Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

MASONIC DEGREES, 113
heart to laugh. Well said the psalmist in his haste,
" All men are liars." Yea, and
"What man, seeing this,
" And having human feelings, does not blush
u And hang his head, to think himself a man.' 9
Yet to weep over human folly is of little use: our sympathy
is misplaced, and the evil rarely corrected. Better
laugh it down where we can. No subject was ever fitter
for this kind of treatment than Free Masonry. The genius
of Cervantes and of Butler would find in it ample scope
for exercise.
u In aD the fabric
u You shall see not one stone, nor a brick,
" But all of wood, by powerful spell
" Of magic, made impregnable:
u There's neither iron bar nor gate,
" Portcullis, chain, nor bolt, nor grate,
" And yet men durance there abide,
u In dungeons scarce tyree inches wide;
a In circle magical confined,
" With walls of subtle air and wind."*
What can Masons be employed in learning on these
higher degrees ? What, above the third degree ? They
have mastered natural religion and moral philosophy, in
the first; all the liberal arts and sciences in the second
; and are furnished with an ample specimen of
the faithfulness of masonic tradition in the third. Now
what should they go higher for? What can they learn
when exalted ? They must be out of matter and mind be*
fore they reach the 7th degree, were each degree as important
as the first and second. What can they be doing
in the sublime degrees ? Not reviewing the studies of the*
lower degrees, surely, for it is impossible to review what
* Hudibr&s' Enchanted Castle.
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