Contrary to what people think about Masonic secrecy, over the centuries a number of books have revealed much about what goes on in lodges. Certainly Jeremy Cross was relied on as a crib for nervous officers when they put on degrees, and his readers were not just the curious, but the Freemasons themselves who wanted to improve their ritual work. Important as a source for Masonic activity in the mid nineteenth century, this volume makes a scarce title available to scholars.

Jeremy L. Cross, born in New Hampshire in 1783, was an eminent Masonic scholar and lecturer who studied directly under Thomas Smith Webb and played a significant role in disseminating Webb's adaptation of William Preston's work throughout all Masonic jurisdictions in the United States. His True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor is perhaps the best representation of that work, in that it contains elaborate illustrations specifically developed to accompany Webb's lectures. Apart from providing the foundation for the engravings in Masonic monitors in the centuries that followed, Cross invented a number of composite symbols still utilized in Masonic lectures today, perhaps the most significant being the broken column and weeping virgin that appear on the cover.