-
Articles/Ads
Article LITERARY NOTICES. ← Page 2 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Literary Notices.
" I am no system maker ; but am anxious for the discovery of truth . If my arguments be inconclusive , or my authorities untenable , let the inference be rejected . As Jerom said to his critics , so I say to the captious and doubting brethren , 'Let them read it if they please ; if not , let them cast it aside ; for I do not obtrude my book on the fastidious , but I dedicate it to the studious , if they think it worth their notice . ' Under any circumstances I shall not be disappointed . I have
carefully collected and collated the evidences , and placed them before the fraternity for their consideration . However they may decide , my object is still attained ; having nothing in view but tlie purity and perfection of the Order . I have devoted a life to its accomplishment ; and once attained , I should joyfully rapeat the pass-word of a high degree , and triumphantly exclaim , CONSUMMATUM EST !"
We do not recollect when we have read any book that has pleased us so much . The interest never flags , but is well sustained to the very last page , and we laid it down with a feeling of regret that it had not been extended to a greater length . We do not believe that any brother who prizes the Order for its own sake , however he may differ with the Rev . Author in some of his deductions , will omit to read the book ; because he cannot fail to be edified by the vast accumulation of facts which it containsand the extracts from old and obsolete lectures which are now
, difficult to obtain . The Doctor ' s resources appear to be inexhaustible , and we must give him the credit of using them with great liberality for the benefit of the Craft . In the Eighth Letter the Author has quietly refuted the hypercritical strictures on Freemasonry , which have been recently promulgated by a
gentleman of the name of Soane , in a work which he calls " A Book of the Months . " Mr . Soane ' s hypothesis includes the three following principles : —1 . Freemasonry never had anything to do with the Working Guilds ; or in other words , v / as never in the hands of Operative Masons . 2 . It was unknown before the 17 th century . 3 . It was concocted b y the Rosicrucians at that period , as a branch of their own mystery . The Doctor has successfully combatted ancl overthrown all these
assertions . In reply to the first , which indeed is too obviously false to need a refutation , he simply asks—if the Craft were never practised by Operative Masons , how does it happen that it passed successively through the hands of Archbishop Sheldon , Sir John Denham , Webb , Stone , Inigo Jones and Sir C . Wren ; and that the two latter , one in 1685 , ancl the other in 1603 , both being eminent architects aud builders , and neither of them Rosicrucians , were appointed Grand Masters of our system of Freemasonry ?
He answers the second proposition by saying , that " in 1566 Queen Elizabeth sent an armed force to York for the purpose of breaking up the Grand Lodge , and arresting its members ; and in 1429 lodges of Freemasonry were regularly holden under the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury : in which the Masters , Wardens , Fellow Crafts , and Entered Apprentices are all especially named . It is probable , " the Author adds , " that Mr . Soane , instead of endeavouring to account for these facts which so completely overthrow his hypothesis , will boldly cut the Gordian Knot
, by asserting that we have no evidence to prove them , and that consequently they are untrue . But I will tell him that they are not untrue ; for we have the most incontrovertible evidence , in the actual minutes of the lodges , which are accessible to any enquirer who
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Literary Notices.
" I am no system maker ; but am anxious for the discovery of truth . If my arguments be inconclusive , or my authorities untenable , let the inference be rejected . As Jerom said to his critics , so I say to the captious and doubting brethren , 'Let them read it if they please ; if not , let them cast it aside ; for I do not obtrude my book on the fastidious , but I dedicate it to the studious , if they think it worth their notice . ' Under any circumstances I shall not be disappointed . I have
carefully collected and collated the evidences , and placed them before the fraternity for their consideration . However they may decide , my object is still attained ; having nothing in view but tlie purity and perfection of the Order . I have devoted a life to its accomplishment ; and once attained , I should joyfully rapeat the pass-word of a high degree , and triumphantly exclaim , CONSUMMATUM EST !"
We do not recollect when we have read any book that has pleased us so much . The interest never flags , but is well sustained to the very last page , and we laid it down with a feeling of regret that it had not been extended to a greater length . We do not believe that any brother who prizes the Order for its own sake , however he may differ with the Rev . Author in some of his deductions , will omit to read the book ; because he cannot fail to be edified by the vast accumulation of facts which it containsand the extracts from old and obsolete lectures which are now
, difficult to obtain . The Doctor ' s resources appear to be inexhaustible , and we must give him the credit of using them with great liberality for the benefit of the Craft . In the Eighth Letter the Author has quietly refuted the hypercritical strictures on Freemasonry , which have been recently promulgated by a
gentleman of the name of Soane , in a work which he calls " A Book of the Months . " Mr . Soane ' s hypothesis includes the three following principles : —1 . Freemasonry never had anything to do with the Working Guilds ; or in other words , v / as never in the hands of Operative Masons . 2 . It was unknown before the 17 th century . 3 . It was concocted b y the Rosicrucians at that period , as a branch of their own mystery . The Doctor has successfully combatted ancl overthrown all these
assertions . In reply to the first , which indeed is too obviously false to need a refutation , he simply asks—if the Craft were never practised by Operative Masons , how does it happen that it passed successively through the hands of Archbishop Sheldon , Sir John Denham , Webb , Stone , Inigo Jones and Sir C . Wren ; and that the two latter , one in 1685 , ancl the other in 1603 , both being eminent architects aud builders , and neither of them Rosicrucians , were appointed Grand Masters of our system of Freemasonry ?
He answers the second proposition by saying , that " in 1566 Queen Elizabeth sent an armed force to York for the purpose of breaking up the Grand Lodge , and arresting its members ; and in 1429 lodges of Freemasonry were regularly holden under the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury : in which the Masters , Wardens , Fellow Crafts , and Entered Apprentices are all especially named . It is probable , " the Author adds , " that Mr . Soane , instead of endeavouring to account for these facts which so completely overthrow his hypothesis , will boldly cut the Gordian Knot
, by asserting that we have no evidence to prove them , and that consequently they are untrue . But I will tell him that they are not untrue ; for we have the most incontrovertible evidence , in the actual minutes of the lodges , which are accessible to any enquirer who