the same time, the lodge may not only refuse, but is bound to do so,
unless under a dispensation, which dispensation can only be given in the
case of an over-populous lodge.

With these restrictions and qualifications, it cannot be doubted that
every Master Mason has a right to demit from his lodge at his own
pleasure. What will be the result upon himself, in his future relations to
the Order, of such demission, will constitute the subject of the
succeeding chapter.

Chapter VIII.

Of Unaffiliated Masons.

An unaffiliated Mason is one who is not connected by membership with any
lodge. There can be no doubt that such a position is contrary to the
spirit of our institution, and that affiliation is a duty obligatory on
every Mason. The Old Charges, which have been so often cited as the
fundamental law of Masonry, say on this subject: "every Brother ought to
belong to a lodge and to be subject to its bye-laws and the General
Regulations."

Explicitly as this doctrine has been announced, it has been too little
observed, in consequence of no precise penalty having been annexed to its
violation. In all times, unaffiliated Masons have existed--Masons who have
withdrawn from all active participation in the duties and responsibilities
of the Order, and who, when in the hour of danger or distress, have not
hesitated to claim its protection or assistance, while they have refused
in the day of their prosperity to add anything to its wealth, its power,
or its influence. In this country, the anti-masonic persecutions of 1828,
and a few years subsequently, by causing the cessation of many lodges,
threw a vast number of Brethren out of all direct connection with the
institution; on the restoration of peace, and the renewal of labor by the
lodges, too many of these Brethren neglected to reunite themselves with
the craft, and thus remained unaffiliated. The habit, thus introduced, was
followed by others, until the sin of unaffiliation has at length arrived
at such a point of excess, as to have become a serious evil, and to have
attracted the attention and received the condemnation of almost every
Grand Lodge.

A few Grand Lodges have denied the right of a Mason permanently to demit
from the Order. Texas, for instance, has declared that "it does not
recognize the right of a Mason to demit or separate himself from the lodge
in which he was made, or may afterwards be admitted, except for the
purpose of joining another lodg