s_; the _scholars_, the _masters_, and
the _doctors_. It would have had its _trivial_ and its _quadrivial_
schools; its occupation would have been research, experiment, or
investigation; in a word, its whole features would have been colored by a
grammatical, a rhetorical, or a mathematical cast, accordingly as it
should have been derived from a sect in which any one of these three
characteristics was the predominating influence.

But in the organization of Freemasonry, as it now presents itself to us,
we see an entirely different appearance. Its degrees are expressive, not
of advancement in philosophic attainments, but of progress in a purely
mechanical pursuit. Its highest grade is that of _Master of the Work_. Its
places of meeting are not schools, but _lodges_, places where the workmen
formerly lodged, in the neighborhood of the building on whose construction
they were engaged. It does not form theories, but builds temples. It knows
nothing of the rules of the dialecticians,--of the syllogism, the dilemma,
the enthymeme, or the sorites,--but it recurs to the homely implements of
its operative parent for its methods of instruction, and with the
plumb-line it inculcates rectitude of conduct, and draws lessons of
morality from the workman's square. It sees in the Supreme God that it
worships, not a "_numen divinum_," a divine power, nor a "_moderator rerum
omnium_," a controller of all things, as the old philosophers designated
him, but a _Grand Architect of the Universe_. The masonic idea of God
refers to Him as the Mighty Builder of this terrestrial globe, and all the
countless worlds that surround it. He is not the _ens entium_, or _to
theion_, or any other of the thousand titles with which ancient and modern
speculation has invested him, but simply the Architect,--as the Greeks
have it, the [Greek: a)rcho\s], the chief workman,--under whom we are all
workmen also;[201] and hence our labor is his worship.

This idea, then, of masonic labor, is closely connected with the history
of the organization of the institution. When we say "the lodge is at
work," we recognize that it is in the legitimate practice of that
occupation for which it was originally intended. The Masons that are in it
are not occupied in thinking, or speculating, or reasoning, but simply
and emphatically in working. The duty of a Mason as such, in his lodge, is
to work. Thereby he accomplishes the destiny of his Order. Thereby he best
fulfils his obli