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PREFACE
Morals and Dogma
Albert Pike
The following work has been prepared by authority of the Supreme Council of
the Thirty-third Degree, for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, by
the Grand Commander, and is now published by its direction. It contains the
Lectures of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in that jurisdiction, and is
specially intended to be read and studied by the Brethren of that obedience, in
connection with the Rituals of the Degrees. It is hoped and expected that each
will furnish himself with a copy, and make himself familiar with it; for which
purpose, as the cost of the work consists entirely in the printing and binding,
it will be furnished at a price as moderate as possible. No individual
will receive pecuniary profit from it, except the agents for its sale.
It has been copyrighted, to prevent its republication elsewhere, and the
copyright, like those of all the other works prepared for the Supreme Council,
has been assigned to Trustees for that Body. Whatever profits may accrue from it
will be devoted to purposes of charity.
The Brethren of the Rite in the United States and Canada will be afforded the
opportunity to purchase it, nor is it forbidden that other Masons shall;
but they will not be solicited to do so.
In preparing this work, the Grand Commander has been about equally Author and
Compiler; since he has extracted quite half its contents from the works of the
best writers and most philosophic or eloquent thinkers. Perhaps it would have
been better and more acceptable if he had extracted more and written less.
Still, perhaps half of it is his own; and, in incorporating here
the thoughts and words of others, he has continually changed and added to the
language, often intermingling, in the same sentences, his own words with theirs.
It not being intended for the world at large, he has felt at liberty to make,
from all accessible sources, a Compendium of the Morals and Dogma of the Rite,
to re-mould sentences, change and add to words and phrases, combine them with
his own, and use them as if they were his own, to be dealt with at his
pleasure and so availed of as to make the whole most valuable for the purposes
intended. He claims, therefore, little of the merit of authorship, and has not
cared to distinguish his own from that which he has taken from other sources,
being quite willing that every portion of the book, in turn, may be regarded as
borrowed from some old and better writer.
The teachings of these Readings are not sacramental, so far as they go beyond
the realm of Morality into those of other domains of Thought and Truth. The
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite uses the word "Dogma" in its true sense, of
doctrine, or teaching; and is not dogmatic in the odious
sense of that term. Every one is entirely free to reject and dissent from
whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound. It is only required
of him that he shall weigh what is taught, and give it fair hearing and
unprejudiced judgment. Of course, the ancient theosophic and philosophic
speculations are not embodied as part of the doctrines of the Rite; but
because it is of interest and profit to know what the Ancient Intellect thought
upon these subjects, and because nothing so conclusively proves the radical
difference between our human and the animal nature, as the capacity of the human
mind to entertain such speculations in regard to itself and the Deity. But as to
these opinions themselves, we may say, in the words of the learned Canonist,
Ludovicus Gomez: "Opiniones secundum varietatem temporum senescant et
intermoriantur, alięque diversę vel prioribus contrarię renascantur et deinde
pubescant."
Titles of Degrees as herein given have in some instances been changed.
Correct titles are as follows:
1 °--Apprentice.
2°--Fellow-craft.
3 °--Master.
4°--Secret Master.
5°--Perfect Master.
6°--Intimate Secretary.
7°--Provost and Judge.
8°--Intendant of the Building.
9°--Elu of the Nine.
10°--Elu of the Fifteen.
11°--Elu of the Twelve.
12°--Master Architect.
13°--Royal Arch of Solomon.
14°--Perfect Elu.
15 °--Knight of the East.
16°--Prince of Jerusalem.
17°--Knight of the East and West.
18°--Knight Rose Croix.
19°--Pontiff.
20°--Master of the Symbolic Lodge.
21°--Noachite or Prussian Knight.
22°--Knight of the Royal Axe or Prince of Libanus.
23°--Chief of the Tabernacle.
24°--Prince of the Tabernacle.
25 °--Knight of the Brazen Serpent.
26°--Prince of Mercy.
27°--Knight Commander of the Temple.
28°--Knight of the Sun or Prince Adept.
29°--Scottish Knight of St. Andrew.
30°--Knight Kadosh.
31°--Inspector Inquisitor.
32°--Master of the Royal Secret.
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