Liberty
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Part of The Cabletow
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- Liberty
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- is taught by degrees only.” After you reach the last stage of the allegory for sure there can be no more. Hench, the MM degree is the highest degree. — Jose E. Ra^ela, P. M. LIBERTY What then is Liberty? In my own conception of it liberty means that each man of us is to enjoy unhindered the full exercise of the normal functions and powers of his nature. This is an entirely different conception than that implied in the no-restraint theory, because man's nature cannot function normally in a void, or in a condition of pure indivi dualism; the functions and powers of a man’s nature, when rightly understood, imply and demand a social life, a community of lives in which each individual finds his true happiness in his right rela tions to other human beings. It will be belter to permit this con ception to define itself through a series of examples and illustrations. One of the most important powers of a man’s nature is his mind. If the man is to be happy, if his nature is to be healthy and unmutilated, he must be permitted to live in a social order where he has absolute right to use that mind unhindered by anything or anybody. The mind is so made that any interference with its nor mal functioning brings distress to the individual and disorder lo human society. Every attempt to dictate to men how they shall use their minds has proved to be disastrous, as history so abundantly proves. One may recall Prince Metternich and the Peace of Vienna in 1815 when the masters of Europe ordained what men should think, speak, and read. That regime did not bring the uniformity of thought and peace of life which the masters expected: it brought quite the contrary, a fermentation of embittered men and women which led finally to the outbursts of 1848. It is a peculiar ageny to have one’s very brain in chains: men must rebel or at last sur render, to sink in the apathy and listlessness of the peasant and the serf. In what does liberty of mind consist? In the right lo use it normally, for the health and the good of all. It does not mean that an individual is free to make use of his mind without restraint, or hindrance of any kind. The man who uses his intellect to perpe trate a fraud should be held in leash; when he exercises it in the manufacture and dissemination of lies it is time that he feel that he is not the only man who lives in the world. When a man is set free to think he is set free, not for intellectual license and anarchy which it at last the absence of thought, but to think according to February, 1958 291 those Jaws of thinking which are inherent in the mind itself. There fore freedom of thought does not lead to anarchy and confusion but to harmony, for all facts exist in the system of nature, and all truth is in harmony with itself. When we Masons contend for the right of the free intellect we are contending for the right and healthful use of the intellect, the normal use of it; not for mere caprice.—THE BUILDER. FACTS ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS The patients going to mental hospitals just this year for the first time will lose about $1,750,000,000 that they would have earned during the time they arc sick. One out of every two patients going to a medical doctor is suf fering from an illness which is tied up with mental or emotional dis orders. The same is true for one out of three patients who go to general hospitals. For each patient being treated for mental illness, less than $4.00 per year is being spent on research to find new ways of prevention and treatment. Since 1934 Scottish Rite has sponsored more than 50 separate projects at research centers across the United States and Canada in a coordinated effort to help humanity’s fight against Schizophrenia, the chief mental crippier. Today this Scottish Rite program is acknowledged by leaders in the field as one of the greatest contribu tions in the battle for better mental health. The Supreme Council Benevolent Foundation, supported by thousands of Scottish Rite Masdns, provides the financing for this vital work. Mohamet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mohamet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, “If the hill will not come to Mohamet, Mohamet will go to the hill.** — Francis Bacon THE CABLETOW
- Date
- 1958
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