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The Second Degree does not receive anything like the
attention accorded to the First or to the Third,
especially the
latter. It is a fact that challenges examination. The
candidate
himself does not often seem so much impressed by it, the
side lines-are seldomly so well filled, and the brethren
in the
chairs do not always appear to put into its
exemplification the
earnestness which they devote to the others.
There are reasons for this. One of several that might be
named is the fact that few lodges are properly equipped to
render the Second Degree as it deserves, especially so far
as symbolical paraphernalia is concerned, which is
sometimes of a kind as causes one to bluish, it is so
dilapidated. This is in itself all the more unfortunate in
view of
the fact that the equipment required is so very simple
that a
lodge unable to purchase the same ready made might very
easily have the items manufactured by local members.
Also it is to be confessed that in many jurisdictions the
Second Degree is not the equal of its sister Degrees for
flair
and dramatic color. The Middle Chamber lectures are often
long and tedious, and such other parts as should most stir
the mind are mutilated or misinterpreted and made
unintelligible. THE BUILDER is conservative as regards the
Ritual, and it looks with suspicion upon most attempts to
tamper with it, but it frankly agrees with those who
believe
that certain portions of the Second Degree might very well
be reconstructed, especially those that deal with
architecture
and the five senses.
But after all, and over and above this, the largest cause
of
the slack working of the Degree is the general
misunderstanding of its meaning and purpose. As Brother
Roscoe Pound pointed out in a lecture on Preston published
in one of the first issues of this journal, the Fellow
Craft
portion of the work is very largely the production of
William
Preston, whose plan was to make the lodge a kind of
school.
There were no public schools in the England of his period
so
that the Craft suffered, as did other public institutions,
from
the illiteracy of its members, and Preston undertook to
remedy this unfortunate condition by composing lectures
that
would offer the candidate the essentials of a liberal
education. The Second Degree is the embodiment of this
purpose. It is the rite of education. That character lies
all
over it.
For this reason the Degree deserves an amount of attention
and of loving care that it has never received. If there is
anything that Freemasonry stands for it is LIGHT. If it
has
any mission it is to see that all of the children in the
land
receive a schooling. If it has any enemies it is such
forces
as, for one cause or another, would cripple or hamper or
prevent the public sources of enlightenment. If only all
Masons could see that this is the message of the Second
Degree and if the brethren who occupy the chairs could
discover in it the symbolical representation of all this,
any
possible indifference, half-heartedness or carelessness
would instantly vanish.
POTS
Masonry, according to the general acceptation of the term,
is an art
founded on the principles of geometry, and devoted to the
service and convenience of mankind. But Freemasonry,
embracing a wider range and having a nobler object in
view, namely, the cultivation and improvement of the human
mind, may with more propriety be called a science,
inasmuch as, availing itself of the terms of the former,
it inculcates the principles of the purest morality,
though its lessons are for the most part veiled in
allegory and illustrated by symbols.
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