as ever been esteemed the place of darkness; and, in obedience to this
principle, no symbolic light is allowed to illumine the northern part of
the lodge.

The east, then, is, in Masonry, the symbol of the order, and the north the
symbol of the profane world.

Now, the spiritual corner-stone is deposited in the north-east corner of
the lodge, because it is symbolic of the position of the neophyte, or
candidate, who represents it in his relation to the order and to the
world. From the profane world he has just emerged. Some of its
imperfections are still upon him; some of its darkness is still about him;
he as yet belongs in part to the north. But he is striving for light and
truth; the pathway upon which he has entered is directed towards the east.
His allegiance, if I may use the word, is divided. He is not altogether a
profane, nor altogether a mason. If he were wholly in the world, the north
would be the place to find him--the north, which is the reign of darkness.
If he were wholly in the order,--a Master Mason,--the east would have
received him--the east, which is the place of light. But he is neither; he
is an Apprentice, with some of the ignorance of the world cleaving to him,
and some of the light of the order beaming upon him. And hence this
divided allegiance--this double character--this mingling of the departing
darkness of the north with the approaching brightness of the east--is well
expressed, in our symbolism, by the appropriate position of the spiritual
corner-stone in the north-east corner of the lodge. One surface of the
stone faces the north, and the other surface faces the east. It is neither
wholly in the one part nor wholly in the other, and in so far it is a
symbol of initiation not fully developed--that which is incomplete and
imperfect, and is, therefore, fitly represented by the recipient of the
first degree, at the very moment of his initiation.[117]

But the strength and durability of the corner-stone are also eminently
suggestive of symbolic ideas. To fulfil its design as the foundation and
support of the massive building whose erection it precedes, it should be
constructed of a material which may outlast all other parts of the
edifice, so that when that "eternal ocean whose waves are years" shall
have ingulfed all who were present at the construction of the building in
the vast vortex of its ever-flowing current; and when generation after
generation shall have passed away, and the crumblin