Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

Introduction.
xxvii
only to meet with a similar fate. One writer makes
the statement that fully eight hundred different degrees
have thus, from time to time, been introduced
to the Craft as Masonic. In no case does there exist
any reliable consecutive history of these various
movements. But even if such history existed, it
would but little serve the purpose of the present
work, as will be readily seen from what has heretofore
been said regarding all these attempts to discover
the Lost Word, by reading backward from the
outer form of Symbolism. Such a history would be
curious and interesting, as showing the fertility of
the human imagination, and its proneness to regard
as valuable that which is curious and fantastic, because
it is concealed. Mere vulgar curiosity and
secrecy alone have never yet been the pass-words to
the Adytum of real Initiation. On the other hand,
such a history, did it really exist, would be tinged
with a touch of pathos, on account of the many sorrowful
disappointments it would have to record, in
the case of earnest souls seeking, with sincerity and
in truth, for the "Lost Word of the Master," only to
be overwhelmed at last by disappointment, or to be
publicly executed as malefactors and enemies of
State or Church. Such histories as exist well deserve,
in many cases, the designation of "organized