An hundred years ago it was said that “Masonry was a progressive science, and not to be attained in any degree of perfection, but by time, patience, and a considerable degree of application and industry."[72] And it is because that due proportion of time, patience and application, has not been observed, that we so often see Masons indifferent to the claims of the institution, and totally unable to discern its true character.  The arcana of the craft, as Dr. Harris remarks, should be gradually imparted to its members, according to their improvement.

There is no regulation of our Order more frequently repeated in our constitutions, nor one which should be more rigidly observed, than that which requires of every candidate a “suitable proficiency” in one degree, before he is permitted to pass to another.  But as this regulation is too often neglected, to the manifest injury of the whole Order, as well as of the particular lodge which violates it, by the introduction of ignorant and unskillful workmen into the temple, it may be worth the labor we shall spend upon the subject, to investigate some of the authorities which support us in the declaration, that no candidate should be promoted, until, by a due probation, he has made “suitable proficiency in the preceding degree.”

In one of the earliest series of regulations that have been preserved—­made in the reign of Edward III., it was ordained, “that such as were to be admitted Master Masons, or Masters of work, should be examined whether they be able of cunning to serve their respective Lords, as well the lowest as the highest, to the honor and worship of the aforesaid art, and to the profit of their Lords.”

Here, then, we may see the origin of that usage, which is still practiced in every well governed lodge, not only of demanding a proper degree of proficiency in the candidate, but also of testing that proficiency by an examination.

This cautious and honest fear of the fraternity, lest any Brother should assume the duties of a position which he could not faithfully discharge, and which is, in our time, tantamount to a candidate’s advancing to a degree for which he is not prepared, is again exhibited in the charges enacted in the reign of James II., the manuscript of which was preserved in the archives of the Lodge of Antiquity in London.  In these charges it is required, “that no Mason take on no lord’s worke, nor any other man’s, unless he know himselfe well able to perform the worke, so that the craft have no slander.”  In the same charges, it is prescribed that “no master, or fellow, shall take no apprentice for less than seven years.”

In another series of charges, whose exact date is not ascertained, but whose language and orthography indicate their antiquity, it is said:  “Ye shall ordain the wisest to be Master of the work; and neither for love nor lineage, riches nor favor, set one over the work[73] who hath but little knowledge, whereby the Master would be evil served, and ye ashamed.”