The Square

The Square. [No. 47]

Without the Square, each Building would have been
Wanting in due precision; edges, sides
And angles all awry. No Master chides
The cunning Workman who has duly seen
The Square to every well dress’d Stone applied: 5
For when the Eye might err, the Square would not:
So that Temple, Castle, Convent, Cot,
Were out of Square. And now, with pleasant pride,
Which no true Mason need attempt to hide,
We view the “Poems in Stone” left by their hands: 10
And while through all the Ages one Stone stands
Upon another, they will seem to chide
Unworthy Masons, who neglect to see
The Square put to their Conduct constantly.

by George Markham Tweddell  1st published 1887