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

FOOL
FORM 269
Fool . A fool, as one not in possession of
sound reason, a natural or idiot, is intellectually
unfit for initiation into the mysteries of
Freemasonry, because he is incapable of
comprehending. the principles of the Institution,
and is without any moral responsibility
for a violation or neglect of its duties .
Footstone. The corner-stone . "To level
the footstone" : to lay the corner-stone. Thus,
Oliver="Solomon was enabled to level the
footstone of the Temple in the fourth year of
his reign "
Foot to Foot . The old lectures of the last
century descanted on the symbolism of foot
to foot as teaching us "that indolence should
not permit the foot to halt or wrath to turn
our steps out of the way ; but forgetting injuries
and selfish feelings, and remembering
that man was born for the aid of his fellowcreatures,
not for his own enjoyments only,
but to do that which is good, we should be
swift to extend our mercy and benevolence to
all, but more partic ularly to a brother Mason ."
The present lecture on the same subject gives
the same lesson more briefly and more emphatically,
when it says, "we should never
halt nor grow weary in the service of a brother
Mason."
Fords of the Jordan . The slaughter of
the Ephraimites at the passages or fords of the
river Jordan which is described in the twelfth
chapter of to Book of Judges, is referred to in
the ritual of the Fellow-Craft's Degree . Morris,
in his Freemasonry in the Holy Land (p . 316),
says : "The exact locality of these fords (or
`passages,' as the Bible terms them), cannot
now be designated, but most likely they were
those nearly due east of Seikoot and opposite
Mizpah . At these fords in summer time the
water is not more than tree or four feet deep,
the bottom being composed of a hard limestone
rock. If, as some think, the fords, thirty
miles higher up, are those referred to, the same
description will ap ly . At either place, the
Jordan is about ei ty feet wide, its banks en-
by a d ense growth of cumbered tamarisks,
cane, willows, thorn-bushes, and other low
vegetation of the shrubby and thorny sorts,
which make it difficult even to approach the
margin of the stream . The Arabs cross the
river at the present day, at stages of low
water, at a number of fords, from the one near
the point where the Jordan leaves the Sea of
Galilee down to the Pilgrims' Ford, six miles
above the Dead Sea ."
Foreign Country . The lecture of the
Third Degree begins by declaring that the
recipient was induced to seek that sublime
degree "that he might perfect himself in
Masonry, so as to travel into foreign countries,
and work and receive wages as a Master
Mason."
Thousand have often heard this ritualistic
expression at the opening and closing of a
Master's Lodge without dreaming for a moment
of its hidden and spiritual meaning, or,
if they think of any meaning at all, they content
themselves by interpreting it as refrring
to the actual travels of the Masons, after the
completion of the Temple, into the surrounding
countries in search of employment, whose
wages were to be the gold and silver which
they could earn by the exercise of their skill in
the operative art .
But the true symbolic meaning of the foreign
country into which the Master Mason
travels in search of wages is far different .
The symbolism of this life terminates with
the Master's Degree . The completion of that
degree is the lesson of death and the resurrection
to a future life, where the TRUE WORD,
or Divine Truth, not given in this, is to be received
as the reward of a life worthily spent in
its search . Heaven, the future life, the higher
state of existence after death, is the foreign
country in which the Master Mason is to enter,
and there he is to receive his wages in the reception
of that TRUTH which can be imparted
only in that better land .
Foresters' Degrees . This title has been
given to certain secret associations which derive
their symbols and ceremonies from trades
practised in forests, such as the Carbonari, or
Charcoal-burners ; the Fendeurs, or Woodcutters
; the Sawyers, etc . They are all imitative
of Freemasonry .
Forest of Lebanon . (See Lebanon.)
Forfeiture of Charter . A Lodge may forfeit
its charter for misconduct, and when forfeited
the warrant or charter is revoked by the
Grand Lodge.
Form . In Masonry, an official act is said
to be done, according to the rank of the person
who does it, either in ample form, in due
form, or simply in form . Thus, when the
Grand Lodge is opened by the Grand Master
in person, it is said to be opened in ample form;
when by the Deputy Grand Master, it is said
to be in due form/ when by any other qualified
officer, it is said to be inform. The legality
of the act is the same whether it be done in
form or in ample form ; and the epithet refers
only to the dignity of the officer by whom the
act is performed.
Form of the Lodge . The terms "Ample"
and "Due" Form appear to have been introduced
by Anderson m the 1738 ed . of the Constitutions
(p . 110) . The form of a Mason's
Lodge is said to be an oblong square, having
its greatest length from east to west and its
greatest breadth from north to sout . This
oblong form of the Lodge has, I think, a symbolic
allusion that has not been adverted to by
any other writer .
If, on a map of the world, we draw lines
which shall circumscribe just that portion
which was known and inhabited at the time
of the building of Solomon's Temple, these
lines, running a short distance north and
south of the Mediterranean Sea, and extending
from Spain to Asia Minor will form an
oblong square, whose greatest length will be
from east to west, and whose greatest breadth
will be from north to south, as is shown in
the annexed diagram .
There is a peculiar fitness in this theory,
which is really only making the Masome
Lodge a symbol of the world . It must be