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

[Hebrew: yod-heh-vau-heh], and called, from the four letters of which
it
consists, the tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name.
L
LABOR. Since the article on the Symbolism of Labor was written, I have
met
with an address delivered in 1868 by brother Troue, before St. Peter's
Lodge in Martinico, which contains sentiments on the relation of
Masonry
to labor which are well worth a translation from the original French.
See
_Bulletin du Grand Orient de France_, December, 1868.
"Our name of Mason, and our emblems, distinctly announce that our
object
is the elevation of labor.
"We do not, as masons, consider labor as a punishment inflicted on man;
but on the contrary, we elevate it in our thought to the height of a
religious act, which is the most acceptable to God because it is the
most
useful to man and to society.
"We decorate ourselves with the emblems of labor to affirm that our
doctrine is an incessant protest against the stigma branded on the law
of
labor, and which an error of apprehension, proceeding from the
ignorance
of men in primitive times has erected into a dogma; an error that has
resulted in the production of this anti-social phenomenon which we meet
with every day; namely, that the degradation of the workman is the
greater
as his labor is more severe, and the elevation of the idler is higher
as
his idleness is more complete. But the study of the laws which maintain
order in nature, released from the fetters of preconceived ideas, has
led
the Freemasons to that doctrine, far more moral than the contrary
belief,
that labor is not an expiation, but a law of harmony, from the
subjection
to which man cannot be released without impairing his own happiness,
and
deranging the order of creation. The design of Freemasons is, then, the
rehabilitation of labor, which is indicated by the apron which we wear,
and the gavel, the trowel, and the level, which are found among our
symbols."
Hence the doctrine of this work is, that Freemasonry teaches not only
the
necessity, but the nobility, of labor.