They
have a double aspect: first, the building of a spiritual man upon
immutable moral foundations; and second, the great and simple
religious faith in the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man, and
the Life Eternal, taught by Masonry from its earliest history to this
good day. Morality and theistic religion--upon these two rocks
Masonry has always stood, and they are the only basis upon which man
may ever hope to rear the spiritual edifice of his life, even to the
capstone thereof.

II

Imagine, now, a band of these builders, bound together by solemn vows
and mutual interests, journeying over the most abominable roads toward
the site selected for an abbey or cathedral. Traveling was attended
with many dangers, and the company was therefore always well armed,
the disturbed state of the country rendering such a precaution
necessary. Tools and provisions belonging to the party were carried on
pack-horses or mules, placed in the center of the convoy, in charge of
keepers. The company consisted of a Master Mason directing the work,
Fellows of the craft, and Apprentices serving their time. Besides
these we find subordinate laborers, not of the Lodge though in it,
termed layers, setters, tilers, and so forth. Masters and Fellows wore
a distinctive costume, which remained almost unchanged in its fashion
for no less than three centuries.[86] Withal, it was a serious
company, but in nowise solemn, and the tedium of the journey was no
doubt beguiled by song, story, and the humor incident to travel.

"Wherever they came," writes Mr. Hope in his _Essay on Architecture_,
"in the suite of missionaries, or were called by the natives, or
arrived of their own accord, to seek employment, they appeared headed
by a chief surveyor, who governed the whole troop, and named one man
out of every ten, under the name of warden, to overlook the other
nine, set themselves to building temporary huts for their habitation
around the spot where the work was to be carried on, regularly
organized their different departments, fell to work, sent for fresh
supplies of their brethren as the object demanded, and, when all was
finished, again they raised their encampment, and went elsewhere to
undertake other work."

Here we have a glimpse of the methods of the Free-masons, of their
organization, almost military in its order and dispatch, and of their
migratory life; although they had a more settled life than this
ungainly sentence allows, for long