The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

SUPPLEMENTAL ENCYCLOPAEDIAPalestine, or rather Judea, for the name Syria includedalso the northern part of Palestine, on the south. It wasnamed after Aram, the son of Shem. Thus defined, itincludes also Mesopotamia, which the Hebrews namedAram-Naha-raim (Aram 'of the two rivers Tigris andEuphrates), or Padan-Aram (the plains of Aram or Syria),in distinction from the "mountains" of Aram. At the timeof the Jewish exileSyria and Phoenicia were subject to theking of Babylon, and they afterwards were tributary tothe Persian monarchs. Syria is now in the possession ofthe Turks. Its better portions have' been thickly populatedfrom a very early period, and travelers find traces of numerouscitieswholly unknown to history.Speculative Masonry The lectures of the symbolicdegrees instruct the neophyte in the difference between theOperative and the Speculative divisions of Masonry. Theytell him that "we work in Speculative Masonry, but ourancient brethren wrought in both Operative and Speculative."To the Freemason this Operative art has been symbolizedin that intellectual deduction from it which hasbeen correctly called Speculative Masonry. At one timeeach was an integral part of one undivided system. OperativeMasonry was, in the inception of our history,and is in some measure even now,, the skeleton uponwhich was strung the living muscles and tendons andnerves of the Speculative system. It was the block ofmarble, rude and unpolisheditmay have been, fromwhich was sculptured the life-breathing statue.Speculative Masonry (which is but another name forFreemasonry in its modern acceptation) may be brieflydefined as the scientific application and the religiousconsecration of the rules and principles, the language, theimplements and materials of Operative Masonry to tinvenerationof God, the purification of the heart and the inculcationof the dogmas of a religious philosophy.200