December, 1949
Contents
EDITORIAL COMMENT HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE MASONIC RITUAL
MEMBERS OR MASONS The Evolution of Our Modern Tracing Board
HARRY ELLSWORTH BLOOM, M.P.S. THE LETTER G
FIAT LUX
THE PHILALETHES SOCIETY NEWS
CHRISTMAS is the season of sentiment, when the whole world resounds with the message of peace and good will toward all. It is at Christmas time, more than any other, perhaps, when love for home and loved ones expresses itself in joyous giving, when one's heart is stirred with deeper emotions and when the family circle becomes his greatest joy.
HOW many old recollections and how many dormant sympathies Christmas time awakens! . . . Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home. - Charles Dickens.
TO ME there is something inspiring in the story of the father who tucked into the stocking of his son on Christmas Eve this message: "I promise to give to you, during the coming year, ten hours of my time each week, to do with what you will. This will mean that we can have hikes together, go to ball games together, or to the circus, and have fun being pals." While we are giving gifts we often forget to give ourselves. And how much of ourselves there is to give - smiles, words of encouragement, help to worthy causes, little thoughtful acts of kindness. We can give of ourselves to increase the happiness-moments in the lives of all of those we contact. Giving liberally of ourselves is the secret of greater happiness in the home, greater success in business. The great givers live the most glorious lives.
AT CHRISTMAS time even ordinary things take on a mysterious glamour. Enveloping the world is a strange atmosphere which exhilarates and stimulates us. We seem to walk on higher ground. As we walk the streets and the falling flakes of snow use see in many yards the evergreens glowing with colored lights, and catch glimpses of lighted Christmas trees through the windows of the homes we pass. Lighted Christmas trees are an integral part of Christmas. They are, it seems to me, especially symbolic of the message of Christmas. The green lights suggest that the plants of faith and hope are coming up again in humanity's garden. The red lights are symbolic of life more abundant - of laughter and happiness. The blue lights, color of the sky, bring the message that a man may reach again toward the stars, and make his dreams come true. The white lights suggest ideals - the ideals of human service, neighborliness, peace, sacrifice. One who has grasped the true spirit of Christmas looks at the shining trees and resolves to light again in his own personality those radiant qualities of noble living - of which the Christmas lights are symbols.
"SINCE man by nature is a social being and must in all things associate with others, the primary requirement for people in all walks of life is that they be able to 'get along with' others." This sage observation was made by E. D. Rivers of Georgia. "In doing this, man must first inspire trust and confidence of those with whom he associates. He must be co-operative. Our leaders are not followed because they are domineering, but because they are co-operative, because they work with others in achieving what the majority wants. In every phase of life, in every type of endeavor, there is no better principle to follow than the Golden Rule. It leads to all the desirable things of life and excludes the undesirable. At times it may seem hard to follow, but those who have followed it all the way have never been wrong." No man has ever been really successful in private or public life unless he has been able to get along with other people and deserve their respect and good will by giving as much or more in return.
"BE PREPARED," say Boy Scouts of America. No finer phrase was ever coined. It applies alike to young and old. Be prepared to take full advantage of the many opportunities that individual initiative and individual ambition uncover in this land of liberty in which we are privileged to live. The urge for self-improvement is the basic foundation for all systems of education and human progress. Develop your intellectual curiosity and the will to satisfy that curiosity. Cultivate your mind. Train your thinking processes so cope with the problems in which you are interested, and your interests will lead you into a wider field of endeavor. From preparedness come dividends - in material wealth, to be sure - but the satisfaction of mind and conscience that flows from the capable, full and efficient discharge of daily responsibilities far transcends material wealth in importance. The multiplication of responsibilities, which naturally follows, is the reward of appreciation and the introduction to greater opportunity. Be prepared for a successful life, and you will live happily and successfully.
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HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE MASONIC RITUAL
By Robert J. Meekren, F.P.S., Stanstead, (Quebec), Canada
The author reserves the right to republish this chapter in whole or in part)
Chapter II
THE BEST account so far as I know of the genealogies, so to speak, of the official work adopted and promulgated by the Grand Lodges of the United States of America is an address on the Causes of Divergence in Ritual, given by Brother Roscoe Pound, Dean of Harvard Law School, to the Harvard Chapter of the Acacia Fraternity in 1912. It was subsequently published in the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1915 (page 143), and two years later it was reproduced in "The Builder," Volume 3, November, 1917, page 4 of the Correspondence Circle Bulletin. Of the divergencies themselves not much is said, not very much could be written, but their external history is very fully and quite adequately dealt with. Briefly this thesis is summed up in the following points:
1. Masonry was first introduced into America from Britain before there were any standard rituals in existence, and even before there was generally accepted authority.
2. At a later date Lodges were organized under each of the two Grand Lodges in England, the Ancients and Moderns, and a few under the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and presumably all the Lodges thus warranted (or as we now say chartered) followed the ritual system of the Grand Lodge under which they worked.
3. Literal knowledge of ritual was not regarded as of importance till the end of the 18th century in England and the first quarter of the 19th century in America.
4. There were several foci distributing points, so to speak, from which ritual knowledge spread; and these were chiefly Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
5. Each new Grand Lodge was (in most cases) formed by Lodges deriving from different Grand Lodges previously existing. The result being either the selection of the ritual of one of these, or a new composite ritual.
6. In addition there have been deliberate revisions or changes made, openly and acknowledged, and other modifications brought in, sub rosa, by Grand Lecturers and Custodians of the work and such like; people who were sure they were right and everyone else wrong, and who taught their innovations as being the true, original, honest-to-goodness Masonic work.
The above is not exactly as Brother Pound put it but it is, I think, a fair summary of what he said. And it is all agreeable to well-established historical facts. There is one thing I would call in question, and it is not of great importance; literal knowledge of the ritual was not regarded as essential under any of the British Grand Lodges in the latter part of the 18th century, or indeed till some time after the Union of the Grand Lodge of Ancients and Moderns in 1813. The real fact is that there was no "ritual" anywhere in the sense of a standard formulary. What under all the Grand Lodges did exist were the Lectures, the Masonic catechisms; and the particular variant known in each Lodge was taught to all the members by the old-fashioned and out of date method of catechizing them. The lecture in such a degree "went around" as it is put in some old minutes. Each brother was asked a question in turn. When it came to working degrees, the officers more or less improvised what they had to say from their knowledge of the appropriate lecture.
There are a few other points in the address to which exception must be taken, chiefly where Brother Pound depended on older authorities and had not investigated for himself. And here I would offer a safe rule for the would-be student, never accept anything respecting the ritual on the mere assertion of any authority whatsoever, however authoritative he is supposed to be, and that naturally includes myself. But to return to the subject. Brother Pound says that it was Preston who "made it the correct thing in England to know the ritual accurately." I have just said there was no ritual then - but "ritual" is a word of wide and therefore vague meaning. I limit it to the forms and ceremonies of initiation, passing and raising, but if the lectures are the ritual, or even included under it, then the sweeping negative must be modified accordingly. The facts are these: William Preston (Mackey's Encyclopedia has a very good account of his life and work) compiled a set of Lectures. I believe there is a full transcript of them in the archives of Antiquity Lodge in London, made by one of his disciples after his death, but this is inaccessible unfortunately. However, a Syllabus was published (also after his death), in which the headings of the sections and clauses are given, with catch words to aid the memory. From this, having knowledge of the general run of the Modern lectures of the period, it is possible to make out the sequence of subjects and a good deal of their content. The arrangement is in many respects quite different from any other known form and is undoubtedly due to Preston himself. It was these lectures he desired to perpetuate through the Chapter of Harodim and the famous Preston bequest, now used for quite a different purpose.
As I am not writing a criticism of Brother Pound's work, I will only touch on one other matter, and this is important for the present purpose. He thinks that early in the 18th century the "Masters Part" or degree was "often omitted as a formal ceremony and the secrets simply communicated." He gives no reason for the opinion. But as the raising in those days as worked by the Moderns especially, required the presence of no more than three Masters, and could hardly have taken more than fifteen or twenty minutes at most, there does not seem to have been any need to reduce the ritual to bare communication. He asserts his belief in the antiquity of the ceremony in which I most fully concur, but he bases his belief chiefly, as it would appear, on the paper by the Rev. C. J. Ball, read before the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1892 and published in part in Volume V of their Transactions, Ars Quotuor Coronatorum, or A.Q.C. for short. In spite of his being one of the foremost specialists in Semitic languages of his generation, I am of the opinion that his argument is whole irrelevant. It was based chiefly on the etymology of the Master's Word, treated as of Hebrew derivation. This part of the paper was not published. For the same reason that led to its omission I can hardly give my reason in full here, but I do have reasons for believing the word to be in reality derived from an Aryan language, very likely Celtic or pre-Celtic, and to have had a literal meaning very different from any of the interpretations now current but which may have meant figuratively, though not literally, "Great Chief" or ''Great Master."
The chief reason for believing in the antiquity of the Master's grade, which is the original Fellow or Fellow of Craft, is the fact that it is a psychological impossibility that it could have been invented in the 18th century. And this is corroborated by the fact that not till after 1750 was anything much made of it. Its symbolism and allegorization was all, so far as existing evidence indicates, subsequent to that date. Before that it was what an anonymous French writer called it in 1745, "a singular ceremony" and nothing more.
We shall now consider an article first published, it is said, in the Boston Masonic Monthly in 1863 and reprinted several times in various periodicals, among them in The Builder for December, 1915. The author's name is unknown; at least it is not given. It is very different from Brother Pound's work. I am considering it because it embodies what might almost be called the accepted myth about the American ritual. Both Mackey and Pike, among a multitude of other and "lesser lights," more or less held by it, and the fictions it contained will go on being repeated and believed in spite of anything that may be said here or elsewhere. However, I am writing for those who prefer truth to imaginative creations, however enticing and interesting they may be.
But to do justice to the author of the article under consideration it must be said that the first paragraphs are unexceptionable. He speaks of the regrettable ignorance of Masons generally as to the history of the ritual, and the common attitude, due to this ignorance, in holding that the particular ritual they know is a sacred Landmark and that everything that differs from it is wrong. All, which is unfortunately as true today as it was then. And if the 'history' he proceeds to give is fictional, I am not sure that any of us could have done much better in his day and under his circumstances. Most of it he derived, as I should judge, from Dr. Oliver, and it is very likely that Dr. Oliver in turn got a good deal of it from his predecessors. That is, it was a tradition. If only a tradition of accuracy and understanding could be established, as persistent and as tenacious of life as those of fallacies and fairy tales !
Returning to this modern "legend of the Craft," we are told, ignoring sundry minor erroneous or doubtful matters, that:
1. Dr. Anderson, at the same time as he was compiling the Book of Constitutions (published in 1723) "arranged the 'lectures' for the first time into the form of question and answer."
2. The Grand Lodge ordered that these new lectures should be used in all Lodges.
3. Later on the imperfections of these lectures becoming apparent, they were revised by Martin Clare, a school master and a physical scientist of the day, as also was Dr. Desaguliers. This is said to have been in 1782.
4. A few years later Thomas Dunckerley considerably extended and improved the lectures. The "few years" could not have been less than twenty for he was not initiated till 1754 and hardly in a position to teach new lectures till 1766 or later, being constantly at sea in the naval service
5. Yet in spite of this incoherence of dates we are told "the lectures of Dunckerley continued to be the standard in England until 1763, when the Rev. William Hutchinson revised and improved them." Hutchinson incidentally was a lawyer, not a clergyman.
6. Then we are told that in 1772 this revised and improved set of standard lectures were superseded by those of William Preston, and that "his system continued to be the standard in England until the "Union of the two Grand Lodges ( i.e. those of the Ancients and Moderns) in 1813, "when a committee, of which Dr. Hemming was the chairman and leading mind, compiled the form now generally used in the English Lodges."
Samuel Hemming, incidentally, was a clergyman and a doctor of divinity, but the body over which he presided was a Lodge, composed of nine Ancient and nine Modern Masons of whom he was one. It was constituted by a temporary warrant, under the title of the Lodge of Reconciliation, by the Duke of Sussex, the first Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge. The members were all men of position and intelligence, and there is nothing in the minutes of the Lodge to indicate that any one of them was so outstanding as to be the "leading mind." The most marked feature of the changes they made was the elimination of every direct reference to Christianity, and was almost certainly and largely due to deference to the views of the Duke of Sussex, who was in his own religious belief a Unitarian.
Now let us consider the actual facts. There is first of all no evidence whatever that Anderson ever had anything to do with the ritual. It is certain the Grand Lodge never gave him any orders or authority to meddle with it, and the lectures long before his time were catechisms, or as they were sometimes called, "examinations," and were always arranged as questions and answers. Martin Clare did give lectures in his own Lodge, and by invitation in other Lodges, but they were scientific lectures accompanied by physical experiments. There is no indication anywhere that Dunckerley ever compiled a set of lectures or revised those in use. Hutchinson like Clare gave lectures in his Lodge and these were Masonic lectures. Actually they were addresses, or "talks," explaining the ritual and the catechisms; for it is clear enough from his book, "Light on Masonry," that he accepted those that were current in the North of England in his day as a sacred deposit from antiquity. Preston did compile a set of catechisms, and out of the whole list of alleged revisers he is the orally one who actually did anything of the kind. The material he used was not all new, perhaps none of it, but the arrangement, as has been said above, was different from any lectures in use before or since. Outside of his own Lodge they had little or no influence. Preston only lived five years after the Union and the abortive efforts of the Lodge of Reconciliation to standardize the "lectures." But his elaborate school, the Chapter of Harodim, continued to teach his system for some years after his death I believe; however it was not very long before it died of inanition. That it was continued at all under the new regime shows how little idea of the desirability of rigid uniformity existed in the Grand Lodge or among the Craft. The only thing insisted upon by the authorities was that the secrets communicated were to be the same in all Lodges and that the contents of the obligations administered should be equivalent. Outside of that, and it was so stated in Grand Lodge by the Grand Master in person, every Master of a Lodge was left free to teach the lectures he knew best, or such as he and his Lodge preferred; which meant in effect that the Ancient Lodges went on using Ancient lectures and the Moderns continued those they were accustomed to. Yet even so there were variations in each group, with the result that many of the older Lodges in Great Britain still retain their own peculiar usages.
The later history of the ritual in England largely centers around the Lodges of Instruction, of which Emulation and Stability are best known, while the Grand Lodge maintains a benevolent neutrality towards all variations, and steadily refuses official approval to any form. Even in America, at the beginning of the 19th century there seems to have been little desire to enforce a rigid uniformity in the "work." At least a report of a joint committee between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, appointed to consider the Webb lectures, had this to say: it is quoted by the author of the article we have been considering. I have not been able to verify it, but I have no doubt it is correct. ".... and they (the committee) deem it expedient that in the three degrees every Master of a Lodge should be indulged with the liberty of adopting historical details and the personification of the passing scene, as most agreeable to himself, his supporting officers and assisting Lodge."
This certainly is no dotting of "i"s and crossing "t"s !
The further consideration of the Webb-Preston myth must, however, be left for another chapter.
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Every true Craftsman worthy to bear the name of Freemason has enlisted and pledged the last ounce of his strength to defend the precious heritage of free institutions and American ideals, which has come down to us from out of the service and the sacrifice of those who, with the love of God in their hearts, reared a government on the foundation of liberty, equality and true fraternity. - Leon M. Abbott.
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By Gabriel Ruscitti, M.P.S.
Berkeley, California
NO WHOLE is better than its component parts. If Freemasonry is to continue its noble objective and maintain its dignified record, we must not and cannot deviate from the standards set forth by our leaders of the past. Accordingly, the induction into our Order of applicants merits the keenest of judgement. Great caution should be exercised in the admittance of new candidates.
Participation into our Fraternity with enthusiasm and reverence for its spiritual philosophy should be a "must" in a new Mason. We believe "as one" in the teachings of Freemasonry, for, in our spiritual solidarity depends the strength and growth of our institution. This cannot be accomplished without exemplary conduct reflecting day by day thinking and living in accordance with the basic principles of Freemasonry.
It is obvious then, that the applicant being considered must possess a genuine aptitude for our work along with the desire to join. The Symbolic Lodge is or should be cognizant of this very important stipulation and in accepting applicants no circumstance, no matter how expedient, justifies ignoring the principles involved. A Freemason is duty-bound not to recommend anyone unless he is reasonably certain that he will prove a credit to the Fraternity in general and his Lodge in particular. We, in building character, like the Craft in building an edifice, have certain specifications that must be met. The plans of our Supreme Architect cannot be put to work without zealous and competent workers.
One must not lose sight of the fact the candidate is in the "dark" about everything pertaining to his undertaking. He thinks he would like to be a Freemason for one or more reasons none of which includes "any knowledge of the science and philosophy of Freemasonry." He cannot be sure it is what he wants until the Third Degree and some knowledge of our work is his. Then, the kind of a man we accept as a candidate will determine whether or not Freemasonry has won another disciple and a credit to the Fraternity or the Symbolic Lodge another member, one who will drop in occasionally when time permits, or stops coming entirely after a few meetings.
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Although there is no connection between English Freemasonry and the Chinese Triad Society, both are founded on the "practice of moral and social virtue," and "brotherly love, relief and truth" are inculcated by their precepts, while a distinguishing characteristic is "charity." Owing to the similarity of its principles and the Chinese reference to the "square and compass," the Chinese society is known in English-speaking countries as the Chinese Masonic Society.
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Operative Lodge No. 150, of Aberdeen, Scotland, is entirely composed of Masons who are or have been operative stone-masons, while Lodge No. 8, of Edinburgh is named "The Lodge of Journeymen Masons."
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The Evolution of Our Modern Tracing Board
By V.W. Bro. Norman B. Spencer, P. Pres. B.G.P.; P. G. Lecturer
Past Master, United Masters Lodge No. 167, Auckland, New Zealand
THE TRACING Boards differ in different Lodges, particularly the older ones. The reason for this is that although Grand Lodge acknowledges the existence of Tracing Boards, as they are anointed at the consecration of a new Lodge, it lays down no particular pattern or shape for them.
Now let us see what our rituals say about the Tracing Board. In the explanation of the Tracing Board of the first Degree we find the following: "The immovable Jewels are the Tracing Board and the rough and perfect Ashlars. The Tracing Board is for the Master to lay lines and draw designs upon.... They are called immovable jewels because they lie open and immovable in the Lodge for the Brethren to moralize upon. As the Tracing Board is for the Master to lay lines and draw designs on the better to enable the Brethren to carry on the intended structure with regularity and propriety, so the V.S.L. may justly be deemed to be the spiritual Tracing Board of the G.A.O.T.U....."
If you examine this passage, you will find a strange inconsistency. If the Tracing Board is for the Master to "lay lines and draw designs on," then it must surely be a plain and clear drawing board without anything already painted on it. On the other hand, if it is for "the Brethren to moralize on," it surely must be more than a plain and clear drawing board. The explanation is that two separate boards are referred to. The first, the real Tracing Board, is a plain drawing board depicted on the First Degree board in front of the pedestal, and the second, the Lodge Board, is what is usually known to us as the Tracing Board, with the various symbols and emblems upon it.
It is with the second of these boards, the Lodge Board or, as it used to be called, "The Lodge," that we are concerned. I will endeavor to show you how and why it came to be in our Lodges and how it took its present form and became associated with the various symbols and emblems which we see painted upon it.
Our inquiry falls naturally into three parts. Firstly, the use of the Tracing Board among the Operative Masons of ancient times. Secondly, the evolution of the Modern Tracing Board from the drawing on the floor, used for a considerable time after the transition from Operative to Speculative Masonry. Thirdly, the development of our modern Tracing Board from the Tracing Boards and cloths which first came into general use at the close of the 18th century.
There is no doubt that among the ancients, particularly the Egyptians, a Tracing Board of sorts was in use, as the remains of many of them have been found alongside the ruins of ancient buildings. They were ruled in squares, and the plan of the building represented a certain number of bricks or cubes of stone, and the builder was thus able to get the proportions of the building right. This method was also used by the sculptors. The architect usually cut the Tracing Board in the stone somewhere near to his building. Many of these exist to the present day. It gradually became the custom to draw these Tracing Boards on the floor of the workroom where it would be convenient for all the workmen to see them. This custom still persists in Persia at the present day, after 4000 years. The squares are laid out on the floor of the workroom, and the plan of the building to be erected is marked out and each square represents four bricks.
Undoubtedly the Tracing Board formed a very important part in the equipment of the ancient builders, particularly when we consider that the secrets which they so zealously guarded were probably the properties of the right angled triangle, known as the 47th proposition of Euclid, and certain properties of the circle. It was the knowledge of these which enabled them to draw their plans so accurately.
We will now pass on to the dawn of Speculative Masonry, more than 200 years ago. It should not surprise us to find a considerable portion of the ceremony connected with a drawing on the floor of the Lodge room. In those days Lodges usually met in some well-known inn or tavern. The furnishings of such a place would be very plain, and the floor would consist of boards sprinkled with sand or rushes. When a degree was being worked a space in front of the Master's pedestal would be swept clear. On this cleared space it was the Tyler's duty to draw with chalk and charcoal a design in the form of an oblong square, representing a building, with various Masonic emblems and symbols such as the square, level and plumb rule.
The best description of this drawing on the floor of the Lodge that I have been able to find is in an exposure of the year 1760, known as "Jachin and Boaz," or "An Authentic Key to the Door of Freemasonry, both Ancient and Modern," and is as follows: "He is also learnt the step or how to advance to the Master upon the drawing on the floor, which in some Lodges resembles the Grand Building, termed a Mosaic Palace, and is described with the utmost exactness. They also draw other figures, one of which is called the Laced Tuft and the other the Throne beset with stars. There is also represented a perpendicular line in the form of a Mason's instrument commonly called the Plumb-line; and another figure which represents the tomb of Hiram, the first Grand Master, who has been dead almost 3,000 years. These are all explained to him in the most accurate manner, and the ornaments or emblems of the Order are described with great facility."
After the symbols and emblems had been carefully explained to the candidate, he was given a mop and pail of water and ordered to wash out the drawing on the floor.
It was the Tyler's duty to make this drawing with chalk and charcoal. For this he received a special fee known as the Tyler's Fee, and the drawing was known as "The Lodge." In the account books of old Lodges, one frequently finds entries such as "Paid Tyler for forming a Lodge, 2/6." The drawing was a most important part of the ceremony, and a Lodge could not be held to initiate a candidate without it.
Now, as time went on, the Lodge rooms became more luxurious, and the floors were covered with carpets. It thus became impossible to draw on the floor with chalk and charcoal. Also many of the Tylers were not artists, and the resulting drawing left much to be desired. To get over this difficulty the custom gradually came in of having the drawing made on a large piece of cloth which could be placed on the floor and rolled up and put away when not in use. It is undoubtedly in these old floor cloths that our modern Tracing Boards had their origin. For the sake of convenience these cloths were placed on boards held up by two trestles known as Trestle Boards. Gradually the custom seems to have arisen of drawing the emblems on the board itself, and as the drawing on the floor was known as "The Lodge," the board became generally known as the "Lodge Board," though sometimes still called "The Lodge." For example, in the Book of Constitutions of the year 1784 there is an account of the dedication of the Freemasons' Hall, London, England, in which it states: "About half past twelve the procession entered the Hall in the following order: Grand Tyler with drawn sword, four Tylers carrying the Lodge covered with white satin...."
No fixed dates can be given for the various changes. There seems to have been no uniformity. Some Lodges appear to have had boards before they had cloths and some to have had both at once, and some to have gone straight from the drawing on the floor to the Lodge Board. Although, undoubtedly, there were Lodge Boards in existence before the year 1800, they did not come into general use till about that time. The earliest dated board still in existence is dated 1800 and belongs to Lodge Faithful, No. 85, Harleston, Norfolk, England. Within a few years of that date the Lodge Boards more or less as we know them now were in general use throughout the country. The earliest Lodge Cloth still in existence is the Kirkwall Kilwinning Scroll. This, although undated, is generally understood to go back to the year 1790. It belongs to the Kirkwall Kilwinning Lodge, No. 38. It is 18 feet, 6 inches long and 5 feet, 6 inches in width, and hangs now on the west wall of the Lodge to which it belongs. It has various panels of the Biblical and Masonic nature, while the edges depict the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, also the wanderings of the Israelites in the desert.
It is generally agreed that these floor cloths did not come into general use till about the year 1790, although there are records of some Lodges using them many years earlier. They seem to have been in general use between the years 1790 and ca. 1815, though after about the year 1800 they were gradually being replaced by the boards. These dates are only approximate as there was no uniformity at all about the changes.
The earliest record of a floor cloth occurs in the minutes of the Old Kings Arms Lodge, No. 28, on December 3, 1733, and is as follows: "The Acting-Master represented that whereas the institution of new Brethren was attended with more than ordinary and perhaps unnecessary trouble, it was, therefore, moved that a proper delineation should be made on canvas and be deposited in the Repository ready for those occasions, and Brother Hayman was appointed to take and execute the Master's directions on this point."
Also in the picture of the Mock Procession of Scald Miserable Masons, in 1740, we see a number of large banners painted with Masonic emblems. These might very well be representations of floor cloths particularly as in the key of the print below the large banner we find the following:
"The True Original Mason Lodge"
"Upon which poor old Hyram made all his entr'd 'prentices. The Masons, for want of this, are forced to make something like it with chalk on the floor whenever they take the culls in; that is when they have a making."
Some Lodges did not give up the practice of drawing the Lodge on the floor until well into the 19th century. For example, in the minutes of the Old Dundee Lodge, No. 18, the last entry of a payment to the Tyler for drawing 'The Lodge,' or framing the Lodge, as it was sometimes called, was on the 13th of February, 1812.
The conclusion seems to be that floor cloths did not come into general use until about the year 1790, although some Lodges used them very much earlier, and that Lodge Boards, or, as we now call them, Tracing Boards, began to be generally used about ten years later and gradually replaced both the floor cloths and the drawings on the floor.
These early Tracing Boards vary very much in the symbols shown and the manner in which they are depicted. No rule has been laid down by Grand Lodge as to what should be shown on the Tracing Boards or the manner in which they should be shown. It is only natural that the earliest Tracing Boards painted by different artists in different parts of the country should vary very much. Each particular artist had his own idea of what should be shown and how it should be painted. One only has to look round the Tracing Boards in use in our Lodges in Auckland to realize how they can vary even in our present day.
In the first half of the 19th century the Boards varied a great deal according to the artists, but since 1849 they have nearly all been patterned after the set painted by John Harris in that year.
The artists who have had the greatest influence in the making of our modern Tracing Board were Cole, Bowring and Harris.
John Cole first published his design of Tracing Board in his "Illustrations of Masonry," (1801). This design had a certain popularity for some years. He was the first to introduce the diamond pavement in place of the square pavement. In his design the Winding Stair begins in the N.W.
Josiah Bowring, the greatest and most correct of the old Lodge Board designers, was a portrait painter by profession. He was initiated in 1795 and died in 1831. In all Bowring's Boards "The Key that hangs" hangs from Jacob's Ladder. In the first of Bowring's Boards the Winding Star springs from the North, but in later ones it springs from the South.
John Harris is the real designer of our modern Tracing Boards. He was a miniature painter and architectural draughtsman by profession, and was made a Mason in 1818. In 1823 he published a small set of designs for a Tracing Board. In 1846 the Emulation Lodge of Improvement called for designs for new Tracing Boards. Those sent in by Harris were accepted. The prize set was used in that Lodge and a number of other sets painted for other Lodges. In 1849 he published a set which has since been used as a standard design for the Craft. In 1857 Brother Harris lost his sight and died in 1872. (May, 1949, issue, Transactions of the Masters' and Past Masters' Lodge No. 830, Christchurch, New Zealand).
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By James K. Remick, M.P.S.
San Diego, California
WE ARE frequently reminded that Masonry is a moral science. Such being the case Masons might meditate upon the fact that morality to be scientific implies more than appears to the casual concept. One definition of morals is the practice and conduct of the individual toward God and his fellow-men, and that practically covers the operation of the principle in worldly relations.
Those who have approached the three score and ten years of the earthly tenure, and have paused for a season of comparison between the social and political ideals, in the aggregate, of our day and time, and that of the past generation, must view with concern the balance sheet which discloses the assets and liabilities within the world corporation of today. It is true that within every dispensation there is a group of souls who do not seem to learn and grow mature from the lessons and experiences afforded within the earth school. They are the poor in basic principles, and who the Master stated we would always have with us. But what of the moral attainments of the vast host who do or should know and practice morality in all its implications. With all due recognition to the minority who strive for political and social morality in public life today, we might blush with shame that our people countenance the acts of groups of individuals as our leaders during recent world relations. It is not individual name labels we deal with, but conditions and phases of morals, expressed through those spiritual adolescents who conceive of expediency to acquire an end to be clever, even intelligent, it be the pathway to selfish dominion.
The results of all problems are harmonious and true, provided the equations are based upon principle and truth. The calculus of recent years as concerns world and domestic geometry has proven the fruit of a misapplied morality to the chaos and fear. The principle of morals is immutable and demonstrates peace, plenty, and National as well as individual poise, where properly applied. The reverse is just as certain, whether the motive be a conscious and determined effort at selfish practices or motivated only from ignorance of life's fundamentals.
History is replete with the record of civilizations and their governments which have persisted in the abuse of moral science. No political structure is more amenable to this plague than a Republic. Its very laws of liberty upon the whole structure to devastation by the forces of evil and protect them in the doing. These forces are ever alert to infiltrate under the white banner of altruism and progress until sufficiently entrenched to assume command.
All the dangers we see about us are not new; they have been exemplified in the history of former organized cultures, and the very lack of the science of morals has been the essence of their downfall. Why should these dangers and their authors be sequestered from public scrutiny and knowledge ? Evil and evil doers are known by their works; in like manner are the righteous observed, but too often rendered impotent. Industry, labor and business are holy things, and the regulations governing them should likewise be holy.
At the opening of the Christian era, it seems to be of record that evil forces had assumed control, but that a great economist and teacher spoke his mind that all might hear, and pronounced a phillippic directed at malfactors that has been unparalleled in our day and time. He said in part: "Woe unto you, scribes and hypocrites; for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he has become so, ye make him two fold more a son of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; but these ye aught to have done and not to have left the other undone. Ye blind guides that strain at the gnat and swallow the camel. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness."
His determination to maintain the high standards of a moral science caused His violent physical removal, but His code of ethics has endured for two thousand years as practical and acceptable, but sadly lacking in the order of the day in political and economic relations.
Representative government, with its vast field for the operation of a moral political science, is the finest of which we have knowledge and have experienced, but political moral science does not admit of the brutalities practiced to gain an end; and there are mental and spiritual brutalities as well as physical. Some of the darkest betrayals of friendship and the public welfare have been vouchsafed us in public life during the past generation. What has moral science to do with selfishness and spiritual dishonesty? Our recent record is so abundant in exhibits of the perversions of moral rectitude that he who runs may read.
We are confronted with a new generation of youth, men and women. Are they to believe that our standards are the destructive practices of unkept promises, political deceits and economic love of the dollar, rather than the love of accomplishment which produces its corresponding wealth? Are they to believe the science of morals condons the expenditure of seven times more of our earned increment on alcoholic stimulants than upon education, and all the fatal weaknesses incidental to the moral lapse?
The product of a world in turmoil would seem to display in all its sordid ramifications the false solution to problems upon which the Masonic moral science has not been applied. There is always opportunity to make use of correct morals in every phase of life problem. That moment is now, and we should be about our business, at least within the ranks of the Masonic persuasion.
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We may discover new forces, release vast stores of energy, create new substances; build up synthetic food and raw materials, and refine our manipulation of the elements, but unless we take to ourselves the age-old foundation principles of ethics inculcated in Freemasonry, our boasted progress will be simply a march to a precipice over which civilization will destroy itself.
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AN ESSAY ON GLASS AND KINDRED THINGS
By John Smith
WHEN it comes to this season of good will, with all its bustling preparation for the eventual feast, we are apt to look back to those merry days when the fields were ever-green, and riotous play was the prime object of existence. We remember those old people in quaint clothes, who had such old-fashioned ideas about how we should behave. They took such a distant delight in our exuberance.
In our thoughts we go beyond those old relations to the people of the customs of the long ago, before they were born, and think of Christmas as it was to them.
There was a time when Christmas day, still confused with the confraternity of Pagan Gods, fell on January 5th, and not on December 25th as it now does. The Puritans when they came into power abolished it altogether but it found its way back to the hearts of the people after the restoration of Charles II, and became the family affair which we know today.
The Scots, as an earnest of their sagacity, ignored this second change, and adopted Hogmanay as a counter. Now, by virtue of the ever-changing tastes of changeful man, they enjoy the best of both worlds, and keep both feasts with equal gusto.
The tendency of happy men is to be generous, and this is most potently expressed in an atmosphere of fraternal trust, where all men are hosts and the burden of the board is equally shared. It is the vanity of those who feel that they are normal, to believe that when men are truly happy their thoughts turn to good wine. It is then that the barriers of diffidence may be swept away in the convival traffic of congenial talk. Then the heavy chains of self-consciousness melt into the silken threads of brotherhood, and men become knit closely together in the bonds of an open heart.
With good wine goes good glass. When the Romans reclined at table for the feast of the Winter Solstice they draped themselves in garlands of bright flowers maidens supporting huge earthenware jars, brimful with wine, decanted these sweet waters of Bacchus into liquid cavities of the richest metal.
Today at the festival of Christmas, men of good taste bring out their finest glass to adorn the glowing picture of the feast, and many a health is drunk in earnest, and many a good friend pledged over the fragile brims.
Between these two points of time, the slow transition. in the development of glass has witnessed great improvements in the quality of the material and the finer touches of workmanship, but the technique of the glass-blower has changed in very few essentials from those far-off days when the blow-pipe was first invented between the years of 300 and 20 B.C.
Its slow development can be traced throughout Europe, from the early days of Christianity until we reach those unsurpassed examples of medieval craftsmen, which testify to their skill and complete mastery of the medium.
The records of glass making in England are extremely scarce, but we know that it was understood during the Roman Occupation, and had even by then developed a barbaric splendor, placing it in the very forefront of Celtic Art. The blow-pipe had not then reached England, and the glass vessels then being made were mainly of the built-up type, or cast in rough moulds, following closely the technique of the potter's craft.
The blow-pipe is a hollow tube between four and five feet long, having a mouth-piece of one end and a knob at the other. The worker makes a "gather" by dipping the knob-shaped end into a pot of hot viscous glass, and when the blow-pipe is dexterously removed, a mass of hot glass adheres to the end. When the worker blows into the mouth-piece, the "gather" is blown into a hollow bulb. By swinging and rotating the still hot bulb, by rolling or otherwise manipulating it with a few simple tools, and by reheating it from time to time as it cools in working, a hollow vessel of almost any symmetrical shape can be created.
When it has reached the desired shape, the bulb of glass is reheated at a suitable distance from the end, and the softened glass is then cut with a pair of shears, so leaving a bowl. The rim is then reheated and the shear marks smoothed out, until it regains its original shape. When the whole is cool it is broken off the blow-pipe, and is ready to have the stem affixed.
Beautiful as this thin plain glass is, it is greatly enhanced by being decorated either by being cut, engraved or etched.
Cutting and engraving, although separate processes are done by means of rapidly revolving wheels, against which the glass is moved by the operator, and carving of the most exquisite detail, (see illustrations) is commonplace to these skilful hands.
To etch the glass, it is first dipped into a protective paint. When this has hardened the pattern is scratched through the glass with a fine point. The surface is then treated with an acid which attacks the surface of the glass not protected by the paint. When the action of the acid ceases, the whole is washed, removing all traces of the acid and protective coating, leaving those beautiful designs which we so much admire. These methods may be used singly or in combination, and the designs which may be produced by them are manifold.
It was not until the 18th century that there was any great development in the art of glass making in England, and collectors are chiefly interested in drinking glasses, which were produced in great profusion, and adopted for every description of beverage. The most noted are the glasses with stout cylindrical legs, containing spiral threads of air, or of white or colored enamel. To this type of glass belong many of the Jacobite glasses which commemorate the old and young pretender, and a great number of Masonic glasses.
The largest glasses, known as "Goblets" or "Constables," lend themselves admirably to decoration, with their cascades of grape and vine clinging to the satin surface of the frozen crystal, kaleidoscopic with each change of liquid treasure, cupped to the brim with the gorgeous harvest of the total moments. The heart itself holds no more precious delight.
Drinking has had many rituals in the past and one with which we are still slightly acquainted was used in what were known as "Table Lodges." On those occasions there was a peculiar method of drinking which hints at our present "Masonic Fire." This introduced into use a new type of drinking glass known as a "Firing Glass," which was stoutly made with a thick bottom to withstand the shock of banging on the table. There are still some old Lodge tables in the country, which have holes beaten through the wood by the vigor of several generations of zealous Masons. The engraving on these glasses is usually a simple Masonic symbol, sometimes with the Lodge number added. Beyond this they make no claim to elegance.
Sometimes, on special occasions, these glasses are brought out today, but as the oldest among us are rather vague as to their correct use, and as modern furniture is unlikely to withstand the burden of our lusty blows, they are kept away in their lockers, often forgotten for years.
It may be of interest to mention some of the other old drinking customs in which our ancient Brethren used to indulge.
At one time it was recognized that on election to the "Chair" the Worshipful Master had to pay a "Fee of Honor," which usually consisted of a bottle or two, and often the other officers were expected to do likewise on promotion. In some of the older by-laws a specific number of bottles were mentioned. The fee was often a five pint bottle, which seems a good one to me. I have never seen a five pint bottle.
Another custom which was of a domestic nature, was when a Brother took unto himself a wife, or when he later became the father of a Lewis. Then he was pledged to eternal bliss at his own expense, according to the depth of his pocket or the brightness of his vision.
One can imagine that in those days before the mass production of pleasure, that the average man would learn to entertain his friends in some simple manner; he would play or sing, and in wine he sang lustily. Lodge histories are full of references to music, especially as one of the liberal arts which was most popular in its vocal form. When such men as Laurence Dermott could give a song in Grand Lodge and Thomas Dunckerley could give a solo in his favorite Provincial Grand Lodge, we can be assured that there was much competition among the lesser fry.
Of those old Masonic songs few have survived in the popular sense, except here and there in the provinces. There they have preserved many of the old ballads which exercised the lungs of our forefathers, and brought joy to their simple hearts.
Today we sometimes hear the "Master's Song" mumbled by assemblies who pride themselves on their antiquity, but whose stiff colors are too unyielding to allow them to bend to a spirit that seems to be forgotten.
This does not mean that we should revert to those hard drinking days so grossly depicted with Hogarthian vulgarity, in such drawings as "Night," or "Gin Lane," but rather, that in our more enlightened minds we should control ourselves sufficiently to drink enough to be happy, and not to be ill.
But there are always some occasions when even the most temperate among us, can be excused for inhibing with some freedom, and that is when we raise our glass to a friend, and say: "Here's to your health."
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On the very site of Solomon's Temple, one hears a Mohammedan trader exclaiming: Kilmeh fren-ji yeh. Loosely translated, it means: "The promise of a Nordic." It is an old Arabic expression that became crystalized in a proverb, and dates back to those days when the Crusaders fought the Saracen for the Holy Land. The followers of Islam learned that, even in war, the Northern man's pledge was never broken. He, therefore, to this day trusts those who speak English.
English-speaking America inherited her Freemasonry from Britain. From the same source came also the principles that found expression in those Masonic documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Likewise America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, all governed in the last analysis by Freemasons, have inherited from their common mother this fine sense of honor, crystallized into a proverb by the Arabs: "Kilmeh fren-ji ?yeh!" And this is a part of our culture into which so much Freemasonry has been interwoven.
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Brother Harry Ellsworth Bloom was born in Sherwood, Ohio, July 21, 1884, and spent his very early years in Ohio, but moved with his parents to Indiana, in 1900, where he received his education in the Middlebury public schools.
He developed a flair for printing, worked in Chicago, Illinois, for several years, then purchased and published the Middlebury Independent, a weekly newspaper. Within a few years he disposed of his interest in this paper and became associated with the Lerner Theatre of Elkhart, Indiana, as publicity man and house manager.
For the past fifteen years he has been associated with Harvey Wambaugh, Inc., also of Elkhart, as purchasing agent, office manager, and in publicity. At the suggestion of Mr. Wambaugh, Brother Bloom assumed the task of publishing "Temple Topics," the Masonic paper for Elkhart Freemasons and their families, a position he had filled with honor for the past eleven years. Brother Bloom is married, has one son and two grandchildren. His son, a doctor of medicine, received his Royal Arch Degree in Scotland while serving with the U.S. Navy Submarine Force during World War II.
Our Brother received the Light of Masonry October 6, 1913, was passed to a Fellow Craft on January 19, 1914, and raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason on March 2, 1914, in George Washington Lodge No. 325, F. & A.M., Bristol, Indiana. His Masonic activity include: Goshen Chapter No. 45, R.A.M.; Elkhart Council No. 79, R. & S.M.; Elkhart Commandery No. 31, K.T., and the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of South Bend, Indiana.
He was elected to membership in the Philalethes Society, in 1948, upon the recommendation of Brother Brown Cooper, M.P.S., and we are pleased to present his portrait on the cover page of this issue of "Philalethes."
L. E. W.
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A Masonic Brother in British Columbia, Canada, sent us this poser recently: "What is the signification of the finding of the Letter 'G' on the left breast of G.M.H.A., and from whence is it derived?"
While, in our opinion, this "incident" has no part in any degree of Freemasonry conferred in the United States, some of our readers may have an answer to this question; this then, is our invitation to enlighten us.
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If Freemasonry in the past 200 years had done nothing more than to give us Albert Pike, the effort would have been nobly repaid. It has given much to all of us who allow it to serve us. It has given me a greater faith not only in the future life but in this one as well. This makes it quite clear to me "what distinguishes us from the rest of mankind."
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Life is a symbol, and its mystery has in it the secret of unknown revelations.
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By Dr. Granville K. Frisbie, M.P.S.
San Diego. California
LET THERE be Light! But are we not denied this luminous presence in our lodges ? Do not misunderstand me, I do not refer to the moral and spiritual light, as that is a personal matter, of which each receives his due, I refer to the physical light, the fire which should grace our altars.
Not many years ago, before the era of electricity, our altars were lighted by a triad of burning tapers or candles, because this was the obvious way to produce light at the time, and because this custom had been handed down by our forefathers from time immemorial. With the advent of central lighting systems, lodges gradually eliminated the burning candles for the small electric globes, either because of the fuss and trouble of maintaining the burning tapers or for reasons of eliminating a fire hazard, which, perhaps, was tied in with the cost of insurance or a local fire ordinance.
I should like to examine, for a moment, if this change was wise, or as expedient as it may seem. The question of our right to abolish a time-honored practice should be reviewed and studied, perhaps, at greater length.
The opening and closing of a lodge is an ancient ceremony. Fire, to the ancients, had a symbolic meaning, in fact in the pages of the first great light of a Mason fire is a symbol of the holiness of God. Veneration for fire, as being a prototype of the sun, is literally as old as man. We all realize the importance of certain mystic moments, brought down to this very day, at our Masonic Altars. How fitting and becoming, then, an actually burning taper or candle, at such times, as contrasted with the cold and artificial glass globe of heterogeneous sizes and states of repair which do not light but enfeeble the great lights upon our altars. The very burning of the flame creates a focal point from which the eyes of man will not wander. If we value our symbolism, should we not restore this ancient and meaningful device?
In a practical sense, there is really no fire hazard involved at all, as every Mason knows. A little reflection will tell you the reason. Since it would be impossible for candles to be left unguarded, inasmuch as they burn only in a tyled lodge, the insurance reason for wired lights falls flat.
As for the inconvenience, it is not particular convenient to do many things which we do simply from habit, but we continue to perform these duties for the love of performing them. Candles of one or even two inches in diameter would last a large share of the reign of a Worshipful Master's entire year. How fitting to present an incoming Master with a set of tapers which will illumine his lodge during his entire dispensation. The very act of lighting them would blend into our ceremonies much more gracefully than our present fumbling for buttons and switches.
A return to this fine old custom, handed down through the centuries, would embarrass no one, as each lodge probably has it within its own power to readopt this practice, or to shun it.
Let the purifying light shine again in our lodge!
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New Members
Van W. Bishop; Los Angeles, California
(Vouched for by Brother William L. Simpson Worshipful Master, Garvanza Lodge No. 492, F. & A.M.)
Alphonse Cerza; Chicago, Illinois
(Recommended by Albert L. Woody, F.P.S.)
Harold Wm. Hall; Marion, Ohio
(Vouched for by Brother Fred. R. White, Worshipful Master, Marion Lodge No. 70, F. & A.M.)
Robert Luenberger; Louisville, Kentucky
(Vouched for by Brother C. Gerald Nolan, Worshipful Master, New Albany Lodge No. 39, F. & A.M.)
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Recent visitors at the home of President Walter A Quincke, F.P.S., included: William Ernest Lyon, M.P.S., of San Diego, and Mrs. Lyon; Charles P. Barrett, M.P.S., of Los Angeles, and Allister J. McKowen, F.P.S., of Los Angeles.
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The Philalethes - December, 1949; Volume 4, Number 8. - Walter A. Quincke, F.P.S., Editor-in-Chief. - The official publication of the Philalethes Society; 274 South Burlington Ave.; Los Angeles 4, California, where all communications should be directed. Publication schedule: Eight (8) issues per year or volume: January; February; March; May (April-May); July (June-July); September (August-September); November (October-November), and December. No advertising in any form is solicited or accepted. When requesting a change of address, please give the old as well as the new addresses, together with your postal zone number, if you have such. Annual subscription, in the United States of America, $3.00; elsewhere, $4.00, payable in advance. - The Philalethes INDEX, covering volumes 1, 2, and 3, will be sent gratuitously to any Freemason requesting the same. - The columns of "Philalethes" are reserved for the literary contributions of the members of the Philalethes Society, and the material is selected for its quality and timeliness rather than upon name. All published articles, however, express the ideas and opinions of their contributors only, and in no way need they be the opinion of the Society. - Member-Editors of Craft magazines, here and abroad, are privileged to reprint, in part or in full, any articles first published in "Philalethes," but are expected to give due credit to its source. - The Philalethes Society was founded October 1, 1928, and is an International Body of Freemasons who have Light to impart and Freemasons who seek more Light. The Society's current year book, "The Informant," tells the story since its inception and enlightens one on our aims. A copy will be mailed free of charge to any Freemason requesting the same and giving the name, number, and location of the Symbolic Lodge in which he holds membership.