Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

A LODGE. 121
to be quite tedious, were it not for the interest felt in observing
their effect on the candidate: as a jockey will, sometimes,
when purchasing a strange horse, suddenly bray boo
in his face to test his courage.
" In lodges I have been,
" And all their rites have seen," &c.
It will not seem strange to the reader, that the time should
be fully taken up with these things one evening in a month,
when he recollects, that Masonry intrusts nothing to writing
which relates to her numerous signs,-tokens, &c. and
to her varied catechisms and lectures, and to her tradition.
It must all be learned by dictation, and that is no small
affair, especially when it is considered how much more difficult
to commit a senseless thing is, than any matter of common
sense, and of impressive import.
Few men, having on hand the usual cares of life, can afford
time for the tedious operation; but young minds, aspiring
to the official stations of the lodge, and to be distinguished
in the crowd on some public occasion, as great Masons,
apply themselves to the task, day by day, and night after
night, and make suitable proficiency.
This is called lecturing, because the advanced Mason dictates
while the others learn.
I hope it is no breach of trust in me, no contempt of my
masonic obligations, to say, that the rehearsed of these
things, accompanied by the exercise of the manual, constitutes
that business in modern lodges signified by the word
work—work over which the master presides, and in which
all the brethren assist. The term makes an important figure
in the treatises on Masonry; and while every one may
know, from the stillness of the lodge room, that the temple
of the lodges, like that of our ancient grand master, is
erected without the sound of a hammer; and from the state
of the room after the lodge have retired, that no rubbish is
there sufficient to conceal the baseness of any improperly
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