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. 1860 Excerpt: ...England; but a second glance will satisfy the reader that he has not; for he says: "What were then termed high degrees, here sink into nothing." It is quite evident that the "high degrees" then taken by him (say in 1768) were neither the Capitular, Cliivalric, nor Sublime degrees. His knowledge of them, therefore, was ...
Read More
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. 1860 Excerpt: ...England; but a second glance will satisfy the reader that he has not; for he says: "What were then termed high degrees, here sink into nothing." It is quite evident that the "high degrees" then taken by him (say in 1768) were neither the Capitular, Cliivalric, nor Sublime degrees. His knowledge of them, therefore, was mere hearsay; and it is proverbial, that the highest attribute of hearsay is not that of simple veracity. He has singularly confounded the beautiful and instructive Royal Arch of the second temple with the political, manufactured Arch of Ramsay, the Jacobite ("the Scottish nobleman") and the Ninth Arch (the Arch of Enoch) of the Scottish Rite; and the sublime and impressive orders of Knighthood with the military orders of medieval Chivalry--mementoes of the Crusades and pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It would have militated nothing against the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, had he received them, as too many have in this country, by communication merely. Thus taken, it is admitted that they are a "valleyof dry bones," upon which it is unlikely that the breath of life will ever come to clothe them with living flesh. It is like conferring the degree of Entered Apprentice, by reading a pretended exposition of it from an old almanac. Given as those degrees now are, and as they should be, they are sublime, interesting, and instructive. The address is not without its significant lesson in our day. It has been claimed for our P. G. Master that he was honest, zealous, and true; but in the excess of his zeal lay his error: it blinded him with prejudice. So, in our times, we have seen systems of masonic instruction unsparingly condemned, when varying from some favored standard only in unimportant modes ofe...
Read Less
