_Of the Physical Qualifications of Candidates._
The physical qualifications of a candidate refer to his sex, his age, and
the condition of his limbs.
The first and most important requisite of a candidate is, that he shall be
"_a man_." No woman can be made a Mason. This landmark is so indisputable,
that it would be wholly superfluous to adduce any arguments or authority
in its support.
As to age, the old charges prescribe the rule, that the candidate must be
"of mature and discreet age." But what is the precise period when one is
supposed to have arrived at this maturity and discretion, cannot be
inferred from any uniform practice of the craft in different countries.
The provisions of the civil law, which make twenty-one the age of
maturity, have, however, been generally followed. In this country the
regulation is general, that the candidate must be twenty-one years of age.
Such, too, was the regulation adopted by the General Assembly, which met
on the 27th Dec., 1663, and which prescribed that "no person shall be
accepted unless he be twenty-one years old or more."[55] In Prussia, the
candidate is required to be twenty-five; in England, twenty-one,[56]
"unless by dispensation from the Grand Master, or Provincial Grand
Master;" in Ireland, twenty-one, except "by dispensation from the Grand
Master, or the Grand Lodge;" in France, twenty-one, unless the candidate
be the son of a Mason who has rendered important service to the craft,
with the consent of his parent or guardian, or a young man who has served
six months with his corps in the army--such persons may be initiated at
eighteen; in Switzerland, the age of qualification is fixed at twenty-one,
and in Frankfort-on-Mayn, at twenty. In this country, as I have already
observed, the regulation of 1663 is rigidly enforced, and no candidate,
who has not arrived at the age of twenty-one, can be initiated.
Our ritual excludes "an old man in his dotage" equally with a "young man
under age." But as dotage signifies imbecility of mind, this subject will
be more properly considered under the head of intellectual qualifications.
The physical qualifications, which refer to the condition of the
candidate's body and limbs, have given rise, within a few years past, to
a great amount of discussion and much variety of opinion. The regulation
contained in the old charges of 1721, which requires the candidate to be
"a perfect youth," has in some jurisdictions been rigidly enforced to the
very letter of the law, while in others it has been so completely
explained away as to mean anything or nothing. Thus, in South Carolina,
where the rule is rigid, the candidate is required to be neither deformed
nor dismembered, but of hale and entire limbs, as a man ought to be, while
in Maine, a deformed person may be admitted, provided "the deformity is
not such as to prevent him from being instructed in the arts and mysteries
of Freemasonry."
The first written law which we find on this subject is that which was
enacted by the General Assembly held in 1663, under the Grand Mastership
of the Earl of St. Albans, and which declares "that no person shall
hereafter be accepted a Freemason but such as are of _able_ body."[57]
Twenty years after, in the reign of James II., or about the year 1683, it
seems to have been found necessary, more exactly to define the meaning of
this expression, "of able body," and accordingly we find, among the
charges ordered to be read to a Master on his installation, the following
regulation:
"Thirdly, that he that be made be able in all degrees; that is, free-born,
of a good kindred, true, and no bondsman, and that _he have his right
limbs as a man ought to have."_[58]
The old charges, published in the original Book of Constitutions in 1723,
contain the following regulation:
"No Master should take an Apprentice, unless he be a perfect youth having
no maim or defect that may render him uncapable of learning the art."
Notwithstanding the positive demand for _perfection_, and the positive and
explicit declaration that he must have _no maim or defect_, the remainder
of the sentence has, within a few years past, by some Grand Lodges, been
considered as a qualifying clause, which would permit the admission of
candidates whose physical defects did not exceed a particular point. But,
in perfection, there can be no degrees of comparison, and he who is
required to be perfect, is required to be so without modification or
diminution. That which is _perfect_ is complete in all its parts, and, by
a deficiency in any portion of its constituent materials, it becomes not
less perfect, (which expression would be a solecism in grammar,) but at
once by the deficiency ceases to be perfect at all--it then becomes
imperfect. In the interpretation of a law, "words," says Blackstone, "are
generally to be understood in their usual and most known signification,"
and then "perfect" would mean, "complete, entire, neither defective nor
redundant." But another source of interpretation is, the "comparison of a
law with other laws, that are made by the same legislator, that have some
affinity with the subject, or that expressly relate to the same
point."[59] Applying this law of the jurists, we shall have no difficulty
in arriving at the true signification of the word "perfect," if we refer
to the regulation of 1683, of which the clause in question appears to have
been an exposition. Now, the regulation of 1683 says, in explicit terms,
that the candidate must "_have his right limbs as a man ought to have_."
Comparing the one law with the other, there can be no doubt that the
requisition of Masonry is and always has been, that admission could only
be granted to him who was neither deformed nor dismembered, but of hale
and entire limbs as a man should be.
But another, and, as Blackstone terms it, "the most universal and
effectual way of discovering the true meaning of a law" is, to consider
"the reason and spirit of it, or the cause which moved the legislator to
enact it." Now, we must look for the origin of the law requiring physical
perfection, not to the formerly operative character of the institution,
(for there never was a time when it was not speculative as well as
operative,) but to its symbolic nature. In the ancient temple, every stone
was required to be _perfect_, for a perfect stone was the symbol of truth.
In our mystic association, every Mason represents a stone in that
spiritual temple, "that house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens," of which the temple of Solomon was the type. Hence it is
required that he should present himself, like the perfect stone in the
material temple, a perfect man in the spiritual building. "The symbolic
relation of each member of the Order to its mystic temple, forbids the
idea," says Bro. W.S. Rockwell, of Georgia,[60] "that its constituent
portions, its living stones, should be less perfect or less a type of
their great original, than the immaculate material which formed the
earthly dwelling place of the God of their adoration." If, then, as I
presume it will be readily conceded, by all except those who erroneously
suppose the institution to have been once wholly operative and afterwards
wholly speculative, perfection is required in a candidate, not for the
physical reason that he may be enabled to give the necessary signs of
recognition, but because the defect would destroy the symbolism of that
perfect stone which every Mason is supposed to represent in the spiritual
temple, we thus arrive at a knowledge of the causes which moved the
legislators of Masonry to enact the law, and we see at once, and without
doubt, that the words _perfect youth_ are to be taken in an unqualified
sense, as signifying one who has "his right limbs as a man ought to
have."[61]
It is, however, but fair to state that the remaining clause of the old
charge, which asserts that the candidate must have no maim or defect that
may render him incapable of learning the art, has been supposed to intend
a modification of the word "perfect," and to permit the admission of one
whose maim or defect was not of such a nature as to prevent his learning
the art of Masonry. But I would respectfully suggest that a criticism of
this kind is based upon a mistaken view of the import of the words. The
sentence is not that the candidate must have no such maim or defect as
might, by possibility, prevent him from learning the art; though this is
the interpretation given by those who are in favor of admitting slightly
maimed candidates. It is, on the contrary, so worded as to give a
consequential meaning to the word "_that_." He must have no maim or defect
_that_ may render him incapable; that is, _because_, by having such maim
or defect, he would be rendered incapable of acquiring our art.
In the Ahiman Rezon published by Laurence Dermott in 1764, and adopted for
the government of the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons in England, and
many of the Provincial Grand and subordinate lodges of America, the
regulation is laid down that candidates must be "men of good report,
free-born, of mature age, not deformed nor dismembered at the time of
their making, and no woman or eunuch." It is true that at the present day
this book possesses no legal authority among the craft; but I quote it, to
show what was the interpretation given to the ancient law by a large
portion, perhaps a majority, of the English and American Masons in the
middle of the eighteenth century.
A similar interpretation seems at all times to have been given by the
Grand Lodges of the United States, with the exception of some, who, within
a few years past, have begun to adopt a more latitudinarian construction.
In Pennsylvania it was declared, in 1783, that candidates are not to be
"deformed or dismembered at the time of their making."
In South Carolina the book of Constitutions, first published in 1807,
requires that "every person desiring admission must be upright in body,
not deformed or dismembered at the time of making, but of hale and entire
limbs, as a man ought to be."
In the "Ahiman Rezon and Masonic Ritual," published by order of the Grand
Lodge of North Carolina and Tennessee, in the year 1805, candidates are
required to be "hale and sound, not deformed or dismembered at the time of
their making."[62]
Maryland, in 1826, sanctioned the Ahiman Rezon of Cole, which declares
the law in precisely the words of South Carolina, already quoted.
In 1823, the Grand Lodge of Missouri unanimously adopted a report, which
declared that all were to be refused admission who were not "sound in mind
and _all their members_," and she adopted a resolution asserting that "the
Grand Lodge cannot grant a letter or dispensation to a subordinate lodge
working under its jurisdiction, to initiate any person maimed, disabled,
or wanting the qualifications establishing by ancient usage."[63]
But it is unnecessary to multiply instances. There never seems to have
been any deviation from the principle that required absolute physical
perfection, until, within a few years, the spirit of expediency[64] has
induced some Grand Lodges to propose a modified construction of the law,
and to admit those whose maims or deformities were not such as to prevent
them from complying with the ceremonial of initiation. Still, a large
number of the Grand Lodges have stood fast by the ancient landmark, and it
is yet to be hoped that all will return to their first allegiance. The
subject is an important one, and, therefore, a few of the more recent
authorities, in behalf of the old law may with advantage be cited.
"We have examined carefully the arguments 'pro and con,' that have
accompanied the proceedings of the several Grand Lodges, submitted to us,
and the conviction has been forced upon our minds, even against our wills,
that we depart from the ancient landmarks and usages of Masonry, whenever
we admit an individual wanting in one of the human senses, or who is in
any particular maimed or deformed."--_Committee of Correspondence G. Lodge
of Georgia_, 1848, _page_ 36.
"The rationale of the law, excluding persons physically imperfect and
deformed, lies deeper and is more ancient than the source ascribed to
it.[65] It is grounded on a principle recognized in the earliest ages of
the world; and will be found identical with that which obtained among the
ancient Jews. In this respect the Levitical law was the same as the
masonic, which would not allow any 'to go in unto the vail' who had a
blemish--a blind man, or a lame, or a man that was broken-footed, or
broken-handed, or a dwarf, &c....
"The learned and studious Freemasonic antiquary can satisfactorily explain
the metaphysics of this requisition in our Book of Constitutions. For the
true and faithful Brother it sufficeth to know that such a requisition
exists. He will prize it the more because of its antiquity.... No man can
in perfection be 'made a Brother,' no man can truly 'learn our mysteries,'
and practice them, or 'do the work of a Freemason,' if he is not a _man_
with body free from maim, defect and deformity."--_Report of a Special
Committee of the Grand Lodge of New York, in_ 1848.[66]
"The records of this Grand Lodge may be confidently appealed to, for
proofs of her repeated refusal to permit maimed persons to be initiated,
and not simply on the ground that ancient usage forbids it, but because
the fundamental constitution of the Order--the ancient charges--forbid
it."--_Committee of Correspondence of New York, for 1848, p. 70._
"The lodges subordinate to this Grand Lodge are hereby required, in the
initiation of applicants for Masonry, to adhere to the ancient law (as
laid down in our printed books), which says he shall be of _entire
limbs_"--_Resolution of the G.L. of Maryland, November, 1848._
"I received from the lodge at Ashley a petition to initiate into our Order
a gentleman of high respectability, who, unfortunately, has been maimed. I
refused my assent.... I have also refused a similar request from the lodge
of which I am a member. The fact that the most distinguished masonic body
on earth has recently removed one of the landmarks, should teach _us_ to
be careful how we touch those ancient boundaries."--_Address of the Grand
Master of New Jersey in 1849._
"The Grand Lodge of Florida adopted such a provision in her constitution,
[the qualifying clause permitting the initiation of a maimed person, if
his deformity was not such as to prevent his instruction], but more
mature reflection, and more light reflected from our sister Grand Lodges,
caused it to be stricken from our constitution."--_Address of Gov. Tho.
Brown, Grand Master of Florida in_ 1849.
"As to the physical qualifications, the Ahiman Rezon leaves no doubt on
the subject, but expressly declares, that every applicant for initiation
must be a man, free-born, of lawful age, in the perfect enjoyment of his
senses, hale, and sound, and not deformed or dismembered; this is one of
the ancient landmarks of the Order, which it is in the power of no body of
men to change. A man having but one arm, or one leg, or who is in anyway
deprived of his due proportion of limbs and members, is as incapable of
initiation as a woman."--_Encyclical Letter of the Grand Lodge of South
Carolina to its subordinates in_ 1849.
Impressed, then, by the weight of these authorities, which it would be
easy, but is unnecessary, to multiply--guided by a reference to the
symbolic and speculative (not operative) reason of the law--and governed
by the express words of the regulation of 1683--I am constrained to
believe that the spirit as well as the letter of our ancient landmarks
require that a candidate for admission should be perfect in all his
parts, that is, neither redundant nor deficient, neither deformed nor
dismembered, but of hale and entire limbs, as a man ought to be.