                             FRATERNAL REVIEW

Editor - Ralph A. Herbold    (9-1-92)                        # 656

GEORGIA MASONIC MESSENGER
Would call your attention to the enclosed copy of the July 1992
issue of the above publication for several reasons:

Page 7: Brother James A. Sledge, Grand Chaplain, is a member of our
Lodge.

Page 10: A 25 year apron would be something different but want to
call your attention to their Educational and Historical Commission
having power to grant approval. This is apparently a unique
organiztion in another way for it is this Commission that charters
or puts into being their Research Lodges.

Page 18: The Book Review is authored by another of our members.
Incidentally, we have been handling this book for some time and our
price is $25.00 for the soft cover, $35.00 for the hard cover and
$150  for the Limited Edition (Diamond Jubilee Edition) and
we absorb shipping costs and sales tax (CA), to both domestic and
foreign destinations. And I would add an Amen to the last paragraph
of the review, reading it a must.

       DEGREE WORK
The July 1992 Trestleboard of Consuelo Lodge No. 325 included:

"Deacon's Night will be held at San Dieguito Lodge this year on
Tuesday, July 21st. our Deacons, along with those from Ramona,
Vista, Oceanside, Fallbrook and San Dieguito will be doing a First
Degree."

When serving as Senior Warden of my Lodge I organized a Senior
Warden's Night, inviting all the Senior Wardens of the area (some
Lodges were more distant but the SW lived in the area so checked
the Grand Lodge roster to invite as many as possible) to confer a
Third Degree and all had a wonderful time.

The following year termed it a Master's Night and so many Masters
came that we had to limit the ritualists to being in one section
only and still some left out. With this and the preceding year's
degree, we really developed a fine relationship and several opted
for the same event in their Lodges. An example, my brethren,
worthy of all imitation, Consuelo Lodge, I mean.

DRUG PROGRAM
From time to time we receive requests for information as to the
availability of the "Say No To Drugs" stamps. They are available
from Grand Lodge of California, 1111 California St., San Francisco
CA 94108, 2400 for $10, check to California Masonic Foundation,
proceeds from the sale to support the Grand Lodge Drug and Alcohol
Abuse Program.

LIBRARY - BOOKS
Had a phone call from one of our members, Brother Roy M. Skeirik,
with the result we received an order for a selection of books,
"Freemasonry - A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol," "The Craft And
Its Symbols," "Comprehensive View Freemasonry," "Brother Truman,"
"House Undivided" and "Born in Blood." The nice part of the order
was the last paragraph: "These books are to be presented to the
Beaumont District Library to aid in the further understanding of
Freemasonry to the non-Masonic public." Another example, my
brethren, worthy of all imitation.

RESEARCH
Comment by Bro. John Hamill, P.M. of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, in
the August 1991 Transactions of the Western Australian Lodge of
Research No. 277 W.A.C.:

"I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with David
Stephenson, a Reader in Scottish History at Aberdeen. He again is
not a mason but is very interested in freemasonry as an aspect of
Scottish history. He has produced two very good and very
interesting books on Scotland as the birthplace of freemasonry
using the transitional operative-speculative theory as the basis of
his work bringing in something which a lot of writers of masonic
things have not done by putting the evidence in the context of its
time.

"As an expert on Scottish history, he knows the periods to put it
in and one of the things which he did and one of the interesting
things in recent years, has been the academics who are not
freemasons but who are becoming interested in freemasonry as a part
of social and intellectual history. The one great virtue they have
is that they come with open eyes and one of the things that David
Stephenson did was to look at two documents, the Schaw Statutes of
1598 and 1599.

"They must have been written about by virtually every masonic
historian of any worth in Scotland or England who was writing about
the origins, but few of them could actually have read them in any
sort of detail. He picked up in it a reference to what is called
the 'Art of Memory,' the passing on of ideas in a mnemonic way,
and the way that we do by the use of allegory and symbolism which
is a very long tradition of doing things and which goes hack to
classical and even Egyptian times. He looks at freemasonry as being
the modern occurence of that system of the passing on of ideas and
passing on of knowledge.

"I think it is a very interesting point but I think it might he a
coincidental point. Those who are looking at freemasonry from the
point of coming indirectly from the operatives, have been looking
at the 'why' and if you look at the 'why' that was the way you
passed things on. Professor Wallace Mcleod, one of the Past
Masters of Ouatuor Coronati Lodge, is at the moment revaluating
the texts of the 'Old Charges' to see if he can find any similar
references in there and to see if that will bear out what
Stephenson says. At the moment I think it is just one of those
circumstances.

"The Schaw Statutes happen to mention it. Freemasonry passed on its
ideas using the art of memory by using allegory and symbolism. I
would not like to draw anything major from it at the moment until
we can find instances of other references of a similar nature.

"To use a cliche, 'one swallow does not make a summer.' one bit of
evidence does not produce the answer. I think it is a very
interesting and valid point that it should be brought in by a
non-mason. I am sure it shows how useful it is to have non-masons
looking at material that I think sometimes, we always look at
without actually reading because we have read about it so much, we
know what it contains."
