Encyclopedia Masonica

Roscoe Pound, born in 1870, Dean of the Law School of Harvard University, became famous for the variety as well as for the vastness of his learning; in legal erudition he had no superior in America and possibly no peer, but at the same time he was an extraordinary linguist (he learned his English and Latin together in childhood), an authority on field botany on which he wrote a text-book used in colleges, an authority on Medieval law and history, and also was one of the most learned of American Masons.

He published two works of permanent value on Masonry, Philosophy of Freemasonry, and Jurisprudence of Freemasonry, after the larger part of the two had first been published in The Builder. In A Bibliography of the Writings of Roscoe Pound; Harvard University Press; 1942; Franklyn C. Setars devotes Part III, Section 2, page 127, to a bibliography of his writings on Freemasonry.

Dean Pound was Past Master of Lancaster Lodge, No. 54, A. F. & A. M., Lincoln. Neb.; was a member of Belmont Lodge and also of Beaver Lodge, in Belmont, Mass., and of The Harvard Lodge, Cambridge, class, and Past Deputy Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts- He was a member of the A. & A. S. R., at Lincoln, Neb.; was crowned 33 , Northern Jurisdictions September 16, 1913. His two works on Masonry are contributions to Masonic thought rather than to either history or practice; he was the first to interpret Krause to the American Craft; he gave a newts fresh appraisal of the work of Preston (a welcome contrast to the harsh and misleading portrait painted by Gould in his History); and when in his Philosophy he devoted a chapter to a "pragmatic" philosophy of Freemasonry he established in American Masonic thought for the first time what in substance is the true distinction between "Instituted" and "Constituted" as applied to the Fraternity.

(It was a happy coincidence that Sir Frederick Pollock who occupied in legal scholarship in England a position corresponding to Pound's in the United States, also was an active Mason and a Masonic writer; author, among other things, of a memorable essay on Masonic ranks in The Builder. He was the Pollock of the published [Judge Oliver Wendell] Holmes—Pollock Correspondence.)

The Encyclopedia Masonica exists to preserve the wealth of information that has been generated over the centuries by numerous Masonic authors. As Freemasonry is now Speculative and not Operative, the work of a Mason is now conducted in the quarries of symbolism, literature, history and scholasticism. Freemasonry encourages intellectual exploration and academic achievement in its members and many Masons over the years have taken up this calling. The result has been that an incredible amount of philosophy, symbolic speculation and academic insights have been created. However, as Freemasonry teaches, human knowledge is frail and fragile. It is easily lost in the turnings of the ages and unforeseen catastrophes can result in great setbacks to human knowledge.

For too long these great works have sat on forgotten shelves, gathering dust and concealing the light that could be shed on the darkness of our ignorance. The Encyclopedia Masonica has been created to act as an ark, sailing through time, to ensure that future generations of Freemasons have access to the same knowledge that inspired the Brethren that came before them. It will contain the works of such Masonic Luminaries as Albert G. Mackey, Manly Palmer Hall, G.S.M. Ward, Albert Pike and many others. The Encyclopedia Masonica is a living work and the volunteers of Universal Co-Masonry will continue to labor until the most comprehensive Masonic reference work the world has ever seen has been created. The Encyclopedia Masonica is open to any who wish to use it and will remain open so that the treasures contained within may increase the wealth of all those who seek its wisdom.