Like the Square and the Compasses, the Level and the Plumb are
nearly always united in our Ritual. they really belong together, as
much in moral teaching as in practical building. the one is used to
lay horizontals, the other to try perpendiculars, and their use
suggests their symbolism. By reason of their use, both are special
working tools of the Fellow-craft, along with the Square; and they
are also worn as jewels by two of the principal officers of the
lodge.
Among the Craft Masons of olden time the actual work of building was
done by Fellowcrafts, using materials gathered and rough hewn by
Apprentices, all working under the guidance of the Master. In our
symbolism, as the Apprentice is youth, so the Fellowcraft is
manhood, the time when the actual work of life must be done on the
Level, by the Plumb and Square. Next to the Square and Compasses,
the Level and Plumb are among the noblest and simplest symbols of
the Craft, and their meaning is so plain that it hardly needs to be
pointed out. Yet they are so important, in use and meaning, that
they might almost be numbered among the Lesser Lights of the lodge.
The Level, so the newly made Mason is taught, is for the purpose of
proving horizontals. An English writer finds a lesson in the
structure of the Level, in the fact that we know that a surface is
level when the fluid is poised and at rest. From this use of the
Level he bids us seek to attain a peaceful, balanced poise of mind,
undisturbed by the passions which upset and sway us one way or the
other. It is a counsel of perfection, he admits, but he insists that
one of the best services of Masonry is to keep before us high
ideals, and, what is more, a constantly receding ideal, otherwise we
should tire of it.
Of course, the great meaning of the Level is that it teaches
equality, and that is a truth that needs to be carefully understood.
There is no little confusion of mind about it. Our Declaration of
American Independence tells us that all men are "created equal," but
not many have tried to think out what the words really men. With
most of us it is a vague sentiment, a glittering generality born of
the fact that all are made of the same dust, are sharers of the
common human lot, moved by the same great faith and fears, hopes and
loves- walking on the Level of time until Death, by its grim
democracy, erases all distinctions and reduces all to the same
level.
Anyone who faces the facts knows well enough that all men are not
equal, either by nature or by grace. Our humanity resembles the
surface of the natural world in its hills and valleys. Men are very
unequal in physical power, in mental ability, in moral quality. No
two men are equal; no two are alike. One man towers above his
fellows, as a mountain above the hills. Some can do what others can
never do. Some have five talents, some two, and some but one. A
genius can do with effortless ease what it is futile for others to
attempt, and a poet may be unequal to a hod carrier in strength and
sagacity. When there is inequality of gift it is idle to talk of
equality of opportunity, no matter how fine the phrase may sound. It
does not exist.
By no glib theory can humanity be reduced to a dead level. The iron
wrinkles of fact are stubborn realities. Manifestly it is better to
have it so, because it would make a dull world if all men were equal
in a literal sense. As it is, wherein one lacks another excels, and
men are drawn together by the fact that they are unequal and unlike.
the world has different tasks demanding different powers, brains to
devise, seers to see, hands to execute, prophets to lead. We need
poets to inspire, scientists to teach, pioneers to blaze the path
into new lands. No doubt this was what Goethe meant when he said
that it takes all men to make one man, and the work of each is the
glory of all.
What, then, is the equality of which the Level is the symbol?
Clearly it is not identity, or even similarity of gift and
endowment. No, it is something better; it is the equal right of each
man to the full use and development of such power as he has,
whatever it may be, unhindered by injustice or oppression. As our
Declaration of Independence puts it, every man has an equal and
inalienable right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,"
with due regard for the rights of others in the same quest. Or, as a
famous slogan summed it up: "Equal right for all; special privileges
to none!" That is to say, before the law every man has an equal
right to equal justice, as before God, in whose presence all men are
one in their littleness, each receives equally and impartially the
blessing of the Eternal Love, even as the sun shines and the rain
falls on all with equal benediction.
Albert Pike, and with him many others, have gone so far as to say
that Masonry was the first apostle of equality in the true sense.
One thing we do know: Freemasonry presided over the birth of our
Republic, and by the skill of its leaders wrote its basic truth, of
which the Level is the symbol, into the organic law of this land.
The War for Independence, and the fight for constitutional liberty,
might have had another issue but for the fact that our leaders were
held together by a mystic tie of obligation, vowed to the service of
the rights of man. Even Thomas Paine, who was not a Mason, wrote an
essay in honor of an Order which stood for government without
tyranny and religion without superstition - two principles which
belong together, like the Level and the Plumb. Thus by all that is
sacred both in our Country and our Craft, we are pledged to guard,
defend, and practice the truth taught by the Level.
But it is in the free and friendly air of a lodge of Masons, about
an altar of obligation and prayer, that the principle of equality
finds its most perfect and beautiful expression. There, upon the
Level, the symbol of equality, rich and poor, high and low, prince
and plain citizen - men of diverse creeds, parties, interests, and
occupations - meet in mutual respect and real regard, forgetting all
differences of rank and station, and united for the highest good of
all. "We meet upon the Level and part upon the Square"; titles,
ranks, riches, do not pass the Inner Guard; and the humblest brother
is held in sacred regard equally with the brother who has attained
the highest round of the wheel of fortune.
Every man in the lodge is equally concerned in the building of the
Temple, and each has his work to do. Because the task demands
different gifts and powers, all are equally necessary to the work,
the architect who draws the plans, the Apprentice who carries stones
or shapes them with chisel and gavel, the Fellowcraft who polishes
and deposits them in the wall, and the officers who marshal the
workmen, quide their labor, and pay their wages. Every one is equal
to every other so long as he does good work, true work, square work.
None but is necessary to the erection of the edifice; none but
receive the honor of the Craft; and all together know the joy of
seeing the Temple slowly rising in the midst of their labors. Thus
Masonry lifts men to a high level, making each a fellow-worker in a
great enterprise, and if it is the best brotherhood it is because it
is a brotherhood of the best.
The Plumb is a symbol so simple that it needs no exposition. As the
Level teaches unity in diversity and equality in difference, so the
Plumb is a symbol of rectitude of conduct, integrity of life, and
that uprightness of moral character which makes a good and just man.
In the art of building accuracy is integrity, and if a wall be not
exactly perpendicular, as tested by the Plumb-line, it is weak and
may fall, or else endanger the strength and stability of the whole.
Just so, though we meet upon a Level, we must each build an upright
character, by the test of the Plumb, or we weaken the Fraternity we
seek to serve and imperil its strength and standing in the
community.
As a workman dare not deviate by the breadth of a hair to the right
or to the left if his wall is to be strong and his arch stable, so
Masons must walk erect and live upright lives. What is meant by an
upright life each of us knows, but it has never been better
described than in the 15th Psalm, which may be called the religion
of a gentleman and the design upon the Trestleboard of every Mason:
"Lord, who shall abide in they tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in they holy hill? He that
walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness,
and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that
backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil
to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach
against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile
person is condemned; but he honoreth them that
fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own
hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not
out his money to usury, nor taketh reward
against the innocent. He that doeth these
things shall never be moved."
What is true of a man is equally true of a nation. The strength of a
nation is its integrity, and no nation is stronger than the moral
quality of the men who are its citizens. Always it comes back at
last to the individual, who is a living stone in the wall of society
and the state, making it strong or weak. by every act of injustice,
by every lack of integrity, we weaken society and imperil the
security and sanctity of the common life. By every noble act we make
all sacred things more sacred and secure for ourselves and for those
who come after us. The prophet Amos has a thrilling passage in which
he lets us see how God tested the people which were of old by the
Plumb-line; and by the same test we are tried:
"Thus He showed me: and, behold the Lord
stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a
plumb-line in His hand. And the Lord said unto
me, 'Amos, what seest thou? ' And I said, 'A
plumb-line.' Then said the Lord, 'Behold, I
will set a plumb-line in the midst of my
people of Israel: I will not again pass them
by any more."
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