If this goes on—
Heinlein’s If This Goes On— is a science fiction novella set in a future when the USA is controlled by a religious dictatorship. Told from the perspective of a young temple guard who joins the rebels, the story recounts the overthrow of this dictatorship by the “Cabal.” This secret fraternity initiates its members into degrees, binds them to secrecy with solomn oaths, teaches them passwords and pass grips, meets in tyled lodges and is overseen by a Grand Master. Freemasonry is never mentioned but the details could only have been taken from a masonic ritual book.
Heinlein is not on record as claiming to be a freemason, so one must assume that one of the many published “exposures” came into his hands. Some of his phrases sometimes demonstrate an ignorance of contemporary lodge practice, while others suggest a deeper knowledge than would be found in a published “exposure.” His use of a tyled lodge as a war room would be repugnant to masonic readers, much more so, the basic premise that the masonic organization, as such, would take an active role in political action.
The following quotes detail the major references:
“Do you seriously declare, upon your honor, that, unbiased by friends and uninfluenced by mercenary motives, you freely and voluntarily offer yourself to the service of this order?”
We each answered, “I do.”
“Hoodwink and prepare them.”[p. 31.]
“-of your own free will and accord?” “-conform to the ancient established usages-” “-a man, free born, of good repute, and well recommended.”
“Vouchsafe thine aid, Almighty Father of the Universe. …love, relief, and truth to the honor of Thy Holy Name. Amen.”
And the answering chorus, “So mote it be!”
Then I was conducted around the room, still hoodwinked, while questions were again put to me. They were symbolic in nature and were answered for me by my guide. Then I was stopped and was asked if I were willing to take a solomn oath pertaining to this degree, being assured that it would in no material way interfere to that duty I owed to God, myself, family, country, or neighbor.
I answered, “I am.”
I was then required to kneel on my left knee, with my left hand supporting the Book, my right hand steadying certain instruments thereon.
The oath and charge was enough to freeze the blood of anyone foolish enough to take it under false pretenses. Then I was asked what, in my present condition, I most desired. I answered as I had been coached to answer: “Light!”
And the hoodwink was stripped from my head.
It is not necessary and not proper to record the rest of my instruction as a newly entered brother. It was long and of solomn beauty and there was nowhere in it any trace of the blasphemy or devil worship that common gossip attributed to us; quite the contrary it was filled with reverence for God, brotherly love, and uprightness, and it included instruction in the principles of an ancient and honorable profession and the symbolic meaning of the working tools thereof.
But I must mention one detail that surprised me almost out of the shoes I was not wearing. When they took the hoodwink off me, the first man I saw, standing in front of me dressed in the symbols of his office and wearing an expression of almost inhuman dignaty, was Captain Peter van Eyck, the fat ubiquitous warden of my watch–Master of this lodge! [pp. 32-33.]
I said, “You sent for me, Worshipful Master?” [p. 35.]
At last came three raps at the door and the Tyler admitted Magdalene.[p. 36.]
Then I relaxed when I recognized that my hand was being gripped in the recognition grip of the lodge.[. 42.]
In the course of picking out what I must wear I managed to arrange the sleeves of the sweater in the position taken by a lodge brother in giving the Grand Hailing Sign of Distress.[p. 43.]
The department store above us was owned by a Past Grand Master….[p. 53.]
The lodge Master got up and came around his desk to me. “Good-by, John. Watch yourself, and may the Great Architect help you.”[p. 58.]
The ship’s door was open and the ignition was not locked–there was help indeed for the Son of a Widow![p. 65.]
“What do you want of me, son?”
“Light.”[p. 76.]
… giving thanks to the Great Architect….[p. 79.]
You’ll find a few dozen of them in the Grand Lodge here.[p. 84.]
The Great Architect….[p. 85.]
I’ve known the good and the humble and the devout. But how about the man who claims to know what the Great Architect is thinking? The man who claims to be privy to His Inner Plans? It strikes me as sacrilegious conceit of the worst sort–this character probably has never been any closer to his Trestle Board than you or I.[p. 86.]
… been to lodge himself….[p. 93.]
The place was tyled so that a mouse couldn’t have got in.[p. 101.]
… Master of my home lodge….[p. 111.]
I commended their souls to the Great Architect.[p. 112.]
Lodge that night was the grandest I have ever attended. We tyled the communications room itself, with the comm chief sitting as secretary and passing incoming messsages to General Huxley, sitting as Master in the east, as fast as they came in. I was called on to take a chair myself, Junior Warden, an honour I had never had before. The General had to borrow a hat and it was ridiculously too small for him, but it didn’t matter–I have never seen ritual so grand, before or since. We all spoke the ancient words from our hearts, as if we were saying them for the first time. If the stately progress was interrupted to hear thast Louisville was ours, what better interruption? We were building anew; after an endless time of building in speculation we were at last building operatively.[p. 115.]
I learned for the first time that Washington had been one of us.[p. 115.]
However, one of Huxley’s first acts as military governor–he would not let himself be called even “Provisional President”–was to divorce all official connection between the Lodge and the Free United States Army. The Brotherhood had served its purpose, had kept alive the hopes of free men; now it was time to go back to its ancient ways and let public affairs be handled publicly. The order was not made public, since the public had no real knowledge of us, always a secret society and for three generations a completely clandestine one. But it was read and recorded in all lodges and, so far as I know, honored.[p. 116.]
“To commanding general from Lodge Master Peter van Eyck: assault center bastion with full force. I will create a diversion.”
“Why the center?” I asked.
“It is much more damaged.”
If this were authentic, it was crucially important. But I was suspicious. If Master Peter had been detected, it was a trap. And I didn’t see how he, in his position, had been able to set up a sensitive circuit in the midst of battle.
“Give me the word,” I said.
“Nay, you give me.”
“Nay, I will not.”
“I will spell it or halve it.”
“Spell it, then.”
We did so. I was satisfied.[p. 127.]
We crashed through walls of masonry….[p. 128.]
The [transport] “Jacob’s Ladder” cleared the breach and the “Ark” took her place. [p. 128.]
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Revolt in 2100.Robert A. Heinlein. The New American Library (Signet Book), New York: 1954. [Copyright, 1939, 1940, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Contents: The Innocent Eye: An Introduction by Henry Kuttner, “If This Goes On”, Coventry, Misfit, Concerning Stories Never Written: Postscript. |
