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F.
G.
H.
H.1. Inversion.
H.2. Symmetry.
AUTHOR'S NOTE.—
INTRODUCING THE TEXTBOOK.
FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES.
OBJECTIONS TO THE CRAFT.
RITUAL.
RELIGION.
ROYAL ARCH MAÇONS AND ROYAL AND SELECT MASTERS.
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
MASONIC EXPERIENCE.

F.
Six hundred years before the beginning of the Christian Era a few thoughtful men in Greeee looked out upon the world, vast in its size, and of an unimaginable complexity, and asked themselves the question, "How was it done?" Is it eternal, and therefore selfexistent? Was it created, and if it was, was it preceded by nothing but nothingness? Was it always what it is now, or does it change or grow? If it was made what, or who, made it'.' To their attempt to answer the question, "How was it done?" Pythagoras gave the name "philosophy," and it has had that name ever Since, though Pythagoras himself, Thales, Anaxagoras, Zeno, Epicurus, and the others of those ancient times would find it difficult to recognize their own ideas in modern systems of philosophy.
There were wise men, sages, thinkers, seers, prophets, and scholars before 600 B.C., but never before had there been philosophers, because never before the Greeks had men been able to form for themselves such an idea as "the World" (or Cosmos). There have since been developed from fifty to sixty major systems of philosophy in the Occident alone. Combining them together into a single tableau of General Philosophy it is seen that Systematie Philosophy always tends to divide itself into eight separate departments:

1. Philosophy in its more narrow and particular sense, which is the attempt to define the word "Truth."
2. Metaphysics (it has never been connected with occultism or theology), the attempts to define the word "Reality."
3. Ontology. the attempt to define the fiord "Being."
4. anthropology, the attempt to define the word "Man" (try to do it!).
5. Logic, the attempt to define the word Reason."
6. Esthetics the attempt to define the word "'Beauty."
7. Ethics the attempt to define the word " Good" (in its use in morality).
8. Symbolics, the attempt to define the word "Language."
A man is a philosopher insofar as he is interested in ans one or more of these eight subjects, if the word "interested" is taken to mean that he thinks about them (for each Department of Philosophy and each System of Philosophy consists solely of thought). Philosophy is the World as the mind knows it; it is the World as it is in thought. Freemasons have alsvays been concerned or interested in or have given thought to a number of these subjeets of Philosophy, here or there, for one purpose or another, in one form or another, not for the sake of systematic Philosophy, but for some purpose of their own; therefore any Philosopher, or any student interested in some Philosophic theme, will find here and there in Freemasonry something on this or that Philosophic subject in one of the Masonic Rites; that interest is in part what is meant by Masonic Philosophy.
Freemasonry is a "philosophy" of work; work is to make, or produce, or to have something needed; some things thus needed must be beautiful or have beauty in them or they are not satisfactory; therefore a worker cannot be a skilled or sound worker if he does not understand Beauty and know how to have it; this belongs to the Department of Estheties in Philosophy; Freemasonry has something theretore to do with Esthetics, and to that extent it makes a contribution to philosophy; this is an instance of "Masonic Philosophy" when that name is used as explained in the beginning of this paragraph.

But the word "philosophy" is also frequently used in a rough and colloquial sense to mean any system of thought which is large, inclusive, and in its methods and scope is similar to Philosophy. In this loose sense, Masonic Philosophy is an attempt to answer such questions as: What is the Meaning of Freemasonry?
What is its place in society?
What are Masonic Purposes?
How is it related to other large interests, to religion to polities, to art? Etc., etc. Any Mason who believes himself not to be interested in these or in the other philosophic subjects is doing himself an injustice He is a man; to be a man is to be a philosopher. Has he, or has any other man, ever escaped the admonitions: Be truthful, under any and all circumstances. Enter no activity, feeling or thought that is unreal; "that way, madness lies." To have wellbeing, be well. To be a man, there is nothing better than that. Be reasonable, and the world will be your triend. "Beauty, where art thou!" Goodness is possible only to the righteous. Whatever is the thing to say, say it.

The things in Freemasonry which belong to Philosophy, either technically or in the rough, are nowhere segregated, marked off, or walled in but are here and there, and must be searched out, that "searching out" being what is meant by Masonic Research; but if a man will read the General Index at the end of this Volume III he will find there many entries under Masonic Philosophy: The Book of Constitutions. The Ancient Landmarks. Masonic Ethies. Sociology. Art. Beauty. The PrincipalTenets. MasonicTeachings. The Scottish Rite (it is in an especial sense, "the Masonry of the mind") . Albert Pike. William Preston, Krause. Wm. Hutchinson. Etc., etc.

G.
Before the Revolutionary War American Lodges belonged to Provincial Grand Lodges, the Provincial Grand Masters of which were appointed by any one of four Grand Lodges in Britain, and by Grand Bodies in France; it was a clumsy, creaking system, was in fact not a system but only a shift of expediency, but it had to be tolerated until the end of the War for Independence. Immediately in consequence of that, war each State (a sovereign nation at that time) set up a sovereign Grand Lodge, with each one of them independent of the other. Sporadic and half-hearted attempts were made from time to time to set up a National (or General) Grand Lodge for the United States, but each time its champions believed themselves approaching nearest to it, they found it moving farther away, because neither Lodges nor Grand Lodges desired it; they preferred a Grand Lodge for each State united by a System of Comity—no man in the world could do justice to his office if he had to be Grand Master of three million Masons; it taxes a man to be Grand Master of 3,000!

Once the Ancient Craft Lodges were organized State by State, with each State having its own Grand Lodge, Royal Arch Chapters, Cryptic Lodges, and Knight Templar Commanderies adopted the same plan; the Scottish Rite adopted the plan of dividing the country into two Jurisdictions, the Northern and the Southern, each with its own Sovereign Grand Commanders; also, the Capitular Grand Chapters, Cryptic Grand Lodges, and Grand Commanderies have each one since set up National Bodies of limited sovereignty.
This is called the American System. In the formative period the great question was how to link these five Rites together without interfering with their independence, because unless they were linked American Freemasonry w ould fall apart into five Freemasonries and if five why not twenty-five, and if twenty-five, why have any? The problem was solved, first, by the rule that a member of any "High Grade!' must first be a member in good standing in a regular Ancient Craft Lodge; and, second, by developing a system of Comity among the five Rites, which means official recognition, correspondence, and visiting.
No other Masonic Country has this same svstem or has one quite the same, therefore an American Mason needs to understand his own System in order to understand the Systems in other lands, and hence it is a field for Masonic study, in which are such subjects as: The High Grades. Ancient Craft Masonry ("Blue Lodges" is slang). Capitular Masonry. Cryptic Masonry. Knight Templarism. The Ancient and Aceepted Scottish Rite. Comity. Dr. Desaguliers. Laurence Dermott. William Preston. Thomas Smith W ebb. Albert G. Mackey. Albert Pike. Thomas Dunckerley. Etc.

H.
In Public Library practice, and speaking generally, books are divided into nine major classifications, to each of which is assigned a hundred numbers, the first classification including 000 to 099; in addition to these are biographic fiction, and reference works, making twelve major classifications. Masonic literature conforms to this Public Library classification so closely that many Masonic Libraries employ it (the "Dewey Decimal System"); it does not conform as closely as could be vw ished but it serves, and it may therefore be said that according to a rough approximation there are twelve major fields for Masonic studies, if Masonic encyclopedias, dictionaries, Grand Lodge Proceedings, Lodge Minutes, and Lodge Histories (of the chronicle type) are included as No. ZII. (See Chapter on "How to Use the Index.")

But it does not follow that a Masonic student will work in any one of these major "fields," nor is there any reason whv he should unless he has some purpose which demands it, because a Mason is as free as the air in his reading and study, and what is freedom for if not to enjoy! And that last word is itself deserving of more study in the present posture of world affairs than it is now receiving, because in Lodges as well as in other conventicles, the times are bitter, and men are a little afraid of joy. Browning exclaimed, "Be our joy three-parts pain," but that is nonsense, for why should it be? In any event, to pursue Masonic studies for the joy of it, or even for the fun of it, is also a privilege of anv Master Mason, and it mav be that it would better conduce to their well-being if Twentieth Century American Masons were to do more reading and study than they do for the joy of it, or the fun of it, because we have for a generation past been hearing too much about "duties."
A student may therefore prefer to go down some byway in pursuit of some small but interesting subject, and for no more reason than that it is interesting, thereby reversing Browning's exclamation to read, "Be our pain three-fourths joy." There are here and there in Freemasonry (if we look for them) curious subjects, out-of-the-way subjects, unhackneyed subjects, over-looked subjects, and sometimes almost out-of-this-world subjects. The two on which comments are made in the paragraphs immediately following, are only two; there are a hundred others:

H.1. Inversion.
This is a device, or art, or artifice, used by symbologists and ritualists, and it is a surprising device because it works by means of surprise; when some rite, or symbol, or emblem is used to mean the exact opposite of chat it appears to mean, it is said to be an Inversion. The Egyptians depicted one of their gods of the Judgment Day as holding a pair of balances, in one pair of which is a man's soul, in the other pair of which is a feather; in appearance you are told to weigh a man, but in the very device which is given to you you are shown that you cannot weigh a man; the scales are given to you to prove to you that vou cannot use scales; and to remind you that one good man who weighs 200 pounds is not twice as good as another who weighs 100.
In the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries the Candidate was placed in a grave expressly for the purpose of making him realize that a man is never put in a grave—a: truth which modern burial customs ought to learn; and one hit off by Socrates who, when a man asked if "they" were going to bury him, replied that "they" would have to catch him first. A Candidate is hood-winked apparently to make him blind, but not in reality; the hood-wink is to shock him into the discovery that in seeing sight is less important than insight. The Candidate is handed a measuring rod, a two-foot rule, and if in appearance this is to tell him to measure himself, it is in reality to show him that he can't—what possible measuring-rod could show us how tall Lincoln was or how large a man Washington was! Inversions sued as these appear here and there in the Ritual, though "appear" is too strong a word; because while thes are there they usually escape notice or are invisible, anal must be hunted for.
They are themselves, it so happens, and in a peculiar sense, That Which Was Lost— at least one of the "thats"—and if any Mason has gone about believing that the search for such things (which is Masonic Research) is dull he is a hoodwinked Mason, because in the search for them is the discovery of new and sparkling ideas, the thrill of discovery, the thrill of detection, and the thrill of exploration.

H.2. Symmetry.
If a geometrical figure has a major axis in it, if the portion of the figure on one side of the axis is turned over and superimposed on the figure on the other side of the axis, and if the one eorresponds to the other point to point, the figure is said to be symmetrical. Symmetry is not always geometric, but whenever it is found it invariably proves design; and if a man has made it, it proves conscious design, because it is impossible to believe in symmetry by accident or chance. If, therefore, symmetry is found in the Masonic Ritual, it proves that somebody put it there, and intended it to be there. Why? For sake of having something symmetrical, because oftentimes symmetry is desired for its own sake, as in rhymes; or in order to give balances to movements or actions which otherwise would remain unbalanced.
For those reasons, or for other reasons similar to them, Masonic Ritualists at some time or place in the past incorporated some twelve or so symmetries into the Ritual at places where no symmetry could have occurred of itself. It is a curiously interesting work of Masonic Research to separate out those symmetries, and to puzzle out their meaning, and to find out the purpose of those Ritualists who put them there. Thus, and to give one or two examples:

At some period in the second quarter of the Eighteenth Century Lodge members began to see that the two Globes, which they kept somewhere in the eastern end of the Lodge Room, corresponded to the two Pillars; they placed the Globes on top of the Pillars. and thus incorporated in the Ritual a "factor of Symmetry." The author of the Middle Chamber Lecture (Preston?) introduced another, and a larger one, when he made the Three Steps to correspond to the Three Principal Officers, and to the Three Degrees, and to Youth, Manhood, and Old Age; the Five Steps to correspond with the Five Orders, and the Five Senses; and the Seven Steps, with the seven Liberal Arts and Sciences; etc., Why? Perhaps for the sake of symmetry itself. Why did he feel the need for symmetry?
Because as far as he could see the objects and actions of the Esoteric Work were in no plan, but apparently had been crowded in, like antiques in a second-hand store. (In digression: what was the Monitorialist's purpose in merely naming the Three Stations, Five Senses, etc., as if writing a catalog? It is inconceivable that he thought to teach anything by his primer-like bits of information, for what grown man need to be told that he has five senses?
Perhaps his real purpose began behind those elementary items of banal information in the central idea of which the whole .Middle Chamber rite is a presentation. It is best to believe so; and if so then the Monitorialist was showing forth a truth far more important and certainly one less elementary; namely, that there is a symmetry as between a man in himself and the nature of the world, as when: if there are sounds in the outer world, a man has hearing; if there is light in it, a man has eyes; if there is Weight in it, a man has muscles; if each one of the countless existing things has its own identity a man has means of knowing; if there are odors, he has the sense of smell; and so on forth until every kind and sort of thing in the outer world rhymes with something in man; which, if this idea be true, means that a man is not an accident in the world, or a stranger in it, and does not have to "adapt" himself to it, but is symmetric with it; and which, and again if the idea is true, means that there is much more to the subject of symmetry than there would superficially appear to be—a fact our Worthy Brother Pythagoras learned long ago when he discovered Harmonies ["the geometry of sounded)

A Candidate is conducted along straight lines, and around right angles (a paradox!); this is yet another factor of symmetry, because it corresponds point to point with the wall of the Lodge (into which he is being built), and to the Stations of the Three Principal Officers.
If there is such a thing as symmetry, there is also Such a thing as that which geometricians describe as a-symmetric, which is not the bare absence of symmetry but something positive, and also something other and something more. If symmetry has a certain great meaning of its own, nor does it matter how unfamiliar it continues to be, so has a-symmetry. In illustration of that fact, the two words with which these counsels began (in the title) can be recalled at the end, and to end with. The word "read" was in its origin an Anglo-Saxon term, and in that parenttongue was a root which meant "to advise." To advise about what? anything for hich any man might seek for advice.
The word "study" is a Latin term, removed bodily into the English language; in its original form of studeo, it meant "to be diligent," "to ire assiduous." In the Middle Ages the word rede often was used to denote "to con," as when a tracker cons the ground for signs of an animal, and more than one Medieval poet or romancer found in it a beautiful rnetaphor, as when a lover "read the face of his beloved." It is obvious that for many centuries neither of these words meant to read or to study books. The two words are asymmetric to their usage! There is a disjunction, apparently a deep disjunction, between the words themselves, and the apparent use to which they are put.

That puzzle clears up the moment a man sees that authors do not write books for the sake of producing literature (except authors of a rare and special kind).
Or because they are bookmen, or literary men; they do not do so because they are not interested in literature, but in quite other subjects; a historian is interested not in books of history but in past events and occurrences; a biographer is not interested in a book but in a man; an economist writes a book not about books but about wages, money, etc.; an agronomist writes a book about farming; and so on forth. Very few writers are literary men. So also with readers. Here and there, but infrequently, a reader reads for the sake of literature; usually he reads for the sake of learning or knowing subjects having no connection with literature. A man in the latter case reads and studies not to become acquainted with books but w ith something he uses in his work, or about which he has a curiosity, and on things which are not on printed pages but are "out there," in the external world; it is not books that he reads and studies but subjects. Books are (except in pure literature) a means to that end.

There are such means in Masonic reading and study, where not one book in a hundred is a book about books, but where almost every book is about Freemasonry, which is something very different from literature. The purpose of that Masonic reading is not to become a bookman; it is not to become a literary man; it is a means to know Freemasonry, and to understand its work, and to have information about its thousands of facts; and it is not a set of books which the Masonic student possesses at the end of his toil, but is Freemasonry.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.—
The whole field of Freemasonry, in its five Rites, in its full geographical and historical extent, and including the sum total of the data belonging to it, iS the natural and reasonable scope of an eneyelopedia of Freemasonry. It is believed that these three volumes together do not fall too far short of that ideal; but it needs to be remembered that the third volume, though its articles are arranged from .A to Z. is not itself a complete encyclopedia, but only one of three volumes. Its own coverage of Masonic titles was governed by the requirements placed on it by the already existing Volumes I and II.

The fact calls for two notes to be made:
1) There was a disproportionately large number of articles on the thigh Grades in Vols. I and II and a correspondingly disproportionately small number of articles on Ancient Craft Masonry; in Vol. III the ratio is reversed, and for a reason which calls for no further explanation.
2) A certain amount of the materials in Vol. III are new, and are therefore unfamiliar: so also with certain interpretatlons of old facts and of new facts both, a few of which are unorthodox. For that reason, and also because users ot any one of the Volumes most often read one article only at a time, and seldom read the Volume from beginning to end, some data and their interpretations are repeated in two or three artieles—in one or two cases, in five or six. This repetition is intentional, H. L. H.

INTRODUCING THE TEXTBOOK.
Having thus far given the student a few hints as to the foundation facts of Freemasonry, let us now lay down a convenient track for the further research, that he may take up with pleasure and with very great profit. Masonic reading is to be done on a definite plan if the student is to get out of it either pleasure or progress.
Luckily, the Encyclopedia affords us a means that is at once concise and accurate, clear and inviting. In the Encyclopedia the information is put in a pithy style, short and strong, and has been edited to the very last limit by Brethren whose years of experience and success have gained for them the highest praise and confidence of all well-posted Freemasons. In giving the references we prefer to present them here in alphabetical order. They are thus handy for consultation. First of all, they lay us down a sure footing for the student's path.

FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES.
General foundations of Masonic knowledge beginning with fundamentals may be supplied by first examining what is said under the several headings of

Antiquity of Freemasonry	Primitive Freemasonry
Definition of Freemasonry	Speculative Freemasonry
Ethics of Freemasonry	Symbolism, Science of
Mysteries	Ancient Traveling
Origin of Freemasonry

OBJECTIONS TO THE CRAFT.
Having laid down these general principles, proceed to Objections to Freemasonry, and the Puerilities of Freemasonry. Both present much that a Freemason should know to his very great advantage. Freemasonry is known the best when the worst said of it is properly understood.

RITUAL.
Now take up the Masonic labor as designated by

Degrees	Ritual	Esoteric Freemasonry	Secret Societies
Initiation	Side Degrees	Oral Instruction	Symbolic Degrees
Rite

RELIGION.
Of the religious aspect of the Fraternity, consult the articles on

Apocalyptic Degrees	Scriptures, Bible	Speculative Freemasonry
Christianity of Freemasonry	Spurious Freemasonry	Crusades
Templar Origin of Freemasonry	Religion of Freemasonry	Resurrection

Right at this pomt may be profitably read the essays on

Alchemy	Jacobins,	Progressive Freemasonry
Bridge Builders	Jesuits	Scottish Rite
Comacine Masters	Legends,	Secret Doctrine,
Ecossism	Morality of Freemasonry	Stone-Masons
High Degrees,	Mysticism	Strict Observance
Ineffable	Philosophic Degrees	Stuart Freemasonry

ROYAL ARCH MAÇONS and ROYAL AND SELECT MASTERS.
Among the topics of consequence are these:

Aaron's Band	Cipher Writing	Mysteries
Aaron, Ark	Companion	Royal Arch
Ark of the Covenant	Cyrus	Royal Master
Babylon	Damascus	Substitute, symbolism
Banners	Gedaliah	Tabernacle
Breastplate	Golden Candlestick	Triple Tau,
Burning Bush	Grand High Priest	Veils, Visiting
Candlestick	Haggai	Workmen
Capitular	High Priesthood	Zerubbabel
Capstone	Jehovah	King, Legend of Royal Arch,
Captivity	Cherubim

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
will particularly note these items:

Commander	Knighthood	Skull
Commanders	Bights of Malta	Sword
Crusades	Knight of Red Cross	Templar
Encampment,	Knights Templar	Temple Order of
Generalissimo	Pilgrim	.
Hospitaler	Red Cross	.

MASONIC EXPERIENCE.
Biography is equally good as history, and the Encyclopedia is abundantly sup plied with pithy accounts of the various personages of influence upon the Fraternity. A list of the more important references is here given.

Abif	Jesus	Palmer, Henry L	St. Andrew
Aldworth, Mrs.	Jones, John Paul	Paracelsus	St. Martin, L. C.
Anderson	Kitchener	Parvin, T. S.	Sadler, Henry
Arnold	Kloss, G. B. F.	Paschalis, M	Saladin
Ashmole	Knigge, Baron von	Pernetti, A. J.	Schaw. W.
Bacon	Kossuth	.	Schrepfer J. G
Barney, John	Krause, Carl C. F.	Philip IV	Schroeder, F. J. W.
Barruei	Lafayette	Philo Judaeus	Schroeder, F. L.
Barton, Miss	Lawrence	Pike, Albert	Solomon
Beaton, Mrs.	Lechangeur	Pirlet Squin de	Starck, J. A. von
Bedarride	Levi, Elphaz	Pius VII	Swaedenborg
Birkhead	Mackey	Plott, Robert	Terrasson, Abbe J.
Bonneville	Maier, Michael	Pope, Alexander	Thory, C. A.
Brant	Manningham, T.	Preston, William	Tschoudy Louis T.
Burns, Robert	Marconis, G. M.	Pretender	Van Rensselaer, K H.
Cagliostro	Mitchell, J. W. S	Price, Henry	Vassal, P. G.
Caleot	Molay, James de	Pyron, J. B. P. J.	Voight, F.
Carlile	Montfort	Pythagoras	Voltaire, F. M. Age
Casanova	Moore, C. W.	Ragon, J. M.	Waechter, Baron von
.	Daniel	Darius	Dazard, M. F..
D'Eon	Delaunay, F. H.	Des Etangs, N. C,	Dunckerley, T.
Decatur	Durer	Edwin	Entiek
Fessler, I. A.	Fleming	Florian,	Fludd, Robert
Franken, H. A.	Franklin	Frederick of Nassau	Frederick the Great
French, B. B.	Gabriel	Gilkes	Grasse Tilly
Gourgas. John J. J.	Goethe	Greenleaf	Gridley
Gugomos Baron de	Guillemain de St. Victor	Gustaws IV	Hacquet, G.
Hamilton, Robert	Hancock	Hawkins	Heeart, G. A. J.
Heldmann, Dr. F.	Henrietta Maria	Herring	Hiram Abif
Houdon	Hughan, W. J.	Hund , Baron von	Hutchinson,W
Cerneau	Morgan, William	Ramsay, A. M.	Warren
Chaillou de Jonville	Morin, Stephen	Reghellini, M.	Washington, George
Clay	Morris, Rob	Revere Paul	Wayne
Clinton	Mossdorf, F.	Richardson	Webb, Thomas Smith
Cole	Mozart	Robbin, Abbe C	Weishaupt, Adam
Cousos	Mozart, J. C. W. G	Robelot	Wesley
Cromwell	Murat, Joachum	Robert I	Woog, Carl C.
Cross, J. L.	Murr, C. G. von	Robison, John	Wren
Crucifix, R. T.	Napoleon	Rockwell. W. S.	Yates, Giles F.
Cyrus	Noorthouck, J	Rosa, Philipp S.	Zerubbabel
Dalcho, F.	Oliver, George	St. Alban	Zinnendorf, J. W. von

Long as is this list of names, it does not include all that are treated in the Encyclopedia.