Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

92 FREE MASONRY.
spector General, 19 (it is a mortal's name,) " Sublime Grand
Master of the degree of Perfection," in Soutb Carolina, Dr.
Frederic Dalcho, deigns to enlighten us of the blue degrees,
with the following significant assurances: " In the historical
part of the * degree, it is generally said, that the
brethren, is another error; there was a gate on the north
side of the temple,! but none on the west, because the S.
S. was built there. "§
Now, I would not betray the secret; but these blanks of
the sublime master's leaving are chiefly for show. Those
not filled in the margin are false blanks and stars, inserted
for the better effect.
" The present master's word of the ancient Masons, is
to be found in no language that ever was used. It is, in
fact, not a word, but merely a jumble of letters forming a
sound without meaning. The manner in which the pristine
word was lost, and the particular situation in which
another was substituted, is too well known to you all for me
to repeat. The first expressions of the fellow crafts, according
to the system of the ancient Masons, were two
Hebrew words, highly significant, and appropriate to the
melancholy occasion. From the corruption of these the
present word is formed.
u The word of the Free and Accepted Masons is nearly
in the same situation. Like the ancient Mason's, it is a
word without meaning. It is the initials or acrostic of a
Hebrew sentence, which is elegantly illustrative of the dis-
* Master's. t Three fellow craft*.
X See Ezekiel, chap. viii. \ Dalcho's Orations, p. 26.
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