THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

Masonry
should no longer be restricted to operative masons, but extend to men
of
various professions, provided that they were regularly approved and
initiated into the order."
Accordingly the records of the society show that from the year 1717, at
least, the era commonly, but improperly, distinguished as the
restoration
of Masonry, the operative element of the institution has been
completely
discarded, except so far as its influence is exhibited in the choice
and
arrangement of symbols, and the typical use of its technical language.
* * * * *
The history of the origin of the order is here concluded; and in
briefly
recapitulating, I may say that in its first inception, from the time of
Noah to the building of the temple of Solomon, it was entirely
speculative
in its character; that at the construction of that edifice, an
operative
element was infused into it by the Tyrian builders; that it continued
to
retain this compound operative and speculative organization until about
the middle of the seventeenth century, when the latter element began to
predominate; and finally, that at the commencement of the eighteenth
century, the operative element wholly disappeared, and the society has
ever since presented itself in the character of a simply speculative
association.
The history that I have thus briefly sketched, will elicit from every
reflecting mind at least two deductions of some importance to the
intelligent Mason.
In the first place, we may observe, that ascending, as the institution
does, away up the stream of time, almost to the very fountains of
history,
for its source, it comes down to us, at this day, with so venerable an
appearance of antiquity, that for that cause and on that claim alone it
demands the respect of the world. It is no recent invention of human
genius, whose vitality has yet to be tested by the wear and tear of
time
and opposition, and no sudden growth of short-lived enthusiasm, whose
existence may be as ephemeral as its birth was recent. One of the
oldest
of these modern institutions, the Carbonarism of Italy, boasts an age
that
scarcely amounts to the half of a century, and has not been able to
extend
its progress beyond the countries of Southern Europe, immediately
adjacent
to the place of its birth; while it and every other society of our own
times that have sought to simulate the outward appearance of
Freemasonry,