SECOND SECTION.
The second section of this degree refers to the combined operative and speculative origin of the Institution;[1] it details some interesting features relative to the Temple of Solomon and the usages of our ancient brethren, in the course of which the mind is drawn to the contemplation of themes of science and philosophy.
- ↑ The connection between the operative art and the speculative science of Masonry is the first point to which, in this section, the attention of the candidate is directed. Something ought, therefore, to be here said in reference to these two divisions.
Masonry, in its character as an operative art, is familiar to every one. As such, it is engaged in the application of the rules of architecture to the construction of public and private edifices. It, of course, abounds in the use of technical terms, and makes use of implements and materials which are peculiar to itself. It is the popular theory, that the operative Masons were the founders of the system of speculative Masonry, in which they applied the language and ideas of their art of building to a spiritual and religious sense. Hence Speculative Masonry is nothing more nor less, in his aspect, than a symbolization of Operative Masonry.
The theory is (and it is not an untenable one), that at first operative Masonry existed simply as an art of building. Then the operative Masons, with the assistance of learned and pious men, invented the speculative science, or Freemasonry, and then each became an integrant part of one undivided system. Not, however, that there ever was a time when every operative Mason, without exception, was acquainted with or initiated into the speculative science. Even now there are thousands of skillful stone-masons who know nothing of the symbolic meaning of the implements they employ. But operative Masonry was at first, and is even now, the skeleton upon which was strung the nerves and muscles of the living system of Free or Speculative Masonry.
Speculative Masonry, now known as Freemasonry, is, therefore, the scientific application and the religious consecration of the rules and principles, the technical language and the implements and materials, of operative Masonry to the worship of God as the Grand Architect of the Universe, and to the purification of the heart and the inculcation of the dogmas of a religious philosophy. And as the original union of the operative and speculative branches of the system is traditionally supposed to have taken place at the building of the Temple of Jerusalem by King Solomon, more attention is paid in the symbolism to that edifice than to any other.
