Correspondence

Correspondence

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish , in a spirit ot fair play to all , to permit—within certain necessary limitsfree discussion .

RORKE OR ROOKE . To the Editor of the " Freemason . " Dear Sir and Brother , The valuable collection of hitherto unpublished Masonic papers in Bro . Sadler ' s new volume clearly indicates that we have not yet reached the end of our historical investigations . The work will doubtless be reviewed by experts , whom I have no intention to forestal in any way , except to express my own personal congratulations to Bro . Sadler upon his new venture .

My special object in writing now is to call attention to a sentence in Bro . Chetwode Crawley ' s most able Introductory Chapter . Into the scope of the argument it is unnecessary to enter . I only desire to point out that his reference on page xvi . to " one gentleman of unmistakeable Irish pationymic ' Ger [ ald ] Rorke , Esq ., ' " appears to me to be an error , for in a copy of the names of the members of the lodges comprised in the Third Manuscript List of 1731-2 ( not 1730 , see my Handy Book , pp . 20-23 ) , made by me many years ago , it is clearly

written " Geo . Rooke , Esq ., " and as " George Rooke , Esq . " was one of the Grand Stewards at the annual Festival held on 19 th April , 173 2 , and was on the same day appointed Senior Grand Warden in G . Lodge , I have no doubt that he is the person indicated as a member of the lodge held at the " Goat at the Foot of the Haymarket , " his official position evidently inducing the compiler of the list to dub him an " Esq ., " whilst all the other members of the lodge are simply " Mr . " — Yours fraternally , JNO . LANE . Torquay , September 7 th .

Reviews.

Reviews .

"THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF WELLS" ( Bell's Cathedral Series , Edited by Messrs . Gleeson and E . F . Strange . ) This is the 13 th of the excellent and artistic handbooks of Cathedrals published by Messrs . George Bell and Sons , Covent Garden , each of which ably describes the Fabric , and gives a history of the Episcopal See selected , so that the handsome Volumes are practically exhaustive , and furnish all needful information for residents and visitors alike , They cannot be improved upon , for as a series the entertaining little Books are all that can be desired . Wells has fallen to the facile pen and archaeological tastes of the Rev . Percy Dreamer , M . A ., to describe , who will be

gratefully remembered for the companion Volume on Oxford . Chapter 11 is devoted to the exterior , and naturally , the Grand West Front has most prominence and attention , for it is quitelunrivalled , as Ferguson declares or as Fuller quaintly says , " England affordcth not the like . " Even Professor Freeman , who objects to the West Front as a piece of architecture , admits that the sculpture is the finest display in this country . As a matter of fact some of the figures " are almost as beautiful as the greatest masterpieces in

Italy or France . " The tiers of statuary are minutely described and explained , and the north porch has justice done as " perhaps the finest piece of architecture at Wells , " though it does not generally receive the attention it deserves . The interior is also ably described , and the numerous illustrations add much to the value and interest of the volume , which may be had for eighteenpence , direct from the publishers or any booksellers .

Free And Freemasonry.

FREE AND FREEMASONRY .

BY BRO . R . F GOULD . ( Continued from page 421 . ) II .

Few scholars an Critics , few critics are philosophers , and few philosophers look with equal care on both sides of a question . —W . S . LANDOR . The aggregate testimony of our neighbours is subject to the same conditions as the testimony of any one of them . Every man who has accepted the statement from somebody else , without himself testing and verifying it , is out of court ; his word is worth nothing at all . —WV . K . CLIFFORD .

I do not suppose for an instant that my friend , Dr . Chetwode Crawley , would argue that the adoption by the Editors of the new Oxford Dictionary , of the story related in the Masonic Eclectic , constitutes " an authoritative recognition" of the altogether baseless theory advanced with so much

conndence by the " Latomia Society . " But when a writer is proved to be ; grossly inaccurate or unduly credulous on one point , it is , at least , reasonable to suppose that he may be equally wrong , and not in any lesser drgree open to be deceived on another .

The " New Dictionary , " as we learn from the title-page , is being compiled on " historical principles , " hence a criticism of its contents is by no means restricted to those "; Learn'd philologists , who chase A panting syllable through time and space ,

Start it at home , and hunt it in the dark , To Gaul , to Greece , and into Noah ' s Ark . " It is not given to everyone of us to be skilled in the science of language , —i . e ., the study of languages for their structure and relations - but of the

little band of brethren who associate for Masonic research under the banner of the Quatuor Coronati , it may be said that they are all ( without exception ) , more or less diligent students of the history and antiquities of Freemasonry .

As one of their number , I have already ventured to call in question the accuracy of one of the statements in the " Dictionary , " and an examination of another and equally positive avouchment of what also purports to be a well ascertained fact , will next be proc -eded with .

The " Free Massns , " we learn , in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries , tiavellcd from place to place , seeking employment in their trade , " and had a system of secret signs and password * by which a craftsman who had been admitted , on giving evidence of competent skill could be recognised . " ( See part 1 of the present article ) . Here , the learned editors of the " English Dictionary " evidently pin * heir faith on the introductory observations which prepare the reader for trie

Free And Freemasonry.

development of the remarkable theory , advanced with such persuasive force and dialectical ability by our Bro . Speth , in his " Tentative Enquiry " concerning the words " Free " and " Freemasonry . " The greater comprehends the less , and in looking at Bro . Speth's paper as a whole , though my glance of it must necessarily be a more rapid one than I could desire , the " positive avouchment " in the dictionary , to which attention has been drawn so recently above , will be considered with all the fulness at my command .

Before , however , parting company with the editors of the " New English Dictionary , " let me express my regret that a more " exhaustive survey of the whole ground " was not made before putting on paper their definitions of the terms " Free " and " Freemason . " Besides Bro . Speth ' s paper ( the value of which , however , I should be one of the last to underrate ) , the only Masonic works consulted at first hand

appear to have been the " History " of Bro . Findel and the * ' Hole Craft " of Bro . Conder respBctively . From the former they would appear to have derived such acquaintance as they may possess with the writings of the late Wyatt Papworth , while in the pages of the latter they have been made familiar with the " Diary " of Elias Ashmole , " The Academie of Armoury " of Randle Holme , and the notable " Aubrey memorandum " of 1691 . But

the actual argument of Wyatt Papworth , in regard to the origin and derivation of " Freemason , " as contained in his " Superintendents of English Buildings in the Middle Ages" they evidently have not perused , nor apparently the remarks of Dr . Begemann in his lette * - of May 16 th , 1897 01 . Q . C , X . 156 ) , and while I shall not contend that either of these excellent authorities has established as a fact , that " Freemason " has come down to us from mestre mason de franche pere , I unhesitatingly assert that

from the paper of the one , and the letter of the other , we gain a good working hypothesis , which in common with what is called the " Guild " theory ( still possessing many supporters , though unaccountably neglected in the " New Dictionary , " ) and the " Tentative Enquiry" of our Bro . Speth , will have to be " reckoned with , " by any Masonic historian of the future who attempts the arduous task of making " an exhaustive survey of the whole ground . "

To make use of a comparison—a case , let us suppose , is earned into court , and ( it may be ) very rightly decided in favour of the plantiff ; nevertheless , the administration of justice , locally speaking , would fall into disrepute , if a hearing had been refused to the greater bulk of the evidence which was tendered by the defendant . Passing , however , to the third ( and last ) of the theories referred to above , this remarkable piece of constructive speculation will perhaps be more

easily discussed if I broach , in the first instance , a rival hypothesis , which , if entitled to any weight , would seem to strike at the root of the supposition that the operative Masons of the Middle Ages were the intermediaries in - passing on the signs , tokens , and symbols which have come down to the modern Society .

That the symbolism of Masonry , as now preserved , was inherited from very different ancestors , and that the working masons never came into the line of transmission at all , is a contention supported by very learned members of the Craft , and among them ( was ) the late Albert Pike , from whose letters to myself I extract the following :

ALBERT PIKE TO R . F . GOULD . " It is very certain that , at an early day , there were in England , as well as on the Continent , some men , perhaps many , who devoted their time to the study of that religious philosophy known by the different names of

Hermeticism , Rosicrucianism , and Alchemy , —the last being only pretendedly the ' science' of practical Alchemy , but using the terms of science to conceal the Rosicrucian and Hermetic Dogma . Several of the symbols used by th & e philosophers to express their doctrines are now in the keeping of Masonry , notably the Compasses and Square .

" Many things combine to prove that the symbols had other meanings for the few than those which they had for the many , —the attraction which the Degrees had for men of high rank , the Preface to the Book of ' Long Livers , ' the real meaning of the Substitute for the Master's Word , the Sun , Moon , and Master of the Lodge as its Lights , the 47 th Problem , which is not a symbol of any moral truth : and the expression in the Regius Manuscript that'Gemetry ' took the name of Masonry . These are strengthened

by the traditional connection of Pythagoras with Masonry , and by the charge to keep the secrets ' of the chamber . ' " I think that the Philosophers , becoming Free-Masons , introduced into Masonry its Symbolism , —Secret , except among themselves , —in the Middle Ages , and not after the decline of Operative Masonry began . " ( Nov . 8 th , 1889 ) . " I find in the Blue Degrees certain Symbols that were used a hundred •years and more by the Hermetic writers , before the so-called revival of Freemasonry in England . "

" There is no proof that the unlettered day-labouring Masons who had formed themselves into Lodges here and there , and came together periodically , or occasionally in inns or ale-houses , for sociability and to smoke their pipes and drink ale , had and used any of these Symbols , at all . To men . of that class no Symbol of any recondite or valuable truth , religious or philosophical , could speak intelligibly , or have any other than a trite and vulgar common-place meaning , or be of much greater dignity thin the bush over the door of a wine-shopor a barber ' s pole .

, " The Symbols that I have spoken of as Hermetic m 3 y have been borrowed by Heimeticism ; but all the same , it had them : and I do not know where they were used , outside of Hermeticism , until they appeared in Masonry . To one who knows what working masons were , one or two hundred years ago , it is not necessary to argue that men of that class cauld not originate these symbols .

Did the architects have them ? As architects , no . Architecture is not a science of Symbolism , and does not u ? e Symtols . If it had any , it was for the purpose only of using the figures in its work . The architect , if peradventure , there were any who used these symbols , putting them to philosophical and religious uses , using them as philosophers ' , and not as architects , —as philosophers of some sort who happened to be Architects .

Whoever endowed Masonry with these particular Symbols , they were Hermetic Symbols ; and I know what they meant to the Hermetic writers , French , German , and English . I should think it most likely that Ashmole became a Mason , because others who were Hermeticists had become Masons before him . " ( Feb . 7 th , 1890 ) . " Ashmole had some inducement that led him to seek admission into Masonry , —some object to attain , some purpose to carry out . Even his utter