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12 HISTORY.
hades ; Mr. Clinch, that it originated from the institution
of Pythagoras; 31r. Barruel, that it is a continuation
of the Templars, &c.
Hence it will be seen that it has been allowed, even
by the most skeptical, to have been instituted at a period
sufficiently remote to entitle it to the appellation of " An-
cient ;" and we may here dismiss the subject by noting
the fact that " its most learned enemies cannot point to
the time when Freemasonry did not exist, which gives it
a fame—a pre-eminence—to which the history of other
institutions affords no parallel."
It is not claimed that the Ancient and Accepted Scot-
tish Kite is of extreme antiquity, yet the frosts of time
decorate its brow.
Although in a detached form, doubtless some of the
degrees had their origin as early as the fourteenth cen-
tury ;
yet the Rite, as such, germinated in the latter part
of the seventeenth century, and took its distinctive char-
acter in the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The late Giles Fonda Yates, a member of the British
Archaeological Association, Grand Commander of the
Northern Supreme Council of the United States, gave
as the result of his research the following
"The proofs are undeniable that the learning con-
tained in the "Sublime Degrees," was taught long pre-
vious to the last century— our M.\ P.\ Brother Dalcho
(Rev. Doctor) thinks shortly after the first Crusade. In
Prussia, France, and Scotland the principal degrees of
our lilt*, appeared in an organized form in 1713. Th«
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