BUILDING BEYOND A LODGE

A Grand Lodge provides  constitutional protection. Only a Master Mason protects the Landmarks.

Charles Dawin hesitated 7 years to publish his work. Darwin understood his thesis on natural selection was radical. He also knew his peers.  He knew as soon as he published, his life would change. Friendships and respect would be lost; they would isolate him and he would be hurt by their smug mockery and ridicule. He could not then protect his own reputation and  'the good name' of his family and be true to science.  Darwins history tells us a great deal about the cost of facts that challenged popular belief. Victorians were champions of shaming. 

But hind sight has moved Darwin off the black list that did occur.  His science was defining. Today it is still misquoted and manipulated to serve a sad prejudicial agenda.

When Charles the student first boarded the Beagle, he had no celebrity, no findings, no research; just a curiosity and talent for observation.

We might say when he eventually published, he was ready to make the sacrifice but that isn't quite the case. Darwin had dithered. Science had moved on and  another researcher publishing a monograph that outlined 'his' findings.  So was it hurbris that kept him moving?  Ego? Competitiveness?  We will never truly know. Decide for yourself if he was selfish suppressing science to 'avoid' the hypocity of peers.  Would it be fair to think we escape that same chemistry of shame and compliance?  Have we not be part of our own process of discovery?  Did we not build mind vaults of mystery and esoteria that watermark every page of masonic history?