Again:  the north, as the point in the horizon which is most remote from the vivifying rays of the sun when at his meridian height, has, with equal metaphorical propriety, been called the place of darkness, and is, therefore, symbolic of the profane world, which has not yet been penetrated and illumined by the intellectual rays of masonic light.  All history concurs in recording the fact that, in the early ages of the world, its northern portion was enveloped in the most profound moral and mental darkness.  It was from the remotest regions of Northern Europe that those barbarian hordes “came down like the wolf on the fold,” and devastated the fair plains of the south, bringing with them a dark curtain of ignorance, beneath whose heavy folds the nations of the world lay for centuries overwhelmed.  The extreme north has ever been, physically and intellectually, cold, and dark, and dreary.  Hence, in Masonry, the north has ever been esteemed the place of darkness; and, in obedience to this principle, no symbolic light is allowed to illumine the northern part of the lodge.

The east, then, is, in Masonry, the symbol of the order, and the north the symbol of the profane world.

Now, the spiritual corner-stone is deposited in the north-east corner of the lodge, because it is symbolic of the position of the neophyte, or candidate, who represents it in his relation to the order and to the world.  From the profane world he has just emerged.  Some of its imperfections are still upon him; some of its darkness is still about him; he as yet belongs in part to the north.  But he is striving for light and truth; the pathway upon which he has entered is directed towards the east.  His allegiance, if I may use the word, is divided.  He is not altogether a profane, nor altogether a mason.  If he were wholly in the world, the north would be the place to find him—­the north, which is the reign of darkness.  If he were wholly in the order,—­a Master Mason,—­the east would have received him—­the east, which is the place of light.  But he is neither; he is an Apprentice, with some of the ignorance of the world cleaving to him, and some of the light of the order beaming upon him.  And hence this divided allegiance—­this double character—­this mingling of the departing darkness of the north with the approaching brightness of the east—­is well expressed, in our symbolism, by the appropriate position of the spiritual corner-stone in the north-east corner of the lodge.  One surface of the stone faces the north, and the other surface faces the east.  It is neither wholly in the one part nor wholly in the other, and in so far it is a symbol of initiation not fully developed—­that which is incomplete and imperfect, and is, therefore, fitly represented by the recipient of the first degree, at the very moment of his initiation.[117]