Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

FIRST EXTENSION OF FREE MASONRY. 39l
first book, so far as my knowledge extends, in any language,
treating of Free Masonry.
Now, for what was the fire* three years before kindled
by the scrupulous brethren, except, by destroying the records,
to throw an air of mystery over the monstrous birth
they were hatching ? It is but too plain: for Preston, Lawrie,
Smith, and others, agree to state, that Free Masonry
first went from this same mother lodge to India, in 1728-9,
and to America, in 1730; to Gibraltar and Madrid, 1727,
and to Saxony, 1730. " From this period," says u the renowned
historian of Free Masonry," Mr. William Preston,
from 1730 "we may date the commencement of the consequence
and reputation of the society m Europe, as daily applications
were made for constituting new lodges, and the
most respectable characters of the age desired their names
to be enrolled in our records. 11 (Illustrations of Masonry,
p. 180. Duke of Norfolk, Grand Master.) And Smith
gives, at great length, the names and dates of the patents,
including some for every people in Europe, Germans, Russians,
Swedes, Prussians; for the East and West Indies;
Africa and America; Boston and the Cape of Good Hope;
the most distant parts of the earth, where Britain had colonies,
or commercial relations.
For these facts, as for most others in tips volume, I am
indebted, not to the enemies of Masonry, but to her standard
authors; and they indisputably prove the very modern extension
of the society, whatever was its origin. To this
same point the testimony of most diverse men, Robison and
Weishaupt, fully accords.
I will not cloud these singular facts with one conjecture,
butleave them to the supposed descendants of Solomon to
chew upon, as I have done; and, if at length, brethren,
they find the true story of old Hiram and the temple is
wholly a lie, and that they have been abused with solemn
and multiplied asseverations of divinity, universality, and
excellent antiquity, while the bastard is scarcely a hundred
years old, and no better than she should be, I hope they