Masonic Research.

well as active , since the present High Council of America was founded by fratres admitted by us at York ; and this evening we have received into our M % % $ £ C $ $ . £ £ 4 . a distinguished brother , who contemplates the establishment of the order on the shores of the Mediterranean , and under his sway I feel sure that it cannot fail to flourish in that classic locality , where a grand field of work awaits its investigations .

We now number in our ranks thirty-three members , many of them Masons of high reputation , ancl who have shown for years an active and , what is better still , an intelligent interest in Masonic subjects in their respective districts . It is this intelligent side of Masonry which especially needs cultivation , and it is for the encouragement of progress in this direction that this society of ours was formed and now exists .

Fratres , I need not tell you , for you know it right well , that the mere perfection of ritual , the mere swelling out of a big charity list , or the mere faculty of making after-dinner speeches , or all three arts combined , do not constitute a Masonic scholar . Bright working is good , charitable efforts are excellent , and as we must eat to live , we may as well eat ancl live sociably ancl pleasantly , but a Mason may have wrought wonders in these things , ancl yet

not have mastered the greatest delight which Freemasonry can afford , ancl that is the mine of intellectual wealth which its hidden history conceals from all but the diligent student . It is diligence in Masonic study which I am so anxious that this college should encourage to the utmost of its power . All Masonic students of the present day are not members of our Order , but our Frater Hughan , who may be regarded as the historian , par excellence , of York

Masonry , is one of our brightest ornaments . Bro . R . F . Gould , as most of you know , has made Masonic history a subject of close study for years , and his published results are of inestimable value to all Masonic students . Bro . the Rev . A . F . A . Woodford bas for the major portion of his life devoted himself to Masonic research , ancl even now admits that he stands merely on the threshold of knowledge as regards the history of our mystic art . As yet so little is known concerning its origin and its history , that Masonry may yet be said to be practically , and in these respects , a sealed book .

I believe that the members of this college might do much towards the efforts now being made to elucidate the real history of Freemasonry , by everkeeping in mind their duty as members of the Order , ancl never permitting an opportunity to pass by disregarded of stimulating research in others as well as investigating themselves all available sources of Masonic knowledge . In York itself I think we may consider the mines of Masonic research pretty well exhaustedyet even this is bno means certainfor our

Fratei-, y , Todd can tell you how , only a short time since , he ancl I unearthed an old minute book amongst the possessions of the York Lodge , which had escaped the vigilant , eyes of Bros . Woodford , Cowling , Hughan , ancl others , but which carried back the records of the Royal Arch in York several years earlier than had been previously known . It is known that in 1779 a minute book of the old Grand Lodge of all England at York ( then known as the Lodge at York )

was in existence , containing records of meetings held in 1705 . This book is now missing , but who can tell that it may not yet be discovered in some unexpected quarter ? From time to time other minute books ancl Masonic relics have come to light in ways not to be anticipated , ancl I need harll y say that the discovery of the minute book alluded to might be a most valuable aid in clearing up the great mystery as to that period known as " the revival " of

1 / 17 . Yorkshire offers a peculiarly favourable field for Masonic investigation , for some of the oldest recorded lodges were wont to be held in this cit y and in other Yorkshire towns . Onl y very few of their records remain to us , and probably most of them have been lost and destroyed ; but it is quite possible that some may still exist , stored away amongst old disused papers when those odges stopped ivorking , and waiting in some lumber-room to be brought once 2 K