Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

LANGES
LANSDOWNE 4~5
unwilling in times of trial, for the sake of expediency,
to divest it of its secret character, it
will be ever impossible to do so, even were the
landmark not standing before us as an insurmountable
obstacle ; because such change of
its character would be social suicide, and the
death of the Order would follow its legalized
exposure. Freemasonry, as a secret association,
has lived unchanged for centuries ; as an
open society, it would not last for as many
years .
24 . The foundation of a speculative science
upon an operative art, and the symbolic
use and explanation of the terms of that
art, for the purposes of religious or moral
teaching, constitute another landmark of
the Order . The Temple of Solomon was the
symbolic cradle of the Institution, and, therefore,
the reference to the Operative Masonry
which constructed that magnificent edifice,
to the materials and implements which
were employed in its construction, and to
the artists who were engaged in the building,
are all component and essential parts of the
body of Freemasonry, which could not be
subtracted from it without an entire destruction
of the whole identity of the Order .
Hence, all the comparatively modern rites
of Masonry, however they may differ in
other respects, religiously preserve this Temple
history and these operative elements, as
the substratum of all their modifications of
the Masonic system .
25. The last and crowning landmark of all
is, that these landmarks can never be changed .
Nothing can be subtracted from them-nothing
can be added to them-not the slightest
modification can be made in them . As they
were received from our predecessors, we are
bound by the most solemn obligations of duty
to transmit them to our successors .
Langes, Savalette de . The Master of
"Les Amis Reunis," who aided in founding
the system of Philalethes in 1775 .
Language, Universal . The invention of
a universal language, which men of all nations
could understand and through which they
could communicate their thoughts, has always
been one of the Utopian dreams of certain
philologists . In the seventeenth century,
Dalgarno had written his Ars Signorum to
prove the possibility of a universal character
and a philosophical language . About the same
time Bishop Wilkins published his Essay
towards a Real Character and a Philosophical
Language; and even the mathematical Leibnitz
entertained the project of a universal language
for all the world . It is not, therefore
surprising, that when the so-called Leland
Manuscript stated that the Masons concealed
a "universelle longage," Mr . Locke, or whoever
was the commentator on that document,
should have been attracted by the statement .
"A universal language," he says, "has been
much desired by the learned of many ages . It
is a thing rather to be wished than hoped for .
But it seems the Masons pretend to have such
a thing among them. If it be true, I guess it
must be something like the language of the
Pantomimes among the ancient Romans, who
are said to be able, by signs only, to express
and deliver any oration intelligibly to men of
all nations and languages ."
The "guess" of the commentator was near
the truth. A universal language founded on
words is utterly impracticable. Even if once
inaugurated by common consent, a thing itself
impossible, the lapse of but a few years, and
the continual innovation of new phrases,
would soon destroy its universality . But there
are signs and symbols which, by tacit consent,
have always been recognized as the exponents
of certain ideas, and these are everywhere
understood . It is well known that such a system
exists over the vast territory occupied by
the North American savages, and that the
Indians of two tribes, which totally differ in
language, meeting on the prairie or in the forest,
are enabled, by conventual signs of universal
agreement, to hold long and intelligible
intercourse . On such a basis the "universal
language" of Freemasonry is founded . It is
not universal to the world, but it is to the
Craft ; and a Mason of one country and language
meeting a Mason of another can make
himself understood for all practical purposes
of the Craft, simply because the system of
signs and symbols has been so perfected that
in every language they convey the same meaning
and make the same impression . This, and
this only, is the extent to which the universal
language of Masonry reaches . It would be an
error to suppose that it meets the expectations
of Dalgarno or Wilkins, or any other
dreamer, and .that it is so perfect as to supersede
the necessity of any other method of intercommunication
.
Lansdowne MS. This version of the Old
Charges is of very early date, about the middle
or latter half of the sixteenth century, as these
Free Masons Orders and Constitutions are believed
to have been part of the collection made
by Lord Burghley (Sec. of State, temp. Edward
VI.), who died A .D. 1598.
Bro. Gould, in his History (vol. i ., p . 61),
says the "MS . is contained on the inner side
of three sheets and a half of stout paper,
eleven by fifteen inches, making in all seven
folios, many of the principal words being in
large letters of an ornamental character . Mr.
Sims (MS. Department of the British Museum)
does not consider these `Orders' ever
formed a roll, though there are indications of
the sheets having been stitched together at
the top, and paper or vellum was used for
additional protection . It has evidently `seen
service.' It was published in Freemasons'
Mag., February 24, 1858, and Hughan's Old
Charges (p. 31), and since in facsimile by the
Quatuor Coronati Lodge . The catalogue of the
Lansdowne MSS.-which consisted of twelve
hundred and forty-five volumes, bought by
Parliament, in 1807, for £4925-has the folowing
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