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On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
regard for the pure science and morals attached to the Freemasonry of Pythagoras , was practised in Britain under the name of Druidism , at least until St . Alban received his charter for opening a Lodge of genuine Freemasonry in the third century ; and perhaps long posterior to that event . Davies asserts"that the ancient superstition of Druidism
, , or at least some part of it , was considered as having been preserved in Wales without interruption , and cherished by the bards to the very latest period of the Welsh princes ; viz ., the thirteenth century of Christianity , and that their princes were so far from discouraging this superstition , that , on the contrary , they honoured its professors with their
public patronage . " If this be true , and I am not disposed to doubt its accuracy , the Spurious Freemasonry of Britain *—divested , indeed , of its decided tendency to polytheism , for its members were professing Christians , and therefore making a near approach to the Speculative branch—was practised secretly in these
times , by the successors of the ancient bards and Druids . Thus Mr . Barrow says , " that the Druids of Britain were Brahmins , is beyond the least shadow of a doubt ; but that they were all murdered , and their sciences lost , is out of all bounds of probability ; it is much more likely that they turned schoolmasters , Freemasons , and fortune-tellers ; and in this way , part of their sciences might easily descend to posterity , as we find they have done . "
But , on the other hand , Operative and Speculative Masonry united—or in other words , the science which we now practise—prevailed in the same age and country under the public sanction and authority of the constituted rulers and governors of the island , civil and ecclesiastical , having embodied the science of Pythagoras with a morality of much
superior value ; as is evident from many of the Pythagorean symbols which we still retain—but rejecting all its impurities with regard to religion and social worship . Here then , we have a clear proof that the True and Spurious Freemasonry flourished at the same period , and were
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
regard for the pure science and morals attached to the Freemasonry of Pythagoras , was practised in Britain under the name of Druidism , at least until St . Alban received his charter for opening a Lodge of genuine Freemasonry in the third century ; and perhaps long posterior to that event . Davies asserts"that the ancient superstition of Druidism
, , or at least some part of it , was considered as having been preserved in Wales without interruption , and cherished by the bards to the very latest period of the Welsh princes ; viz ., the thirteenth century of Christianity , and that their princes were so far from discouraging this superstition , that , on the contrary , they honoured its professors with their
public patronage . " If this be true , and I am not disposed to doubt its accuracy , the Spurious Freemasonry of Britain *—divested , indeed , of its decided tendency to polytheism , for its members were professing Christians , and therefore making a near approach to the Speculative branch—was practised secretly in these
times , by the successors of the ancient bards and Druids . Thus Mr . Barrow says , " that the Druids of Britain were Brahmins , is beyond the least shadow of a doubt ; but that they were all murdered , and their sciences lost , is out of all bounds of probability ; it is much more likely that they turned schoolmasters , Freemasons , and fortune-tellers ; and in this way , part of their sciences might easily descend to posterity , as we find they have done . "
But , on the other hand , Operative and Speculative Masonry united—or in other words , the science which we now practise—prevailed in the same age and country under the public sanction and authority of the constituted rulers and governors of the island , civil and ecclesiastical , having embodied the science of Pythagoras with a morality of much
superior value ; as is evident from many of the Pythagorean symbols which we still retain—but rejecting all its impurities with regard to religion and social worship . Here then , we have a clear proof that the True and Spurious Freemasonry flourished at the same period , and were