Preface

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Cornell University Library HS425 .P87
Lectures on the philosophy o' 'feemasonr
3 1924 030 286 466 olin.anx
Cornell University Library
The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030286466
Copyright, 1915
BY
The National Masonic Research Society Anamosa, Iowa
LECTURES
ON THE
Philosophy of Freemasonry
BY
ROSCOE POUND, LL. D.
Carter Professor of Jurisprudence in Harvard University Deputy Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts
The National Masonic Research Society
ANAMOSA, IOWA
1915
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PREFACE
These lectures were first delivered before the Har- vard Chapter of the Acacia Fraternity in the school- year 1911-12, except the lecture on Krause, which was first delivered before the Grand Lodge of Nebraska in 1903, and was originally printed in the proceedings of that body for that year. Afterwards all five lectures, revised and corrected, were delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1914, and appear in its pro- ceedings for that year. In the latter form they were published in successive numbers of The Builder, from January to May, 1915, from which they are now re- printed.
From the foregoing statement it will appear that in their original form all but one of the lectures were prepared for students who had come fresh from a cer- tain general philosophical training in college. Un- doubtedly the reader who has not had such a training will find them somewhat difficult. But it is believed the difficulty is involved necessarily in the subject it- self. There is no more a popular road to learning than there was once a royal road. Learning which costs no effort is worth no more than it costs. The perennial problems of the nature of reality, the conduct of life, and the relation of the human individual to the uni- verse cannot be stated in words of one syllable, nor can solutions of them which are of enough value to justify the time spent in achieving them, be ladled out as pre- digested food for mental digestions too weak to assim- ilate the ideas of Krause and Pike undiluted and un- tempered. On the other hand the serious student of
Masonry needs no elaborate philosophical apparatus to apprehend these ideas, if he is willing to think critically and deeply. What he needs chiefly is to connect the Masonic thinking of these masters of the philosophy of the Craft with the general thought of the time and place in which they wrought and to perceive the prob- lems raised by the civilization of those times and places in their relation to the ethical and social problems of today. Thus he may make the Masonic writings of these masters and through them Freemasonry a force in his life and ultimately, in consequence, a force in society. Such must be the justification of the some- what elaborate consideration of the philosophical en- vironment of the great thinkers of the Craft which I have ventured in each case.
To assist the zealous student who desires to do more than scratch the surface, bibliographies have been appended to each lecture. Except in the case of Krause, whose works have not been translated, the writings cited are readily accessible to the ordinary Mason. And if they seem to invite him to a hard task, he may reflect how hard a task Preston coped with and under what heavy burdens, and may take heart on per- ceiving how much Preston achieved. Of the five de- partments of Masonic study — Ritual, History, Philos- ophy, Symbolism, and Law — Philosophy, the science of Masonic fundamentals, is by no means the least. In- deed its problems are as perennial and as changing as life itself. None of these studies will better repay the diligent student ; none aft'ords a more promising field to the ambitious student.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 30 August, 1915.
CONTENTS