_Of the Intellectual Qualifications of Candidates._
The Old Charges and Ancient Constitutions are not as explicit in relation
to the intellectual as to the moral and physical qualifications of
candidates, and, therefore, in coming to a decision on this subject, we
are compelled to draw our conclusions from analogy, from common sense, and
from the peculiar character of the institution. The question that here
suggests itself on this subject is, what particular amount of human
learning is required as a constitutional qualification for initiation?
During a careful examination of every ancient document to which I have had
access, I have met with no positive enactment forbidding the admission of
uneducated persons, even of those who can neither read nor write. The
unwritten, as well as the written laws of the Order, require that the
candidate shall be neither a _fool_ nor an _idiot_, but that he shall
possess a discreet judgment, and be in the enjoyment of all the senses of
a man. But one who is unable to subscribe his name, or to read it when
written, might still very easily prove himself to be within the
requirements of this regulation. The Constitutions of England, formed
since the union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813, are certainly explicit
enough on this subject. They require even more than a bare knowledge of
reading and writing, for, in describing the qualifications of a candidate,
they say:
"He should be a lover of the liberal arts and sciences, and have made some
progress in one or other of them; and he must, previous to his initiation,
subscribe his name at full length, to a declaration of the following
import," etc. And in a note to this regulation, it is said, "Any
individual who cannot write is, consequently, ineligible to be admitted
into the Order." If this authority were universal in its character, there
would be no necessity for a further discussion of the subject. But the
modern constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England are only of force
within its own jurisdiction, and we are therefore again compelled to
resort to a mode of reasoning for the proper deduction of our conclusions
on this subject.
It is undoubtedly true that in the early period of the world, when
Freemasonry took its origin, the arts of reading and writing were not so
generally disseminated among all classes of the community as they now are,
when the blessings of a common education can be readily and cheaply
obtained. And it may, therefore, be supposed that among our ancient
Brethren there were many who could neither read nor write. But after all,
this is a mere assumption, which, although it may be based on probability,
has no direct evidence for its support. And, on the other hand, we see
throughout all our ancient regulations, that a marked distinction was made
by our rulers between the Freemason and the Mason who was not free; as,
for instance, in the conclusion of the fifth chapter of the Ancient
Charges, where it is said: "No laborer shall be employed in the common
work of Masonry, nor shall Freemasons work with those who are not free,
without an urgent necessity." And this would seem to indicate a higher
estimation by the fraternity of their own character, which might be
derived from their greater attainments in knowledge. That in those days
the ordinary operative masons could neither read nor write, is a fact
established by history. But it does not follow that the Freemasons, who
were a separate society of craftsmen, were in the same unhappy category;
it is even probable, that the fact that they were not so, but that they
were, in comparison with the unaccepted masons, educated men, may have
been the reason of the distinction made between these two classes of
workmen.
But further, all the teachings of Freemasonry are delivered on the
assumption that the recipients are men of some education, with the means
of improving their minds and increasing their knowledge. Even the Entered
Apprentice is reminded, by the rough and perfect ashlars, of the
importance and necessity of a virtuous education, in fitting him for the
discharge of his duties. To the Fellow Craft, the study of the liberal
arts and sciences is earnestly recommended; and indeed, that sacred
hieroglyphic, the knowledge of whose occult signification constitutes the
most solemn part of his instruction, presupposes an acquaintance at least
with the art of reading. And the Master Mason is expressly told in the
explanation of the forty-seventh problem of Euclid, as one of the symbols
of the third degree, that it was introduced into Masonry to teach the
Brethren the value of the arts and sciences, and that the Mason, like the
discoverer of the problem, our ancient Brother Pythagoras, should be a
diligent cultivator of learning. Our lectures, too, abound in allusions
which none but a person of some cultivation of mind could understand or
appreciate, and to address them, or any portion of our charges which refer
to the improvement of the intellect and the augmentation of knowledge, to
persons who can neither read nor write, would be, it seems to us, a
mockery unworthy of the sacred character of our institution.
From these facts and this method of reasoning, I deduce the conclusion
that the framers of Masonry, in its present organization as a speculative
institution, must have intended to admit none into its fraternity whose
minds had not received some preliminary cultivation, and I am, therefore,
clearly of opinion, that a person who cannot read and write is not legally
qualified for admission.
As to the inexpediency of receiving such candidates, there can be no
question or doubt. If Masonry be, as its disciples claim for it, a
scientific institution, whose great object is to improve the understanding
and to enlarge and adorn the mind, whose character cannot be appreciated,
and whose lessons of symbolic wisdom cannot be acquired, without much
studious application, how preposterous would it be to place, among its
disciples, one who had lived to adult years, without having known the
necessity or felt the ambition for a knowledge of the alphabet of his
mother tongue? Such a man could make no advancement in the art of Masonry;
and while he would confer no substantial advantage on the institution, he
would, by his manifest incapacity and ignorance, detract, in the eyes of
strangers, from its honor and dignity as an intellectual society.
Idiots and madmen are excluded from admission into the Order, for the
evident reason that the former from an absence, and the latter from a
perversion of the intellectual faculties, are incapable of comprehending
the objects, or of assuming the responsibilities and obligations of the
institution.
A question here suggests itself whether a person of present sound mind,
but who had formerly been deranged, can legally be initiated. The answer
to this question turns on the fact of his having perfectly recovered. If
the present sanity of the applicant is merely a lucid interval, which
physicians know to be sometimes vouched to lunatics, with the absolute
certainty, or at best, the strong probability, of an eventual return to a
state of mental derangement, he is not, of course, qualified for
initiation. But if there has been a real and durable recovery (of which a
physician will be a competent judge), then there can be no possible
objection to his admission, if otherwise eligible. We are not to look to
what the candidate once was, but to what he now is.
Dotage, or the mental imbecility produced by excessive old age, is also a
disqualification for admission. Distinguished as it is by puerile desires
and pursuits, by a failure of the memory, a deficiency of the judgment,
and a general obliteration of the mental powers, its external signs are
easily appreciated, and furnish at once abundant reason why, like idiots
and madmen, the superannuated dotard is unfit to be the recipient of our
mystic instructions.