Originally published in 1916, The Builders studies Freemasonry's legacy in the world, hoping to serve as an example for those who wish be a Mason, "not merely in name". From the author: "Here are the real foundations of Masonry, both material and moral: in the deep need and aspiration of man, and his creative impulse; in his instinctive Faith, his quest of the Ideal, and his love of the Light. Underneath all his building lay the feeling ... that the earthly house of his life should be in right relation with its heavenly prototype ... imitating on earth the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And as he wrought his faith and dream into reality, it was but natural that the tools of the builder should become emblems of the thoughts of the thinker. Not only his tools, but, the very stones with which he worked became sacred symbols-the temple itself a vision of that House of Doctrine, that Home of the Soul, which, though unseen, he is building in the midst of the years."