Chapter XIII: Part III: Interpretation

WHAT IS MASONRY

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_I am afraid you may not consider it an altogether substantial
concern. It has to be seen in a certain way, under certain
conditions. Some people never see it at all. You must understand,
this is no dead pile of stones and unmeaning timber. It is a_
LIVING _thing._

_When you enter it you hear a sound--a sound as of some mighty
poem chanted. Listen long enough, and you will learn that it is
made up of the beating of human hearts, of the nameless music of
men's souls--that is, if you have ears to hear. If you have eyes,
you will presently see the church itself--a looming mystery of
many shapes and shadows, leaping sheer from floor to dome. The
work of no ordinary builder!_

_The pillars of it go up like the brawny trunks of heroes; the
sweet flesh of men and women is molded about its bulwarks, strong,
impregnable; the faces of little children laugh out from every
corner stone; the terrible spans and arches of it are the joined
hands of comrades; and up in the heights and spaces are inscribed
the numberless musings of all the dreamers of the world. It is yet
building--building and built upon._

_Sometimes the work goes on in deep darkness; sometimes in
blinding light; now under the burden of unutterable anguish; now
to the tune of great laughter and heroic shoutings like the cry of
thunder. Sometimes, in the silence of the night-time, one may hear
the tiny hammerings of the comrades at work up in the dome--the
comrades that have climbed ahead._

--C.R. KENNEDY, _The Servant in the House_
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