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Article THE DERIVATION OF FREEMASON. ← Page 4 of 4
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The Derivation Of Freemason.
In the poem we find these AA ords , line 127—The fourth article this must be That the master himself will he see , That he no bondman " prentys " make , Nor for covetousness him do take ,
For the lord that he is bound to May fetch the " prentys " Avherever he go . and so again at line 143 , we find these words—By old time written I find ,
That the " prentes" should be of gentle kind , And so sometime great lord's blood , Take this geometry that is full good . It seems to me that there is a great deal of force in the argument
that the Avord " Free " as appended to Mason means that he Avas free of his Gild , and probably also of his toAvn— "Freeman Freemason . " There is another meaning giA ^ en to the word " Free , " that it is in connection with " accepted , " and alludes to the Free and Accepted Speculative Mason as opposed to the merely Operative Mason . For one , I
cannot think that is the original use of the Avord , though no doubt the term " Free and Accepted Masons " may date from the end of the seventeenth centuiy . There were "Freemasons" before 1717 ; and the word Freemason is found as early as the end of the fourteenth century , and hence the real point for us to decide is , what was its
exact and accurate meaning then ? But here I must stop . Subsequent researches may throAV more light on the real status of the Craft , Mason Gilds , and the true meaning of the word , when we shall enjoy more lig ht than we noAv possess . There are seA ^ eral hundred Gild returns in Richard the Second ' s reign awaiting another Toulmin
Smith to collate and edit these mouldering records ; and , therefore , Avithout such information which , we in vain ask for , and knowledge of the subject Avhich we look for hopelessly at present , Ave must aAvait a happier day of clearness and certainty . Much has been done by a little band of Masonic students to unfold the dim arcana of the
past , but yet much remains to be done before we can exchange probability for reality and happy suggestions and student theories for historical accuracy , and scientific exactness .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Derivation Of Freemason.
In the poem we find these AA ords , line 127—The fourth article this must be That the master himself will he see , That he no bondman " prentys " make , Nor for covetousness him do take ,
For the lord that he is bound to May fetch the " prentys " Avherever he go . and so again at line 143 , we find these words—By old time written I find ,
That the " prentes" should be of gentle kind , And so sometime great lord's blood , Take this geometry that is full good . It seems to me that there is a great deal of force in the argument
that the Avord " Free " as appended to Mason means that he Avas free of his Gild , and probably also of his toAvn— "Freeman Freemason . " There is another meaning giA ^ en to the word " Free , " that it is in connection with " accepted , " and alludes to the Free and Accepted Speculative Mason as opposed to the merely Operative Mason . For one , I
cannot think that is the original use of the Avord , though no doubt the term " Free and Accepted Masons " may date from the end of the seventeenth centuiy . There were "Freemasons" before 1717 ; and the word Freemason is found as early as the end of the fourteenth century , and hence the real point for us to decide is , what was its
exact and accurate meaning then ? But here I must stop . Subsequent researches may throAV more light on the real status of the Craft , Mason Gilds , and the true meaning of the word , when we shall enjoy more lig ht than we noAv possess . There are seA ^ eral hundred Gild returns in Richard the Second ' s reign awaiting another Toulmin
Smith to collate and edit these mouldering records ; and , therefore , Avithout such information which , we in vain ask for , and knowledge of the subject Avhich we look for hopelessly at present , Ave must aAvait a happier day of clearness and certainty . Much has been done by a little band of Masonic students to unfold the dim arcana of the
past , but yet much remains to be done before we can exchange probability for reality and happy suggestions and student theories for historical accuracy , and scientific exactness .