It cannot affect the profane, who are, of course, beyond its pale.

It is true, that as soon as a candidate applies to a lodge for initiation, he begins to come within the scope of masonic law.

He has to submit to a prescribed formula of application and entrance, long before he becomes a member of the Order.

But as this formula is universal in its operation, affecting candidates who are to receive it and lodges which are to enforce it in all places, it must have been derived from some universal authority.

The manner, therefore, in which a candidate is to be admitted, and the preliminary qualifications which are requisite, are prescribed by the landmarks, the general usage, and the ancient constitutions of the Order.
And as they have directed the _mode how_, they might also have prescribed the _place where_, a man should be made a Mason.