Make Daily Advancement.

MAKE DAILY ADVANCEMENT .

THE exhortation given to every newly initiated Brother to make a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge is but rarely carried out , from want of subsequent instruction as to the channels in which the best efforts ; may profitably be

employed .. In respect of our forms and ceremonies , this can only be done by going back as nearly . as possible to the authentic source . Every system of religion , philosophy , or morality-is purest at the fountain head , and becomes corrupted by the attempts of subsequent expounders to improve upon

" that which . needed none such aid . In the paths of nature and science „ mua ± - may be found illustrative of the- principles of Freemasonry , but the usages ,,, customs , signs , symbols , rites ,

and ceremonies can only be determined by an examination vvithirithe rigid confines of tLe path of history . — " Australasian Keystone . " '¦'

-BRO : " FREDERIC SPEED , Chairman of the Committee on Masonic law and jurisprudence for the Grand Lodge of Kentucky , has forwarded to us a copy of the report

¦ a - ***************** CABLE TOW .

of that Committee to the Grand Lodge at its recent Communication . Ihe first question dealt with in the report is , " What is the length of my cable tow ? " The answer given by the Committee is sufficiently instructive to be reproduced entire , for we imagine that by no means every Brother really knows what the length of it is . Bro . Speed says :

A candidate standing at the altar asks this question , and the . Master , who had used it a hundred times , replied , " three English miles . " Surely it must have a more recondite meaning , and it has . There has been a good deal of unnecessary mysticism thrown around this phrase , by which

its obvious meaning has been obscured . Clearly it has a meaning , as all other Masonic symbols and illustrations have , which appeals to our understanding as reasonable and intelligent men . But it is to be wondered at , that while so much has been written on Masonic symbolism , we get from the

books but little real light as to what , is intended by the expression " within the length of my cable tow , " and that what little has been written has to be rejected as

meaningless or nearly so . Thus , one of the most brilliant Masonic writers , wno had studied with great care and profound learning Masonic Symbolism , says -. " The phrase would seem to be of nautical derivation . But how it was derived and came into

use in Masonry , I am unable to discover . Cable is a word from the Dutch , signifying a great rope , which , being fastened to the anchor , holds the ship fast when she rides . Tow is a word from the Saxon , which means to hale or draw and is applied nautically , to hale or draw a barge or ship

along the water . "—Lawrence on Masonic Symbolism . And then the same illustrious writer draws the following deductions : "It is between him' and them ( the Brethren ) a threefold cord not easily broken . No length of time or distance can weaken its binding force ; but as the ship is

held fast by the cable to the anchor , so he is held fast by the mystic tie in all fraternal duty and kindness to his Brother , whose honour and interest he will consider and promote and whose needs he will protect and relieve , " but happy as is the thought , it does not answer the candidate ' s interrogatory .

Bro . Mackey , in his Encyclopaedia , under the title " cable tow , " says : " The word ' tow' signifies properly a line wherewith to draw . Richardson ( Diet . ) defines it as that which tuggeth , or with- which we tug or draw . " A cable tow is a rope or line for drawing or leading . The word is

purely Masonic , and in some of the writings of the early part of the last century we find the expression cable ropes . Prichard so uses it in 1730 . The German word for cable or rope is cabel tau , and thence our cable tow is probably derived . In its first inception , the cable tow seems to have

been used only as a physical means of controlling the candidate , and such an interpretation is still given in the Entered Apprentice ' s degree . But in the second and third degrees a modern symbolism has been introduced , and the cable tow

is in these grades supposed to symbolise the covenant by which all Masons are tied , thus reminding us of the passage in Hosea ( xi . 4 ) , I drew them with cords of a man , with bonds of love .

And in giving his explanation of the length of a cable tow , the same illustrious Mason says : " Gadicke says that according to the ancient laws of Freemasonry , every Brother

Make Daily Advancement.

must attend his Lodge if- he is within the length of his cable tow . The old writers defined the length of a cable tow , which they sometimes called a ' cable ' s length , ' to be three

miles for an Entered Apprentice . But the expression is really symbolic , and , as it was defined by the Baltimore Convention in 1842 , means the scope of a man ' s reasonable ability . "

The dictionaries tell us , a cable is a large rope or chain used to retain a vessel at anchor and for supporting weights , as the cables by which a suspension bridge is carried . " Tow " is an Anglo-Saxon word which means to lead , to draw ; towline ,. a towing line , the rope by which a vessel is drawn

through the water ; it is also Old English and had the same meaning . Custom has made a ship cable one hundred : and twenty fathoms or seven hundred and twenty feet in length . Doubtless our Brethren in the early days of Masonry , in England , found in the tools of their handicraft arid in

the common implements of trade and labour by which they were surrounded , many of their most expressive symbols and gave to them simple and obvious meanings , and it was but natural that , desiring to express the idea that theirs was a strong tie of fraternity , they should have seen in the

rude form of a ship ' s cable the means of producing a lasting impression upon the minds of those who were admitted to their fellowship . Seeing that the idea of an indissoluble union was conveyed by the strong rope by which vessels were fastened or propelled , no doubt they adopted it as

conveying that idea—the tie that binds us together ; into one body , and , used in that sense , it becomes one of the most expressive symbols by which Masonry teaches , but it is evident that it has a much more significant meaning . The explanation sometimes given , that it means " the length

of a ship ' s cable , " which is but seven hundred and twenty feet or , as some of the mystagogues say , " three English miles " must be discarded as too fanciful , if not absolutely absurd , for the length of the Masonic tie , as Bro . Lawrence

so well says , is not to be measured by time or distance . It is perpetual and extends wherever a Mason is to be foundinto the furthest and most remote spot where a Masonic altar has been set up .

We find the phrase used in two connections , one of which need not be referred to , as being but the name given to an implement used in a ceremony , the use of which in the connection in which it is employed , is its sufficient explanation , but the question which we are endeavouring to answer

presents it in another and far more significant relation . We tell the candidate that he is to perform certain mutual and reciprocal duties , which extend to the entire Fraternity wherever any of its members are to be found and he promises conformity to our laws and usuages , as they have existed

from the beginning , but there is a reservation as to certain of his promises , which need not be specified , that their performance is not to be exacted , unless they are " within- the length of his cable tow . " It is absurd to say that these things are to be done if he is within the distance of seven hundred

and twenty feet or yet , three English miles . To adopt so puerile a definition would be to practically nullify the promise . The definition said by Bro . Mackey to have been made by the National Masonic Convention , which assembled in

Baltimore m 1842 , although a careful examination of its proceedings fails to disclose any deliverance on the subject , comes nearer to our views than anything we have seen , that it is " the scope of man ' s reasonable ability , " and yet this is not just the form we would use in answering the question .

It seems to us that the phrase , as we are considering it , has a plain and very comprehensive meaning , which must have been the real one in which it was originally employed . We take it , that it clearly means and is but another form of saying , he will do that which is within the spirit of a Mason ' s

obligation , that which binds him to his fellows and the Craft at large ; that which may be reasonably construed to fall within the scope of his undertaking . Hence , neither a Brother , nor a Lodge , can exact that of a Mason which is not reasonable , just , or expedient ; that which would subject

him to unnecessary hardship , undue loss or obloquy . For instance , it cannot be said that a cable tow is so long that a Lodge in Jackson can summon a Brother in Corinth to appear in person before it , and if it did he would be under no

obligation to respond , nor can an individual demand of another the doing of an immoral act or one which would cause him to forfeit his self-respect or lower him in the estimation of the public , for these things are not within thq