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Article ESSAY ON MODERN PSEUDO-MASONIC RITES.* ← Page 2 of 9 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Essay On Modern Pseudo-Masonic Rites.*
admitted of many external additions and ornaments . In such a history would be seen fanaticism and infidelity , despotism and anarchy , folly and knavery , acting together and producing the most sudden and unexpected results , which , like the effects of different mechanical forces , could not have been caused by any one of them alone . It is much to be hoped that some Brother of talent and research will undertake and complete such a work , which will , if well executed , do him honour , and
be of immense importance to the < h-der of Freemasonry . Before entering in medias res , a few lines must be devoted to a defining of three important words : Order , Rite , and Degree . These terms have by many , nay , even by most writers , been singularly misused , and as they will of necessity in this Essay be employed in a strict sense , it is better at the very opening to explain their precise import . A Degree or Grade then is , as the very word implies , a single step ; an Order is a series
of degrees linked together by some common tie ; and a Rite , which may consist of several Orders , and of one only , is such a mode and form of conferring degrees , or such a change in their relations one to another as without creating any new Order , partially varies some one which already existed . Thus , the Order of Craft Masonry includes three degrees , conferred in all countries , and differing slightly in the forms of initiation in the English , Scotch , and French Rites . It is most unfortunate that Masonry should sometimes have ranked under her banner , and sometimes even beheld among her rulers , men of fanciful and ardent mind , who could not relish the exquisite simplicity of
ner genuine mysteries , such , men have done , perhaps unwittingly , more injury to the Order than all its most violent opponents together . From the idle imaginations of these Brethren have sprung all kinds of Masonic Rites , Orders , and Degrees . Not indeed that the name of Freemasonry could with propriety be applied to most of them , but that from their being usually conferred on members of the Fraternity only , the uninitiated have naturally supposed them to be a part of the genuine mysteries of the Order .
All these Orders and Systems , however they may differ in the names and numbers of their degrees , uniformly commence with the three ancient degrees of E . A ., F . C , and M . M . And these degrees are nearly alike in form , and perfectly so in spirit , be the Rite what it may . England alone , however , seems to have held fast these beautiful grades , * and to have rejected all the others , which the mistaken zeal or love of pomp of the innovators had devised . But in France the multiform
System continues , and to show how it arose there , and how it practically works , will be to give an illustration of Modern Pseudo-Masonic Rites . The Order of Freemasonry had in modern times , owing to many circumstances , become totally extinct in France . But in the year 1725 , several French Masons , who had been initiated in Scotland , determined to revive the Order in Paris . A ccordingly , with the assistance of Lord Derwentwater , t Maskelyne , and other Scotch Masons , they formed a
Lodge , the first meeting of which was held secretly at Paris , in the house of an English traitenr named Hare , who lived in the Hue des Boucheries . No sooner was this Lodge established , and known to meet without being molested by government , than ten more were at once
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Essay On Modern Pseudo-Masonic Rites.*
admitted of many external additions and ornaments . In such a history would be seen fanaticism and infidelity , despotism and anarchy , folly and knavery , acting together and producing the most sudden and unexpected results , which , like the effects of different mechanical forces , could not have been caused by any one of them alone . It is much to be hoped that some Brother of talent and research will undertake and complete such a work , which will , if well executed , do him honour , and
be of immense importance to the < h-der of Freemasonry . Before entering in medias res , a few lines must be devoted to a defining of three important words : Order , Rite , and Degree . These terms have by many , nay , even by most writers , been singularly misused , and as they will of necessity in this Essay be employed in a strict sense , it is better at the very opening to explain their precise import . A Degree or Grade then is , as the very word implies , a single step ; an Order is a series
of degrees linked together by some common tie ; and a Rite , which may consist of several Orders , and of one only , is such a mode and form of conferring degrees , or such a change in their relations one to another as without creating any new Order , partially varies some one which already existed . Thus , the Order of Craft Masonry includes three degrees , conferred in all countries , and differing slightly in the forms of initiation in the English , Scotch , and French Rites . It is most unfortunate that Masonry should sometimes have ranked under her banner , and sometimes even beheld among her rulers , men of fanciful and ardent mind , who could not relish the exquisite simplicity of
ner genuine mysteries , such , men have done , perhaps unwittingly , more injury to the Order than all its most violent opponents together . From the idle imaginations of these Brethren have sprung all kinds of Masonic Rites , Orders , and Degrees . Not indeed that the name of Freemasonry could with propriety be applied to most of them , but that from their being usually conferred on members of the Fraternity only , the uninitiated have naturally supposed them to be a part of the genuine mysteries of the Order .
All these Orders and Systems , however they may differ in the names and numbers of their degrees , uniformly commence with the three ancient degrees of E . A ., F . C , and M . M . And these degrees are nearly alike in form , and perfectly so in spirit , be the Rite what it may . England alone , however , seems to have held fast these beautiful grades , * and to have rejected all the others , which the mistaken zeal or love of pomp of the innovators had devised . But in France the multiform
System continues , and to show how it arose there , and how it practically works , will be to give an illustration of Modern Pseudo-Masonic Rites . The Order of Freemasonry had in modern times , owing to many circumstances , become totally extinct in France . But in the year 1725 , several French Masons , who had been initiated in Scotland , determined to revive the Order in Paris . A ccordingly , with the assistance of Lord Derwentwater , t Maskelyne , and other Scotch Masons , they formed a
Lodge , the first meeting of which was held secretly at Paris , in the house of an English traitenr named Hare , who lived in the Hue des Boucheries . No sooner was this Lodge established , and known to meet without being molested by government , than ten more were at once