der the sanction of twelve presiding officers of lodges in New-York! and these are but the thousandth part of those scattered through the various treatises of Masonry.

I was aware, before venturing objections to the pretensions of Masonry, that the materials to frame them were not scarce; but so much more numerous are they, than I had expected, that the topics on which it was my purpose chiefly to dwell, have not even been touched. I can give no new view of this part of the subject by farther pursuing it; and although the pretensions connected with the building of Solomon's temple, have a common importance attached to them, entitled to peculiar attention, I pass them by for the present, confident that the sample of ancient pretensions which has been presented and amply examined, is a fair specimen of the whole lot. It would be wrong to weary the reader's patience with this branch of the subject, when others more interesting are pushing into view.

But before I take leave of the ancient pretensions of Masonry, I will throw together those already considered, in the way of a review, stamp them genuine, and lay them up for future use. They are as follows.

1st. That masonry is coeval with time. The charters, certificates, diplomas, &c. of our lodges and grand lodges, &c. are almost uniformly dated Anno Lucis. Even our common masonic celebrations, for the greater mysticism, are often dated, not in the year of our Lord, but in the year of Masonry, i. e. in the year of creation.

2d. The two pillars of Enoch, erected to preserve the knowledge of the liberal arts, and "particularly of Ma. sonry," through two calamitous periods of the earth;from which neither hieroglyphic, nor letter, nor word, has been derived to modern art, particularly to Masonry.

3d. Enoch's wonderful vision, and subterraneous temple, in which was preserved the golden triangle with the ineffable name; and beneath whose deep arches the ancient masters were swallowed up.

4th. The divine communication of this ineffable name,

first to Enoch, afterwards with the ten commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, with a strict injunction that it should never be pronounced; which is the true name of the Most High, handed down through successive ages by tradition, from which many corruptions have spread among the nations, as the Jupiter of the Romans, the Juba of the Moors, &c. and which true name of the Deity is the word now lost to master Masons, but found by those who enter the ninth arch.

5th. The wonderful discovery of this ineffable name, agreeably to the prophecies of Moses and of David, engraved on a triangular plate of gold, with the admiration of kings Solomon and Hiram, at sight of the ineffable types; and the still more wonderful fact that it was "visible in the temple, at the time St. Jerome flourished, written in the ancient Samaritan characters."

6th. The annihilation of the subterraneous temple, and the instantaneous destruction of the master Masons of king Solomon's temple, flesh and bone, so that not a relic of them was left to soothe a friend, or to receive funeral honours.

These pretensions seem to be made in contempt of common sense, and there are those who will be ready to think they are made in contempt of Free Masonry; to think that these are not the genuine and unqualified pretensions of the masonic institution; and that, if in any degree connected with the fraternity, it must be through weak brethren, and extravagant Masons; men who do not give, and ought not to give, a character to the institution. Heavenly charity must have hitherto thrown this veil over their weakness. It is my unpleasant duty to remove that veil, and to show them in all their deformity; to show that they are the solemn and certified pretensions of the Masonic fraternity, published by its ablest advocate, and sanctioned by its highest authorities.

"A great Mason," it will appear in the sequel, is an impossible thing; but if ever man could deserve that appella

tion, it was Col. Webb. Of amiable manners and a virtuous life, he devoted his time to Masonry; he introduced greater order into the lectures, and uniformity into the lodges; he published many editions of his Monitor, the latter editions being among the most valuable treatises upon Masonry extant.

He came with the highest masonic claims, to the second post of honour in the masonic temple of the United States, when De Witt Clinton attained the first, being made Deputy General Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of North America, when that eminent politician was made General Grand High Priest. The other posts of lesser honour which fell to his lot, were some of them as follows: Grand King and Grand Scribe of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the Northern States; Past Master of Temple Lodge, Albany; High Priest of the Providence Royal Arch Chapter, &c. &c.

This is the Mason who has published these pretensions to the world; from his book I copy them; a book prefaced as follows:

“Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the state of R. I., Providence, July 7, A. L. 5802.

"The subscribers having been appointed a committee to examine a publication by Companion Thomas S. Webb, entitled, "The Free Mason's Monitor," beg leave to report, that having attended to the subject of their appointment, they are of opinion, that the said publication is replete with useful masonic information, and is fully entitled to the sanction of this Grand Chapter. [I omit the names in commiseration.]

66

Whereupon, resolved unanimously, that this Grand Chapter recommend the aforesaid work to the attention and

study of all the members of the fraternity to whom the same may come. Extract from the records.

* * Grand Sec'y."

What further proof can be desired? And these pretensions are not only genuine, as coming from under the hand of one whose reputation as a Mason is higher than that of any other man in America, (the most puissant sovereigns of S. C. not excepted,) whether before or after him, and as being officially sanctioned by one of the highest, purest, and most intelligent masonic associations in the United States; but also as being commonly received, and, in their indistinct character, believed among Masons. Some intelligent Masons take no pleasure in contemplating them, and give them no place in their memory; but surely these claims have passed hitherto little disputed by any of the fraternity. Masons do not generally hesitate to ascribe the origin of the institution to the period when their greatest men, their official papers, and their approved treatises, assert its beginning. They do not scruple to teach the novice, that Enoch built two pillars, by which the knowledge of Masonry was preserved to the descendants of Noah; to teach that Moses had the true word of the master Mason miraculously revealed to him, which word was singularly lost and found in the days of King Solomon, when there happened events important to be known, which are only known to the Free and Accepted Mason.

Why should not such tales pass current upon the lips of ordinary Masons, when they are certified by the authorities of Masonry?

Another highly approved Masonic work (as an edition of 12,000 copies assures us) contains the following: "Certain it is, that Free Masonry has been from the creation ; (though not under that name;) that it was a divine gift from God; that there were but four Masons in the world when the deluge happened; that one of the four, even the

second son of Noah, was not master of the art," &c.-Masonic Minstrel, p. 337.

Free Masonry a divine gift from God! I have seen this assertion in more Masonic works than one. It may be a duty solemnly to charge the institution with this presumptuous claim, but not now; and I return to say what so great extravagance called me from saying, that while such claims are boldly thrown out by the authorized publications of the fraternity, it can be no wonder that the same things are repeated and magnified by the herd of tongues. Hardie's Monitor (p. 290.) mentions it as an important fact in masonic chronology, that "during the forty years peregrination of the Hebrews in the wilderness, it pleased the Divine Architect to inspire with wisdom certain persons, who erected the glorious tabernacle in which the Sheckhinah (or Divine Glory) resided;" and why should not a Free Mason say, as Free Masons do say, that the tabernacle of Moses was built by masonic art; meaning such art as was then, and is now, peculiar to Free Masonry? Such pretensions are monstrous; I present them, not for any pleasure they afford, but only to show that the proof of the genuineness of the kind of pretensions already offered to the reader, is painfully abundant; is not confined to slanderous lips, but is uniformly found in the records and papers of the Masonic fraternity.

Individual Masons, were they charged with framing or maintaining these pretensions, might clear themselves.

They are not charged, but the institution; and who can clear the institution? Its pages abound in these pretensions; its rites depend on them; its superstructure is raised on them; its whole mystery is involved in them. Free Masonry, and its pretensions, already named, with its unreasonable ones yet to be named, cannot be separated; take them from it, and it becomes a social club, at best a charitable association; it is Free Masonry no longer. Its mystery has fled, its glory departed, its spirit sunk for ever.