The Builder Magazine

June 1918 - Volume IV - Number 6

 

THE DIVINE GEOMETRY

BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

Text: Proverbs 8:27, "he set a compass upon the face of the deep."

AFTER Euclid had shown Ptolemy his treatise on geometry the king inquired, somewhat wistfully, "Cannot the problems be made easier?" to which the geometer replied, "There is no royal road to geometry." True enough, but geometry itself is a royal road, and one that will lead us to Divine things if we will but follow it, as I now ask you to do.

 

It is difficult, if not impossible, for us to retrace our steps into the ancient day when men had not yet learned the orderliness of nature. Before the calendar was discovered or clocks invented the navigator steered his ship by the landmarks on the coast, and the farmer planted his crops by chance, for it was not known that the seasons repeat their regular ritual or that the heavens are ruled by order. "They saw things come and saw them go, but whence or whither they could not know." Everything changed or passed away and all things seemed to be in an eternal flux. In the midst of that everlasting stream of circumstance, that wildering maze of vicissitude, the early people felt helpless, if not mocked, for it always seemed that Nature was making sport of them. Even Renan, so far removed from them in time, recognized the pathos of this, for he said that "Nothing is so painful as the universal flow of things," while Tennyson set the mood to his music of accustomed sweetness:

 

The hills are shadows, and they flow

From form to form, and nothing stands;

They melt like mist, the solid lands,

Like clouds they shape themselves, and go.

 

If the mutability of all things was so oppressive to the recent thinkers, having at their hand science's unveiling of the lucid order of the universe, how much more painful must it have seemed to human minds before science came! "We are strangers before thee," they cried in their prayers, "and sojourners, as all our fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding."

 

Little wonder that the discovery of the North Star, one fixed body among all the others that moved perpetually, was an event of such importance that the simple folk worshipped it as a god and hung its symbol above the altars of their temples ! Little wonder that Heraclitus, the first thinker to state the fact with the thoroughness and system of philosophy, was called "The Weeping Philosopher !" Where there is no stability the mind hangs in the air and grows weary like a land bird at sea that finds no solid ground for its feet.

 

It was for this reason that the discovery of numbers, and especially of geometry, which is the application of numbers to form, was hailed as a visitation from on high. This discovery was not made in a day but came so gradually that men could hardly discern the lifting of the changing mists. And it was after this wise it came, if we have rightly pieced together the fragments of the story. The Egyptians lived along the Nile, their fields lying adjacent to its current in order to profit from the rich deposits of its overflow. But this very flood itself, source as it was of all fertility, gave rise to great difficulties, for the rising waters obliterated all landmarks each season and thus caused confusion among the owners of the fields. It was in their efforts to discover some method of fixing their boundaries that the Egyptians learned how to trace out the regular motions of the heavens, the periodicity of the seasons, and the properties of numbers. How much the race is indebted to those sun-browned workers in the fluviatile valley nobody can compute !

 

Inasmuch as numbers had won them order from chaos of their first impressions these early peoples exalted mathematics to the level of divinity, seeing in it, and rightly we may believe, a revelation, an uncovering, of the Creative Mind. Triangles and squares were engraved on their monuments and hung in their temples. The numbers three, five and seven were held especially sacred for in them were many qualities not possessed by other numerals. The cult of numbers arose at last and men formed secret societies for studying and teaching the properties of geometry.

 

It was among these secret societies that there came at a later day Pythagoras, one of the noblest of all thinkers, and the first to raise mathematics to the level of an exact science. From his hidden schools in Greece he taught his initiates the mystery of arithmetic, calling God "the Great Geometrician" and telling his pupils that "All things are in numbers; crystals are solid geometry."

 

Plato, also, the most opulent thinker of antiquity, found in geometry a revelation of the Infinite Mind, looking upon it as the very essence of religion, the knowledge of God. "What does Deity do all the while?" one of his pupils asked him. "God is always geometrizing," was the reply. "Geometry must ever tend to draw the soul towards truth." Over the portal of his school he inscribed the legend: "Let no one who is ignorant of geometry enter my doors."

 

What science is to all modern thinking the one science of mathematics, "the sacred mathematics," was to early thinking; and those first teachers felt it a sacred duty to transmit so valuable a knowledge to their descendants. Therefore was it that, three hundred years before Christ, Euclid wrote the treatise in which he embodied all that was known of the science at that time. Indeed, the work of Euclid is still the standard treatise on the subject, being used as the basis of every textbook in our schools. Better methods for proving the problems have been worked out, and new propositions have been discovered, but the fundamentals stand like adamant, and always will stand.

 

After the breakup of the ancient world and the general inundation of culture under the Barbarian Invasion, geometry was lost. For hundreds of years the people of Europe wandered among the mazes of chance and caprice, as primitive men had done before them. Then at last along came Simon Grynaeus, a contemporary of Luther, who rediscovered Euclid and gave his science to the new peoples. How much this influenced the Reformation no historian has yet undertaken to estimate but it is certain that it had far reaching consequences and paved the way for modern science, which is itself a superstructure built on mathematics.

 

If the earlier peoples were overjoyed to make their few discoveries of the hidden but fixed order of Nature how delighted they would now be to learn that all the endeavors of science have only served to make more clear and more universal the reign of number and form throughout the universe. For through a prophetic inspiration of the geometers we have had uncurtained to us a spectacle of mathematical order throughout the universe which is as revealing as it is beautiful.

 

Matter itself, immobile as it may appear to the eye, is in reality a composite of atoms that move through the mazes of an everlasting dance, every evolution of which seems timed to some exact pattern. Even the chemical elements, which so long baffled the system makers, were proved by Newlands to lie in a regular order of periodicity strangely grouped around the number seven. Order is the first law of the elements. Crystallization is a solid geometry. If one observes ice crystals forming across a window pane he will see them grouping themselves together into symmetrical forms, intricate, involved, beautiful, as if some unseen artist were at work depicting a scene from an arctic fairyland.

 

Even when life gathers matter up about itself into its organisms the same rhythm is preserved. Vitality is free and flowing, often apparently erratic, and moving by the law of its own, yet it will always be found at last to keep step with the geometrical motions of the world. If one would expect the eternal harmony absent from any field surely it would be in that little known realm which the insects inhabit; yet John Henri Fabre was so impressed by the reign of numbers among these insignificant creatures that he was moved to write this magnificent paragraph:

 

"He will admire as much as we do geometry the eternal balancer of space. There is a severe beauty, belonging to the domain of reason, the same in every world, the same under every sun, whether the suns be single or many, white or red, blue or yellow. This universal beauty is order. Everything is done by weight and measure, a great statement whose truth breaks upon us all the more vividly as we probe more deeply into the mystery of things. Is this order, upon which the equilibrium of the universe is based, the predestined result of a blind mechanism? Does it enter into the plans of an eternal Geometer, as Plato had it? Is it the ideal of a supreme lover of beauty, which would explain everything? Why all this regularity in the curve of the petals of a flower, why all this elegance in the chasings on a beetle's wing-cases? Is that infinite grace, even in the tiniest details compatible with the brutality of uncontrolled forces? One might as well attribute the artist's exquisite medallion to the steamhammer which makes the slag sweat in the melting !"

 

The "regularity in the curve of the petals of the flower" has attracted the attention of others as well as Fabre. Maeterlinck, who learned so much from the veteran French naturalist, made a prolonged study of the Mind that is at work in plants with what result anyone can read in a book of lovely pages, "The Intelligence of the Flowers." Why are leaves set around the stem in such mathematical regularity ? Why do flowers seem to love numbers, as the trilium is partial to three, and the rose to five ? Surely it must be because there is that in them which responds to the universal order. Like Plato's deity they are always geometrizing.

 

An animal is a plant that has taken to moving about, and just because it is so often apparently ungoverned in its movements, we lose sight of the regular laws which rule among animals as much as among plants and minerals. But those laws are there as many a scientist has proved. In the Mid-nineteenth Century days, before the evolution theory was so well understood, men fell to theorizing as if the universe had happened into existence through chance. Life itself was defined as the result of a "fortuitous concourse of atoms." The absurdity of this "thinking"--it was really an abdication of thought--was never more clearly revealed than by the Duke of Argyll, whose work on "The Reign of Law" is almost classical. The learned Duke took the wing of a common bird and showed that the mechanism of flight is so unimaginably complicated, so perfect, and solves so many mathematical problems, many of them beyond the ken of a Lord Kelvin, that it tasks our credulity too much to be asked to believe that this exquisite machinery could possibly have come through "chance." In a more recent time, Sir Oliver Lodge has made the same use of the human eye, an organ so intricate and nice in its adjustments and functions, that a Swiss watch is simple by comparison.

 

What is true of the things we find on the earth holds good in equal measure of the great bodies that sail round us through the sky. The astronomer's charts are strangely like a page of Euclid. He has found that order is the first law of the heavens as it is of Heaven. The wildest comet, careening irresponsibly through space, moves in an orbit as rigidly fixed as the passing of the hands about the clock. Surely it must be that an Infinite Mind has set His compasses upon the face of the deeps of space, else how explain the periodicity, the regularity, of the sidereal universe, the movement of any one body of which may be predicted for thousands of years in advance!

 

This law of geometric harmony holds as true among the arts of man as in those realms which are the art of God. Every building is geometric demonstration. As we may read in the pages of a learned student of this: "The language (geometry) spoke in the sloping wall and massive pillar and flat roof of Egypt, or in the mighty piles of Chaldea, or in the Corinthian grace, or in Roman boldness; the heart was that of the geometrician who spoke as he dreamed, in anger, in epic, in poetry of stone and graceful curve--who planned by the plumb and the square, by the secret of the arch and the balance of accurate measure."

 

Even painting, when lightly understood, conforms to the ancient patterns, being based on the principle described by one of its most magisterial exponents: "All nature is modelled either like a cone, a sphere or a cylinder. Painting is a colored mathematics of things." As for music, that is geometry that has taken to wings, its freedom evermore being inbound in law. It is the child of rhythm which is the purest manifestation of the law of numbers. From of old it has been dreamed that the morning stars sang together, that the rafters and beams of creation were laid deep in melody, that the spheres make music as they move, that all "deep things are song." Of this truth every musician is the priest as every poet is its apostle. As Dryden sings:

 

"From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony 

This universal frame began;

When Nature underneath a heap 

Of jarring atoms lay And could not heave her head,

The tuneful voice was heard from high, 

Arise, ye more than dead!

Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry

In order to their stations leap, 

And music's power obey.

From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony 

This universal frame began: 

From harmony to harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,

The diapason closing full in Man."

 

Yes, in Man, truly, for order holds in the soul as much as in the heavens where the astronomer thinks God's thoughts after Him. Character is no chance product but builds according to laws as immutable and as ascertainable as any to be found in the builder's art. For the freedom of the soul is not capriciousness, least of all lawlessness, but voluntary co-operation with the fixed rules of the spirit. He who will build according to that principle will erect a character as stable as that house which the wise architect builded on the rock. Glorious will be the day when men learn the geometry of the heart and square their actions to the fixed rules of moral life.

 

The significance of this geometry of the cosmos for our faith has been know ever since men discovered it. At bottom there ale but two philosophies: that which holds that this universe is a heap of dirt governed by chance; and that which finds in it a reasoned reign of order resting in an Infinite Mind. As between dirt and deity a man may make his choice, but surely the thinker who sees everywhere the beautiful sweep of order will not for a moment believe that this mighty music could have come to us out of the falling atoms of chance. One might as well throw a handful of type into the air and expect them to write a poem in their fall !

 

Twenty-five centuries ago Socrates labored to show the little atheist, Aristodemus, that as a statue by Polytectetus could not possibly have emerged from the quarries through mere chance, so is it impossible to believe that the cosmos, infinitely greater in complexity as well as in beauty, could ever have come into existence through mere fortuitousness. In the same wise, Franklin, who may typify the modern thinker, exposed the fallacy of an atheist astronomer friend of his. The astronomer was showing him an orrery, which is a working model of the solar system, when Franklin said, "It is strange that such a thing could build itself by chance." "Chance !" exclaimed the astronomer, "I made that myself. How could so complicated a device have come by chance?" "Then," said the philosopher, turning upon him, "how can you believe that the solar system itself, of which this is a mere model, could have come by chance ?"

 

Surely, when we have our minds with us, it must be apparent that the everywhere present order of things is the revelation of a Divine Orderer! Where there is so much intelligence there must be an Intelligence! Where there is so much harmony there must stand near a great Musician! The poetry of earth is the song of an Infinite Poet! The beauty of all creation is the outshining, the splendor of an Eternal Artist !

 

Long ago a psalmist cried, "Whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" We cannot flee from His presence. While we dig in the dirt He is there, present in the dance of the atoms that compose the soil: while we walk through the snow He draws His pictures about us in the traceries of the crystals: the bird that wings above us is His angel, making hieroglyphics in the air: the very tides move along the circle which His compasses draw upon the deep. Everywhere He is. We live imbedded in His mind. To escape from Him is as impossible as to climb out of the atmosphere !

 

Where there is so much order all must be ordered. King Alphonso of Castile, looking out over the general muddle of affairs into which Spain had fallen, doubted that a Mind ruled all. "If God had called me to His councils," he sighed, "things would have been in better order." In these days when it seems that the bottom has gone out of the world and chaos has come again, we may fall into the mood of the old king. But let us despair not. The plain is there; we have lost the perspective, or the key. It is said that the frescoes on the ceiling of St. Peter's look like an inartistic jumble to the man who climbs close to them; but from a station three hundred feet below they spring up into a majestic beauty. They are wrought on too large a plan for a close view. We humans, with our near-sightedness, our myopic eyes, are standing too close to the program of creation; it may appear all jumble to us now. Let us wait with patience. Some morning, soon or late, will find us on a mountain of vision where we can see things as they are and watch the Divine Geometer draw His circles across the deep.

 

----o----

 

WHERE THE RAINBOW NEVER FADES

 

It can not be that the earth is man's only abiding-place. It can not be that our life is a mere bubble cast up by eternity to float a moment on its waves and then sink into nothingness. Else why is it that the glorious aspirations which leap like angels from the temple of our hearts are forever wandering unsatisfied ?

 

Why is it that all the stars that hold their festival around the midnight throne are set above the grasp of our limited faculties, forever mocking us with their unapproachable glory ?

 

And, finally, why is it that bright forms of human beauty presented to our view are taken from us, leaving the thousand streams of our affections to flow back in Alpine torrents upon our hearts?

 

There is a realm where the rainbow never fades; where the stars will be spread out before us like islands that slumber in the ocean; and where the beautiful beings which now pass before us like shadows will stay in our presence forever. --George D. Prentice.

 

----o----

 

BOYHOOD HOME OF ALBERT PIKE

BY BRO. HAROLD L. BAILEY. VERMONT

 

Having noticed in a back issue of THE BUILDER a statement to the effect that you would like material relating to Albert Pike, I am sending you a photograph of the house in which he spent his boyhood. I made this photograph several years ago to illustrate a short write-up of the subject for the Boston Globe.

 

A painted sign with its characters nearly effaced by time proclaims a deserted, weatherbeaten house in the parish of Byfield, Massachusetts, as the "Home of Gen. Albert Pike." Although not his birthplace it stands for all those things generally connected with a man's first days and years in the world.

 

General Pike was born in Boston, Dec. 29, 1809, but was brought to this house when but a few days old. His boyhood days were spent in Byfield, and a letter from which Mr. John Ewell quotes in his "Story of Byfield," (George E. Littlefield, Boston, 1904, publisher) expresses General Pike's affection for his boyhood home. He said:

 

"Many, many long years ago I gathered walnuts and shot squirrels on Long Hill. It saddens me to look back along the procession of departed years, and to remember how long the Future then seemed and how short the Past is. I wish I could be a boy for one single day again and ramble over Long Hill in the frosty air of October, and at night sleep the sound sleep of youth. . ."

 

Byfield is the name of an old-time church parish, the territory of which embraced several towns. General Pike's home was in a section of the parish now included in the town of Georgetown, Essex County, about thirty miles north of Boston.

 

----o----

 

It is best to take life gladly as we strive,

And best to face toil bravely day by day.

We are companioned in this busy hive

With other strugglers in this clay.

No fate selects us solely for its mark,

And no misfortune that can e'er befall

But what find other strugglers in the dark,

For care is common unto one and all.

 

----o----

 

LAFAYETTE'S FRATERNAL CONNECTIONS

 

BY BRO. JULIUS F. SACHSE, GRAND LIBRARIAN, PENNSYLVANIA

 

Since the entry of America into the World War there have come to us many requests for information concerning that notable French ally of America during the War of the American Revolution, Brother General Lafayette. We were unable to learn but little concerning the Masonic connections of Brother Lafayette until we discovered, in the report of the Committee on Library of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for 1916, notice of the proposed publication in pamphlet form of the following article by Brother Sachse. By permission of this Committee we are enabled to herewith present to our readers the result of Brother Sachse's researches.

 

It is very unfortunate that the name of Brother Lafayette's, Mother Lodge is not known. Possibly some of our members may be able to further enlighten us on this subject.

 

NO original documentary evidence is known to be in existence which records the initiation of General Lafayette in the Masonic Fraternity, nor in what Lodge or when this took place. It has always been a tradition in Masonic circles that General Lafayette was made a Mason in one of the Military Lodges at Morristown, New Jersey, where a Festal Lodge was held December 27, 1779, for which occasion the jewels and furniture and clothing of St. John's Lodge, No. 1, of Newark, New Jersey, was borrowed. The meeting proved a great success, sixty eight brethren being present, one of whom was General Washington.

 

There is another tradition that General Lafayette was made a Mason in a Military Lodge, which met at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78, hut no official records of such action have thus far been discovered.

 

It was this uncertainty as to the Masonic standing of General Lafayette, which led to the resolution of September 6, 1824, in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and the appointment of a Committee to satisfy themselves that General Lafayette was an Ancient York Mason. That the Committee was satisfied with their investigation is  evinced by their report and the subsequent action of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, which resulted in enrolling Brother General Lafayette an Honorary Member of the R.W. Grand Lodge, F. & A. M. of Pennsylvania.

 

Brother General Marie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, revisited America in the year 1784, arriving at New York August 5 of that year. After remaining a short time in New York he hastened forward to visit General Washington at Mount Vernon, reaching Philadelphia on August 10, where he was presented with an address by Brothers A. St. Clair, William Irving and General Anthony Wayne. It is not known whether General Lafayette visited any Masonic Lodges in Philadelphia during this visit, nor whether there was any communication with the Grand Lodge. One of the chief objects of this visit with General Washington was to present him with a beautiful white satin apron bearing the national colors, red, white and blue and embroidered elaborately with Masonic emblems, the whole being the handiwork of Madam the Marquise de Lafayette.

 

This apron was enclosed in a handsome rosewood box when presented to Washington. This apron was worn by Washington, September 18, 1793, when he laid the corner stone of the capitol at the Federal City (Washington, D. C.), and is now in the Museum of the Grand Lodge, F. & A. M., of Pennsylvania. After the death of Washington this Masonic relic was presented by the legatees to the Washington Benevolent Society, who received it October 26, 1816. They in turn presented it July 3, 1829, to the Right Worshipful Grand Lodge, F. & A. M. of Pennsylvania, and bears the following inscription:

 

"To the

 

"WASHINGTON BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.

 

"The Legatees of Gen. Washington, impressed with the most profound Sentiments of respect for the Institution which they have the honor to address, beg leave to present to them the enclosed relic of the revered & lamented 'Father of His Country.' They are persuaded that the Apron, which was once possessed by the man, whom the Philadelphians always delighted to honor, will be considered most precious to the Society distinguished by his name, and by the benevolent, and grateful feelings to which it owes its foundations. That this perishable memento of a Hero whose Fame is 'more durable than Brass' may confer as much pleasure upon those to whom it is presented, as is experienced by the Donors.

 

"October 26th, 1816,     "Is the sincere wish of the "Legatees."  Forty years later Brother Lafayette revisited the United States, landing at New York as the nation's guest, August 15, 1824. He was accompanied by his son George Washington Lafayette, and M. La Vasseur, his secretary, both members of the fraternity. Tuesday, September 29, the party reached Philadelphia.

 

At the Grand Quarterly Communication of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania held September 6, 1824, just ninety-four years ago, the following motion was made, seconded, and adopted:

 

"Resolved, that a Committee consisting of the Grand Officers and Past Grand Masters be appointed to enquire whether General La Fayette be an Ancient York Master Mason, and if he be, to adopt such measures, as in their opinion will best evince the affection and gratitude of his Masonic Brethren, to this friend and benefactor of the United States."

 

At an adjourned Quarterly Grand Communication held Monday, September 26, 1824, the committee made the following report:

 

"The Committee appointed on the 6 Septr. to enquire whether Gen. La Fayette be an Antient York Mason presented the following Report and Resolution which as amended were severally adopted:--

 

"The Committee appointed by the Grand Lodge to ascertain and Report whether General La Fayette be an Antient York Mason, and if so to report such measures it would be proper for the Grand Lodge to adopt in relation to this Brother, respectfully Report,

 

"That they have been led to believe that this distinguished man, for whose attachment and services to this Country our fellow Citizens have evinced the warmest feelings of affection and gratitude has long been an Antient York Master Mason and has honored the institution by his patronage and added to its usefulness and respectability by a devoted attention to its interests. When all classes are zealous to display their good feelings upon his arrival amongst us, it would seem to your Committee that in a City where the Masonic institutions deservedly stand high, some testimony of respect is due from them to so worthy a brother.

 

"They have been anxious to avoid unnecessary ostentation and expense, but at the same time to treat this guest as becomes the Institution, and his character.

 

"The Committee recommended for adoption the following Resolutions:- "Resolved, that a Committee of seven be appointed whose duty it shall be as soon as they have received Masonic information that Gen. La Fayette is an Antient York Master Mason, to invite him to partake with his Masonic Brethren of a Dinner to be prepared for the occasion.

 

"Resolved, that the same Committee shall be authorized to procure the Dinner, receive Subscriptions and make all necessary arrangements for the same at the price of five dollars for each subscriber.

 

"Resolved, that the use of the Grand Salon shall be appropriated on the evening on which the Dinner is to take place to the subscribers to the same.

 

"Resolved, that the Grand Lodge Room shall also be appropriated to the use of the subscribers on that day, with the consent of the Lodge whose day of meeting it may be and that an address suitable to the occasion be delivered.

 

"James Harper,

Thos. Kittera,

S. Badger,

B. Newcomb,

J. K. Kane, Committee."

J. Randall,

 

The R.W.D.G.M. was pleased to appoint Brothers J. Randall, J. S. Lewis, J. M. Pettit, D. E. Wilson, Robt. Toland, D. F. Gordon and Jas. McAlpin on said committee.

 

On motion made and seconded,

 

"Resolved, that the Grand Secretary transmit a copy of the Report and Resolutions to the R. W. Grand Master (Bro. John B. Gibson being absent from the City on official Duties as Judge of the Supreme Court), and respectfully invite his attendance in the City on the day when the Dinner to Gen. La Fayette shall take place."

 

Saturday, October 2, 1824, Brother Lafayette visited the navy yard, then on the Delaware River at the foot of Federal Street, attended by the governor and citizens of the first distinction, escorted by the United States Marines, a regiment of militia, several independent companies, and a long civic procession.

 

After leaving the Philadelphia navy yard in the afternoon, Brother Lafayette was escorted by a committee of the Grand Lodge from his Lodgings at the house of Mrs. Nicholas Biddle, to the Masonic Hall on Chestnut Street, north side between Seventh and Eighth Streets, where he attended an Extra Grand Communication of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, as stated in the minutes, viz.:

 

"Philadelphia, Saturday, 2 Oct., A. D. 1824,  A. L. 5824.

 

"Extra Grand Communication.

 

"This being the day appointed for a Dinner to our Distinguished Brother General La Fayette, in pursuance of a Resolution of the Grand Lodge adopted on the 20 September ulto., about three hundred of the Craft, including a large proportion of the resident members of the Grand Lodge, assembled in the Hall at an early hour in the afternoon.

 

"The R. W. Deputy Grand Master and Grand Officers and members, being seated in the Grand Lodge Room, the door was tyled, the Grand Lodge opened in form at four o'clock P. M.

 

"Present:--

"Bro. James Harper, R. W. Deputy G. M., in the Chair.

"Bro. Thomas Kittera, R. W. Senior G. Warden.

"Bro. Saml. Badger, R. W. Junior Warden.

"Bro. John K. Kane, Acting Grand Secretary.

"Bro. Joseph S. Lewis, Grand Treasurer.

"Saml. A. Thomas, Depy. Acting Grand Secy.

"Bro. Randall Hutchinson, Senior Grand Deacon.

"Bro. George C. Potts, Grand Chaplain.

"Bro. Jas. McAlpin, Grand Sword Bearer.

"Bro. William Wray, Grand Steward.

"Bro. S. F. Bradford, R. W. Past Grand Master.

"Bro. Walter Kerr, R. W. Past Grand Master.

"Bro. Bayse Newcomb, R. W. Past Grand Master.

"Bro. Josiah Randall, R. W. Past Grand Master."

 

Representatives and Past Masters from nearly all of the Lodges in the City and County of Philadelphia, and a large number of visiting brethren among whom were the following: by special invitation-- Brothers George Washington La Fayette; M. La Vasseur and Colonel Victor Dupont, of Delaware, former aid to Brother La Fayette.

 

Bro. Jones, P. G. M., Grand Lodge of Georgia.

" E. Hicks, R. W. Grand Secy. Gd. Lodge N. York.

" Geo. B. Porter, Lodge No. 43.

" M. C. Rogers, " " "

" Charles Stewart, Bro. Wm. Gamble,

" I. M. Gamble, " T. delaPomerage.

 

On motion made and seconded, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

 

"The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania glorying in the honour thus conferred on her by the visit of Brother Gilbert Motier de la Fayette, and anxious to enrol among her members an individual so much distinguished by all the Virtues which ennoble the Masonic Character, has Resolved, that all the rights, dignities and privileges of a member of this Grand Lodge be, and the same are hereby conferred on Bro. Gilbert Motier de la Fayette."

 

A committee was appointed to wait upon La Fayette at his lodgings and conduct him to the Hall. Here he was met at the door by the Grand Marshal and Grand Sword Bearer and received into the Grand Lodge with the highest honours.

 

The R. W. Depy. Grand Master then rose and addressed Bro. La Fayette as follows:

 

"Bro. La Fayette.

 

"The Freemasons of Pennsylvania welcome you to their home with sincere and universal pleasure.

 

"Warmly participating in the sentiments which have every where spontaneously burst from our fellow citizens in the lively gratitude for the services you have rendered our Country, in admiration of your high and various virtues, and in cordially reciprocating the attachment you have uniformly evinced for our liberties and for our happiness, we owe in addition the pride and sympathy of Masonic Brotherhood. Your meritorious life has, indeed, justly illustrated our principles; and those who now surround you, feel that like Washington, and Warren and Franklin, you have won their most affectionate veneration, by shedding honour on their beloved fraternity. Always contending General, in the great cause of human rights, your success has equalled the disinterestedness and perseverance of your devotion. In America, as the companion and friend of the wisest and best of mankind, you will ever be regarded as one of the founders of the greatest, purest and happiest of republics; while, in your native land it cannot he forgotten, that amidst the storms of political revolution, and through every vicissitude of personal fortune, you have stood an inflexible example of consistency, moderation and firmness. These impressions common to the people of the United States, but most dear to us, are now indelibly inscribed upon the records of history and will pass to our latest posterity with the sanction of national unanimity. Receive then most valued Brother, the most heartfelt benedictions of our sacred institution; receive the homage of free and upright men, who love you as an early benefactor and whose affection must remain as secure as your own virtues and as permanent as your own glory.

 

"I have also the honour of presenting you with a Resolution passed unanimously by the Grand Lodge during its present session constituting you one of its members: I hope you will accept this as an additional evidence of the high sense they entertain of your virtues and of the services you have rendered to mankind in general and to Masonry in particular."

 

To which Bro. La Fayette made the following reply:

 

"Right Worshipful Grand Master and Brethren:--

 

"I have often thought that we owe as much to our enemies as to our friends, and if this observation is true, it is most true, when applied to us as Masons. It is to the enmity and the persecutions of a Francis the 2d and Ferdinand the 7th that the Masons of Europe in Modern times have been indebted for opportunities of proving through much suffering and peril, that our principles are pure, and that their devotion to them is unchangeable. The Lodges of Spain in particular have been the victims of Royal fears but though dispersed, their members still are Masons, and though much oppressed, their light has not been extinguished.

 

"You R. W. Sir, and Brethren, reposing under the cover of your own peaceful institutions, hear of these things only by the report of those who come to admire your prosperity and to share by your hospitality, the fruit of your labours.

 

"I thank you for the honour you have just conferred on me, and assure you that I shall never forget this mark of your kind distinction, by which I am made the member of a body of which Franklin was the father and Washington the associate."

 

The Brethren were now severally presented to Bro. La Fayette, when Grand Lodge closed in harmony at half past five o'clock.

 

MASONIC DINNER

 

A sumptuous banquet prepared by Bro. Daniel Rubicam being ready in the grand salon and adjoining banqueting room, the brethren entered in tlle follow;ng order:

 

Sojourning Brethren,

Grand Tyler,

Grand Pursuivant,

Grand Stewards,

Grand Deacons,

Grand Chaplain,

 

"The following report was received from the Committee appointed on the claim of William Christie for furn;ture supplied to the Committee of arrangement

 

Grand Secretary, Grand Treasurer,

Grand Wardens,

Invited Guests,

 

Brother La Fayette, supported by the R. W. Acting G.M. and D.G.M.P.T.

 

The decorations of the room were prepared under the direction of Bro. Haviland, to whose refined taste and superior skill the fraternity were under great obligation; the beautiful salon and banqueting room never appeared to so great an advantage.

 

The brethren sat down at six o'clock in the afternoon; feelings of hilarity, mirth and Masonic hrotherhood prevailed at the festive board. After the removal of the cloth a number of excellent toasts were given, followed by appropliate music from the Marine Band attached to the navy yard, for whose services the fraternity were indebted to the politeness of Bro. I. M. Gamble, commanding the marine corps on this station.

 

The company adjourned at a proper hour, much gratified with the events of the day.

 

The session of the Grand Lodge was held in the Grand Lodge Room on the second floor; the dinner was given in the large room or salon on the east side of the lower floor; this room was not used for Masonic purposes, but was rented out for social functions and exhibition purposes. Considerable difflculty was experienced by the committee to get the use of this room for the banquet, as appears from the final report of the committee presented to the Grand Lodge at the Grand Quarterly Communication held Monday, March 5, 1827, viz.:

 

for the dinner to Bro. Genl. La Fayette-in 1824, and on all similar demands.

 

"On motion and seconded, the same was adopted. "To the Grand Lodge of Penna.

 

"The Comme. to which was referred the accounts Or William Christie and others, against the Committee of arrangements appointed by the Grand Lodge on the occasion of General La Fayette's visit.

 

"Report,

 

"That it appears to the Committee that the following bills contracted by the Committee of arrangements remain unpaid, viz.:--

 

"William Christie for Upholstery    $151.88

Clark, for Carpentry $155.34

Myers and Jones, for Painting  $40.00

Russell, Oil $4.87

Porterage and Advertising $2.85

 

Total $354 91

 

That there remains in the hands of said Committee an unexpended balance of  $88.86

 

Leaving a deficit of monies to amot of  $266.09

 

which deficit this committee is of opinion is justly and equitably chargeable upon the Grand Lodge."

 

To elucidate the opinion of the committee, it is proper to recur to some of the circumstances which preceded, as well as those which attended the reception of Genl. La Fayette. As soon as it was understood that this illustlious Mason intended to visit the Grand Lodge a committee was directed to devise measules worthy of the occasion and among the resolutions reported by them was one for the arrangement of a festival of welcome. It was proposed that the task of carrying this part of the arrangement into effect should be confided to a special committee and that the members of the fraternity should be generally invited; they further proposed that the price of tickets should be fixed at seven dollars. The Grand Lodge approved of the plan which its committee submitted, but probably not aware of the increased expenses attendannt on all entertainments which were given at that season of general festivity, it reduced the price of tickets to the sum of five dollars, and in part compensation for this reduction, it determined that the grand salon should he appropriated to the purposes of the festival.

 

It was not until the special committee, which was afterwards appointed, had made the more expensive part of their arrangements, that it was discovered that the Grand Lodge had no right to the salon without the consent of the tenant in possession. To obtain that consent it was necessary to pay fifty dollars to dislodge an Italian artist from the banqueting room, and a further sum of $67.75 to procure another room for a concert which had been announced for the evening at the salon. The sum of $117.75 was thus required to procure accommodations which the Grand Lodge had stipulated it would furnish gratuitously. The obligation of the Grand Lodge to reimburse this sum, if necessary, has not been at any time questioned and needs no remarks.

 

The great number of the brethren who came forward as subscribers, gratifying as the fact was to the committee, had the effect of increasing disproportionately the expenses of the banquet. The furniture and decorations belonging to the Grand Lodge were found altogether insufficient for the suite of apartments which it became necessary to open. New furniture and additional decorations were purchased by the committee and these have since been sold by the Grand Lodge and the proceeds carried into its treasury, or they still remain in its possession.

 

The committee of arrangements, while mindful that it was their duty to welcome their patriarchal guest in a style which might become the Lodge of which "Franklin was the founder and Washington a member," yet anxiously avoided every application of the sinking fund to purposes not strictly within its specified objects.

 

All their proceedings were characterized by as much economy as was consistent with the occasion. All the expenses of making preliminary arrangements were borne by themselves individually and when the moneys which they had received were found to be inadequate, they at once, with the aid of a few friends, applied a considerable sum of their own to meet the deficiency.

 

The state of their accounts, strictly audited, stands thus:

 

"They receive from subscribers in all $1,358.

and appropriated from the private funds exclusive of the amt.

expended in preliminary arrangements $80.

 

Total $1,438.60

They paid bill amounting to $1,349.65

 

They yet owe $354.94   $1,704.59

 

Balance due from committee $266.09

 

"On a full view of the circumstances which have occasioned this balance against the committee of arrangements, first, that no discretion was permitted them in fixing the terms of subscription, the grand Lodge itself having defined the price on views of the subject which the result has proved to be incorrect; second, that a large portion of the balance was applied to procure rooms, which the Grand Lodge had, from an erroneous idea of its rights, declared should be given without cost; third, that the Grand Lodge has received a full equivalent for the residue in the property which it has sold or still retains, and fourth, that the doings of the committee were wisely and satisfactorily ordered and that the deficiency has been entirely occasioned by causes over which they had no possible control, the committee to which the accounts were referred have agreed to present the following resolution.

 

"Resolved, that the R. W. G. M. be requested to draw his order on the grand treasurer for the sum of $266.09 in favour of Br. James McAlpin, treasurer of the La Fayette Comme. of arrangements.

 

"All of which is respectfully submitted.

 

"Philad., 5th, March, 1827."     "(signed.)

"Saml. F. Bradford,

John K. Kane,

Saml. Badger,

Saml. H. Thomas."

 

Among other relics of Brother Lafayette, we have in our Archives the "Golden Book of The Supreme Council for the Western Hemisphere." This contains a copy of the patent conferring the 33d degree upon Brother Lafayette by this Supreme Council; it also contains the following note written and signed by Brother Lafayette, May 10, 1834, just ten days before his death,

 

"It is the extreme indulgence of the Supreme Council of the United States, that elevated to the 33d degree in spite of the superiority in knowledge and in services of many of my brothers, I owe to-day the favors, of which I am not worthy, with which the great Council of the Occidental Hemisphere has deigned to overwhelm me, I accept them with a deep gratitude and will seek to merit them by my zeal. "May our ancient institution propagate everywhere the Liberty, the Equality, the Philanthrophy, and contribute to the great movement of social civilization which ought to emancipate the two Hemispheres.

 

" (signed) Lafayette."

 

Brother Lafayette died in Paris May 20, 1834. At an Extra Grand Communication of the Grand Lodge held Tuesday, June 24, 1834, his decease was announced to the Grand Lodge whereupon:

 

"On Motion made and seconded, The following Preamble and Resolutions were unanimously adopted:

 

"Whereas, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania have learned with the deepest emotions of sorrow, the decease of their illustrious Brother and Member, General Lafayette, 'an individual so much distinguished by all the virtues which ennoble the Masonic character,' and

 

Whereas the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania feel it a mournful duty to pay the last tribute of their respect to the memory of a Brother, the last Major General of the Revolutionary Army, the disciple of Washington, the companion of Franklin, and the steadfast friend of civil and religious liberty.

 

"Therefore Resolved, That the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania deeply deplore the loss of their revered and beloved Brother and Member, General Lafayette, whose labours in the cause of American Independence and of rational liberty and ardent devotion to the Fraternity, have endeared his memory to every Member of this venerable order.

 

"Resolved, That the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania sympathize most sincerely with the amiable family of their deceased Brother, in the irreparable bereavement they have sustained, in the death of their excellent father.

 

"Resolved, That as an humble testimonial of our respect for the memory of our deceased Brother, the Jewels, Hangings, and other Furniture of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, be placed in mourning for the space of twelve months.

 

"Resolved, That a correct Portrait of our deceased brother be procured, and placed in a conspicuous part of the Grand Lodge Room.

 

"Resolved, That Brothers George M. Dallas, Thomas Kittera, Robert Toland, Cornelius Stevenson, and John M. Read, be a Committee to communicate the foregoing Resolutions to the family of Brother General Lafayette.

 

"Resolved, That the foregoing Preamble and Resolutions be published in the public journals of the day."  The Grand Lodge having closed, the Fraternity proceeded to the salon where they were gratified by hearing a very beautiful and instructive Masonic address from Bro. George M. Dallas, R. W. Dep. Grand Master.

 

The Grand Lodge was again opened, when upon motion made and seconded it was unanimously resolved:

 

"That the thanks of this Grand Lodge be presented to Bro. Dallas for his truly Masonic and admirable address delivered this day and that he be requested to furnish a copy of it for publication."

 

The following is an extract from the very eloquent address delivered before the Fraternity, on this day, by Brother Geol ge M. Dallas, R. W. Deputy Grand Master.

 

"I would close here, did I not feel that the commemorative purpose of the day may for a moment, be with propriety interrupted by a reference to the recent departure of our illustrious friend and brother, Gilbert Motier De Lafayette. This truly good and eminently great man died suddenly, at the Capital of his European Country, and in the bosom of his family, on the morning of the 20th of May last, and in the seventyseventh year of his age.

 

"It will be recollected by some whom I address, that on the 2d of October, 1824, General Lafayette, then the Guest of a Nation to whose service he had dedicated his early enthusiasm, fortune and blood, was, in that chamber, invested with all the rights, dignities and privileges of a member of this Grand Lodge 'a body,' to use his own emphatic words, 'of which Franklin was the father and Washington the associate.'

 

"Both hemispheres were alike the theatre of the virtues and exploits of this exalted Mason. In both he passed, unscathed in honour, through the ordeal of sanguinary revolution, in both he shone the firm, faithful and fearless champion of human liberties and rights, in both he riveted himself, by the loftiest and the gentlest qualities, in universal respect and affection, and in both his death is now sincerely mourned as a common calamity. In the memory, as in the life of their joint citizen and soldier, America and France have a lasting bond of sympathy and union. In this respect, as the moral link to connect two distant and powerful nations in mutual good will, his position on the records of immortality is without parallel.

 

"While we join in the sad and solemn rites every where performing by our countrymen, in melancholy attestation of their deep veneration and undying gratitude for an early and indefatigable public benefactor, we cannot but own one added pang, though accompanied by one peculiar pride as kindling memory suggests that he also was a Mason."

 

On July 21, 1834, commemorative exercises were held at Zion Lutheran Church, southeast corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets, in which the Grand Lodge participated.

 

Other mementos of Brother Lafayette in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, beside the Washington Apron, are the two relics of Brother Lafayette's visit to Philadelphia in 1824.

 

1. A piece of candle and holder used to illuminate one of the window panes of Independence Hall during the procession, September 28,-1824.

 

2. A memorial cotton handkerchief upon which is printed his portrait, scene of his arrival at New York on the ship Cadmus, and the memorial arcll erected in front of Independence Hall, through which General Lafayette and the procession passed at his reception, September 28, 1824.

 

3. A largefull length oil portrait of Brother General Lafayette in the upper corridor.

 

4. A study in oil said to be from life in the library.

 

5. Copy of Houdan's marble bust of Brother General Lafayette in the Library.

 

6. Two silk badges worn at the funeral procession and commemorative service of Zion Lutheran Church July 21, 1838.

 

7. Two engraved French portraits in Washington alcove in museum.

 

8. A number of Lafayette medals in the museum collection.

 

9. A Lafayette Silver Dollar coined by the United States in the year 1900. 10. Four Masonic Lodges in Pennsylvania are named after this distinguished brother, viz.:

 

No. 71, Philadelphia,

No. 194, Selinsgrove,

No. 199, Lock Haven,

No. 652, Carnegie.

 

In conclusion to illustrate how the memory of Brother Lafavette is honored in both Masonic and civil life in the United States, as a matter of fact, there are no less than thirty Masonic Lodges named after Brother Lafayette in twenty-six states in the Union.

 

In the United States, there are fourteen villages, eleven towns, five counties, one parish and one city which bear the name of our honored brother, the Marquis General Lafayette.

 

As above stated, it was resolved at the Extra Grand Communication held June 24, 1834, that a correct portrait of Brother Lafayette should be procured and placed in a conspicuous part of the Lodge room.

 

It appears that after this resolution was adopted, the sum of eighty dollars ($80) was collected towards obtaining this portrait.

 

At the Annual Grand Communication held Monday, December 28, 1835, when Washington Hall in South Third Street above Spruce Street was dedicated and consecrated to Masonic uses, on motion of Brother F. Cooper and seconded, it was resolved that a committee of five be appointed to receive the amount collected June 24, 1834, with further authority to solicit donations from Lodges and members within this Masonic jurisdiction, and as soon as a sufficient sum shall have been collected, to have a likeness of Lafayette painted by an eminent artist, and to have the same put up in a conspicuous place in the Grand Lodge Room.

 

The R. W. Grand Master was pleased to appoint on said committee Bros. F. Cooper, Geo. Fox, W. Mayweg, S. Wonderly and A. Quniton. Nothing appeared to have been done in this matter until four months later, when the following amendment was offered at an adjourned Extra Grand Lodge held April 18, 1836.

 

"On motion of Bro. Geo. Fox and seconded, the Resolution adopted on the 28th December last, relative to a Painting of Bro. Lafayette was reconsidered and the following offered as an Amendment thereof and adopted, viz.:--

 

"Resolved, that the Committee appointed on the 28th Decr. 1835, be authorized to solicit donations from Lodges and members within the jurisdiction and when a sufficient sum shall have been Collected to procure a full length painting of Benjamin Franklin, and a portrait of Lafayette, and have said paintings placed in a conspicuous situation in the Grand Lodge Room."

 

After this the matter slumbered for six years, wllen it was revived at the Quarterly Grand Communication held Monday, March 7, 1842, by the following minute:

 

"On motion duly made and seconded, the Grand Secretary was directed to endeavour to procure information respecting collections made for Likeness of Benjm. Franklin and Lafayette and report at next quarterly Communication."

 

No action was taken in reference to the portrait for the next six years, when the matter was again brought to the notice of the Grand Lodge at the Grand Quarterly Communication held Monday, March 6, 1848, by a comrmunication on the subject from Phoenix Lodge, No. 130, viz.:

 

"The following was received and referred to Past Grand Masters Bros. Newcomb, Barger and Page.

 

Phil., Feby. 21, 1848. To Wm. H. Adams,

 

Rt.W.G.Secy. of G.L. of Pa.  Dr. Sir & Bro.

 

"The following Resolution was on motion & seconded unanimously Adopted at a meeting of Phoenix Lodge No. 130, held at Masonic Hall South 3rd St., Wednesday evening, February 16th, A. L. 5848.

 

"Resolved, That the representatives of this Lodge be directed to call the attention of the Grand Lodge to the fact that there has been for a number of Years in the hands of Past Grand Master Bro. Jno. M. Read, a sum of money, raised by Subscription for the purpose of procuring a portrait of Bros. Franklin & Lafayette, that the said Portrait has never been purc1lased and request the Grand Lodge to appoint a Committee to examine into the matter and ask P. G. Mastel Jno. M. Read to account for the same.

 

"Extract from the Minutes. "Signed. Wm. S. Schultz, "Secy. Lodge No. 130."

 

This was referred to Past Grand Masters Bro. Newcomb, Barger and Page, wllo at the Quarterly Communication September 4, 1848, made the following report, which was received and the resolution adopted, viz.:

 

"To the R.W. Grand Lodge of Penna.

 

"The Committee appointed in relation to the money subscribed and paid for the purpose of procuring a portrait of Lafayette and Franklin.

 

"Respectfully report, That a Sum of money for that purpose subscribed was paid into the hands of Bro. John M. Read who cannot at present find the subscription paper containing the precise amount, but believes it to be about Eighty Dollars which Sum he is ready to pay over as the Grand Lodge may direct and when the amt. can be ascertained to correct the same.

 

"Your Committee respectfully offer the following Resolution. Resolved, that the Grand Treasurer call upon Bro. Read & receive from him the above mentioned Sum of Eighty Dollars.

 

"Phil., Sept. 4, 1848.

"Signed. B. Newcomb,

Wm. Barger,

Jas. Page, Committee."

 

At the Grand Quarterly Communication held March 5, 1849, the

following was offered by Brother John Thomson, R. W. G. Treasurer,

and adopted, viz.:

 

"Whereas, there is in the hands of the Grand Treasurer the sum of Eighty dollars contributed some years since by certain members of the Grand Lodge for the purpose of a likeness of Bro. La Fayette and as said sum is insufficient to accomplish the object intended therefore Resolved, That the Grand Treasurer be instructed to add from the funds of the Grand Lodge $20 to the $80 contributed and with the sum purchase one share Masonic loan for the purpose of furthering the object intended."

 

It appears that the portrait of Lafayette which was formerly in the Grand Lodge room and now in the second story corridor of the New Temple was not procured until after the New Chestnut Street Hall was dedicated in 1855.

 

No record has been found as to who the artist was or what was the amount paid for same.

 

----o----

 

THE NEW PATRIOTISM

 

Fly the flag at half-mast

For the life that has been split,

For the wealth that has been built

On the bones of men;

Fly the flag at half-mast

Till the day breaks again.

 

Fly the flag at half-mast

For the greed that would not die,

For the hate that scorched the sky

With envenenomed fire;

Fly the flag at half-mast

For the deeds of men’s ire.

 

Fly the flag at half-mast

For the love that has been slain,

For the conflict’s bloody stain

On the hopes of men;

Fly the flag at half-mast

Till the day breaks again.

 

- T.C. Clark

 

----o----

 

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstitution - Adam Smith.

 

----o----

 

GEORGE FRANKLIN FORT, MASONIC HISTORIAN

 

BY JOHN HENRY FORT, NEW JERSEY

 

The following biographical sketch of Brother George Franklin Fort, author of "The Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry," written at our request by his brother, Mr. John Henry Fort of New Jersey, is intended as an introduction to an article to appear in the next issue of THE BUILDER, The Masonic Writings of George Franklin Fort, by Brother Oliver D. Street of Alabama.

 

GEORGE FRANKLIN FORT was born at Absecon, Atlantic County, New Jersey, on November 20th, 1843. His father was Rev. John Fort, a member of the New Jersey Methodist Episcopal Conference, who entered the ministry in the old days of the itinerancy and whose father was one of the founders of the faith in New Jersey. George Flanklin Fort was named after his uncle, Dr. George Franklin Fort, who was Governor of New Jersey from 1851 to 1855. In later years the State historian accredited the uncle with the authorship of the work by confusing the names. George F. Fort was descended from an old Norman French-Anglo-Saxon ancestry. The original Fort, or "Le Fort," was the Captain of the Body Guard of William the Conqueror at Hastings in 1066 and his descendents remained in England till 1695, when Roger Fort settled at Hampton-Hanover, afterwards New Mills and now Pemberton, Burlington County, New Jersey, upon a plantation which has remained in the family for generations. His family settled in New Jersey when the population was probably not over five thousand, as against nearly two million now. The period was an epochal one in the State and the Fort family were distinctly active in the development of the State. His great-great grandfather on his mother's side, William Emley, was a surveyor to the Crown and acted as Colonial Governor of New Jersey and helped to survey the lines dividing East and West Jersey. He was quite a linguist and of Scotch-English descent, coming from Yorkshire.

 

George F. Fort's family were not only very prominent in New Jersey, in having contributed two governors to the State, both born in the old homestead at Pemberton, but also were honored by having two Assemblymen and one State Senator in the Legislature, and one Judge of the Supreme Court, and two of the Court of Errors and Appeals. The family had several ministers and physicians, all prominent, and in the Revolutionary days contributed ten members to the Continental Army, both the Line and Militia. With an ancestry dating back to the Vikings and in which several languages had been spoken, it is not surprising that George F. Fort easily acquired a knowledge of and mastered seventeen languages and dialects. He read Latin, French, Spanish and Italian with as much ease as English, and amused himself with reading the works of noted writers in these languages. He read and spoke German as fluently as English and his several trips to Europe widened his knowledge and perfection. He attended lectures at Heidleburg University and studied Anglo-Saxon and several dialects for historical purposes. The acquiring of a language with him was a sort of heredity and if no glossary was available he would dig out certain roots from dictionaries and in a short time would construct a grammar and glossary and soon be reading the language as readily as English. It was a gift.

 

Mr. Fort studied law with Abraham Browning of Camden, then the leading attorney of the State and at one time Attorney General, when family prestige and ability made the appointment instead of political influence as in modern times. While he was successful in his practice his tastes were of a literary character and he regularly pursued a literary course. There is no question but that he was one of the most learned men of the century and his knowledge was not confined to archaic research and antiquities, but was universal. Science, belles-letters, literature, mathematics, astronomy and ancient history, all alike claimed his attention. He was a modest and retiring man and any attempt to draw him out or into a discussion was fruitless, but if something happened whereby he expressed an opinion, his erudition was apparent at once and in a few moments extemporaneously a magnificent oration was delivered upon any subject he spoke upon. It was like a prophet speaking and when finished evidenced the depth of learning and greatness of thought.

 

In early life he became prominent in Masonic circles and with several friends and an older brother established Trimble Lodge No. 117, A. F. & A. M., at Camden, New Jersey, his residence. The new lodge aimed at a higher personality than the other lodges and did not meet with immediate success. Mr. Fort in order to infuse life into the lodge of which he was first Senior Warden and had then become Worshipful Master, inaugurated a series of lectures and while others spoke, his great knowledge upon the antiquities of Freemasonry attracted so much attention and comment that he was urged to pursue his researches and write a work upon the subject, which he afterwards did, first visiting the Libraries of Europe and many of the old Cathedrals, the British Museum, Library at the Vatican and the Bodlein at Oxford. This work was named the Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry. It was immediately recognized by the literally world as the authority, and the Encyclopedia Britannica in all succeeding editions recognized it as authoritive and quoted it on the subject of Freemasonry. Immediately the literary men of the world began to write him for opinions upon other Masonic subjects and this caused him to write "A Historical Treatise on Early Builders' Marks," and a monograph entitled "Medieval Builders." Later he wrote the Medical Economy of the Middle Ages. The latter was written after, as associate editor of his brother's newspaper, he criticised the statement of a prominent physician at the 100th Anniversary of the New Jersey Medical Society "that medicine had no history beyond Galen and Hippocrates," and a committee from the Association requested him to write a history of the ancient cult.

 

Mr. Fort was a regular contributor to the several newspapers owned by his youngest brother, John H. Fort, upon Masonic subjects. Some of them were fugitive and others in series. They were copied in the Masonic Journals of France, England, Australia, and the leading magazines, and often created a learned controversy, but his knowledge of languages always enabled him to give authoritive data. Some of the critics thought he should literally translate his authorities, as but few could read the original. This he always refrained from doing as he claimed the quotation was the authority. Among his correspondents were such men as Hughan, Gould, Woodford and other Masonic writers and antiquarians. His books were reviewed by all the great newspapers of the world such as the New York Herald, Sun, Times, World, the London Times, Globe, Blackwoods Magazine and Masonic Journals, the Chaine d'Union of Paris, the Melbourne Australian, all the Philadelphia papers, especially the Ledger, Press, Record, Bulletin, Telegraph and the Keystone. Gould, the Masonic writer, said of him "Fort has succeeded where all others failed in making the study of our antiquities an interesting task." Other writers said "his history of Freemasonry is as interesting as a Romance of the Middle Ages." The Golden Age of New York characterizes it as "a work of which members of the craft may well be proud." The Encyclopedia Britannica says of it, "the book is instructive as throwing light on certain phases of Middle Age life." In fact the newspaper criticisms are all highly eulogistic and place the History as the highest contribution to Masonic literature. All his other works were just as favorably received by the press of the world. The criticisms are in many languages and would fill a volume in themselves. In a scrap book of Mr. Fort's are not only the notices of the press but letters in many languages from the literatti of the world and most of his fugitive articles which are well worth publishing collectively in book form. All his other works were equally as well received. Mr. Fort has been compared to such writers as Hallam, Draper, Lecky, Macauley, and other archaic, historic and antiquarian writers, and all refer to his writings as showing vast erudition and research.

 

George F. Fort was primarily educated in the Public Schools of New Jersey in the various towns his father was stationed at as a pastor, and afterwards graduated from Pennington Seminary, a Methodist Institution of learning, under the direction of the New Jersey Annual Conference. His after studies of the various languages and literature were by his own effort and attendance of lectures abroad and by visits to European Institutions of Learning. Mr. Fort has given to America the credit of being the standard writer upon Masonic and Medical histories.

 

Mr. Fort was a member of Trimble Lodge No. 117, A. F. & A. M., of which he was practically the founder. He was the first Senior Warden and Second Worshipful Master. He lived to see the lodge become the largest in membership in New Jersey. He was a Knight Templar, belonging to Cyrene Commandery Vale (No. 7) of Camden, Vanhook Council No. 8, Royal and Select Masters, Siloam Chapter Royal Arch Masons, Excelsior Consistory 32nd Degree, and all the intermediate Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite degrees. It has been stated that he was also a 33rd Degree Mason, it having been conferred upon him in Europe.

 

In December, 1877, York Lodge of England in recognition of his great services to Freemasonry, conferred upon him Honorary Life Membership and sent him a specially engraved certificate bearing a picture of the crypt in York Minster where the lodge anciently met. The original certificate from York Lodge is now in possession of Trimble Lodge No. 117 of Camden.

 

Mr. Fort spent a long time in Europe on different trips and was well acquainted there in Masonic circles. He was made the Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of England to the Grand Lodge of New Jersey by the then Prince of Wales, Grand Master of Masons of England, who afterwards became the King of England as Edward VII.

 

George F. Fort died at the home of his nephew while on a visit at Atlantic City, a few miles from where he was born, on March 30th, 1909. Mr. Fort was practically a recluse the latter years of his life. His health was poor and his literary tastes naturally caused him to avoid society. For years he was editor of the Keystone, a Masonic Journal published in Philadelphia, and a contributor to the America Notes and Queries and several newspapers published by his brother John H. Fort. Some time before his death he told a friend he had finished a History of Norse Mythology and claimed he had in the destruction of the God Baldur by the other Mythological Norse Gods discovered the origin of the story of Hiram Abif. He stated the work was ready for the printer but he was holding it back as he had been unable to secure a font of Norse type and was afraid he would have to have it cast to give the data exact. Since his death no trace has so far been found of the manuscript. In all probability this valuable history may be lost and the researches of a master mind for nearly a half century gone to waste. His scrap book would be a most interesting publication if edited by someone skilled in Masonic lore. There are many articles of rare interest that never got beyond local readers.

 

Mr. Fort's works are on the shelves of most all the prominent libraries of the world, such as the East India Library, British Museum, Congressional Library at Washington, and Institutions of learning everywhere, and thousands of private libraries. His own library was entirely filled with works in foreign languages and were upon historic, antiquarian and archaic subjects. He was at one time Judge Advocate of the Sixth Regiment National Guard of New Jersey with rank of Captain.

 

----o----

 

FOR THE MONTHLY LODGE MEETING

 

CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN---No. 19

 

DEVOTED TO ORGANIZED MASONIC STUDY

 

Edited by Bro. Robert I. Clegg

 

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

 

FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE

 

THE Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information: THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. In another paragraph is explained how the references to former issues of THE BUILDER and to Mackey's Encyclopedia may be worked up as supplemental papers to exactly fit into each installment of the Course with the paper by Brother Clegg.

 

MAIN OUTLINE

 

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

 

Division I. Ceremonial Masonry. A. The Work of a Lodge. B. The Lodge and the Candidate.  C. First Steps.  D. Second Steps.  E. Third Steps.

 

Division II. Symbolical Masonry.

 

A. Clothing.  B. Working Tools.  C. Furniture.  D. Architecture.  E. Geometry.  F. Signs.  G. Words.  H. Grips.

 

Division III. Philosophical Masonry. A. Foundations.  B. Virtues.  C. Ethics.  D. Religious Aspect.  E. The Quest.  F. Mysticism.  G. The Secret Doctrine.

 

Division IV. Legislative Masonry. A. The Grand Lodge. 1. Ancient Constitutions. 2. Codes of Law. 3. Grand Lodge Practices. 4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges. 5. Official Duties and Prerogatives.  B. The Constituent Lodge. 1. Organization. 2. Qualifications of Candidates. 3. Initiation, Passing and Raising. 4. Visitation. 5. Change of Membership.

 

Division V. Historical Masonry. A. The Mysteries--Earliest Masonic Light.  B. Studies of Rites--Masonry in the Making.  C. Contributions to Lodge Characteristics.  D. National Masonry.  E. Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study. F. Feminine Masonry.  G. Masonic Alphabets.  H. Historical Manuscripts of the Craft.  I. Biographical Masonry.  J. Philological Masonry--Study of Significant Words.

 

THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS

 

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

 

HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS

 

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

 

After the Lodge has been opened and all routine business disposed of, the Master should turn the Lodge over to the Chairman of the Research Committee. This Committee should be fully prepared in advance on the subject for the evening. All members to whom references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be prepared with their papers and should also have a comprehensive grasp of Brother Clegg's paper.

 

PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS

 

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

 

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

 

2. Discussion of the above.

 

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

 

4. Question Box.

 

MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS

 

Invite questions from any and all Brethren present. Let them understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit and get them into the habit of asking all the questions they may think of. Every one of the papers read will suggest questions as to facts and meanings which may not perhaps be actually covered at all in the paper. If at the time these questions are propounded no one can answer them, SEND THEM IN TO US. All the reference material we have will be gone through in an endeavor to supply a satisfactory answer. In fact we are prepared to make special research when called upon, and will usually be able to give answers within a day or two. Please remember, too, that the great Library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa is only a few miles away, and, by order of the Trustees of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Secretary places it at our disposal on any query raised by any member of the Society.

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

 

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

 

QUESTIONS ON "THE OBLIGATION" I Define the word "obligation." Have oaths and obligations been in universal practice ? Why ? Can you name oaths administered outside the Fraternity with which the Masonic obligation may be compared? Are the marriage oath, the President's oath, etc., such forms ? Why is a religious sanction thrown about an oath ? Does the taking of an obligation imply that the candidate cannot be trusted? Does it make his obligation or does it define it? What does Tyler say about the universality of oaths ? How do Philo and Cicero define an oath ? Can you give a better definition of an obligation than any herewith offered? If so, will you send it in to the Society ?

 

II What does Gould believe to have been the original of the Masonic oath ? Why was the oath taken by the freemen adopted into the forms of the Masonic lodge? Do we see today any institutions copying the forms of oaths employed by some other institution ? Name them. Were the earliest Masonic obligations short or long? How did the obligation evolve into such length? Is this legitimate? Have any other parts of the ceremonies evolved similarly? Are Masonic ceremonies still changing and growing? If so, why? If not, why not? What was the substance of the earliest obligations? Why were the building secrets so jealously guarded? How did these secrets come to be public property ? What effect did such publicity have upon the Freemasons?

 

III What is the whole point of the present obligation? Have we any trade secrets ? If you believe that a simpler, more effective obligation might be written, will you offer one? Why should Masonic secrets be still so jealously guarded? What is the function of secrecy in Masonry? Does friendship have its secrets? Business? Diplomacy? What would happen to the Fraternity if it should abandon its policy of secrecy ? Does secrecy attract men to it? Why?

 

IV What is the meaning of "due form"? Whence came the term ? What is the difference between form and formality ? When two friends meet do they shake hands in "due form"? Does the form in which the obligation is given add to its dignity and impressiveness ? Do you permit any flippancy in your own lodge's ceremony of initiation ? Why not ?

 

V Why are the penalties kept so secret? How much can you talk about Masonry without violating your obligation to secrecy? Did the earliest obligations have any penalties attached ? If not why not? What is the "Harleian Manuscript" ? What is meant by "Old Charges"? Why did the Semites fear drowning so? What do Old Testament writers seem to feel concerning the sea ? When the sailors cast Jonah overboard did they suppose they were putting him out of reach of the God he had offended ? Would you as soon be buried in the sea as on the land? What is meant by "consecrated ground" ? What churches still bury their dead in consecrated ground? Why? Does the custom of setting apart a special tract of ground for burial add dignity to the thought of death? Would you as soon think yourself dead as lying in the sea as lying in a grave ? Who added the present penalties to our obligations? When? What hint do you get from Brother Clegg's suggestions? Why have anti-Masons so rabidly attacked the obligation? Is a man scared by penalties which he knows will never be inflicted? Who was John Quincy Adams ? Why did he fight the Fraternity? Do you agree with what Brother MacBride says about the obligation? If not, why not ? If you do, why ? Is there any way in which the obligation could be recast ? Who would have the authority to do so ? Would it be of any advantage to have a General Grand Lodge of America to take care of such matters ?

 

VI Why is the cable tow removed when it is? What does it signify ? Is the obligation an appeal to a man's sense of honor ? Or is it a slam against his sense of honor? Does the wedding oath add to or detract from the stability and dignity of marriage? If marriages were left to private wills could the law have any control over them ? How could Masonic law be brought to bear upon a man who had never taken an obligation ? What is the real "Masonic Tie" ? Does that tie draw you to other Masons ? Does it ever restrain you from doing a wrong to a brother Mason ? Why ?

 

SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES

 

Mackey's Encyclopedia: Oath, p. 622; Oath, Corporal, p. 524; Oath of the Gild, p. 624. Obligation, p. 525. THE BUILDER: Vol. I.--Oath, The Freeman's, p. 237. Obligations not political, p. 88. Vol. II.--Oaths, p. 272; Dec. C. C. B. 2; Cor. 190; Q. B. 94, 348 Obligations, Q. B. 348. Vol. III.--Oaths, p. 345; Jan. C. C. B. 2; Apr. C. C. B. 1; June C. C. B. 2- Penalty of Violation, p. 36. Obligations, p. 334; Dec. C. C. B. 4 Vol. IV.--A Hint as to Penalties, p. 178; this issue.

 

 FIRST STEPS BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

 

PART VII--THE OBLIGATION I THE word "obligation" means, according to its derivation, a "binding to." It is more than an oath and more than a vow, for it combines both, and it has been used, in one form or another, ever since the earliest times. Cicero defined it as "an affirmation under the sanction of religion," while Philo called it "the most sure symbol of good faith." Some obligations have had penalties attached, others have not. Obligations have been in such universal practice that J.E. Tyler was justified in saying that "through all the diversified stages of society--from the lowest barbarism to the highest cultivation of civilized life--where the true religion has been professed, no less than where paganism has retained its hold, recourse has been had to oaths as affording the nearest approximation to certainty in evidence, and the surest pledge of the performance of a promise." This last phrase furnishes us with a good working definition of an obligation; it is the solemn pledge to perform a promise.

 

II In old England, when Masonry was still purely operative, obligations were in use in all sections of society, but the most solemn of all was the obligation which a free man took to remain faithful to the king; that oath ran as follows: "You shall be true and faithful to our Sovereign Lord the King." Brother R. F. Gould is of the opinion that this oath was the original of the Masonic obligation because the earliest obligations found in the Old Charges are very similar to it.

 

However that may be, we are certain that the first obligations were short and simple for this is proved from the written records. This does not mean that later forms have any less validity, because, as the Institution grew in numbers and power, new duties would arise, new conditions would have to be met, and the candidate would be required to obligate himself accordingly. If the Fraternity were now to be called upon to perform some new duty to the world it could lawfully require of each candidate a pledge to do his share therein. The Masonic obligation has evolved in the past; it may continue to evolve in the future.

 

There has been much controversy among our authorities as to the substance of the earliest Masonic obligations; they have not yet arrived at unanimity but it is safe to say that a majority of them agree that they had to do chiefly with building secrets. At a time when architectural methods were the chief stock in trade of the Institution, when it made its living by the practice of them, and before handbooks of architecture were dreamed of, it seems reasonable to suppose that the candidate would have been chiefly called upon to keep these invaluable secrets to himself.

 

III But when the Institution was transformed from a craft of Masons doing operative work into a Fraternity of Masons banded together for speculative work, it was necessary to change the substance of the obligation. Trade secrets had become public property; any man could find them in printed manuals. Moreover, building came to be done by men outside the Fraternity, and it was no longer a matter of life and death to preserve building secrets. Accordingly, the obligation has changed in substance. At the present time it has no other purpose than to bind the candidate to absolute secrecy as to what goes on inside the lodge and what is done during the ceremonies of initiation. Some Masonic leaders believe that if the obligations were recast so as to oblige the candidate to nothing except the vow of secrecy that the ceremony would gain in reality and impressiveness. On that every Mason is entitled to hold his own opinion.

 

IV How much importance the Fraternity attaches to the obligation itself is shown by the elaborate precautions which are thrown about it and by the careful method whereby the candidate is put in position to take it. "Due form" simply means that he is in a posture which is a fitting form in which to make such a vow; the term itself is of comparatively recent American origin but the ceremony represented by it is probably as old as the Craft itself. One touch of flippancy or carelessness in giving or in taking the obligation would rob it of much of its impressiveness.

 

V Veils must be thrown about the penalties of the obligation for there is nothing in all the ceremonies more secret than these; nevertheless i