THE BUILDER SEPTEMBER 1915

ANOTHER VIEW OF "THE GREAT WORK"

BY BRO. T.M. STEWART, OHIO


NOT in the spirit of hostile criticism, but in the kindly spirit of
one Brother to another, I wish to refer to the criticism of the
book, entitled, "The Great Work," in the June number of The
Builder. I have not only read, but carefully studied, "The Great
Work," and the other two books of the Harmonic series, and I do
not, after a careful reading of the criticism referred to, find
myself sharing the critic's views as illustrated in the comments
made on the two short extracts quoted.

In the first place, let me call attention to the mistake of
confusing the title of the book with the author's work as writer or
editor. The treatise is characterized as "more curious than great,"
but the book does not claim to be great. "The Great Work" is "The
Living of a Life" in conformity with one's own best intelligence
and highest ideals of Equity, Justice and Right at any given time.
This is the teaching of the criticised book, "The Great Work," and
all its students soon learn to discriminate between those things
which are purely personal and selfish, and those things which make
for a greater unfoldment of one's own capacities and powers. In
this way learning by doing, and thus by experience discovering how
difficult it is to "live the life."

In the criticism we read: "The writer of "The Great Work" is all
the while handicapped by the idea that he is the keeper of a
wonderful treasure of truth, which must be carefully guarded from
the eye of the profane, lest it be betrayed into the hands of those
who are not worthy or well qualified to receive it."

But the handicap is not of the making of "The Great School," nor is
it the fault of the author of "The Great Work." Let me quote from
the book, "The Builders," by Joseph Fort Newton, as to guarded
secrets:

"God shields us from premature ideas, said the gracious and wise
Emerson; and so does nature. She holds back her secrets until man
is fit to be entrusted with them, lest by rashness he destroy
himself. Those who seek find, not because the truth is far off, but
because the discipline of the quest makes them ready for the truth,
and worthy to receive it. By a certain sure instinct, the great
teachers of our race have regarded the highest truth less as a gift
bestowed than as a trophy won. Everything must not be told to
everybody. Truth is a power, and when held by untrue hands it may
become a plague."

Now contrast the foregoing with the following quotation from "The
Great Work" to discover exactly the same spirit in regard to secret
teachings:


"The questions referred to (why secrecy) have been put by the
skeptical, the critical, and the hypercritical; without taking into
account the fact that unusual knowledge is obtainable only under
specific conditions which may also be unusual. Some of the
(questions) are as follows:

"1. If there be Masters, or Wise men, why do they not present
themselves to the world and prove their identity as such ?

"2. Why withhold anything from anybody, if it is true?

"3. If the men who possess it are honest, and the knowledge they
possess is of value to humanity, what excuse or reason can there
possibly be for 'Secrets' or for 'secrecy?'

"4. If the School of Natural Science has, in truth, solved the
sublime problem of another life, has discovered the Principle of
Nature to which that problem is related, and has wrought out a
definite and scientific formulary in conformity with which others
may solve the same great problem for themselves, and if all this
wonderful knowledge is as important for the welfare of humanity as
it would seem to be then why has not the Great School given it to
the world long ago? In other words, why hide their light under a
bushel? Why not open wide the doors of their treasure-house to
whomsoever may come ?

"In substance, if not in actual form, these same questions have
been asked many times, and by many different individuals. They have
been put in such manner and with such ingenious inflection as
clearly to indicate that those who have asked them believe them to
be 'unanswerable.' They have, in truth, been asked by those whose
very tone, emphasis, look and manner combine to convey the
challenge: 'Answer me if you dare.'

"In the spirit of courtesy and candor, and with the utmost good
will toward, and consideration for, those whose accusing and
condemning attitude of mind makes the task one of great difficulty,
it is the purpose, here and now, to answer these questions as fully
and as frankly as their nature and importance would seem to
justify. This is done, not alone for the benefit of those who have
asked them, but also for as many others as may desire to understand
the fundamental principle of Ethics which underlies them all." (The
Great Work, Page 192.)

For a-complete answer to the foregoing questions see Chapter XII,
"The Great Work." Again in the criticism, in The Builder, paragraph
two, we read:

"Indeed one has a right to be suspicious of a book, which makes
claim of knowing what is unknown to all the world and the rest of
mankind, which leaves the inference that the noblest and most
reverent scholars of the world are not worthy to receive its
revelation."


On the contrary, the book (The Great Work) is "ADDRESSED to the
PROGRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE of the AGE," and it clearly and definitely
elucidates that point throughout the text.

The article in The Builder (did I not have great respect for its
Editor in his knowledge of the teaching and his intention "to
render justice to all men") would convey to me a misrepresentation
of the real position, purposes, and claims of the author of "The
Great Work."

Relying on our mutual respect for the truth and for the laborious
work necessary to a true foundation for studious opinions, I am
requesting publicity for "Another View of The Great Work," because
I am sure many members of the National Masonic Research Society
have found as much helpful inspiration from a study of that book,
as they have found satisfaction in reading one of the latest of
Masonic books, viz., "The Builders." Because the method of the
"Great Work" is "personal effort," that is the individual must live
the life to know the doctrine. This same idea is enunciated on page
63 of "The Builders," viz., "Fitness for the finer truths cannot be
conferred; it must be developed."

Again the criticism in "The Builder" magazine says:

"For not one of the statements (as to the antiquity of the GREAT
SCHOOL) is there the slightest shred of evidence, not even a shadow
of a basis in fact."

The name "The Great School" is the modern name of an ancient school
whose "membership is composed of a voluntary association of men
whose lives and labors are dedicated and devoted to the acquirement
and perpetuation of knowledge in the broad and unlimited field of
science--physical, spiritual, psychical and ethical-- and to its
application to the development of individual life, individual
intelligence, individual conscience, individual liberty, individual
morality, and individual happiness." To these devotees of science
in its broadest and best sense, may be added such students as have
come to them for infinite instruction in the various departments of
their knowledge. . . . "For reasons which appear to them both
imperative and just, their work of investigation, experiment,
demonstration and instruction is prosecuted and accomplished under
the protecting shield of personal confidence and secrecy." ("The
Great Work," pages 40-41.)

In the foregoing quotation we have the purposes of The Great School
disclosed, the purposes are as ancient as the school itself. The
"basis in fact" for the existence of the school will in time
disclose itself when we learn to what extent these ideals and
purposes were held and taught by the ancient members of The Great
School, as indicated and evidenced in the following citations:

TESTIMONY OF GROTE.

"The allegorical interpretations of myths has been by several
learned investigators connected with the hypothesis of an ancient
and highly instructed body of priests, having their origin either
in Egypt or in the East, and communicating to the rude and
barbarous Greeks religious, physical and historical knowledge under
the veil of symbols." (Grote's History of Greece--Everymans'
Library Edition, Page 81, Vol. II.)

STATEMENTS OF PHILO.

"They have also ancient authors who were once heads of their
school, and left behind them many monuments of the methods used in
their allegorical works. . . . He who is the senior most skilled in
the doctrines, comes forward and discourses, with steadfast eyes
and steadfast voice, with reason and thoughtfulness; not making a
display of word-cleverness, as the rhetoricians and sophists of
today, but examining closely and explaining the precise meaning in
the thoughts, a meaning which does not merely light on the tips of
the ears, but pierces the ears and reaches the Soul and steadfastly
abides there." (Philo "On the Contemplative Life." By Fred C.
Conybeare, Oxford 1895.)

THE EXPERT OPINION OF THE LEARNED MEAD

"These secret brotherhoods (of Ancient Egypt) left no public
records; they kept themselves apart from the world and the world
knew them not. But it is just these communities, which were the
links in the chain of heredity of the Gnosis," i.e. Knowledge of
the things that are. ("Fragments of a Faith Forgotten," by G. R. S.
Mead, Page 61.)

"Most of these mystic schools and communities, whether of Greek or
Egyptian or Jewish descent, when they came in contact with each
other, gave and received . . . and so modified their preconceptions
and enlarged their horizons." ("Fragments of a Faith Forgotten," by
G. R. S. Mead, Page 95.)

The foregoing quotations are but a few of many of the same nature
that could be made. They indicate that ancient communities or
schools of learning have existed in remote times, and without going
into the question of chronology, the world old quest reaches far
back into the ages.

For instance, "The Babylonians were not content with merely editing
their ritual and religious hymns or their myths about the gods and
heroes; they also compiled commentaries and explanatory text-books
which gave philological and other information about the older
religious literature." ("The Origin and Growth of Religion," by A.
H. Sayce, Page 16.)

The main characteristic of the ancient teaching was the profound
secrecy in which the traditions were kept, we therefore have to
rely on the spirit and purposes of ancient teaching and veiled
symbolic allusions. It is certain, that the mystery-side of
religion was initiation into a higher knowledge; the highest praise
is bestowed upon the Mysteries by the greatest thinkers among the
Greeks, who are witnesses to the purity of the teaching, which
enabled men to live better lives here and to depart from this life
with the certainty of immortality. Pythagoras is said to have been
initiated into the Egyptian, Chaldean, Orphic and Eleusinan
mysteries. He is known or remembered in India today under the name
Yavancharya, or the Ionian teacher.

Now as to "records" the existence of which is in doubt in the minds
of many because of the partial statement quoted from the book, "The
Great Work" -- and included in the fourth paragraph of the
criticism in The Builder, together with the critic's questions:
"Did he (T.K.) ever see those records of immemorial time, reaching
thousands of years back of Moses? Did he ever see any one who did
see them ? If so, how does he know that they are authentic? By what
science for the testing of documents did he determine their
authenticity?"

In the same paragraph on page 43 of the book, "The Great Work,"
from which The Builder quotes we read:

"These (records) cover a consecutive and unbroken chain backward
from the immediate present to a time many thousand of years before
the Mosaic period." But we may also read in that same paragraph:
"For a number of years, however, he (T.K.) has been in personal
touch with members of The Great School, and during that time has
received from them a definite and personal instruction, from which
it may not be deemed impertinent or presumptuous to present for the
thoughtful consideration of the reader the following brief and
incomplete summary."

The answer is complete. As a student in the Great School, in
personal touch with its members, commissioned by them to present an
outline of its methods, purposes, and teachings to the modern
world, he doubtless has in proofs all, and more, than the question
demand. That a complete and satisfactory answer is not vouchsafed
any and every one on demand, I may be permitted to again quote from
"The Builders":

The "one great secret (of Freemasonry) is that it has no secret.
Its principles are published abroad in its writings, its purposes
and laws are known, and the times and places of its meetings.
Having come down from dark days of persecution when all the finer
things sought the protection of seclusion, if it still adheres to
secret rites, it is not in order to hide the truth, but the better
to teach it more impressively to train men in its pure service, and
to promote union and amity upon earth. Its signs and grips serve as
a kind of universal language, and still more as a gracious cover
for the practice of sweet charity-- making it easier to help a
fellow man in dire plight without hurting his self-respect. If a
few are attracted to it by curiosity, all remain to pray, finding
themselves members of a great historic fellowship of the seekers
and finders of God. It is old because it is true; had it been false
it would have perished long ago. When all men practice its simple
precepts, the innocent secrets of Masonry will be laid bare, its
mission accomplished, and its labors done." (The Builders, Page
244.)

To which all Masons, as well as all students of the Great Work say,
"So mote it be"--because it is exactly the position of the Great
Work.

Further in regard to books, manuscripts and records, the existence
of which is doubted by some and denied by others:

"Egyptian research has independently arrived at the conclusion that
the pyramid-builders were at least as old as the fourth millennium
before the Christian era. The great pyramids of Gizeh were in
course of erection, the hieroglyphic system of writing was already
fully developed, Egypt itself was thoroughly organized and in the
enjoyment of a high culture and civilization, at a time when,
according to Archbishop Usher's chronology, the world was being
created." ("The Origin and Growth of Religion," by A. H. Sayce,
Page 33, 34.)

The collective researches of Orientalists, and especially the
labors of late years of the students of comparative Philology and
Religion have led them to conclude, that, an immense number of
manuscripts and even printed works known to have existed, are now
to be found no more. They have disappeared without leaving the
slightest trace behind them.

Were they works of no importance they might, in the natural course
of time, have been left to perish, and their very names would have
been obliterated from human memory. But it is not so; for as now
ascertained most of them contained the true keys to works still
extant, and entirely incomprehensible, for the greater portion of
their readers, without those additional volumes of commentaries and
explanations. (For the missing works of Lao Tze and Confucius, see
"Lectures on The Science of Religion," by Max Muller, Page 185.)

The ancient teachings to which allusion is made, can be followed in
the remains of every ancient nation, and underlie the spiritual
(but not spiritualistic) teaching of the present time.

Tradition asserts that thousands of ancient parchments were saved
when the Alexandrian Library was destroyed by Julius Caesar, B.C.
48; in A. D. 390; and 640 A. D. by the General of Kaliph Omar.
(Consult Moses of Khorene, National Historian of Armenia.)
Thousands of Sanscrit works disappeared during the reign of Akbar.
The universal tradition in China and Japan, is, that the true old
texts with the commentaries have long since passed out of the reach
of profane hands; the disappearance of five or six times the matter
contained in our Bible, besides 80,000 or more Buddhist tracts,
(The Legends and Theories of the Buddhists," by Spencer Hardy) to
say nothing of the loss of the sacred Babylonian Commentaries, and
the loss of the Symbolic key to Egyptian hieroglyphic records.


"The number of separate works in Sanscrit, of which manuscripts are
still in existence, is estimated by Professor Max Muller to amount
to about 10,000, which makes him exclaim, 'what would Plato and
Aristotle have said, if they had been told that at that time there
existed in that India, which Alexander had just discovered, if not
conquered, an ancient literature far richer than anything they
possessed at that time in Greece?'

"We can readily conceive that amongst these manuscripts there are
dramas and works of fiction innumerable, and treatises in
literature and science, but there is little hope of their being
completely investigated and sifted, and only like nuggets in a mine
are the really valuable works likely to be found accidentally."
("Hindu Astronomy," by W. Brennand, page 132.)

These traditions make interesting study--but time prompts the
assertion of a companion tradition in India of subterranean abodes,
of large corridors filled with tiles, cylinders and other records,
to reappear in some more enlightened age, when bigotry shall no
longer blind the human mind and prevent careful study of the facts
before judgment is pronounced. ("Historie des Vierges: Les Peoples
et les Continents Disparus.")

Purely Brahamanical consideration, based on greed of power and
ambition, allowed the masses in India (as in Egypt) to remain in
ignorance of great truths; and exactly these same causes compelled
the Initiates among the early Christians to remain silent because
some of the uninitiated Church Fathers, who had never developed so
as to know the truth, disfigured the order of things.

"Once more we may repeat that there was early intercourse between
Egypt and Babylonia and that in this intercourse the prevailing
influences came from the East." ("Archaeology of Cuneiform
Inscriptions," by Prof. A. H. Sayce, page 144.)

The chief of an ancient Hindu Pagoda said to Colonel Tod, who was
better loved by the natives than any other Englishman:

"Shahib, you lose your time in vain researches. The Bellati India
(i.e. the India of foreigners) is before you, but you will never
see the Gupta India (secret India.) We are the guardians of her
mysteries, and would rather cut out each other's tongues than
speak."

Again referring to The Builder, our Brother critic says: "Why did
not the Great School begin its work at home, and lift India out of
the shadow of superstition and the paralysis of pessimism."
Passing by the work the School has endeavored to do the world over,
we may quote the criticised book, "The Great Work":

In India as in Egypt "the tide of civilization at last reached its
height. The material prosperity of a nation or a people, when it
rises to a certain point, seems of itself to develop a subtle
poison whose cumulative effects will, in due time, manifest
themselves physiologically within the body politic. First comes the
spirit of selfishness, then the desire for power, then the struggle
for wealth, then the practice of dishonesty, then the oppression
and suppression of the weak, then the protest of the injured, then
the internecine strife, then the final struggle for existence, and
in the end spiritual darkness and national death.

"The poison of unassimilated material prosperity was in the blood
of Egypt. The spirit of selfishness took possession of her people.
The struggle for position and power began. Dishonesty prevailed.
Oppression and domination followed. Suffering and sorrow were
everywhere. The cry of the subject was unheard and unanswered.
Death had set its irrevocable seal upon the proudest of nations.
Egypt died. The history of her death struggle is the tragic story
of the approaching and appalling spiritual darkness which finally
settled over that beautiful land of sunshine." (The Great Work,
page 56.)

Here is the reason why the India of today is what we know her to be
instead of that which she might have been. Egypt died. India
sleeps.

As we may read in the book, "The Builders":

"Nevertheless, if life on earth be worthless, so is immortality.
The real question, after all, is not as to the quantity of life,
but its quality--its depth, its purity, its fortitude, its fineness
of spirit and gesture of soul. Hence the insistent emphasis of
Masonry upon the building of character and the practice of
righteousness; upon the moral culture without which man is
rudimentary, and that spiritual vision without which intellect is
the slave of greed and passion. What makes a man great and free of
soul, here or any whither, is loyalty to the laws of right, of
truth, of purity, of love, and the lofty will of God. How to live
is the one matter; and the oldest man in his ripe age has yet to
seek a wiser way than to build, year by year, upon a foundation of
faith in God, using the Square of Justice, the Plumb-line of
rectitude, the Compass to restrain the passions, and the Rule by
which to divide our time into labor, rest and service to our
fellows. Let us begin now and seek wisdom in the beauty of virtue
and live in the light of it, rejoicing- so in this world shall we
have a foregleam of the world to come--bringing down to the Gate in
the Mist something that ought not to die, assured that, though
hearts are dust, as God lives what is excellent is enduring." (The
Builders, page 275, 276.)

So then let us include in this communication Max Muller's testimony
as to the influence of ancient teachings in old India:

"If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully
developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on
the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of
them, which well deserve the attention, even of those who have
studied Plato and Kant, I should point to India." (What India Can
Teach Us, by Max Muller.)

A modern formulation of the ancient spiritual science, whose
ancient home is India, may be quoted in this connection from "The
Great Work" and is that which "attention" is called:

"And finally, it is hoped that when the work is finished it will
impress upon every reader in such manner as to inspire him to
immediate action, the paramount fact that it is to his own best
interest, his own greatest good and his own largest possibility of
happiness, both now and in the future of this life, both here and
in the life to come, to enter at once upon the noble and ennobling
task of 'Living a Life' in conformity with Nature's Constructive
Principle, and never thereafter to falter until he shall arrive at
the goal of individual Mastership, whether that be in this life or
in the great hereafter." (The Great Work, Page 209.)

In the foregoing we have referred to the high ideals and lofty
purposes of the Great School as disclosed in the book, "The Great
Work," contrasting them with similar ideals and purposes as
revealed in the book, "The Builders." Both books are the work of
Masons. Both aim to show the traditions of the past and to
inculcate the personal effort necessary to be a man, not merely in
form, but in faith, in spirit, and still more in character. So mote
it be.

(As an open forum for fraternal discussion, The Builder is very
glad to have the friends of TK present their claims, and no one of
them is more welcome to do so than Dr. Stewart, of the Cincinnati
Masonic Study School, whose attainments as a student of Masonry
entitle him to be heard on any theme of Masonic interest. Happily
he is not one of those, of whom there have been a few, who regard
any difference of opinion as a personal insult. Far from it. His
article is admirable in spirit, like the man himself, and we need
not say that it is equally choice in statement and form. Howbeit,
we beg him to believe that we never for a moment made the mistake
of imagining that TK, in the title of his book, described it as
Great. Not so. Our reference was to the estimate of the book by
other Brethren who called it "the greatest Masonic book in the
world"; hence our remark that it seems to us "more curious than
great." For the rest, we may take the points of the article in
order:

First in respect of the Secrecy employed by the alleged Great
school. Brother Stewart quotes from our little book, The Builders,
to prove, what we never at any time denied, that everything must
not be told to everybody. But that is not the question at all. It
is not the secrecy of the teaching of the supposed Great School
that we criticise, but the fact that the existence and history of
the School are kept secret. Masonry also employs a secret method of
teaching, but its existence is no secret. Its Old Charges, its
history, and even a part of its ritual are written and may be read
by all. Not once have we suggested, much less demanded, that TK
betray any of the secret doctrine of the Great School, but he
should at least be willing to prove that such a School exists.
Brother Stewart reminds us that prominent Masons have talked with
TK and convinced themselves that such a School does exist; but
surely that need not be a matter to be talked of in whispers behind
closed doors.

Second, even if such a Great School exists, having headquarters "in
the far off India"--and as to this we make no question, for there
are many Great Schools in India and elsewhere and have been time
out of mind--that does not prove that it has existed from the
beginning of time, with records antedating the days of Moses and
the pyramids. Grote, Philo, Mead and others are quoted by Brother
Stewart to prove what we have never questioned, that religious and
philosophical schools existed in ancient times. Manifestly so. The
Mysteries were such. The Greek schools of Philosophy were such. We
may even go back to the Men's House of primitive tribal life, which
was a secret Lodge in which every youth, when he became of age, was
initiated into the law, legend, and religion of his people -- with
ceremonies not unlike those used today. But Brother Stewart, by his
own quotations, proves too much. He shows that there were many
Schools--whereof Yarker has written so learnedly in his "Arcane
Schools"--myriads of Schools, not one Great School superintending
the education of humanity, creating Buddhism, early Christianity
and Freemasonry, as TK affirms. So that, his quotations are quite
wide of the mark, so far as this discussion is concerned.

Third, as to the "records" of the hypothetical Great School,
Brother Stewart is content to show, what we have not called in
question, that there were many precious records treasured by men in
"the gray years of old." some of which, alas, were destroyed. But
that has nothing to do with the matter in hand. TK claims that the
records of his Great School have been preserved intact, and that
they run back into pre-historic times, telling the story of man's
slow climb out of darkness toward the Light--including a record of
the life of Jesus who, it is alleged, was a member of the School.
His statement to this effect is definite and unqualified; not a
theory, as Brother Fenell pointed out, but an affirmation. Some of
us make request for proof of it. And it is not enough to tell us
that TK has talked with members of the Great School and found that
it is true. Without betraying any of her secrets. Masonry publishes
her most ancient documents to the world. If the alleged Great
School has such documents, why not ask it to do likewise--the more
so that it purports to possess a hidden life of Jesus and the true
story of the origin of Masonry? As a matter of fact, the statements
of TK are impossible of proof, in the nature of things, and he
knows it. Brother Stewart quotes the words of TK to the effect that
for a number of years he has been in personal touch with members of
the Great School and knows what he is talking about, and says that
"the answer is complete." It is not complete. It is no answer at
all. It does not even touch the question, much less answer it. Nor
does the passage quoted from The Builders help his case in the
least.

Fourth, very graciously Brother Stewart proceeds to show that the
spirit and moral teaching of the Great Work are in harmony with the
teaching which we tried to set forth in the closing chapters of The
Builders. Exactly. Moral science, and the laws of the life of the
spirit, are as much agreed upon, the world over, as are the
propositions of mathematics. Life has no meaning save as we see it
as a Great School for the building of character, and its deepest
satisfactions, as well as its highest joys, are to be found in
doing the will of Him "in whose great hand we stand." Masonry is a
Great School of spiritual faith and moral culture; all that is
secret about it is its method of teaching--which is true, as we
pointed out in The Builders, of all the Arcana Schools of old.
Still, the moral teaching of Masonry is one thing and its history
is another; and in The Builders we kept the two apart, treating
tradition as tradition, legend as legend, history as history, and
we insist that TK should do the same. Masonry stands in a great
Secret Tradition, an epitome of universal initiation, deriving, no
doubt, from many Arcane Schools; using its history, its traditions,
its symbols and dramas the better to bring young men to discover
the greatest of all Secrets, at once the most open and the most
hidden--the kinship of the soul with God its Father, and of life as
love and comradeship, here and hereafter.--The Editor.)

