IDIOT

Idiocy is one of the main disqualifications for initiation. This does not, however, include a mere dullness of intellect and indocility of apprehension. These amount only to stupidity, and "the judgment of the heavy or stupid man," as Doctor Good has correctly remarked, "is often as sound in itself as that of the man of more capacious comprehension." The idiot is defined by Blackstone as "one that hath had no understanding from his nativity; and therefore is by law presumed never likely to attain any." A being thus mentally imperfect is incompetent to observe the obligations or to appreciate the instructions of Freemasonry. It is true that the word does not occur in any of the old Constitutions, but from their general tenor it is evident that idiots were excluded, because "cunning," or knowledge and skill, are everywhere deemed essential qualifications of a Freemason. But the law of the ritual is explicit on the subject.