Reviews.

total absence of any trustAvorthy English Masonic authority ; while it seems impossible for them to assert too much in exaggerated praise of Continental brethren , many of . whom , Ave suspect , must be very much surprised and quite unable , themselves , to account for the position they have thus so easily achieved in the reputed birthplace of the order . Of this Brother Findel is , par excellence , an example . The first two lines of this History of Freemasonry are deeply instructive ; and , of course , beyond dispute (?) . Brother Findel Avrites : — "From its very first existence the Society of Freemasons has attracted the

" observation of the world . " Now , for one who is contending for a guild derivation of the Order , and has all sorts of eras of computation , besides claiming that in the German handicraftsmen Avas tho foundation of Freemasonry , the very first existence of the Society could not have attracted the observation of the Avorld , or it cannot be placed in a guild , which Avas essentially a secret organisation ; nor was there any means in tho ninth century , Brother Findel's date of the building of Magdeburg ,

for the guild of German Steinmetzen to attract the observation of the Avorld . Well , let that pass , because it is essential , even in a distinguished foreigner , to begin Avith a flourish . The author inveighs everywhere against the early history of the Craft in England . He sneers - at the Athelstane date of 926 , says there is no authority for it—and it is a matter of no consequence whether there is or is not , as Freemasonry does not require so late a date by many centuries—but half doubtinglyand someAvhat depreeatinglmentions an old tradition that the

, y , German handicraftsmen Avere formed into a brotherhood in 876 ; just capping our date by half a century . Historical accuracy is a myth ; here it is Fatherland , and nothing but Fatherland , that is the oldest , real , and best Freemasonry in the world . Perhaps it may be said Ave take too national a view of the matter ; but turn to page 5 , and there AVO are told : — "Up to the commencement of the present century scarcely any hut Germans

" expressed any very clear ideas concerning the nature of this society . " Thirteen lines further on we have a specimen of this clearness of idea in the folloAving passage . "As Freemasonry is not a dogma , but an art , Avorking only upon a man ' s " intellectual faculties , it cannot be taught fully in words *; by active participa" tion in Freemasonry itself , by social intercourse with its members , must it be " learned and tested . "

Can anything be clearer ? An art working only upon a man's intellectual faculties cannot be taught fully in Avords ! Such an assertion carries with it its own refutation , because if the art of Freemasonry cannot be taught fully by words , how can an active participation in it , or social intercourse be maintained except by language ? Brother Findel must be a u * ag . Such a joke is irresistible .

A little further on AVC are told that" The purest and most perfect exemplification of religious impulse , of goodness , " of piety , of holiness , cannot be concentrated in a single individual , but only in " a society of individuals , organized on this firm basis , that all its members " agree on this one point , Adz ., that they do not seek their own selfish interests , " but the general and spiritual good of the Avhole , according as it is assigned to " each individual to see , to apprehend , and demonstrate , that he endeavours to

" mortify through life all selfish impulses , everything tending to disunion , both " in himself and around him , that the universal and intellectual advantage of all " may proA ail , and become the fountain whence each derives happiness . " NOAV , really , that is very clear , is it not ? There is a Avondrous depth of philosophy in the passage if one could only wade deep enough to find it . To grOA'el through seven hundred pages of such matter is not to derive much " intellectual advantage , " and Ave are really inclined to think , Avith the author ,

that such a highly intellectual art as he shadoAvs forth , " cannot be taught fully in Avords . " At any rate not in such Avords as Bro . Findel chooses . Let us dismiss all consideration of German obseuritj * , and leave the author to