THE BUILDER November 1917

DISCOURSE ON THE FELLOWCRAFT DEGREE
BY BRO. ARTHUR E. WAITE, ENGLAND

BRETHREN of the Order, and those among you in particular who have
been received recently among us, there is no period too early to
conceive a just and commensurate notion of the great institution to
which we belong, and in which we have been incorporated as a part
of its living body. It is desirable, in the first place, that we
should understand certain intimations which occur in the Grade of
Neophyte and in that of Fellow Craft. They are open on their
surface to misconstruction, and did we afterwards pursue our
researches into the history of Emblematic Freemasonry, it might
even be thought that they were untrue unless we carried them
further than is done commonly. Moreover, in the absence of such
researches, they might come to be regarded as so many figures of
speech.

The Entered Apprentice is told at an early stage of his experience
that the Order possesses great and inestimable privileges as well
as those secrets and mysteries concerning which he is sworn to
inviolable secrecy. You will observe that the privileges are
enumerated separately from the secrets, though the latter stand
also for privileges. Among these I will particularise the Signs and
Words of the successive Degrees. The privileges imparted by these
include the right of entrance to a Lodge, as a guest or subscribing
member. They are the titles of our initiation and assuredly they
are more than valuable after their own kind, but they do not
respond in themselves to the very wide claim which I have
mentioned. I conceive therefore that there are other privileges.
These are not, however, to be identified with the things implied by
the great principles of the Order, precious as are the latter to
our hearts, and advantageous as it must ever be to dwell within a
circle of fellowship which recognises the principles of solidarity
and will at need extend them in good will to us. They are not in
the category of those things which we seek to reserve to worthy men
alone. They are rather the marks, seals and characters which it is
our sacred duty to display and by which Masonry is known all over
the world in its practice of beneficence, benevolence and
fraternity, by the love of moral truth and by the truth which
abides in honour. I conclude, therefore, that the reference to
inestimable privileges is itself in the nature of a mystery and
covers things which do not exactly appear on the literal side of
our rituals. This is the first point which I am now seeking to
commemorate.

The second is concerned more especially with the obligation of the
Neophyte Grade in which the Candidate is pledged to hele, conceal
and never reveal the secret art and hidden mysteries of Masonry. I
believe that after a little reflection I shall carry with me the
concurring voice of every Brother amongst us, if I say that this
pledge, with the penalties attached thereto, must cover more than
the simple signs, tokens, words and procedure which takes place in
our Lodges, or too elaborate machinery may be thought to be put in
motion than the-end appears to require. Hence again it seems
certain that the reference to secret arts and hidden mysteries is
itself in the nature of a mystery and covers things which do not
precisely appear on the literal surface of our Rituals. This is the
next point which I am seeking to commemorate here.

For the third, we must pass from the Grade of Initiate or Neophyte
to that of Fellow Craft, in which there is a brief but singularly
pregnant account (1) of that which was attained by the Candidate
when he was made an Entered Apprentice; and (2) of that which he is
expected to perform in his new capacity as a Craftsman. In the one
it is pointed out that he has made himself acquainted with the
principles of moral truth and virtue. Now, this is literally true,
subject to a single reserve: as one newly admitted, he was not
intended to be tried beyond his strength: the principles which he
is said to have acquired were in reality communicated to him
without action on his own part, but he was left in the First Degree
to reflect upon them. They are actually the root matter and sum
total of moral truth and all natural virtue. It is otherwise in the
Degree of Fellow Craft. There it is assumed that the Masonic
horizon has opened before and about him, and that he is prepared to
enter an almost immeasurable region. He is accordingly advised (1)
that he is expected to make the liberal arts and sciences his
future study, and (2) that he is permitted to extend his researches
into the hidden mysteries of Nature and science. Once again, this
is an intimation which covers much more than appears on the literal
surface and is a mystery which is expressed shortly but not
explained in our Rituals. Here is the third point which I am now
seeking to commemorate.

Let us see if there is any direction in which we can turn for a
little light on these problems, and as it so happens we shall not
have to go outside the Lodge itself.

On his first entrance into Freemasonry the newly received Brother
will perceive that he has come into a world of emblems or
symbolism, and that whatsoever takes place therein has a meaning
behind it which is by no means indicated invariably on the surface.
Sometimes, and indeed frequently, there is more than one inward
meaning, depending on the point of view from which it is
approached. The Lodge is an eloquent example of this truth. When
its door opens for the Candidate he enters into an institution
which has its branches spread over the four quarters of the globe.
It may be a very small Lodge: it may be a Lodge of poor Brothers
only: but whosoever is received therein is recognised through the
Masonic world, in all countries and among all peoples. But there is
more even than this: however humble in its appointments and
proportions, that Lodge is a Microcosm, a symbol, a speaking
likeness of universal Freemasonry. It represents also and contains
the life of Masonry, and the Ceremony of his initiation integrates
the new-made Brother in that peculiar quality of life which is the
principle and essence of the Order. He becomes part of an organic
whole. In the third place, the Lodge is held to represent the three
dimensions of space--that is to say, the universe itself as a
cosmos: in length from East to West, in breadth between North and
South, in depth from the surface to the centre, and even as high as
the heavens.

It is therefore as if the Candidate on his initiation had been born
anew into the universe, or that a door had opened to admit him into
another cosmos. He comes with his eyes dim and with a restraint
about him; he is kept for a considerable period in a state of
darkness and bondage: ultimately he is instructed, and that which
he finds about him is truly the symbolic representation of a new
world. For him at that moment all things seem to be renewed, and it
is very soon after this strange and wonderful experience that he is
given a key to the meaning. He is told that he is the corner stone
of a new foundation, from which he has to build up himself after
another and higher manner. In other words, he has to remake his
inward nature according to the perfection of the standard which is
prescribed by Masonry. It is a moral standard in respect of his
dealings with his Brethren and with mankind at large. It is a
spiritual standard in respect of his duty towards God, and through
obedience thereto it is hoped, held and known that he will ascend
to the home of the spirit in the heavenly kingdom, by means of the
ladder of Jacob, the successive rounds of which are called by many
names, but chief among these are faith, hope and charity. It
follows that he has a two-fold work to perform, but it is all in
the training of himself. If he be successful, the result will be
perfect in its parts and honourable to the builder. From this point
of view, the just, perfect and regular Lodge is also a symbol of
the man in that state which he is called to attain.

Now, the word initiate, with which we are so familiar in Masonry,
signifies a person who has made a new beginning, who has entered a
path of experience heretofore untravelled. Its equivalent in other
orders and fraternities is the word Neophyte. The Neophyte is also
one who has made a new beginning and the term, which is Greek in
its origin, signifies him who is reborn, a new plant, one who is
remade. In the old instituted mysteries, like those of Samothrace,
of Egypt and of Eleusis, the Candidate was regenerated or reborn--
he was otherwise transferred or grafted--at the beginning of his
experience, and afterwards he passed through successive stages of
a new life till he attained the culminating Grade. It was the same
experiment as that of Craft Masonry, in which the Candidate-- as an
Entered Apprentice--lays the foundation stone of that new building
which is himself, raises a super structure according to the law and
order that Masonry has imposed upon him, continues the erection as
a Craftsman, in which Degree the mysteries of Nature and science,
recommended to his study, are mysteries of God and the estimation
of His wonderful works till at last he puts on the capstone when
the Lodge is open in the Sublime Grade of Master.

Our secret art is therefore an art of life, an art of perfection,
an art of creation according to a prescribed standard recognised in
Masonry: our hidden mysteries are those of our own relations to
God, man and the universe, that we may be enabled to fulfill by
Masonry the higher law of our being. The inestimable privileges of
Masonry include those of its symbolism, the study of which is for
our instruction in this high mode of selfbuilding. The arts and
mysteries which we are pledged to conceal from the profane are also
those of the peculiar law of life in Masonry by which these ends
can be reached. Those who are outside the Lodge must come within
it, if they desire to share in that life. It is really
incommunicable beyond the mystic circle, for the simple reason that
it is life itself and not one of its substitutes. While therefore
we are properly pledged concerning it, there is something which we
could not impart even if we tried. In some of the old mysteries,
from which we are indirectly descended, initiation and its sequels
meant real instruction in this subject, and several of our most
suggestive intimations are reflections from that remote source.

And seeing that the Grade of Master Mason is not so much a
reflection as the very root, essence and quintessence, of those
mysteries, and may be shortly described as an experiment in the
deep mystery by which the soul passes through mortal life towards
that life in God which is the end of all the mysteries, it comes
about in this manner, my Brethren, that we are incorporated with
all the great orders and sodalities of the far past and are
therefore justified when we say that the meaning of our Masonic
Badge is more ancient than the Golden Fleece and that our
honourable institution--though under many transformations--has
subsisted from time immemorial.

"WHO DREAMS SHALL LIVE"

Who dreams shall live! And if we do not dream 
Then we shall build no Temple into Time. 
Yon dust cloud, whirling slow against the sun, 
Was yesterday's cathedral, stirred to gold 
By heedless footsteps of a passing world. 
The faiths of stone and steel are failed of proof, 
The King who made religion of a Sword 
Passes, and is forgotten in a day. 
The crown he wore rots at a lily's root, 
The rose unfurls her banners o'er his dust.

The dreamer dies, but never dies the dream, 
Though Death shall call the whirlwind to his aid, 
Enlist men's passions, trick their hearts with hate, 
Still shall the Vision live! Say nevermore 
That dreams are fragile things. What else endures 
Of all this broken world save only dreams!
--Dana Burnet.

