Disseverance of the Operative Element.
The next point to which our attention is to be directed is when, a few
centuries later, the operative character of the institution began to be
less prominent, and the speculative to assume a pre-eminence which
eventually ended in the total separation of the two.
At what precise period the speculative began to predominate over the
operative element of the society, it is impossible to say. The change was
undoubtedly gradual, and is to be attributed, in all probability, to the
increased number of literary and scientific men who were admitted into the
ranks of the fraternity.
The Charter of Cologne, to which I have just alluded, speaks of "learned
and enlightened men" as constituting the society long before the date of
that document, which was 1535; but the authenticity of this work has, it
must be confessed, been impugned, and I will not, therefore, press the
argument on its doubtful authority. But the diary of that celebrated
antiquary, Elias Ashmole, which is admitted to be authentic, describes his
admission in the year 1646 into the order, when there is no doubt that the
operative character was fast giving way to the speculative. Preston tells
us that about thirty years before, when the Earl of Pembroke assumed the
Grand Mastership of England, "many eminent, wealthy, and learned men were
admitted."
In the year 1663 an assembly of the Freemasons of England was held at
London, and the Earl of St. Albans was elected Grand Master. At this
assembly certain regulations were adopted, in which the qualifications
prescribed for candidates clearly allude to the speculative character of
the institution.
And, finally, at the commencement of the eighteenth century, and during
the reign of Queen Anne, who died, it will be remembered, in 1714, a
proposition was agreed to by the society "that the privileges of Masonry
should no longer be restricted to operative masons, but extend to men of
various professions, provided that they were regularly approved and
initiated into the order."
Accordingly the records of the society show that from the year 1717, at
least, the era commonly, but improperly, distinguished as the restoration
of Masonry, the operative element of the institution has been completely
discarded, except so far as its influence is exhibited in the choice and
arrangement of symbols, and the typical use of its technical language.
* * * * *
The history of the origin of the order is here concluded; and in briefly
recapitulating, I may say that in its first inception, from the time of
Noah to the building of the temple of Solomon, it was entirely speculative
in its character; that at the construction of that edifice, an operative
element was infused into it by the Tyrian builders; that it continued to
retain this compound operative and speculative organization until about
the middle of the seventeenth century, when the latter element began to
predominate; and finally, that at the commencement of the eighteenth
century, the operative element wholly disappeared, and the society has
ever since presented itself in the character of a simply speculative
association.
The history that I have thus briefly sketched, will elicit from every
reflecting mind at least two deductions of some importance to the
intelligent Mason.
In the first place, we may observe, that ascending, as the institution
does, away up the stream of time, almost to the very fountains of history,
for its source, it comes down to us, at this day, with so venerable an
appearance of antiquity, that for that cause and on that claim alone it
demands the respect of the world. It is no recent invention of human
genius, whose vitality has yet to be tested by the wear and tear of time
and opposition, and no sudden growth of short-lived enthusiasm, whose
existence may be as ephemeral as its birth was recent. One of the oldest
of these modern institutions, the Carbonarism of Italy, boasts an age that
scarcely amounts to the half of a century, and has not been able to extend
its progress beyond the countries of Southern Europe, immediately adjacent
to the place of its birth; while it and every other society of our own
times that have sought to simulate the outward appearance of Freemasonry,
seem to him who has examined the history of this ancient institution to
have sprung around it, like mushrooms bursting from between the roots and
vegetating under the shade of some mighty and venerable oak, the
patriarch of the forest, whose huge trunk and wide-extended branches have
protected them from the sun and the gale, and whose fruit, thrown off in
autumn, has enriched and fattened the soil that gives these humbler plants
their power of life and growth.
But there is a more important deduction to be drawn from this narrative.
In tracing the progress of Freemasonry, we shall find it so intimately
connected with the history of philosophy, of religion, and of art in all
ages of the world, that it is evident that no Mason can expect thoroughly
to understand the nature of the institution, or to appreciate its
character, unless he shall carefully study its annals, and make himself
conversant with the facts of history, to which and from which it gives and
receives a mutual influence. The brother who unfortunately supposes that
the only requisites of a skilful Mason consist in repeating with fluency
the ordinary lectures, or in correctly opening and closing the lodge, or
in giving with sufficient accuracy the modes of recognition, will hardly
credit the assertion, that he whose knowledge of the "royal art" extends
no farther than these preliminaries has scarcely advanced beyond the
rudiments of our science. There is a far nobler series of doctrines with
which Freemasonry is connected, and which no student ever began to
investigate who did not find himself insensibly led on, from step to step
in his researches, his love and admiration of the order increasing with
the augmentation of his acquaintance with its character. It is this which
constitutes the science and the philosophy of Freemasonry, and it is this
alone which will return the scholar who devotes himself to the task a
sevenfold reward for his labor.
With this view I propose, in the next place, to enter upon an examination
of that science and philosophy as they are developed in the system of
symbolism, which owes its existence to this peculiar origin and
organization of the order, and without a knowledge of which, such as I
have attempted to portray it in this preliminary inquiry, the science
itself could never be understood.