The True History Of Freemasonry In England.

the history of Freemasonry altogether irreconcilable in themselves , and based for the most part on most slender and uncertain foundations . Yet to trace the early history of any ancient and useful institution is in almost every case a matter of interest to the student , but how much more is it so to the Masonic student in the case of Freemasonry , whose early annals seem lost in the dimness of ages about which so much has been written , and yet about which so little , after all , is reall y

known ? As a French writer has well and tersely put it , even those who have written the most about it have for the most part known the least 1 To suppose , for instance , as some writers apparently do , that the Society of Freemasons first sprang up in 1717 , that such a mass of curious ceremonies hearing on their very front the most palpable marks of remote antiquity , was then for the first time concocted h y a " few rusty companions , " or anyone else , is a tax ou the credible and good-natured too much for ordinary mortals ! Such a statement , if it proves anything , proves too much ,

and overproof is practically no proof at all . There are some hostile writers who look on Freemasonry as nothing hut a convivial system adapting certain forms and symbols for purposes of social entertainment or idle mystery—in fact , they make out Freemasonry to be nothing more or nothing less than the happy creafion of some clever impostors , who have succeeded in deluding the world with the claims of a fictitious antiquity and the organisation ot a benevolent benefit society , around which they have contrived to throw the pretence of secresy , and with

which they have connected meaningless initiations for their own purposes of profit or amusement ! But such a theory as this taxes heavily the belief of the thoughtful , and would overthrow the most certain truth connected with the history of the world . For if there is one fact more clear or more indubitable than another , stereotyped , so to say , on the page of human history , it is this—that no society , however good its intentions , or praiseworthy its objects , if founded on imposture , if identified with falsehood , long confronts the criticism of contemporary or later judgment—long outlives the exposure which , sooner or later , ever follows in this world on deception on the one hand and incredulity on the other !

Now , Freemasonry has outlived not only the lapse of time , which levels and destroys all things here , and the passing away from this earthly scene of many other existing institutions , but it has surmounted the criticisms of open enemies and the statements of over-zealous and even of treacherous friends ! " Nations , and thrones , and reverend laws , have melted like a dream , " but Freemasonry still endures—Freemasonry still prospers !

Not only , then , may we fairly claim for our Order something inherently excellent , and something inherently true , but we seem called upon to exercise a not unnatural curiosity in respect of its origin and its progress—the growth which has marked its early struggles , and the success which has attended its later efforts . What , then , is the True History of Freemasonry , is the question which I shall humbly endeavour to answer this evening .

I think it right to sa }' , that I do not propose , on the present occasion , however , to traverse that wide field both of inquiry and speculation which would connect Freemasonry closely and distinctly with Egyptian initiation or Elensiaian mysteries , or -with the Druids , or with any other ancient organisation . No doubt , from one point of view , Freemasonry must be connected with the history of secret irritiation and personal probation characteristic of all the early mysteries . It may be perfectly true , moreover ,

that Freemasonry preserves something of the oral teaching of earlier mysteries , but whether Oriental or Druidical , yet , as it appears to me , it is unwise to forget that while we' boast of our inward system , we have to give a reasonable account of our outward organisation , the channel through which the very secrets and mysteries of Freemasonry have been handed on to ourselves . The purpose of my lecture is , then , simply to give to you , and to all Masonic students , a plain and straightforward account of a great institution—to trace , if possible ,