me to say so much, my object is to supply that deficiency. To the best of my own judgment and conviction I have adopted a correct theory on a subject not generally understood, and when there are so many apparent motives for giving it utterance it will be hard indeed if the reader can not hit upon one suited to his own peculiar tastes and habits. If he be sour and bigotted, he will attribute this attempt to vanity; if of a better nature, he may perhaps, set it down to a scholarly ambition; if he be really wise, he will see that something more is intended than lies upon the surface, and that one great object is to stimulate the credulous to think for themselves, instead of believing blindly upon any topic.

The world having arrived at the mature age of 1847, it might fairly enough be expected to have come to years of discretion. In the above space it has played many wild pranks-such as roasting men and oxen whole at Smithfield, stretching limbs upon the rack, and putting to death any one, who would fain have taught it to be better. No doubt, times have much mended of late, but still not a few of the old nursery tales maintain their ground amongst us; and of these Freemasonry is the most widely disseminated and the most ridiculous. Of course such an opinion will shock many gentlemen, who wear aprons, leather or silk as the case may be, and who amuse themselves with talking of "light from the east and the building of Solomon's Temple, and with many other childish pranks, which if played off in the broad daylight would be ridiculous.

To persuade men to use their reason is always a difficult task, and the time has been when the effort to do so was rewarded with a stake or a dungeon. Indeed if we listen to the outcry, which is raised even now against the exercise of that faculty, one might suppose that reason was given to us for no other purpose than not to

be used, and that a blind belief was the greatest of human merits.

Strange as my doctrine may seem in regard to the origin of Masonry, it has not been lightly taken up nor in support of any preconceived system. As Falstaff says of Worcester's rebellion, "it lay in my way, and I found it." In wading through a mass of alchemical trash for very different purposes, I was struck by the great similarity both of doctrine and symbols existing between the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. With more haste than judgment I at first imagined that the brethren of the Rosy Cross were only imitators of the Freemasons, but after a long and patient enquiry, pursued through more volumes than I should like to venture upon again for such an object, I was forced to abandon my position. The Freemasons did indeed, like the Rosicrucians, lay claim to great antiquity, but while some of them modestly dated the origin of their order from Adam,* I could by no

*The Rev. George Oliver in his Star in the East, says (p. 2,) "Freemasonry was revealed by God himself to the first man;" and that there may be no mistake as to his real meaning, he subjoins in a note, "this may appear a bold assertion, but I am persuaded it is nevertheless true. Placed in the Garden of Eden, Adam would certainly be made acquainted with the nature of his tenure, and taught, with the worship of his Maker, that simple science of morals, which is now termed Freemasonry. This constituted his chief employment in Paradise, and his only consolation after his unhappy Fall; for Speculative Masonry is nothing else but the philosophy of mind and morals, founded on the belief of a God the Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer; which instructs mankind in the sublimities of science; inculcates a strict observance of the duties of social life; inspires in the soul a veneration for the author of its being; and incites to the pure worship of the Great Architect of the Universe."

Of all the enthusiasts for Freemasonry this writer is the most puerile as well as the most daring in his assertions. Whatever in any way seem to make for his system, he immediately takes for granted without farther enquiry; it suits his purpose, or he fancies it does,

means trace it back farther than the first half of the seventeenth century. Their historical assertions, when fairly tested and examined, crumbled into dust; the negative proofs were as strong against them, as they well could be; and at length the conclusion was to my mind inevitable. At the same time it should be borne in mind that the Freemasons are much changed from what they were originally. The alchemical jargon of their founders, the gold-making and the spirit of prophecy, had become too ridiculous in the advancing spirit of the age to be prudently avowed any longer; had they persisted in them their whole system must have sunk into contempt; these therefore they have quietly dropt, retaining only their pretensions to a clearer knowledge of the Deity and an intelligence of divine truths beyond that of other men. This of course tends in some measure to throw out the enquirer, and his difficulty is increased by finding that, if Masons and Freemasons were at any time the same thing, they are so no longer; the Mason knows nothing whatever of the mysticism, and the Freemason is just as little acquainted with the craft of the workman; he could not square a block of stone though his life depended upon it. Whatever therefore the Freemason retains of the workman's occupation is a mere myth, and for any useful or intelligible purpose he might as well wear the apron of a blacksmith, and typify his morals by a horse-shoe. True it is that he carries the plummet, the level, and the other implements of the

and that is quite enough for him. Thus he is pleased to tell us the word, Masonry is a mere corruption of Mɛcspavɛw-sum in medio cæli-but that a yet older name for it was lux, or light; upon this wild assumption he then builds up as wild a theory, interpreting light, wherever the phrase is used by Christ or his Apostles, to signify Masonry. See his Antiquities of Masonry, p. 4.

masonic trade, but not as signs or badges of the mechanic art; he attaches to them a very different signification.

I feel then not the least hesitation in saying that the Freemasons have no secret beyond a few trumpery legends and the attaching of certain religious and moral meanings to a set of emblems, principally borrowed from the mechanic art of the builder. I affirm too that all such symbols, with their interpretations, are of Rosicrucian origin, and that the Freemasons never belonged to the working guilds, their objects being totally different. The proofs are at hand. Let the reader exercise his own unbiassed judgment upon them, taking nothing upon trust from either party, and I have little doubt of his coming to the same conclusion. He must, however, follow me patiently step by step, and begin by thoroughly understanding the origin, tenets, and historical existence of the Rosicrucians.

As, according to the theory that I wish to establish, Freemasonry grew out of Rosicrucianism, it is essential that we should in the first instance thoroughly understand the origin and nature of the latter. Without this previous knowledge on the part of my readers, I could hardly hope to make myself intelligible to them.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to fix the precise time when alchemy, which is said to have emanated from the Arabs,* first found its way into Europe; but we do know that the writings of Paracelsus spread the so-called science far and wide, and gave to it a consideration, which it had not possessed before. Like all re

I put this matter doubtfully, being myself far from satisfied of the truth of the assertion. That Europe received alchemy from the Arabs I do not for a moment question; but this proves nothing; and we know enough of the Egyptian character to make it extremely probable that both astrology and alchemy had their birth in the land of the Pharoahs.

formers, if Paracelsus had bitter enemies he had also warm adherents, and while the one denied his very truths, the others were no less infatuated with his errors. His influence in consequence over his own age, and for at least a hundred years afterwards, was unbounded. Nor shall we wonder at this when we call to mind how much his creed was in harmony with the general and passionate belief in the marvellous and supernatural. The soundest philosophers of the day were in this respect no wiser than the common herd, and we find that even such a man as Leibnitz could join at Nurenberg a society of sages whose professed object was the search after the philosopher's stone.* With the multitude of course belief assumed a yet blinder and grosser form, till mankind had almost lost their free agency in the host of spirits that beset them, headed by no less a personage than the devil himself, who bodily as well as visibly interfered in all their concerns. At such a time alchemy could not fail to be peculiarly acceptable to the minds of men, and the rather, as it was not to be acquired like any profane science by the dry way of study, but must be got by inspiration, the art being a divine one, handed down in secret from Solomon, or as some would have it from Moses. In fact it was one of the mysteries taught by the Cabala, or inspired wisdom, the possessors of which comprehended the operations of nature at a glance; but this Cabala,† or Light from the

* See Buhle, p. 236.

Amongst all the explanations given by Rosicrucians of the Cabala, the following is by far the most intelligible.-"Daher ist auch dieselbe Kunst der Himlischen Weisheit von Etlichen in der Hebraischen Sprache Cabala, oder zu Latein Receptio, genennt worden, welches zu Deutsch so viel heisst als eine solche Kund, die man durch Offenbarung von Gott erlanget. Die Wissenschaft aber so dissfals ein Mensch von dem andern erlangen kann, bestehet fürnemblich in dem Weye und Process, dadurch zu solcher hohen Kunst der Gött