The Union of Speculative and Operative Masonry at the Temple of Solomon.
Thus, then, we arrive at another important epoch in the history of the
origin of Freemasonry.
I have shown how the Primitive Freemasonry, originating in this new world;
with Noah, was handed down to his descendants as a purely speculative
institution, embracing certain traditions of the nature of God and of the
soul.
I have shown how, soon after the deluge, the descendants of Noah
separated, one portion, losing their traditions, and substituting in their
place idolatrous and polytheistic religions, while the other and smaller
portion retained and communicated those original traditions under the name
of the Primitive Freemasonry of antiquity.
I have shown how, among the polytheistic nations, there were a few persons
who still had a dim and clouded understanding of these traditions, and
that they taught them in certain secret institutions, known as the
"Mysteries," thus establishing another branch of the speculative science
which is known under the name of the Spurious Freemasonry of antiquity.
Again, I have shown how one sect or division of these Spurious Freemasons
existed at Tyre about the time of the building of King Solomon's temple,
and added to their speculative science, which was much purer than that of
their contemporary Gentile mystics, the practice of the arts of
architecture and sculpture, under the name of the Dionysiac Fraternity of
Artificers.
And, lastly, I have shown how, at the building of the Solomonic temple, on
the invitation of the king of Israel, a large body of these architects
repaired from Tyre to Jerusalem, organized a new institution, or, rather,
a modification of the two old ones, the Primitive Freemasons among the
Israelites yielding something, and the Spurious Freemasons among the
Tyrians yielding more; the former purifying the speculative science, and
the latter introducing the operative art, together with the mystical
ceremonies with which they accompanied its administration.
It is at this epoch, then, that I place the first union of speculative and
operative Masonry,--a union which continued uninterruptedly to exist until
a comparatively recent period, to which I shall have occasion hereafter
briefly to advert.
The other branches of the Spurious Freemasonry were not, however,
altogether and at once abolished by this union, but continued also to
exist and teach their half-truthful dogmas, for ages after, with
interrupted success and diminished influence, until, in the fifth century
of the Christian era, the whole of them were proscribed by the Emperor
Theodosius. From time to time, however, other partial unions took place,
as in the instance of Pythagoras, who, originally a member of the school
of Spurious Freemasonry, was, during his visit to Babylon, about four
hundred and fifty years after the union at the temple of Jerusalem,
initiated by the captive Israelites into the rites of Temple Masonry,
whence the instructions of that sage approximate much more nearly to the
principles of Freemasonry, both in spirit and in letter, than those of any
other of the philosophers of antiquity; for which reason he is familiarly
called, in the modern masonic lectures, "an ancient friend and brother,"
and an important symbol of the order, the forty-seventh problem of Euclid,
has been consecrated to his memory.
I do not now propose to enter upon so extensive a task as to trace the
history of the institution from the completion of the first temple to its
destruction by Nebuchadnezzar; through the seventy-two years of Babylonish
captivity to the rebuilding of the second temple by Zerubbabel; thence to
the devastation of Jerusalem by Titus, when it was first introduced into
Europe; through all its struggles in the middle ages, sometimes protected
and sometimes persecuted by the church, sometimes forbidden by the law and
oftener encouraged by the monarch; until, in the beginning of the
sixteenth century, it assumed its present organization. The details would
require more time for their recapitulation than the limits of the present
work will permit.
But my object is not so much to give a connected history of the progress
of Freemasonry as to present a rational view of its origin and an
examination of those important modifications which, from time to time,
were impressed upon it by external influences, so as to enable us the more
readily to appreciate the true character and design of its symbolism.
Two salient points, at least, in its subsequent history, especially invite
attention, because they have an important bearing on its organization, as
a combined speculative and operative institution.