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

candidates for initiation, or in their gradual progress through each of
the three degrees, for it will be found that a Mason, as he assumes new
and additional obligations, and is presented with increased light,
contracts new duties, and is invested with new prerogatives and
privileges.
Chapter I.
Of the Qualifications of Candidates.
The qualifications of a candidate for initiation into the mysteries of
Freemasonry, are four-fold in their character--moral, physical,
intellectual and political.
The moral character is intended to secure the respectability of the
Order,
because, by the worthiness of its candidates, their virtuous
deportment,
and good reputation, will the character of the institution be judged,
while the admission of irreligious libertines and contemners of the
moral
law would necessarily impair its dignity and honor.
The physical qualifications of a candidate contribute to the utility of
the Order, because he who is deficient in any of his limbs or members,
and
who is not in the possession of all his natural senses and endowments,
is
unable to perform, with pleasure to himself or credit to the
fraternity,
those peculiar labors in which all should take an equal part. He thus
becomes a drone in the hive, and so far impairs the usefulness of the
lodge, as "a place where Freemasons assemble to work, and to instruct
and
improve themselves in the mysteries of their ancient science."
The intellectual qualifications refer to the security of the Order;
because they require that its mysteries shall be confided only to those
whose mental developments are such as to enable them properly to
appreciate, and faithfully to preserve from imposition, the secrets
thus
entrusted to them. It is evident, for instance, that an idiot could
neither understand the hidden doctrines that might be communicated to
him,
nor could he so secure such portions as he might remember, in the
"depositary of his heart," as to prevent the designing knave from
worming
them out of him; for, as the wise Solomon has said, "a fool's mouth is
his
destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul."