Page 58 - MML - Journal - Centenary Edition - Vol. 01 / 2023

certain attributes of character should be brought to the forefront. For instance, if men meet on the foot-ball field, the attributes of unselfishness and sportsmanship, must needs be emphasised.
I claim this to be the true spirit of Freemasonry. The attributes of character are normal and not peculiar to the Craft, but by its own system, it brings to the forefront and lays stress on certain of these attributes. While therefore Freemasonry is not a system of morality taking morality in its ordinary sense, it is a system which has its own way of stressing morality and I suggest that this is the true meaning of the ancient definition.
I turn next to a consideration of the manner in which Freemasonry lays stress and emphasis on these things. Certainly, it is not done by word. Nowhere, for instance, a candidate is asked if he believes in righteousness. Rather, he is asked what he does about it. No Lodge instructs its members in ethics or expects them to be able to defend ethical standards but insists in most emphatic manner that when ethical problems confront them, they will face it with action. For instance, a Freemason is not interested in theoretical aspects of quarreling, but he is enjoined to act to put an end to it, He is not given theoretical instructions on his duty to God. He is simply told emphatically what he is expected to do about it.
It will be recollected that I have referred to ethics as a science, a science by which man determines his rights, his duties, and his responsibilities. Although its entry into the realm of exactitude is more recent, psychology is now accepted as a science, the science of behaviour. It derives its claim to be a science from its close study of man, It has also been defined as the science of mental processes or of the activity of the mind. The mind as a whole may be said to consist of the conscious, the sub-conscious and the unconscious and although it is difficult always to trace the conscious thought from its original sources
there is no doubt that it reaches the conscious part of the mind from recesses of the subconscious or unconscious. Vividness of impression or the impact of constant repetition would seem to play a vital role In triggering off this seemingly unexplicable movement of thought into the conscious mind.
I have already referred to the emphasis to be placed on the attributes of character. Freemasons all know however that this emphasis is brought about largely by the process of repetition and dramatic presentation. I need refer only to the repetitive process of ritual and to the compelling drama of obligations to stress the psychological significance of these methods, surely designed to leave such an impression on the subconscious and even on the unconscious mind so that the attributes of character therein contained, will, when seemingly forgotten drift into the conscious realm. I suggest further that the constant and vivid impression of these worth-while attributes on the hidden recesses of the mind must have an uplifting effect on the thoughts which arise so unexpectedly and sometimes so helpfully in the conscious mind.
If it can be accepted that Freemasonry is a fraternity set up for the purpose of the quest of the truth, then I submit that in its own peculiar way and using its own peculiar system, it makes its appeal as wide and as universal as possible. Perhaps even then not all its members will be caught up in that appeal, but I wonder whether some in its numbers should ever have been included.
In proceeding to consider this aspect of my thesis, I have tried to keep two ideas in mind. Freemasonry must ever remain constant to its principles--Truth--despite its members. It must hold or try to hold its members as through them only can it hope to achieve its grand principles.
What mental process therefore does it use to hold its members? The personnel of
57
A Publication of Madras Masters Lodge No. 103, GLI
Madras Masonic Journal Vol. 01 / 2023 - Centenary Year Edition