On the origin of Free-Masonry (Annotated) E-Book

W. L. Wilmshurst

• Herausgeber: FV Éditions
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

*** Premium Ebook followed by an article by W. L. Wilmshurts: Freemasonry In Relation To The Ancient Mysteries ***

"It is always understood that Free-Masons have a secret which they carefully conceal; but from every thing that can be collected from their own accounts of Masonry, their real secret is no other than their origin, which but few of them understand; and those who do, envelope it in mystery." T. Paine

On the Origin of Free-Masonry, published posthumously in 1810, was regarded after the death of Thomas Paine as a missing chapter belonging to the unpublished third part of the Age of Reason. It presents a description of the Masonic ritual along with his theory that Freemasonry was a form of Sun worship.

The text is followed by an article by W. L. Wilmshurts: Freemasonry In Relation To The Ancient Mysteries. 

Leseprobe

On the origin of Free-Masonry

Thomas Paine

Contents

An Essay On the origin of Free-Masonry

Thomas Paine

I

II

III

Freemasonry In Relation To The Ancient Mysteries.

W. L. Wilmshurst

Freemasonry In Relation To The Ancient Mysteries.

An Essay On the origin of Free-Masonry

Thomas Paine

This essay appeared in New York, 1818, with an anonymous preface of which I quote the opening paragraph: “This tract is a chapter belonging to the Third Part of the “Age of Reason,” as will be seen by the references made in it to preceding articles, as forming part of the same work. It was culled from the writings of Mr. Paine after his death, and published in a mutilated state by Mrs. Bonneville, his executrix. Passages having a reference to the Christian religion she erased, with a view no doubt of accommodating the work to the prejudices of bigotry. These, however, have been restored from the original manuscript, except a few lines which were rendered illegible.” Madame Bonneville published this fragment in New York, 1810 (with the omissions I point out) as a pamphlet.—Dr. Robinet (Danton Emigré, p. 7) says erroneously that Paine was a Freemason; but an eminent member of that Fraternity in London, Mr. George Briggs, after reading this essay, which I submitted to him, tells me that “his general outline, remarks, and comments, are fairly true.” Paine’s intimacy in Paris with Nicolas de Bonneville and Charles François Dupuis, whose writings are replete with masonic speculations, sufficiently explain his interest in the subject.

Moncure Daniel Conway The Writings of Thomas Paine 1896 G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York

I

It is always understood that Free-Masons have a secret which they carefully conceal; but from every thing that can be collected from their own accounts of Masonry, their real secret is no other than their origin, which but few of them understand; and those who do, envelope it in mystery.

The Society of Masons are distinguished into three classes or degrees.

1st. The Entered Apprentice.

2d. The Fellow Craft.

3d. The Master Mason.

The Entered Apprentice knows but little more of Masonry than the use of signs and tokens, and certain steps and words by which Masons can recognize each other without being discovered by a person who is not a Mason. The Fellow Craft is not much better instructed in Masonry, than the Entered Apprentice. It is only in the Master Mason’s Lodge, that whatever knowledge remains of the origin of Masonry is preserved and concealed.

In 1730, Samuel Pritchard, member of a constituted lodge in England, published a treatise entitled Masonry Dissected; and made oath before the Lord Mayor of London that it was a true copy. “Samuel Pritchard maketh oath that the copy hereunto annexed is a true and genuine copy in every particular.” In his work he has given the catechism or examination, in question and answer, of the Apprentices, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason. There was no difficulty in doing this, as it is mere form.

In his introduction he says, “the original institution of Masonry consisted in the foundation of the liberal arts and sciences, but more especially in Geometry, for at the building of the tower of Babel, the art and mystery of Masonry was first introduced, and from thence handed down by Euclid, a worthy and excellent mathematician of the Egyptians; and he communicated it to Hiram, the Master Mason concerned in building Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.”

Besides the absurdity of deriving Masonry from the building of Babel, where, according to the story, the confusion of languages prevented the builders understanding each other, and consequently of communicating any knowledge they had, there is a glaring contradiction in point of chronology in the account he gives.

Solomon’s Temple was built and dedicated 1004 years before the christian era; and Euclid, as may be seen in the tables of chronology, lived 277 before the same era. It was therefore impossible that Euclid could communicate any thing to Hiram, since Euclid did not live till 700 years after the time of Hiram.

In 1783, Captain George Smith, inspector of the Royal Artillery Academy at Woolwich, in England, and Provincial Grand Master of Masonry for the county of Kent, published a treatise entitled, The Use and Abuse of Free-Masonry.

In his chapter of the antiquity of Masonry, he makes it to be coeval with creation, “when,” says he, “the sovereign architect raised on Masonic principles the beauteous globe, and commanded the master science, Geometry, to lay the planetary world, and to regulate by its laws the whole stupendous system in just unerring proportion, rolling round the central sun.”

“But,” continues he, “I am not at liberty publicly to undraw the curtain, and openly to descant on this head; it is sacred, and ever will remain so; those who are honored with the trust will not reveal it, and those who are ignorant of it cannot betray it.” By this last part of the phrase, Smith means the two inferior classes, the Fellow Craft and the Entered Apprentice, for he says in the next page of his work, “It is not every one that is barely initiated into Free-Masonry that is entrusted with all the mysteries thereto belonging; they are not attainable as things of course, nor by every capacity.”