ng its purely operative period the ritual of Masonry
was naturally less formal and ornate than it afterwards became, from
the fact that its very life was a kind of ritual and its symbols were
always visibly present in its labor. By the same token, as it ceased
to be purely operative, and others not actually architects were
admitted to its fellowship, of necessity its rites became more
formal--"_very formall_," as Dugdale said in 1686,[93]--portraying in
ceremony what had long been present in its symbolism and practice.

Second, that with the decline of the old religious art of
building--for such it was in very truth--some of its symbolism lost
its luster, its form surviving but its meaning obscured, if not
entirely faded. Who knows, for example--even with the Klein essay on
_The Great Symbol_[94] in hand--what Pythagoras meant by his lesser
and greater Tetractys? That they were more than mathematical theorems
is plain, yet even Plutarch missed their meaning. In the same way,
some of the emblems in our Lodges are veiled, or else wear meanings
invented after the fact, in lieu of deeper meanings hidden, or but
dimly discerned. Albeit, the great emblems still speak in truths
simple and eloquent, and remain to refine, instruct, and exalt.

Third, that when Masonry finally became a purely speculative or
symbolical fraternity, no longer an order of practical builders, its
ceremonial inevitably became more elaborate and imposing--its old
habit and custom, as well as its symbols and teachings, being
enshrined in its ritual. More than this, knowing how "Time the white
god makes all things holy, and what is old becomes religion," it is
no wonder that its tradition became every year more authoritative; so
that the tendency was not, as many have imagined, to add to its
teaching, but to preserve and develop its rich deposit of symbolism,
and to avoid any break with what had come down from the past.

Keeping in mind this order of evolution in the history of Masonry, we
may now state the facts, so far as they are known, as to its early
degrees; dividing it into two periods, the Operative and the
Speculative.[95] An Apprentice in the olden days was "entered" as a
novice of the craft, first, as a purely business proceeding, not
unlike our modern indentures, or articles. Then, or shortly
afterwards--probably at the annual Assembly--there was a ceremony of
initiation making him a Mason--including an oath, the recital of the
craft legend