An Analysis Of Ancient And Modern Freemasonry.

AN ANALYSIS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN FREEMASONRY .

LONDON , SATURDAY , MARCS 28 , 1868 .

BY * B RO . WILLIAM J . HUGHAN , 18 ° , W . M ., No . 131 , TKTJKO , CORNWALL , & C . MODERN FREEMASONRY . ANCIENT FREEMASONRY . —Vide Vol . XVII .

Having presented a variety of facts in illustration of the nature of the Operative Masonic Bodies , we now purpose considering the character of modern Freemasonry as a supplanter of the old institution , a legitimate descendant thereof , and a

most powerful and valuable society . Modern Freemasonry became a power , just as the operative branch was withering away from the knowledge of the usages and customs of the latter having been transferred from the favoured few to

the countless many , by the tranforming influences of civilisation , and like with all the Crafts , society no longer permitted the secrets of the building art to be buried in the mind of the leading Masters , but rightly considered that whereas

formerly it was held a duty to confine operative masonry to certain lodges or companies , in the 18 th century such protection and restrictive laws were no longer required .

So that we , as members of the Masonic body of the present day , are to select such operative tools , customs and laws as were formerly employed by the ancient Craftsmen , that will best act as a means or incentive to holiness , and to

appropriately symbolise our proficiency in moral truth and virtue ; and whilst we retain the customary technical expressions as applicable to the architecture of a Temple , we employ them figuratively , in a proper sense , and withal in a more important and religious signification . "We have shown that antecedent to the last

century , Freemasons under Grand Lodges , Grand Masters , and according to the system followed since 1717 , were not known to exist , although we are strongly of the opinion that the present society may justly claim a very ancient origin in so

far as it accords with its operative parent , and harmonises with the customs of the early Craftsmen beyond question , modern Freemasonry alone claims to be the descendant of the operative fraternities , and it alone is entitled to the

cognomen of the "Ancient and Honourable-Society of Free and Accepted Masons . " At the same time we must bear in mind that a complete revolution in the ancient usages and established customs of the Order " was effected at

the revival , and but little of the present rituals can be traced beyond the middle of the last century . It may truly be said that Freemasonry is one of the most ancient and most modern institutions in

existence , for those familiar with its history can trace the busy hands of its friends , altering , modernising , and adding to its ceremonies from A . D . 1717 to A . D . 1813 , blotting out here , changing there , and so transforming the original as to leave

few of the ancient landmarks distinguishable from the mass of the so-called improvements , until it at last , from a simple organisation of one or two degrees , has increased to nobody knows how many rites , systems , and organisations , and its records

are bound up with so much that tends to bewilder and mislead , that few indeed can trace the time immemorial Masonry through the several changes and variable treatment it has received at the hands

of its would-be friends . While we claim for modern Freemasonry an existence of some hundred and fifty years , and maintain that all degrees but the two first , are in all probability of a later date , we still venture to link the present society

to its ancient predecessor , and thus connect it with the Craftsmen of the middle ages , the honoured builders of our venerable cathedrals , and the various guilds of still earlier days . It is to the few members of the fraternity resident in London in the second decade of the seventeenth

century that we are indebted for the introduction of modern Freemasonry . Fortunately on this subject we are not without information , although but little is known of the matter . Soon after the first Grand Lodge in the world was established , a

Book of Constitutions was published wherein the operative and speculative elements were blended . In addition to this work we have the testimony of Craftsmen who were active agents in the revival or received their information from authentic

sources . And yet , with all the witnesses , it is to be regretted that scarcely anything is said of the history of operative lodges before that date existing in London , and that even of the oldest ( Antiquity Lodge ) , its historian , Bro . William

Preston , only hints at its having been constituted about the middle of the seventeenth century , and . while he devotes many pages to legends , says little-