Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

CIRCUMSPECTION
CLANDESTINE 153
fng to the course of the sun ." This sanctified
tour, or round by the south, he observes, is
called Deaseal, as the contrary, or unhallowed
one by the north, is called Tuapholl . And, he
further remarks, that this word Deaseal was
derived "from Deas, the right (understanding
hand) and soil, one of the ancient names of the
sun ; the right hand in this round being ever
next the heap ."
This Rite of Circumambulation undoubtedly
refers to the doctrine of sun-worship,
because the circumambulation was always
made around the sacred place, just as the sun
was supposed to move around the earth ; and
although the dogma of sun-worship does not
of course exist in Freemasonry; we find an
allusion to it in the Rite of Circumambulation,
which it preserves, as well as in the position
of the officers of a Lodge and in the symbol
of a point within a circle .
Circumspection . A necessary watchfulness
is recommended to every man, but in a
Mason it becomes a positive duty, and the
neglect of it constitutes a heinous crime . On
this subject, the Old Charges of 1722 (vi ., 4)
are explicit. "You shall be cautious in your
words and carriage that the most penetrating
stranger shall not J,e able to discover or find
out what is not proper to be imitated ; and
sometimes you shall divert a discourse and
manage it prudently for the Honour of the
Worshipful Fraternity." (Constitutions, 1723,
p . 55 .)
City of David . A section in the southern
part of Jerusalem, embracing Mount Zion,
where a fortress of the Jebusites stood, which
David reduced, and where he built a new palace
and city, to which he gave his own name .
City of the Great King . Jerusalem, so
called in Psalm xlviii . 2, and by the Savior
in Matt. v . 35 .
Civilization and Freemasonry. Those
who investigate in the proper spirit the history
of Speculative Masonry will be strongly
impressed with the peculiar relations that
exist between the history of Masonry and
that of civilization . They will find these facts
to be patent : that Freemasonry has ever been
the result of civilization ; that in the most
ancient times the spirit of Masonry and the
spirit of civilization have always gone together
; that the progress of both has been with
equal strides ; that where there has been no
appearance of civilization there has been no
trace of Masonry ; and, finally, that wherever
Masonry has existed in any of its forms, there
it has been surrounded and sustained by civilization,
which social condition it in turn elevated
and purified .
Speculative Masonry, therefore, seems to
have been a necessary result of civilization .
It is, even in its primitive and most simple
forms, to be found among no barbarous or
savage people. Such a state of society has
never been capable of introducing or maintaining
its abstract principles of Divine truth .
But while Speculative Masonry is the result
of civilization, existing only in its bosom and
never found among barbarous or savage races,
it has by a reactionary law of sociology,
prove the means of extending and elevating
the civilization to which it originally owed its
birth. Civilization has always been progressive
. That of Pelasgic Greece was far behind
that which distinguished the Hellenic period
of the same country. The civilization of the
ancient world was inferior to that of the modern,
and every century shows an advancement
in the moral, intellectual, and social condition
of mankind. But in this progress from imperfection
to perfection the influence of those
speculative systems that are identical with
Freemasonry has always been seen and felt .
Let us, for an example, look at the ancient
heathen world and its impure religions . While
the people of Paganism bowed, in their ignorance,
to a many-headed god, or, rather, worshiped
at the shrines of many gods, whose
mythological history and character must have
exercised a pernicious effect on the moral purity
of their worshipers, Speculative Philosophy,
in the form of the "Ancient Mysteries,"
was exercising its influence upon a large class
of neophytes and disciples, by giving this true
symbolic interpretation of the old religious
myths. In the adyta of their temples in Greece
and Rome and Egypt, in the sacred caves of
India, and in the consecrated groves of Scandinavia
and Gaul and Britain, these ancient
sages were secretly divesting the Pagan faith
of its polytheism and of its anthropomorphic
deities, and were establishing a pure monotheism
in its place, and illustrating, by a peculiar
symbolism, the great dogmas-since
taught in Freemasonry-of the unity of God
and the immortality of the soul . And in modern
times, when the religious thought of mankind
under a better dispensation, has not
required this purification, Masonry still, in
other ways, exerts its influence in elevating
the tone of civilization ; for through its working
the social feelings have been strengthened,
the amenities and charities of life been refined
and extended, and, as we have had recent
reason to know and see, the very bitterness of
strife and the blood-guiltiness of war have
been softened and oftentimes obliterated .
We then arrive at these conclusions, namely,
that Speculative Masonry is a result of civilization,
for it exists in no savage or barbarous
state of society, but has always appeared with
the advent in any country of a condition of
civilization, "grown with its growth and
strengthened with its strength" ; and, in
return, has proved, by a reactionary influence,
a potent instrument in extending, elevatin*,
and refining the civilization which gave it
birth, by advancing its moral, intellectual,
and religious character .
Clandestine . The ordinary meaning of
this word is secret, hidden. The French word
clandestin, from which it is derived, is defined
by Boiste to be something "fait en cachette et
contre les loin," done in a hiding-place and
against the laws, which better suits the Masonic
signification, which is illegal, not authorized
. Irregular is often used for small
departures from custom .