part in civilising and enlightening mankind. They are

one of the few things that distinctly mark man as im¬ measurably superior to the other animals. Some scientists have even contended that it is alone man’s ability to fashion and use tools that has raised him above the level of the brute creation. But radical as this view must be, it cannot be denied by any thoughtful man that the use of tools has been one of the chief instrumentalities in all ® “The New Age,” Vol. XVII, p. 283.
30 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
human progress, not only material but mental and spir¬ itual. Without tools we could not till the soil, or work the mines, or reduce the metal; we could enjoy only the rudest shelters ; and all the creations of art which appeal to our spiritual natures would be impossible. The very stages of human advancement are named from the char¬ acter of the tools that were employed during them ; thus, the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, etc.
Some students suppose the first great achievement of man in his progress from savagery to civilisation to have been the development of articulate speech; the second, the discovery of the uses of fire; the third, they believe to have been the invention of a tool, namely, the bow and arrow. But doubtless this was preceded by the discovery of the use of the club even if the club did not precede the development of speech, as has been the case with the great anthropoid apes. Pottery, another class of utensils, they hold to have been the fourth; the domestication of animals, the fifth; and the discovery of the manufacture and use of iron, the sixth. The seventh was the art of writing which also involved the use of a tool. Thus we see that four, perhaps five, epoch-making strides of savage and barbaric man had to do with the use of tools.
With civilised man, the case has been even more strik¬ ing. Among his early discoveries or inventions were gun¬ powder, the mariner's compass, the manufacture of paper, and printing with movable type. Another was the demonstration by Copernicus (1530) that the earth re¬ volves on an axis and that the sun does not daily make a circuit around her. The steam engine, machines for weav¬ ing and spinning, apparatus for generating and utilising the boundless possibilities of electricity, the gasolene engine and the flying machine are all achievements made possible by the invention and use of new tools. And it must be remembered that the discovery of Copernicus,
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 31
was rendered possible only through the use of another tool. To the Psalmist the heavens declared the glory of God’s handiwork, but a thousand times more solemnly and impressively do they now disclose it through the medium of the telescope. It was nothing less than an inspiration that prompted our ancient brethren to sym¬ bolise the tools with which they produced those creations of art and architecture whose sight causes our breasts to heave with the highest emotions of which we are capa¬ ble.
Professor Henry Smith Williams,^ after pointing out the many material advantages involved in the use of tools, says that we must not ''overlook the esthetic influence of edged implements.”
And then what must be said of the tools that make our music? If there is a glimpse of heaven obtainable on earth, it is in the wonderful art made possible through our marvellous musical instruments.
How our various working tools acquired the particular symbolical meanings we now attach to them we do not always know. In some instances we know that they have borne them for ages.
At any rate, it is with peculiar fitness that the material tools, which contribute so essentially to the building and the beautifying of the material structure, should be made to symbolise those virtues which are so essential to the building and beautifying of human character, that moral and spiritual building not reared with hands.
It is by the use of tools that the architect designs, erects, and adorns the building. So also is it that by the practice of the moral, intellectual and religious virtues human char¬ acter is perfected. In a system, therefore, where a per¬ fect building is made to symbolise the perfect character, it is not surprising but is altogether appropriate that the "^Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. VI, p. 404.
32 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
tools which produce the one should symbolise the virtues which make the other.
THE TWENTY-FOUR INCH GAUGE
is a symbol of time but not in the sense, as we learn in the Third Degree, that the scythe symbolises time. The scythe denotes the fleetness of time and the brevity of all things human, while the Twenty-four Inch Gauge typifies time well spent. It teaches us the value of our time, that time wasted can never be regained, that it is a priceless commodity, that there is a time for all things, a time for labour, a time for rest, a time for amusement, a time for worship, and a time for the relief of distress. It is the same lesson so beautifully taught in Ecclesiastes iii, i-8, or as redacted by Jastrow in A Gentle Cynic, p. 209 :
‘‘Everything has its appointed time and there is a time for every occurrence under the sun.
There is a time to be born,
And a time to die.
There is a time for planting.
And a time for uprooting.’’
In other words, let everything be done in time and in order, so that none of this most valuable gift of God to man shall be wasted. How few of us place an adequate estimate upon the value of our time ! Note those who sit around and whittle and chew tobacco.
The gauge being divided into twenty-four inches it naturally, in a system like ours, became the symbol of the twenty-four hours of the day.
THE COMMON GAVEL,
or stonemason’s hammer, was the tool with which the apprentice performed those first operations involved in
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 33
fitting a stone for its proper place in the building, such as “breaking off the corners of rough stones”; or, as expressed in England (Emulation Working), “to knock off all superfluous knobs and excrescences.” It was not adapted to giving polish or ornamentation to the stone and hence it should symbolise only that training of the youth which is designed to give mechanical skill and to divest him of those social habits which characterise man in a state of nature. In Canada, it is said to teach that “labour is the lot of man” and that qualities of heart and head are of limited value “if the hand be not prompt to execute the design” of the master. However, since the chisel has fallen into disuse in the United States and many other countries as a Blue lodge symbol, the symbolism of the Common Gavel has been extended so that it now typifies the enlightening and ennobling effects of training and education in all its various branches.
THE CHISEL
has a symbolism somewhat akin to that of the Common Gavel, or stonemason’s hammer.® The Gavel was used only in the earlier processes of dressing the stone and is not adapted as we have just said to giving it a high polish or ornamentation. It, therefore, symbolises the earlier steps in the education and moral training of the youth. When it is desired to give a higher finish to the stone or to give it an ornamental shape or to engrave designs upon it, the Chisel was and still is brought into play. The Chisel, therefore, symbolises those advanced studies and trainings which give a man polish and refinement and fit him for the highest stations in life. In the United States, the Chisel is practically obsolete in Blue Masonry but it reappears in the beautiful Mark Master’s Degree where it ® Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 30.
34 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
is said to ‘ 'demonstrate the advantages of discipline and education/^ In England (Emulation Working), it is said to “point out to us the advantages of education by which means alone we are rendered fit members of regularly organised society.” In Canada, it is said to teach that “nothing short of indefatigable exertion can induce the habit of virtue, enlighten the mind, and render the soul pure.” We regard it as a distinct loss to Blue lodge sym¬ bolism in the United States that the Chisel has been sur¬ rendered to Capitular Masonry. Its proper place is in the Fellow Craft Degree, from which many believe the Mark Master Degree to have been originally taken.
THE KEY
has a beautiful symbolism familiar to English Masons but unknown to us. It symbolises the tongue and teaches us that it should always be ready to speak in a brother’s defence and “never lie to his prejudice.” Emulation Working (English) gives this charge:
“That excellent key, a Freemason’s tongue, which should speak well of a brother absent or present, — and when unfortunately that can not be done with honour and propriety, should adopt that excellent virtue of the Craft which is Silence.” ®
Solomon’s temple
A symbol which appears early in this Degree and recurs in many subsequent degrees and rites is that of Solomon’s Temple. If building symbolises the developing of the human mind and character, nothing is more logical than
® Emulation Working, Lectures of the Three Degrees, etc. (Lewis, 1896), pp. 8, 9-
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 35
that the most perfect building known should be chosen as the symbol of a perfect character. But in this connection it is often asked why was not the Parthenon, or the Pan¬ theon, or the temple of Zeus at Athens chosen for this symbol. Two answers are possible :
First; a tradition has prevailed since long before the birth of Christ that the Temple of Solomon was the most artistic and the most highly wrought structure ever erected by man.
Second ; if Masonry had its origin at the time and under the circumstances claimed by our traditions, namely, at the building of the Temple, it would be inevitable that Solomon’s Temple should be chosen as this symbol.
Of course historians laugh at this claim, but historians have laughed at many things which have turned out to be true. Without assuming to assert that it is true, we desire to point out what is at least a plausible hypothesis under¬ lying this tradition. Many Masonic writers have main¬ tained apparently with reason that earlier than a thousand years before Christ, the priests of Dionysus, or Bacchus, devoting themselves to architecture in the erection of their temples, had founded the “Fraternity of Dionyian Archi¬ tects” ; that these in course of time spread throughout Asia Minor and Phoenicia and gradually acquired the exclusive privilege of erecting the temples and the public buildings. It is supposed by them that Hiram, King of Tyre, whom we know to have been the erector of great buildings, Hiram Abif and the Tyrians, who were sent to assist King Solomon in the building of his Temple, were members of this fraternity. Granted the existence of such buildings as King Hiram erected, they can scarcely be accounted for except by supposing the existence of a society of builders who erected them. If such a society existed in Phoenicia at that date it would be remarkable if Hiram Abif and the other Tyrian artificers were not members of it, and
36 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
it would naturally follow that at least the skilled work¬ men on Solomon's Temple would be similarly organised.
A corroborating circumstance of our Temple tradition is that precisely at the time of Solomon, Judah was the most powerful and Phoenicia the most enlightened artis¬ tically and commercially of all the nations of the world. This was many centuries before the ascendancy of Greece and a thousand years before Rome extended her posses¬ sions beyond Italy. Solomon's Temple antedates the earliest known remains of historic Greek architecture by nearly 300 years. Archaeology thus corroborates the claim of both Biblical and Masonic tradition that down to its time no building had been erected equal to it in splendour and beautiful finish.^® Its construction natu¬ rally called in requisition the Tyrians, they being neigh¬ bours and the most finished artisans of the time. The se¬ cret society “habit" was quite as common among men then as it is now. Their long association together and their pride in such a great work would just as naturally lead them to form themselves into a society, as like motives led the soldiers of our Revolutionary and Civil Wars to form patriotic societies. We have seen that there were already in existence and at hand secret societies which needed only a slight modification to make them much like what our traditions say Masonry then was.
The probabilities all favour the conclusion that the Temple was built by a society of masons. Nor is there anything incredible in the theory that Solomon who was prosecuting this work, and Hiram, King of Tyre, whose subjects many of the builders were, condescended to honour the society with their patronage and favour, thus linking their names with the tradition.
In seven years, this bond would become quite strong;
10 Universal Cyclopedia, p. 428; i Ibid., p. 290; 9 Ibid., p. 8; Trans¬ lations, Lodge of Research, No. 2429, Leicester, 1907-08, p. 139.
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 37
upon their dispersion every little group would continue to feel this tie of sympathy and to take pride in their great achievement, with the result that organisations having the same or similar traditions would spring up in various parts. The idea would soon become prevalent among all bodies of masons that their ancient brethren erected the Temple.
At any rate, it is clear that in the ancient Mysteries, Solomon found ready-formed institutions which with slight changes were admirably adapted to the creation and cultivation of a bond of union and sympathy among the workmen on the Temple, which would tend to make them more efficient, skilful and zealous and which would greatly expedite the work. There is nothing, therefore, inherently improbable in the assumption that Solomon with his wisdom and knowledge of human nature would turn the existing religious associations of his time to his use in accomplishing his great and holy undertaking.
This assumption does not imply that all the skilled arti¬ sans then in the world were employed in the building of the Temple or that Freemasonry descended from those alone who were thus employed. The number, however, must have been sufficiently great that the tradition soon gained currency among all the building classes through¬ out the then-known world that the erection of the Temple was due to their predecessors in the craft. Thus may we rationally account for this tradition among us with¬ out insisting upon its historical accuracy.
MODESTY OF TRUE CHARACTER
We are told that in the building of Solomon^s Temple there was not heard the sound of any tool of iron. It is a well authenticated historical fact that the Jews, not to mention other ancient peoples, believed that an iron tool
38 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
was polluting to an altar to Deity. Hence, in the days of Moses, the laws prescribed that in erecting an altar of stone to Jehovah no iron tool should be employed upon it. The work of erecting the Temple, therefore, went on noiselessly but with speed and perfection.
This tradition, besides being borne out by the known facts of Hebrew history, has a beautiful symbolism. It is this : the erection and adornment of the moral and spiritual temple in which we are engaged, that of human character, and of which Solomon’s was typical, is not characterised by the clang of noisy tools. About true character building there is nothing of bluster and show; it is a silent, noiseless process. It is the empty vessel that makes the greatest sound.
HALE
A certain sign is called the hale or hele frequently mis¬ spelled hail. The term is commonly understood even by Masons to mean accost or salute, but such is not its mean¬ ing at all. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon helan and means to cover or conceal.^^ The English word heal, for example the healing of a wound or the healing of a Mason, is derived from the same word and primarily signifies to cover. The hale, therefore, has the same Masonic sig¬ nification as due guard and is intended to impress upon us the value of caution, a virtue so few men possess.
TILE, TILER, TYLER
These words so common in and so peculiar to Free¬ masonry have a use and meaning similar to hale. They derive from the word tile, used in covering houses. To tile a house is to cover it; one who puts the tiles on a Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 63.
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 39
house, who tiles it, is called a tiler. Therefore, to cover a lodge, to protect it against intrusion, is to tile it; the officer who does this is called the tiler. The correct spell¬ ing is undoubtedly tiler and not tyler. In a symbolical system like ours the tiler (coverer) of a building would naturally become symbolically the tiler (coverer, pro¬ tector) of the lodge.
DUE GUARD
is another etymological puzzle. From what it is derived or its literal signification no one knows. It is of exclu¬ sively Masonic use. The statement is often met with that it is an Americanism and that it is unknown in England. But Brother W. J. Songhurst, the capable Secretary of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, London, takes issue with this statement and says the expression is known in the British Isles and that it is a corruption of the French Dieu me garde (God protect me). With us it is intended to teach care, caution and circumspection, and especially a careful regard for the injunctions of secrecy contained in the several obligations.
CABLE TOW
The candidate is early introduced to the cable tow. We have seen that his introduction into the Entered Ap¬ prentice lodge is symbolical of birth. Among the Hindus, the Brahmans wear a sacred cord symbolising the second birth which they profess. The cable tow thus has in Masonry what we might term its primary allusion. It has, however, a deeper symbolism. The word is not found in most of our dictionaries; it is characteristically Ma¬ sonic. Its obvious literal meaning is the cable or cord by which something is towed or drawn. Hence with the
40 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
greatest aptness it represents those forces and influences which have conducted not only the individual, but the human race out of a condition of ignorance and darkness into one of light and knowledge. With symbolical mean¬ ings of this kind the cord seems to have been employed in many, if not all, of the ancient systems of initiation. The explanation of the cable tow given in our lecture is its least important meaning.
About this term and the connection in which it is used in our ritual there is a flavour of the sea. Whence could we have inherited it? Probably not from the Jews, who were not a seafaring people. Tradition, however, con¬ nects with our Fraternity the Phoenicians who were the greatest sailors of the ancient world. May it not be that in this term we have preserved another evidence that our traditions are not altogether unfounded?
Dr. George Oliver in his Theocratic Philosophy of Masonry tells us that in the ancient mysteries the neophyte was bound with a chain and that the chain was symbolical of the penance imposed on every candidate for initiation by his confinement in the pastos. He says that the phrase, “he submitted to the chain, implied that “he had endured the rigours of preparation and initiation with patience and fortitude.’’
DISCALCEATION
It is very true that the plucking off of one’s shoes is an ancient Israelitish custom adopted among Masons. It was employed among the Jews as a pledge of fidelity of one man to another. Such is the symbolism of it in the Entered Apprentice Degree. It has another meaning with which we are not concerned here, but which is brought out in the Master Mason Degree.
12 Oliver, Theocratic Philosophy of Masonry, Lecture YL
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 41
CIRCUMAMBULATION
A certain ceremony, the candidate is told, was iritended to signify to him that ‘'at a time when he could neither foresee nor prevent danger he was in the hands of a true, and trusty friend in whose fidelity he could with safety confide/’ This has a literal meaning very applicable to the candidate’s then condition, but if we regard the candidate as we should, as man pursuing the journey of life, the symbolical signification of this ceremony becomes truly profound. We all grope in the dark from the moment we are born till we are laid upon the bier. In our moments of apparently greatest security we often to our astonishment afterwards find that we were in the very presence of death. The sinking of the Titanic or the Lusitania was but one of thousands of proofs of this truth. The winds, the lightnings, the floods and the fires destroy us without warning. With all our boasted wis¬ dom and foresight we can not see an inch into the future. But every man is in the hands of a true and trusty friend in whose fidelity he can with safety confide. He needs but do his part to the best he knows and may then rest confident that our All-Father will take care of the results in a manner befitting an all-wise and all-loving Creator. This is what the Mason means by Faith.
UPRIGHT
In Eastern countries (and formerly in Western coun¬ tries) the inferior approaches the superior, the servant the master, the subject the sovereign, in an abased or grovelling manner, oftentimes with the face averted as though it were insolence to look directly upon the august presence. Not so in Masonry ; the candidate is taught to approach the East, with his face to the front, walking
42 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
erect as a man should walk. This attitude is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the other ani¬ mals. A few animals can feebly imitate it, but only on occasion and then haltingly. Nothing adds more to a man’s self-respect and strength of character than to walk erect, holding the head well up and looking the world and every man squarely in the face. You may experience a feeling of sorrow or sympathy for the man who appears before you with a cringing or abject bearing, but with this feeling there is mingled contempt. This idea we have turned into a terse though vulgar apothegm, “Hold your head up if you die hard.” We promptly suspect the integrity of the man who can not look us squarely in the eye.
Freemasonry teaches that all men are and of right ought to be free ; that, therefore, no man should abase or humiliate himself before another. But this manly, erect attitude which the candidate is taught to assume has the same symbolism as the plumb. It teaches that we should always walk upright in our several stations before God and man.
APPROACHING THE EAST
The East has long been deemed the region of knowledge and enlightenment. Undoubtedly this idea sprang from the fact that it is in the East that the orb of light makes his appearance after the darkness of the night. In the East darkness, therefore, appears to take flight before the presence of light. Hence to “approach the East” in our symbolic language means to seek enlightenment and knowledge. Masons are said to travel from West to East and in Preston’s lectures and other more recent Monitors the question is asked, “What induced you to leave the
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 43
West and travel to the East?’’ The answer is “In search of a master and from him to gain instruction.”
The West is the region where light at the close of the day seems to be engulfed in darkness. Hence, sym¬ bolically it was regarded as a region of ignorance. In the Egyptian religions, it was deemed the region of the dead, so that one who had died was said to have “gone West.” This same expression became common among the soldiers during the World War.
This idea that the East is the region of knowledge and the West that of ignorance finds historical basis in the indisputable fact that civilisation first arose in the East and for many ages all seekers after knowledge were actually compelled to travel toward the East.
THE DIGNITY OF MAN
‘What Is Man, That Thou Art Mindful of Psalms viii, 4
What does Freemasonry teach on this subject? What does it not teach ? It does not teach, in the canting phrase of some religionists, that man is a worm. It does not teach that he is nothing or insignificant.
It is by being a Man (not a mere male of the genus homo), that the candidate makes his request for initiation.
There is a school of philosophy which teaches that man is a small, insignificant factor in nature, and that human life is mean and contemptible. In our view it is not so. If we omit consideration of his anatomy and physiology as no more wonderful than the anatomy and physiology of the other animals, what shall we say of his mind? What shall we say of that other man, the so-called sub¬ conscious self, with which the latest and leading psychol-
U SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
ogists now invest him? And lastly, what shall we say of the soul which we so fondly believe he possesses? No one has yet fathomed the depths of these or any other one of the attributes of man. Away with the philosophy which teaches that man is of little moment in the universe ; notwithstanding his diminutive size he is the biggest thing in the world. There is nothing ludicrous or incongruous that a spark of Deity himself should come to dwell for a season in this wonderful creature. The more careful should we be that we do not dishonour it.
THE BIBLE
The Bible is one of the Great Lights, is one of the items of Furniture, and rests upon the top of the Two Parallel Lines. No lodge with us should be opened with¬ out its presence. Still it is but a symbol; it represents divine truth in every form, whether in the form of the written word, or in that referred to by the Psalmist when he sings :
‘‘The Heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night showeth knowledge.”
Psalms xix, i.
But the shadow must not be mistaken for the sub¬ stance. There is nothing sacred or holy in the mere book. It is only ordinary paper, leather, and ink. Its workman¬ ship may be much inferior to that of other books. It is what it typifies that renders it sacred to us. Any other book having the same signification would do just as well. For this reason the Hebrew Mason may with perfect pro¬ priety use the Old Testament alone, or the Mohammedan
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 45
may, as has been done, employ the Koran in his lodge. In fact that book should be used which to the individual in question most fully represents divine truth.^^
We are quite well aware that many Masons and a few Grand Lodges maintain that Masonry requires of its initiates a belief in the teachings of the Bible. If these brethren are correct, then a belief in some part only is not exacted but a belief in every part, both of history and doctrine. Once concede that any exception can be made and their whole contention falls to the ground because it then becomes the right and duty of every Mason to decide for himself what is required and what is not. So let us assume that belief in every part is required. It is neces¬ sary, therefore, in any case only to ascertain what the Bible teaches to know what Masonry requires.
We quickly find that, in the opinion of some, the Bible teaches that Man fell from a state of perfection in which he was originally created into one of corruption for physically eating a forbidden fruit, but at the same time we find that others equally honest believe that this story is an allegory and each side supports its contention with eloquence, learning and zeal, not to say warmth. Which view does Masonry demand that we believe that the Bible teaches ?
Some believe the Bible teaches that because of Man’s sinfulness the whole world was covered by a flood ; others again believe that this too is an allegory. Which does Masonry require us to believe? Is one who is sceptical as to the reality of such a flood ineligible to Masonry?
The Bible teaches most explicitly (as at least many think) that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of God, that His conception was immaculate, that He was born of a virgin, that He was crucified, was dead and buried, that He lay in the tomb three days, that He descended into hell,
13 Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. ii.
46 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
that He arose from the dead, that He ascended into heaven, that He now sits at the right hand of God, that at the last day He will come to judge the quick and the dead, that through Him and Him only can Man be saved to a future life of happiness. The Jew, the Hindu, the Parsee, the Mohammedan, the Chinaman, the Japanese do not believe any part of this. Are each and all of these barred from Masonry ?
The Primitive Baptist believes that the Bible teaches ‘Toot-washing” is a duty; other churches think not. What does Masonry say ? The Baptist and others believe that the Bible teaches a single mode of baptism, immer¬ sion; others think it teaches not only this but sprinkling and pouring. With which does Masonry agree or rather require its members to agree ?
Some believe that the Bible teaches that the resurrec¬ tion is a resurrection of the flesh; others that it teaches that the resurrection body is a spiritual body. Which does Masonry think it teaches? Or rather which does it require its devotees to believe that it teaches?
Roman Catholics believe that the Bible teaches that the Pope of Rome is the vicegerent of Christ upon earth, that he can grant indulgences and forgive sins ; others ridicule these ideas. What says Masonry ?
Maybe the brethren and Grand Lodges to whom we refer will counter by saying Masonry does not descend to particulars but only requires its initiates to believe those fundamental teachings of the Bible concerning which all good men agree. Some have actually tried to dodge in this way. When they do they abandon their original position which was that a belief in all the teachings of the