The Degrees Of Masonry.

bo strengthened or corroborated by tho authentic history of Knglish Masonry during the first decade of its existence after the formation of a Grand Lodge . " Recent research , however , lias made it quite evident that the early Masonry of Scotland was one thing , and flic

early Masonry of England another and very different thin * . ' —while nothing is clearer than that what passed current until a few years ago , as tho 'authentic history of English Masonry '—1717-27 —more especially with respect to degrees , was an entire misreading of the evidence .

"Thus it has now been reduced to actual demonstration , that two degrees and not three , wero recognised in the first Book of Constitutions ( 1723 ) , and that two ceremonies corresponding therewith , severally termed the Apprentice and the Master ' s Parts—were known and practised before the era of Grand Lodges .

" Hence , as it appears to me , the cogitations of Masonic writers , with regard to degrees , which wero expressed when English and Scottish Masonry were supposed to he

identical , when tho present third degree was put down as an invention of about , 1717-23 and the First Book of Constitutions was understood to refer to three degrees , have become obsolete and misleading .

" Some day , perhaps , the books and essays on Masonry , like those on all other subjects , will be found to grow out of date by the operation of new discoveries , but that period has not yet arrived , and before it does , doubtless much

ink will be shed in bolstering up and supporting a quantity of delusions—which , if the results of Masonic research were tabulated at intervals , would otherwise sink at once into tho oblivion that would be the proper place for them . "

It will be seen that what I recommend in the Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge as most requisite "iu the true interests of genuine Masonic knowledge * ' is a tabulation of the results achieved from timo to time b y out foremost thinkers .

"The history of human opinions , " said Voltaire , "is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors . " "Age ought to be tolerant , " observed Goethe , " I never see a fault which I did not myself commit . " But to be tolerant of errors which we havo ourselves

grown out of , is one thing , and to lend them our tacit approval , another , and quite different matter . It is stated that when Harvey announced to the world

his great discovery of tho circulation of the blood , among the physicians who received it there was not one above the age of forty . An old dog will learn no neio tricks .

" Men , " says Locke , " aro fond of certain tenets upon no other evidence but respect and custom , and think they must maintain them , or all is gone ; though they have never examined tho ground they stand on , nor have ever made them out to themselves , or can make them out to

others . Some are apt to conclude that what is the common opinion cannot but be true ; so many men ' s eyes , they think , cannot but see ri ght ; so many men ' s understandings of all sorts cannot be deceived ; and , therefore , will not venture to look beyond the received notions of the place

and age , nor have so presumptuous a thought as to be wiser than their neighbours . They are content to go with the crowd , and so go easily , which they think is going

right , or at least serves them as well . But however Vox TPopuli , Vox Dei has prevailed a * s a maxim , yet I do not remember wherever God delivered his oracles by the multitude , or nature truths by the herd . "

" But truth , observes the same great authority , " like gold , is not the less so for being newly brought out of the mine . It is trial and examination must give it price , and not any antique fashion ; and though it be not yet current by tho public stamp , yet it may , for all that , be as old as nature , and is certainly not the less genuine . "

It is , indeed , a far easier task to plant new truths than to root out old errors , but in the performance of the former task we should to the best of our ability make some attempt , at least , to accomplish the latter and more difficult

one . It is in this direction that I am desirous of enlisting the " power and influence of the Masonic Press . " Among the " popnlar fallacies " which I have instanced as preserving

proceeding with . To come , therefore , without further preamble , to the subject of degrees in Masonry , or . t > uso an expression I prefer , the symbolism of our ancient society . The great majority of Freemasons , as we -iiv all aware , know little and care less nboufc the origin and

antiquity of the Graft * . A few Brethren , iii * lo * il , comparatively speakunr , do study the traditions of Fivtmfisonry , after a certain fashion , in rituals of tho present diy ; and au anecdote here occurs to my znind by tho relation of which thoir somewhat mis-directed love for our

symbolism may become capable of explanation : — " I had taken , when a child , " says Henry Crabb Robinson , " a great fancy to the Book of Revelations , and I have heard

that I asked our minister to preach from that book , becanse it was my favourite . ' And why is it your favourite , Henry ? ' ' Because it is so pretty , and easy to understand . "'

The written traditions , or , in other word- * * , the old Manuscript Constitutions of Freemasons , are of great age , nnd a point of tho utmost importance would be solved wero wo able to determine whether onr symbolical

traditions are entitled to take rank by their side . This , however , we cannot do , and all wo can be quite sure of is that the . symbolism of Masonry is at all events of very respectable , if not extravagant , antiquity , and at . least antedates the era of Grand Lodges ( 1717 ) .

Three years ago I read a paper on this subject before the Quatuor Coronati Lodge , which will be found in the third volume of our Transactions , and the Brethren present

agreed with me , that tho symbolism ( or ceremonial of Masonry ) being older than the year 1717 , there is practically no limit whatever of age that can be assigned to it .

At tho outset of my paper , however , I stated that thero were two theories or schools of thought with regard to tho degrees or symbolism of Masonry . One ( proved on 3 rd January 1890 to the satisfaction of the Quatuor Coronati

Lodge ) being that they were very old ; the other that , between 1717 and 1723 , the second and third degrees , or certainly tho third , were manufactured and concocted .

The latter of these beliefs has penetrated into many minds , and , though accepted without inquiry , are , to again quote from Locke , " rivetted there by long custom and

education , beyond all possibility of being pulled out again . " The way in which tho fallacious view taken by tho disciples of this school originated I conceive to be as follows : —

Tho Book of Constitutions , published by I ) r . Andersonfirst edition 1723 , second edition 1738—has always been regarded as the " basis of Masonic history . " The first edition ( 1723 ) gives a list of the Old

Regulations , where , under tho number XIII . we find " Apprentices must be admitted Masters and Fellow Craft onl y here ( i . e ., in the Grand Lodge ) unless by a dispensation . "

Until the year 1885 this regulation ( O . R . XIII ) . was held to establish with precision that , at the date from which it speaks ( 1723 ) , three degrees—corresponding exactly

with those of E . A ., F . C , and M . M . —were known and recognised by the Grand Lodge of England . Upon this basis of fact ( as it was deemed to be ) every writer on degrees proceeded to erect his superstructure of theory .

The early proceedings of our English Lodges are wrapped in obscurity ; not so , however , those of Scottish Lodges , which were chronicled with remarkable fidelity in the then minute books , many of which have come down to

ns . In Scotland the communication of the Secrets of Masonry took place during a single ceremony , the

candidate receiving the Mason Word , together with all that was implied in the expression . But it was confidently laid down , that among the secrets so imparted , nothing corresj ponding with the Master ' s degree had a place .

In the absence , therefore , of English Lodge minutes , those of the Scottish Lodges were held to apply , and it was assumed that clown to the formation of the Graud Lodge of England in 1717 , the Secrets of Masonry were conferred in an identical manner , both in North and South Britain .

But it seemed to be clear , according to the evidence of the first Book of Constitutions ( as t . en interpreted ) , that in 1723 the English Masons had three ceremonies , and this plurality of degrees wns set down as the work of the speculative or non-operative Brethren who joined the Society after 1717 .

a singular tenacity of existence , is the belief that the early Freemasonry of England and Scotland was one and the same thing . This assumption , for it was never really anything more , I must pass over for the present , though it will be considered incidentally in the articles I am now