Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1855 Excerpt: ... authentic precedents under any circumstances or conditions whatever.' "' It will be absolutely necessary that we make it clearly understood at the very outset,' said the R. W. M., thoughtfully, ' that it must be publicly acknowledged, without any mental reservation or self-evasion of mind, that genuine ancient Masonry consists of Three Degrees, and no more, viz., those of Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master, including the Royal Arch; and a declaration to this effect must be insisted on as a sine qua non, before we can enter on the details.' "' The question is,' Bro. Shirley replied, 'how will the ancients swallow this bitter pill, after having asserted in their Book of Constitutions, that the Order is composed of Four Degrees?10 This doctrine has become incorporated so essentially into their system, as to constitute an absolute article of faith, and, in reality, is the sole difference between us and them. They plume themselves upon it, and have passed strong censures on the Constitutional Grand Lodge, because we repudiate it as an innovation. The question is, Can they consistently acknowledge themselves to be in error?' "Dr. Hemming," continued the Square, "here produced an elaborate engraving of the (so-called) High Degrees, and explained it to the Lodge as being a complicated diagram, published by the ancients about the year 1790, of several Degrees of Masonry which they had derived from France. It was entitled Mysticum Sapientice Speculum, and contained numerous symbols of the different Orders of Continental Masonry, and also illustrations of the acknowledged Masonic Cypher. It consisted of a Cross, inscribed in a Circle, the former containing eight Squares, completely charged with emblems of certain Degrees, not generally known in this country. 'The fir...
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