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the ancien regime-第17章

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Freemasonry; yet have either copied it; or actually sprung out of

it。  In England; Freemasonry never was; it seems; more than a

liberal and respectable benefit…club; for secret societies are

needless for any further purposes; amid free institutions and a free

press。  But on the Continent during the eighteenth century;

Freemasonry excited profound suspicion and fear on the part of

statesmen who knew perfectly well their friends from their foes; and

whose precautions were; from their point of view; justified by the

results。



I shall not enter into the deep question of the origin of

Freemasonry。  One uninitiate; as I am; has no right to give an

opinion on the great questions of the mediaeval lodge of Kilwinning

and its Scotch degrees; on the seven Templars; who; after poor

Jacques Molay was burnt at Paris; took refuge on the Isle of Mull;

in Scotland; found there another Templar and brother Mason;

ominously named Harris; took to the trowel in earnest; and revived

the Order;on the Masons who built Magdeburg Cathedral in 876; on

the English Masons assembled in Pagan times by 〃St。 Albone; that

worthy knight;〃 on the revival of English Masonry by Edwin; son of

Athelstan; on Magnus Grecus; who had been at the building of

Solomon's Temple; and taught Masonry to Charles Martel; on the

pillars Jachin and Boaz; on the masonry of Hiram of Tyre; and indeed

of Adam himself; of whose first fig…leaf the masonic apron may be a

typeon all these matters I dare no more decide than on the making

of the Trojan Horse; the birth of Romulus and Remus; or the

incarnation of Vishnoo。



All I dare say is; that Freemasonry emerges in its present form into

history and fact; seemingly about the beginning of George I。's

reign; among Englishmen and noblemen; notably in four lodges in the

city of London:  (1) at The Goose and Gridiron alehouse in St。

Paul's Churchyard; (2) at The Crown alehouse near Drury Lane; (3) at

The Apple Tree tavern near Covent Garden; (4) at The Rummer and

Grapes tavern; in Charnel Row; Westminster。  That its principles

were brotherly love and good fellowship; which included in those

days port; sherry; claret; and punch; that it was founded on the

ground of mere humanity; in every sense of the word; being (as was

to be expected from the temper of the times) both aristocratic and

liberal; admitting to its ranks virtuous gentlemen 〃obliged;〃 says

an old charge; 〃only to that religion wherein all men agree; leaving

their particular opinions to themselves:  that is; to be good men

and true; or men of honour and honesty; by whatever denominations or

persuasions they may be distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes the

centre of union and means of conciliating true friendship among

persons that otherwise must have remained at a distance。〃



Little did the honest gentlemen who established or re…established

their society on these grounds; and fenced it with quaint

ceremonies; old or new; conceive the importance of their own act;

we; looking at it from a distance; may see all that such a society

involved; which was quite new to the world just then; and see; that

it was the very child of the Ancien Regimeof a time when men were

growing weary of the violent factions; political and spiritual;

which had torn Europe in pieces for more than a century; and longed

to say:  〃After all; we are all alike in one thingfor we are at

least men。〃



Its spread through England and Scotland; and the seceding bodies

which arose from it; as well as the supposed Jacobite tendency of

certain Scotch lodges; do not concern us here。  The point

interesting to us just now is; that Freemasonry was imported to the

Continent exclusively by English and Scotch gentlemen and noblemen。

Lord Derwentwater is said by some to have founded the 〃Loge

Anglaise〃 in Paris in 1725; the Duke of Richmond one in his own

castle of Aubigny shortly after。  It was through Hanoverian

influence that the movement seems to have spread into Germany。  In

1733; for instance; the English Grand Master; Lord Strathmore;

permitted eleven German gentlemen and good brethren to form a lodge

in Hamburg。  Into this English Society was Frederick the Great; when

Crown Prince; initiated; in spite of strict old Frederick William's

objections; who had heard of it as an English invention of

irreligious tendency。  Francis I。 of Austria was made a Freemason at

the Hague; Lord Chesterfield being in the chair; and then became a

Master in London under the name of 〃Brother Lothringen;〃 to the

discontent of Maria Theresa; whose woman's wit saw farther than her

husband。  Englishmen and Scotchmen introduced the new society into

Russia and into Geneva。  Sweden and Poland seem to have received it

from France; while; in the South; it seems to have been exclusively

an English plant。  Sackville; Duke of Middlesex; is said to have

founded the first lodge at Florence in 1733; Lord Coleraine at

Gibraltar and Madrid; one Gordon in Portugal; and everywhere; at the

commencement of the movement; we find either London or Scotland the

mother…lodges; introducing on the Continent those liberal and humane

ideas of which England was then considered; to her glory; as the

only home left on earth。



But; alas! the seed sown grew up into strange shapes; according to

the soil in which it rooted。  False doctrine; heresy; and schism;

according to Herr Findel; the learned and rational historian whom I

have chiefly followed; defiled the new Church from its infancy。  〃In

France;〃 so he bemoans himself; 〃first of all there shot up that

baneful seed of lies and frauds; of vanity and presumption; of

hatred and discord; the mischievous high degrees; the misstatement

that our order was allied to the Templars; and existed at the time

of the Crusades; the removal of old charges; the bringing in

surreptitiously of a multitude of symbols and forms which awoke the

love of secrecy; knighthood; and; in fact; all which tended to

poison Freemasonry。〃  Herr Findel seems to attribute these evils

principally to the 〃high degrees。〃  It would have been more simple

to have attributed them to the morals of the French noblesse in the

days of Louis Quinze。  What could a corrupt tree bring forth; but

corrupt fruit?  If some of the early lodges; like those of 〃La

Felicite〃 and 〃L'Ancre;〃 to which women were admitted; resembled not

a little the Bacchic mysteries of old Rome; and like them called for

the interference of the police; still no great reform was to be

expected; when those Sovereign Masonic Princes; the 〃Emperors of the

East and West;〃 quarrelledknights of the East against knights of

the Westtill they were absorbed or crushed by the Lodge 〃Grand

Orient;〃 with Philippe Egalite; Duc de Chartres; as their grand

master; and as his representative; the hero of the diamond necklace;

and disciple of Count CagliostroLouis; Prince de Rohan。



But if Freemasonry; among the frivolous and sensual French noblesse;

became utterly frivolous and sensual itself; it took a deeper;

though a questionably fantastic form; among the more serious and

earnest German nobility。  Forgetful as they too often were of their

duty to their peoplestyrannical; extravagant; debauched by French

opinions; French fashions; French luxuries; till they had begun to

despise their native speech; their native literature; almost their

native land; and to hide their native homeliness under a clumsy

varnish of French outside civilisation; which the years 1807…13

rubbed off them again with a brush of ironthey were yet Germans at

heart; and that German instinct for the unseencall it enthusiasm;

mysticism; what you will; you cannot make it anything but a human

fact; and a most powerful; and (as I hold) most blessed factthat

instinct for the unseen; I say; which gives peculiar value to German

philosophy; poetry; art; religion; and above all to German family

life; and which is just the complement needed to prevent our English

common…sense; matter…of…fact Lockism from degenerating into

materialismthat was only lying hidden; but not dead; in the German

spirit。



With the Germans; therefore; Freemasonry assumed a nobler and more

earnest shape。  Dropping; very soon; that Lockite and Philosophe

tone which had perhaps recommended it to Frederick the Great in his

youth; it became mediaevalist and mystic。  It craved after a

resuscitation of old chivalrous spirit; and the virtues of the

knightly ideal; and the old German biederkeit und tapferkeit; which

were all defiled and overlaid by French fopperies。  And not in vain;

as no struggle after a noble aim; however confused or fantastic; is

ever in vain。  Freemasonry was the direct parent of the Tugenbund;

and of those secret societies which freed Germany from Napoleon。

Whatever follies young members of them may have committed; whatever

Jahn and his Turnerei; whatever the iron youths; with their iron

decorations and iron boot…heels; whatever; in a word; may have been

said o
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