Inquiry Before Initiation.

INQUIRY BEFORE INITIATION .

r j THE importance , and , indeed , absolute necessity of a proper 1 and careful inquiry into the character of candidates for initiation cannot be too often , or too deeply impressed upon the minds of members of all Lodges . It is the greatest of all guards that the wisdom of our ancestors has thrown , like ramparts , around the security and safety of our Order . So important has

this preliminary step towards initiation been deemed , that the Antient Constitutions twice prescribed it as a positive regulation . In the article of Making , it is said , " No Lodge shall ever make a Mason without due inquiry into his character , " and again , in the article on the duty of Masons , ifc is declared that " no man

can be accepted a member of a particular Lodge without previous notice one month before given to the Lodge , in order to make due inquiry into the reputation and capacity of the candidate , unless by dispensation . " This antient regulation has , perhaps , on account of its evident importance to the Institution , been

better observed than any of the other landmarks . While the rules in relation to the exclusion of maimed candidates , to the absence of religious tests , and many more of equally positive enactment have from time to time b ' een neglected or denied , we know of no Grand Lodge that has thought proper to abolish the due inquiry into character .

The object of this inquiry , the time during which it is to be exercised , and the only way in which it can be disregarded , are all set forth in the list of regulations which I have quoted . The inquiry is made that the reputation and capacity oi the candidate may be discovered . There is , then , a two-fold object in the

investigation . The one as relates to the reputation , the other as to his capacity . The reputation of the candidate will affect the standing and character of the institution into which he applies for admission , for good or for evil , according as he shall be found worthy or unworthy of the favour that has been

bestowed upon him . He must be under the tongue of good report , and the Lodge which would admit a member without this indispensable qualification would , to use the language of the Grand Lodge of South Carolina , "be bringing into our fold , not a lamb , the emblem of innocence and purity , but a ravenous wolf ,

who will inevitably destroy the flock . " Many years ago a reverend Brother was so impressed with the importance of these moral claims to admission , that he thus addressed the Lodge before whom he was discoursing : — " In order , my Brethren , to obviate that objection which so many make against Masonry ,

namely , that very unworthy persons are often admitted into this honourable society , let me recommend it to you , in the strongest manner , to be very cautious whom you admit as Brothers . Let neither the wealth nor figure of any man deter you from performing this real piece of service to the Craft in general . Let

neither interest sway , nor friendship bind you . Eegardno man ' s person or fortune . If his life be scandalously immoral , and he is proposed to be a Mason , immediately reject him , " andhe charges them in the language of the Apostle , " that they suffer neither slanderers nor tale-bearers , nor liars , nor profane jesters to approach our peaceful ground . "

But it is not simply into the reputation of the candidate that inquiry is to be made ; his capacity presents also a subject for investigation . By the capacity of the candidate we understand his fitness to receive and comprehend our sublime mysteries . According to the underwritten law of the Order , a fool or an idiot

or an old man in his dotage , or a young one under age , is considered as an improper applicant for initiation , because in these instances there is either a total want of mind , or an impaired or undeveloped intellect , which would render it impossible for the party initiated properly to appreciate the moral

or physical instructions imparted to him . Hence the Grand Lodge of England , in view of this mental capacity , has provided in its regulations that the candidate " should be a lover of the liberal arts and sciences , and have made some progress in one or other of them . " These two distinctions of the reputation and the capacity of the candidate are alluded to in what is technically

called the investiture or the presentation of the lamb-skin apron , which the neophyte is told to wear with pleasure to himself and honour to the fraternity . The pleasure to himself must depend on his capacity to appreciate and enjoy the symbolical instruction of the institution . The honour to the fraternity will result from the reputation which he may bring to the support of the Order .

These , then , being the objects of the inquiry , the time employed for accomplishing it is amply sufficient . No man can be accepted without previous notice one month before . That is to say , the petition for application must be read at one regular communication , and the report of the committee of investigation made at the succeeding meeting . This is the least time permitted

although it may , by permission of the Lodge , be protracted to a still longer period , where doubts or difficulties arise that prevent the committee from obtaining , within that period , sufficient knowledge of the character of the applicant . This time is prescribed not merely to afford the committee an ample opportunity for investigation , but that by " previous notice " everyone who

Inquiry Before Initiation.

knows anything unfavourable of the applicant may , by being advertised of his petition , be enabled to come forward and state his objections . Ifc is a sacred duty which every Mason owes to his Order that he should not wait until he is asked for the information in his possession , but that it should voluntarily and

without any solicitation make known all that he thinks would render the proposed candidate unworthy of initiation . Every member of the Order should be , in fact , a guardian , watching at the portals of the temple , and seeing that none pass into the sanctuary but he who has clean hands and a pure heart .

There are , however , occasions on which the safeguard thus thrown around the purity of the Institution , by this system of " due inquiry , " is permitted to be neglected . The regulation which I have cited prescribed that no one should be a Mason without this previous investigation into his character , " unless by dispensation . " The dispensing powers of the Grand Master may ,

in certain cases of emergency , be exercised to enable a Lodge at once to entertain an application for initiation , without the necessity of a previous inquiry . It has been doubted by many intelligent Masons whether , in these cases , the prerogative of dispensation , vested in the chiefs of the Order , was not oftener productive of evil than of good . This will , of course , principally depend on the character of the individual who exercises it . In

the hands of fche wise , prudent , and conscientious Officer , it may be with safety trusted . Its exercise by one of the contrary character will probably be often productive of the most mischievous results . Tha power of dispensing wifch a due inquiry into character has certainly , in the present day , been carried to a greater extent than was ever originally intended , and I think we are free to admit that it is " a custom more honoured in the

breach than in the observance . It is probable that the cases of emergency , in which the necessity of an inquiry into character was dispensed with , were originally confined to the application of royal or noble candidates whose admission was expected to throw lustre upon the Order , to extend its influence , and increase its usefulness . We do not

believe that it was ever thought advisable in antient times to make it subservient to the speedy initiation of transient candidates . Of all the monstrous absurdities that modern Masonic usage has invented , that of subjecting the characters of old and well-known residents to the most rigid scrutiny , and passing those of entire strangers without any investigation at all , is the

most absurd . Common sense and ordinary prudence would dictate that the less a man is known , the more precise and careful should be the inquiry into his character . But too many act on an entirely different principle , and hold that he who is well known shall submit to a thorough investigation , while he who is totally unknown shall escape an investigation at all .

Many of the Grand Lodges of the Union have at length acknowledged the impolicy of this system of conferring Degrees on transient persons , and exempting them by dispensation from the process of due inquiry into character . Accordingly , they

have resolved that transient persons shall no longer be eligible to initiation within their respective jurisdictions . The Grand Lodges of South Carolina and Georgia have , for instance , declared that " no Lodge shall initiate , pass , or raise , any candidate who has not resided in the State for twelve consecutive months

previous fco his application . " A similar regulation has been adopted by several other Grand Lodges , and , of course , in all these jurisdictions the system of granting dispensations for the initiation of transient candidates is abolished . The effect must be most salutary on the safety and reputation of fche Institution , for under the old system many candidates were abroad whose application would have been unanimously rejected by any Lodge in the neighbourhood of their own residence .

But transient candidates do not present the only instance of what is improperly called "cases of emergency . " Long residents who are about to leave the country sometimes become , on a sudden impulse , desirous of initiation , that they may participate during their expected travels in what they suppose fco be fche benefits of our fraternity , and application is often made for

dispensations to confer the Degrees on them as " cases of emergency . " Such are , indeed , cases of emergency , but it is of emergency to the candidate , and not to the Order . On this subject the remarks of the Committee of Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana are well worthy of perusal . " We are of opinion that no dispensation should ever be given for the

First Degree , and our Constitution wisely prohibited it . The Antient Charges of our Order require that no person shall be initiated without previous notice and due inquiry into his character . The period during which an applicant's petition is required to lie over previous to action is to enable this notice to be given , and the inquiry to be made ; if this be dispensed with ,

it results that neither one nor the other can be properly performed , and is , therefore , tantamount to a violation of the Antient Charges , which the Grand Master , above all others , is pledged to maintain inviolate . Moreover , we cannot understand how a case of emergency can arise , at least so far as the Order is concerned . All the cases of this character that we have ever