Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

THE UNKNOWN OR1GIN OF TREE MASONRY. 353
and any system of the doctrines, that he can render palatable.
Hence have sprung up that variety of systems, which
for twenty years have divided the order. The simple tale
of the English, and the fifty degrees of the French, and the
. knights of Baron Hunde, are equally authentic, and have
equally had the support of intelligent and zealous brethren.
" These systems are, in fact, but one. They have all
sprung from the blue lodge of three degrees; take these for
their standard, and found on these all the improvements by
which each system is afterwards suited to the particular object
which it keeps in view. There is no man, nor system,
in the world, which can show by undoubted succession, that
it should stand at the head of the order. Our ignorance
in this particular frets me. Do but consider our short history
of 120 years. Who will sfiow me the mother lodge?
Those of London we have discovered to be self-erected in
1716. [1717.] Ask for their archives. They tell you they
were burnt. They have nothing but the wretched sophistications
of the Englishman Anderson, and the Frenchman
Desaguilliers. Where is the lodge of York, which pretends
to the priority, with their King Bouden, and the archives
that he brought from the East? These too are burnt.—
What is the Chapter of Old Aberdeen, and its holy delicate
? Did we not find it unknown^ and the Mason lodges
there the most ignorant of aU the ignorant, gaging for instruction
from our deputies?* Did we not find the same
thing at London ? And have not their missionaries been
among us, prying into our mysteries, and eager to learn
from us what is true Free Masonry? It is in vain, therefore,
to appeal to judges; they are no where to be found;
all claim for themselves the sceptre of the order; all, indeed,
are on an equal footing. & They obtained followers,
not from their authenticity, but from their conducivenessto
* See Robison, p. 64, extracted in this volume.
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