Some Masonic Matters For Future Inquiry.

the lodges ? What are the principal proofs relied upon by those who contend that speculative sprang from operative Masonry ? What are the grounds of the opinion expressed by recent writers on Freemasonry that it was only Masonic pride that

invented the expression " operative" and "speculative" Masonry ? What impartial writer of competent learning has refuted the assertion , formerly often made , and still repeated in general literary publications , that ' speculative Masonry is " an

innocent mystification , unconnected altogether with the building craft or with architecture ?" What manuscripts in the library of the British Museum , prior to 1700 , mention speculative Masonry ?

MISCELLANEOUS . After the restoration of King Charles IT ., is ifc not the fact that there were two kinds of Freemasonry—the old or operative Freemasonry , and the modern or speculative Freemasonry ? Are

the names known of those literary friends of Ashmole who are said to have joined with him in creating our speculative Masonry ? Are the immediate successors of Ashmole and his literary friends in the invention and development of

speculative Masonry known , and where cau any mention of them be found ? Are the names of any lodges known , which , having previously been operative lodges , became , about the middle of the seventeenth century or subsequently , speculative lodges ? Are

Grand Lodges quite a modern invention ? Can any authority , printed or manuscript , of the seventeenth century be brought forward showing that

Ashmole was the author of speculative Masonry ? Can the following assertion , found in a recently published " Conversation ' s Lexicon , " be successfully contested ? : — " Tho history of Freemasonry has been overlaid with fiction and absurdity , partly

from an exaggerated estimate of its importance in the development of architecture , and partly from a wish to connect mediaeval Masonry with the institution that comes under the same name in the present day . " Can the brother Q-0 very wrono *

who refuses to have anything to do with any system of working except that limited to the three Craft degrees and the Royal Arch ? Did Ashmole and his literary friends form any new lodges , and what are the names of such lodges , and where did the

members meet ? Did not the operative Masons admit monks and the clergy into their lodges as speculative Masons and directors ? Did nofc the speculative Masonry , winch had grown up in the

middle of the seventeenth century , languish and decay towards the end of that century , and what was the cause thereof ? Does ifc follow because some individuals who were not operative Masonswere members of old lodges that our speculative

Masonry existed in those lodges ? Does he who denies that fche Masonic fraternity is derived from the fraternity of operative Masons , deny the whole history of the Craft , and put aside all reliable historical documents ? Has it been ascertained

whether the four old lodg-es which joined in forming the Grand Lodge of 1717 were , or were not ,, lodges which owed their existence to Ashmole and his literary friends ? Historically considered , what is there to show that , prior to the revival of 1717 ,

there was a lodge of which the Masonry was whab is now called speculative ? In ancient times , was not each lodge quite independent of all other lodges ? In the reign of Charles . II .,. were there not already lodges in which the

Freemasonry was no longer operative , but entirely speculative ? Is there any evidence that Freemasonry , having decayed and become as ifc were extinct , revived at the beginning of the 17 th century in a different form from that which it bore in

mediaeval times ? Is the Grand Lodge of England the earliest Grand Lodge ? May not the earliestevidences in this country as regards Masonic

teachings and usages , and especially the ritual and ceremonies , be fixed about the middle of the 17 th century ? May not the society founded by Ashmole and his literary friends have been a kind of club with Templar , Kosicrucian , and Masonic

ceremonies , but without our speculative element ? Must every brother who denies that Freemasonry is dez-ived from fche Fraternity of the mediajval . Freemasons stand on the basis of an unprovable hypothesis of mere imagination , not on the

basisof historical facts ? Was not the revival of 1717 , a revival of the speculative Masonry of Ashmole and his literaiy friends ? Were the four lodges , which constituted the first Grand Lodge , 1717 , lodges of operative Masons , with some

exceptions ? What is known of a General Assembl y of Freemasons , said to have been held somewhere in 1663 ? What are the Masonic orders and

degrees said to have existed in 1724 , and to have been unknown to Craftsmen ? Where is the evidence that Masonry , having been much neglected , was , with a view to its revival , aboufc fche year 1700 , extended to all professions , and ceased to be purely operative , and became speculative ?