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The Antiquity Of Masonry.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MASONRY .
REPRINTED FROM " THE NEW ENGLAND FREEMASON . "
An Address delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , at the Quarterly Communication , 8 th September 1875 , by R . W . Charles Levi Woodbury , Past Deputy Grand Master . A LITTLE more than a century and a half ago , Freemasonry , except for mystic purposes , suspended handicraft labours , and devoted itself to the speculative part of tho art . Before that time both kinds were carried on together , surely aa far back as the oldest
( A . D . 1599 ) Lodge record which has survived to our day . How much earlier Masonry included speculative subjects is a question whero opinions have varied , and men . have been inclined to dogmatize variously . Masonry is the oldest art whose works are extant . To the Freemason it would be interesting to know if it had , aa our traditions say , always a speculative side , and also whether it has had
a continuous existence as an art , or has at times been lost and again invented or rediscovered . These are the questions I propose to examine to-night . If the art of Masonry was speculative as well as praotical , in ancient times , and yet was lost afterwards , our claim to antiquity could not mount higher than the period of its rediscovery ; but if there has been a constant succession , all evidence of
speculative opinions is of historical value . Without troubling you with my opinions , IJ shall lay before you some evidence gathered on the descent and the early organization of Masonry , not claiming that these facts are conclusive , but asking whether they do not justify further research into this interesting subject .
It will be admitted that if wo find fragments of usages , designs , as well as tools and methods of work of the ancient Masons in use in the same Craft in modern times , an inference of a continuous channel of descent is presumptively established . It will not be disputed that the ancestors of modern Masons , like other men , lived in those days ; that then commerce existed , peoplo migrated , barbarians became civilized by contact with enlightened people , arts were transmitted
through castes , counting a descent thus for thousands of years in some countries , and elsewhere by initiation and instruction , from generation to generation . Thus , Masonic organization , supported by successive initiation of apprentices , may have existed from the earl y times . Let us enquire whether Masonry has not always been a spiritual man of brains and brawny arms , uniting the best culture , learning , intellect and taste of its time with practical , hard-working
art . In the remains of the most ancient religions which have been handed down to us are found exoteric and esoteric doctrines , together with particular initiations through which tho select few were gradually raised to the knowledge of the mysteries and hi gher thoughts included in their rituals and dogmas .
The earth is strewn with the wrecks of ancient temples , whose relics attest that all religions had recourse to the Masonio art to express their highest acts of devotion and oblation . The adepts who constructed them must have held intimate relations with the hierarchies of those creeds whose symbols and mysteries are entwined in the temples of their faith . The antiquarian draws with confidence
from the forms and symbols of these ruins testimony to supplement the meagre remains handed down through literary channels , and wo also may find something there of the organization and lore of those early Freemasons that will be instructive to compare with things of to-day . There are strong reasons for thinking that the art of Masonry was
not an original discovery in each of the various ancient centres of civilization . It is probable that it was invented , cultivated and developed in some centre , and from theuce was carried by its professors to other and growing countries , at the invitation of religious or political rulers , to give enduring expression to the feelings of reverence of tho people , and to the exposition of dogmas , by embodying in
holy and public buildings symbols and configurations designed to recall to the mind important doctrines of their theology . Such , indeed , is one of the objects of Masonry at this day . The travelling propensities of the great master workmen of antiquity are verified by the records . Wo find Greeks of celebrity working in Asia Minor ; and even working in Egypt under the
Macedonian dynasty . Thus , Cleomanes planned the city of Alexandria ; and Dinocratus not only rebuilt the Temple of Diana at Ephesus , in Asia Minor , but was long engaged in important works at Alexandria ; and Sostratus , of Gnidus built the Pharos at Alexandria . We find also Hermodorus , of Salamis , and Samus and Batrachus , of Laconia , and Appolodorus , of Damascus , erecting important temples
at Rome . Four masters worked on the foundations of the Temple of Jove at Athens . Ictinius , with the aid of Calicrates and perhaps other Masters , built the Parthenon . We also read in Chronicles that King David gathered and set the strangers—Masons—to hew wrought stones to build the house of God . In Kings we find that Masons wero sent from Tyre to King Solomon , and that Hiram ' s Masons and
stone-squarers and Solomon's Masons and stone-sqnarers did hew the great and costly stones to lay tho foundation of the Temple . In those ages it thus appears that art was not translated to another country , any more than true art now can be , by imitation , but that practical , skilled workmen themselves travelled to the place , and established the style sought for by making the moulds and plans of the details , instructing , overseeing the construction , and governing :
the workmen . The Master Mason ' s talent is manifested in every curve and joint , and even in the very setting of the work , Plato says , in the " Eleatic Stranger , " " The master workman does not work himself , but is the ruler of the workmen . " " He contributes knowledge , but not manual labor , and may , therefore , be justly said to share in theoretical science . Bat he ought not , when he has formed a judgment , to
The Antiquity Of Masonry.
regard his function at an end , like the calculator ; he must assign to the individual workmen their appropriate task , until they have com . pleted the work . " Plutarch says of Phidias , the celebrated sculptor , who waB the chiof superintendent of all the works of Pericles : " He directed all , and was chief overseer of all for Pericles . " Able writers on
architecture , commenting on these and other evidences , affirm that in the Greek , Egyptian and Mediaeval Architecture , the architect was always a master workman , personally skilled in tho manual part of the art , to whom the beauty , solidity and invention in their structures are due , and are now calling for a return to that relation , declaiming that their late separation into distinct branches is deteriorating to
art itself . The organisation thus shadowed out has three degrees : the tyro or apprentice , the trained and educated craftsman , and the Master Mason , who combined the skill of all the others with the high theoretic science and skill as a manager and overseer in architectural matters . It was his genius that gave form and style to the venerated
Temple , from its foundation to its last coping stone , and compelled the warm sandstone and the cold marble to become a symbolic witness of the esoteric as well as the exoteric faith of the employers . It was he who , as the progress of kindred sciences afforded new knowledge , applied it to his art , whether in the line of strength , grace , beauty , or economy .
The anoient Master Mason , as a result of the relianco of ancient religions on monumental symbology , necessarily had intimate relations with the religious chiefs of the country where he practised his art , had perfect knowledge of their esoteric symbology , planned and executed the forms in which they were established on the monuments : his successors also were their pertinacious conservators : thus
grew the conventional in religious Masonry . One historian of Egypt ( Sharp ) affirms that even from the earliest times these sculptors and designers of the temples were of the priestly caste or order of society ; and another celebrated investigator of Egyptian antiquities , Wilkinson , also includes " the sacred sculptors , draftsmen and Masons " in the priestly grade . They were
the only Egyptian Craft , except land surveyors , elevated to this Bocial rank . The priestly caste had , we know , those mystic initiations which spread from ancient Egypt over the world , and of which so much has been written . Whether the Masons were initiated in all or only a part of these mysteries can only be inferred , but we may infer that higher initiations were conferred as tho candidate advanced in his
art . Vitruvius defined Masonry , near 2 , 000 years ago , as " A science arising out of many other sciences , and adorned with much and varied learning . " Plato , as we have seen , four centuries earlier , spoke of it as a science . Solomon and Hiram of Tyre , we have seen ,
considered the loan of Master Masons as worthy to be repaid by the concession of twenty cities ; and the description of his varied talents , in King Hiram's letter , accords with the requisite talents elsewhere demanded for the grade . Those who conceive the Mason as a mere wall-builder have need
to enlargo their understanding . An able reviewer of Fergusson ' s History of Architecture , in the " London Quarterly , " says , " To those but little educated , in the ways of art the master wnrhnan is a mystery , his influence and existence are half doubted , half denied , or wholly misconceived . " In the true antique spirit do our old Constitutions inculcate the
study of the seven liberal arts . It was through these that the Fraternity advanced their art from rude beginnings until there arose a creative intellect from among them , who could embody all extant , mystical , cosmic science into one temple , symbolical and monumental of the speculative science shut within the breasts of Master Masons , open to those who held the key , but sealed to the uninitiated and
profane . Such a monument , signed astronomically with the date of its con struction , was the Pyramid of Gizeh ; contrived by its initiated and learned builders not only to embody their religions mystery , but to be capable of yielding to the analysis of the future antiquarian and physicist the key to the knowledge of the state of Astronomy ,
Geodesy , and kindred arts at the era of its construction . Such , also , were probably the builders of the palaces of Babylon and Nineveh , whose hidden stores of knowledge are now being revealed to us . In like organization , and possibly of like caste , were the devoted bands of more creeds than one , who , united with brotherly love
raised the first temple at Jerusalem , and those , too , who , fresh from the Chaldean plains , laboured with Nehemiah or Zerubbabel , their swords girded to their sides , to rebuild and restore the despoiled dwelling place of the God of Israel . Was there no initiation in things sacred among these Syrian builders also ? Was there no hidden wisdom , no speculation on ineffable things in their Craft ?
What mystery the inspired psalmist hangs about the corner-stono How grandly the author of Job pnts , in the words of the Almi ghty , the Masonic character of his work of creation : " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? declare if thou hast understanding . Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched the line upon it ? Whereupon are the
foundations thereof fastened i or who hath laid the corner-stone thereof ? When the morning stars sang together , and the Bons of Elohim shouted for joy . " How , also , the prophet Amos describes the Lord standing on a true wall with the implements of tho Masonic Craft , a plumb line or a trowel in his hand , declaring he will set a plumb line in Israel . Was not the Masonic artisan favoured of Heaven ? Did not Aholiab and Bazaleel work on plans communicated through Moses ,
" with every wise-hearted man in whom the Lord had pnt wisdom and understanding ? " Had Huram and his craftsmen no aid from inspired kings and prophets in those works whose forms , ornaments , and structure typified occult mysteries ? Have the three great creeds of this day , the Christian , the Jewish or the Mahomedan , ceased to revere , in that Jong perished Temple , the symbol of holy aspiration ? There is no need to multiply illustrations of the speculative science
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Antiquity Of Masonry.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MASONRY .
REPRINTED FROM " THE NEW ENGLAND FREEMASON . "
An Address delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , at the Quarterly Communication , 8 th September 1875 , by R . W . Charles Levi Woodbury , Past Deputy Grand Master . A LITTLE more than a century and a half ago , Freemasonry , except for mystic purposes , suspended handicraft labours , and devoted itself to the speculative part of tho art . Before that time both kinds were carried on together , surely aa far back as the oldest
( A . D . 1599 ) Lodge record which has survived to our day . How much earlier Masonry included speculative subjects is a question whero opinions have varied , and men . have been inclined to dogmatize variously . Masonry is the oldest art whose works are extant . To the Freemason it would be interesting to know if it had , aa our traditions say , always a speculative side , and also whether it has had
a continuous existence as an art , or has at times been lost and again invented or rediscovered . These are the questions I propose to examine to-night . If the art of Masonry was speculative as well as praotical , in ancient times , and yet was lost afterwards , our claim to antiquity could not mount higher than the period of its rediscovery ; but if there has been a constant succession , all evidence of
speculative opinions is of historical value . Without troubling you with my opinions , IJ shall lay before you some evidence gathered on the descent and the early organization of Masonry , not claiming that these facts are conclusive , but asking whether they do not justify further research into this interesting subject .
It will be admitted that if wo find fragments of usages , designs , as well as tools and methods of work of the ancient Masons in use in the same Craft in modern times , an inference of a continuous channel of descent is presumptively established . It will not be disputed that the ancestors of modern Masons , like other men , lived in those days ; that then commerce existed , peoplo migrated , barbarians became civilized by contact with enlightened people , arts were transmitted
through castes , counting a descent thus for thousands of years in some countries , and elsewhere by initiation and instruction , from generation to generation . Thus , Masonic organization , supported by successive initiation of apprentices , may have existed from the earl y times . Let us enquire whether Masonry has not always been a spiritual man of brains and brawny arms , uniting the best culture , learning , intellect and taste of its time with practical , hard-working
art . In the remains of the most ancient religions which have been handed down to us are found exoteric and esoteric doctrines , together with particular initiations through which tho select few were gradually raised to the knowledge of the mysteries and hi gher thoughts included in their rituals and dogmas .
The earth is strewn with the wrecks of ancient temples , whose relics attest that all religions had recourse to the Masonio art to express their highest acts of devotion and oblation . The adepts who constructed them must have held intimate relations with the hierarchies of those creeds whose symbols and mysteries are entwined in the temples of their faith . The antiquarian draws with confidence
from the forms and symbols of these ruins testimony to supplement the meagre remains handed down through literary channels , and wo also may find something there of the organization and lore of those early Freemasons that will be instructive to compare with things of to-day . There are strong reasons for thinking that the art of Masonry was
not an original discovery in each of the various ancient centres of civilization . It is probable that it was invented , cultivated and developed in some centre , and from theuce was carried by its professors to other and growing countries , at the invitation of religious or political rulers , to give enduring expression to the feelings of reverence of tho people , and to the exposition of dogmas , by embodying in
holy and public buildings symbols and configurations designed to recall to the mind important doctrines of their theology . Such , indeed , is one of the objects of Masonry at this day . The travelling propensities of the great master workmen of antiquity are verified by the records . Wo find Greeks of celebrity working in Asia Minor ; and even working in Egypt under the
Macedonian dynasty . Thus , Cleomanes planned the city of Alexandria ; and Dinocratus not only rebuilt the Temple of Diana at Ephesus , in Asia Minor , but was long engaged in important works at Alexandria ; and Sostratus , of Gnidus built the Pharos at Alexandria . We find also Hermodorus , of Salamis , and Samus and Batrachus , of Laconia , and Appolodorus , of Damascus , erecting important temples
at Rome . Four masters worked on the foundations of the Temple of Jove at Athens . Ictinius , with the aid of Calicrates and perhaps other Masters , built the Parthenon . We also read in Chronicles that King David gathered and set the strangers—Masons—to hew wrought stones to build the house of God . In Kings we find that Masons wero sent from Tyre to King Solomon , and that Hiram ' s Masons and
stone-squarers and Solomon's Masons and stone-sqnarers did hew the great and costly stones to lay tho foundation of the Temple . In those ages it thus appears that art was not translated to another country , any more than true art now can be , by imitation , but that practical , skilled workmen themselves travelled to the place , and established the style sought for by making the moulds and plans of the details , instructing , overseeing the construction , and governing :
the workmen . The Master Mason ' s talent is manifested in every curve and joint , and even in the very setting of the work , Plato says , in the " Eleatic Stranger , " " The master workman does not work himself , but is the ruler of the workmen . " " He contributes knowledge , but not manual labor , and may , therefore , be justly said to share in theoretical science . Bat he ought not , when he has formed a judgment , to
The Antiquity Of Masonry.
regard his function at an end , like the calculator ; he must assign to the individual workmen their appropriate task , until they have com . pleted the work . " Plutarch says of Phidias , the celebrated sculptor , who waB the chiof superintendent of all the works of Pericles : " He directed all , and was chief overseer of all for Pericles . " Able writers on
architecture , commenting on these and other evidences , affirm that in the Greek , Egyptian and Mediaeval Architecture , the architect was always a master workman , personally skilled in tho manual part of the art , to whom the beauty , solidity and invention in their structures are due , and are now calling for a return to that relation , declaiming that their late separation into distinct branches is deteriorating to
art itself . The organisation thus shadowed out has three degrees : the tyro or apprentice , the trained and educated craftsman , and the Master Mason , who combined the skill of all the others with the high theoretic science and skill as a manager and overseer in architectural matters . It was his genius that gave form and style to the venerated
Temple , from its foundation to its last coping stone , and compelled the warm sandstone and the cold marble to become a symbolic witness of the esoteric as well as the exoteric faith of the employers . It was he who , as the progress of kindred sciences afforded new knowledge , applied it to his art , whether in the line of strength , grace , beauty , or economy .
The anoient Master Mason , as a result of the relianco of ancient religions on monumental symbology , necessarily had intimate relations with the religious chiefs of the country where he practised his art , had perfect knowledge of their esoteric symbology , planned and executed the forms in which they were established on the monuments : his successors also were their pertinacious conservators : thus
grew the conventional in religious Masonry . One historian of Egypt ( Sharp ) affirms that even from the earliest times these sculptors and designers of the temples were of the priestly caste or order of society ; and another celebrated investigator of Egyptian antiquities , Wilkinson , also includes " the sacred sculptors , draftsmen and Masons " in the priestly grade . They were
the only Egyptian Craft , except land surveyors , elevated to this Bocial rank . The priestly caste had , we know , those mystic initiations which spread from ancient Egypt over the world , and of which so much has been written . Whether the Masons were initiated in all or only a part of these mysteries can only be inferred , but we may infer that higher initiations were conferred as tho candidate advanced in his
art . Vitruvius defined Masonry , near 2 , 000 years ago , as " A science arising out of many other sciences , and adorned with much and varied learning . " Plato , as we have seen , four centuries earlier , spoke of it as a science . Solomon and Hiram of Tyre , we have seen ,
considered the loan of Master Masons as worthy to be repaid by the concession of twenty cities ; and the description of his varied talents , in King Hiram's letter , accords with the requisite talents elsewhere demanded for the grade . Those who conceive the Mason as a mere wall-builder have need
to enlargo their understanding . An able reviewer of Fergusson ' s History of Architecture , in the " London Quarterly , " says , " To those but little educated , in the ways of art the master wnrhnan is a mystery , his influence and existence are half doubted , half denied , or wholly misconceived . " In the true antique spirit do our old Constitutions inculcate the
study of the seven liberal arts . It was through these that the Fraternity advanced their art from rude beginnings until there arose a creative intellect from among them , who could embody all extant , mystical , cosmic science into one temple , symbolical and monumental of the speculative science shut within the breasts of Master Masons , open to those who held the key , but sealed to the uninitiated and
profane . Such a monument , signed astronomically with the date of its con struction , was the Pyramid of Gizeh ; contrived by its initiated and learned builders not only to embody their religions mystery , but to be capable of yielding to the analysis of the future antiquarian and physicist the key to the knowledge of the state of Astronomy ,
Geodesy , and kindred arts at the era of its construction . Such , also , were probably the builders of the palaces of Babylon and Nineveh , whose hidden stores of knowledge are now being revealed to us . In like organization , and possibly of like caste , were the devoted bands of more creeds than one , who , united with brotherly love
raised the first temple at Jerusalem , and those , too , who , fresh from the Chaldean plains , laboured with Nehemiah or Zerubbabel , their swords girded to their sides , to rebuild and restore the despoiled dwelling place of the God of Israel . Was there no initiation in things sacred among these Syrian builders also ? Was there no hidden wisdom , no speculation on ineffable things in their Craft ?
What mystery the inspired psalmist hangs about the corner-stono How grandly the author of Job pnts , in the words of the Almi ghty , the Masonic character of his work of creation : " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? declare if thou hast understanding . Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched the line upon it ? Whereupon are the
foundations thereof fastened i or who hath laid the corner-stone thereof ? When the morning stars sang together , and the Bons of Elohim shouted for joy . " How , also , the prophet Amos describes the Lord standing on a true wall with the implements of tho Masonic Craft , a plumb line or a trowel in his hand , declaring he will set a plumb line in Israel . Was not the Masonic artisan favoured of Heaven ? Did not Aholiab and Bazaleel work on plans communicated through Moses ,
" with every wise-hearted man in whom the Lord had pnt wisdom and understanding ? " Had Huram and his craftsmen no aid from inspired kings and prophets in those works whose forms , ornaments , and structure typified occult mysteries ? Have the three great creeds of this day , the Christian , the Jewish or the Mahomedan , ceased to revere , in that Jong perished Temple , the symbol of holy aspiration ? There is no need to multiply illustrations of the speculative science