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  A new member, once the lodge has approved his petition, makes his way into that world gradually, not all at once spectacularly or dramatically, but in three steps, each of which is sufficient to occupy his mind, usually for from two to four weeks. These steps are called degrees. A degree is an organization of ceremonies and rites, each of which is relatively independent of the others; and no man can become a member of the lodge until he has passed through the three of them. Masons themselves look upon these degrees with a certain solemn reverence; they have an inalienable dignity; and if in some one lodge anything were done to embarrass a candidate, the lodge would be in danger of having its charter removed. There is nothing whatever in them that is similar to a college hazing; still less are they similar to ordeals with which primitive folk still initiate their youth into tribal secrets.

  The three degrees of Ancient Craft Freemasonry, composed as they are of ceremonies and rites, are, when taken together, that which Freemasons mean by their ritual. This ritual is almost wonderful beyond words; only a Homer or a Shakespeare could do it justice. A man who studies it until he has learned it "by heart" has a treasure for himself which literally is beyond price. More than one man has risen to eminence in American public life because he learned the art of public address through years of practice in it, or has become a great orator because the ritual taught him a golden vocabulary and initiated him into the secrets of language. If the ritual is taken solely as literature, then it stands on a par with such masterpieces Homer's Iliad, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Shakespeare's plays. If it is studied from its aspect as something for the mind to think through, it ranks with the philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle. If any non-Mason, greatly daring, decides to petition for membership in the Mas onic Fraternity he is not to expect a hazing, or any highjinks; he is to take off his shoes, he is to bow his head, and, as the Prophet Samuel said, to stand upon his feet and be a man. No Freemason now, or at any time during the past thousand years, has ever apologized in advance to any petitioner for what he will find.

  What such a petitioner will find, among other things, will be references, uttered with awe, to the G.A.O.T.U.. This is not a Gypsy charm, nor a cabbalistic anagram. The letters stand for the name Great Architect of the Universe. This name itself is one used by Freemasons with all humility for the Being who is throughout the world called by the name of God. God stands in the midst of Freemasonry; therefore a petitioner need not fear lest, upon entering it, his spirit will ever be treated with indignity or assaulted by impiety.

  No non-Mason who may chance to knock at the door of a lodge can have his petition received, still less voted on, unless he has first proved himself to possess certain qualifications. All the mystification which have been woven about the subject can be dispelled at a stroke, by asking a single question, which also is a simple one: Qualified for what? It is obvious that Shakespeare was qualified to write the greatest plays ever penned; but he may not have been qualified for membership in the iron monger's gild. Albert Einstein was qualified to discover the theory of relativity, but possibly was not qualified for work in a factory. A lad who is qualified to enter a liberal arts college, may not be qualified for a school in medicine or in law.

  Qualified for what? Freemasonry's own answer to that question is, qualified to be a Mason, qualified to be the member of a lodge, and to perform his duties therein. Among the forty-nine Grand Lodges in the United States there is a certain amount of variation in their formulations of the qualifications required; but the differences are nearly always in phraseology, not in substance. A petitioner must be of lawful age; he must be morally responsible for his own actions; ethically, he must be "under the tongue of good report;" he must come of his own free will and accord; physically he must at least be able to perform the Masonic duties which will be required of him, and have sufficient monetary means to pay his share of expenses; and he must be personally acceptable to the men already in the lodge's membership, because he must be agreeable to them since from then on he will be bound to each of them by the Mystic Tie.

  A non-Mason cannot DEMAND membership but must humbly seek it. In the language of the lodge he is called a petitioner and the form which he signs is called a petition. Even if a lodge is willing to receive his petition, his status remains unchanged until the petition has been balloted on. The petition itself, along with whatever information may accompany it, must show that the petitioner possesses the required qualifications. This is a fact of the first importance because it means that a man cannot even begin to apply for admittance into the Masonic Fraternity unless he already possesses the reputation for possessing a sound character. Freemasonry is not a reformatory. Its purpose is not to turn bad men into good men, but to make good men better. Also, it tries to make them happier, and does so by surrounding them with friends and fellows, and by opening up vistas and opportunities for many things both fine and great.

  Once a man is admitted into a lodge he is not permitted to run loose in it. Freemasonry is a CONSTITUTED fraternity. Above and behind it are the Ancient Landmarks, which neither a lodge nor a Grand Lodge can alter or ignore. A Grand Lodge itself has its own constitution. A lodge has its own installed officers, fixed orders of procedure, and tolerates no violation of peace and harmony. Nothing ever is altered to to suit the position, fame, fortune, or personal predilections of a petitioner; he must accept Freemasonry as it is, or let it alone. A lodge itself cannot come into existence unless the Masons who will compose it pledge themselves to abide by the Ancient Landmarks, the constitutions, and the general laws; it cannot decide for itself what Freemasonry is or is not, and could never do so even though its members might vote unanimously to make the attempt. It is as if Freemasonry were to say: "I am what I am. My members must accept me as I am or not at all. It would be better for me not to exist than for the members here, there, and everywhere to keep altering me to correspond with their own schemes, theories, or whims."

  As a result of that which Masons know as "the principle of universality" ("a lodge is permitted to exist wherever it CAN") lodges are at work in remote countries. How can this be? A Korean cannot converse with an Englishman, nor could a man of Burma understand the language of a man of Michigan. From one of these countries to another there also is an unlimited variety of costumes, customs, traditions, ways of thought, and ways of life. How can lodges which must remain alike take root in the midst of such unlike conditions? What is Freemasonry translatable?

  There are two large answers. One is that it consists in essence of a number of fundamentals which all mankind need, know, and understand, such as brotherliness, charity, good will, fellowship, friendship, character, and the search for the Divine.

  The other is that it uses rites, symbols, and emblems. A symbol says much without saying anything, and what it says may call for thought or for exposition but does not need to be translated. The level, the square and compasses, lights, the plumb, all such are immediately understood by any normal man anywhere. Gestures, symbols, postures, emblems, signs, it would be incorrect to describe such things as a language; if they were, they would constitute as nearly a universal language as language is capable of. (To this day, white men as well as Indians can make their way across this continent from one American Indian people to another by means of sign language.)

  Some years ago, Douglas Malloch, a beloved Masonic poet, began one of his lyrics with two stanzas which ever since have thrilled the blood of Freemasons.

      Fine men have walked this way before
      Whatever Lodge your Lodge may be,
      Whoever stands before the door,
      The sacred arch of Masonry,
      Stands where the wise, the great, the good
      In their own time and place have stood.

      You are not Brother just with these,
      Your friends and neighbors; you are kin
      With Masons down the centuries;
      This room that now you enter in
      Has felt the tread of many feet,

      For here all Masonry you meet.

  For many generations Freemasonry has numbered among its members an accounted number of "the wise, the great, the good," and if the Fraternity has often celebrated the famous men who have been Masons it is not because it has ever been self-conceited.

  Emperors, kings, presidents, and princes have been, in the quaint language of a very old writer, "of this sodality." Frederick the Great, Garibaldi, Mazzini, Napoleon, and a number of American Presidents have been Masons, and two of the latter have been Grand Masters. George Washington was Master of his lodge at Alexandria when he was inaugurated first President in 1789. Great composers have been active members, as represented by Purcell, Mozart, Samuel Wesley, Sibelius. Books have been written to list them. They have come from all possible walks of life, statesmen, scientists, theologians, scholars, authors, poets, actors, financiers, industrialists, artists, farmers, and men of the sea. Even Artic and Antartic explorers have been drawn to it, and there is nothing to wonder at the fact that a Masonic flag was dropped on each of the Poles by the first men to fly across them in an airplane. Nor does any Mason find it a cause to wonder that Benjamin Franklin was both a Worshipful Master and a Grand Master and published the first Masonic book (1734) ever issued in America. Masons have long since ceased to feel amazed that such men should be of "their sodality"; there is no occasion to wonder because the greatest will find Freemasonry as great as will the humblest.

  The word Freemasonry has entered our language as a common noun to denote private understanding, secrecy, mystery, as in the saying that "There is a freemasonry among railway workers." (There is such a thing.) But of all the mysteries connected with that name, and to Freemasons themselves, the greatest is Freemasonry itself. It began many centuries ago. It has ridden out the storms of revolutions and uncounted wars. It has planted itself in all parts of the world. What has enabled it to do so?

  If the answer to that question should be that it has had a clearer understanding and a better practice of fraternalism than any other organization in the world, a reader must not be disappointed. Fraternalism itself is as everlasting as mankind. It ranks along with religion, government, science, business, the fine arts. To discover the heights and depths of it, its length and its breadth, and the unsearchable riches in it, is sufficient justification for any man to work in it throughout his life.