THE BUILDERS - 9. GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND - Story & Study of Free-Masonry - Joseph Fort Newton - HQ Full Book

THE BUILDERS: A STORY AND STUDY OF MASONRY - Joseph Fort Newton (1914) - HQ Full Book. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Ante-Room

Part I — Prophecy 
Chapter I. The Foundations
Chapter II. The Working Tools
Chapter III. The Drama of Faith
Chapter IV. The Secret Doctrine
Chapter V. The Collegia

Part II — History 
Chapter I. Free-Masons
Chapter II. Fellowcrafts
Chapter III. Accepted Masons
Chapter IV. Grand Lodge of England
Chapter V. Universal Masonry

Part III — Interpretation 
Chapter I. What Is Masonry
Chapter II. The Masonic Philosophy
Chapter III. The Spirit of Masonry

"The Builders: A Story and Study of Masonry" by Joseph Fort Newton is a comprehensive exploration of Freemasonry, designed not only to trace its historical roots but also to delve into the symbolic and spiritual significance that underpins this ancient fraternity. Written in an approachable yet scholarly style, Newton’s work seeks to illuminate the philosophical and moral foundations of Freemasonry, making it accessible to both the initiated and the uninitiated.

At its core, *The Builders* is both a historical study and a philosophical reflection. Newton begins by exploring the origins of Freemasonry, linking its early development to the guilds of operative masons who built the magnificent cathedrals of Europe. He traces how the operative craft eventually evolved into speculative Freemasonry, transitioning from a trade-based organization into a society focused on moral and spiritual enlightenment. By recounting the legends, rituals, and traditions of the fraternity, Newton places Freemasonry within the broader context of human civilization, showing its deep connections with the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity that have shaped Western thought.

One of the most compelling aspects of the book is its focus on the allegorical and symbolic nature of Freemasonry. Newton unpacks the meanings behind the symbols and rituals that are at the heart of the Masonic experience, such as the square and compass, the ashlar stones, and the working tools. He explains how these tools of the ancient builders serve as metaphors for the inner work of the soul—shaping one’s character, refining virtues, and striving towards moral perfection. For Newton, Freemasonry is more than a social fraternity; it is a system of ethical and spiritual development, where the “builders” are those who seek to build their own lives upon a foundation of truth, integrity, and brotherhood.

Newton also provides a deep analysis of the fraternity’s philosophical underpinnings, drawing connections between Masonic teachings and broader themes in religious and esoteric traditions. He explores the influence of ancient mystery schools, the Bible, and other sacred texts, demonstrating how Freemasonry draws upon universal spiritual wisdom to inspire its members toward a higher moral and ethical life. By doing so, *The Builders* emphasizes Freemasonry’s role as a universal institution that transcends national, religious, and cultural boundaries.

Throughout the book, Newton’s reverence for the Masonic tradition is evident. He portrays the fraternity as an important custodian of wisdom and moral values, which, while ancient, remain deeply relevant in the modern world. His narrative emphasizes Freemasonry’s capacity to unite men of different backgrounds in pursuit of a common goal: the betterment of the individual and, by extension, society.

In *The Builders*, Newton offers not just a history lesson, but a philosophical and spiritual guide, urging readers to see themselves as part of the long line of “builders” who have sought to construct not only great temples of stone, but also the temple of the human spirit. This classic work remains a profound introduction to the craft of Freemasonry, inspiring those who wish to understand its deeper meanings and timeless relevance.

#Freemasonry #Masonic #Brotherhood #Masons #Freemason #Lodge #Symbolism #AncientWisdom #SecretSociety #Philosophy #Esoteric #MasonicLodge #MasonicSymbols #Spirituality #MasonicTemple #Enlightenment #Wisdom #Fraternity #Rituals #MasonicHistory

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Builders. A Story and Study of Masonry by Joseph
Fort Newton, Grand Lodge of Iowa, Part two, History, Chapter four,
Grand Lodge of England. The doctrines of masonry are the
most beautiful that it is possible to imagine. They breathe
the simplicity of the earliest ages, animated by the love

(00:22):
of a martyred God. That word which the Puritans translated charity,
but which is really love, is the key stone which
supports the entire edifice of this mystic science. Love one another,
teach one another, help one another. That is all our doctrine,
all our science, all our law. We have no narrow

(00:42):
minded prejudices. We do not debar from our society this
sect or that sect. It is sufficient for us that
a man worships God, no matter under what name or
in what manner. All rail against us, bigoted and ignorant men.
If you will, those who listen to the truths which
masonry inculcates can readily forgive you. It is impossible to

(01:05):
be a good Mason without being a good man. Wynn
would read The Vale of Isis while praying in a
little chapel. One day. Francis of ASSISI was exhorted by
an old Byzantine crucifix, Go now and rebuild my church,
which is falling into ruins. In sheer loyalty, he had
a lamp placed. Then he saw his task in a

(01:26):
larger way, and an artist has painted him carrying stones
and mortar. Finally, there burst upon him the full import
of the allocution, that he himself was to be the
corner stone of a renewed and purified church, purse and prestige.
He flung to the winds and went along the highways
of Umbria, calling men back from the rod of luxury
to the ways of purity, pity, and gladness. His life

(01:49):
at once a poem and a power, his faith a
vision of the world as love and comradeship that is
a perfect parable of the history of masonry of old.
The working masons built the great cathedrals, and we have
seen them not only carrying stones, but drawing triangles, squares
and circles, in such a manner as to show that
they assigned to those figures high mystical meanings. But the

(02:12):
real home of the soul cannot be built of brick
and stone. It is a house not made with hands. Slowly,
it rises fashioned of the thoughts, hopes, prayers, dreams, and
righteous acts of devout and free men, built of their
hunger for truth, their love of God, and their loyalty
to one another. There came a day when the Masons,

(02:33):
laying aside their stones, became workmen of another kind, not
less builders than before, but using truths for tools and
dramas for designs, uplifting such a temple as what dreamed
of decorating with his visions of the august allegory of
the evolution of man. From every point of view, the
organization of the Grand Lodge of England in seventeen seventeen

(02:55):
was a significant and far reaching event. Not only did
it divide the story of masonry into before and after,
giving a new date from which to reckon, but it
was a way mark in the intellectual and spiritual history
of mankind. One has only to study that first Grand Lodge,
the influences surrounding it, the men who composed it, the

(03:15):
constitutions adopted, and its spirit and purpose to see that
it was the beginning of a movement of profound meaning.
When we see it in the setting of its age,
as revealed, for example, in the Journals of Fox and Wesley,
which from being religious timetables, broadened into detailed panoramic pictures
of the period before and that following the Grand Lodge.

(03:36):
The Assembly on seventeen seventeen becomes the more remarkable. Against
such a background, when religion and morals seem to reach
the nadir of degradation, the men of that Assembly stand
out as profits of liberty of faith and righteousness of life.
Some imagination is needed to realize the moral declension of
that time, as it is portrayed, to use a single

(03:58):
example in the sermon by the Bishop of Lichfield before
the Society for the Reformation of Manners in seventeen twenty four. Lewdness, drunkenness,
and degeneracy, he said, were well nigh universal, no class
being free from the infection. Murders were common and foul,
wanton and obscene books found so good a market as

(04:19):
to encourage the publishing of them. Immorality of every kind
was so hardened as to be defended, yes justified on principle.
The rich were debauched and indifferent. The poor were as
miserable in their labor as they were coarse and cruel
in their sport. Writing in seventeen thirteen, Bishop Burnett said
that those who came to be ordained as clergymen were

(04:41):
ignorant to a degree not to be comprehended by those
who are not obliged to know it. Religion seemed dying
or dead, and to mention the word provoked a laugh. Wesley,
then only a lad had not yet come with his
magnificent in cleansing evangel empty formalism on one side, a
dead police, chemical dogmatism on the other, bigotry, bitterness, intolerance,

(05:04):
and interminable feud everywhere. No wonder. Bishop Butler sat oppressed
in his castle, with hardly a hope surviving. As for masonry,
it had fallen far and fallen low betimes, But with
the revival following the Great Fire of London in sixteen
sixty six, it had taken on new life in a
bolder spirit, and was passing through a transition, or rather

(05:25):
a transfiguration. For when we compare the masonry of say,
sixteen eighty eight with that of seventeen twenty three, we
discover that much more than a revival had come to
pass set the instructions of the old charges. Not all
of them, however, For even in earliest times. Some of
them escaped the stamp of the Church in respect of

(05:46):
religion alongside the same article in the constitutions of seventeen
twenty three, and the contrast is amazing. The old charge
read the first charge is this, that you be true
to God and Holy Church, and use no error or heresy.
Here now the charge in seventeen twenty three. A Mason
is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law,

(06:09):
and if he rightly understands the art, he will never
be a stupid atheist nor an irreligious libertine. But though
in ancient times Masons were charged in every country to
be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever
it was, yet it is now thought more expedient only
to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree,
leaving their particular opinions to themselves, that is, to be

(06:31):
good men and true, or men of honor and honesty,
by whatever denomination or persuasion they may be distinguished. Whereby
masonry becomes the center of union and the means of
conciliating true friendship among persons that must have remained at
a perpetual distance. If that statement had been written yesterday,
it would be remarkable enough. But when we consider that

(06:53):
it was set forth in seventeen twenty three amidst bitter
sectarian rancor and intolerance, unimaginable right up as forever memorable
in the history of men. The man who wrote that document,
did we know? His name, is entitled to be held
till the end of time in the grateful and venerative
memory of his race. The temper of the times was

(07:13):
all for relentless partisanship, both in religion and in politics.
The alternative offered in religion was an ecclesiastical tyranny allowing
a certain liberty of belief, or a doctrinal tyranny allowing
a slight liberty of worship, a sad choice in truth.
It is then, to the everlasting honor of the century, that,

(07:34):
in the midst of its clashing extremes, the Masons appeared
with heads unbowed, abjuring both tyrannies and championing both liberties
ecclesiastically and doctrinally. They stood in the open, while Romanist
and Protestant, Anglican and Puritan, Calvinist and Armenian waged bitter war,
filling the air with angry maledictions. These men of latitude

(07:56):
in a cramped age felt pent up alike by narrowness
of ritual and by no narrowness of creed, and they
cried out for room and air, for liberty and charity.
Though differences of creed played no part in Masonry, Nevertheless,
it held religion in high esteem, and was then as
now the steadfast upholder of the only two articles of

(08:16):
faith that never were invented by man, the existence of
God and the immortality of the soul. Accordingly, every lodge
was opened and closed with prayer to the almighty architect
of the universe. And when a lodge of mourning met
in memory of a brother fallen asleep, the formula was,
he has passed over into the eternal East, to that region,
whence cometh light and hope. Unsectarian in religion, the Masons

(08:40):
were also nonpartisan in politics, one principle being common to
them all love of country, respect for law and order,
and the desire for human welfare. Upon that basis the
first Grand Lodge was founded, and upon that basis Masonry
rests today, holding that a unity of spirit is better
than a uniformity of opinion, and that beyond the great

(09:01):
and simple religion, in which all men agree no dogma
is worth a breach of charity. With honorable pride in
this tradition of spiritual faith and intellectual freedom, we are
all the more eager to recite such facts as are
known about the organization of the First Grand Lodge. How
many lodges of Masons existed in London at that time

(09:22):
is a matter of conjecture, but there must have been
a number. What bond, if any, united them, other than
their esoteric secrets and customs, is equally unknown. Nor is
there any record to tell us whether all the lodges
in and about London were invited to join in the movement. Unfortunately,
the minutes of the Grand Lodge only commence on June

(09:42):
twenty fourth, seventeen twenty three, and our only history of
the events is that found in the New Book of
Constitutions by doctor James Anderson in seventeen thirty eight. However,
if not an actor in the scene, he was in
a position to know the facts from eye witnesses, and
his book was approved by the Grand Lodge itself. His
account is so brief that it may be given as

(10:05):
it stands. King George, the First entered London most magnificently
on September twentieth, seventeen fourteen, and after the rebellion was
over a d. Seventeen sixteen, the few lodges at London,
finding themselves neglected by Sir Christopher Wren, thought fit to
cement under a Grand Master as the center of union
in harmony viz. The lodges that met one at the

(10:29):
Goose and Gridiron Ale House in Saint Paul's Churchyard, Two
at the Crown Ale House in Parker's Lane near Drury Lane,
Three at the Apple Tree Tavern in Charles Street, Covent Garden.
Four at the Rummer and Grape Tavern in Channel Row, Westminster.
They and some other old brothers met at the said

(10:50):
Apple Tree, and, having put into the chair of the
oldest Master Mason, now the master of a lodge, they
constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro temporary in due form,
and forthwith revived the quarterly Communication of the officers of
lodges called the Grand Lodge, resolved to hold the annual
Assembly and feast, and then to choose a Grand Master
from among themselves, till they should have the honor of

(11:13):
a noble brother at their head accordingly. On Saint John's
Baptist's Day in the three d year of King George
the First a d. Seventeen seventeen, the Assembly and Feast
of the Free and Accepted Masons was held at the
foresaid Goose and gridiron Ale House. Before dinner, the oldest
Master Mason, now the master of a lodge, in the chair,

(11:35):
proposed a list of proper candidates, and the brethren, by
a majority of hands elected mister Anthony Sayer Gentlemen, Grand
Master of Masons, Mister Jacob Lamall Carpenter, Captain Joseph Elliott
Grand Wardens, who, being forthwith invested with the badges of
office and power by the said oldest Master and installed,
was duly congratulated by the Assembly, who paid him the homage. Sayer,

(12:00):
Grand Master, commanded the Masters and wardens of lodges to
meet the Grand Officers every quarter in communication at the
place that he should appoint. In the summons sent by
the Tyler, so reads the only record that has come
down to us of the founding of the Grand Lodge
of England. Preston and others have had no other authority
than this passage for their descriptions of the scene, albeit

(12:21):
when Preston wrote such facts, as he added, may have
been learned from men still living who were present. Beyond
the three officers named, has so far eluded all research,
and the only variation in the accounts is found in
a rare old book called Moltipausis, which asserts that six lodges,
not four, were represented. Looking at this record in the

(12:43):
light of what we know of the masonry of that period,
a number of things are suggested. First, so far from
being a revolution, the organization of the Grand Lodge was
a revival of the old quarterly and annual assembly, born
doubtless of a felt need of community of action for
the welfare of them. There was no idea of innovation, But,

(13:03):
as Andersen states in a note, it should meet quarterly
according to ancient usage tradition, having by this time become
authoritative in such matters. Hints of what the old usages
were given in the observance of Saint John's day as
a feast in the democracy of the order, in its
manner of voting by a show of hands, in its
deference to the oldest master mason, its use of badges

(13:25):
of office, its ceremony of installation, all in a lodge
duly tiled. Second, it is clear that, instead of being
a deliberately planned effort to organize Masonry in general, the
Grand Lodge was intended at first to affect only London
and Westminster, the desire being to weld the link of
closer fellowship and cooperation between the lodges. While we do

(13:47):
not know the names of the moving spirits, unless we
may infer that the men elected to office were such,
nothing is clearer than that the initiative came from the
heart of the order itself, and was in no sense
imposed upon it from without. And so great was the
necessity for it that, when once started, link after link
was added until it put a girdle around the earth. Third.

(14:08):
Of the four lodges known to have taken part, only
one that meeting at the Rummer in Grape Tavern, had
a majority of accepted Masons in its membership, the other
three being operative lodges or largely so. Obviously, then the
movement was predominantly a movement of operative Masons, or of
men who have been operative Masons, and not, as has

(14:29):
been so often implied, the design of men who simply
made use of the remnants of operative masonry, the better
to exploit some hidden philosophy. Yet it is worthy of
note that the leading men of the craft in those
early years were nearly all of them accepted Masons and
members of the Rummer and Grape Lodge. Besides doctor Anderson
the historian, both George Payne and Doctor Desaguleers, the second

(14:53):
and third Grand Masters, were of that lodge. In seventeen
twenty one, the Duke of Montague was elect to the chair,
and thereafter members of the nobility sat in the East
until it became the custom for the Prince of Wales
to be Grand Master of Masons in England. Fourth, why
did masonry alone, of all trades and professions live after

(15:13):
its work was done, preserving not only its identity of organization,
but its old emblems and usages, and transforming them into
instruments of religion and righteousness. The cathedrals had long been
finished or left incomplete. The spirit of Gothic architecture was dead,
and the style treated almost with contempt. The occupation of
the master Mason was gone, his place having been taken

(15:36):
by the architect, who, like ren and Inigo Jones, was
no longer a child of the lodges as in the
old days. But a man trained in books and by
foreign travel, why did not freemasonry die along with the guilds,
or else revert to some kind of trades union. Surely
here is the best possible proof that it had never
been simply an order of architects building churches, but a

(15:59):
moral and spiritual fellowship, the keeper of great symbols, and
a teacher of truths that never die. So and only
so may anyone ever hope to explain the story of masonry.
And those who do not see this fact have no
clue to its history, much less an understanding of its genius.
Of course, these pages cannot recite in detail the history

(16:19):
and growth of the Grand Lodge, but a few of
the more salient events may be noted. As early as
seventeen nineteen, the Old Charges, or Gothic constitutions, began to
be collected and collated, a number having already been burned
by scrupulous Masons to prevent their falling into strange hands.
In seventeen twenty one, Grand Master Montague found fault with

(16:41):
the old charges as being inadequate, and ordered doctor Anderson
to make a digest of them, with a view to
formulating a better set of regulations for the rule of
the lodges. Andersen obeyed. He seems to have been engaged
in such a work already, and may have suggested the
idea to the Grand Master, and a committee of fourteen
learned when Brethren was appointed to examine the ms and

(17:02):
make report. They suggested a few amendments, and the book
was ordered published by the Grand Master, appearing in the
latter part of seventeen twenty three. This first issue, however,
did not contain the account of the organization of the
Grand Lodge, which does not seem to have been added
until the edition of seventeen thirty eight. How much past

(17:23):
Grand Master Pain had to do with this work is
not certain, but the chief credit is due to doctor Anderson,
who deserves the perpetual gratitude of the Order, the more
so if he it was who wrote the article already
quoted setting forth the religious attitude of the Order. That article,
by whomsoever written, is one of the great documents of mankind,

(17:43):
and it would be an added joy to know that
it was penned by a minister. The Book of Constitutions,
which is still the groundwork of masonry, has been printed
in many editions and is accessible to every one. Another
event in the story of the Grand Lodge never to
be Forgotton, was a plan started in seventeen twenty four
of raising funds of general charity for distressed Masons, proposed

(18:07):
by the Earl of Dalkeith. It at once met with
enthusiastic support, and it is a curious coincidence that one
of the first to petition for relief was Anthony Sayer,
first Grand Master. The minutes do not state whether he
was relieved at that time, but we know that sums
of money were voted to him in seventeen thirty and
again in seventeen forty one. This Board of Benevolence, as

(18:29):
it came to be called, became very important, it being
unanimously agreed in seventeen thirty three that all such business
as could not be conveniently despatched by the quarterly Communication,
should be referred to. It also that all Masters of
regular Lodges, together with all present, former and future Grand Officers,
should be members of the board. Later, this board was

(18:51):
still further empowered to hear complaints and to report thereon
to the Grand Lodge. Let it also be noted that
in actual practice, the Board of Charity gave free play
to one of the most admirable principles of masonry, helping
the needy and unfortunate, whether within the order or without.
Once more, we come to a much debated question about

(19:11):
which not a little has been written, and most of
it wide of the mark, the question of the origin
of the third degree. Here again students have gone hither
and yon, hunting in every cranny for the motif of
this degree, And it would seem that their failure to
find it would by this time have turned them back
to the only place where they may ever hope to
discover it, in masonry itself. But no, they are bound

(19:33):
to bring mystics, occultists, alchemists, coldies, or cabalists, even the
Venderich of Germany, into the making of masonry somewhere, if
only for the sake of glamour. And this is the
last opportunity to do it. Willing to give due credit
to cabalists and rosicrucions, the present writer rejects all such theories,
on the ground that there is no reason for thinking

(19:54):
that they helped to make masonry, much less any fact
to prove it. Here now a review of the facts
in the case, no one denies that the Temple of
Solomon was much in the minds of men at the
time of the organization of the Grand Lodge, and long before,
as in the Bacon Romance of the New Atlantis in
fifteen ninety seven, Broughton, Selden, Lightfoot, Walton, Lee, Pride and

(20:18):
other English writers were deeply interested in the Hebrew Temple, not, however,
so much in its symbolical suggestion as in its form
and construction, a model of which was brought to London
by Judah Templo in the reign of Charles the Second.
It was much the same on the continent. But so
far from being a new topic of studying discussion, We
may trace this interest in a temple all through the

(20:40):
Middle Ages. Nor was it peculiar to the Cabalists, at
least not to such a degree that they must needs
be brought into account for the Biblical imagery and symbolism
in masonry. Indeed, it might with more reason be argued
that masonry explains the interest in the temple than otherwise.
For as James Ferguson remand, and there is no higher

(21:01):
authority than the historian of architecture. There is perhaps no
building of the ancient world which has excited so much
attention since the time of its destruction as the Temple
of Solomon built in Jerusalem and its successor as built
by Herod. Throughout the Middle Ages. It influenced to a
considerable degree the forms of Christian churches, and its peculiarities

(21:22):
were the watchwords and rallying points of associations of builders.
Clearly the notion that interest in the temple was new,
and that its symbolical meaning was imposed upon masonry as
something novel falls flat. But we are told that there
is no hint of the Hieramic legend, still less any
intimation of a tragedy associated with the building of the temple.

(21:44):
No Hiramic legend, no hint of tragedy. Why both were
almost as old as the temple itself. Rabbinic legend affirming
that all the workmen were killed that they should not
build another temple devoted to idolatry Hiram himself being translated
to heaven like Enoch. The Talmud has many variations of
this legend. Where would one expect the legends of the

(22:07):
temple to be kept alive and be made use of
in ceremonial if not in a religious order of builders
like the Masons. Is it surprising that we find so
few references in later literature to what was thus held
as a sacred secret. As we have seen, the legend
of Hiram was kept as a profound secret until eighteen
forty one by the French companionage, who almost certainly learned

(22:29):
it from the Freemasons. Naturally, it was never made a
matter of record, but was transmitted by oral tradition within
the order. And it was also natural, if not inevitable,
that the legend of the master Artist of the temple
should be the Master's part among Masons who were temple builders.
How else explain the veiled allusions to the name in
the old charges as read to enter the apprentices. If

(22:52):
it was not a secret reserved for a higher rank
of mason, why any disguise at all? If it had
no hidden meaning? Manifestly the motif of the third degree
was purely Masonic, and we need not go outside the
traditions of the order to account for it. Not content
to trace the evolution of masonry, even so able a
man as Albert Pike will have it that to a

(23:14):
few men of intelligence who belonged to one of the
four old lodges in seventeen seventeen is to be ascribed
to the authorship of the third degree and the introduction
of Hermetic and other symbols into masonry. That they framed
the three degrees for the purpose of communicating their doctrines,
veiled by their symbols to those fitted to receive them,
and gave to others trite moral explanations they could comprehend.

(23:38):
How gracious of them to vouchsafe even tried explanations. But
why frame a set of degrees to conceal what they
wished to hide? This is the same idea of something
alien imposed upon Masonry from without, with the added suggestion novel. Indeed,
that masonry was organized to hide the truth rather than
to teach it. But did masonry have to go outside

(23:59):
its own hit mystery and tradition to learn hermetic truths
and symbols. Who was Hermes, whether man or myth, no
one knows, but he was a great figure in the
Egyptian mysteries, and was called the Father of wisdom? What
was his wisdom? From such fragments of his lore as
have floated down to us, impaired it may be, but

(24:21):
always vivid. We discovered that his wisdom was only a
high spiritual faith and morality, taught in visions and rhapsodies
and using numbers as symbols. Was such wisdom new to masonry?
Had not Hermes himself been a hero of the order
from the first, of whom we read in the Old Charges,
in which he has a place of honor alongside Euclid

(24:41):
and Pythagoras. Wherefore, go elsewhere than to masonry itself to
trace the pure stream of Hermetic faith through the ages.
Certainly the men of the Grand Lodge were adepts, but
they were Masonic adepts, seeking to bring the buried temple
of masonry to light and reveal it in a setting
befitting its beauty, not cultis making use of it to
exploit a private scheme of the universe. Who were those

(25:05):
men of intelligence to whom Pike ascribed the making of
the third degree of Masonry? Tradition has fixed upon Desagulars
as the ritualist of the Grand Lodge, and Lyon speaks
of him as the pioneer and cofabricator of symbolical masonry. This, however,
is an exaggeration. Albeit Desagulears was worthy of high eulogy,

(25:26):
as were Anderson in Paine, who are said to have
been his collaborators. But the fact is that the third
degree was not made. It grew like the great cathedrals,
no one of which can be ascribed to a single artist,
but to an order of men working in unity of
enterprise and aspiration. The process by which the old ritual
described in the Sloane Ms was divided and developed into

(25:49):
three degrees between seventeen seventeen and seventeen thirty was so gradual,
so imperceptible, that no exact date can be set. Still
less can it be attributed to any one or two men.
From the minutes of the Musical Society, we learned that
the lodge at the Queen's Head in Holli Street was
using three distinct degrees in seventeen twenty four. As early

(26:10):
as seventeen twenty seven we come upon the custom of
setting apart a separate knight for the master's degree, the
drama having evidently become more elaborate. Further than this, the
degree may not be discussed, except to say that the masons,
tiring of the endless quarrels of sex turned for relief
to the ancient mysteries, as handed down in their traditions,
the old high heroic faith in God and in the

(26:34):
soul of man as the one unconquerable thing upon this earth. If,
as Aristotle said, it be the mission of tragedy to
cleanse and exalt us, leaving us subdued with a sense
of pity and hope, and fortified against ill fortune, it
has permitted us to add that in simplicity, depth and power,
in its grasp of the realities of the life of man,

(26:54):
its portrayal of the stupidity of evil and the splendor
of virtue, its revelation of that in our humanity which
leads it to defy death, giving up everything even to
life itself, rather than to fame, defile, or betray its
moral integrity. And in its prophecy of the victory of
light over shadow. There is not another drama known among

(27:14):
men like the third degree of Masonry. Edwin Booth, a
loyal Mason, and no mean judge of the essence of tragedy,
left these words. In all my research and study, in
all my close analysis of the masterpieces of Shakespeare, in
my earnest determination to make those plays appear real on
the mimic stage. I have never and nowhere met tragedy

(27:36):
so real, so sublime, so magnificent as the legend of Hiram.
It is substance without shadow, the manifest destiny of life,
which requires no picture and scarcely a word to make
a lasting impression upon all who can understand. To be
a worshipful master, and to throw my whole soul into
that work, with the candidate for my audience and the

(27:57):
lodge for my stage, would be a greater personal distinction
than to receive the plaudits of people in the theaters
of the world.