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

The nature, then, of this operative and speculative combination, is the
first problem to be solved, and the symbolism which depends upon it is
the
first feature of the institution which is to be developed.
Freemasonry, in its character as an operative art, is familiar to every
one. As such, it is engaged in the application of the rules and
principles
of architecture to the construction of edifices for private and public
use--houses for the dwelling-place of man, and temples for the worship
of
Deity. It abounds, like every other art, in the use of technical terms,
and employs, in practice, an abundance of implements and materials
which
are peculiar to itself.
Now, if the ends of operative Masonry had here ceased,--if this
technical
dialect and these technical implements had never been used for any
other
purpose, nor appropriated to any other object, than that of enabling
its
disciples to pursue their artistic labors with greater convenience to
themselves,--Freemasonry would never have existed. The same principles
might, and in all probability would, have been developed in some other
way; but the organization, the name, the mode of instruction, would all
have most materially differed.
But the operative Masons, who founded the order, were not content with
the mere material and manual part of their profession: they adjoined to
it, under the wise instructions of their leaders, a correlative branch
of
study.
And hence, to the Freemason, this operative art has been symbolized in
that intellectual deduction from it, which has been correctly called
Speculative Masonry. At one time, each was an integrant part of one
undivided system. Not that the period ever existed when every operative
mason was acquainted with, or initiated into, the speculative science.
Even now, there are thousands of skilful artisans who know as little of
that as they do of the Hebrew language which was spoken by its founder.
But operative Masonry was, in the inception of our history, and is, in
some measure, even now, the skeleton upon which was strung the living
muscles, and tendons, and nerves of the speculative system. It was the
block of marble--rude and unpolished it may have been--from which was
sculptured the life-breathing statue.[52]
Speculative Masonry (which is but another name for Freemasonary in its
modern acceptation) may be briefly defined as the scientific
application
and the religious consecration of the rules and principles, the
language,
the implements and materials of operative Masonry to the veneration of
God, the purification of the heart, and the inculcation of the dogmas
of a
religious philosophy.