Twenty-four centuries ago these were the Chinese Ethics:
“The Philosopher [Confucius] said, ‘SAN! my doctrine is simple, and easy to be understood.’ THSENG-TSEU replied, ‘that is certain.’ The Philosopher having gone out, the disciples asked what their master had meant to say. THSENG-TSEU responded, ‘The doctrine of our Master consists solely in being upright of heart, and loving our neighbor as we love ourself.'”
About a century later, the Hebrew law said, “If any man hate his neighbor . . . then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to
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do unto his brother … Better is a neighbor that is near, than a brother afar off … Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
In the same fifth century before Christ, SOCRATES the Grecian said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Three generations earlier, ZOROASTER had said to the Persians: “Offer up thy grateful prayers to the Lord, the most just and pure Ormuzd, the supreme and adorable Cod, who thus declared to his Prophet Zerdusht: ‘Hold it not meet to do unto others what thou wouldst not desire done unto thyself; do that unto the people, which, when done to thyself, is not disagreeable unto thee.'”
The same doctrine had been long taught in the schools of Babylon, Alexandria, and Jerusalem. A Pagan declared to the Pharisee HILLEL, that he was ready to embrace the Jewish religion, if he could make known to him in a few words a summary of the whole law of Moses. “That which thou likest not done to thyself,” said Hillel, “do it not unto thy neighbor. Therein is all the law: the rest is nothing but the commentary upon it.”
“Nothing is more natural,” said CONFUCIUS, “nothing more simple, than the principles of that morality which I endeavor, by salutary maxims, to inculcate in you . . . It is humanity; which is to say, that universal charity among all of our species, without distinction. It is uprightness; that is, that rectitude of spirit and of heart, which makes one seek for truth in everything, and desire it, without deceiving one’s self or others. It is, finally, sincerity or good faith; which is to say, that frankness, that openness of heart, tempered by self-reliance, which excludes all feints and all disguising, as much in speech as in action.”
To diffuse useful information, to further intellectual refinement, sure forerunner of moral improvement, to hasten the coming of the great day, when the dawn of general knowledge shall chase away the lazy, lingering mists of ignorance and error, even from the base of the great social pyramid, is indeed a high calling, in which the most splendid talents and consummate virtue may well press onward, eager to bear a part. From the Masonic ranks ought to go forth those whose genius and not their ancestry ennoble them, to open to all ranks the temple of science, and by their own example to make the humblest men emulous to climb steps no longer inaccessible, and enter the unfolded gates burning in the sun.
The highest intellectual cultivation is perfectly compatible with
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the daily cares and toils of working-men. A keen relish for the most sublime truths of science belongs alike to every class of mankind. And, as philosophy was taught in the sacred groves of Athens, and under the Portico, and in the old Temples of Egypt and India, so in our Lodges ought Knowledge to be dispensed, the Sciences taught, and the Lectures become like the teachings of Socrates and Plato, of Agassiz and Cousin.
Real knowledge never permitted either turbulence or unbelief; but its progress is the forerunner of liberality and enlightened toleration. Whoso dreads these may well tremble; for he may be well assured that their day is at length come, and must put to speedy flight the evil spirits of tyranny and persecution, which haunted the long night now gone down the sky. And it is to be hoped that the time will soon arrive, when, as men will no longer suffer themselves to be led blindfolded in ignorance, so will they no more yield to the vile principle of judging and treating their fellow-creatures, not according to the intrinsic merit of their actions, but according to the accidental and involuntary coincidence of their opinions.
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
