Yes, I have supervised projects and I get what you are saying. But you still will not address my point that the Emulation Ritual includes working tools that stress higher education while the American Rite does not. Your answer is to say that they are there, which I disagree. The larger issue is why did they add/subtract working tools when creating our rituals. …
I disagree about your assertion the American Rites does not stress ‘education’ because it does. If you are attempting to make a difference between ‘education’ & ‘higher education’; then the use the ‘higher’ is by you. It is not in the Emulation ritual.
The lecture used in my GL has the following:
“but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of divesting our hearts and consciences of all the vices and excesses of life, thereby fitting our minds as living stones for that spiritual building, that “house not made with hands; eternal in the heavens.”
The Emulation Ritual lecture you are referencing states:
“ … the common Gavel to knock off all superfluous knobs and excrescences, and the Chisel to further smooth and prepare the stone and render it fit for the hands of the more expert workman. But, as we are not all operative Masons, but rather free and accepted or speculative, we apply these tools to our morals. In this sense, the 24-in Gauge represents the twenty-four hours of the day, part to be spent in prayer to Almighty God, part in labour and refreshment, and part in serving a friend or Brother in time of need, without detriment to ourselves or connections. The common Gavel represents the force of conscience, which should keep down all vain and unbecoming thoughts which might obtrude during any of the aforementioned periods, so that our words and actions may ascend unpolluted to the Throne of Grace. The Chisel points out to us the advantages of education, by which means alone we are rendered fit members of regularly organized Society. …”
In the Emulation Ritual the two statements of the Chisel appear to be disconnected logically. The chisel is described as completing the work of the Common Gavel; ie… ‘to further smooth’. The Common Gavel is described as ‘representing the force of conscience’ to ‘keep away’ or remove the superfluities (vices). Therefore the Chisel is a continuation of that representation, but the jump to the Chisel “points out to us the advantage of education” is not logical. There is not connection here, other than the self-contained statement.
Doing a little research, the Chisel as a separate tool doesn’t seem to appear in the English rituals until about 1801. This is from the William Preston’s ‘Illustrations of Freemasonry” which is commentary on the Ritual of the Grand Lodge of England from 1772 to 1812. In 1801 the Chisel is first mentioned and described as:
“The Chisel demonstrates, the advantages of discipline and education. The mind, like the diamond, in its original state, is unpolished; but as the effects of the chisel on the external coat, soon presents to view the latent beauties of the diamond; so education discovers the latent virtues of the mind, and draws them forth to range the large field of matter and space, to display the summit of human knowledge, our duty to God, and to man.” … This is a much more coherent description than the singular statement presented in the current Emulation Ritual and this is the apparent source of that abridged statement.
Now back to your question of education. Other than the inclusion of an addition Chisel tool in the Emulation Ritual, both lectures say the same thing. The Common Gavel in both is allegorically used by the one’s conscience to removed vices; and thus render on fit for an education. … To educate someone with many excess vises or who is sinful is a waste of time. He would not be of any benefit to Freemasonry.
The statement in my paper was “Although the allegory is slightly different,
both the US Ritual and the Emulation Ritual convey the same message of divesting our selves of vices, the excesses of life and preparation
of the mind to receive an education (material & spiritual), which is to follow in the
Fellowcraft degree and life.
Now a further note: The lecture as used in the US appears to be from the Grand Lodge of Scotland and not from the English rituals. The Scottish ritual lecture is near word for word as the US lecture. It might be the Grand Lodge of England from 1717 to 1801 used the same lecture since Dr & Rev. James Anderson was also Scottish Mason; and Dr. & Rev. Desaguliers did research and based the English ritual upon that use by the Scottish Lodges.