This document provides a summary of a Masonic lecture on the study of mankind and man's advancement. It discusses how man has studied himself to understand his needs and relationships. It contrasts ancient Rome, where the state was everything and individuals had few rights, with modern governments where all people are equal under the law. It acknowledges we have progressed but still have work to do in fully embracing brotherhood. The lecture urges members to do noble acts for others and have faith in humanity's continued moral and intellectual growth.

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A MASONIC LECTURE: ARRANGED BY WM. E.
KRUPP.
"Know, then, thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man."- POPE.
THAT the study of mankind is man is as true today as when the thought was uttered by
the poets and the teachers of ages past. Man's greatest interest has always been in himself.
No subject has so engaged his attention. From it he has learned to know his needs and his
necessities, his desires and his ambitions, and he has striven, so far as has been within his
power, to satisfy and gratify them. It is the study of himself that has caused him to
consider his fellowman, the relationship which he bears and the duties which he owes to
him, and it has also led him to a contemplation of the divine. Plato's exhortation, "Know
Thyself," is the expression of the same thought, but subjective rather than objective. It is
this study of himself that has caused man to rise above his environments and brought
about the advancement, the elevation and the improvement of the human race.
And what an improvement there has been, what an advancement he has made! The most
imaginative of the minds of the past, yes, even the most visionary, could not have
conceived of, much less have comprehended, man's condition in the present age.
History delights to dwell upon the golden age of Rome - Rome, mistress of the seas,
center of civilization, home of the arts and the sciences, of sculpture and of painting. We
read of glorious conquests in war, her great and renowned men, her glorious festivals, the
beauties of her architecture, her sculpture and her paintings the golden age of Rome, and
fancy pictures all that is great and glorious and beautiful. Great, indeed, she was in all her
glory, but the glory faded and passed away, as do all things whose foundations are laid in
the quicksands of error and not upon the rocks of everlasting truth.
Let us pause for a moment and consider the basic principles upon which that
superstructure was reared and without the enforcement of which it was believed human
society could not exist.
According to their views the state was everything, the individual nothing. Man existed
but for the purposes of the state, and was valuable only so far as he was of value to the
state. They assumed that in the beginning came government and then came man, and their
beliefs are diametrically opposed to our present beliefs that government exists for the
benefit of mankind and not mankind for the benefit of government.

2. Again mankind was divided and classified, the nobility and aristocracy, the plebian or
common people, and beneath these were the slaves. A slave, who might be one taken
captive in war and of equal intelligence and education with his master, was property, and
as such was bartered and bought and sold. As property his life was of no particular
consequence and might be taken by his master with impunity. And woman, man's only
peer, was little better than a slave. If married she was the property of her husband, if
unmarried she was the property of her father. Like a slave, she had no rights, and having
no rights she could get no redress for wrongs. What a contrast to the fundamental
principles of all enlightened governments of today that in the eyes of the law all men are
equal, that the life of one human being is as valuable as the life of another, and that
neither government nor man dare take a life without a most just and sufficient reason.
And the conception of the relationship of man to his Creator - death was the end of all.
Except among some of the philosophers, there was no belief in a hereafter, although
thought and abstract theories were carried to their highest points, the deepest recesses of
the mind explored, the boldest speculations upon the nature of the soul and its spiritual
existence originated and carried out. The grave was the end of all.
And the principle of the brotherhood of man, so potent a factor in the world today, did
not, it could not, exist. The old primitive truth had been lost sight of, nor was it restored
until the cry of the down-trodden of France, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY
shook the earth to its very foundations and welled in the hearts of men. The heralding of
that principle stirred mankind from their lethargy and brought about the final and
complete overthrow of all those principles which made the greatness and the glory of
Rome. Man to-day can look down from a most exalted position upon the past ages of the
world.
But, my brethren, we are far from perfection. We practice the great principle of the
brotherhood of man but partially, and we have much to strive for. Selfishness is our
greatest curse, and moral weakness in doing our duty is out greatest handicap. "Count
that day lost whose low descending sun, views from thy hand no worthy action done"
should be the rule and guide of our lives; not for ourselves but for others, should be our
motto; and to endeavor to do something in the cause of humanity that shall live when we
are dead, should be our purpose. Life is action, noblest action, and it is not measured by
time. To do nothing worth doing is no more than to sleep, and what were life if it were
but one continuous sleep:
"We live in deeds, not in years; in thoughts, not breaths,
In feeling, not in letters on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He lives most
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."
Let us believe, my brethren, that man will move steadily onward, that he will acquire the
mental light which will enable him to see the right, and the moral courage to do the right
as he sees it. And finally, let us have faith in humanity, and in the coming of the day

3. when life and light and love shall be the one great law of the universe and its eternal
harmony.