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

The following, or fifth General Regulation, says that "no man can be
made
or admitted a member of a particular lodge, without previous notice,
one
month before, given to the same lodge."
Now, as a profane cannot be admitted an Entered Apprentice, or in other
words, a member of an Entered Apprentices' lodge, unless after one
month's
notice, so it follows that an Apprentice cannot be admitted a member of
a
Fellow Crafts' lodge, nor a Fellow Craft of a Masters', without the
like
probation. For the words of the regulation which apply to one, will
equally apply to the others. And hence we derive the law, that a month
at
least must always intervene between the reception of one degree and the
advancement to another. But this rule is also subject to a
dispensation.
Section XII.
_Of Finishing the Candidates of one Lodge in another._
It is an ancient and universal regulation, that no lodge shall
interfere
with the work of another by initiating its candidates, or passing or
raising its Apprentices and Fellow Crafts. Every lodge is supposed to
be
competent to manage its own business, and ought to be the best judge of
the qualifications of its own members, and hence it would be highly
improper in any lodge to confer a degree on a Brother who is not of its
household.
This regulation is derived from a provision in the Ancient Charges,
which
have very properly been supposed to contain the fundamental law of
Masonry, and which prescribes the principle of the rule in the
following
symbolical language:
"None shall discover envy at the prosperity of a Brother, nor supplant
him
or put him out of his work, if he be capable to finish the same; for no
man can finish another's work, so much to the Lord's profit, unless he
be
thoroughly acquainted with the designs and draughts of him that began
it."
There is, however, a case in which one lodge may, by consent, legally
finish the work of another. Let us suppose that a candidate has been
initiated in a lodge at A----, and, before he receives his second
degree,