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

CHAPTER V - THE LEVEL AND PLUMB.


LIKE the Square and the Compasses, the Level and the 
Plumb are nearly always united in our Ritual. They really 
belong together, as much in moral teaching as in practical 
building. The one is used to lay horizontals, the other to try 
perpendiculars, and their use suggests their symbolism. By 
reason of their use, both are special working tools of the 
Fellowcraft, along with the Square; and they are also worn 
as jewels by two of the principal officers of the Lodge.


Among the Craft Masons of olden time the actual work of 
building was done by Fellowcrafts, using materials gathered 
and rough hewn by Apprentices, all working under the 
guidance of the Master. In our symbolism, as the Apprentice 
is youth, so the Fellowcraft is manhood, the time when the 
actual work of life must be done on the Level, by the Plumb 
and Square. Next to the Square and Compasses, the Level 
and Plumb are among the noblest and simplest symbols of 
the Craft, and their meaning is so plain that it hardly needs to 
be pointed out. Yet they are so important, in use and 
meaning, that they might almost be numbered among the 
Lesser Lights of the Lodge.

I.


The Level, so the newly made Mason is taught, is for the 
purpose of proving horizontals. An English writer finds a 
lesson in the structure of the Level, in the fact that we know 
that a surface is level when the fluid is poised and at rest. 
>From the use of the Level he bids us seek to attain a 
peaceful, balanced poise of mind, undisturbed by the 
passions which upset and sway us one way or the other. It is 
a counsel of perfection, he admits, but he insists that one of 
the best services of Masonry is to keep before us high 
ideals, and, what is more, a constantly receding ideal, 
otherwise we should tire of it.


Of course, the great meaning of the Level is that it teaches 
equality, and that is a truth that needs to be carefully 
understood. There is no little confusion of mind about it. Our 
Declaration of American Independence tells us that all men 
are "created equal," but not many have tried to think out 
what the words really mean. With most of us it is a vague 
sentiment, a glittering generality born of the fact that all are 
made of the same dust, are sharers of the common human 
lot, moved by the same great faith and fears, hopes and 
loves - walking on the Level of time until Death, by its grim 
democracy, erases all distinctions and reduces all to the 
same level.


Anyone who faces the facts knows well enough that all men 
are not equal, either by nature or by grace. Our humanity 
resembles the surface of the natural world in its hills and 
valleys. Men are very unequal in physical power, in mental 
ability, in moral quality. No two men are equal; no two are 
alike. One man towers above his fellows, as a mountain 
above the hills. Some can do what others can never do. 
Some have five talents, some two, and some but one. A 
genius can do with effortless ease what it is futile for others 
to attempt, and a poet may be unequal to a hod-carrier in 
strength and sagacity. When there is inequality of gift it is 
idle to talk of equality of opportunity, no matter how fine the 
phrase may sound. It does not exist.


By no glib theory can humanity be reduced to a dead level. 
The iron wrinkles of fact are stubborn realities. Manifestly it 
is better to have it so, because it would make a dull world if 
all men were equal in a literal sense. As it is, wherein one 
lacks another excels, and men are drawn together by the 
fact that they are unequal and unlike. The world has different 
tasks demanding different powers, brains to devise, seers to 
see, hands to execute, prophets to lead. We need poets to 
inspire, scientists to teach, pioneers to blaze the path into 
new lands. No doubt this was what Goethe meant when he 
said that it takes all men to make one man, and the work of 
each is the glory of all.


What, then, is the equality of which the Level is the symbol ? 
Clearly it is not identity or even similarity of gift and 
endowment. No, it is something better; it is the equal right of 
each man to the full use and development of such power as 
he has, whatever it may be, unhindered by injustice or 
oppression. As our Declaration of Independence puts it, 
every man has an equal and inalienable right to "life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness," with due regard for the rights 
of others in the same quest. Or, as a famous slogan 
summed it up: "Equal rights for all; special privileges to 
none!" That is to say, before the law every man has an equal 
right to equal justice, as before God, in whose presence all 
men are one in their littleness, each receives equally and 
impartially the blessing of the Eternal Love, even as the sun 
shines and the rain falls on all with equal benediction.


Albert Pike, and with him many others, have gone so far as 
to say that Masonry was the first apostle of equality in the 
true sense. One thing we do know: Freemasonry presided 
over the birth of our Republic, and by the skill of its leaders 
wrote its basic truth, of which the Level is the symbol, into 
the organic law of this land. The War for Independence, and 
the fight for constitutional liberty, might have had another 
issue but for the fact that our leaders were held together by a 
mystic tie of obligation, vowed to the service of the rights of 
man. Even Thomas Paine, who was not a Mason, wrote an 
essay in honour of an Order which stood for government 
without tyranny and religion without superstition - two 
principles which belong together, like the Level and the 
Plumb. Thus, by all that is sacred both in our Country and 
our Craft, we are pledged to guard, defend, and practice the 
truth taught by the Level.


But it is in the free and friendly air of a Lodge of Masons, 
about an altar of obligation and prayer, that the principle of 
equality finds its most perfect and beautiful expression. 
There, upon the Level, the symbol of equality, rich and poor, 
high and low, prince and plain citizen - men of diverse 
creeds, parties, interests, and occupations - meet in mutual 
respect and real regard, forgetting all differences of rank and 
station, and united for the highest good of all. "We meet 
upon the Level and part upon the Square"; titles, ranks, 
riches, do not pass the Inner Guard; and the humblest 
brother is held in sacred regard, equally with the brother who 
has attained the highest round of the wheel of fortune.


Every man in the Lodge is equally concerned in the building 
of the Temple, and each has his work to do. Because the 
task demands different gifts and powers, all are equally 
necessary to the work, the architect who draws the plans, 
the Apprentice who carries stones or shapes them with 
chisel and gavel, the Fellowcraft who polishes and deposits 
them in the wall, and the officers who marshal the workmen, 
guide their labor, and pay their wages. Every one is equal to 
every other so long as he does good work, true work, square 
work. None but is necessary to the erection of the edifice; 
none but receives the honour of the Craft; and all together 
know the joy of seeing the Temple slowly rising in the midst 
of their labors. Thus Masonry lifts men to a high level, 
making each a fellow-worker in a great enterprise, and if it is 
the best brotherhood it is because it is a brotherhood of the 
best.

II


The Plumb is a symbol so simple that it needs no exposition. 
As the Level teaches unity in diversity and equality in 
difference, so the Plumb is a symbol of rectitude of conduct, 
integrity of life, and that uprightness of moral character which 
makes a good and just man. In the art of building accuracy is 
integrity, and if a wall be not exactly perpendicular, as tested 
by the Plumb-line, it is weak and may fall, or else endanger 
the strength and stability of the whole. just so, though we 
meet upon the Level, we must each build an upright 
character, by the test of the Plumb, or we weaken the 
Fraternity we seek to serve and imperil 'Its strength and 
standing in the community.


As a workman dare not deviate by the breadth of a hair to 
the right or to the left if his wall is to be strong and his arch 
stable, so Masons must walk erect and live upright lives. 
What is meant by an upright life each of us knows, but it has 
never been better described than in the 15th Psalm, which 
may be called the religion of a gentleman and the design 
upon the Trestleboard of every Mason:-


"Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in 
Thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh 
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that 
backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his 
neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. 
In whose eyes a vile person is condemned; but he honoureth 
them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, 
and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to 
usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth 
these things shall never be moved."


What is true of a man is equally true of a nation. The 
strength of a nation is its integrity, and no nation is stronger 
than the moral quality of the men who are citizens. Always it 
comes back at last to the individual, who is a living stone in 
the wall of society and the state, making it strong or weak. 
By every act of injustice, by every lack of integrity, we 
weaken society and imperil the security and sanctity of the 
common life. By every noble act we make all sacred things 
more sacred and secure for ourselves and for those who 
come after us. The prophet Amos has a thrilling passage in 
which he lets us see how God tested the people which were 
of old by the Plumb-line; and by the same test we are tried :-


"Thus He showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a 
wall made by plumb-line, with a plumb-line in His hand. And 
the Lord said unto me, 'Amos, what seest thou?' And I said, 
'A plumb-line.' Then said the Lord, 'Behold, I will set a plumb-
line in the midst of my people of Israel: I will not again pass 
them by any more."