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Article SPENCER'S GREAT LIBRARY. ← Page 2 of 2 Article SPENCER'S GREAT LIBRARY. Page 2 of 2 Article FREEMASONRY. ITS ORIGIN, ITS HISTORY AND ITS DESIGN. Page 1 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Spencer's Great Library.
164 , appears with 1 vol . wanting ( erroneously catalogued , wc w » informed , as 2 wanting ) . Bro . Spencer informs us that a com l . h series of these rare vols ., each a work in itself , has never passed through Irs hands . HaViwell ' s Early History , lot 220 , now seldom to be pinked np at half-r .-gHinea . The Memoir of Sir James Bum *
( the generous knight whose memory is yet green in India ) , together with his Addresses , has not been sold for many a day . A useful book of reference is the Qalendrierpour Ies Hants Grades ( lot 222 ) , and wo note a fine copy of Rechellini de Schio ' s Theory of Masonry , with its beautiful and erudite plates in lot 225 . In lots 226 and 283 tho
investigator may learn something of the so-called Egyptian Rite of Mis'raim , in lot 236 that of Memphis . Two useful works of RedareV in lot 229 , and Dr . Kloss' valuable histories in lot 232 , next meet our eye , but we must not pass without notice a rare tract , interesting to Irish Masons , in lot 230 . The scarce writings of that unprincipled
charlatan , Finch , crop up next , and then we come to the unrivalled series of our Constitutions . Comment upon these is needless , in booksellers' retail pricelists we have seen some of them figuring at £ 2 2 s , £ 2 10 s and £ 3 3 s , perhaps indifferent copies at even that , whereas these
are selected from those which have passed through Bro . Spencer's hands . The Masonic Benefit Society ( lot 251 ) we do not remember to have heard of before , though there are some tickets , we believe , connected with it , among the scrap books at the end of the sale . Tho old folio , Rules and Orders of the Antients , we never saw before this
occasion ; they are real historical mementos of a dissidence which , we trust , may never recur in this country . Tho MS . Bye Laivs and Songs of White ' s Lodge , Gibraltar ( held by the Royal Tyrone ' s ) , show the members to have boon of a free and easy sort , in a manner which can find no parallel at the present day . Our American brethren will
doubtless make a bid for the early Constitutions of Worcester ( Mass . ) , and for that of S . Carolina ( lot 27 S ) , of which Charlostown , S . C ., would seem to be the legitimate homo . Lot 281 is composed , we should imagine , of works as rare as any in the list—a series of the early Statutes of the 0 . 0 . of France . We regard it as a great prize .
Hardly less so is the quarto , Constitutions of the Hague , 1736 . The following lots , down to 292 , are all rare—seldom brought together on one shelf . What shall we say of lot 29-1—Editions of the Pocket Companion ? Singly , they are for tho most part scarce enongh , and as a series , certainly have never been matched before . Another curious
Collection of Masons' Marlts is in lot 316 . Fisch ' s Initiation a la Philosophic de la F . M . ( lot 326 ) was discontinued after the first vol . It contains highly-illuminated plates of the insignia of tho first degrees of almost every rite , and would have been tho greatest Masonic Manual of Ritual ever produced . Tho accounts of tho
Grand Masters' Lodge , of the Lodge of Friendship , and of tho Lodge of Emulation , with their interesting biographies and historical notes , are not generally procurable , having been printed for circulation among tho members only . Lot 338 begins tho collections of Masonic Speeches , Charges , & e .
from 1744 , including a sermon to the African Lodg , " ^ , Boston , relativo to which Lodge there is other matter elsewhere . Of the enthusiastic Lodges in Paris , during the reign of Napoleon I ., there is a series of historic mementoes . Bye-laivs ( lot 305 ) are interesting , and , of course , exceedingly scarce . Thore is a capital series of the Proceedings
of the Grand Orient of France from 1 S 02 , with lists of Grand Officers , & c . from 1822 . About twenty volumes , with a large collection unbound , of Proceedings of Grand bodies in the U . S . A . next follow , and lot 386 is an unrivalled ( except by Grand Lodge , London ) collection of tho communications of the Grand Lodge of England ,
including many piecos of both Ancients and Moderns before the Union , from 1795 . These ought to go to tho library of somo foreign Grand Lodge . A very rare book is in lot 412—Hay ' s Templar ia The Round Church of Little Maplestead , and Burne ' s Knights Templars , are now both scarce , the latter valuable . Lot 418 ushers in tho
chcmico-theosopbico mystic books of the media ; val Rosycrnciaus , with Baruch ' s rare and curious Donum Dei , 1611 . Yarious editions appear of the Fama , Andro : a ' s Chemical Wedding , & c . The tracts which follow are well known to Rosicrucian bibliophiles , though many of them by repute only . Lot 428 ( two bound in one ) , from the library
of the Duke of Sussex , is , if possible , scarcer than tho foregoing , and a better printed , handsomer work : even so lot 430 . We note next works of Starlcey , Fludd , Bohmen , Heydon , Richard the Englishman , and the paradoxical discourses of the great Van HeTmont . Gemma Magica , Aula Lucis , tho Golden Fleece , Key to the Art of
Zoroaster , Herr Mogenis Spagyric Apccalypis , spagyric fountain and magical firestaff arrest attention and excite our covetousness , though dissertations on the meaning of comets make us smile . The gem of the following lots is 450 ; this is very seldom met with in a complete state , and we have seen it , without the allegorical introduction ,
realise £ 3 3 s . It consists of numerous folio coloured plates , which show , in a remarkable manner , the sources whence compilers of the « ' hauts grades " derived their symbolism , only that tho latter appear devoid of a hidden meaning , which we believe we can detect in those nnder review . It concludes with rude cut and mystical metrical commentary of the great Emerald tablet , which few men living
Spencer's Great Library.
know to be tho sum of a knowledge of natural philosophy , in which the ancients were certainly not behind tho moderns . Amongst ancient commentators on this tablet were men who understood animal magnetism , and who anticipated Darwin in expounding the " origin of species . "
In lot 451 we find ono of the books of the most famous Gompagnia della Lesina , which flourished at Venice early in the 17 th century , whose object was tho reformation of morals by means of a Masonic speculative system , tho details of which were , wo believe , not disclosed . Many curious details concerning the customs of tho Jews and the
speculative application of their Temple and Tabernacle maybe picked up from Godwyn ' s and Gregory's works , in lots 455 nnd 456 . Tho controversy npon the Eastward position in worship ( lot 457 ) comes u propos at the present time ; in these tracts , 150 years ago , it was exhaustively discussed . Masonic symbolism dug out of the
hieroglyphics and secret writings of the ancients is exponnded in tho following lots ( 458 to 477 . ) Many of these works are extraordinarily scarce , and will fetch a capital price , without reference to Masonic bidders , especially Taylor's and Ouvarofi ' s Eleusinia , Newton's 3 Enigmas , Hiqqin's Celtic Druids , Dallaway ' s Discourses , and O'Brien ' s
Round Towers ; not less useful and interesting are Schumachers Works ( lot 458 ) , Grata Repoa , Memnonium , Mysteres de Vantiquite ( lot 461 ) , Stammer ' s Alphabets , Spineto ' s Hieroglyphics , Portal's symbolic colours , and Egyptian symbols , Wathew ' s Ancient Egypt , La Messe et ses mysteres , and Griffith ' s natural system of Architecture . We must conclude this review in onr next issne .
Freemasonry. Its Origin, Its History And Its Design.
FREEMASONRY . ITS ORIGIN , ITS HISTORY AND ITS DESIGN .
FROM THE NEW YORK IIEIULP . THE public ceremonies which are to bo inaugurated daring the ensuing week , by the Grand Lodgo of Free and Accepted Masons of New York , will very naturally attract tho attention of what Freemasons call , in a technical and not offensive sonso , "tho profane world , " to tho history , tho character and the objects of tho Masonic institution . But there needs no occasional event , however
interesting may bo tho circumstances connected with it , to secure to tho Masonic Order a valid claim to public consideration . To say nothing of its antiquity—for it is by far the oldest secret organization in existence—nor of the humanitarian objects which it professedly seeks to accomplish , its universality alone clothes it with a peculiar interest that does not appertain to associations more
circumscribed in their relations . Computing , as it , does at this clay , in the United States alone , a population of half a million of activo members , Freomasonry boasts , as did the Emperor Charles of the extent of his Empire , that there is not a civilized country of the world , whether Christian or not , in which its Lodges are not to be found . From frozen Siberia to torrid Africa , and across tho wido continents of
both hemispheres , tho institution is actively in operation . Everywhere substantially the same in its organization , its members governed by the same laws , and inspired by the same principles , it presents tho remarkablo spectacle of an association which , under no contingency , has been subjected to change of character by the influences of the language , the political government , or the religious belief of tho
people among whom it has been introduced . In Protestant England , in Catholic Italy , in Mohammedan Tnrkey or in Brahmanic India—nnder tho shadow of tho Cathedral of St . Paul , or the Basilica of St . Peter , or tho Mosque of St . Sophia , or the thousand temples of Benares—Freemasonry is , for all practical purposes , one and the same institution . No external pressure has over sneceeded in affect .
nig the identity of its form and organization . In the most bigoted hierarchies it has maintained its principle of toleration ; in the most despotic autocracies it has inculcated freedom of thought and speech , and in the most liberal republics it has preserved tho dogma of obedience to constituted authority . This universality of its identity has authorised that doctrinco of
its ritual which declares that "in every land a Mason may find a home and in every clime a brother . " The links of a Catholic brotherhood do , indeed , form a continuous chain that girdles tho whole earth . Henco , the Rev . Salem Town , one of the most learned and distinguished members of the Fraternity in New York , has said , in reference to this cosmopolitan character , that " were he to travel into
a foreign country he should consider his Masonic relations the surest safeguard , aside from divine protection , that could bo thrown around him . " When snch an institution becomes tho subject matter of investigation there arc two prominent topics that arrest tho attention of the inqnirer—its history and its design—where and when did it arise , and what are the objects for which its existence has been
continued . Each of these topics we propose succinctly to discuss . The question of the origin of Freemasonry as a Mystical Association has , for more than a century and a half , attracted the attention of many scholars of Britain , Germany , France , and America , and a body of treatises and essays on the subject havo been pnblished , tho extent of which wonld surprise any ono not familiar with Masonic
literature . At the present day , the historians of Freemasonry , who are engaged in the discussion of this question , may be divided into two schools , which may be appropriately distinguished as tho mythical and the authentic . The former of theso is the older , for the latter has become prominent only within the last threo or four decades , Masonio opinion is , however , very steadily , and , indeed ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Spencer's Great Library.
164 , appears with 1 vol . wanting ( erroneously catalogued , wc w » informed , as 2 wanting ) . Bro . Spencer informs us that a com l . h series of these rare vols ., each a work in itself , has never passed through Irs hands . HaViwell ' s Early History , lot 220 , now seldom to be pinked np at half-r .-gHinea . The Memoir of Sir James Bum *
( the generous knight whose memory is yet green in India ) , together with his Addresses , has not been sold for many a day . A useful book of reference is the Qalendrierpour Ies Hants Grades ( lot 222 ) , and wo note a fine copy of Rechellini de Schio ' s Theory of Masonry , with its beautiful and erudite plates in lot 225 . In lots 226 and 283 tho
investigator may learn something of the so-called Egyptian Rite of Mis'raim , in lot 236 that of Memphis . Two useful works of RedareV in lot 229 , and Dr . Kloss' valuable histories in lot 232 , next meet our eye , but we must not pass without notice a rare tract , interesting to Irish Masons , in lot 230 . The scarce writings of that unprincipled
charlatan , Finch , crop up next , and then we come to the unrivalled series of our Constitutions . Comment upon these is needless , in booksellers' retail pricelists we have seen some of them figuring at £ 2 2 s , £ 2 10 s and £ 3 3 s , perhaps indifferent copies at even that , whereas these
are selected from those which have passed through Bro . Spencer's hands . The Masonic Benefit Society ( lot 251 ) we do not remember to have heard of before , though there are some tickets , we believe , connected with it , among the scrap books at the end of the sale . Tho old folio , Rules and Orders of the Antients , we never saw before this
occasion ; they are real historical mementos of a dissidence which , we trust , may never recur in this country . Tho MS . Bye Laivs and Songs of White ' s Lodge , Gibraltar ( held by the Royal Tyrone ' s ) , show the members to have boon of a free and easy sort , in a manner which can find no parallel at the present day . Our American brethren will
doubtless make a bid for the early Constitutions of Worcester ( Mass . ) , and for that of S . Carolina ( lot 27 S ) , of which Charlostown , S . C ., would seem to be the legitimate homo . Lot 281 is composed , we should imagine , of works as rare as any in the list—a series of the early Statutes of the 0 . 0 . of France . We regard it as a great prize .
Hardly less so is the quarto , Constitutions of the Hague , 1736 . The following lots , down to 292 , are all rare—seldom brought together on one shelf . What shall we say of lot 29-1—Editions of the Pocket Companion ? Singly , they are for tho most part scarce enongh , and as a series , certainly have never been matched before . Another curious
Collection of Masons' Marlts is in lot 316 . Fisch ' s Initiation a la Philosophic de la F . M . ( lot 326 ) was discontinued after the first vol . It contains highly-illuminated plates of the insignia of tho first degrees of almost every rite , and would have been tho greatest Masonic Manual of Ritual ever produced . Tho accounts of tho
Grand Masters' Lodge , of the Lodge of Friendship , and of tho Lodge of Emulation , with their interesting biographies and historical notes , are not generally procurable , having been printed for circulation among tho members only . Lot 338 begins tho collections of Masonic Speeches , Charges , & e .
from 1744 , including a sermon to the African Lodg , " ^ , Boston , relativo to which Lodge there is other matter elsewhere . Of the enthusiastic Lodges in Paris , during the reign of Napoleon I ., there is a series of historic mementoes . Bye-laivs ( lot 305 ) are interesting , and , of course , exceedingly scarce . Thore is a capital series of the Proceedings
of the Grand Orient of France from 1 S 02 , with lists of Grand Officers , & c . from 1822 . About twenty volumes , with a large collection unbound , of Proceedings of Grand bodies in the U . S . A . next follow , and lot 386 is an unrivalled ( except by Grand Lodge , London ) collection of tho communications of the Grand Lodge of England ,
including many piecos of both Ancients and Moderns before the Union , from 1795 . These ought to go to tho library of somo foreign Grand Lodge . A very rare book is in lot 412—Hay ' s Templar ia The Round Church of Little Maplestead , and Burne ' s Knights Templars , are now both scarce , the latter valuable . Lot 418 ushers in tho
chcmico-theosopbico mystic books of the media ; val Rosycrnciaus , with Baruch ' s rare and curious Donum Dei , 1611 . Yarious editions appear of the Fama , Andro : a ' s Chemical Wedding , & c . The tracts which follow are well known to Rosicrucian bibliophiles , though many of them by repute only . Lot 428 ( two bound in one ) , from the library
of the Duke of Sussex , is , if possible , scarcer than tho foregoing , and a better printed , handsomer work : even so lot 430 . We note next works of Starlcey , Fludd , Bohmen , Heydon , Richard the Englishman , and the paradoxical discourses of the great Van HeTmont . Gemma Magica , Aula Lucis , tho Golden Fleece , Key to the Art of
Zoroaster , Herr Mogenis Spagyric Apccalypis , spagyric fountain and magical firestaff arrest attention and excite our covetousness , though dissertations on the meaning of comets make us smile . The gem of the following lots is 450 ; this is very seldom met with in a complete state , and we have seen it , without the allegorical introduction ,
realise £ 3 3 s . It consists of numerous folio coloured plates , which show , in a remarkable manner , the sources whence compilers of the « ' hauts grades " derived their symbolism , only that tho latter appear devoid of a hidden meaning , which we believe we can detect in those nnder review . It concludes with rude cut and mystical metrical commentary of the great Emerald tablet , which few men living
Spencer's Great Library.
know to be tho sum of a knowledge of natural philosophy , in which the ancients were certainly not behind tho moderns . Amongst ancient commentators on this tablet were men who understood animal magnetism , and who anticipated Darwin in expounding the " origin of species . "
In lot 451 we find ono of the books of the most famous Gompagnia della Lesina , which flourished at Venice early in the 17 th century , whose object was tho reformation of morals by means of a Masonic speculative system , tho details of which were , wo believe , not disclosed . Many curious details concerning the customs of tho Jews and the
speculative application of their Temple and Tabernacle maybe picked up from Godwyn ' s and Gregory's works , in lots 455 nnd 456 . Tho controversy npon the Eastward position in worship ( lot 457 ) comes u propos at the present time ; in these tracts , 150 years ago , it was exhaustively discussed . Masonic symbolism dug out of the
hieroglyphics and secret writings of the ancients is exponnded in tho following lots ( 458 to 477 . ) Many of these works are extraordinarily scarce , and will fetch a capital price , without reference to Masonic bidders , especially Taylor's and Ouvarofi ' s Eleusinia , Newton's 3 Enigmas , Hiqqin's Celtic Druids , Dallaway ' s Discourses , and O'Brien ' s
Round Towers ; not less useful and interesting are Schumachers Works ( lot 458 ) , Grata Repoa , Memnonium , Mysteres de Vantiquite ( lot 461 ) , Stammer ' s Alphabets , Spineto ' s Hieroglyphics , Portal's symbolic colours , and Egyptian symbols , Wathew ' s Ancient Egypt , La Messe et ses mysteres , and Griffith ' s natural system of Architecture . We must conclude this review in onr next issne .
Freemasonry. Its Origin, Its History And Its Design.
FREEMASONRY . ITS ORIGIN , ITS HISTORY AND ITS DESIGN .
FROM THE NEW YORK IIEIULP . THE public ceremonies which are to bo inaugurated daring the ensuing week , by the Grand Lodgo of Free and Accepted Masons of New York , will very naturally attract tho attention of what Freemasons call , in a technical and not offensive sonso , "tho profane world , " to tho history , tho character and the objects of tho Masonic institution . But there needs no occasional event , however
interesting may bo tho circumstances connected with it , to secure to tho Masonic Order a valid claim to public consideration . To say nothing of its antiquity—for it is by far the oldest secret organization in existence—nor of the humanitarian objects which it professedly seeks to accomplish , its universality alone clothes it with a peculiar interest that does not appertain to associations more
circumscribed in their relations . Computing , as it , does at this clay , in the United States alone , a population of half a million of activo members , Freomasonry boasts , as did the Emperor Charles of the extent of his Empire , that there is not a civilized country of the world , whether Christian or not , in which its Lodges are not to be found . From frozen Siberia to torrid Africa , and across tho wido continents of
both hemispheres , tho institution is actively in operation . Everywhere substantially the same in its organization , its members governed by the same laws , and inspired by the same principles , it presents tho remarkablo spectacle of an association which , under no contingency , has been subjected to change of character by the influences of the language , the political government , or the religious belief of tho
people among whom it has been introduced . In Protestant England , in Catholic Italy , in Mohammedan Tnrkey or in Brahmanic India—nnder tho shadow of tho Cathedral of St . Paul , or the Basilica of St . Peter , or tho Mosque of St . Sophia , or the thousand temples of Benares—Freemasonry is , for all practical purposes , one and the same institution . No external pressure has over sneceeded in affect .
nig the identity of its form and organization . In the most bigoted hierarchies it has maintained its principle of toleration ; in the most despotic autocracies it has inculcated freedom of thought and speech , and in the most liberal republics it has preserved tho dogma of obedience to constituted authority . This universality of its identity has authorised that doctrinco of
its ritual which declares that "in every land a Mason may find a home and in every clime a brother . " The links of a Catholic brotherhood do , indeed , form a continuous chain that girdles tho whole earth . Henco , the Rev . Salem Town , one of the most learned and distinguished members of the Fraternity in New York , has said , in reference to this cosmopolitan character , that " were he to travel into
a foreign country he should consider his Masonic relations the surest safeguard , aside from divine protection , that could bo thrown around him . " When snch an institution becomes tho subject matter of investigation there arc two prominent topics that arrest tho attention of the inqnirer—its history and its design—where and when did it arise , and what are the objects for which its existence has been
continued . Each of these topics we propose succinctly to discuss . The question of the origin of Freemasonry as a Mystical Association has , for more than a century and a half , attracted the attention of many scholars of Britain , Germany , France , and America , and a body of treatises and essays on the subject havo been pnblished , tho extent of which wonld surprise any ono not familiar with Masonic
literature . At the present day , the historians of Freemasonry , who are engaged in the discussion of this question , may be divided into two schools , which may be appropriately distinguished as tho mythical and the authentic . The former of theso is the older , for the latter has become prominent only within the last threo or four decades , Masonio opinion is , however , very steadily , and , indeed ,