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

voted on the first ballot. If, on the second scrutiny, one black ball
is
again found, the fact is announced by the Master, who orders the
election
to lie over until the next stated meeting, and requests the Brother who
deposited the black ball to call upon him and state his reasons. At the
next stated meeting the Master announces these reasons to the lodge, if
any have been made known to him, concealing, of course, the name of the
objecting Brother. At this time the validity or truth of the objections
may be discussed, and the friends of the applicant will have an
opportunity of offering any defense or explanation. The ballot is then
taken a third time, and the result, whatever it may be, is final. As I
have already observed, in most of the lodges of this country, a
reappearance of the one black ball will amount to a rejection. In those
lodges which do not require unanimity, it will, of course, be necessary
that the requisite number of black balls must be deposited on this
third
ballot to insure a rejection. But if, on inspection, the box is found
to
be "clear," or without a black ball, the candidate is, of course,
declared
to be elected. In any case, the result of the third ballot is final,
nor
can it be set aside or reversed by the action of the Grand Master or
Grand
Lodge; because, by the sixth General Regulation, already so frequently
cited, the members of every particular lodge are the best judges of the
qualifications of their candidates; and, to use the language of the
Regulation, "if a fractious member should be imposed on them, it might
spoil their harmony, or hinder their freedom, or even break and
disperse
the lodge."
Section VII.
_Of the Reconsideration of the Ballot._
There are, unfortunately, some men in our Order, governed, not by
essentially bad motives, but by frail judgments and by total ignorance
of
the true object and design of Freemasonry, who never, under any
circumstances, have recourse to the black ball, that great bulwark of
Masonry, and are always more or less incensed when any more judicious
Brother exercises his privilege of excluding those whom he thinks
unworthy
of participation in our mysteries.
I have said, that these men are not governed by motives essentially
bad.
This is the fact. They honestly desire the prosperity of the
institution,
and they would not willfully do one act which would impede that
prosperity. But their judgments are weak, and their zeal is without
knowledge. They do not at all understand in what the true prosperity of