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

170 COMMITTEE
COMMUNICATION
Masonic jurisprudence they would be mistaken
in supposing tint these advantages
must necessarily make them Masonic lawyers .
Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius . It is not
every man that will make a lawyer . A peculiar
turn of mind and a habit of close reasoning,
as well as a thorough acquaintance with
the law itself, are required to fit one for the
investigation of questions of jurisprudence .
Reporters, therefore, should assume the task
of adjudicating points of law with much diffidence.
They should not pretend to make a
decision ex cathedra, but only to express an
opinion ; and that opinion they should attempt
to sustain by arguments that may convince
their readers. Dogmatism is entirely
out of place in a Masonic report on foreign
correspondence.
But if tediousness and dogmatism are displeasing,
how much more offensive must be
rudeness and personality . Courtesy is a Masonic
as well as a knightly virtue, and the
reporter who takes advantage of his official
position to speak rudely of his brethren, or
makes his report the vehicle of scurrility and
abuse, most strangely forgets the duty and
respect which he owes to the Grand Lodge
which he represents and the Fraternity to
which he addresses himself .
And, lastly, a few words as to style . These
reports, I have already said, constitute an
important feature of asonic literature . It
should be, then, the object and aim of everyone
to give to them a tone and character
which shall reflect honor on the society whence
they emanate, and enhance the reputation of
their authors. The style cannot always be
scholarly, but it should always be chaste ; it
may sometimes want eloquence, but it should
never be marked by vulgarity . Coarseness of
language and slang phrases are manifestly out
of place in a paper which treats of subjects
such as naturally belong to a Masonic document.
Wit and humor we would not, of course,
exclude . The Horatian maxim bids us sometimes
to unbend, and old Menander thought
it would not do always to appear wise. Even
the solemn Johnson could sometimes perpetrate
a joke, and Sidney Smith has enlivened
his lectures on moral philosophy with numerous
witticisms . There are those who delight in
the stateliness of Coleridge ; but for ourselves
we do not object to the levity of Lamb, though
we would not care to descend to the vulgarity
of Rabelais .
To sum up the whole matter in a few
words, these reports on foreign correspondence
should be succinct and, if you please, elaborate
chronicles of all passing events in the Masonic
world ; they should express the opinions
of their authors on points of Masonic law, not
as judicial dicta, but simply as opinions, not
to be dogmatically enforced, but to be sustained
and supported by the best arguments
that the writers can produce ; they should not
be made the vehicles of personal abuse or
vituperation ; and, lastly, they should be
clothed in language worthy of the literature of
the Order .
Committee, Private. The well-known
regulation which forbids private committees
in the Lodge, that is, select conversations between
two or more members, in which the
other members are not permitted to join, is
derived from the Old Charges : "You are not
to hold private committees or separate conversation,
without leave from the Master, nor
to talk of anything impertinent or unseemly,
nor to interrupt the Master or Wardens, or
any brother speaking to the Master:" (Constitutions,
1723, p. 53 .)
Committee, Report of. See Report of a
Committee .
Common Gavel . See Gavel.
Communication . The meeting of a
Lodge is so called . There is a peculiar significance
in this term . "To communicate,"
which in the Old English form, was "to common,'
originally meant to share in common
with others . The great sacrament of the Christian
church, which denotes a participation in
the mysteries of the religion and a fellowship
in the church, is called a "communion,"
which is fundamentally the same as a "communication,"
for he who partakes of the communion
is said "to communicate." Hence, the
meetings of Masonic Lodges are called communications,
to signify that it is not simply
the ordinary meeting of a society for the transaction
of business, but that such meeting is the
fellowship of men engaged in a common pursuit,
and governed by a common principle,
and that there is therein a communication or
participation of those feelings and sentiments
that constitute a true brotherhood .
The communications of Lodges are regular
or stated and special or emergent . Regular
communications are held under the provision
of the by-laws, but special communications
are called by order of the Master . It is a
regulation that no special communication can
alter amend, or rescind the proceedings of a
re ar communication .
Communication, Grand . The meeting
of a Grand Lodge.
Communication of Degrees . When the
peculiar mysteries of a degree are bestowed
upon a candidate by mere verbal description
of the bestower, without his being made to
pass through the constituted ceremonies, the
degree is technically said to be communicated .
This mode is, however, entirely confined in
America to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite . The degrees may in that Rite be thus
conferred in any place where secrecy is secured
; but the prerogative of communicating
is restricted to the presiding officers
of bodies of the Rite, who may communicate
certain of the degrees upon candidates who
have been previously duly elected, and to
Inspectors and Deputy Inspectors-General of
the Thirty-third Degree, who may communicate
all the degrees of the Rite, except the
last, to any persons whom they may deem
qualified to receive them .
Communication, Quarterly . Anciently
Grand Lodges, which were then called General
Assemblies of the Craft, were held annually .