THE BUILDER JULY 1915
HOW TO STUDY FREEMASONRY

BY BRO. R. I. CLEGG, OHIO

(In the Symposium on this subject, the final installment of which
was published in our last issue, the writers dwelt, at our
suggestion, particularly upon the manner in which groups of
students might enter upon the many phases of Masonic study to best
advantage. Herewith Brother Clegg brings us, out of his wealth of
Masonic experience, much that the individual student may do for
himself, and by himself. We know from our correspondence that his
article answers a question which from the beginning has been
uppermost in the minds of many of our members, and answers it in a
most practical way. As to method, Brother Clegg's presentation of
the subject is simple and easily followed, whether one has
fellow-workers near at hand or not. The material for study, as
outlined, is as authentic as it is interesting, and therefore of
great importance. Also, he shows what needs to be kept in mind,
that those hard-working, practical men who do so much to strengthen
and perfect the organization of Masonry, though they may not be
learned in books, are Masonic students and builders.--The Editor.
)

No easy task is it to give an answer that will fit all cases.
Everything depends upon the Freemason who is to do the studying of
Freemasonry and upon the particular angle of Freemasonry that
appeals to him. For that matter, how many of us would think alike
as to what was most interesting and most important? Even as to
definitions of Freemasonry itself our ideas will not uniformly run
on parallel tracks.

So right here we may for convenience sake just as well say that for
the purpose of what I am about to set down at this time I will take
Freemasonry to be anything that has especial relationship to
Freemasons. He that knows himself to be a Freemason (and any member
of the Craft fully knows how to apply the needful tests) will also
be aware that when Freemasonry is mentioned here by me it relates
specifically to him and to such as he and to none other.

Having already mentioned in these columns the very real difficulty
of preparing a narrow and precise definition of Freemasonry that
will meet the attacks of the most critical, I shall now as in the
foregoing attempt make it broad enough to include all possible
points of interest to the brethren.

Just as we have seen the awkwardness of meeting everybody's
requirements as to the subject matter, so too we find that there is
variety galore in the students themselves. There are those
Freemasons whose ideas about the study of Freemasonry are
singularly restricted. They associate study with textbooks. To
their view the studious Freemason is necessarily a bookworm. The
fact is that some most studious Freemasons are not book lovers.

Many of what I may term the executive class of Freemasons are
devoted students of the Craft and of every branch thereof. Of this
office-holding class filling all sorts of ritualistic positions and
responsibilities there is included a countless array caring little
and heeding less the historical accounts of the genesis of the
various governing bodies. To them the present and the future are of
paramount importance. Engrossed as they are in their personal
affairs of business and the steady flood of labor in initiations
and in allied services, they have no time to spare for literary
enjoyment or for actual bookish research even if by any possibility
they could create in themselves a taste for it.

Research to a large extent they may pursue and yet not be aware of
it as such. Circumscribed as they are by the devotion of their
energies to the consideration of the fraternity's progress as
bounded by their own career and their own affiliations, these men
oft write with no uncertain pen records of lofty worth. Look you!
What a wealth of study is woven into the construction and the
financing of the Masonic buildings myriadly dotted over this broad
land of ours! What eloquent histories are imperishably graven into
these monumental memorials! Every stone therein is an eternal
tribute to the zeal of the few or many students banded in the
brotherhood of Freemasonry and whose joy it was to house their
ceremonies in a fitting home.

Furthermore, every man holding office in our mystic circle, or
expecting to at some time have an office and meantime preparing
himself to fill the place he anticipates, is to that extent a
student and very often an ardent student of Freemasonry.

It will thus be seen that there are various grades of Masonic
students. We have those whose chief concern is with the immediate
present and the near future, and then again we have those who look
further afield. How then shall we prepare a course of instruction
that meets all the requirements of the worthy brethren already
mentioned and that will also serve for those who seek to plumb
other and deeper depths ? And that is not all the difficulty. How
shall we take due care of the many who have little to spend on
books and who must therefore make the most of a very limited
outlay. Neither can we overlook those of the unselfishly ambitious
whose thoughts run lavishly toward the founding of a library to be
an appropriate adjunct to some Masonic edifice of highest quality
and purpose.

Begin at the beginning. Let us first assume you have no books.

1. Get a Bible. It is easily first of all books in or about
Freemasonry. Preferably select one that opens out flat at any page.
Very many inexpensive Bibles are freely supplied with maps and
other helps to the better understanding of the text. A good
Concordance is an excellent handbook to the convenient study of the
Bible. The Concordance is very useful in locating a text of which
you may not be able to remember more than one or two significant
words. You will find Biblical references to Solomon's Temple
particularly interesting in Chronicles and Kings, and on careful
study you will probably agree with me that a second Hiram,
doubtless a relative of the first, was on account of some mishap to
his predecessor called in to finish the work.

2. Get the Masonic Codes published by the Grand Lodge and the other
Masonic bodies in which you hold membership. Many a time there
arises a knotty little question that provided you have the
information at home will enable you promptly to satisfy yourself as
to the law. Very many of the references will be found to throw a
flood of light upon the development of our jurisprudence. But
whatever Codes you collect, omit not the one of your own Grand
Lodge. That is the fundamental Masonic law next to the moral code
of the Scriptures.

3. Get the Standard Monitor of your State. Some Monitors are much
more extended and elaborate than others. Especially do I admire the
one prepared by P. G. M. Wm. M. Shaver, of Topeka, for the Grand
Lodge of Kansas. On the Apron Lecture it is unusually valuable. But
be sure and possess the one approved by the Grand Lodge of your own
State if you desire the one only.

4. Get the Concise History of Freemasonry written by Brother R. F.
Gould.

5. Get the Concise Cyclopedia of Freemasonry compiled by the late
Brother Hawkins.

Both of the above books are inexpensive and splendid possessions.
Gould's larger History and Mackey's really comprehensive
Encyclopedia are highly desirable additions to the above list but
they are high in price, though fully worth all they cost. The
History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders is delightfully
written and is a scholarly work. Mackey and Singleton's History is
in the same category. Gould's Concise History will fill all the
student's wants for some time.

So far I have paid attention to the larger class. I have weighed
the possibilities open to the brother whose desire runs easily
ahead of his modest pocketbook. We have contemplated something less
than a ten-dollar expenditure. Let us now deal briefly with those
whose means are more ample.

(a) Write to the Secretary, Brother A. G. Pitts, Equity Building,
Detroit, Mich., for a copy, it costs only ten cents, of the Masonic
Curriculum reprinted by Palestine Lodge. This is the work of the
late George Speth of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, the justly celebrated
research body of Masonic students. If you can obtain all the books
cited by Brother Speth you cannot but possess a very useful working
library.

(b) Write to Brother Frank Marquis, President of the Masonic
Library Association at Mansfield, Ohio, for a list of the volumes
collected by that enthusiastic body. The catalogue contains most
useful notations to many of the books and the list forms an example
and a guide.

Please note that to secure all the foregoing works would demand
much time and about two thousand dollars for books.

(c) A subscription to the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 2076, of London,
will bring a lot of information every year. Many of the Masonic
bodies on the membership list published by the Quatuor Coronati
Lodge issue publications of their own that are of decided
importance. These are such treasures as the works printed under the
auspices of the German Union of Freemasons, the Lodges of Research
at Manchester and at Leicester, England; the several Lodges of
Installed Masters at Leeds and elsewhere in England; the Masters
and Wardens Lodge at Christchurch, New Zealand; the Masonic Bureau
at Neuchatel, Suisse (Switzerland); the Masonic Library Association
at Cincinnati, Ohio, and so on.

(d) President Scott Bonham of the latter organization prepared some
years ago a little handbook containing suggestions on the buying
and the reading of Masonic works, and he has also in the same
treatise a very good compilation of Masonic words that are
frequently mispronounced.

(e) Let me not overlook a series of three cards devised by Robert
H. Corey, Registry Division, Post Office, Cincinnati, Ohio. These
cards list the topics that are of greatest pertinence to the young
Freemason and they may even be profitably handed to him one by one
as he receives the lodge degrees. These lists are admirable. As was
to be expected, they give references to such books as are easily
obtained from the local Masonic library.

A good Masonic friend of mine once told me of having invested some
twenty-five dollars in books on Freemasonry and yet he could never
get up interest enough to read them. Evidently something else was
wanted that he did not buy with the books. Books are only a part of
the thing. A taste must be cultivated for the information.

My friend, himself, had out of his long experience a fund of
Masonic data that was and is very interesting to me. Undoubtedly
there were angles of Freemasonry that would have been entertaining
and instructive to him.

What then was the fault with the books that he bought? They did not
fit. His purchase was no more appetizing to him than you would
expect any job lot of books to be to him or anyone else. Thus it is
obvious that the peculiar tendencies of the individual brother must
be taken into consideration or the road to learning will be dry as
dust.

Therefore take notice that a worker in the Royal Arch cannot but be
keenly interested in the pamphlet on the Chapter Degrees prepared
by Dr. Wm. F. Kuhn of Kansas City. There is much charm in the books
by Addison and Porter for the Knight Templar. Robertson's Cryptic
Rite is exceedingly attractive to the devotee of the Council.
Brockaway's History of Aurora Grata has Scottish Rite importance
far beyond the membership of that century-old landmark among
Eastern Masonic keepers of the faith. Ravenscroft's book upon the
Comacines is in all too small compass the effort of a Freemason of
standing among antiquarians to dig out of the remote past
historical truths of consequence to all of us. The many essays of
George W. Warvelle of Chicago on the Council and the Chapter and
the Red Cross of Constantine are unique and ever to be treasured by
the fortunate to whom they travel. In the same class are the
productions of Librarian J. F. Sachse of the Grand Lodge Library at
Philadelphia. Of the several productions of General Albert Pike
they are all to be coveted, especially by the Scottish Rite Mason.
These are but specimens of what may profitably be added to the
possessions of the brother whose peculiar interests and connections
require special information.

And finally, my brethren, let me not overlook in closing the
"Builders," by Brother Joseph F. Newton. It is charmingly written
and enumerates many references to further sources of Masonic light.
Of general appeal to all Freemasons it may well be deemed one the
first selected for the founding of a home library

