Masonry And Its Origin.

Masonry , who for so many years would not recognise more than the Three Degrees , where at last weak enough to imitate our brethren across the Channel .

This is the origin of Speculative Masonry , a society working in virtue and morality instead of stone and mortar . And since then it has spread so rapidly that now hundreds of thousands are enlisted under its banners and share the secrets of our Craft . But this is only the revival , it is not the origin of our Craft , which I intended speaking about . There is no doubt but that we are the successors of

those Stone-Masons or Steinmetzen , who during the Middle Ages covered Europe with the proudest monuments of architecture which have ever in any age been raised to the glory of God Almig hty . I mean the Gothic Cathedrals . Look at York Minster , the Coiner Dom , or the Strasburg Cathedral ; only go aud admire the beautiful ruins of Tintern Abbey , and ask yourselves : How is it possible that during dark ages of barbarism , when bloodshed and strife seemed to be the delight of the world ; when kings could not write their own names ; when justice used rack and torture as its means of conviction ; and when witches were burnt ; I say how is it possible that the human mind could

create such sublimely beautiful works , and where did the knowledge come from when all around only ignorance reigned paramount ? We have the monuments in all their grandeur , whilst the general history of the times alluded to only tells us of wars , crimes , and the most frightful depravity . . All around the world is engaged in bloody feud and darkness , and this is what the chronicles of the Middle Ages are filled with . But there is another history , carved in stone and written with chisel and hammerspeaking of quiet ,

, patient , and incessant toil and labour , of unity of purpose , strength of mind , and a holy and sublime faith in God the Creator of the Universe . It speaks of knowledge and science , of deep learning and study , of mathematics , painting , sculpture , and all other sciences tributaries to architecture . These , are the monuments left behind by our forefathers , the Stone Masons of Germany and England . And certainly prouder monuments cannot be found . The

empires founded by our generals and emperors are gone and vanished . What remains of the universal monarchy of Charles V . and Napoleon I . ? Each successive generation finds new forms of political life . But the beautiful works of our predecessors in Masonry still exhort their admiring sons iu eloquent language to work as patiently and unceasingly in their sphere as our . forefathers worked with chisel and hammer .

I am very much inclined to believe that the first architects who commenced building operations in Germany came from Italy , and were the descendants of those Masons who , in centuries long , long gone , covered Greece and the Roman Empire with temples and public edifices , and who , after the introduction of the Christian form of worship , raised the Christian basilicas . I do not doubt but that the remnants of ancient Roman building societies ( sodalitas ) were the first elements of the new German societies . There is no

direct proof for it , but my belief is based upon general historical grounds . All knowledge of a higher class in the newly created Germanic or Teutonic Empires was derived from the Roman world ; whatever traces of refinement we find in the first centuries of the Middle Ages in language , art , customs , etc ., were borrowed from the Roman Empires . The conquerors learnt from the conquered . The early history of the Middle Ages is really nothing but the

struggle of the rough , but honest Teutonic element against the subtle , refined , but immoral Latin elements , and an amalgamation of both . And thus I do not doubt but that the first instruction in the architectural sciences came from Rome , as I cannot imagine that the rude builders of wooden lints should all of a sudden have blossomed out into the builders of our splendid cathedrals , had it not been for external teaching . But the Teutonic genius very soon transformed the principles learned into quite a new system . The Romanic