d said, Let there
be light, and there was light.'" At this instant all the brethren clap
their hands, and stamp on the floor, as in the preceding degree. The
Master says to the candidate, "Brother, what do you discover different
from before?" The Master says, after a short pause, "You now discover
one point of the Compass elevated above the Square, which denotes
light in this degree; but as one is yet in obscurity, it is to remind
you that you are yet one material point in the dark respecting
Masonry." The Master steps off from the candidate three or four steps,
and says, "Brother, you now discover me as a Master of this Lodge,
approaching you from the East, under the sign and due-guard of a
Fellow Craft Mason; do as I do, as near as you can, keeping your
position." The sign is given by drawing your right hand flat, with the
palm of it next to your breast, across your breast, from the left to
the right side, with some quickness, and dropping it down by your
side; the due-guard is given by raising the left arm until that part
of it between the elbow and shoulder is perfectly horizontal, and
raising the rest of the arm in a vertical position, so that that part
of the arm below the elbow, and that part above it, forms a square;
this is called the due-guard of a Fellow Craft Mason. The two given
together are called the sign and due-guard of a Fellow Craft Mason,
and they are never given separate; they would not be recognized by a
Mason if given separately. The Master, by the time he gives his steps,
sign, and due-guard, arrives at the candidate, and says, "Brother, I
now present you with my right hand, in token of brotherly love and
confidence, and with it the pass-grip and word of a Fellow Craft
Mason." The pass, or more properly the pass-grip, is given by taking
each other by the right hand, as though going to shake hands, and each
putting his thumb between the fore and second finger, where they join
the hands, and pressing the thumb between the joints. This is the
pass-grip of a Fellow Craft Mason; the name of it is SHIBBOLETH. Its
origin will be explained in the Lecture; the pass-grip some give
without lettering or syllabling, and others give it in the same way
they do the real grip. The real grip of a Fellow Craft Mason is given
by putting the thumb on the joint of the second finger, where it joins
the hand, and crooking your thumb so that each can stick the nail of
his thumb into the joint of the other. This is the rea