A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF FREEMASONRY: (1) PAUL CARUS.

The following article is taken, by permission, from May issue of The Open
Court. Brother Paul Carus, the learned editor of that magazine, in a
foot-note, acknowledges his indebtedness for details to Brother Diedrich
Bischoff, of Germany.  As will be seen the position of German Freemasonry
is more especially set forth. It is for such reason more valuable to our
readers, supplementing articles prepared especially for The American
Freemason by brothers in Berlin and elsewhere. It is unusual for Masonry
to be touched upon in any worthy way in the secular press. But when a
magazine of such high class as The Open Court finds the subject worth
while, it is matter for sincere congratulation. The thanks of this editor is
certainly due our learned brother for courtesy in allowing use of the
copyrighted article.
-EDITOR FREEMASON.


INTRODUCTORY.

AGAIN and again the claim has been made that Freemasonry was founded
by King Solomon, and that Hiram of Tyre was the first Master of a Masonic
Lodge in Jerusalem when he was building the temple on Mt. Zion. 
Sometimes even more extravagant statements are made in the assertions
that Freemasonry existed among the oldest civilizations of the world.  But
it goes without saying that these generalities are not based on truth, except
in the sense that similar aspirations have existed in mankind at all times,
long before the time when the first Masonic Lodges were founded in their
present temples.

If we apply a strictly historical investigation to the subject we know that the
first Masonic Lodges with their modern tendencies rose from stone-cutters
guilds in the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The medieval guilds were combinations of artisans quite similar in purpose
to modern trades unions.  They were fraternities which looked after the
interests of the craft to which they belonged, and of the members of the
guild who found protection in cases of emer-

(1) The details in this article are taken from a Merkblatt uber Freimaurerei
by Diedrich Bischoff, and  although intended to be of a general character
are based mainly on the conditions in German Lodges.

gency, in disease, in times of enforced idleness and in their struggles to
maintain living wages.  In distinction to modern guilds these medieval
fraternities insisted on general rules of good conduct; they excluded
unworthy men from becoming members, and kept up an esprit du corps
in accordance with the times, introducing into their by-laws a decidedly
religious element.  The liberalism of this religious element became the seed
of modern Freemasonry.  Since their religious aspirations were not
determined by dogma, but by great breadth and charity in matters of
conscience, they became so important that the original trade interests
became of secondary consequence.  Honourary members were admitted
who were not stone-cutters or masons, and finally the latter, active
members of the craft, disappeared entirely.  References to the Masonic
trade then became merely symbols and the religious spirit alone was
dominant.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The first Freemason Lodges originated in 1717, from old fraternities of
zealous stone-cutters whose history extends far back into the Middle Ages
and is closely interwoven with the history of cathedral architecture.  These
fraternities attained a new purpose when their numbers were increased by
members not belonging to the building trades. In this new form they
became the models of the Freemason Lodges which soon spread from
London over England, and Scotland and Ireland and thence to the
continent of Europe, and which now extend into all quarters of the earth
and into almost every civilized country.

Today there are about 2400 recognized Freemason Lodges, with perhaps
two million members.  More than half of all the Masons are in the United
States of America. In Germany there are about 60,000, belonging to about
530 Lodges.  These Lodges belong to eight different German associations
of Grand Lodges independent of each other, with the exception of a few not
affiliated with any Grand Lodge.  These data refer solely to the so-called
"recognized" Masons.  Besides these there are many other kinds of
associations in Germany which likewise call themselves Freemasons, but
which have no connection with the Freemasons organized in regular
Lodges and Grand Lodges.

Many leading spirits of the various nations have been members of
Freemasonry since its origin. In Germany, for instance, we can mention
Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Wieland, Ruckert, Mozart, Haydn, Fichte, Von
Stein, Hardenberg, Blucher, and among other royal personages Frederick
the Great, Emperor William I, and Emperor Frederick, as well as his son
William II. - [Bro. Carus must be in error as to this last name.- ED. A.F.]

From its beginning down to the present day Freemasonry has been bitterly
opposed by the Roman papacy.  According to the view of the Vatican as
it has been emphatically expressed in many important enactments, nothing
in the world is more dangerous and more reprehensible than the purposes
and aspirations of Freemasonry.  The very fact of this keen antipathy of the
papacy displayed repeatedly from time to time, and on the other hand the
affiliation of so many leading spirits, bear witness that in its fundamental
intentions and effects Freemasonry can not be shallow or insignificant.

Not at all times nor in all places have Masons conceived and pursued the
purport and significance of their cause in the same way.  Freemasonry has
lived through times of external progress and internal restraint, but also
though times of stagnation and alienation from life.  In Germany there is a
constant internal development in Freemasonry, inasmuch as the attempt is
made seriously and successfully to bring its purpose and activities into
harmony with the derisive progress, requirements and duties of the life of
today.  The greatest German poets have contributed not a little to deepen
and broaden Masonic ideals, and Mozart composed his opera "The Magic
Flute" for the outspoken purpose of characterizing the Masonic order.

SECRETS OF MASONRY.

Freemasons keep secret only certain signs of identification and rituals by
means of which the unity of the members of associations scattered over all
parts of the earth is made possible.  In this way they guard against the
possibility of people who do not belong to the Masonic community forcing
themselves into the confidence and into the ceremonies which build up
their inner life and thus interfering with the efficiency of the brotherhood.

Masonic Lodges do not pursue any secret hidden purpose.  The direction
of their intentions and activities is prescribed by certain fundamental ideas
which are openly professed in Masonic writings everywhere.


There is a common belief that the Masonic order is a secret society, and
this notion is based on the secret signs and grips by which its members
recognize one another.  Thus it has come to pass that the main aims of
Freemasonry are assumed to be a secret policy, but in fact there is no
secrecy about them.  The secrecy of Masonic grips is a mere externality,
and is as unessential to Freemasonry as are the secrets of student
fraternities, whose members are not allowed to betray the hidden meaning
of the Greek letters by which they are called.

THE MASONIC IDEAL OF BROTHERHOOD.

The main tendency of Freemasonry is the ideal of brotherhood which
should unite all mankind.  Freemasonry does not propose to level social
conditions to one type, but it tends to remove all hostility which may arise
from social, national or religious differences.  It condemns the haughtiness
of the more powerful, more influential and richer classes, and strives after
the establishment of peace on earth by removing all fanaticism and national
hatred on account of differences of language, race, nationality, dogma and
even colour.  The different classes should overcome their prejudices, from
which arise so many of the evils and jealousies among men.  Freemasonry
endeavors to develop a feeling of solidarity among all the members of
human society, and believes that the higher a man ranges in the process
of civilization, the surer he is to recognize his fellow men as brothers.

An association of people which lacks this unity between its parts is deficient
in the main requirement for security and for the increase of its true value in
its struggle to retain a place in history. Accordingly from the beginning
Freemasons have had in view an increase of brotherly feeling and a
consciousness of solidarity among men and groups of men who otherwise
would remain unsympathetic or hostile to each other.

THE BUILDING IDEA.

It is not the purpose of Masonry to unite men through a common
advantage.  They are to become brothers in the moral realm, and it is in
working for the upbuilding of humanity that Masons find the common moral
duty of all mankind.  Every man and every nation has the same calling to 
contribute unceasingly to the uplift and ennoblement of human society. 
The entire direction of man's life (for instance his physical and mental
education, his marriage and the rearing of his children, his part in the
spiritual and social life of his age) is towards building up the present and
future of the human race.  His problem consists in employing his building
material - beginning with the conscious education of himself, and an
unselfish love of his family, country and humanity - so as to make of this
social structure a place for the implanting and nurture of the highest
possible spiritual life, a realm of perfect morality.  According to the Masonic
conception mankind must be trained up to this royal art, this constant and
skilful care for the wholesome, harmonious, universal condition of life and
mind, if the correct moral consciousness of solidarity is to govern them,
and if the body politic is to be endowed with the healthy soul requisite for
its preservation and welfare.  Only in the realm of work upon the upbuilding
of humanity can true unity and the desired spirit of brotherliness flourish
among men and nations.

THE IDEA OF HUMANITY.

Every Lodge meeting is designed to contribute to the cultivation of their
ideal which they call "the royal art." Freemasons regard themselves as
labourers who hew the blocks for the building stones of the temple of
mankind, and they are conscious that their work is the highest of all. 
Where humanity is not nurtured brotherliness does not thrive, and workers
on the temple of humanity become separated and disunited in moral
training by different doctrinal systems.  This is the main idea by which the
purpose of Masonry is characterized, namely the effort to foster the
brotherhood of man by cultivating the innate social impulse to ennoble and
beautify life.

LODGE-WORK

The Lodge brings together in a common ethical interest men who otherwise
are far apart in life and would be separated from each other by a one-sided
development of mind and interests, while it endeavors to make dominant
in their inner lives the common will to labour for the temple of humanity. 
Members of Lodges are to become brothers as disciples of the royal art
which springs from the soul of humanity and aims at the perfection of
human society.

This purpose is served in the first place by the temple ceremonies, in which
all take part and where the individual is encouraged to hold an inspection
of his better self and to discover in the depths of his own emotional life his
stock of building materials, his uncorrupted demand for social duty and
righteousness.  All this makes men recognize the sacred responsibility
which each one shares for the external and internal welfare of the national
life of the present and future.  The purpose and content of the social
architecture providing for the cultivation of this health and beauty is made
perceptible to the apprentices again and again in a significant symbolism.

This cultivation of the moral and artistic spirit of brotherhood is perfected
in earnest mental labour and a noble companionship amid the exclusive
community of comrades striving towards the same goal and struggling for
a profound conception of life.  Outsiders are kept at a distance in order that
the community spirit may operate the more deeply and with the greater
harmony.

This community spirit does not find its expression in the letter of formulated
dogmas prescribing for the individual a definite faith and fealty, but merely
in the symbolism of signs, forms, and words which grant to the disciple the
most far-reaching mental liberty and constantly stimulate him to a search
for truth on his own part.  Symbolism, not dogmatism! This is a peculiarity
of the Masonic system of development which is of the greatest significance. 
To be sure the symbolic instruction is supplemented in the Lodges by a
liberal interchange of ideas on the correct aims and requirements of the
structure of society and of social service, but this merely serves to cultivate
freedom of knowledge in the individual.  It is not true that definite theories
of society are here inculcated in the guise of a Masonic confession of faith.

By no means does the Lodge subject its disciple to an authority compelling
him to enter in a definite way for a definite social advancement.  The
Masonic desire for association serves to cultivate in the individual an
unhampered love of humanity.  A manifestation of the bond for partisan
purposes or as an organization for power is absolutely prohibited.  When
Freemasons unite in behalf of a definite form of administration, when they
become interested in elections, in industrial enterprises, or take a stand as
to ecclesiastical polity, or favour special reforms in ethical culture, or
popular education, or health regulations, or social service, etc., they never
represent the Masonic community as such. The true Masonic bond consists
in identity of conviction which has its roots in the ideals of brotherhood and
humanity, not in identity of the presentation of the end and means by which
this conviction manifests itself in the different walks of life.

It is a matter of course that a merely external membership in a Masonic
Lodge is no guarantee of the existence of a proper Masonic conviction.  To
many Lodge members it rarely or never occurs to admit within themselves
the spirit of Freemasonry.  When a Freemason lacks the energy to
cooperate he attains no real membership in the Masonic community of
thought.

In consideration of all this it is clear that the method of certain opponents
to represent this or that alleged injurious political or other public activity of
individual Freemasons or Masonic groups as an attribute or characteristic
of true Masonic work and Lodge practice is absolutely misleading.

THE RELIGION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

"A Mason is held under the obligation of the duty of his calling to observe
the moral law; and if he rightly understands the art he will never be a stupid
atheist and live without religious affiliation." Thus we read in the "early
duties" of the Freemasons of the year 1723.  Nevertheless it is at the same
time incidentally emphasized that the Lodge binds its members only to a
religion of goodness, of loyalty and of righteousness, "in which all men
agree." The individual may pursue his particular religious conviction outside
of the Masonic community and let others do the same.

The lodge-work of today on the whole still starts from this traditional
fundamental conception.  It presupposes that true love for the social
structure includes a religious veneration and constraint, and therefore it
requires of the Freemason a religion of righteousness, a strict observance
of the moral law, and this conception also finds expression in the
symbolism of Masonry.

In all Germanic Lodges, mention is made, with reference to the universal
duties of all men toward the social structure, of a "master architect of the
universe" to whom labourers on the structure of humanity should look, in
their struggle for a creative fraternal spiritual life.  This symbol of the
Freemasons serves to bring apprentices in the art to the consciousness
that constructive effort after beauty which they recognize as the inmost
requirement of their humanity, signifies the highest life.  "A spiritual living
and doing - higher, more universal, more permanent, constantly dominating
our transitory and egotistic earthly pilgrimage - which finds expression in
the progressive impulse of the human conscience and in the enlightened
consciousness of good and evil in the individual, gives a vocation to every
one and a sense and purpose to our existence.  To this master architect
and to his moral law the apprentice of the royal art should feel himself
responsible and bound in faithful allegiance."

In Freemasonry God is not a dogma, but a symbol.  The word God stands
for the authority of righteousness, and by believing in God Masons mean
that they recognize the principle that there is a moral ideal to be observed,
and that this moral ideal is a binding principle of conduct for every human
being.  By its proposal to seek God Freemasonry does not intend to spread
a religious doctrine, but it uses this symbol to cultivate a moral idealism
which insists on a feeling of responsibility and duty, and Freemasons claim
that in this point all men should agree if they are but rightly developed - in
spite of whatever different opinions they may cherish concerning the word
God and church affiliations.

In this symbolism appealing to the soul's search after God the Lodge does
not serve the purpose of a propaganda of a religious system of doctrine,
but always leaves the interpretation to every individual.  Nevertheless,
combined with this clear social consciousness of responsibility and duty
there is a reverent, confiding and hopeful intention to keep sacred the ends
and means of a true constructive justice and love for humanity revealed in
the human soul.  This religion of upbuilding mankind and of constructive
righteousness appears to Freemasons to be the most efficacious leaven of
true brotherliness.  In this religion - they hold - all men agree on a correct
self-knowledge, no matter to what diversity in world-conceptions, ideas with
regard to God and ecclesiastical affiliations they may be devoted.  For this
religion therefore the friend of human brotherhood should prepare the soil
with affection and with an open mind.

(To be Continued)

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