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Physical Disability.

Physical Disability .

OF late years the physical qualifications ot candidates for the Degrees of Freemasonry have attracted a great deal of attention in the United States of America . Nor has the attention thus excited been unattended with controversy . The peaceful sway of the United Grand Lodge and the practical unanimity of the sister Grand

Lodges of the United Kingdom leave the English brethren to the enjoyment of a Masonic atmosphere unclouded by even such amicable contention as has been going on across the Atlantic with regard to the Doctrine of Physical Qualifications . But the discussion is not without interest for

Freemasons in the British Isles . In the first place , the arguments of the disputants are based on the clauses and provisions contained in the OLD CHARGES of British Freemasons . In the second place , the orthodox , or , at least , the more generally accepted theory and practice of our

Transatlantic Brethren on this question are not such as seem to us to be altogether warranted by a candid examination of all the circumstances that should determine us in the selection of members . Again , we must remember that the majority of

English-speaking Freemasons hail from the United States ; that they reckon amongst them some of the ablest Masonic jurists that grace the English tongue ; and that their zeal for Freemasonry is as unimpeachable as their ability . Hence , it is well that we should examine briefly how their position differs from ours on a question that may at any

moment challenge similar attention on this side of the Atlantic . On the one hand , the physical qualifications of candidates are held by our American brethren to be of such binding weight that they rank as an Ancient Landmark , not merely as

a general law or constitutional regulation . It is laid down in so many words by the most eminent of American Masonic jurists , that the Ancient Landmarks prescribe that " a candidate must be without blemish , and have the full and proper use of his limbs ; for a maimed man can do the Craft no good . "

And it is impossible to take up any report of the annual Communications of the various Grand Lodges of the United States without lighting upon some instance of a candidate being rejected for some trivial dismemberment , even for a missing finger-joint .

On the other hand , the Grand Lodge of England recognises no such physical Landmark , and throws on each individual lodge the responsibility of seeing that its candidates are fit to take their part in the work of the lodge , whether that work be symbolical or material . The law simply prescribes that the candidate must be a free man ,

of full age , and at the time of initiation in reputable circumstances . Let us now see what are the grounds on which the leaders of Masonic thought in America rest their contention that a candidate must be " without blemish . " Will it be

believed that they repose solely on the customs and requirements of Operative Masons in a bygone condition of Society ? We think we can fairly state the argument by the aid of the quotations we annex from the OLD CHARGKS . First in point of time comes the earliest of the prose

versions , dating from the days when the OLD CHARGKS had real weight and authority among the cathedral-builders of the 14 th century . We use the late Bro . Speth ' s rendering : " The sixth article is this . That no master from covetousness or for gain shall accept an apprentice that is unprofitable ; that is , having any maim ( or defect ) , by reason of which he is incapable of doing a mason's proper work . "

It would be inconsistent with our limits to trace the verbal charges and developments of this medieval article . Suffice it to say , that it duly appears , in one form or another , in Anderson ' s Coitsliliilioiis , 1723 ; Pennell ' s Dublin Coiislilnlions , 1730 ; and Dermott's Ahiman Rezon , 1756 ; the three prime sources whence all the Constitutions of all existing

Grand Lodges have been derived . Most of the American Grand Lodges took their original Constitutions , directly or indirectly , from the last-named source , in which the article appeared in the following form : — " No master should take an apprentice that is not the son of honest parentsa perfect

, youth without maim or defect in his body , and capable of learning the mysteries of the art , that the lords ( or founders ) may be well served , and the Craft not despised . . . . " It will be observed that in both these quotations , one

standing at the head of the OLD CHARGKS in point of antiquity , and the other inaugurating the system of independent American Grand Lodges four hundred years later , the nature of the defect , which was to operate as a bar , is plainly indicated . It was not every blemish that was to constitute a disability . It was a defect , in the words of

the fourteenth century CHARGE , " by reason of which he [ the entered apprentice ] is incapable of doing a mason ' s proper work . " Even in the days of Operative Masonry , minor bodily defects would not justify a master in refusing to take an otherwise strong and willing youth as an

apprentice . In order to put this beyond doubt , the reason for the limitation is assigned . A standard is set up whereby each individual case is to be judged , instead of a general prohibition excluding every candidate save " a perfect vouth . "

Thus the argument for rigid adherence to a supposed Landmark among medieval Operative Masons falls to the ground . The defect was to be estimated in relation to the work to be done . Let us maintain the usages of our forefathers in the Craft , and ascertain in the case of each candidate how any defect from which he may suffer would

affect the value of his work . The Speculative Freemason of to-day is no longer occupied in the construction of the magnificent piles of engineering Wisdom , pyramidal Strength , and architectural Beauty that exacted careful scrutiny into the physical capabilities of his ancestors in

the Craft . The task of to-day is on a higher plane , and exacts correspondingly higher qualifications , but of a different nature . Let us appraise the physical qualifications according to the standard set up by the OLD CHARGES , and see to it that every candidate whom we admit to

the Craft is fitted " to take his share in building up an edifice which shall display to full advantage the social , intellectual , and spiritual faculties with' which it has pleased the Great Architect of the Universe to endow him . " Then , indeed , shall the Craft be not despised , as the quaint old Craftsman puts it .