‘It’s National Grammar Day’

    

Winding Stairway of the Marietta Masonic Building, Ohio. Those five balusters at center are in the forms of the Five Orders of Architecture. American Union Lodge 1 and Harmar 390 meet here. The temple was constructed by Harmar in 1907-08.

Grammar teaches us the proper arrangement of words according to the idiom or dialect of any particular kingdom or people; and that excellency of pronunciation, which enables us to speak or write a language with accuracy and justness, agreeable to reason, authority, and the strict rules of literature.

William Preston

Illustrations of Masonry

1775

Grammar. One of the seven liberal arts and sciences, which forms, with Logic and Rhetoric, a triad dedicated to the cultivation of language. “God,” says Sanctius, “created man the participant of reason; and as He willed him to be a social being, He bestowed upon him the gift of language, in the perfecting of which there are three aids. The first is Grammar, which rejects from language all solecisms and barbarous expressions; the second is Logic, which is occupied with the truthfulness of language; and the third is Rhetoric, which seeks only the adornment of language.”

Albert G. Mackey

Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences

1917

Arts and Sciences, Liberal. In the seventh century, and for many centuries afterwards, all learning was limited to and comprised in what were called the seven liberal arts and sciences, namely: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. The epithet “liberal” is a fair translation of the Latin ingenuus, which means free-born; thus Cicero speaks of the artes ingenuae, or the arts befitting a free-born man; and Ovid says in the well-known lines: “To have studied carefully the liberal arts refines the manners, and prevents us from being brutish.”

And Phillips, in his New World of Words (1706), defines the liberal arts and sciences to be “such as are fit for gentlemen and scholars, as mechanic trades and handicrafts for meaner people.” As Freemasons are required by their landmarks to be free-born, we see the propriety of incorporating the arts of free-born men among their symbols. As the system of Masonry derived its present form and organization from the times when the study of these arts and sciences constituted the labors of the wisest men, they have very appropriately been adopted as the symbol of the completion of human learning.

Albert Mackey

The Symbolism of Freemasonry; Illustrating and Explaining its Science and Philosophy, its Legends, Myths, and Symbols

1867

Grammar is the key by which alone the door can be opened to the understanding of speech. It is Grammar which reveals the admirable art of language and unfolds its various constituent parts—its names, definitions and respective offices; it unravels, as it were, the thread of which the web of speech is composed. These reflections seldom occur to anyone before his acquaintance with the art; yet it is most certain that, without a knowledge of Grammar, it is very difficult to speak with propriety, precision, and purity.

The Standard Work and Lectures

of Ancient Craft Masonry

Grand Lodge of New York

2019

Grammar. Is the key by which alone the door can be opened to the understanding of speech. It is Grammar which reveals the admirable art of language, and unfolds its various constituent parts—its names, definitions, and respective offices; it unravels, as it were, the thread of which the web of speech is composed. These reflections seldom occur to any one before their acquaintance with the art; yet it is most certain that, without a knowledge of Grammar, it is very difficult to speak with propriety, precision, and purity.

The General Ahiman Rezon

and Freemason’s Guide

Daniel Sickels

1865

Today is March fourth, which is homophonous with “march forth,” which is a complete sentence, which is why today’s date was chosen to be National Grammar Day, so happy National Grammar Day! This occasion was devised by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, in 2008.

chicagocopshop.com

“So back to National Grammar Day, which is just one day,” says the University of Illinois. “You’ve heard of red-letter days. Well, National Grammar Day is a red-pen day, a day to correct other people’s grammar.”

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid that.

In his Prestonian Lecture for 1930, titled “The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences,” Henry Philip Cart de Lafontaine says:

According to the definition of the late Dr. Henry Sweet, a grammar gives the general facts of language, whilst a dictionary deals with the special facts of language. To the ordinary man, grammar means a set of more or less arbitrary rules, which he has to observe if he wants to speak or write correctly; this may be called prescriptive grammar. To a scientific man, the rules are not what he has to observe but what he observes when he examines the way in which speakers and writers belonging to a particular community or nation actually use their mother-tongue; this may be labelled descriptive grammar. The nineteenth century furnished us with another form of grammar, comparative historical grammar, and this should always be supplemented by separative grammar, which does full justice to what is peculiar to each language, and treats each on its own merits. Many things of grammatical importance, such as intonation, stress, etc., are not shown in our traditional spellings. Dialect grammars and grammars of the languages of uncivilized races deal of necessity only with spoken words. Grammar being the basis of all the liberal sciences, it particularly concerns us as Masons to know its rules, for without this knowledge we cannot be acquainted with the beauties of our own Craft lectures, nor can we speak with correctness or propriety. When I reflect on the present slip-shod manner of speech, on the ungrammatical nature of letter-writing, on the loose phraseology of the ordinary novel, and on the atrocious spelling exhibited in letter-writing, I am led to recommend wholeheartedly a return to the study of grammar.

     

‘Celebrate World Logic Day!’

    

CIPSH

Logic teaches us to guide our reason discretionally in the general knowledge of things, and to direct our inquiries after truth, as well for the instruction of others as our own improvement. It consists of a regular train of argument, whence we infer, deduce, and conclude, according to certain premises laid down, admitted, or granted. In it are employed the faculties of conceiving, judging, reasoning, and disposing; all of which are naturally led on from one gradation to another, till the point in question is finally determined.

William Preston

Illustrations of Masonry

1775

Logic. The art of reasoning, and one of the seven liberal arts and sciences, whose uses are insulated in the second degree. The power of right reasoning, which distinguishes the man of sane mind from the madman and the idiot, is deemed essential to the Mason, that he may comprehend both his rights and his duties. And hence the unfortunate beings just named, who are without the necessary mental quality, are denied admission to the Order. The Old Constitutions define logic to be the art “that teacheth to discern truth from falsehood.”

Albert Mackey

An Encyclopædia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences

1874

Logic is that science which directs us how to form clear and distinct ideas of things, and thereby prevents us from being misled by their similitude or resemblance. Of all the human sciences, that concerning man is certainly most worthy of the human mind, and the proper manner of conducting its several powers in the attainment of truth and knowledge. This science ought to be cultivated as the foundation or groundwork of our inquiries; particularly, in the pursuit of those sublime principles which claim our attention as Masons.

Middle Chamber Lecture

Standard Work and Lectures

Grand Lodge of New York

Looking around the world today, evidence of logic might not be obvious, but today is World Logic Day nevertheless. Most regular Freemasons in the United States are instructed, to some extent, in Logic during the lecture of the Fellow Craft Degree. Maybe your lodge employs the New York version above or something similar, or perhaps something closer to the Preston quotation at top. They suffice. Logic is essential in understanding Geometry. In understanding anything, really. With logic, for example, one studying Masonic history is immune to silly Templar nonsense notions. But what of the history of logic? As far as we know, this dates back about 2,500 years to Aristotle. Sure, many philosophers have defined logic since Aristotle’s time, but he was the first. Or at least his writings are the earliest still extant, so we have to start with him.

H. Cart de Lafontaine

In “The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences,” his Prestonian Lecture for 1930, Henry Philip Cart de Lafontaine (fascinating man!), while Master of QC2076, writes:

Logic is the name given to one of the four main departments of philosophy. It is the science of the processes of inference. There are three types of inference: the first being from particular to particular, which is called analogical inference; the second is from particular to universal, which is inductive inference; the third is from universal to particular, which is deductive inference.

We will illustrate these three types in order to give a clearer meaning, and we will employ the names of three Greek cities in the illustrations, though any others might quite as well be substituted.

Suppose I say, “Border war between Thebes and Phocis is evil,” and then make the further statement that “Border war between Thebes and Athens is similar to that between Thebes and Phocis.” From these two, I draw the analogical inference that “Border war between Thebes and Athens is evil.”

Again, I may say that “Border war between Thebes and Phocis is evil,” and follow up that assertion with the assertion that “All border war is like that between Thebes and Phocis.” From these two statements I draw the inductive inference that “All border war is evil.”

I now start with this inductive inference that “All border war is evil,” and I follow on with the statement that “Border war between Thebes and Phocis is border war,” and draw the conclusion by deductive or syllogistic inference that “Border war between Thebes and Athens is evil.”

You will see that this is rather like an algebraical problem; by eliminating certain factors, you arrive at a definite conclusion of analogy, induction, and deduction. We owe to Aristotle this triple distinction.

World Logic Day is the creation of the sometimes illogical and detestable UNESCO, which proclaimed the first such observance for this date in 2019. That proclamation says, in part:

The ability to think is one of the most defining features of humankind. In different cultures, the definition of humanity is associated with concepts such as consciousness, knowledge and reason. According to the classic Western tradition, human beings are defined as “rational” or “logical animals.” Logic, as the investigation on the principles of reasoning, has been studied by many civilizations throughout history and, since its earliest formulations, logic has played an important role in the development of philosophy and the sciences.

Despite its undeniable relevance to the development of knowledge, sciences and technologies, there is little public awareness on the importance of logic. The proclamation of World Logic Day by UNESCO, in association with the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH), intends to bring the intellectual history, conceptual significance and practical implications of logic to the attention of interdisciplinary science communities and the broader public.

A dynamic and global annual celebration of World Logic Day aims at fostering international cooperation, promoting the development of logic, in both research and teaching, supporting the activities of associations, universities and other institutions involved with logic, and enhancing public understanding of logic and its implications for science, technology and innovation. Furthermore, the celebration of World Logic Day can also contribute to the promotion of a culture of peace, dialogue and mutual understanding, based on the advancement of education and science.

So, if your lodge meets today, be sure to rise when permitted and tell the brethren about World Logic Day, and maybe even toast this occasion during the Festive Board—especially if you work Logic ritual.