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"Tenet" is a curious word,
and to an etymologist is an exciting word partly be'cause
its history winds in and out and back and forth and
is hard to trace-it is doubtful even a Sherlock Holmes
could trace it through all its ramifications; and partly
because in the word itself there something exciting
and dramatic.
Ten was an Anglo- axon name for the number which is
found by adding one to nine; but it is possible that
this Anglo-Saxon ten goes back to a very old Sanskrit
word meaning the ten fingers on the two hands. It is
even more probably that the Latins made up their word
teneo from an original meaning the ten fmgers because
teneo meant to grasp tightly with both hands, to hold
on for dear life, to refuse to let go; and it still
carries that meaning, or a gHost of it, in our tenacious,
tenant (who has a "hold" or possession of
property; freehold is an Anglo-Saxon form), tenement,
(the property on which a tenant has a "hold"),
tenon (from he French form of teneo ), tenor ( a man
who can hold his voice at a pitch), tenure as the direction
to hold to, etc., etc Of these many forms of teneo our
tenet is by far the most interesting because it carries
in it a graphic idea: a tenet is a teaching, doctrine,
or principle which a man takes hold, of with (as it
were) both hands, to which he holds on through thick
and thin, which he clings to with tenacity ("glued
to it"), which he will not let go until the last
gasp, and at any cost to himself. Instead of the thin
and lifeless word which we in our casualness or indifference
have so often taken it to be, it is in reality a very
masculine, exciting word. It is therefore, to repeat,
significant to fmd that Relief is a Principal Tenet;
if any reader should demur to this, if according to
his taste, an exaggeration has been committed, let him
read the history of Freemasonry; Relief was a Tenet
in the first Lodge. a principal tenet, and though during
the centuries since that first Lodge the Fratemity has
weathered many changes, and been through the wars, and
has been battered without and within, it still keeps
a fast hold on Relief -not once has it ever let it go.
If it is not a Tenet in the historical and full sense
of that word, nothing is. Operative Masons kept a grasp
on it with both hands; Speculative Masons keep the same
grasp; Freemasons always will, because if ever the Fraternity
were to let go of it, Freemasonry would cease.
From the New made Mason by H.L.Haywood
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