Some Masonic Matters For Future Inquiry.

Craft Mason ? What is the foundation of the statement , that the third degree did nofc originally form part of the Masonic system ? What is now generally thought of the opinion , which once prevailed , that the third degree was manufactured by

Doctors Desaguiliers and Anderson , about the year 1717 ? What was the motive for passing a law that no one should be made a Master Mason except in Grand Lodge ? When and where , and by whom , and by what authority was the third degree

completed ? Which are the manuscripts in the library of the British Museum which are said to disprove the antiquity of ova' Master ' s degree ?

ROYAL ARCH AND HIGH GRADES . Are not the so-called high grades which exist in some branches of the Craft , foreign to the real spirit of Masonry ? Are not the high degrees an innovation which crept in at the time of Masonic

degeneracy ? Is any one prepared to adduce such evidence as can counterbalance the powerful testimony in favour of the antiquity of the high degrees ? Is not our Royal Arch based on the Chevalier Ramsay ' s continental degree of

Royal Arch ? Is the account of the origin of the Royal Arch degree , which appeared in the ' 'Monthly Magazine and British Register , " for October , 1798 , and is reprinted in the FREEMASONS ' MAGAZINE , vol . xii ., page 77 , a correct account ?

What is the date of the book , printed or manuscript , in "which the high grades are first mentioned ? What had the Chevalier Ramsay to do with founding the Royal Arch degree ? What were the high grades of the Chevalier Ramsay

which our Grand Lodge refused to adopt ? Were the Chevalier Ramsay's degrees worked in this country in 1713 ? Where , in the period 1740—1760 , is it explicitly declared and shown that the Grand Lodge of England was entirely unacquainted

with the high degrees ? When and under what circumstances , and by whom was the Royal Arch degree introduced into English Masonry ? Which of our high grades were introduced and established by fche Chevalier Ramsey ?

SPECULATIVE MASONRY . Can ifc be incontestably proved that our Speculative Grand Lodge and speculative Masonry are the legitimate and direct successors of operative Masonry ? Do the ancient Masonic Constitutions

that have been preserved show a very close resemblance between operative and speculative Masonry ? Do any of the manuscript proceedings

of the lodges of the 17 th century that have been preserved indicate that matters not relating to operative Masonry , were discussed or treated of , at the meetings of the Fraternity ? How longbefore 1717 can speculative Masonry be shown to

have existed ? Is our p . tesenfc speculative Masonry the production of the Grand Lodge of 1717 ? In what , at the time of the union of 1813 , consisted the difference between those called . ancient , and those called modern , speculative Masons ? Is

ifc clear that our system of symbolical and speculative Masonry was instituted between 1717 and 1721 ? And is ifc clear that it did not exist previously in its present form ? Is not our present Grand Lodge of Speculative and Accepted

Masons the legitimate and lineal successor of the Grand Assembly of Operative Masons revived after the Civil War , and with the absorption of the operative by the speculative element ? Is ifc evident that speculative Masonic ceremonies ,

although equivalent to , were yet distinct , separate , and entirely different from operative Masonic ceremonies ? Is it not an undoubted fact that there

were conjoint lodges of' operative and speculative Masons about the middle of the 17 th century ? Is ifc to-day possible to trace the history of speculative Masonry through the operative guilds before 1700 , to the operative feudalities ( whatever those may

be ) of the middle and earlier ages ? Is there any impartial and reliable book which considers the question whether speculative Masonry is not of British origin , and does " not date from the 17 th century ? Is there , or is there not , satisfactory

evidence to show that the sun , the moon , the compasses , square , and triangle now adopted as the distinguishing badge of the brotherhood of speculative Masons , were not formerly a set of symbols

belonging in part to Templary and in parfc to Rosicrucianism ? May it not be affirmed that the open and formal union of operative and speculative Masonry was in 1717 ? May we not feel assured that operative and speculative

Masonry were but two parts of one great and universal system ? May it not be considered that the operative element of our Order was absorbed by the speculative ? Were operative aud speculative Masonry distinct in 1684 and 1691 ? What are

the proofs of the connection between the operative and speculative Masons of England previously to 1700 ? What are the names of individuals , nonoperative Masons , who , in the course of the 17 th century , were associated with operative Masons in