school or of all schools put together. Surely, by this time we ought to be able to hold differing views without marring our unity of spirit, never forgetting that without charity no truth is of any real worth.

 

Dr. Buck was a militant Mason. There are certain fundamental, far-shining principles which he held it to be "The Genius of Freemasonry" to defend and its mission to expound, exemplify and make prevail--such principles as lighted the way of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower who, defiant alike of arbitrary civil power and insolent ecclesiastical authority, set sail on a wintry sea to found "a church without a bishop and a state without a king." Those principles, as he knew, are one with the creative spirit and prophecy of our Republic, and it was therefore that his Masonry, on one side, was a spiritual patriotism in the exposition of which he was truly and impressively eloquent. In behalf of free thought, free conscience, and the sovereign right of man to worship in the way his heart loves best, he was a crusader--as every Mason must be, albeit some of us may use a harp instead of a hammer for a weapon.

 

By the same token, he was sleeplessly alert lest these principles, so vital to human welfare, be compromised or undermined by subtle, sinister influences always seeking their overthrow. Like many others, he felt the danger in our midst of a venerable Hierarchy alien to the genius of the republic and foreign to its ideal, and tirelessly active with a cunning learned through long ages, taking advantage of the liberty of our land to undo, slowly and imperceptibly, its institutions. Such a disaster is possible, but hardly probable; and if others do not share his fear in the same degree, it nevertheless behooves us to be awake, knowing that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and that government without tyranny--like religion without superstition--is a hard-won, precious inheritance of our humanity. Not all may be able to adopt the method of Dr. Buck, but he is a poor patriot, and a poorer Mason, who does not honor his motive, his courage, and his earnestness.

 

Not a few felt that Dr. Buck was in some degree antagonistic to the Christian religion. Not so. He was profoundly religious, but his insight went deeper than dogmas, down to the primitive fires of faith that are forever burning, and to the permanent fountains of hope that forever flow. He knew that if all temples were swept away, all creeds lost, and all rites forgotten, the heroic, creative soul of man would rise radiant and new-born, uplifting new temples and dictating new sacred books. He saw that if the Christian records were destroyed, the spirit of Christ and his basic truths would abide, because they are a part of the order of the world. As we may read, in the introduction to his "Mystic Masonry," perhaps his most widely read book:

 

"What, then, shall we conclude regarding the real genius of Christianity? Is it all a fable, put forth and kept alive by designing men, to support their pretensions to authority? Are historical facts and personal biography alone entitled to credit? While everlasting principles, Divine 'Beneficence, and the laying down of one's life for another are of no account? Is that which has inspired the hopes and brightened the lives of the downtrodden and despairing for ages a mere fancy, a designing lie? Tear every shred of history from the life of Christ today, and prove beyond all controversy that he never existed, and Humanity from its heart-of-hearts, would create him again tomorrow and justify the creation by every intuition of the human soul and by every need of the daily life of man. The historical contention might be given up, ignored, and the whole character genius, and mission of Jesus, the Christ, be none the less real beneficent, and eternal, with all of its human and dramatic episodes. Explain it as you will, it can never be explained away the character remains; and whether Historical or Ideal, it is real and eternal."

 

This, greatly said, shows us that the real religion of the man rested upon that profound faith which underlies all creeds, and that inextinguishable hope which overarches all sects. It is the universal religion. Its ideal is character; its revelation, wisdom; its heaven, hope; its worship, love. Because Freemasonry is founded upon this universal faith, because it holds aloft the torch-light of Tolerance, Equity and Fraternity, treating all religions with respect, while recognizing certain basic truths common to all--the existence of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and the immortality of the Soul--Dr. Buck loved it, served it faithfully and fruitfully, and found his home in its temple. With details of his service to Masonry, his studies in its symbolism and philosophy, and his activity in its behalf, we hope to deal more at length at another time, wishing now only to lay a tribute on his new-made grave.

 

Often we have thought that the best thing he ever wrote was his little book entitled "The Lost Word Found," not only for its style, but for the glimpse which it gives of the innermost nature of the man and his quest of truth and the ideal. Whether or not he found the Lost Word--whether any one can find it upon this earth--we need not stop to debate; but we may be sure that our Brother has found it in the Great White Lodge whither he has gone. A noble and true man, kindly and brotherly, he will be missed in the gracious circle which he adorned, and his name will be spoken with reverence and gratitude wherever Masons meet upon the Level and part upon the Square.

 

----o----

 

LIFE

 

Life ! I know not what thou art,

But know that thou and I must part;

And when, or how, or where we met

I own to me's a secret yet.

Life! we've been long together

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;

'Tis hard to part when friends are dear--

Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear;

Choose thine own time;

--Then steal away, give little warning,

Say not Good Night,--but in some brighter clime

Bid me Good Morning.

--A. L. Barbauld.

 

----o----

 

DE QUINCEY ON MASONRY

 

BY BRO. ALFRED GIFFORD, AUSTRALIA

 

THOMAS DE QUINCEY'S ideas about Freemasonry may be found in his study of Secret Societies in volume seven of Masson's edition of his works, and in volume thirteen, where we find the "Historico-critical Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians Freemasons." At the outset, let it be said that we must not always take our author seriously. He loves a whimsy and dearly loves a joke. The story (vii. 199) of the Mason who got drunk, and then revealed the secrets to his inquisitive wife, finds its point in the fact that the lady thought he was joking when he told the truth, and pestered him until he conceived the idea of telling fairy tales that she accepted for fact. This tale is on a par with his tarrididdle about the candidate who appears trembling before "the Grand Master" (sic) and finds that part one of the Degree is "forking out" all his coin, and part two is chiefly "brandy" (200-201) .

 

FREEMASONRY AS A HOAX

 

The quite serious thing in his study is his belief that the origin of Freemasonry is found in a hoax, and a German one at that. This idea that a vast system could have such a ridiculous beginning is not so impossible as may appear at first sight. The whole great structure of Mormonism is said to be built on a fable invented by an idle clergyman to while away time. De Quincey says of Freemasonry (xiii., 386): "To a hoax played off by a young man of extraordinary talents in the beginning of the seventeenth century (i.e., about 1610-14), but for a more elevated purpose than most hoaxes involve, the reader will find that the whole mysteries of Freemasonry, as now existing over the civilized world, after a lapse of more than two centuries, are here distinctly traced."

 

This theory is not De Quincey's own; it is but a DeQuincified rendering of the theory of a German professor of logic and philosophy, named J.G. Buhle, who in 1803 read a Latin dissertation on the subject before the Philosophical Society at Gottingen. De Quincey has no compliment for this "fatiguing person," nor for his confused and illogical paper, with its spluttering unintelligibility. He feels that he has so washed the dull professor's face and whitewashed him "that nothing but a life of gratitude on his part and free admission to his logic lectures forever" will repay his translator. Nevertheless, he adopts the heavily-learned theory.

 

ROSICRUCIANISM AND FREEMASONRY

 

De Quincey believes that Freemasonry arose out of Rosicrucianism, the fabled brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. He finds, as is commonly accepted in non-Masonic circles, that the story of Christian Rosycross is a fable invented by one John Valentine Andreas, of Wurtemberg, an able satirist and poet. In three works, "The Universal Reformation of the Whole Wide World," "The Fraternity of the Order of the Rosy Cross," and "The Confession of the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross," Andreas' travels in the East, his discovery of a secret society, and the House of the Holy Ghost, with its tomb of Rosycross, are equally fictitious. But they were taken as facts. Men sought them and not finding them, invented an Order on the lines of these books, is the theory. One may wonder how such a mystic order appealed to men, until the anti-critical temper of the last decade of the sixteenth century is realized. That was the heyday of Cabbalism, Theosophy, and Alchemy. How long afterward the temper remained is well illustrated in Thomas Carlyle's study of the King of Quacks --Cogliostro. The spirit of credulity was so widespread that only the marvelous thing was attractive. What Andreas wanted was to establish a Cult of Universal Brotherhood, but he had to bait his hook with esoteric doctrines, imaginary cults, and the theory of the transmutation of lead into gold. Despising these things, he used them to get his Cult established, and was horrified to find that men accepted the myths and let the principles go.

 

CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ

 

His legendary founder of the Order was a certain Christian, Rosycross, and his followers were termed Knights of the Rosy Cross or Brothers or Philosophers of it; and their symbol was a St. Andrew's cross with four roses, one between each arm of the cross. This, it is said, was the coat of arms of Andrea's own family. Their word was Rosy Cross. The Order was of value, whatever its origin, for its members were bound to cure the sick without fee or reward. They were to be noted not for their dress, but for their tolerance and charity. Accepting the foregoing as history, can this cult be connected with Freemasonry? It is just at this crucial point that De Quincey fails. He says that Robert Fludd, who in 1629 wrote, or is said to have written, a treatise entitled "Summum Bonum," was the connecting link. We know that Robert Fludd, M. D., did in 1617 write an "Apology for the Reality of the Society of the Rosy Cross." But De Quincey says that Fludd formally withdrew the name Rosicrucian, in attempting to popularize the Society in England, and re-named it a Society of Masons in 1633.

 

PROOF THAT IS NOT PROOF

 

All the proof of this theory that he offers is found in two or three passages he quotes from Fludd's work. Under pressure of argument he does wish that the name were buried, and proposes the name Wise Men for the members of this Society. De Quincey, without a shred of evidence, supposes the name "Mason" to have been suggested by the "House of the Holy Ghost" in Andrea's "Fama Fraternitatis." Because Fludd speaks of men becoming living stones by philosophy, De Quincey says that "living stone" means "Mason." This is not so much discovery as invention on our author's part. Naively enough, he mentions that Fludd and others call the Apostles, who were supposed to be the original Rosy Cross brothers, "Husbandmen," as well as Architects, and says, "had the former type been adopted we should have had the Free Husbandmen instead of Freemason." Since De Quincey's day much new material relating to Masonic origins has come to light. His other discussions on the origin of the Order are seen to be beside the mark since their connection with the old Craft or Operative Masons Lodges has been established.

 

THE VALUE UNCHANGED

 

Believing all the foregoing, De Quincey is yet assured of the essential value of Freemasonry. He cannot speak too highly of its assertion of the equality of personal rights and this in days when they were universally challenged, while he misunderstands his mysteries and cannot see the value of its signs, he is assured that its effect is wholly beneficent. "It cannot be denied," he says, "by those who are least favourably disposed to the Order of Freemasonry that many States of Europe, where Lodges have formerly existed or do still exist, are indebted to them for the original establishment of many salutory institutions having for their object the mitigation of human suffering."

 

In these days when we are in danger of judging things rather by their origin than by their qualities, it is well to remember with De Quincey that whatever was the origin of Freemasonry, it is of the same value. As a Universal Brotherhood with the ideals of Relief and Truth, it is of eternal value, whether it originated in a German hoax, the Garden of Eden, or in the hearts of men who loved their fellows and adopted an ancient society as a vehicle for their faith and words. In De Quincey's studies there is much to interest and amuse, no little by way of enlightening suggestion; but most will be gained by those who grasp his fundamental idea, that it is not a question of what Freemasonry was, but of what it is.

 

----o----

 

THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE

 

An Ode to an Ode

 

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,--

What words of precious meaning those words Masonic are,"

And they still are ringing, ringing as the Craft today doth know

As they did when Morris sang them more than fifty years ago.

 

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,"

Did the Bard who caught the meaning and who flung it out so fair,

Did the vision of the REAL that the years so soon should see Give

the Poet the perspective of what IS and is to be ?

 

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,"

In its true symbolic meaning was unfolded with such care,

That it carried with its rhythm and its setting into song

The true spirit that will ever to the Mystic Art belong.

 

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square "

With the Plumb in the triangle 'mong the symbols gleaming there,

All their meanings were embellished for the Craft for coming time

Through the Art and through the Poet of the Art that is sublime.

 

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square"

Carries with it the momentum that the Bard transcribed so fair,

Carries with it, upright ever by the true, unerring Plumb

All that lies in mortal vision of the Masonry to come.

 

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square"

In its meaning has been finding hearts responsive everywhere;

It has met a nature longing in the hungry human heart

Undiscovered till 'twas written into real Masonic Art.

 

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,"

On the Level as it finds us; on the Square as we repair

To our stations in the Temple, to our stations in the world

Upright in the light of heaven flashing in the gems impearled.

 

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square"

Is the answer of the ages to its longing and its prayer.

The solution of the problem of the world's unrest today

Must be solved by this same token for there is no other way.

 

Let us then be forging, forging stronger still the Mystic chain,

For the glory of the meeting and the work that doth remain.

In the spirit of the Poet let us do our work with care

"As we meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square."

 

--L. B. Mitchell.

 

----o----

 

THE REAL RICH MAN

 

He is the rich man who can avail himself of all men's faculties. He is the richest man who knows how to draw a benefit from the labors of the greatest number of men, of men in distant lands and in past times.-- Emerson.

 

----o----

 

JURISPRUDENCE STUDIES

 

BY BRO. W. E. ATCHISON. ASS'T SEC'Y

 

II. ADVANCEMENT

 

AT the close of his Entered Apprentice Degree, our newly admitted Brother has received a Charge having to do with his conduct within and without the Lodge. He has discovered that it is necessary for him to commit a certain amount of catechism, and is informed that an examination of his proficiency in this respect, as well as certain other formalities, must be completed before he can advance to the Second Degree.

 

Now, what is the law governing these various formalities ? How and when shall the examination be conducted ? How long a time must elapse between the conferring of degrees? What is the effect of a physical disability incurred by the Brother after he has been initiated into the Entered Apprentice Degree? If his application for advancement is rejected, how often may it be renewed? What is the effect of an objection to advancement, by some other Brother? How must an objection be made - privately, to the Master, or in writing, for consideration by the Lodge ?

 

These are the questions which have been kept uppermost in mind while making the following study. Not all of the questions are answered in the table, frequently because the law is not defined in the Code of the particular State. We repeat that this table does not purport to be a complete codification of the laws of the various Jurisdictions, but the manner in which the above questions are answered, in this particular, reveals a tremendous range of variation.

 

Mackey states the general rule in these terms: "It is an almost universal rule of the modern Constitutions of Masonry that an examination upon the subjects which had been taught in a preceding degree shall be required of every brother who is desirous of receiving a higher degree; and it is directed that this examination shall take place in an Open Lodge of the degree upon which the examination is made."

 

"Suitable proficiency" is seldom defined. The Book of Constitutions for Colorado, however, gives us the rule (in this particular Jurisdiction advancement being dependent upon a formal election by the brethren) that "no candidate shall be advanced to the second or third degree until he shall have been duly elected to receive such degree, after having passed a satisfactory examination, in open Lodge, at a stated communication, upon his proficiency in the next preceding degree," and then follows with this definition: "Suitable proficiency means that the brother must be able to answer satisfactorily the questions in the lecture of the degree, and repeat the obligation."

 

As an example of a Jurisdiction which permits the examination of a candidate to be conducted outside of the Lodge, by a committee, instead of before the whole Lodge, the following Resolution by the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia is of interest: "Resolved, that no Lodge under the jurisdiction of this Grand Lodge, except by dispensation from the Grand Master, shall advance a brother until he has been examined in open Lodge by the Master or outside of the Lodge by a competent committee, and found to have made such proficiency in the preceding degree as will, in the opinion of the Master of the Lodge, enable him to pass such an examination as to be able to work his way into a Lodge of the degree in which he has been examined. (Reprint G. L. P., 1858.)"

 

Questions of the definition of the time element have arisen. The following quotation from the Ahiman Rezon of the Grand Jurisdiction of Pennsylvania shows hover it has been determined there: "A Masonic month is from one stated meeting to a stated meeting on the corresponding day in the next ensuing month, and may consist of from twenty-eight to thirty-five days. A candidate receiving a degree at a special meeting on a day after a stated meeting, cannot be advanced before the corresponding day after the next stated meeting. A candidate receiving a degree on the first Monday, or any other day of the month, cannot be advanced (except by virtue of a dispensation) until the corresponding day of the following month, and the day of the stated meeting of the ensuing month has intervened."