Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

PRETENSIONS OF FREE MASONRY. 43
I am to speak of Masonry as it is known in the lodges,
and not as it exists in the chapters, councils, encampments,
&c. If the foundations are vanity, all that is built upon
them must be also vanity, equally light, or the building
would fall.
The three first degrees lie at the foundation of the whole: /
These I have never ceased to observe, to weigh, and to
distrust, during six years of favourable opportunity; until
these views of the institution have, like ripened fruit, been
fully matured, and now naturally drop for the refreshment
of others.
This I say without the fear of man, that within the lodges,
for all its pretensions to be a science, or an art, of which
pretensions it makes many; for all its pretensions to teach
the sciences, of which pretensions it makes many; for all
its pretensions to be a mystery of intrinsic value, of which
pretensions it makes many; for all its pretentions to a divine
original, of which pretensions it makes many: the
Masonic institution is no better than will appear in the
sequel.
I COME now to consider the claims of Free Masonry, set
forth in a work entitled as follows:
"AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE LIGHT, AND THERE
WAS #, AND THE LIGHT SHLNETH IN DARKNESS.
u Constitutions of the ancient and honourable fraternity
of Free and Accepted Masons, collected and digested from
their old records, faithful traditions, and lodge books. For
the use of the lodges. Together with the history and general
regulations of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts,
" Compiled by the Rev. , A. M. Member of the
Mass. His. Soc. and Chaplain to the Grand Lodge of
Mass.