The Plumb
Plumbum was the Latin for lead, and was used also of a scourge with a blob of lead tied to it, of a line with a lead ball at its end for testing perpendicularity, etc., the source of our plumb, plumber, plunge, plump, plumbago, plummet, etc. A plumb-line is accordingly a line, or cord, with a piece of lead at the bottom to pull it taut, used to test vertical walls with the line of gravity, hence, by a simple expansion of reference, an emblem of uprightness.
The Plumb is an instrument made use of by operative Masons to raise perpendiculars; … But we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make use of it for a more noble and glorious purpose. The Plumb admonishes us to walk uprightly in our several stations before God and Man; to hold the scales of justice with an equal poise, to observe the just medium between avarice and profusion, and to make our passions and prejudices coincide with the exact line of duty.
The Plumb-Rule teaches justness and uprightness of life and actions.
The Plumb in a Masonic Lodge is the jewel of office of the Junior Warden. It is also the Jewel worn by the candidate in the second section of the Third Degree when he portrays the Grand Master Hiram Abiff. It is appropriate for that jewel to be associated with him.
Hiram Abiff is the most upright man in all of Masonry. He is! Up means up, right means straight; an upright man is one who stands straight up and down, doesn’t bend or wabble, has no crooks in him, like a good solid wall that won’t cave in under pressure. Hiram stood up to all of those rough things which tried to assault him. He never lost his integrity nor did he break his vow. We as Masons are taught to emulate him in this. We are taught to be moral and upright before God and Man.
In the FC degree the Volume of Sacred Law is opened on the book of Amos; and it contains an excellent example of the beauty of the plumb
: "Behold, the Lord stood upon a wall, with a plumb line in his hand. He said: "Amos, what seeth thou?" Amos replied, "A plumb line." The Lord said, "Behold, I will set a plumb line amidst my people Israel, and I will pass by them nevermore."I understand that Plumb line to be the upright character which we as Masons exemplify and display before the world. We are admonished throughout our work that we should “never let a stain be upon our Aprons” but we should regard the beautiful spotless surface an a symbol of purity of life and rectitude of conduct. Hiram Abiff certainly did that.
The Plumb is a symbol of rectitude of conduct, and inculcates that integrity of life and undeviating course of moral uprightness which can alone distinguish the good and just man. As the operative workman erects his temporal building with strict observance of that plumb-line, which will not permit him to deviate a hair's breadth to the right or to the left, so the Speculative Freemason, guided by the unerring principles of right and truth inculcated in the symbolic teachings of the same implement, is steadfast in the pursuit of truth, neither bending beneath the frowns of adversity nor yielding to the seductions of prosperity.
The Plumb-Rule teaches justness and uprightness of life and actions.
"There is a mystical virtue in right angles. There is an unspoken morality in seeking the level and the plumb. A house will stand, a table will bear weight, the sides of a box will hold together only if the joints are square and the members upright. When the bubble is lined up between two marks etched in the glass tube of the level, you have aligned yourself with the forces that hold the universe together." Scott Russell Sanders
The plumb helps us know when a piece of work is truly vertical. Symbolically, it teaches us to walk uprightly. And a scourge could help us sit up and take notice when we are NOT walking uprightly enough for somebody else in authority.
I remember some teachers that used that approach. Of course, it was either a paddle or the flat of their hand that was used. (I remember SEEING that. My Mom told me that if I ever got a whuppin' at school I could expect to get another one when I got home, and I believed her.)
Of course, we all know that Jay, being a modern enlighteded teacher would never have descended to such authoritarian disciplinary techniques.