THE BUILDER DECEMBER 1919

CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN NO. 33

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 "BUILDERS AND BUILDING TOOLS"

I
Why, do you suppose, were so many allusions to the art of
Architecture incorporated in our ritual and monitorial lectures?
(The study club leader should ask for the individual opinions of a
number of the brethren present on this subject at the opening of
the discussion and note the variety of ideas advanced.) What was
Preston's idea in the formation of the Second degree lecture? What
advantage has the boy or man of our day over the Masons of
Preston's time ?

II
What is Morris' definition of Architecture ? Is a structure erected
with a view of catering to physical needs only worthy of being
designated as "architecture" ?

Is Morris' definition borne out by facts ?

What do the Parthenon and the colonnades at Thebes tell us? What
part did art play in the Middle Ages?

III
To what have the buildings of men always had a reference ? What is
the story of the Tower of Babel ?

What is the secret of Masonry's use of architecture? How are Masons
at present interested in building ? Is the use of builder's tools
as symbols of modern origin ? Is such symbolism to be found in the
bible ? Can you quote illustrators ? Are similes in use at the
present day ? Name some of them. In what sense do we usually speak
of a "builder"? a destroyer? Is there a connection between the
present-day mission of Masonry and the language of architecture ?
From what Source do we derive our Masonic institution of the
present day?

Is a Mason an "architect" ? Why ? What manner of a structure is
each individual Mason engaged in building?

Do you agree with Brother Haywood's assertion that Masonry is a
"world-builder" ? If so, why ? If not, why not ? When will
Masonry's work be completed?

IV
What part of the ceremonies or lectures most impressed you on the
night you took your Second degree? (The study club leader should
propound this question to a number of the brethren successively try
to get an expression from everyone present.) How were you impressed
by the lecture on the "Five Senses" ? How have you expressed or
carried out your impressions ? Have you ever given the matter any
further thought ? Have you "Mason-ized" your Five Senses?

V
What thought have you gained from Brother Haywood's short discourse
on the part played by the senses in a man's life ? What is the
underlying idea of the series of paintings in the Congressional
Library at Washington mentioned by Brother Haywood ?

In what direction should our senses be trained ?

VI
How does Brother Haywood interpret the sense of feeling? the sense
of tasting? the sense of smelling? the sense of hearing? the sense
of seeing?

Can you give a different interpretation of any or all of these
senses?

VII
What important lesson has Brother Haywood endeavored to emphasize
in the present study paper? What new understandings have you gained
from the foregoing discussions ?

SECOND STEPS

BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

PART VIII BUILDERS AND BUILDING TOOLS

I
IN THE November Correspondence Circle Bulletin I interpreted the
group of five steps as alluding to the five senses, as the
Monitorial lectures suggest; but these same lectures also make the
five steps to allude to the Five Orders of Architecture, and it is
to this that we must now devote our attention. In so doing we must
remember that Preston's great idea in the formation of the lectures
just here was to give to the candidate certain useful information
which the average man of that day was unable to get elsewhere; in
our times such matters are taught in the public schools and a man
does not go to lodge for instruction. Besides, some recent critics
have heaped ridicule on this lecture because the division of
architecture into five orders is no longer countenanced by
architects themselves; be that as it may, we need not quarrel over
details, for it was a wise insight that led Preston to devote so
much space to the builder's art, seeing that it is the one art that
has given most to Masonry, even as it is still the art that
furnishes Masonry with most of its symbols and illustrations. So
while we may ignore a discussion of the Five Orders (though such a
discussion would not be fruitless by any means and might be carried
out by a Masonic Study Club with great profit) we can not afford to
omit from our study some reflections on Architecture as a whole and
its meanings for the Masonic life.

II
Perhaps the one man of modern times who, next to Ruskin, has
written most beautifully of Architecture, was William Morris, a
great prophet who blazed and throbbed with the spirit which is the
soul of Masonry. One of his biographers (Clutton-Brock) says that
"for him the great art was always Architecture; for in that he saw
use made beautiful and the needs of man ennobled by their manner of
satisfying them." When we ask Morris to give us a definition of
this "great art" we have the following as our reply:

"A true architectural work is a building duly provided with all
necessary furniture, decorated with all due ornament, according to
the use, quality and dignity of the building, from mere mouldings
or abstract lines, to the great epical works of sculpture and
painting, which, except as decorations of the nobler forms of such
buildings, cannot be produced at all."

In this definition Morris contends that a building deserving of the
name of architecture must satisfy physical needs and that it must
also satisfy the need for beauty. Only a structure satisfying both
needs can be called architecture; therefore a mere pergola which is
ornamental only, or a pigsty, which is practical only, cannot be
described as architecture.

When we turn to a study of the art of building we find that Morris'
definition is borne out by facts, for always, from the first rude
hut down to the last erected dwelling house or public building, men
have made their buildings to house both the mind and the body. The
stately structures of the ancient world were houses, books,
monuments, statues, creeds, and dreams all in one; "the solemn
colonnades at Thebes, and the graceful dignity of the Parthenon,"
tell us what men hoped and believed as well as how they lived. In
the Middle Ages it was the same, for throughout that long period
architecture was the very mother of all the arts; "it stood above
all other arts, and made all others subservient to it. It commanded
the sciences of the most brilliant intellects, and the greatest
artists." Always a great building is more than a building; it is a
human document; and a man might recover the history of the life of
man upon the earth from the records left us in the ruins and
remains of his architecture, so completely has man embodied his
soul in the work of his hands.

III
"For, whatever else man may have been cruel, tyrannous,
vindictive his buildings always have reference to religion. They
bespeak a vivid sense of the Unseen and his awareness of his
relation to it. As you travel through Europe, what arrests you most
are the glorious cathedrals which tell of the faith of the past.
One can read the history of Christianity, of its bewildering
varieties, of its contradictions and oppositions, of the secrets of
its life, in its buildings. The story of the Tower of Babel is not
a fable. Man has ever been trying to build to heaven, embodying his
prayer and dream in brick and stone. And as he wrought his faith
and vision into stone, it was but natural that the tools of the
builder should become the emblems of the thoughts of the thinker.
Not only his tools, but his temples themselves are symbols of that
House of Doctrine, that Home of the Soul, which, though unseen, he
is building in the midst of the years."

"That Home of the Soul." In these words we have the secret of
Masonry's use of architecture. No longer are we, as Masons,
interested in the building of material structures but we are using
the builder's tools and methods, hallowed by long use, enriched by
ancient associations, and found appropriate through centuries of
experience, as symbols arid types of a building work of a different
kind, even a great structure of truth and love wherein brethren may
dwell in unity and joy. Not arbitrarily have we chosen these
symbols, for men leave so used them from the earliest times, as may
be learned from very ancient books, the Holy Bible especially,
which is full of allusions, references and metaphors, drawn from
the builder's art. And this emblematic use of tools which was so
instructive to early man is equally instructive now as one may
learn from a study of our daily language. How often do expressions,
words, and phrases, borrowed from architecture, spring to our lips!
"Edification," "constructive," "solid foundation," "well founded,"
"roof of the world," "erect," "construct," "raise," "edify"; one
could extend such a list indefinitely, for we use the ideas of
building up or tearing down almost every day of our lives, and
almost always, be it noted, we use the builder in a good sense, and
the tearer-down in a bad sense. There is something appropriate, in
the nature of things, in the intimate relation between the message
of Masonry and the language of architecture. This is not to forget,
of course, that there is also a historical connection between the
two, for from our study of backgrounds we may recall how one grew
out of the other, but even had there been no such actual
relationships the two arts, that of the builder and that of the
Mason respectively, have so much in common as to ideals and method,
that the latter has a native right to employ the terms and symbols
of the former.

What is a Mason, if not an architect of the mystical order? Insofar
as he is true to his Royal Art he is one engaged in building up
within himself a real, but viewless, Temple; its foundations laid
deep in character, its walls formed of the solid stuff of genuine
manhood, its roof the stately dome of truth, its spires the
upreaching of that aspiration toward a higher which was the
original inspiration of every great cathedral. This is no fanciful
picture or collection of high sounding words; you and I have both
known of brethren, have we not, formed by their Masonic
fellowships, and inspired by their Masonic ideals, to be with whom
was itself an act of worship ? Truly such men are Temples, Temples
not made with hands !

What is Masonry itself if not a world builder, a social
architecture on the grand style? With its fellowships established
in every nation under heaven, its activities ceasing never night or
day, its message uttered in nearly all the languages of the race
but always the same message, it is one of the mightiest, one of the
most benign, one of the most constructive of all-forces in the
world. When its work is finished, which will not be until the end
is ended, it will have proved itself a builder of an unseen
cathedral more noble. more enduring than any empire ever made.

IV
All the emotions and thoughts aroused in me on the night I took my
"Second" are still fresh in my memory after these many years, but
nothing remains more vividly than my surprise at the elaborate
lecture about the Five Senses. "What," I kept saying to myself,
"does all this mean? In what possible way can our sense apparatus
have anything to do with the Masonic life?" I remained nonplussed
over the matter until I began to ask myself what Dart these senses
play in life outside Masonry and then it dawned upon me that the
ritual would be incomplete were it to omit the senses from the
scope of its illumination. When I discovered later that at least
one scientist Havelock Ellis  had written several volumes about
them, I began to see that an interpreter could write whole
libraries about the senses from the Masonic point of view; and I
began to believe that it would require a long life-time for a man
to thoroughly Mason-ize his five senses.

V
Consider the part played by the senses in a man's life! At the
center of the man is his consciousness, a lonely, isolated,
invisible, center of awareness; outside the man, surrounding him on
all sides, the universe, with its limitless number of things and
happenings; the senses are nothing other than the channels perhaps
the only channels through which the outside universe gets into the
man's consciousness. He is an island; the senses are the bridge
over which he passes to the mainland, and over which the mainland
passes into him. Every impression, every experience, every
sensation, every word must pass by way of them; if you could
control a man's senses then you would be able to determine how much
of the universe gets into him and how much of him gets into the
universe. This is the idea at the bottom of the great series of
wall paintings in the Congressional Library at Washington wherein
a picture is devoted to each sense. Since this is true it follows
that the man who would make his mind the home of goodness, truth
and beauty, will be one who sees to it that his senses are trained
to do their work efficiently, and that he permits nothing to travel
back and forth over their bridges except that which is good, or
true, or beautiful.

This, I take it, is the chief point made in the Second degree
lecture; a Mason is to make his five senses into five points of
contact with his fellows by seeing to it that only good-will,
kindliness, and all the fine things of brotherhood are permitted to
travel back and forth between him and them. This implies the
further point and it is one that we shall need to elaborate  that
the senses, like every other faculty of a man, may be trained and
improved, so that the man who has been making a bad use of them can
learn to make a good use. If this seems far-fetched or even
impossible to us we need only direct our attention to each sense in
turn to be convinced that it is always being done.

VI
"What is more or less than a touch?" says Walt Whitman. Touch is
the first, or original sense, and is employed in the lowest forms
of life, such as the jellyfish, long before separate organs are
dreamed of; as the living creature grows more and more responsive
to the world outside it the general sense of touch grows more and
more defined until it gradually breaks itself up into the other
senses of smelling, tasting, seeing, and hearing, and by so doing
the creature rises in the scale of life. From one point of view, at
least, it is not too much to say that the whole process of physical
evolution consists of splitting up the general sense of touch and
of refining and specializing each of the splitoffs. Even when we
get to man, the highest animal in the scale, this development and
improvement of the sense of touch need not stop; a musician or an
artist can carry the development of touch to the utmost limit of
refinement.

At the back of the tongue is a series of little organs, called
taste-buds; when any object is brought against them they give to
the consciousness a feeling of flavor. This sense, also, may be
developed. Only a few days ago I watched a "tea taster" at work
determining the quality of various kinds of tea. He sat at a
revolving table on which were several cups of the beverage and he
would sip from each one in turn; it was only a mouthful but it
sufficed, for his taste-buds were so accurate that he could tell
the jobber where the tea had been grown and what it was worth.

In lower animals the sense of smell is often unimaginable acute.
Henri Fabre describes a moth which can detect the presence of a
female rods away in forest at night merely by the odor. This is the
sense of smell raised to the nth degree of acuteness, for the
naturalist himself was unable to detect the slightest odor even in
a jar full of the insects. We can not smell as the animals can
because we do not need to; nevertheless, like the other senses, one
can develop this faculty, as is demonstrated by the perfumery
expert who can detect the various kinds and grades of perfumery
quite as easily as my tea taster could judge of tea.

When we make sounds in the air, either by speaking or by striking
against some object, waves travel through the atmosphere in all
directions; when these waves strike against the tympanum of the ear
they give us the experience of hearing, so that hearing itself is
a kind of touch. The extent to which hearing can be developed and
educated is shown by the expert musician who can detect subtle
variations of sound wholly lost on the others of us.

"Seeing is touch at a distance." The sun, or some artificial light,
sends waves through the ether; these strike against the retina of
the eye and give us the sense of seeing. If the waves are of one
length and speed we see one color; if of another we see a different
color. The Indian who can see an antelope grazing afar off on the
prairie, the pilot who can detect the smoke of a coming ship in the
remote distance, are examples of men who have raised this sense to
an extraordinary effectiveness.

VII
In this discussion, which may seem to some almost school-boyish, I
have had it in mind to emphasize the fact that we humans have a
considerable degree of control over our senses, and that, if we
choose, we can improve them by right training. From the point of
view of general culture this means that we can greatly enrich our
lives, and that is surely worth while; from the point of view of
Masonry, which is necessarily our chief concern, it means that the
senses may be so used as to Mason-ize our lives. The candidate is
urged to touch, taste, or smell nothing that would injure himself
or brethren: he is, in the language of the V. S. L., to "take heed
how he hears," lest some word of slander against a brother be given
admission to his mind; and he is to see nothing in his fellows
except their better selves. How much it would mean to every lodge,
by way of avoiding friction and of increasing brotherhood, if every
Mason would train his senses to ignore the things that divide or
injure, and to heed only those things that increase brotherly love!
This is a high ideal, truly, but, then, Masonry itself is a high
ideal !

