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 among Masons.
Q. What did you next come to? A. The outer door of the middle chamber of King Solomon's Temple, which I found partly open, but closely tyled by the Junior Warden.
Q. How did you gain admission? A. By a pass, and token of a pass.
Q. What was the name of the pass? A. Shibboleth.
Q. What does it denote? A. Plenty.
Q. Why so? A. From an ear of corn being placed at the water-ford.
Q. Why was this pass instituted? A. In consequence of a quarrel which had long existed between Jephthah, Judge of Israel, and the Ephraimites, the latter of whom had long been a stubborn, rebellious people, whom Jephthah had endeavored to subdue by lenient measures, but to no effect. The Ephraimites being highly incensed against Jephthah, for not being called to fight and share in the rich spoils of the Ammonitish war, assembled a mighty army, and passed over the river Jordan to give Jephthah battle; but he, being apprised of their approach, called together the men of Israel, and gave them battle, and put them to flight; and to make his victory more complete, he ordered guards to be placed at the different passes on the banks of the river Jordan, and commanded, if the Ephraimites passed that way, that they should pronounce the word Shibboleth; but they, being of a different tribe, pronounced it Sibboleth, which trifling defect proved them spies, and cost them their lives; and there fell that day, at the different passes on the banks of the river Jordan, forty and two thousand. This word was also used by our ancient brethren to distinguish a friend from a foe, and has since been adopted as a proper pass-word, to be given before entering any well-regulated and governed Lodge of Fellow Craft Masons.
Q. What did you next discover? A. The inner door of the middle chamber of King Solomon's Temple, which I found partly open, but closely tyled by the Senior Warden.
Q. How did you gain admission? A. By the grip and word.
Q. How did the Senior Warden dispose of you? A. He ordered me to be conducted to the Worshipful Master in the East, who informed me that I had been admitted into the middle chamber of King Solomon's Temple for the sake of the letter G.
Q. Does it denote anything? A. It does; Deity—before whom we should all bow with reverence, worship, and adoration. It also denotes Geometry, the fifth science; it being that on which this degree was principally founded.
Thus ends the second degree of Masonry.
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