THE LEVEL & PLUMB
Like the Square and the Compasses, the Level and the Plumb are nearly always
united in our Ritual. They really belong together, as much in moral teaching as
in practical building. The one is used to lay horizontals, the other to try
perpendiculars, and their use suggests their symbolism. By reason of their use,
both are special working tools of the Fellowcraft, along with the Square; and
they are also worn as jewels by two of the principal officers of the Lodge.
Among the Craft Masons of olden time the actual work of building was done by
Fellowcrafts, using materials gathered and rough hewn by Apprentices, all
working under the guidance of the Master In our Symbolism, as the Apprentice is
youth, so the Fellowcraft is manhood, the time when the actual work of life must
be done on the Level, by the Plumb and Square. Next to the Square and Compasses,
the Level and Plumb are among the noblest and simplest symbols of the Craft, and
their meaning is so plain that it hardly needs to be pointed out. Yet they are
so important, in use and meaning, that they might almost be numbered among the
Lesser Lights of the Lodge.
The Level, so the newly made Mason is taught, is for the purpose of proving
horizontals. An English writer finds a lesson in the structure of the Level, in
the fact that we know that s surface is level when the fluid is poised and at
rest. From this use of the Level he bids us seek to attain a peaceful, balanced
poise of mind, undisturbed by the passions which upset and sway us one way or
the other. It is a council of perfection, he admits, but he insists that one of
the best services of Masonry is to keep before us high ideals and, what is more,
a constantly receding ideal, otherwise we should tire of it.
Of course, the great meaning of the Level is that teaches equality, and that
is a truth that needs to be carefully understood. There is no little confusion
of mind about it. Our Declaration of American Independence tells us that all men
are "created equal" but not many have tried to think out what the words really
mean. With most of us it is a vague sentiment, a glittering generality born of
the fact that all are made of the same dust, and sharers of the common human
lot, moved by the same great faith and fears, hopes and loves - walking on the
Level of Time until Death, by its grim democracy, erases all distinctions and
reduces all to the same level. Anyone who faces the facts knows well enough that
all men are not equal, either by nature or by grace. Our humanity resembles the
surface of the natural world in its hills and valleys. Men are very unequal in
physical power, in mental abilities, in moral quality. No two men are equal; no
two are alike. One man towers above his fellows, as a mountain above the hills.
Some men can do what others can never do. Some have five talents, some two, and
some but one. A genius can do with effortless ease what is futile for others to
attempt, and a poet may be unequal to a hod-carrier in strength and sagacity.
When there is inequality of gift it is idle to talk of equality of opportunity,
no matter how fine the phrase may sound. It does not exist. By no glib theory
can humanity be reduced to a dead level.
The iron wrinkles of fact are stubborn realities. Manifestly it is better to
have it so, because it would make a dull world if all men were equal in a
literal sense. As it is, wherein one lacks another excels, and men are drawn
together by the fact that they are unequal and unlike. The world has different
tasks demanding different powers, brains to devise, seers to see, hands to
execute, prophets to lead. We need poets to inspire, scientists to teach,
pioneers to blaze the path to new lands. No doubt this was what Goethe meant
when he said that it takes all men to make one man, and the work of each is the
glory of all.
What, then, is the equality of which the Level is the Symbol? Clearly it is
not identity, or even similarity of gift and endowment. No, it is something
better; it is the equal right of each man to the full use and development of
such power as he has, whatever it may be, unhindered by injustice or oppression.
as our Declaration of Independence puts it, every man has an equal and
inalienable right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," with due
regard for the rights of others in the same quest. Or, as a famous slogan summed
it up; "Equal Rights for all; Special Privileges to None!" That is to say,
before the law every man has an equal right to equal justice, as before God, in
whose presence all men are one in their littleness, each receives equally and
impartially the blessing of the Eternal Love, even as the sun shines and the
rain falls on all with equal benediction. Albert Pike, and with him many others,
have gone so far as to say that Masonry was the first apostle of equality in the
true sense. One thing we do know; Freemasonry presided over the birth of our
Republic, and by the skill of its leaders wrote its basic truth, of which the
Level is the symbol, into organic law of this land, the War for Independence,
and the fight for Constitutional Liberty, might have had another issue but for
the fact that our leaders were held together by a mystic tie of obligation,
vowed to the services of the rights of man. Even Thomas Paine, who was not a
Mason, wrote an essay in honor of an order which stood for Government without
tyranny and religion without superstition - two principles which belong
together, like the Level and the Plumb. Thus, by all that is sacred both in our
Country and our Craft, we are pledged to guard, defend and practice the truth
taught by the Level.
But it is in the free and friendly air of a Lodge of Masons, about an Altar
of Obligation and Prayer, that the principle of equality finds its most perfect
and beautiful expression. There, upon the Level, the Symbol of Equality, rich
and poor, high and low, prince and plain citizen - men of diverse creeds,
parties, interests, and occupations - meet in mutual respect and real regard,
forgetting all differences of rank and station, and united for the highest good
of all. "We Meet Upon the Level and Part Upon the Square;" titles, ranks,
riches, do not pass the Inner Guard; and the humblest Brother is held in sacred
regard, equally with the Brother who has attained the highest round of the wheel
of fortune.
Every man in the Lodge is equally concerned in the building of the Temple,
and each has his work to do. Because the task demands different gifts and
powers, all are equally necessary to the work, the architect who draws the
plans, the Apprentice who carries stones or shapes them with chisel and gavel;
the Fellowcraft who polishes and deposits them in the wall, and the officers who
marshal the workman, guide their labor, and pay their wages. Every one is equal
to every other so long as he does good work, true work, square work. None but is
necessary to the erection of the edifice; none but receives the honor of the
Craft; and all together know the joy of seeing the Temple slowly rising in the
midst of their labors. Thus Masonry lifts men to a high level, making each a
fellow-worker in a great enterprise, and if it is the best brotherhood it is
because it is a brotherhood of the best.
The Plumb is a symbol so simple that it needs no exposition. As the Level
teaches unity in diversity and equality in difference, so the Plumb is a symbol
of rectitude of conduct, integrity of life, and that uprightness of moral
character which makes a good and just man. In the art of building accuracy is
integrity, and if a wall be not exactly perpendicular, as tested by the
Plumb-Line , it is weak and may fall, or else endanger the strength and
stability of the whole. Just so, though we meet upon a Level, we must each build
an upright character by the test of the Plumb, or we weaken the Fraternity we
seek to serve and imperil its strength and standing in the community,
As a workman dare not deviate by the breadth of a hair to the right or to the
left if his wall is to be strong and his arch stable, so Masons must walk erect
and live upright lives. What is meant by an upright life each of us knows, but
it has never been better described than in the 15th Psalm, which may be called
the religion of a gentleman and the design upon the Trestleboard of every Mason:
"Lord, who shall abide in Thy Tabernacle? Who shall dwell in Thy Holy Hill?
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in
his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his
neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile
person is condemned; but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth
to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury,
nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never
be moved."
What is true of a man is equally true of a nation. The strength of a nation
it its integrity, and no nation is stronger than the moral quality of the men
who are its citizens. Always it comes back at last to the individual, who is a
living stone in the wall of society and the State, making it strong or weak. By
every act of injustice, by every lack of integrity, we weaken society and
imperil the security and sanctity of the common life. By every noble act we make
all sacred things more sacred and secure for ourselves and for those who come
after us. The Prophet Amos has a thrilling passage in which he lets us see how
God tested the people which were of old, by the Plumb-Line; and by the same test
we are tried:
Thus He Showed me; and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a Plumb-
Line, with a Plumb-Line in His Hand. And the Lord said unto me; 'Amos, what
seeth thou?' And I said, 'A Plumb-Line.' Then said the Lord, 'Behold, I will set
a Plumb-Line in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass them by any
more."
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