"We Meet Upon the Level" (1859)
[Words by Dr. Robert Morris (1818-1888),
past Grandmaster of the Order of the Eastern Star (OES)]
[Music] by
C[hauncey]. M[arvin]. Cady (1824-1889)

Chicago, IL: Root & Cady
Plate No. 8-5
[Source: 178/086@Levy;
note enclosed (from Mr. Levy?) "This poem was written
by Past Grand Master and author of the O.E.S. [Order of
the Eastern Star] Ritual, Rob Morris, in August, 1854,
as he was walking home from a neighbor's, through a
sultry afternoon. He sat upon a fallen tree, and upon
the back of a letter he dashed off under a momentary
impulse and in stenographic character the poem]

SOLO or CHORUS
1. We meet upon the level
  We part upon the square;
What words of precious meaning,
  Those words Masonic are;
Come let us contemplate them,
  They are worthy of our thought,
With the highest and the lowest,
  And the rarest they are fraught.

CHORUS [sung after each VERSE]
We meet upon the level,
We part, we part, we part up on the square.

SOLO or CHORUS
2. We meet upon the level,
  From ev’ry nation come;
The King from out his palace,
  The poor man from his home,
The one must leave his sceptre,
  Without the Mason’s door,
For king and serf are equal,
  Upon the checkered floor.

SOLO or CHORUS
3. We part upon the square,
  For the world must have its due,
We mingle with the concourse,
  A cold, unfeeling crue,
But the influence of our gatherings,
  In memory is green,
And we long upon the level,
  To renew the happy scene.

SOLO or CHORUS
4. There’s a world where all are equal—
  We are hurrying tow’ards it fast—
We shall meet upon the level there
  When the gates of deaths are passed;
We shall stand before the Orient,
  And our Master will be there,
To try the blocks we offer
  By our own unerring square.