LANDMARKS, MASONIC. Literally, and in a general sense, anything by which the boundary of a property is defined. In ancient times the correct division of lands was an object of great importance. Stones, trees, and hillocks were the usual landmarks. The removal of a landmark was considered a heinous crime by the Jewish law, as may be judged by the denunciation of Moses: "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark." Of the nature of the landmarks of Masonry there has been some diversity of opinion; yet the conviction has become settled that the true principles consti tuting landmarks are those universal customs of the Order which have gradually grown into permanent rules of action, and originally established by competent authority, at a period so remote- that no account of their origin is to be found in the records of Masonic history, and which were considered essential to the preservation and integrity of the institution, to preserve its purity and prevent innovation. Dr. Albert G. Mackey, who has devoted much study and attention to the subject, enumerates the following as the unchangeable Landmarks of Masonry: "1. The modes of recognition are, of all the landmarks, the most legiti mate and unquestioned. They admit of no variation; and if ever they have suffered alteration or addition, the evil of such a violation of the ancient law has always made itself subse quently manifest. An admission of this is to be found in the proceed ings of the late Masonic Congress at Paris, where a proposition was presented to render these modes of recognition once more universal— a proposition which never would have been necessary if the integrity of this important landmark had been rigorously preserved.
" 2. The division of symbolic Masonry into three degrees is a landmark that has been better preserved than almost any other, although even here the mischievous spirit of innovation has left its traces, and by the disruption of its concluding portion from the third degree, a want of uniformity has been created in respect to the final teaching of the Master's order; and the Royal Arch of England, Scot land, Ireland, and America, and the high degrees' of France and Ger many are all made to differ in the mode of which they lead the neo phyte to the great consummation of all symbolic Masonry. In 1813, the
Grand Lodge of England vindicated the ancient landmark, by solemnly enacting that Ancient Craft Masonry consisted of the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and Master Mason, including the Holy Royal Arch. But the disrup tion has never been healed, and the landmark, although acknowledged in its integrity by all, still continues to be violated.
" 3. The legend of the third de gree is an important landmark, the integrity of which has been well preserved. There is no rite of Masonry, practiced in any country or language, in which the essential elements of this legend are not taught. The lectures may vary, and, indeed, are constantly changing, but the legend has ever remained sub stantially the same. And it is necessary that it should be so, for the legend of the temple builder constitutes the very essence and identity of Masonry. Any rite which should exclude it, or materially alter it, would at once, by that exclusion or alteration, cease to be a Masonic rite.
" 4. The government of the Frater nity by a presiding officer called a Grand Master. who is elected from the body of the Craft is a fourth landmark of the Order. Many per sons ignorantly suppose that the election of the Grand Master is held in consequence of a law or regulation of the Grand Lodge. Such. how ever, is not the case. The office is indebted for its existence to a land mark of the Order. Grand Masters are to be found in the records of the institution long before Grand Lodges were established; and if the present system of legislative gov ernment by Grand Lodges were to be abolished, a Grand Master would still be necessary. In fact, although there has been a period within the records of history, and, indeed, of very recent date, when a Grand Lodge was unknown, there never has been a time when the Craft did not have their Grand Master.