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Article THE HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY. ← Page 2 of 6 →
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The History Of Freemasonry.
quarto he has now produced . In it will be found- no wandering flights of imagination , strengthened by false documents or imperfectly recorded texts . Facts are given such as could be obtained , and it is left to the reader to form his own opinions , without the benefit (?) of an undercurrent of theory , so liable to lead us , even against our will ,
like the will o' the wisp , into endless swamps of difficulty . One thing that has perhaps contributed more than anything else towards the want of respect for and faith in our Masonic histories has been the faith displayed by the writers of them . There is hardly an institution of ancient times , having in its constitution more or less
of secrecy , from which our fraternity has not at one time or another been directly traced to have taken its origin . It is needless , and would be a waste of time , to enumerate here the theories of Masonic historians , suffice it to say that they resolved themselves into two , the Steinmetzen and the Graft Gilds . Bro . Gould now introduces a third ,
the Gompagnons , so merely hinted at by a few previous writers that it may almost be said to have been overlooked . We quite endorse the opinion of the Chevalier de Bonneville , that " the span of ten men ' s lives was too short for so formidable an undertaking " as the collecting of facts and forming them into a history of Freemasonry . Many may add to this that the time has not yet arrived
for such a work to be attempted . Possibly as regards a perfect history this would be correct ; but when may we hope to obtain perfection ? Selfishness no doubt prompts the gratification we feel on seeing this first instalment of Bro . Gould ' s work ; but should we not rejoice that some one has at last come forward , able and willing , to undertake a
task which , if left to some uncertain date in the future , might then be published—long after our own time , and even then—imperfect . There is no lack of matter at hand , but one thing must occur to every one in considering such a subject , i . e ., the difficulty of selection . It would no doubt have been easy for Bro . Gould , with the immense mass of
material he has evidently collected on matters only indix ^ eetly , owing to the arguments of previous writers connected with Freemasonry , to have extended his work to a much greater size . But would this have been an advantage ? We venture to think not . What was really required was that a succinct account of certain ancient systems of
brotherhood should be given in such a form as to be readily accessible . It was impossible to overlook these entirely , as certain symbolism exsits in all ; and in the first chapter , entitled " The Ancient Mysteries , the Essenes , the Roman Collegia , the Culdees , " such accounts will be found culled from the best authorities , and presented in such a form that their main points are clear and untrammelled by any visionary theories of the author .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of Freemasonry.
quarto he has now produced . In it will be found- no wandering flights of imagination , strengthened by false documents or imperfectly recorded texts . Facts are given such as could be obtained , and it is left to the reader to form his own opinions , without the benefit (?) of an undercurrent of theory , so liable to lead us , even against our will ,
like the will o' the wisp , into endless swamps of difficulty . One thing that has perhaps contributed more than anything else towards the want of respect for and faith in our Masonic histories has been the faith displayed by the writers of them . There is hardly an institution of ancient times , having in its constitution more or less
of secrecy , from which our fraternity has not at one time or another been directly traced to have taken its origin . It is needless , and would be a waste of time , to enumerate here the theories of Masonic historians , suffice it to say that they resolved themselves into two , the Steinmetzen and the Graft Gilds . Bro . Gould now introduces a third ,
the Gompagnons , so merely hinted at by a few previous writers that it may almost be said to have been overlooked . We quite endorse the opinion of the Chevalier de Bonneville , that " the span of ten men ' s lives was too short for so formidable an undertaking " as the collecting of facts and forming them into a history of Freemasonry . Many may add to this that the time has not yet arrived
for such a work to be attempted . Possibly as regards a perfect history this would be correct ; but when may we hope to obtain perfection ? Selfishness no doubt prompts the gratification we feel on seeing this first instalment of Bro . Gould ' s work ; but should we not rejoice that some one has at last come forward , able and willing , to undertake a
task which , if left to some uncertain date in the future , might then be published—long after our own time , and even then—imperfect . There is no lack of matter at hand , but one thing must occur to every one in considering such a subject , i . e ., the difficulty of selection . It would no doubt have been easy for Bro . Gould , with the immense mass of
material he has evidently collected on matters only indix ^ eetly , owing to the arguments of previous writers connected with Freemasonry , to have extended his work to a much greater size . But would this have been an advantage ? We venture to think not . What was really required was that a succinct account of certain ancient systems of
brotherhood should be given in such a form as to be readily accessible . It was impossible to overlook these entirely , as certain symbolism exsits in all ; and in the first chapter , entitled " The Ancient Mysteries , the Essenes , the Roman Collegia , the Culdees , " such accounts will be found culled from the best authorities , and presented in such a form that their main points are clear and untrammelled by any visionary theories of the author .