Ashlar

Ashlar. Squared or shaped stones, either in the rough (rough ashlar) or finished (perfect ashlar). The name, perpend ashlar is found in old records and it is often said that this means perfect ashlar, but that cannot be demonstrated. Others have said that a perfect ashlar is a cube, but that is likewise unsubstantiated. The adjective, perfect, seems to apply to the condition of the stone rather than the dimensions. It is an error to suppose, as some do, that the principal work of the free masons was the making of square or prismatic stones to be laid in walls. On the contrary, the peculiar and characteristic work of the Gothic artists was the building of round and curved arches, columns, flying buttresses, ogees, carving, and even sculpturing. The making of ashlars must have been left to apprentices. Gothic cathedrals were not built like block houses.

Rather obvious symbolic use is made of the rough ashlar to represent man in his rude, natural state, and of the perfect ashlar to represent man educated, disciplined, and cultured; or material man and spiritual man. In the Prestonian lectures, the rough ashlar and perfect ashlar are two of the movable jewels: ”By the Rough Ashlar we are reminded of our rude and imperfect state by nature; by the Perfect Ashlar, of the state of perfection at which we hope to arrive by a virtuous education, our own endeavors, and the blessing of God.”