The history of freemasonry : its legends and traditions, its chronological history . the Entered Apprentices degree. 3. A Third degree, called that of the Master Mason, was subse-quently fabricated so as to complete the series of three degrees ofSpeculative Masonry as it now exists. 4. The Third degree, as an accomplished fact, was not fabricatedbefore the close of the year 1722, and was not made known to theCraft, or worked as a degree of the new system, until the beginningof 1723. 5. The inventor or fabricator of this series of degrees was Theophilus Desaguliers, assisted by Anderson
The history of freemasonry : its legends and traditions, its chronological history . the Entered Apprentices degree. 3. A Third degree, called that of the Master Mason, was subse-quently fabricated so as to complete the series of three degrees ofSpeculative Masonry as it now exists. 4. The Third degree, as an accomplished fact, was not fabricatedbefore the close of the year 1722, and was not made known to theCraft, or worked as a degree of the new system, until the beginningof 1723. 5. The inventor or fabricator of this series of degrees was Theophilus Desaguliers, assisted by Anderson and probably afew other collaborators, among whom I certainly would not omit thelearned antiquary, George Payne, who had twice been Grand Master. In coming to these conclusions I omit all reference to the Le-gend of the Third Degree as to the time or place when it was con-cocted, and whether it was derived by Desaguliers, as has beenasserted, from certain Jewish rabbinical writers, or whether its earli-est form is to be found in certain traditions of the mediaeval CHAPTER XXXVII THE DEATH OF OPERATIVE AND THE BIRTH OF SPECULATIVE FREEMASONRY ROWTH, says Dr. South, is progress, and allprogress designs, and tends to the acquisition ofsomething, which the growing thing or personis not yet possessed of. This apothegm of the learned divine is pecul-iarly applicable to the history of that systemof Speculative Freemasonry which, springing intoexistence at the Apple Tree tavern, in London, at the close ofthe second decade of the 18th century, made such progress in theacquisition of new knowledge as to completely change its charactersoon after the beginning of the third decade. We have seen that it was derived from an older institution whoseobjects were altogether practical, and whose members were alwaysengaged in the building of public edifices. But there were othermembers of the guild who were not Operative Masons, but who hadbeen admitted to the privileges of membersh
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