220 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
220 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI August, 1933 No.8
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ROUGH AND PERFECT
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by: Unknown
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The rough Ashlar and the Trestleboard seem to have been symbols in
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Ancient Craft Masonry at least from the beginning of the Grand Lodge
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period (1717). They are illustrated on the earliest of the old
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tracing-boards which have come down to us.
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Just when or how the Perfect Ashlar came into our symbolism is
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another matter, and not as simple as it appears.
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In 1731 one Samuel Prichard, who denominated himself as a “Life
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Member of a Constituted Lodge” wrote and published “Masonry
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Dissected,” the first of a long series of exposes of Freemasonry.
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In it is this curious dialogue, purporting to be held between the
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Entered Apprentice during his initiation, and some initiating
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officer:
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Q. “Have you any Jewels in your Lodge?”
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A. “Yes.”
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Q. “How Many?”
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A. “Six, three movable and three immovable.”
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Q. “What are the movable Jewels?”
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A. “Square, Level and Plumb Rule.”
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Q. “What are their uses?”
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A. “Square, to down true and right lines; Level, to try all
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Horizontals; and Plumb Rule, to try all Uprights.”
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Q. “What are the immovable Jewels?”
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A. “Tarsel Board, Rough Ashlar and Broached Thurnel.”
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Q. “What are their uses?”
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A. “A Tarsel Board for the Master to draw his designs upon, Rough
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Ashlar for the Fellow-Craft to try their Jewels upon, and the
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Broached Thurnel for the entered Apprentice to learn to work
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upon.”
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The learned Dr. Oliver, most prolific of the early writers on
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Freemasonry, to whose industry if not to whose accuracy Freemasonry
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owes a great debt, unwittingly muddied the waters of antiquity in
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which this Broached Thurnel was apparently immersed! He confused it
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with the Rough Ashlar, stating that the two were the same.
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Old tracing-Boards of the entered Apprentice Degree disclose what we
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readily recognize as the Trestle-Board, although in those days it was
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known as “Tarsel!” Adjacent to it is what is plainly a Rough Ashlar.
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Immediately next is a drawing of a cube, surmounted by a pyramid - a
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cubical stone with a pyramidal apex.
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Early French tracing-boards display the “pierre-cubique,” of cubical
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stone.
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Modern tracing-boards show the Perfect Ashlar (not the rough Ashlar,
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as Oliver had it) in place of the Broached Thurnel, or cubical stone
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with pyramid atop.
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Mackey quotes Parker’s “Glossary of Terms in Architecture” as
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follows:
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“Broach or broche is an old English term for spire, still in use in
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Leicestershire, where it is said to denote a spire springing from the
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tower without any intervening parapet. Thurnel is from the old
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French, “tournelle,” a turret or little tower. The Broached Thurnel,
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then, was the Spired Turret. It was a model on which Apprentices
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might learn the principles of their art because it presented to them,
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in its various outlines, the forms of the square and the triangle,
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the cube and the pyramid.”
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Modern authorities dispute this. G.W. Speth finds that Broach, in
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Scotland means to rough-hew. Thurnel, he states, is a chisel with
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which to rough-hew, rather than a model of a spired turret on which
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an Apprentice might learn to work. But, he inquires, what then
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becomes of the pyramid on the cube, displayed on the old tracing-
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boards? Moreover, the Scotch use “boast” as an alternate word for
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“broach,” and “boasted ashlar” can be found in modern dictionaries,
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meaning chiseled with an irregular surface.
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As a matter of fact, no one really “knows” just what our ancient
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brethren meant by Broached Thurnel; what we do know is that somewhere
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in the early formative period of the modern ritual, Broached Thurnel
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gave way to Perfect Ashlar.
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But it did not necessarily do so because of the presence on the
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tracing-board of a Rough Ashlar. No less an authority than R.W.
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Charles C. Hunt, Librarian and Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of
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Iowa, presents the “Perpend Ashlar” as its probable progenitor. A
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Perpend Ashlar - the word has many variations, such as parpen,
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parpend, parpent, parpine, parpin, parping - is a dressed stone which
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passes completely through a wall from one side to the other, having
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two smooth, vertical faces. This perpenstone. or bonder, or
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bondstone, is the same as the Parping Ashlar of Glocestershire - a
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stone which passes through a wall and shows a fair face on either
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side.
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In the “True Masonic Chart” published by R.W. Jeremy L. Cross in
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1820, appear pictures of the Rough and Perfect Ashlars, showing them
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substantially as we know them today. It is noteworthy that the
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stones illustrated are more than twice as long as wide and high,
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which seems to bear out the idea that the Perfect Ashlar, at least,
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was once the Perpend Ashlar.
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Before examining the symbolism of the Ashlars it is illuminating to
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read at least one passage from the Great Light:
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“And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, and costly
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stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.
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“And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the
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stonesquarers; so they prepared timber and stones to build the
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house.” (I Kings, V 16-17)
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There is a distinction between builders and stone squarers - while
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those who cut and squared the stone and those who built, both hewed,
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yet they were distinct in functions. It is also interesting to
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observe the classification “great”, “costly” and “hewed.”
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“Great” of course refers to size. The larger the stone, the harder
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it was to cut from the quarry, the more difficult to transport, and
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therefore, the more expensive. But “costly” may also refer to the
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expense of hewing. Then, as now, the more truly and carefully a
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stone was hewed and smoothed, squared and polished, the more time was
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required and therefore, the more “costly” the stone became.
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Few symbols seem more obvious, at least in their simpler aspects.
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Rough Ashlar, man in his untutored state;
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Perfect Ashler, man educated, refined, with mind filled light. It is
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this symbolism which Brother J.W. Lawrence evidently had in mind when
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he wrote:
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“The Perfect Ashlar, as a symbol, is the summum bonum of Freemasonry.
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That is to say, everything else in Masonry leads up to it. The V. of
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S.L. describes it, the checkered pavement illustrates it, the Great
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Architect no less than the Grand Geometrian desire it, and are
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satisfied with nothing less. When the craft has fashioned the
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Perfect Ashlar, it has nothing else to do.”
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With part of which all can agree; if some think that there yet
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remains building to be done, after the Ashlars are hewn to
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perfection, we may still make our own the thought that the Grand
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Master of the Grand Lodge Above wants only perfection in the
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spiritual stones for the “House Not Made With Hands.”
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But the symbolism can be carried further. In this subject
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“Introduction to Freemasonry” reads:
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“The common Gavel, which breaks off the corners of rough stones, the
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better to fit them for the builders use, joins the Rough and Perfect
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Ashlars in a hidden symbol of the Order at once beautiful and tender.
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The famous sculptor and ardent Freemason, Gutzon Borglum, when asked
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how he carved stone into beautiful statues, once said: ‘it is very
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simple. I merely knock away with a hammer and chisel the stone I do
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not need, and the statue is there - It Was There All of the Time.’”
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“In the Great Light We read: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is Within You.’
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We are also there taught that man is made in the image of God. As
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Brother Borglum has so beautifully said, images are made by a process
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of taking away. The perfection is already within. All that is
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required is to remove the roughness and excrescences, ‘Divesting our
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Hearts and Consciences of the Vices and Superfluities of life’ to
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show forth the perfect man and Mason within.”
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Albert Pike, always original, thought the interpretation of the Rough
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and Perfect Ashlars, as given in our Ancient craft monitors and
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ritualistic instruction, to be superficial. He found another
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meaning:
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“The Rough Ashlar is the people, as a mass, rude and unorganized.
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The Perfect Ashlar, cubical stone, symbol of perfection, is the
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State, the rulers deriving their powers from the consent of the
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governed; the constitution and laws speaking the will of the people;
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the government, harmonious, symmetrical, efficient - its powers
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properly distributed and duly adjusted in equilibrium.”
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Any brother is privileged to extend symbolism in new directions as
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far as he wishes; if his reading of a symbol is to him satisfactory
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teaching of a truth, it is a good reading. But the rough and Perfect
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Ashlars are sufficiently inclusive of the many truths-within the
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grasp of the average individual, without extending the interpretation
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to such vast conceptions as the people and the state. Even Pike,
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great interpreter of symbols though he was, never contended that the
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original symbolism of the Ashlars, as developed from operative
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practice by the early Speculatives, was of a political nature.
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Hunt’s reading of the Perfect Ashlar, as the successor to the Perpend
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Ashlar, is most beautiful. In “Some Thoughts on Masonic Symbolism” he
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suggests:
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“We call it the Perfect Ashlar, but we must remember that it is
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perfected only because it is completely adapted to the purpose for
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which it was made, namely; to exactly fit into its place in the
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building, and act as a binder for other stones..
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“In order that it may do this, it must possess certain attributes and
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through these attributes we are reminded ‘of that state of perfection
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at which we hope to arrive by a virtuous education, our own endeavors
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and the blessing of god.’ It has two faces to be exposed, and both
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must be absolutely upright. It does not have one standard for the
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world and another for the home; the same face, square and true, is
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presented both to the world and the Lodge, and it teaches that we
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should not have one code of morals for one place and another for
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another, but that right is the same wherever we are and under
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whatever circumstance we may be placed.”
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The making of a Perfect Ashlar from a Rough Ashlar requires skill,
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tools and a plan. Without any of the three the Ashlar cannot be made
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perfect.
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Skills to use the tools means education to wield Chisel and Mallet -
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education to use the talents God gave us in whatever walk of life we
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may be called.
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Tools must the workman have, for empty hands cannot chip away hard
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stone; tools must the Speculative Craftsman have. for an empty mind
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cannot wear away the resistance of our complicated life. Speculative
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tools are honor and probity, energy and resource, courage and common
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sense and the like virtues, the generation of which forms character.
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Most especially must the operative workman have a plan to which to
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hew. His mind must see both dimension and form, otherwise his tools
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will cut aimlessly, and his Ashlar will be askew, not square, fit
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only for the waste pile or the curiosity shop. So must the
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Speculative workman have a plan to which to fit his Perfect Ashlar of
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character . . . an ambition, a goal for which to strive, some hope in
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the future towards which he can stretch eager hands, bending every
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energy to accomplish.
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Considered thus, the Rough and Perfect Ashlars become symbols of
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greater interest than appear on only a casual inspection. One
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interpretation is, perhaps, as satisfactory as another - it is one of
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the great beauties of symbolism that interpretations can differ
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widely and yet all be true, and all fit with each other. As one
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writer puts it:
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“Most symbols have many interpretations. These do not contradict but
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amplify each other. Thus, the square is a symbol of perfection, of
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honor, and honestly, of good work. These are all different, and yet
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allied. The square is not a symbol of wrong, or evil, or meanness,
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or disease. Ten different men may read ten different meanings into a
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square and yet each meaning fits with, and belongs to, the other
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meanings . . . all these meanings are right. When all men know all
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the meanings, the need for Freemasonry will have passed away.”
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(“Foreign Countries”)
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Read the symbolism of the Ashlars as we choose, from the simplest
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conception to the most profound, the though remains; even as the
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cornerstone of a temple must be a perfect ashlar, so are these
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symbols cornerstones of our Speculative Science, the more beautiful
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and important that learned men have found in them so many and such
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beautiful lessons.
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