Freemasonry : Its Origin, Its History, And Its Design.

tion with the monks , who probably projected the plans which the Masons carried into execution , led to the admission among them of persons who were not operative masons . These were hi gh ecclesiastics , wealthy nobles , and men of science who were encouragers and patrons of the art .

These , not competent to engage in the labour of building , were supposed to confine themselves to philosophic speculations on the princi ples of the art , and to symbolizing or spiritualizing its labours and its implements . Hence there resulted

a division of the membership of the brotherhood into two classes , the practical and theoretic , or . as they are more commonly called , the operative and speculative . The operative Masons always held the ascendancy in numbersbut the speculative

, Masons exerted a greater influence by their higher culture , their wealth , and their social position . In time there came a total and permanent disseverance of the two elements . At

the beginning of the eighteenth century there were several lodges in England , but for a long time there had been no meeting of a great assembly . In the year 1 / 17 Freemasonry was revived , and the Grand Lodge of England established by the four

lodges which then existed in London . This revival took place through the influence aud by the exertions of non-operative or speculative Masons , and the institution has ever since preserved that character . Lod were speedilestablished

ges y all over the world—in Europe , America and Asia—b y the Mother Grand Lodge at London , who , for that purpose , issued provincial deputations or patents of authority to introduce the Order into foreign countries . No important change has taken

place in the organization since that period . Now in every kingdom of Europe , with two exceptions , in every State of the American Union , in the Dominion of Canada and other British Provinces , aud in each of the South American Republics

, there is a grand lodge exercising sovereign Masonic power , while in some colonies which have not attained political independence provincial grand fodges have been invested with slightly inferior prerogatives .

Freemasonry of the present day is a philosophic or speculative science , derived from and issuing out of an operative art .

It is a science of symbolism . One of the authoritative definitions of Freemasonry is that it is " a science of morality , veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols . " But a more correct definition would be that it is " a system of morality developed and inculcated by the science of symbolism . "

Its orig inal descent from an association of builders has given to its symbolism a peculiar character . All the labours of operative or stone masonry , its implements and its technical language have been seized by the speculative Freemasonryand

ap-, propriated b 3 them as symbols , each of which teaches some important moral or religious truth . The cathedrals whicl their predecessors erected , some of which still remain as proud monuments of their surpassing skill in architecture , have been

replaced for esoteric reasons by the Temple of Solomon , which has become , with one exception , the most important and significant of the symbols of the Order . ¦ As all these symbols are applied to religious purposes , and received a religious interpretation , we must conclude that Freemasonry is a religious institution . It

is not a religion . It makes no such claim . It does not profess to offer the renovating efficacy or the spiritual consolation which make religion so necessary an element iu the healthful life of man . But it does inculcate some religious truths , without

any attempt to define theological dogmas . It demands of its initiates a trusting belief in God and in the immortality of the soul , and its ceremonies and its symbols impress these truths with all the moral consequences that a belief in them implies . It recognizes

all religious truth , and tolerates , but does not accept , sectarian dogmas . If repudiates nothing but atheism . Around its altar , consecrated to the Grand Architect of the universe , men of all creeds may kneel in one common worshipeach holding in his

, heart with all tenacity his own peculiar faith , the brotherhood around neither making or condemning by word or look . Incidental to its organization as an association of men engaged in the same pursuit we had other characteristics common to it ,

with all similar human associations , but which it possesses and practises with greater perfection because of its universality and its numerical extension . Such is its social character . In the lodge all artificial distinctions of rank , and wealth ,