THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

Second, that with the decline of the old religious art of
building--for such it was in very truth--some of its symbolism lost
its luster, its form surviving but its meaning obscured, if not
entirely faded. Who knows, for example--even with the Klein essay on
_The Great Symbol_[94] in hand--what Pythagoras meant by his lesser
and greater Tetractys? That they were more than mathematical theorems
is plain, yet even Plutarch missed their meaning. In the same way,
some of the emblems in our Lodges are veiled, or else wear meanings
invented after the fact, in lieu of deeper meanings hidden, or but
dimly discerned. Albeit, the great emblems still speak in truths
simple and eloquent, and remain to refine, instruct, and exalt.
Third, that when Masonry finally became a purely speculative or
symbolical fraternity, no longer an order of practical builders, its
ceremonial inevitably became more elaborate and imposing--its old
habit and custom, as well as its symbols and teachings, being
enshrined in its ritual. More than this, knowing how "Time the white
god makes all things holy, and what is old becomes religion," it is
no wonder that its tradition became every year more authoritative; so
that the tendency was not, as many have imagined, to add to its
teaching, but to preserve and develop its rich deposit of symbolism,
and to avoid any break with what had come down from the past.
Keeping in mind this order of evolution in the history of Masonry, we
may now state the facts, so far as they are known, as to its early
degrees; dividing it into two periods, the Operative and the
Speculative.[95] An Apprentice in the olden days was "entered" as a
novice of the craft, first, as a purely business proceeding, not
unlike our modern indentures, or articles. Then, or shortly
afterwards--probably at the annual Assembly--there was a ceremony of
initiation making him a Mason--including an oath, the recital of the
craft legend as recorded in the _Old Charges_, instruction in moral
conduct and deportment as a Mason, and the imparting of certain
secrets. At first this degree, although comprising secrets, does not
seem to have been mystic at all, but a simple ceremony intended to
impress upon the mind of the youth the high moral life required of
him. Even Guild-masonry had such a rite of initiation, as Hallam
remarks, and if we may trust the Findel version of the ceremony used
among the German Stone-masons, it was very like the first degree as we
now have it--though one has always the feeling that it was embellished
in the light of later time.[96]
So far there is no dispute, but the question is whether any other
degree was known in the early lodges. Both the probabilities of the
case, together with such facts as we have, indicate that there was
another and higher degree. For, if all the secrets of the order were
divulged to an Apprentice, he could, after working four years, and
just when he was becoming valuable, run away, give himself out as a
Fellow, and receive work and wages as such. If there was only one set
of secrets, this deception might be practiced to his own profit and
the injury of the craft--unless, indeed, we revise all our ideas held
hitherto, and say that his initiation did not take place until he was
out of his articles. This, however, would land us in worse
difficulties later on. Knowing the fondness of the men of the Middle
Ages for ceremony, it is hardly conceivable that the day of all days
when an Apprentice, having worked for seven long years, acquired the
status of a Fellow, was allowed to go unmarked, least of all in an