Ernest And Falk.

ERNEST AND FALK .

CONVERSATIONS FOR LREEMASONS . BY BRO . GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING . TllANSI . ATI- 'I ) BY BRO . KENNETH R . H . MACKENZIE , F . S . A KNOWN AS CRYPTONYMUS .

CONVERSATION . —v . ERNEST . At last they are gone . What twaddlers ! And did you not remark , or would you not remark , that the one with the wart on his chin , be his name what it will , is a Freemason .

His knocks were so frequent . FALK . I heard him well . Even in his speech I noticed what perhaps you did not so well remark . He is one of those who fight in Europe for the Americans .

ERNEST . Not his worst trait . FALK . And is beset with the fancy that Congress is a lodge—thai * there , with armed hands , the Freemasons have founded their Empire . ERNEST . Are there also dreamers nf this

kind : > FALK . They must exist . ERNEST . How tlo you discover this ' FALK . From one peculiarity—one day to bc come familiar to you .

ERNEST . By God ! if 1 knew that I had thus been deceived by the Freemasons ! FALK . Be without care . The Freemason patientl y awaits the rising of the sun—and leaves

the li ghts to burn as long as they will and can . To put out the lights , and when they are out , to notice that the ends can bc lig hted once more , or that other lights shall be set up—is not the business of the Freemason .

ERNEST . I think so likewise . That which costs blood , can certainly be worth no blood . FALK . Excellent ! Now ask—what you will I am bound to answer . ERNEST . In that case my questions will be

endless . FALK . But you cannot find the beginning . ERNEST . Did I understand you , or not understand you when we were interrupted ? Did you contradict yourself , or did you not ? For

certainly , when you say Freemasony has existed from Eternity , I understood you to mean—thus —that not alone its Essence , also its present constitution had existed from time immemorial . FALK . Were there only any relation between

them ! In its Essence , Freemasonry is as ancient as social arrangements . It was impossible that they could not bc co-existent—even if society is

not an efflorescence of Freemasonry . For the flame created by the burning glass still is derived from the Sun . ERNEST . It seems even to dazzle me in that

way—F ALK . But whether they are mother and daughter , or sister and sister ; their relative fates have ever correspondingly reacted on each other . Wherever social polity existed , tliere in all

places has also existed Ireemasonry , and viceversa . It has ever been the surest symbol of a strong , healthy , political constitution , when Freemasonry has shown herself side by side with it ; iust as it is the infallible mark of a weak and

timorous state , when it will not openly tolerate that which in secret it is obliged to tolerate , whether willingly or no . ERNEST . By which I am to understand , Freemasonry !

FALK . Certainl y ! For fundamentally She does not depend upon oulward combinations , so easily degenerated into civil institutions ; but upon the sentiment of minds having sympathies in

common . ERNEST . And who can care ii command these ! FALK . At the same time Freemasonry has ever , and in all places , been obliged to submit and

bend according to civil authorities ; the latter being ever the stronger . According to the forms of politics , so also has Freemasonry been forced

to assume various forms ; but each new form naturall y received its new name . How can you imagine that ( he name of Freemasonry could be older than that predominant mode of State

Ernest And Falk.

idea , according to which it has been accurately modelled ? ERNEST . And in what consists this predominant idea ? FALK . That is left for your own investigation

—enough that I tell you that the name of Freemason , a limb of our secret brotherhood , was never heard before the beginning of the current century . * It certainly appears in no anterior printed book , and I should like to see the man who

could show it me m any written and more ancient document . ERNEST . YOU mean—the German name . FALK . NO ! no ! also the original Freemason , as also all the translations modelled upon it—in

whatever language it may occur . ERNEST . Nay !—only reflect— -in no printed book before the beginning of the current century ? In none ? FALK . In none .

ERNEST , let I have myself—FALK . Indeed ? Has some of the dust , which is continually thrown about , got into your eyes , then ? ERNEST . But the passage

in—1 ' . In the Londmopohs ? Eh ? Dust ! ERNEST . And the Act of Parliament of Henry VI ? FALT , Dust ! ERNEST . And the great privilege granted by

Charles XL , King of Sweden , to the Lodge of Gothenburg ? FALK . Dust * ERNEST . And Locke r FALK . What Locke do you mean ?

ERNEST . Ihe philosopher—his letter to the Earl of Pembroke- —his remarks upon an inquiry , written in the very own handwriting of Henry VI ? FALK . That must be a very recent discovery —I do not know it . But Henry VI . again !

Dust ! and nothing but Dust ! ERNEST . Impossible ! FALK . DO you know any milder term for twisted words , for supposititious forgeries . ERNEST . Could they have dared to flaunt these undisturbedly in the eyes ofthe world ?

FALK . Why not ? the wise are too few—that they are able to confute each folly—immediately on their promulgation . Enough that there was no prescription respecting tham . Certainly it would be better if no follies were enacted before

the public -, for the most contemptible part of the matter consists in the fact—that no one takes the trouble of contradicting them—wlureby , in course of time they attain the reputation of being a very serious and sacred thins * . For a thousand

years men will say , " could such things have been published to the world , had they not been true ? These credible men were not confuted in those days , and would you presume to doubt them now ?"

ERNEST . Oh ! History ! History ! What art thou ! FALK . The bald rhapsody of Anderson , in which the history of architecture is foisted in as the history ofthe Order- —might pass ! For once

in a way , might serve—and the jugglery would only be too apparent at the same time . But th . it we shonld continue to build on tin ' s marsh }* foundation—that people should not hesitate to affirm in print , what they would be ashamed to

state to a serious man by word of mouth—that they should be content to allow a jest to continue , which should long since have been droppedshould have tolerated a forgery—upon which , if an ignoble social interest is concerned—the

pillory stands ERNEST . Yet if it were true , that there was more than a play upon words in this ? If it were true , that the secret of the Order has endured from antiquity under the homogeneous

mechanical art ? FM . K . If it were only true " r ERNEST . And is it not true ? For how otherwise would the Order have selected the symbols of this art ? Precisely this one ? Why not some

other . FALK . And so it has . ERNEST . It has ? Yet another cause—than the one assigned ? FALK . Quite another . * J v * 1 - " . —Cr . v . -ru-NYM' . ; -,

Ernest And Falk.

FALK . The question is certainly grave . ERNEST . Such a fact must have a reason for its existence . ERNEST . Am I to guess , or may I enquire ? FALK . Had you asked me another question , long expected by me—the solution would not be

very difficult . ERNEST . Another question—you had long expected ? FALK . For when I said to you that that which is called Freemasonry—was not always called Freemasonry , what question would be more natural and immediate ?

ERNEST . Than to ask what it was formerl y called—very true—then I ask that question now . FALK . What was Freemasonry called—before it was called Freemasonry , you say ? Masoncy . ERNEST . Certainly , Masonry in English . FALK . In English not Masonry , but Masoney . Not from Mason , the builder—but from Mase , the table .

ERNEST . Mase , the table ? In what language ? FALK . In the language of the Anglo-Saxons , and not in that alone , but also in the language of thc Goths and Franks , hence originall y a Teutonic word , from which there are still some derivatives existing , or recently existing , such as

Maskopie , Masleidig , Mi ' . sgenosse ( table companion ) . Masoney itself was even common in Luther ' s time ; although its really good meaning had then become somewhat corrupted . ERNEST . I know nothing either of its proper , or corrupted meaning .

FALK . Yet you know the custom of our ancestors of debating the most important matters at the board . Mase , therefore , the table , aud Masoney , a closed assemblage . And when the . closed assemblage degenerated into a drinking boose , the meaning in which the word Masoney is used by Agricola is easily understood .

ERNEST . Would the word lodge have fared better some time since ?

1 ' ALK . But bclore the Masoneys partly so degenerated , and fell in the public esteem—they stood in hi gher credit . There was no court in Germany , small or great , without its Masoney . The old song-books , and chronicles testify to this . Special buildings , either adjoining to or in the neighbourhood of the castles and palaces of the sovereign ,

were thus designated—and in more recent times have given rise to so many groundless speculations . What can I quote more in their honourthan to say that the society of the Round Table was the oldest and ori ginal Masoney—their common origin ? ERNEST . The Round Table ? That ascends into very fabulous times .

FALK . Be the history of King Arthur as fabulous as it may—the Round Table is not fabulous . ERNEST . Arthur is said to be its founder . FILK . By no means ! Not even according to tradition . Arthur , or liis father , had adopted it from the Anglo-Saxons—as the term Masoney

shows . What is more easily to be understood than that the Anglo-Saxons imported no custom into England , which they did not leave behind them in their native country , lt is also seen in several German peoples of that era , that there was a tendency to form small confidential circles , in and beside the "Teat * social institution .

ERNEST . B y this you would infer ? FALK . Al ! this which I now so hastily . say , perhaps without necessary precision , I will undertake , the next time I am in town with you

among in ) - books , to demonstrate to you in black and white . Only listen to mc now—as people listen to the first rumour of some great event . It raises the curiosity more than it satisfies it . ERNEST . Where ( lid you leave off " ?

1 * u . K . Masoney therefore was a German custom transplanted b y the Anglo-Saxons into England . The learned are undecided who the Mase-Thonas were—in all probability the nobles of Masoney—which struck snch deep root in this new soil , that it it endured throughout all succeeding changes of Government , and from time

to time appears in the most flourishing condition . The Masoneys of the Templars in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries stood in great repute . And such a Templar Masoney existed in London , to the end ofthe seventeenth century , despite of the annihilation of the Order . Here also the time arrives at which the index of written history is wanting—but a carefully preserved tradition , pos-