Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

"236 FREE MASONRY.
her has caused divisions among the fraternity. They have
not-quarrelled about her principles ; that were impossible ;
but much have they divided upon the control of her. Witness
the dispute between the grand lodges of York and of
London, for the supremacy of England: peace made, A.
D. 1793. Witness the division into ancient and modern,
beginning, A. D. 1717, breaking out 1735 to 1738; and
healed with a heap of ceremonies, A. D. 1813. (Vide Eu~
ropean Mag. and Lon. Rev. 1814.)
Witness the contest between the royal York of Berlin,
and the grand lodge of Prussia; witness the schisms among
the Philalethes, and among the Chevaliers Bienfeisants of
France.; and, also, the long and hard struggle which interested
all Germany, between the strict Observantz, and
those of the Rosaic system.
These were cases of violent hostility; and the dispute
was not whether Free Masonry has three degrees of sublimity',
or four degrees, or fourteen, or forty; all that is a matter
perfectly immaterial; pot whether Free Masonry should
or should not continue to teach the black art, wonder-working,
and the transmutation of metals; not whether she
should relinquish her claim to a divine original, and be content
with a leather apron, and a trowel bright with mortar
and with use : no, the whole question was, who shall have
the wielding of this black engine of night ? And bravely
they fought it