The Plan of Freemasonry - Part I

Bro.^.. Edward B. Paul P.G.M.

Date Published: 12/11/2024                        

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In the first part of a series we will examine the lengthy essay by Bro. Edward B. Paul on the Plan of Freemasonry to attempt to discern the aims and final end of our Royal Art. In this introduction we will consider Freemasonry as a Philosophy of Virtue.

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The following article, written by the author of "The Column of Beauty" published heretofore, takes a broad and philosophical view of Freemasonry as a whole. One may study Masonry from the circumference to the center, from the details to the general, and such is always worth while; he may also study it from the center to the circumference, from the whole to the parts, and this also is richly worth while, as the following essay will show.

TO MOST, if not all, of us, the recollection of our Initiation, Passing, and Raising is fresh and vivid, and stands out from among our subsequent Masonic experiences with a clearness to be explained by the novelty of the situations in which we found ourselves, and by the solemnity of the ceremonies in which we took part for the first time. We perceived, then, that Freemasonry had a message for us, if we could only comprehend it, and we relied on the knowledge of our more experienced brethren to explain to us the many mysteries hidden beneath the ceremonies and symbols of the lodge. As we continued carefully to imbibe the lessons emanating from the East, much that to us had seemed dark became brighter; but we felt there was still much to learn. It is true that each symbol and symbolic act in the lodge was separately explained, and its moral and Masonic uses elucidated; but the detached parts of Freemasonry were never, in our opinion, satisfactorily united into one comprehensive whole, a knowledge of which is necessary in order that the "Noble Science" may have the influence on our lives and conduct, which is its chief end. My purpose, therefore, is to endeavour to demonstrate that the allegories and symbols of the lodge have a correspondence with each other, and are in the nature of hieroglyphics which can be pieced together and made to reveal, when deciphered, the lessons they were intended to convey. But as symbols are, from their nature, susceptible of various meanings, and as all investigators, no matter how honest their intensions may be, are liable to assign forced interpretations to some of them, in order that they may fit into a pre-conceived plan, it is necessary that their pronouncements be submitted to the most rigorous tests, lest Error and not Truth be the result.

The magnitude of my theme and the necessarily limited space allotted to me for this lecture, have caused me to make condensations which detract from the leanness of my arguments, which would require treatment beyond the scope of a short address. However, I lay the results of my investigations before you, begging your indulgence for presenting, in mere outline, a subject of such immense importance.

With this explanatory foreword, I shall now proceed to the subject matter of my lecture.

There are three aspects of Freemasonry to which I invite your attention:

1. Freemasonry as Philosophy.
2. Freemasonry as Education.
3. Freemasonry as the Handmaid of Religion.

These three aspects are sufficiently wide in their scope to deserve much more time for their individual development than is at present at my disposal. A word or two, however, may help to explain my reason for placing them Philosophy, Education, Religion in the order here presented.
Philosophy may be conceived as the science which lays down the principles governing conduct that which states the Moral Ideal; Education, as the means by which that ideal is attained, or, at least, approached; and Religion as the outcome of the two the experience of the individual while realizing, or partially realizing, the Ideal. While these conceptions, no doubt, suggest my divisions of the subject of my lecture, and the order in which they are placed, I fear that, in my treatment of them, I may frequently lose sight of any method which is intended in my design. Indeed, I cannot pretend that this lecture is worthy of being regarded otherwise than as the expression of random thoughts arising out of the careful contemplation of our ceremonies and symbols, and serious speculation as to their meanings.

FREEMASONRY AS PHILOSOPHY

To the philosophical student it will be obvious, in the course of my remarks, that I use the word "Philosophy" in a very loose way. In the first division of my subject I shall touch upon the ideal of life, the nature of the self and the nature of knowledge. In the third the nature of God and the Immortality of the Soul will be among the problems considered problems which lie as much in the province of Philosophy as the three treated under the first head. Perhaps it would have been better to have made a sharper distinction and substituted "Ethics" or "Moral Philosophy" for the word "Philosophy" employed here; but, if you will bear in mind this explanation, it seems to me convenient to allow the term to stand.

"Philosophy is the pursuit of Truth." This is the first and simplest conception and definition of Philosophy we can form. Can we, with truth, substitute the word Freemasonry for Philosophy in that definition? Such a question propounded in a Freemason's lodge can be answered only in the affirmative. The pursuit of Truth, called by us the search for the Lost Word, is indeed the sole aim and the chief end of all the teachings of Freemasonry.

But I do not forget that we are distinctly informed that the "Chief Point of Freemasonry" is the promotion of the happiness of the individual, and, consequently, of society. That is insisted on in the Charge to the Brethren in the Installation Ceremony. The ancient Greek moralists also considered that happiness is "the great end of man, that this is the highest good, the end for which all beings live, the object which they all pursue." In this respect, also, Freemasonry agrees with other philosophies in its definition of the chief end of man.

It may be asked, then, What is the aim of Freemasonry? Is it Truth or Happiness ? There seems to be no doubt that Happiness is the natural concomitant of Truth, and that that is the explanation of the apparent contradiction in the statement of the aims of Freemasonry. Truth and Happiness would thus have the same relationship which Tennyson points out as existing between duty and glory:

"He that walks the path of duty only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden
Love of self, before his journey closes
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting
Into glossy purples, which outredden
All voluptuous garden roses."

Thus, the aim of Philosophy and of Freemasonry being the same, you will see my justification in dealing with Freemasonry as a philosophy.

The nature of that philosophy cannot be clearly explained without a short allusion to the Allegory of Freemasonry. In that allegory the candidate is made to represent a human being in his progress from birth to death, or, as the mental and moral development of a man from childhood to old age closely corresponds to the mental and moral advancement of the race, he may be said to represent human knowledge as it ascends from darkness to light.

This ascent is made by three steps. And may I be permitted to digress a moment to point out that in nature many physical entities or qualities occur in threes or triads. Thus we have Space and its three dimensions, Length, Breadth, Thickness; Matter and its three states, Solid, Liquid, Gaseous. Physical Magnitudes, Length, Mass, Time. Color, Red, Green, Blue or Violet. Sound, Loudness, Pitch, Quality. Electric Current, Circuit, Electro-motive Force, Resistance, etc., etc.

A three-fold division is also manifested in man's nature, which is generally recognized as being made up of three distinct parts, namely, Body, Mind, Spirit. Browning puts into the mouth of one of the patrons of Freemasonry, St. John, the Divine, the following words, which beautifully set forth this distinction:

This is the doctrine he was wont to teach,
How divers persons witness in each man,
Three souls which make up one soul; first, to wit,
A soul of each and all the bodily parts,
Seated therein, which works, and is what Does,
And has the use of earth, and ends the man
Downward: but, tending upward for advice,
Grows into, and again is grown into
By the next soul, which, seated in the brain,
Useth the first with its collected use,
And feeleth, thinketh, willeth-is what Knows:
Which, duly tending upward in its turn,
Grows into, and again is grown into
By the last soul, that uses both the first,
Subsisting whether they assist or no,
And, constituting man's self, is what Is-
And leans upon the former, makes it play,
As that played off the first; and, tending up,
Holds, is upheld by, God, and ends the man
Upward in that dread point of intercourse,
Nor needs a place, for it returns to Him.
What Does, what Knows, what Is; three souls, one man.

As may be expected, therefore, these three parts of man's nature are fully recognized in Freemasonry, each of the three degrees representing one the First degree, the Body (the material world or world of sense); the Second, the Mind; and the Third, the Spirit, the Ego, of which the other two are ministers. Abundant proof of this is to be found in the symbolism of Freemasonry, and it is supported by the opinion of the ablest Masonic writers. This distinction may be alluded to in each of the three divisions of my lecture.

As has been mentioned above, the Pursuit of Happiness is the "chief point" of Freemasonry as well as the aim of life as presented by Philosophy, according to the ancient Greek moralists. All mankind, in every age, from the darkest period of barbarism to the most civilized epoch the world has ever seen, have been striving after happiness. They may differ in their definition of the term, as well as the means by which they can attain their object; but we may take it for granted that ultimately they have happiness in view in all their schemes for the conduct of their lives.

Among savages, the gratification of their passions and desires, without regard to future consequences, seems to them the "highest good." This is also true, to a certain extent, in the case of children. Philosophy, generally, and Freemasonry have nothing to do with that stage of human existence, except in so far as it might be called a preparation period; for the whole life of man may be said to be preparation for something higher the period of darkness for the E. A., the E. A. for the F. C. and so on. It is, therefore, necessary that, before proceeding further and higher, the human being should be "duly and truly prepared."

It is not to be expected that a child or a savage can be prepared at once to receive all the instruction necessary to the complete development of his three-fold nature. He must advance by steps, from the simplest to the most complex, from the concrete to the abstract. There is no doubt that the idea of Mind, still more of Spirit, comes later than the knowledge of the Body and other objects that can be perceived by the Senses. Preparation, therefore, for education along the lines of such knowledge as can be derived only from natural objects must be incomplete. Hence our candidate's preparation is in the First degree confined to the left side. The symbolism of the left side is well known. That side has always been regarded as the side of less honour that the right, and, consequently, is appropriately used to represent the Sensational part of man's nature, while the right side connotes the Rational side.

Hence it is not difficult to conceive that Freemasonry, if it is concerned at all with Philosophy, should make the First degree to exemplify the Sensational, and the Second, the Rational School of Philosophy-the two great schools of thought which have split thinkers into two opposing camps, from the earliest times to the present day. Both systems agree that happiness, in one form or another, is the great aim of man, and that the life according to nature is virtue, because it leads us right to the end for which we were destined by nature, viz., happiness. But they differ in their doctrines respecting happiness and nature and virtue. Both agree that within certain limits the appetites, passions and desires may be gratified, but the Sensational school maintained that the limit was necessary for prudential reasons only, the Rational that happiness springs from the limitation and subjugation of the passions.

The connection between the First degree and the Sensational School will be apparent if we recollect that "refreshment" in the old days was not a mere banquet to be held or not held, after the ceremonies of the evening were over, in a different room, but that it was an integral part of those ceremonies, solemnized by the placing on the refreshment table of the Lights of Masonry, by the prayers of the Master and the other ceremonies of "opening," but "mingled with social mirth, and the mutual interchange of fraternal feeling." It may be regarded, therefore, as a rite emblematical of the liberty of man to gratify his appetites, desires and passions subject to the check of Temperance and Prudence, the two Cardinal Virtues of the South and North, which we may personify as standing unseen and silent on each side of the table, one behind and one facing the Junior Warden. That check is represented also by the Common Gavel, the symbol of Temperance, which must be used on the rough ashlar before the Square of Morality can be made to fit its angles and faces.

I will not tax your patience by dwelling on the similarity between the Second degree and the Rational School of Philosophy. But I may remind you that happiness according to the latter consists in the limitation and subjugation of the passions, while the emphasis laid by the former on Morality and Virtue and the subjugation of the Passions seems to establish the parallel.  The Second degree also lays special stress on the study of Geometry representing Mathematics which subject was regarded by the old Greek philosophers particularly Pythagoras as the symbol of Pure Reason. In Architecture Geometry is the science which determines the form of a structure, and which is more concerned about that than about the substance or matter of which it is composed. The form symbolizes the limit, and the materials, the appetites and passions, the matter, in the Second degree, being completely subordinated to the former, as has been shown to be the case in the tenets of the Rational School.

But Masonry does not, like some of the old Philosophies, maintain the irreconcilable opposition of mind or soul and matter. The oblong squares of the Entered Apprentice and the Fellow Craft show that each degree taken by itself is incomplete. It is only when each is blended with the other that perfection is reached, as is shown in the "perfect square" of a Master Mason, which is formed by the union of the other two squares. This is one of many proofs in our symbolism that the Third degree is the summation of the other two with the addition of further lessons on the Nature of God and Immortality.

The refreshment table of Freemasonry is symbolical not only of our liberty, within the bounds of Temperance and Prudences to partake of the material blessings lavished on us by God, but it is also an emblem of a figurative table provided with materials for the satisfaction of our mental and moral appetites. The viands are the thoughts of great and good men either presented to us in books or by word of mouth, and the satisfaction we derive from moral and virtuous actions.

Freemasonry has set limits to prevent our abuse of these blessings; but in placing before us material as well as mental and spiritual food, it effectually rebukes those who look on physical gratification, even within lawful limits, as sinful, and who seek to obtain God's favour by neglect and contempt of His temple, the human body.

"Let us not always say,
'Spite of this flesh today
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!'
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry, 'All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!'"