In that delightful volume, "Innocents Abroad," Mark Twain describes Baalbec as a notable ruin whose history is a sealed book. There it has stood for thousands of years the wonder and admiration of travelers, but who built it or when it was built, no one knows. With equal truth, perhaps, these words may be applied to Freemasonry. Here it stands in the Twentieth Century, the wonder and devotion of men, but when it was founded or who founded it are disputed points concerning which Masons fail to agree.

Men have rivaled one another in writing histories of Freemasonry, but no one seems to have been able to penetrate the haze which envelops its origin. Just as the earnest Masonic historian is about to congratulate himself upon being able to fix some definite period for its commencement, a new phase of the subject appears and he finds himself still seeking the object of his quest, and of all of the mysteries of Freemasonry, it may be said that there is perhaps none greater than the mystery of its origin.

But the parallel diverges; the temple of Baalbec is in ruins. Within the shadow of its mighty columns no passing foot falls. In its nooks and crannies live the owl and the bat. From its overturned altars no incense rises, for Baal the Pagan God for whom this Temple was reared has fallen from his pedestal and exists today only in the lore of ancient mythology. But Freemasonry, whose altars are erected to the one true God, lives in the Twentieth Century a potent force in modern civilization. Upon its temples and meeting places the sun never sets, and the voices of the thousands who throng its altars singing their anthem of brotherhood among men, are heard around the globe.

For years writers and speakers have been projecting all sorts of theories concerning the beginnings of Freemasonry until the Masonic world is flooded with fantastic tales and the great men from time immemorial charged with having been identified with the fraternity and contributing to its ritual and philosophy. Adam has been referred to as the first Mason, probably for no other reason than lie wore an apron made of fig leaves. Noah has been declared a member of the Craft and given credit for having organized the first lodge in the ark. Moses has been frequently acknowledged as a Mason because the Ten Commandments shadow forth Masonic principles and of course the Masonic enthusiast can think of no one but a Freemason as having conceived them. So much reference is made to King Solomon and his Temple in Masonic Ritualism that many Masons honestly place the origin of the fraternity at the building of this great monument of architecture, and readily accept the Son of David as the first Grand Master. Some Masonic enthusiasts have even been bold enough to assert that Jesus Christ was a Mason, and received His instruction in a society of philosophers similar to the present system of Freemasonry and that in many of His sayings are thinly veiled the doctrines of the mystic art.

It is a matter of sincere regret and not at all to the credit of Freemasonry that there are many Masons who seem to prefer to have the fraternity draped in tradition and mysticism rather than to have the truth elicited and understood. It is inconsistent that Freemasonry, the embodiment of veracity, should allow allegory and symbolism, which are its methods of illustration and instruction, to be confounded with the history and doctrines of the fraternity. To understand Freemasonry, the ideal must be separated from the real. A young minister was once preaching upon Revelations, and exhorted his hearers to take every word of that portion of scriptures for just exactly what they revealed; that gold meant gold; jasper meant jasper; and the twelve gates of pearls meant that they were of precious stones; and that streets paved with gold meant just exactly what the scriptures declared. An old man of considerable experience arose and said that he had listened with much interest to the explanation of Revelations which had just been given by the young man and all he had to say was that if every statement made in that portion of the scriptures was to be taken literally then the woman referred to in the seventeenth chapter as seated upon seven hills must have wonderful sitting capacity, and when one listens to the many exorbitant statements so often made concerning Freemasonry, he is led to exclaim that the fraternity must have wonderful capacity for adaptability.

A Masonic tradition is simply a parable and makes no more claim to historical accuracy than does the parable. Take for instance the story of the fatted calf. No one stops to inquire if the story is literally true or is merely a religious novel, because the lesson forces itself upon us. It is declared that the incident relating to William Tell is fiction, but the moral heroism of William Tell is just as great if fictitious as if real, and the same is true of all Masonic tradition, allegory, and legend. There are today hundreds in the fraternity who honestly believe that the legends of the society are historic facts and who look upon King Solomon as their Masonic forbear. To be sure, the men who believe these things are not students and have formed their opinions very largely from the talk of those who are willing to make any claim whatsoever for Freemasonry. In Drury's History of France, the author states that the first King of France was Pharamond, an imaginary being who never had existed, and who was succeeded by his son. There have been a good many statements made concerning Freemasonry which are just about as valuable as this one from Duruy's book.

It is true that the tendency of the human mind is to shed the hue of the imagination over the obscure and unknown, and to invest it with those images which people the domain of fancy. In the Fifteenth Century, men believed that by sailing westward they could reach the distant shores of Asia. Those unknown lands wrought wonderful pictures in the human mind. Eldorado's superlative in structure rich in art; their sands yellow with treasure stretched before the eye. The far East was, in their vision, a realm gorgeous with barbaric pearls and gold. The palaces of the kings were marvels of architecture and their marble courts more beautiful in color than the tints of the rising sun. Fancy wove the most brilliant dreams and invested those lands with a splendor unreal and covered them as with a veil of sifted gold. Then appeared a Columbus to interpret this dream of men and to unfold a land for greater human development. Men know nothing of life upon the planet, Mars, yet they write knowingly of the atmosphere, canals, vegetation, upon this far-away world, and the artist even draws pictures of its inhabitants. It is possible to allow our imaginations to play with these subjects as to eventually believe them real so that in the next generation they may be accepted as facts.

In the realm of Freemasonry, there has been much of the enchantment of imagination. Masons have believed the things concerning the origin of the institution that they wanted to believe and have gone forth and told them as facts. When links were missing, they have been supplied by drawing upon fertile imaginations. An Elder of a certain church was once explaining the passing of the Red Sea and declared that the waters were suddenly frozen. A man in the audience challenged the speaker and said that according to his knowledge of geography the Red Sea was located in a very warm country, near the Equator, and that it was quite impossible for it ever to have been frozen, there fore he would like to know where the ice came from. The Elder became very much excited and said if the brother knew as much about the scriptures as he pretends to know about geography, he would know that this circumstance happened thousands and thousands of years ago - long before there was any Equator. So a good many Masonic writers and speakers have located the be ginnings of Freemasonry so many thousands of years ago as to exempt the society from all natural laws.

If the student were to consider Masonry only in its symbolic and legendary aspect, it is not at all surprising that he is at first impressed with the idea that the fraternity has survived a long descent from the mists of antiquity and has assumed local coloring through its transmission by the medium of Jewish monotheism. Owing to the tremendous part which symbolism and legends have played in much of the so-called early historical literature, it is readily understood the misleading importance that has been placed upon these features of the society. It should not be ,overlooked that much of the literature and alleged history of Freemasonry consists mainly of abortive attempts to connect the fraternity through its symbolism with the mysteries of the ages, and in many instances a direct association has been made with crude ceremonies of an almost forgotten past. It is quite easy to understand the reason for this. The human mind loves the marvelous, and one of its greatest susceptibilities is to try and connect the vague and unknown with some supernatural agency and, as far as possible, link it with a mystical past thereby taking it out of the common place and enveloping it in a sort of etherial atmosphere. Because of the peculiar charm of Freemasonry and the fact that its direct origin is veiled in obscurity, many have been led to lift it out of the domain of cause and effect and exempt it from natural laws which are responsible for those human agencies which make for the uplift of the race. The teachings of Freemasonry are so forcible and its symbolism and legends so direct in their application, that mere initiation into the fraternity only serves to heighten the imagination of the novitiate who contents himself with accepting as fact that which has been presented to him in the form of symbolism. He never doubts the honesty of the institution nor strives to separate the symbolical from the real and thereby arrive at a correct estimate of the society. Regarding the fraternity as at occult thing, it is not surprising that he accepts the traditions and allegories as the verities of literal fact.

The Masonic enthusiast who is content to trace Freemasonry to some ancient secret society will have plenty of fantastical material at his disposal with which to work. It is beyond dispute that secret societies have existed among many primitive peoples. Even with the cultured nations of the past, certain rites and ceremonies have been devised which were accorded to the select and chosen few. In the early and formulative periods of the world, knowledge was considered as of secretive character, and many schools sprang up led by various thinkers who imparted their information secretly lest they should be misunderstood and subjected to the wrath of civil authorities.

The student who is to study Freemasonry must divest himself of the idea that it is a secret society. There is a marked distinction between a secret society and a brotherhood or institution designed for the moral benefit of mankind. A secret society is merely the outgrowth of primitive conditions, while a brotherhood is the result of culture and refinement. The real secret society envelopes itself with an air of mysticism, controls its devotees through superstition, and perpetuates itself by stimulating curiosity. Freemasonry is in no sense a secret society, and bears not the slightest resemblance to those ancient mysteries and mystical societies which in times past emanated from superstitious minds in turbulent periods of the world. Freemasonry is an institutional brotherhood, devoid of secrets or mysteries, combatting superstition, seeking to create a bond of mutual helpfulness among men ever striving to establish itself as a vital factor in the intellectual, moral, and spiritual development of the human race.

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