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

Section IV.
_Of the Political Qualifications of Candidates._
The Constitutions of Masonry require, as the only qualification
referring
to the political condition of the candidate, or his position in
society,
that he shall be _free-born_. The slave, or even the man born in
servitude--though he may, subsequently, have obtained his liberty--is
excluded by the ancient regulations from initiation. The non-admission
of
a slave seems to have been founded upon the best of reasons; because,
as
Freemasonry involves a solemn contract, no one can legally bind himself
to
its performance who is not a free agent and the master of his own
actions.
That the restriction is extended to those who were originally in a
servile
condition, but who may have since acquired their liberty, seems to
depend
on the principle that birth, in a servile condition, is accompanied by
a
degradation of mind and abasement of spirit, which no subsequent
disenthralment can so completely efface as to render the party
qualified
to perform his duties, as a Mason, with that "freedom, fervency, and
zeal," which are said to have distinguished our ancient Brethren.
"Children," says Oliver, "cannot inherit a free and noble spirit except
they be born of a free woman."
The same usage existed in the spurious Freemasonry or the Mysteries of
the
ancient world. There, no slave, or men born in slavery, could be
initiated; because, the prerequisites imperatively demanded that the
candidate should not only be a man of irreproachable manners, but also
a
free-born denizen of the country in which the mysteries were
celebrated.
Some masonic writers have thought that, in this regulation in relation
to
free birth, some allusion is intended, both in the Mysteries and in
Freemasonry, to the relative conditions and characters of Isaac and
Ishmael. The former--the accepted one, to whom the promise was given-was
the son of a free woman, and the latter, who was cast forth to have
"his
hand against every man, and every man's hand against him," was the
child
of a slave. Wherefore, we read that Sarah demanded of Abraham, "Cast
out
this bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be
heir
with my son." Dr. Oliver, in speaking of the grand festival with which