Documenta Latomica Inedita.

DOCUMENTA LATOMICA INEDITA .

THE following paper is the commencement of an attempt to supply to Masonic students , essays , papers , documents , etc ., which have hitherto been unedited , and are , for the most part , inaccessible to , or overlooked by , those whose time is precious , and whose means of comparison , search after , and collation of such documents are limited . It has been thought that such a collection might be rendered valuable by careful selectionand perhaps hereafter deserve reprinting in a separate form

, , more easily accessible and more readily preserved , than in the ephemeral pages of a passing magazine . Accordingly , this collection has been began "bona fide , " and with a sincere desire to aid plain Masonic students in laudable studies and difficult inquiries , and we trust that it will be both hel pful in itself to many , and approved of by all the readers of the Magazine .

This account of the Freemasons is taken from the fourth volume of Banier and Mascrier ' s edition of Picart ' s " Ceremonies , " published at Paris by Rollin Fils , 1741 . It is chap , v ., under the head of "Protestants , " and divides itself almost naturally into four parts , —a preface , an account of the laws and regulations of the society , the ceremonies of the society , and a sort of " l'envoi" to the reader .

We propose to omit entirely the portion relative to the ceremonies , which has no real value to the Masonic archaeological student , in fact , being simply a translation of oft-printed works , and , at the same time , is utterly irrelevant to the history or position of Freemasonry . But the account of a writer in 1741 , —hostile though he be to our Order by profession , and unsympathetic by the tone and temper of Roman Catholicism , —has some value for us who are stud ying the same question , which is still in obscurity to-day , after the lapse of 140 years . The essay is found at pages 334—342 of the work above mentioned .

Of The Society Of Freemassons.

OF THE SOCIETY OF FREEMASSONS .

WE are going to acquit ourselves here of the promise we made at the commencement of this third portion of the Religious Ceremonies of Protestants by speaking of the famous Society of " Free-Masons . " * This society , so celebrated and so little known , is neither a sect nor a heresy . * * * We cannot say that it is a branch either of the Reformation or of Roman Catholicity . Roman Catholics and Protestants areit is said

, , equally received therein . B y this it would seem here to be out of place . Nevertheless , we are assured that it practices certain ceremonies which seem to have some relation to religion ; at least , it makes use of an " obligation . " Therefore , by this characteristic , it is within the scope of this work . On the other side , it had its birth in a Protestant country . It was established there , and there it existsand it is thence that it has ht to extend itself in some

, soug of the neighbouring countries . Whence it results that we can scarce place anywhere else , that which concerns it , but at the conclusion of the Protestant sects . The little that is known about it will not permit us to enter into a prolonged detail respecting it . That which we are about to say is derived from certain manuscript accounts which