Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Puzzles.
by our American writers , and even recentl y by English writers too ; and wh y ? because some who prided themselves with homoveritable Kni ght Templars , or Illustrious Princes , etc ., wore undeceived ; and others , again , felt chagrined that their learned
theories about the prc-adamite Masonry were totally exploded . Hence , the very men who were always clamouring for " more light , " and who eagerly rushed into all manner of degrees called " Masonic " for this li ght , were the bitterest opponents
to Bro . Fmdel ' s dissemination of a commonsense history of Freemasonry . And even my own humble efforts at puzzling also met with disfavour , not only among our American luminaries , but , I noticed , in a recent number of tho "Freemason" that a
, writer over tho signature of "Nanus , " who had doubtless contributed to tho Masonic press hundreds of pages filled with all manner of fallacies . Now , this Nonius says , he does not like Jacob Norton ' s writings . Welllet 13 ro . Nemvs enjoy his
, opinion . I shall still continue to ponder over some Masonic puzzles , and this brings me to relate a solution of a puzzle , which will not only help to clear away another
puzzle , but will also bring into the field some fresh puzzles . In the October number of the Masonic Magazine , in a paper headed " Ori gin of Masonry in Nova Scotia , " I stated , or intimated , that after I mailed my review on
Bro . Gardner ' s address , printed in the "Freemason , " August 10 th and 17 th , 1872 , a puzzle came into my head ( I do not know how it came there ) as to who the Right Hon . Edward Cornwallis was . Henry Price claimed , in the Provincial G . L . record of Boston , that he sent a charter to Halifax previous to 1740 , and the said Cornwallis was the first Master . The nuzzle
then came into my head about Cornwallis ; when I found out that Cornwallis did not come to Nova Scotia until 1749 , and that there was no Halifax in existence in Nova Scotia until that year . And as Bro . J . Fletcher Brennan happened just then ( in
1872 ) to be on a visit at Halifax , I requested him to make inquiry in the Masonic records , or otherways , about the origin of Masonry there . But while Bro , Brennan waspursuingthe desired researches , a thought came into my head , that he might as well employ his time in writing a history of Freemasonry of that Province .
On Bro . Brennan ' s return to Cincinnati by way of Boston , he told me that ho made a most singular discovery . Since that time Bro . Brennan removed to Prince Edward ' s Island , where he is engaged in editing a weekly and tri-weekly paper or papers
, his mind being filled with other kinds of puzzles , and so the Masonic discovery was laid aside . "Within a few days , however , Bro . B . notified ma that he sent the MS . of his
history of Nova Scotia to the Riverside Press , at Cambridge , Massachusetts , with permission to copy therefrom his discovery , and to make the same known . And here I must premise , by calling attention to a subject which remained a puzzle to the best informed Masonic
writers until Bro . Findel managed to puzzle it out ; I mean the history of the Grand Lodge of York . Anderson and Preston , especially the latter , left us in a haze ; yea , more , even in the worst kind of a London fog , about the history of that
Grand Lodge , and I shall never forget the impression on my mind , when I first visited a lodge in JSlew York , in 1842 , how proudly the brethren emphasized , that they were "Ancient York Masons . " But the New Yorkers were not half as much infatuated
with their notion of Ancient- York as the Philadeiphians were . There , they literally outyorked not only New York , but . even old York , in the importance they attached
to being Ancient York Masons . Well then , is it any wonder that our worthy ami really esteemed Bro . Leon Hyneman , who was Masonically nurtured in such a hotbed of ancient Yorkism , should either have forgotten the true history of York as
demonstrated by the labours of Bros . Findel and Hughan ; or that he should have discarded or discredited all that was written upon that subject by those distinguished brethren . Upon the cptestion of Ancient York , Bro . Hyneman was decidedly an
" old school " man , and he pondered over the grief ' s and woes of York with a feeling akin to that of the pious Israelite mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem . The Ahiman Rezon , in the estimation of Philadei phiansis even to-day regarded as
, an inspired work ; and-was not Dermott the author of that book 1 And did not that great inspired writer claim that he was an "Ancient York Mason ? " And how could a true-blue Philadel phian doubt what the author of the Ahiman Rezon asserted ?
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Puzzles.
by our American writers , and even recentl y by English writers too ; and wh y ? because some who prided themselves with homoveritable Kni ght Templars , or Illustrious Princes , etc ., wore undeceived ; and others , again , felt chagrined that their learned
theories about the prc-adamite Masonry were totally exploded . Hence , the very men who were always clamouring for " more light , " and who eagerly rushed into all manner of degrees called " Masonic " for this li ght , were the bitterest opponents
to Bro . Fmdel ' s dissemination of a commonsense history of Freemasonry . And even my own humble efforts at puzzling also met with disfavour , not only among our American luminaries , but , I noticed , in a recent number of tho "Freemason" that a
, writer over tho signature of "Nanus , " who had doubtless contributed to tho Masonic press hundreds of pages filled with all manner of fallacies . Now , this Nonius says , he does not like Jacob Norton ' s writings . Welllet 13 ro . Nemvs enjoy his
, opinion . I shall still continue to ponder over some Masonic puzzles , and this brings me to relate a solution of a puzzle , which will not only help to clear away another
puzzle , but will also bring into the field some fresh puzzles . In the October number of the Masonic Magazine , in a paper headed " Ori gin of Masonry in Nova Scotia , " I stated , or intimated , that after I mailed my review on
Bro . Gardner ' s address , printed in the "Freemason , " August 10 th and 17 th , 1872 , a puzzle came into my head ( I do not know how it came there ) as to who the Right Hon . Edward Cornwallis was . Henry Price claimed , in the Provincial G . L . record of Boston , that he sent a charter to Halifax previous to 1740 , and the said Cornwallis was the first Master . The nuzzle
then came into my head about Cornwallis ; when I found out that Cornwallis did not come to Nova Scotia until 1749 , and that there was no Halifax in existence in Nova Scotia until that year . And as Bro . J . Fletcher Brennan happened just then ( in
1872 ) to be on a visit at Halifax , I requested him to make inquiry in the Masonic records , or otherways , about the origin of Masonry there . But while Bro , Brennan waspursuingthe desired researches , a thought came into my head , that he might as well employ his time in writing a history of Freemasonry of that Province .
On Bro . Brennan ' s return to Cincinnati by way of Boston , he told me that ho made a most singular discovery . Since that time Bro . Brennan removed to Prince Edward ' s Island , where he is engaged in editing a weekly and tri-weekly paper or papers
, his mind being filled with other kinds of puzzles , and so the Masonic discovery was laid aside . "Within a few days , however , Bro . B . notified ma that he sent the MS . of his
history of Nova Scotia to the Riverside Press , at Cambridge , Massachusetts , with permission to copy therefrom his discovery , and to make the same known . And here I must premise , by calling attention to a subject which remained a puzzle to the best informed Masonic
writers until Bro . Findel managed to puzzle it out ; I mean the history of the Grand Lodge of York . Anderson and Preston , especially the latter , left us in a haze ; yea , more , even in the worst kind of a London fog , about the history of that
Grand Lodge , and I shall never forget the impression on my mind , when I first visited a lodge in JSlew York , in 1842 , how proudly the brethren emphasized , that they were "Ancient York Masons . " But the New Yorkers were not half as much infatuated
with their notion of Ancient- York as the Philadeiphians were . There , they literally outyorked not only New York , but . even old York , in the importance they attached
to being Ancient York Masons . Well then , is it any wonder that our worthy ami really esteemed Bro . Leon Hyneman , who was Masonically nurtured in such a hotbed of ancient Yorkism , should either have forgotten the true history of York as
demonstrated by the labours of Bros . Findel and Hughan ; or that he should have discarded or discredited all that was written upon that subject by those distinguished brethren . Upon the cptestion of Ancient York , Bro . Hyneman was decidedly an
" old school " man , and he pondered over the grief ' s and woes of York with a feeling akin to that of the pious Israelite mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem . The Ahiman Rezon , in the estimation of Philadei phiansis even to-day regarded as
, an inspired work ; and-was not Dermott the author of that book 1 And did not that great inspired writer claim that he was an "Ancient York Mason ? " And how could a true-blue Philadel phian doubt what the author of the Ahiman Rezon asserted ?