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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



without publicity or ostentation — this, and noth- 

 ing less, is the purpose, the labor of the craft. 

 This is incumbent on every Mason, whatever his 

 abilities or his opportunities, but it involves also 

 a devout and intelligent study of the sciences, as 

 the works of the Great Architect of the universe. 



The materials on which the operative mason 

 has to work, and each implement he employs in 

 his art, are to the modern mason, as they were 

 to his forefathers, the builders of the glorious 

 cathedrals of the middle ages, pregnant with 

 symbolic meaning. Our common humanity, the 

 equality of all men, whatever their accidents of 

 birth and education, in the sight of God and of 

 the law, is illustrated by the level ; uprightness 

 of conduct is seen in the plummet ; the compass 

 teaches the mason to circumscribe his desires by 

 reason and prudence, and to confine his indul- 

 gence within the limits of strict moderation ; the 

 twenty -four-inch rule represents the twenty-four 

 hours of the day, which are to be duly appropri- 

 ated to labor and refreshment, to rest and to 

 prayer ; the gavel, the trowel, the square, and 

 the ladder, have each their lessons to the mind 

 of the thoughtful Mason, which are inculcated 

 and expounded in the work of the lodge. The 

 legend of the craft, the charges and ceremonies, 

 everything, in short, which is said or done in 

 their assemblies, is designed to make the Mason 

 a better citizen, a better subject, a better man — 

 to teach him his duty to God, his neighbor, and 

 his brother in the craft. 



That many thoughtless, and not a few unwor- 

 thy men have gained admission into the society, 

 and that the symbolism just alluded to is to 

 many little more than a form of words, it would 

 be folly to deny ; but this does not detract from 

 the purity of the principles or the grandeur of 

 the aims which it sets before its members ; it 

 amounts to no more than a confession that Ma- 

 sonry is not exempt from the imperfections inci- 

 dent to every human system. 



Unfortunately, though the old Masons of 

 England have bequeathed to us a rich legacy of 

 Masonic lore and moral teachings in illustration 

 of the emblems of the craft, they have, so far 

 from throwing any light on the past history of 

 Masonry, greatly increased the difficulties which 

 naturally surround such an inquiry ; while the 

 vagaries of the erratic sects which arose in the 

 degenerate period of the craft have made confu- 

 sion worse confounded. 



Our ritual and symbols being full of allusions 

 to the Biblical period of Jewish history, and 

 bearing perhaps some remote resemblance to the 



mysteries of the ancients, enthusiasts have im- 

 agined that our history could be traced back 

 into the cloudy mists of antiquity. Instead of 

 inquiring when and how these ceremonies were 

 incorporated into our system, they have taken 

 it for granted that they were directly derived 

 from the earliest sources, and that Masonry 

 flourished full - blown under the patronage of 

 King Solomon. Each fancied resemblance or 

 agreement with some symbol or reputed custom 

 of the mysteries of the Eleusinians and Essenes, 

 or with the rites of the ancient Indians and Egyp- 

 tians, has been taken for a safe guide and clew 

 to a more or less close connection between these 

 and Freemasonry, and imagination has provided 

 what history has failed to transmit of the doc- 

 trines, practices, and secrets, of these heteroge- 

 neous sects. 



It might seem needless to insist on the ab- 

 surdity of such wild speculations, were it not 

 that the authentic or legendary history of Solo- 

 mon's temple is interwoven with every part of 

 our system, and that we are thereby apparently 

 placed in the painful dilemma of being compelled 

 either to claim an antiquity for which there is 

 not the slightest warrant, or to renounce the 

 cherished associations of our beautiful ritual and 

 symbolical system. 



There is, however, a third alternative. We 

 said that we were, as Masons, engaged in the 

 erection of a spiritual temple, and, if we once 

 fairly apprehend this idea, we shall see that noth- 

 ing could have been found more fit, or could more 

 strongly testify to the wisdom and piety of our 

 forefathers in the craft, than the choice of this 

 sacred allegory, which stamps the whole system 

 with a religious character, and directs our thoughts 

 to the volume of the sacred law which lies open 

 in front of the Master's chair. The theory which 

 connects the Eleusinian mysteries of Greece with 

 Freemasonry has always found adherents ; we 

 shall, however, dismiss it with the observation 

 that such resemblances, if they exist at all, exist 

 rather in modern than in ancient Masonry. The 

 ancient mysteries were essentially religious and 

 pagan, the idea of a " craft " being totally absent, 

 indeed foreign to the whole system. In Free- 

 masonry, on the contrary, the essential idea 

 which underlies and is assumed in every part, is 

 that of a company of operative masons, working 

 under the direction of masters and architects. 

 On this the religious and philosophical element 

 is an accretion ; the craft has been elevated and 

 spiritualized, but it remains a craft. If, then, we 

 are to seek an origin among the institutions of 



