Freemasonry In The Seventeenth Century: Warrington, 1646.

Sic jacet Inclytus Hie §• Eruditissimits ELIAS ASHMOLE Leichfeldensis , Armdger , inter alia in Repnblica Muneva , Tributi in Cervitias Contra Botulator , Fmcialis antem Windsoriensis titulo per annos plurimos dignatus . Qui post duo eonnubia in TJxorem dwnit tertiam Elizabetham , GULIELMI DUGDALE Militis , Garten , Principalis Begis Armorum , filiam ;

Mortem obiit 18 Maii , 1692 . anno mtatis 76 . Seel durante Mitsceo ASHMOLEANO , Oxon , mmqiiam maritwrus . Near it is an achievement set up for him , bearing Quarterly , Sable ancl Or , in the first quarter a fleur-de-lis of the second for Ashmole ; impaling Dugdaleargenta cross moline gulesand a torteauwith this motto" Ex una

, , , , , omnia . " Ashmole bought many libraries , and inherited by will from John Tradescant , all the collections of rarities made by members of his family . Many entries occur in the diary Avith reference to these curiosities . One says , in 1664 , May 18— "My Cause came to hearing in CHANCEEY against Mrs . TEEDESCANT . " This , he tells us , May 30 , 1662 , was " for the Rarities her Husband

had settled on me . " On November 26 th , 1674 , he obtained some of the "Rarities ;" and on December 1 st , he records : " I began to remove the rest of the Rarities to my house at SOUTH-LAMBETH . " A fire in his house destroyed some of his books , & c , and his fine collection of engraved portraits , biit many of his curiosities are preserved in the Ashmolean Museum , which he founded and endowed . Ashmole was the author of a number of works * " The History , & cof the

, , Garter , " 1672 , being the most famous of them . It is said that he made collections for , and intended to write a history of Freemasonry , but this never appeared . HoAvever , we have in the " Diary and Correspondence of Dr . John Worthington " f the following at p . 157 : — "I hear that Mr . Ashmole hath published the orders of the Rosy Crucians and Adepti ; can you tell me what esteem it bears ? "

The book here intended may be his " Fasciculus Cheniicus , " 1654 , or " Theatrum Chemicum Britamiicum" 1652 . The latter , Lowndes says , " gained him great reputation and was the means of extending his acquaintance in the literary world . " As the subject is an interesting one , perhaps I may be forgiven for adding the following note by my friend Mr . James Crossley , F . S . A ., the editor of the Chetham Volume , " Worthington ' s Diary , " & c .:

—The work perhaps intended , though it scarcely answers to the description , is " The Way to Bliss , in three books , -made public by Elias Ashmole , Esq . Qui est Mercuriopbilus Anglicus . " Lond . 1658 . 4 to . The object of this treatise , the author of which , Ashmole informs us , was without doubt an Englishman , " but has hitherto passed with us among the anonymi , " and which " seems to be written about the beginning of the late , or end of the former century , " was to prove the possibility of such a thing as the philosopher ' s stone . The " laborious searcher" who found the manuscript of this treatise , was most fortunately directed to three grains of powder , closed up between two leaves thereof , with which he made projection ! The judgement of the writer of Ashmole ' s life , in the " Biographia Britannica , " ( who was Dr . Campbell , the author of " Hermippus Eedivivus , " ) on the book