The Rough Ashlar

The Rough Ashlar, No. II [No. 22]

If for the earthly Building it be meet
Always to choose sound, firm, and lasting Stone,
We Speculative Masons ought alone
To work up good materials, when we greet
Each other in our Lodges as the Sons 5
Of Light: for Masonry does not profess
To change the vile to good, though it will bless
All who will live its precepts, Mere Goths and Huns
And Vandals—fit alone for Attila
Or Genseric to rule—are not the men 10
From whom to make Freemasons: only when
The heart and mind have been prepared, we may
Each become polish’d Stones, and upright stand,
Fit for acceptance at the Master-Builder’s hand.

by George Markham Tweddell 1st published 1887