THE BUILDER FEBRUARY 1919

FOR THE MONTHLY LODGE MEETING

CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN---NO. 26

Edited by Bro. H. L. Haywood

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

FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE

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

MAIN OUTLINE:

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

Division I. Ceremonial Masonry.

A. The Work of the Lodge. 
B. The Lodge and the Candidate. 
C. First Steps. 
D. Second Steps. 
E. Third Steps.

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

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

Division IV. Legislative Masonry.

A. The Grand Lodge. 
1. Ancient Constitutions. 
2. Codes of Law. 
3. Grand Lodge Practices. 
4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges. 
5. Official Duties and Prerogatives.

B. The Constituent Lodge.
1. Organization. 
2. Qualifications of Candidates. 
3. Initiation, Passing and Raising. 
4. Visitation. 
5. Change of Membership.

Division V. Historical Masonry.

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

THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS

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

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

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

REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS

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

HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS

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

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

PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS

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

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

2. Discussion of the above.

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

MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS

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

FURTHER INFORMATION

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



QUESTIONS ON "PASSING"

I
Why was the "passing" among Operative Masons so important a step?
What new secrets, do you suppose, were then given to the Mason?
What do you imagine the masterpieces to have been ? Why was a
masterpiece demanded? What is a "masterpiece" in the ordinary sense
of the word as now used? What are the marks of a masterpiece in
literature ? in business ? Is your lodge a masterpiece of Masonry?
Do we tend to judge men by their fine words and promises rather
than by their productions? In what way do the man's actual
productions reveal his character? What effect on character do bad
works have?

Was Scotch Masonry different from English? If so, why, do you
suppose ? Why are there now variations in different countries and
under different Grand Lodges ? How do these variations affect
Masonry as a whole? Have you fixed clearly in your mind how we came
to have three degrees instead of two ? What is the key-word of the
Second Degree? What do you mean by "knowledge"? Is intellectual
power an accumulation of facts or is it the development of all the
faculties? How can these be developed ? Are books and colleges
necessary for this ? How do you make your work develop your mental
faculties? Is ignorance a sin?

II

Who was William Preston ? What led him, do you suppose, to take so
much interest in Masonry ? How does your lodge stimulate such
interest? Is the study of Masonry making you more interested? What
was the nature of the "lectures" in the old work? When officers do
their ceremonial work in a slovenly manner are they really good
Masons in the literal sense of that wordy What did Preston do to
the Second degree and why did he do it?

What do you think of Pound's suggestion? Could you carry out his
idea without remodeling the ritual ? How ? Could well prepared
lectures be now written to be used in conjuction with the "work"
that would make the Fellow Craft degree a real education? Could you
expound the fundamentals of some art or science in a single
lecture? Would such a lecture on, say, government, help the lodges
in their fight against anarchy, depostism, and dogmatism? How?

III
What was the function of the Intender in the old work? Could we
have Intenders now? When a man "coaches" a candidate in the work is
he an Intender? If he could explain the thought as well as teach
the words would he not be a much more effluent teacher ? What, in
your judgment, has the lodge a right to expect of a man before
passing him ?

Why did the Master Mason have a mark? Why didn't the Apprentice
have one? How, would you guess, did the Mason leave his mark on the
finished work? What kind of a "mark" are you leaving on your work?

Suppose we were to demand a masterpiece before passing a man, what
should it be? What is real Masonic education? In what sense is the
lodge a School?

SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES

Mackey's Encyclopedia:

Fellow, p. 261; Fellow Craft, p. 261; Marks of the Craft, p. 470;
Preston, p. 679.

THE BUILDER

Vol. I. Preston, William, pp. 7, 9, 11, 31, 292, 310.
Vol. II. Passing of a Candidate, p. 108; Preston, William pp.
81,166, 302; Preston, Work of, p. 167.
Vol. III. Fellow Craft Degree, pp. 25, 334, Nov. C. G B. 1
Vol. IV. What a Fellow Craft Ought to Know, p. 115, Passing of a
Candidate, p. 268.


SECOND STEPS
by Bro. H.L. Haywood, Iowa

PART I PASSING

I
THERE is little to tell us what was the manner among Operative
Masons of the passing of a man from the Entered Apprentice grade to
the next higher degree; but such fragmentary records as we do have
imply that the ceremony was most simple. The man to be made a
Master ("Master" and "Fellow Craft" originally referred to the same
grade) was taken before six Master Masons and (possibly, in many
cases at least) two Entered Apprentices; his name and his mark were
entered in the record book, together with the names of those by
whom he was admitted, and those "intenders" by whom he had been
instructed. According to the earlier Codes no man was thus made a
Master until he had given a practical demonstration of his skill by
producing, usually, a masterpiece (literally "master's piece"). The
words, grips and tokens, etc., were probably given in such wise as
not to be betrayed to the Entered Apprentices who were present.

The term "Fellow Craft" was first used by Scotch Masons, according
to the evidences, and was not introduced into the English lodges
until the Constitution was printed in 1723. At first the term meant
exactly the same as "Master Mason" so that the two were
interchangeable, a fact which clears up much confusion in Masonic
history. Originally, it seems, there were but two (some, even, say
one) degrees but during the period between 1723 and 1738 the first
degree was split in two, the former half of which was made into the
Entered Apprentice degree, the latter into the Fellow Craft degree;
the old Second degree, after sundry modifications, became the
Third; it was in this wise that the terms came to have their
present meaning.

Thus it appears that the Operative Entered Apprentice was obliged
to produce a masterpiece in order to qualify for passing to the
next higher grade; after another manner, as my readers may
painfully remember, the same thing is exacted in the present
Speculative degrees. In the Apprentice grade the man was made to
learn the use of his tools; the Master was one who had achieved
that knowledge. By a happy coincidence it still remains true that
the key-word of our Second degree is Knowledge, but this knowledge,
it is to be noted, is something more than a matter of correct
information; it is an ability to do things; it is the having one's
faculties perfectly and harmoniously developed. The degree as it
now stands is a kind of acted treatise on the part enlightenment,
information and mental development must play in the life of a Mason
and a man.

II
We know that while Operative Masons were trained men they did not
include in their simple ceremonies so elaborate a presentment as
that which we find in our own work; we owe this enlargement of the
rite to a Scotchman, William Preston, born at Edinburgh, August 7,
1742. Soon after arriving in London as a printer, Preston was made
a Mason and later the Master of a lodge; accepting this latter
office with more than the usual sense of responsibility he set out
to master, as opportunities then permitted, the history and
symbolism of the Order.

In his first days he found that usually after a candidate had been
initiated the Master was accustomed to deliver a "lecture";
inasmuch as this was often a hasty extemporaneous production it did
not amount to much, and the slovenliness of such lectures as he
heard offended the trained literary tastes of Preston. So he set
about writing lectures to be used at various stages of the "work"
and something of these, after divers troubles and
misunderstandings, came at last to be incorporated in the rites.
There is every reason to believe that Preston almost wholly
remodelled the Second degree and that it, as it now stands, is
largely his own production. The long discourses on education are
his.

Why did he include these educational features? Because at that time
England had no public schools and few private ones so that the
ordinary boy had scant opportunities for an education; it occurred
to Preston, a real inspiration for the time, that Masonry might
reduce the essentials of education to small proportions and thus
give instruction to its candidates, most of whom were young men. He
undertook to transform Masonry into an academy of education, a
noble enough purpose then, but somewhat confusing to us in this day
of elaborate public and private school systems. Brother Roscoe
Pound, whose "Philosophy of Masonry" is so richly rewarding a book,
suggests a plan whereby to preserve Preston's great idea of
education and at the same time eradicate much of the material which
has now become obsolete.

"Suppose today a man of Preston's tireless diligence attempted a
new set of lectures which should unify known edge and present its
essentials so that the ordinary man could comprehend them. To use
Preston's own words, suppose lectures were written, as a result of
seven years of labor, and the co-operation of a society of critics,
which set forth a regular system of modern knowledge demonstrated
on the clearest principles and established on the firmest
foundations. Suppose, if you will, that this was confined simply to
the knowledge of Masonry, Would not Preston's idea (in an age of
public schools) be more truly carried out than by our present lip
service, and would not his central notion of the lodge as a center
of light vindicate itself by the resulted"

Brethren, is this not worth thinking about? At any rate a
discussion of Brother Pound's suggestion will prove greatly worth
while to any student or study class.

III
In Operative days a man was compelled to spend a series of years,
sometimes five, usually seven, in mastering his trade; during this
period he remained indentured, or bound, to some Master Mason. In
our Speculative system there is no need that a man wait so long
between degrees; but does it not seem clear that we have, in many
jurisdictions, drifted off to the opposite extreme? In at least
three Grand Lodges of our country a man may be passed in two weeks;
in several he may even be passed as soon as believed proficient; in
a majority a month must intervene. What does the candidate do in
that interval? Usually he does nothing except learn as best he can
the words of his lectures. Would it not be far better if, in that
betweenwhile period, he could be enabled to master thoroughly the
teachings of the preceding degree? Why do men so quickly become
indifferent to Masonic ritual? Because it speaks its mighty truths
to them in a dead language which they can illy understand; what
would it not mean if, during the intervals, the lodge should
undertake to make the man genuinely proficient in the work he has
previously had! This too may be worth some discussion.

Also, when a man was passed in Operative days, he was given his own
mark; a vast number of these have been collected by our scholars
and much light have they thrown on the evolution of our Order. Each
mark was the worker's own private possession which another could
use at his peril; receiving that mark was a token of his full
assumption of responsibility for the work he had done; with his own
mark on his own work the supervisors could easily learn who had
done a task well or ill. We have no such marks, save in one degree
of the York Rite, but each of us, if he will but consider, is in
reality placing his own mark on everything he does.

And why would it not also be wise for us, in our Speculative
Masonry, to revive the old custom of demanding a masterpiece;
suppose that, before a man is passed or raised, he were obliged to
write, say, a brief essay on the degree just taken, or some similar
subject; would it not soon sift out those who were passing through
the work for selfish and private reasons? Would we not have more
Masons and fewer mere members ? This is but a suggestion; the
student will think of many other ways in which the candidate could
produce a masterpiece of his skill. A man who would take his
initiation that seriously and thoroughly would get far more out of
Masonry, and Masonry would get far more out of him.

The Entered Apprentice of the old days worked under the eye of an
Intender or instructor; this opens up to us at once the large
question of instruction in Speculative Masonry. Do you believe that
your own lodge is doing all it might do to interpret to its members
the meaning of its rites? Why are so many Masons in such dense
ignorance as to the real significance of all the strange symbols
and bewildering ceremonies which make up the work? Should not the
lodge, or some body working in conjunction with the lodge, be
willing to meet such a man more than half way ? Can you think of
any better means for performing the functions of the Intender than
the reading of good Masonic literature and the formation of study
classes in every lodge?

Some readers may remind me that Operative customs were designed to
prepare men for actual work, laborious and difficult, and that no
such instructions are now necessary; let such readers lay their
hands on their heart and ask what kind of an examination they could
pass in a course on "the meaning of Masonry"! When the Speculative
Mason passes from the first degree he has two other degrees ahead
of him; surely that should demand the most careful preparation.
Masonry will be more to our daily lives when we make it mean more
to our minds. The man who first masters his Apprentice Degree
before passing to the Fellow Craft, and who masters that in turn
before going on to the climax in the third, that surely, in all
true senses, is a Master Mason, well entitled to consider himself
a Fellow of the Craft; nay a Fellow fit for the Craft.

EACH IN HIS OWN TONGUE"

A Fire-Mist and a planet,  
A crystal and a cell,  
A jellyfish and a saurian, 
And caves where the cavemen dwell; 
Then a sense of law and beauty, 
And a face turned from the clod,- 
Some call it Evolution, 
And others call it God.

A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite, tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields,
And the wild geese sailing high,- 
And all over upland and lowland 
The charm of the goldenrod,- 
Some of us call it Autumn, 
And others call it God.

Like tides on a crescent sea-beach, 
When the moon is new and thin, 
Into our hearts high yearnings 
Come welling and surging in,- 
Come from the mystic ocean, 
Whose rim no foot has trod,- 
Some of us call it Longing, 
And others call it God.

A picket frozen on duty,-
A mother starved for her brood,-
Socrates drinking the hemlock,
And Jesus on the rood;
And millions who, humble and nameless,
The straight, hard pathway plod,-
Some call it Consecration,
And others call it God.

--William Herbert Carruth.

Talk about those subjects you have had long in mind, and listen to
what others say about subjects you have studied but recently.
O. W. Holmes.
