s. It found its infancy among the works of the great
cathedral of Strasburg. Erwin of Steinbach, the leading architect
employed in the erection of this beautiful and stupendous work of
architectural beauty, called around him other noted men from the
different cities of Germany, Switzerland, and France; he formed the
first lodge. The members became deputies for the formation of lodges
in other cities, and thus in 1459 the heads of these lodges assembled
at Ratisbon, and drew up their Act of Incorporation, which instituted
in perpetuity the lodge of Strasburg as the chief lodge, and its
president as the Grand Master of the Freemasons of Germany.

The masters, journeymen, and apprentices formed a corporation having
special jurisdiction in different localities. In order not to be
confounded with the vulgar mechanics who could only use the hammer
and the trowel, the Freemasons invented signs of mutual recognition
and certain ceremonies of initiation. A traditionary secret was handed
down, revealed to the initiated, and that only according to the degrees
they had attained. They adopted for symbols the square, the level,
the compass, and the hammer. In some lodges and in higher grades
(for they differ almost in every nation) we find the Bible, compass,
and square only. But the Bible given to the aspirant he is to
understand he is to acknowledge no other law but that of Adam--the
law which Almighty god had engraved on his heart, and which is called
the law of nature (thereby rejecting the laws of the Church and
society). The compass recalls to his mind that God is the central
point of everything, from which everything is equally distant, and to
which everything is equally near. By the square he is to learn that
God made everything equal. The drift of these symbolic explanations
is obvious.

In the ceremonies of initiation into the various degrees everything
was devised that could strike the imagination, awaken curiosity, or
excite terror. The awful oath that has been administered in some
Continental lodges would send a thrill of horror through every
right-minded person, whilst the lugubrious ceremonies the aspirant has
to pass elicit a smile--such, for instance, of leading the young Mason
with bandaged eyes around the inner temple, and in the higher grades
presenting him with a dagger, which he is to plunge into a manikin
stuffed with bladders full of blood, and declare that thus he will be
avenged of the death of