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The progress made by the candidate from the First Degree to the Second, and from the Second to the Third, is, as a whole, called in the nomenclature of the Craft "advancement;" the particular step by which a candidate is advanced from the First Degree to the Second is called "passing." This act of passing is itself a symbol, and represents that law in human nature by virtue of which no man can advance to the highest until he has passed through the lower; cannot learn the more difficult tasks until he has mastered the easier. The Masonic life is like Solomon's Temple, into which a man could make his way only after he had passed through an outer court and an inner, and across a porch, only those in every way prepared being permitted access to its inner chambers. A man may in outward form and in name "take" as many Degrees as he pleases, and remain all the while a profane (outside) in his heart; except he does Masonic work on his inner nature, translating Masonry out of the terms of theory into the terms of life, be Masonry as well as profess it, he will never in reality pass out of the First Degree, never in reality will possess the "password" of Fellow Craft at all, will remain an Apprentice all his days.

The same idea is differently set forth in that particular symbolism know as "an oblong square." How can a "square" be "oblong?" In an older day it was the custom to call any rectangle having four right sides a square; if two parallel sides were longer than the other opposite pair it was an "oblong square," if all its sides as well as all of its angles were equal it was called a "perfect square." This usage is preserved in the Ritual. The oblong square belongs to the Second Degree; the perfect square to make the Third. The meaning is plain. As he makes progress from the beginning toward the end a candidate is expected to more toward perfection. But perfectionY Can any man attain perfection? Yes, many do, unless the word is given an absurd and impossible meaning. "Perfect" means "complete," nothing omitted, nothing lacking. Any candidate may become a complete Mason--and shouldY

By virtue of this "passing" from one Degree to another, of this movement from the misshapen four-sided figure of the Apprentice to the oblong square of the Fellow Craft, and from that to the perfect square of the Master Mason, Freemasonry is said to be a "progressive science," that is, a Mason does not become a complete Mason all at once, but must first make a beginning, and then, after a toilsome journey up one step after another, must press on toward the goal. There is a beginning; it is represented by the petition; there is a goal: It is represented by the raising; progress is from the one to the other. This is said to be a "progressive science." The original meaning of "science" was "knowledge," and that is what is here meant; a candidate's progress keeps step with the increase of his knowledge in Masonry.

If a man starts out to make something of himself he will need the means to do it with, as much so as if he starts out to build a house; nobody has any Aladdin's lamp to rub with powers of immediate magic. The fact is represented in the Ritual by the Working Tools, in the Second Degree by the Plumb, Square and Level. By the Plumb is clearly meant the form of uprightness that is called rectitude. Rectitude itself derives from a Latin root meaning "straight, undeviating, free from error and mistakes," and is the name for such habits and principles of conduct as truthfulness, honor and honesty. The Level, as all Masons know, means to stand on a plane of equality with others, not being above them as the haughty and the snobbish try to be, or below them as the criminal is; by a happy coincidence, as we have already seen, this is also the meaning of "fellow" in the name of the Degree. The Level therefore represents that in conduct by virtue of which we are enabled to continue in harmonious relations with others: fellowship, companionship, friendship, cooperation, goodwill, mutual aid. The Square, the tool by which the Operative Mason tested his right angles, is by an equally obvious symbolism the representation of righteousness. The righteous man is he who can be depended upon always to do the right thing, more particularly in the sense that he will be faithful to his obligations and will loyally give others their due. Together the three Working Tools mean that if a candidate will faithfully strive to live in rectitude, equality, and righteousness he will succeed in fashioning himself into a man who is the master of himself and a master of the art of living with others--that is, a Master Mason.

In using the term "Working Tools," as much emphasis must be placed on "Working" as on "Tools." The task of self-transformation is not an easy one. Lusts and appetites interfere with our resolutions; passions distort our visions, the senses, as Plato long ago observed, often behaved like wild horses and must be tamed. In this respect our Ritual, using an example of a different type from Plato's, likens our human nature to an Imperfect Ashlar, which was a piece of crude stone as it came from the quarries. Just as the Operative Mason had to use his measuring rod and gavel to put it roughly in shape and then to employ his plumb, square and level to true it and to finish off its sides in order to make a Perfect Ashlar out of it, so we must work on our natures until we have fashioned them into a fit and satisfactory character. This kind of education, a kind the grown man must devote himself to, is infinitely more difficult than learning rudiments at school, but it is also infinitely more valuable.

The Middle Chamber, the outstanding symbol of the Degree, is a striking example of the freedom with which the Ritual recasts or transforms historical material to serve its own needs. When Solomon's Temple was built the walls were made very thick and hollow at the base in order to support the height of the building; tiny rooms were fashioned within these lower walls to serve as convenient closets for the priests' paraphernalia; in the Second Degree these have become transformed into an Inner Chamber in which (still symbolically) the Fellow Crafts went to receive their wages. This is the clue to the meaning of the symbolism; the Middle Chamber represents the results of that work which a man may do on himself as described in the paragraphs immediately above. For all the work he did on a building the Operative Mason earned for himself a rich reward, his wages and the satisfaction he felt in seeing the completion of a building that would stand for generations as a monument to his skill. It has been observed that the unrighteous man is a fool, for he sells his life for a mess of very poor pottage; it is only in a right life that the enduring satisfactions are to be found; those satisfactions are the wages paid in the Middle Chamber of Masonic life.

The Degree makes much of the distinction between Operative Masonry and the Speculative Masonry, and rightly so. At this juncture of symbolism it is plain that the distinction here is not merely a historical one, belaboring the point that as a matter of fact Operative Masonry preceded Speculative in time--a point with small value to the moral and spiritual life - but is a distinction that goes much deeper. The Operative Mason, after all is said and done, and after all allowance is made for his zeal in matters of the mind, of morality, and of religion, was chiefly concerned with doing work on external things, things other than and outside of himself; whereas the Speculative Mason is chiefly concerned to work on his own self, on things inside him, on his own nature. The one worked to build a building; the other works to build a man.

The historical origins of the two Great Pillars stood at either side of the entrance to Solomon's Temple, one on the right hand, the other on the left, not to support the roof, but independently, and to serve as symbols. It is believed that when a king was crowned he stood before one of them, for which reason it was called the "King's Pillar;" when a high priest was consecrated he stood before the other, or "Priest's Pillar." For this reason the two pillars represented the two foundations of a nation's life, the state and the church, government and

religion. God and the King. But while this may very well be, it is certain that as used in the Second Degree they have a profounder and more important meaning: they are the symbol of the last step taken in Passing, the step taken between the hard and honest work a man does on his own nature to shape it into the character it ought to have and the reward of that work in honor, peace of mind, power, and self-respect. It is for this reason that a candidate must pass between them on his passage toward the Middle Chamber.

If any man, Mason or outsider, is ever tempted to consider Masonry as in any sense a fanatical type of life, a one-sided exaggerated kind of thing, he need only pause to reflect upon the significance of the two Globes on top of the Pillars. Nothing in the whole system of Masonry is a clearer indication of the sane, clear, well-balanced and profound wisdom of its founders. The Celestial Globe is clearly a symbol of the life of the spirit, of the mind, the conscience, of all that which appears in religion, philosophy, ethics, science, and art; the Terrestrial Globe is as clearly the symbol of the physical, the material, the earthy. At bottom there are two kinds of fanaticism: one is an exaggerated over-emphasis on the spiritual at the expense of the physical, which results in contempt or hatred for the body and all that belongs to it; the other is the exact reverse, an over-emphasis on the physical at the expense of the spiritual, resulting in a carnal type of life that despises or belittles the thing of the soul and of the mind. One is as ignorant and debasing as the other, and one is as fatal as the other to that life of fruition in wisdom, peace, and joy which is represented by the Middle Chamber.

When worked out in practice this balance of the spiritual and physical means that as a man makes his ascent toward perfection he must climb by means of helps and values of many kinds, some material and physical, some moral and spiritual. His ascent is like a kind of winding stair, of Three, Five and Seven Steps.

In beginning his journey toward the Middle Chamber, reference is made to the structure of Masonry which is organized or divided into Three Degrees represented by the first three steps in the Winding Stair, and its system of government explained. These Three Degrees, with all of their teaching, their symbols, modes of recognition and obligations are the whole of Masonry in all of its aspects and phases. To be in such a Brotherhood, having about one all its influences, is itself a mighty assistance to a man making his life's ascent. He doesn't go alone, is not a solitary point, but is surrounded by a circle of friends and fellows.

By the Five Senses is not meant, of course, the bare fact that we are able to see, hear, touch, taste and smell (there are many other senses as a matter of fact, such as the sense of pressure, the sense by which we feel vibrations, etc.), for in themselves these are facts only and not meanings; what is intended is the right use and completest development of the senses. From birth we are able to see; What to see, how to see, how to observe accurately, what and how to hear, how to cultivate taste, etc., these are abilities that must be learned, and the learning of them belongs to wisdom. If wrongly used the senses involve us in pain, or misery, or suffering; if rightly used they bring us an abounding satisfaction. The Degree, therefore, lays its emphasis not on the use of the senses, but on the right use of them.

In the Middle Ages, the period of Operative Masonry, the seven Liberal Arts and Sciences comprised the whole curriculum of the school. They were divided into two groups, the trivium ("where three roads meet"), consisting of grammar, rhetoric and logic; and the quadrivium ("where four roads meet"), consisting of arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy. It is not to be supposed that our Degrees require of a man that he take a course in these particular studies; here again we have symbolism, not history; the point rather is that a man needs education, that Masonry belongs to the mind, that a trained intelligence is as necessary as a clear conscience--a fact already sufficiently emphasized in our opening pages.

The Letter G is another symbol to the same effect, except rather that it lays its emphasis less on the education of the mind and more on the education of the soul. To an Operative Mason geometry was the most important subject to which he could devote his mind, and that inevitably, because the whole theoretical and intellectual side of the art of building was geometry; indeed, the Gothic style was principally an embodiment of geometry--Goethe remarked of it that it was "frozen music;" it would have been truer to say, "frozen geometry." Geometry represented the means by which the builder's mind triumphed over the material difficulties of his art. Small wonder, then, that he set up its symbol, the letter "G," in the very sanctuary of his Lodge! Small wonder also that as time passed the meaning of that symbol should be enlarged, growing above geometry into a symbol of the Grand Geometrician of the Universe!