BROTHERS and BUILDERS:
The Basis and Spirit of Freemasonry.
BY JOSEPH FORT NEWTON (Litt.D.)

CHAPTER III - THE SQUARE


THE Holy Bible lies open upon the Altar of Masonry, and 
upon the Bible lie the Square and Compasses. They are the 
three Great Lights of the Lodge, at once its Divine warrant 
and its chief working tools. They are symbols of Revelation, 
Righteousness, and Redemption, teaching us that by 
walking in the light of Truth, and obeying the law of Right, 
the Divine in man wins victory over the earthly. How to live is 
the one important matter, and he will seek far without finding 
a wiser way than that shown us by the Great Lights of the 
Lodge.


The Square and Compasses are the oldest, the simplest, 
and the most universal symbols of Masonry. All the world 
over, whether as a sign on a building, or a badge worn by a 
Brother, even the profane know them to be emblems of our 
ancient Craft. Some years ago, when a business firm tried to 
adopt the Square and Compasses as a trade-mark, the 
Patent Office refused permission, on the ground, as the 
decision said, that "there can be no doubt that this device, so 
commonly worn and employed by Masons, has an 
established mystic significance, universally recognized as 
existing; whether comprehended by all or not, is not material 
to this issue. " They belong to us, alike by the associations of 
history and the tongue of common report.


Nearly everywhere in our Ritual, as in the public mind, the 
Square and Compasses are seen together. If not 
interlocked, they are seldom far apart, and the one suggests 
the other. And that is as it should be, because the things 
they symbolize are interwoven. In the old days when the 
earth was thought to be flat and square, the Square was an 
emblem of the Earth, and later, of the earthly element in 
man. As the sky is an arc or a circle, the implement which 
describes a Circle became the symbol of the heavenly, or 
skyey spirit in man. Thus the tools of the builder became the 
emblems of the thoughts of the thinker; and nothing in 
Masonry is more impressive than the slow elevation of the 
Compasses above the Square in the progress of the 
degrees. The whole meaning and task of life is there, for 
such as have eyes to see.


Let us separate the Square from the Compasses and study it 
alone, the better to see its further meaning and use. There is 
no need to say that the Square we have in mind is not a 
Cube, which has four equal sides and angles, deemed by 
the Greeks a figure of perfection. Nor is it the square of the 
carpenter, one leg of which is longer than the other, with 
inches marked for measuring. It is a small, plain Square, 
unmarked and with legs of equal length, a simple try-square 
used for testing the accuracy of angles, and the precision 
with which stones are cut. Since the try-square was used to 
prove that angles were right, it naturally became an emblem 
of accuracy, integrity, rightness. As stones are cut to fit into a 
building, so our acts and thoughts are built together into a 
structure of Character, badly or firmly, and must be tested by 
a moral standard of which the simple try-square is a symbol.


So, among Speculative Masons, the tiny try-square has 
always been a symbol of morality, of the basic rightness 
which must be the test of every act and the foundation of 
character and society. From the beginning of the Revival in 
1717 this was made plain in the teaching of Masonry, by the 
fact that the Holy Bible was placed upon the Altar, along with 
the Square and Compasses. In one of the earliest 
catechisms of the Craft, dated 1725, the question is asked: 
"How many make a Lodge?" The answer is specific and 
unmistakable: "God and the square, with five or seven right 
or perfect Masons." God and the Square, Religion and 
Morality, must be present in every Lodge as its ruling Lights, 
or it fails of being a just and truly constituted Lodge. In all 
lands, in all rites where Masonry is true to itself, the Square 
is a symbol of righteousness, and is applied in the light of 
faith in God.


God and the Square - it is necessary to keep the two 
together in our day, because the tendency of the time is to 
separate them. The idea in vogue to-day is that morality is 
enough, and that faith in God - if there be a God - may or 
may not be important. Some very able men of the Craft insist 
that we make the teaching of Masonry too religious. 
Whereas, as all history shows, if faith in God grows dim, 
morality become, a mere custom, if not a cobweb, to be 
thrown off lightly. It is not rooted in reality, and so lacks 
authority and sanction. Such an idea, such a spirit - so wide-
spread in our time, and finding so many able and plausible 
advocates - strikes at the foundations, not only of Masonry, 
but of all ordered and advancing social life. Once let men 
come to think that morality is a human invention, and not a 
part of the order of the world, and the moral law will lose 
both its meaning and its power. Far wiser was the old book 
entitled All in All and the Same Forever, by John Davies, and 
dated 1607, though written by a non-Mason, when it read the 
reality and nature of God in this manner: "Yet I this form of 
formless Deity drew by the Square and Compasses of our 
Creed."


For, inevitably, a society without standards will be a society 
without stability, and it will one day go down. Not only 
nations, but whole civilizations have perished in the past, for 
lack of righteousness. History speaks plainly in this matter, 
and we dare not disregard it. Hence the importance attached 
to the Square or Virtue, and the reason why Masons call it 
the great symbol of their Craft. It is a symbol of that moral 
law upon which human life must rest if it is to stand. A man 
may build a house in any way he likes, but if he expects it to 
stand and be his home, he must adjust his structure to the 
laws and forces that rule in the material realm. Just so, 
unless we live in obedience to the moral laws which God has 
written in the order of things, our lives will fall and end in 
wreck. When a young man forgets the simple Law of the 
Square, it does not need a prophet to foresee what the result 
will be. It is like a problem in geometry.


Such has been the meaning of the Square as far back as we 
can go. Long before our era we find the Square teaching the 
same lesson which it teaches us to-day. In one of the old 
books of China, called The Great Learning, which has been 
dated in the fifth century before Christ, we read that a man 
should not do unto others what he would not have them do 
unto him; and the writer adds, "this is called the principle of 
acting on the square." There it is, recorded long, long ago. 
The greatest philosopher has found nothing more profound, 
and the oldest man in his ripe wisdom has learned nothing 
more true. Even Jesus only altered it from the negative to 
the positive form in His Golden Rule. So, everywhere, in our 
Craft and outside, the Square has taught its simple truth 
which does not grow old. The Deputy Provincial Grand 
Master of North and East Yorkshire recovered a very curious 
relic, in the form of an old brass Square found under the 
foundation stone of an ancient bridge near Limerick, in 1830. 
On it was inscribed the date, 1517, and the following words:-


"Strive to live with love and care
Upon the Level, by the Square."


How simple and beautiful it is, revealing the oldest wisdom 
man has learned and the very genius of our Craft. In fact and 
truth, the Square rules the Mason as well as the Lodge in 
which he labours. As soon as he enters a Lodge, the 
candidate walks with square steps round the square 
pavement of a rectangular Lodge. All during the ceremony 
his attitude keeps him in mind of the same symbol, as if to 
fashion his life after its form. When he is brought to light, he 
beholds the Square upon the Altar, and at the same time 
sees that it is worn by the Master of the Lodge, as the 
emblem of his office. In the north-cast corner he is shown 
the perfect Ashlar, and told that it is the type of a finished 
Mason, who must be a Square-Man in thought and conduct, 
in word and act. With every art of emphasis the Ritual writes 
this lesson in our hearts, and if we forget this first truth the 
Lost Word will remain forever lost.


For Masonry is not simply a Ritual; it is a way of living. It 
offers us a plan, a method, a faith by which we may build our 
days and years into a character so strong and true that 
nothing, not even death, can destroy it. Each of us has in his 
own heart a little try-square called Conscience, by which to 
test each thought and deed and word, whether it be true or 
false. By as much as a man honestly applies that test in his 
own heart, and in his relations with his fellows, by so much 
will his life be happy, stable, and true. Long ago the question 
was asked and answered: "Lord, who shall abide in Thy 
tabernacle? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh 
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." It is the 
first obligation of a Mason to be on the Square, in all his 
duties and dealings with his fellow men, and if he fails there 
he cannot win anywhere. Let one of our poets sum it all up:-


"It matters not whate'er your lot 
Or what your task may be, 
One duty there remains for you,  
One duty stands for me. 
Be you a doctor skilled and wise,  
Or do your work for wage, 
A laborer upon the street,  
An artist on the stage; 
One glory still awaits for you,  
One honor that is fair, 
To have men say as you pass by:  
'That fellow's on the square.' 
 

"Ah, here's a phrase that stands for much,  
'Tis good old English, too; 
It means that men have confidence  
In everything you do. 
It means that what you have you've earned  
And that you've done your best, 
And when you go to sleep at night  
Untroubled you may rest. 
It means that conscience is your guide,  
And honor is your care; 
There is no greater praise than this: 
'That fellow's on the square.' 
 

"And when I die I would not wish 
A lengthy epitaph; 
I do not want a headstone large, 
Carved with fulsome chaff. 
Pick out no single deed of mine, 
If such a deed there be, 
To 'grave upon my monument, 
For those who come to see. 
Just this one phrase of all I choose, 
To show my life was fair: 
'Here sleepeth now a fellow who 
Was always on the square.' "