cution of the laws, and to violate the statutes of their country. That a With this view faithful history fully concurs. society claiming the glories of Freemasonry should have existed for ages unnoticed by any writer, noble or contemptible, foolish or learned, is wholly incredible, and unworthy of belief. The Puritans and the Presbyterians, the Cabalists and the Rosicrusians, the Gypsies and the Necromancers, the Alchymists and the Jesuists, are each liberally noticed in the works of various authors during the 16th and 17th centuries; but Freemasonry has not so much as a name, until the 18th century. To any historical scholar, this alone is enough. We read of the Fraternitas lathomorum, or company of bricklayers; but it requires not a lawyer to discern, that these are the men against whom the statute of laborers was directed, in the 25th year of Edward III., and are not the men who have at this day in their lodges the language of Eden, and the mysteries of the Antediluvian world. * * * Of the same tenor is the fact, that Papacy and Freemasonry cannot dwell together in peace; but we hear not a word of their disagreement, until the 18th century. Certainly Papacy is older than 100 years; and if Freemasonry be much above that, how did it previously escape a conflict which has never ceased since first it commenced, A. D. 1730 to '40? The canons of the church require full and free confession to the priests from all good Catholics. The oaths of Freemasonry require absolute secrecy upon the transactions of the brethren from every good mason. Now, these canons and oaths nowhere abide together without discord and a deprivation of church privileges, and they never could harmonize for one moment. Therefore, the time when they first fell out and contradicted each other, must have been near the beginning of one, or both of them. That time is determined by the Bull of the Pope, 1738, 1739. Wring and twist the brother mason may, but there is no escape; the date is correctly stated, seventeen hundred thirty-eight, issued by Clement XII. (See Lawrie's Hist. Mas. p. 122; Ency. Brit. Art. Masonry, last edition.) What has been said is proof, not only that the account which Freemasonry gives of itself, is erroneous, but grossly erroneous not only that the order was not organized by Solomon and patronized by St. John, but that it had no existence even in the days of Edward III., and of Henry VI. of England. The question becomes interesting, whence did it originate? and who first promulgated its falsehoods? The Rosicrusian mania sprung up in Germany, A. D. 1610, nearly; and overspread Christendom. This puff of indefinable extravagance originated from the writings of John Valentine Andrea, a celebrated Theologian of Wirtemberg; (see London Mag. 1824, Vol. 9, p. 143,)—who amused himself with tales of spiritual wonder and mystical glory, as a literary hoax, in the style of Munchausen's wonderful adventures in his memoirs. The visionary minds of that day took his work in earnest. They claimed, in general, for the rosy cross philosophy, whatever is now particularly claimed for Freemasonry, a heavenly origin, a magic influence, a wonderful secret, and unbounded excellence. The universal medicine and the philosopher's stone, were gravely professed for the glory of its mystical laboratory; and to so great a pitch of extravagance did its vain professors run, that modern Freemasons are sober men in the comparison. This folly was greatly admired in England by some men of a strange fancy, and of great learning; and by others publicly professing the black art. Among the former, the name of Elias Ashmole, the antiquary, stands conspicuous; and among the latter, Wm. Lilly, the astrologer; and somewhere between them, is Robert Fludd. This Ashmole, is greatly accounted of as a brother by masonic historians, and is the first accepted Freemason claimed by professor Robison. Ashmole says he was "elected" in Mason's Hall, Basing Hall-street, A. D. 1646. (See Biog. Brit.) This is the Hall of the London Company of Stone Masons, chartered 1677, 31 years after Ashmole's admission into its livery, and remaining to this day, as it ever has been, in the possession of the Stone Masons; a society distinct from, and independent of the modern Freemasons. And it is evident that Ashmole was only made free of the Mason's Company as his friend Lilly was made free of the Salters Company, and as the Lord Mayor is usually made free of some one of the 12 principal Companies of tradesmen or mechanics in the city of London; and that Ashmole was not initiated, passed, and raised to the Sublime degree of Master Mason, as in a modern Lodge of Freemasons. Therefore we think the record must be wrong, which makes Ashmole a Freemason of the modern type. It is an undeniable fact that the conceited mystery of the Rosicrusians, and their vainglorious pretences to every thing good and great and magical, or holy, are united with the emblems and working tools of a handicraft mason, the compasses and level and square and leather apron, to form that lying wonder of the 19th century which is commonly called Freemasonry. This union did not take place in one day; nor until the false philosophy of the Rosicrusians fell into merited disgrace, and the sect ran out. Ashmole died A. D. 1692, and with him the last of the rosy cross philosophers; but the spirit of this order, after lingering a few years among men of less note, passed by a species of metempsychosis, into a new body, the company of masons, with whom it first appears in the early part of the 18th century. When Ashmole died, 1692, Sir Christopher Wren was at the head of the English architects, holding the office of Deputy Surveyor of the king's buildings in 1698 he was made by William III. Surveyor General of the public works; and in 1714 to 1718, for political considerations, he was removed from office by George I. All masonic historians call Sir Christopher Wren Deputy Grand Master, at the time when he was Deputy Surveyor, and Grand Master of the Freemasons, at the time when he was Surveyor General to the throne. But in doing this they make a very short rope to hang themselves; for by their own showing the first Grand Lodge was formed in 1717 ;* then, how could Sir Christopher Wren be Grand Master in 1698, nineteen years before there was a Grand Lodge? During this period the Rosicrusian pretensions were seeking, like a troubled spirit, for some resting place.The age is one of the most extravagant speculation: and moved with a strange desire of fame and money and conviviality, four companies of STONE MASONS, who were left * See any masonic history of that year: Preston, Dermott, Lawrie, et alias. of those that had been associated in building the proud edifices of London after the fire of 1666, met, the lodge that had worked on St. Paul's Church being at the head, and formed the Grand Lodge of London, in February, and elected their officers June 24th, A. D. 1717. With a view to fill up their ranks, and to increase their consequence, they voted to accept men of other trades and professions, as members of the society. (Vide Preston, Smith, Lawrie, Hardie, Tannehill, et alias, particularly the Ahiman Rezon of Lawrence Dermott, quoted in the 4th No. of the A. M. Review and Magazine.) Three years they struggled, accommodating the Rosicrusian pretensions to the emblems of a handicraft mason; and then, in 1720, burnt their papers for the benefit of the mystery. (See all the above writers.) They gave out that this bonfire was made "by some too scrupulous brethren," who feared that the secrets of masonry would be exposed in the Book of Constitutions about to be published; but the smoke of that fire was not thick enough to envelope the origin of their mystic order in impenetrable obscurity. No doubt they hoped by burning their pretended parchments, to destroy all evidence disproving their claim to immemorial customs and imprescriptible rights, which claim was in a course of preparation for the public in the dreaded Book of Constitutions. After three years more, the volume came forth from the hands of Anderson and Desaguilliers, or Desaguliers, and blowed the first strain of masonic vainglory and unearthly mystery, which is heard from any book or printed treatise! Anderson and Desaguilliers, a Scotchman and a Frenchman, in London, were the men who first published to the world, the high pretensions of Freemasonry; men of a low character, and of a base spirit, whose Book of Constitutions of Masonry, was ushered from the press, A. D. 1723, and is hardly older than our grandfathers! (See Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy, p. 19, and p. 60; Lawrie, p. 92.) This Volume of mock Constitutions, is the basis of all masonic history, and its delusive statements have been servilely copied and greatly magnified, until the mystic wonder has grown beyond the size and power of the fabled monsters of antiquity. Now the false spirit of the rosy cross philosophy was fairly embodied with the emblems of a mechanic's society; and was brought forth by the Book of Constitutions in the form of Freemasonry. From the time of its birth the lying wonder began to run to and fro in the earth, wherever British commerce could convey it; and charters for holding masonic lodges were everywhere sold at a cash price, and an annual stipend, by the Grand Lodge of London. To that Grand Lodge the inhabitants of most parts of continental Europe, of the East and West Indies, of Africa and of America, paid an annual tribute for the right to confer the three degrees of Morgan's Freemasonry! The date, and Grand Master who issued the warrant, are carefully recorded, in Preston, Smith, Tannehill, and others, for holding lodges in all quarters of the earth. A. D. 1729, Freemasonry was first introduced into the EastIndies; 1730 the Grand Lodge of Ireland was formed; 1731 a patent was sent from England to erect a lodge at the Hague; 1733 Freemasonry established itself in North America at Boston; 1736 at Cape Coast in Africa, and at Geneva in Europe; in Scotland the same year the first Grand Master was elected and so the tripled-headed monster, ENTERED APPRENTICE, FELLOW CRAFT, and MASTER, went deceitfully round the earth while it was yet in its teens. * * * * * * * * * * * * That masonry is as old as Babel, we do not refuse to believe; it is Freemasonry, otherwise called Speculative Masonry, of which we treat, and of which we affirm that its era is A. D. 1717; no man need mistake our meaning. Neither do we pretend that the order was then made up of new principles, or of a newly created race of men; but certain men and certain principles, previously existing, were then for the first time formally united and embodied into that mystic order called Freemasonry; and a system was formed, which did not exist before even by name, which system we know by the name of Speculative Masonry. We do not even suppose that all the materials of this coat of many colors came out of one fleece, or was spun and wove by the same king Solomon. The aprons and trowels and temple were taken from the masons; the divine origin, mystic virtues and wonderful secrets of the order came from the Rosicrusians; the magic and for |