The Junior Deacon then repairs to the Master and gives three knocks as at the door; after answering of which, the same questions are asked and answers returned as at the door, when the Master says, “Since he comes endued with all these necessary qualifications, let him enter this worshipful lodge, in the name of the Lord, and take heed on what he enters.”

The Junior Deacon returns to the door and says, “Let

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him enter this worshipful lodge, in the name of the Lord, and take heed on what he enters.”

In entering, both points of the compass are pressed against his naked right and left breasts, when the Junior Deacon stops the candidate and says, “Brother, when you first entered this lodge, you were received on the point of the compass, pressing your naked left breast, which was then explained to you; when you entered it the second time you were received on the angle of the square, which was also explained to you; on entering now you are received on the two extreme points of the compass, pressing your right and left breasts, which are thus explained: As the most vital parts of man are contained between the two breasts, so are the most valuable tenets of Masonry contained between the two extreme points of the compass, which are virtue, morality, and brotherly love.”

The Senior Deacon then conducts the candidate three times regularly round the lodge. [I wish the reader to observe, that on this, as well as every other degree, that the Junior Warden is the first of the three principal officers that the candidate passes, traveling with the sun when he starts round the lodge, and that as he passes the Junior Warden, Senior Warden and Master, the first time going round, they each give one rap, the second time two raps, and third time three raps each. The number of raps given on those occasions are the same as the number of the degree, except the first degree, on which three are given, I always thought improperly.] During the time the candidate is traveling round the room, the Master reads the following passages of Scripture, the conductor and candidate traveling and the Master reading so that the traveling and reading terminate at the same time:

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them while the sun or the light, or the moon, or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders shall cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows

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be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets; when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low. Also, when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets; or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

The conductor and candidate halt at the Junior Warden in the South, where the same questions are asked and answers returned as at the door. He is then conducted to the Senior Warden in the west, where the same questions are asked and answers returned as before; from whence he is conducted to the Worshipful Master in the east, who asks the same questions and receives the same answers as before, and who likewise asks the candidate from whence he came. and whither he is traveling.

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