steps to the second step, my feet forming the right angle of an oblong square, and my body erect; at the altar before the Worshipful Master.
Q. What did the Worshipful Master do with you? A. He made a Fallow Craft Mason of me.
Q. How? A. In due form.
Q. What was that due form? A. My right knee bare bent; my left knee forming a square; my right hand on the Holy Bible, Square, and Compass; my left arm forming an angle, supported by the Square, and my hand in a vertical position; in which posture I took upon me the solemn oath, or obligation, of a Fellow Craft Mason. [See pages 26 and 27 for obligation.]
Q. After your oath, or obligation, what was said to you? A. I was asked what I most desired.
Q. Your answer? A. More light.
Q. On being brought to light, what did you discover different from before? A. One point of the Compass elevated above the Square, which denoted light in this degree; but as one point was yet in obscurity, it was to remind me that I was yet one material point in the dark respecting Masonry.
Q. What did you next discover? A. The Worshipful Master approaching me from the East, under the sign and due-guard of a Fellow Craft Mason, who presented me with his right hand in token of brotherly love and confidence, and proceeded to give me the pass-grip and word of a Fellow Craft Mason, and bid me arise and salute the Junior and Senior Wardens, and convince them that I had been regularly passed to the degree of a Fellow Craft, and had the sign, grip, and word of a Fellow Craft Mason.
Q. What next did you discover? A. The Worshipful Master approaching me a second time from the East, who presented me a lamb-skin, or white apron, which, he said, he hoped I would continue to wear with honor to myself and satisfaction and advantage to my brethren.
Q. What was you next presented with? A. The working tools of a Fellow Craft Mason.
Q. What are they? A. The Plumb, Square, and Level.
Q. What do they teach? [I think this question ought to be, "How explained?"] A. The Plumb is an instrument made use of by operative Masons to raise perpendiculars; the Square, to square the work, and the Level, to lay horizontals; but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make use of them for more noble and glorious purposes. The Plumb admonishes us to walk uprightly, in our several stations, before God and man; squaring our actions by the square of virtue; and remembering that we are all traveling upon the level of time, to that undiscovered country, from whose bourne no traveler returns.
Q. What was you next presented with? A. Three precious jewels.
Q. What were they? A. Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Q. What do they teach? A. Faith in God, hope in immortality, and charity to all mankind.
Q. How was you then disposed of? A. I was conducted out of the Lodge, and invested of what I had been divested.
SECOND SECTION
Question—Have you ever worked as a Fellow Craft Mason? Answer—I have, in speculative; but our forefathers wrought both in speculative and operative Masonry.
Q. Where did they work? A. At the building of King Solomon's Temple, and many other Masonic edifices.
Q. How long did they work? A. Six days.
Q. Did they not work on the Seventh? A. They did not.
Q. Why so? A. Because in six days God created the heavens and the earth, and rested on the seventh day; the seventh day, therefore, our ancient brethren consecrated as a day of rest from their labors; thereby enjoying more frequent opportunities to contemplate the glorious works of creation, and adore their great Creator.
Q. Did you ever return to the sanctum sanctorum, or holy of holies, of King Solomon's Temple? A. I did.
Q. By what way? A. Through a long porch, or alley.
Q. Did anything particular strike your attention on your return? A. There did; viz.: Two large columns, or pillars, one on the left hand, and the other on the right.
Q. What was the name of the one on the left hand? A. Boaz, to denote strength.
Q. What was the name of the one on the right hand? A. Jachin, denoting establishment.
Q. What do they collectively allude to? A. A passage in Scripture, wherein God has declared in his word, "In strength shall this house be established."
Q. What were their dimensions? A. Eighteen cubits in height, twelve in circumference, and four in diameter.
Q. Were they adorned with anything? A. They were; with two large chapiters, one on each.
Q. Were they ornamented with anything? A. They were; with wreaths of net work, lily work, and pomegranates.
Q. What do they denote? A. Unity, Peace, and Plenty.
Q. Why so? A. Net work, from its connection, denotes union; lily work, from its whiteness and purity, denotes peace; and pomegranates, from the exuberance of its seed, denotes plenty.
Q. Were those columns adorned with anything further? A. They were; viz.: Two large globes, or balls, one on each.
Q. Did they contain anything? A. They did; viz.; All the maps and charts of the celestial and terrestrial bodies.
Q. Why are they said to be so extensive? A. To denote the universality of Masonry, and that a Mason's charity ought to be equally extensive.
Q. What was their composition? A. Molten, or cast brass.
Q. Who cast them? A. Our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff.
Q. Where were they cast? A. On the banks of the river Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zaradatha, where King Solomon ordered these and all other holy vessels to be cast.
Q. Were they cast solid or hollow? A. Hollow.
Q. What was their thickness? A. Four inches, or a hand's breadth.
Q. Why were they cast hollow? A. The better to withstand inundations or conflagrations; were the archives of Masonry, and contained the constitution, rolls, and records.
Q. What did you next come to? A. A long, winding staircase, with three, five, seven steps, or more.
Q. What does the three steps allude to? A. The three principal supports in Masonry, viz., Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty.
Q. What does the five steps allude to? A. The five orders in architecture, and the five human senses.
Q. What are the five orders in architecture? A. The Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite.
Q. What are the five human senses? A. Hearing, Seeing, Feeling, Smelling, and Tasting; the first three of which have ever been deemed highly essential among Masons: Hearing, to hear the word; Seeing, to see the sign; and Feeling, to feel the grip, whereby one Mason may know another in the dark as well as in the light.
Q. What does the seven steps allude to? A. The seven sabbatical years; seven years of famine; seven years In building the temple; seven golden candlesticks; seven wonders of the world; seven planets; but more especially the seven liberal arts and sciences, which are Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy; for these, and many other reasons, the number seven has ever been held in high estimation
