TABLE of CONTENTS FOOTSTEPS of FREEMASONRY in Endeavouring to Trace the Footsteps of Free- Masonry, It Has Ever Been Far from My

TABLE OF CONTENTS But to digress—it must not be supposed that sophical teaching, and it is perfectly clear that as all secret fraternities in ancient times were of an speculative masons, we are not indebted to our Footsteps of Freemasonry 407 amiable and philosophic character, as may be operative friends for their tools. Consecration of a Rose Croix Chapter at Southampton 468 gathered from Livy's account of the destruction The same may be observed of the early A Kind Word to the Brethren 469 Christian writers C ORRESPONDENCE :— of the order of the Bacchanals. , some of the most eminent being What is Freemasonry ? 469 In this instance it occurred to an unscrupulous either stoics or platonists, and who carrying into Ancient Grand Lodge of York 470 Greek brother to invent a new order; we thus find their new calling their accustomed figures of Professor Rawlinson and the Ten Tribes 470 in the testimony of Livy, that inventors of new speech, called the Bible the "Sacred Canon" Libelling the Prime Minister 471 orders even then existed. literally the "Holy Level or Plumb Rule." This The Royal Order of Scotland 4/ 2 Into this order at first onl men, but subse- does not indeed prove them to have been masons, CRAFT M ASONRY :— y Metropolitan 473 quently, the young of both sexes, and at that but shows the phrases of the two bodies had one Provincial 473 immature age when the passions are least under common origin. R OYAL A RCH : control, were initiated. Instead, however, of I think we have already pretty clearly shown Provincial 474 pursuing virtue, they fell to vice, and such vice as whence our emblem of the Apron is derived , K NIGHTS T EMPLAR — brings all heathendom before our eyes. that it is not servilely copied from the working Scotland 475 No nation ever more excelled in virtue than mason, but that it is borne in memory of primeval The Grand Mark Lodge of England 475 peiiod , never times, precisly as our ritual expresses it, as a Freemasonry in Trinidad 476 did Rome in its earlier and better Freemasonry in Italy 477 did a people, not even Sodom itself, sink to such a badge of innocence and bond of friendshi p. Masonic Tidings 477 state of depravity and sensual indul gence as did I may here also, in passing, mention a fact West Lancashire Masonic Reilef Committee 47S that nation within a generation of its Augustan age. accidently omitted in its due place, viz., that our Artemus Ward 47S The Bacchanalian order, however , revolted even division of the day into three parts is essentially Masonic Meetings for next week 478 , and con- Roman. It was expressly so divided b the Advertisements 465, 466, 479, 480 then, and convicted of vice, perjury, y spiracy, its doom was signal, for by order of the "Laws of the twelve tables," and for nearly FOOTSTEPS OF FREEMASONRY Senate it was stamped out in ignominy, violence, 500 years remained the unchanged and only OK , and blood. practice, the hours were subsequentl y added. F REEMASONRY IN R ELATION TO A UTHENTIC It was probably the signal success ot violence Although 1 have not at all , myself, investigated H ISTORY . in putting down this association, that induced the the fact, and by no means vouch for it, "Masson" Emperors in the next age to try the same dealing is said to be a Coptic word, signifying Brother. By W. Vis EH H KI .OWE . M.D., J.D. 1322. l ion. Sec., Research would be interesting. Sph yux Lod ge of Instruction. with the Christians, but how different was the re- sult,—different as is vice from virtue. It may not In attempting to chronologise our system , I (Continued Jroni pngr 382 J however be uninteresting to the Masonic brother should say that Freemasonry, up to and including In endeavouring to trace the Footsteps of Free- to bear in mind that the first systematic persecu- the first part of the third degree, is essentially masonry, it has ever been far from my intention tion , (for it extended through all Italy,) and by Roman in its character, and resembles the so- to suppose or leach that it existed of old under its success probabl y the forerunner of that of the cieties which existed there under the Republic, its modern name and denomination. Thus we Christians, was caused by a new order invented having been founded by Nuraa. speak of the British Constitution as existing and developed in folly, sin, and shame. There Secondly, under the Empire, B.C. 2S, and for before the " glorious Revolution ," and though it are few pursuits more interesting than to trace the a generation previously, i.e., after the conquest did not always bear that name, yet the traditions, sequences of history. of Greece, Grecian ideas penetrated, pervaded , laws, and customs, which we summarise by that We may also here notice that 111 this new and modified this equally with all other insti- appellation , modified only by time and circum- society, the slave-born were not excluded , anil it tutions. From this influence also arose our stances, have existed from time immemorial. became a rule to initiate none over twenty years. philosophy, and the introduction from the Stoic It is, as the French term it, the " analogue " of We all know the importance our " constitutions ' teachings of our Geometrical emblems. I believe what formerly existed , and, as the crocodile may attach to botli these points, and it is not impos- also that these institutions were finally arranged be said to be the " analogue " of the Saurian sible that the follies and destruction of this ordei about the second century of the Christian era. monsters of the geological periods, and is the form may have allbrded a warning never forgotten. I will request permission to make an extract under which their type has descended to our times, There is another subject I wish to refer to. In from a very great authority, the German writer so is our Freemasonry the " analogue " of those a previous article a quotation from Cicero's Ora- Tenneman , who remarks " the political , religious, ancient associations which formed , in fact, " the tion for Murena was given , describing Cato as and moral conditions of the Roman emp ire dur- basis and superstructure " of Roman society. squaring the conduct 01 his life by the " right ing the first century of the Christian era were The more Freemasonry is contemplated , the rule of reason," and but for want of space in that not such as to animate and sustain a sp irit of more wonderful does it seem , and a critical con- communication , should have dwelt upon its im- philosop hical research , but a mania for the sideration of the ritual, will soon convince the portance. Indeed, it is a very important fact for strange, and extraordinary neglect of the pop- most sceptical that, however modern may seem its us to ascertain that men , not being operative ular reli gion and superstition , and extinction of form, yet that its essentials have been handed masons, did actuall y profess to govern their lives all noble sentiments prevailed ; consequentl y the down from ancient times. This may have been symbolically by the square, level, anil plumb rule, endeavours of the wise and reasoning; amongst done ignorantly, by men who neither knew nor and used them as emblems. The literal trans- them were directed in various wafs : comprehended their meaning, for it is only when lation of what Cicero says is, that Cato regulated 1 st. To maintain and modify the schools we compare it by the li ght of history with the his life by the "normam ," that is , the mechanic's alread y existing. habits, institutions, and philosophical sects of the square, and the duties of his oflice, by the "per- antil y. To revive the neglected doctrines of ancient Romans, that we can detect its true and pendiculum ," that is, the mechanic's plumb their forefathers, as for example the " Pythago- ptoper significations. We may, indeed, put the rule. rean philosophy " (so much identified with Free- converse, and ask what have we which they had The very learned l'ortroyalist commentator on masonry). not, even to the very signs. In fact, ancient Free- this passage remarks that these were not only 3. To combine the various systems of Plato, masonry was the same as the modern, minus the proverbidl phrases amonst the Greeks in common Aristotle, ike., (not forgetting even Zoroaster and traditional history. I fearlessly assert that the life, but that the Stoics especiall y adopted these Hermes) and to trace the former ones back 10 men who, in modern times, have moulded its mechanical emblems, and used them commonly the ancient dogmata, or teachings of Pytha- forms and dictions, were altogether incapable of in their teachings. goras. inventing the scaffolding on which it hangs, and Here, then, we have, undoubtedly, the highest 4thl y. To combine also in one the spirit of I believe the question of its ancient existence to and clearest authority for the use of the square, " eastern and western philosophy." have a most important bearing on the well-being level , and plumb rule, and all seem to have been It was at this period , likewise, at the com- and influence of our institution. included under the term of " norma ," in philo- mencement of the second century , that Adnii.v first codified the Roman laws (an object not modern times, and the era of the council of Nice, A Rose Croix Chapter having been opened , yet attained in England) under the title of the by which in religious matters we are all more or the following candidates were introduced and ' "Edictum perpetuum," and Schlegel adds that less still bound.

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