THE BUILDER February, 1917

DE QUINCEY ON MASONRY
BY BRO. ALFRED GIFFORD, AUSTRALIA

THOMAS DE QUINCEY'S ideas about Freemasonry may be found in his
study of Secret Societies in volume seven of Masson's edition of
his works, and in volume thirteen, where we find the
"Historico-critical Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians
Freemasons." At the outset, let it be said that we must not always
take our author seriously. He loves a whimsy and dearly loves a
joke. The story (vii. 199) of the Mason who got drunk, and then
revealed the secrets to his inquisitive wife, finds its point in
the fact that the lady thought he was joking when he told the
truth, and pestered him until he conceived the idea of telling
fairy tales that she accepted for fact. This tale is on a par with
his tarrididdle about the candidate who appears trembling before
"the Grand Master" (sic) and finds that part one of the Degree is
"forking out" all his coin, and part two is chiefly "brandy"
(200-201) .

FREEMASONRY AS A HOAX

The quite serious thing in his study is his belief that the origin
of Freemasonry is found in a hoax, and a German one at that. This
idea that a vast system could have such a ridiculous beginning is
not so impossible as may appear at first sight. The whole great
structure of Mormonism is said to be built on a fable invented by
an idle clergyman to while away time. De Quincey says of
Freemasonry (xiii., 386): "To a hoax played off by a young man of
extraordinary talents in the beginning of the seventeenth century
(i.e., about 1610-14), but for a more elevated purpose than most
hoaxes involve, the reader will find that the whole mysteries of
Freemasonry, as now existing over the civilized world, after a
lapse of more than two centuries, are here distinctly traced."

This theory is not De Quincey's own; it is but a DeQuincified
rendering of the theory of a German professor of logic and
philosophy, named J.G. Buhle, who in 1803 read a Latin dissertation
on the subject before the Philosophical Society at Gottingen. De
Quincey has no compliment for this "fatiguing person," nor for his
confused and illogical paper, with its spluttering
unintelligibility. He feels that he has so washed the dull
professor's face and whitewashed him "that nothing but a life of
gratitude on his part and free admission to his logic lectures
forever" will repay his translator. Nevertheless, he adopts the
heavily-learned theory.

ROSICRUCIANISM AND FREEMASONRY

De Quincey believes that Freemasonry arose out of Rosicrucianism,
the fabled brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. He finds, as is commonly
accepted in non-Masonic circles, that the story of Christian
Rosycross is a fable invented by one John Valentine Andreas, of
Wurtemberg, an able satirist and poet. In three works, "The
Universal Reformation of the Whole Wide World," "The Fraternity of
the Order of the Rosy Cross," and "The Confession of the
Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross," Andreas' travels in the East, his
discovery of a secret society, and the House of the Holy Ghost,
with its tomb of Rosycross, are equally fictitious. But they were
taken as facts. Men sought them and not finding them, invented an
Order on the lines of these books, is the theory. One may wonder
how such a mystic order appealed to men, until the anti-critical
temper of the last decade of the sixteenth century is realized.
That was the heyday of Cabbalism, Theosophy, and Alchemy. How long
afterward the temper remained is well illustrated in Thomas
Carlyle's study of the King of Quacks --Cogliostro. The spirit of
credulity was so widespread that only the marvelous thing was
attractive. What Andreas wanted was to establish a Cult of
Universal Brotherhood, but he had to bait his hook with esoteric
doctrines, imaginary cults, and the theory of the transmutation of
lead into gold. Despising these things, he used them to get his
Cult established, and was horrified to find that men accepted the
myths and let the principles go.

CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ

His legendary founder of the Order was a certain Christian,
Rosycross, and his followers were termed Knights of the Rosy Cross
or Brothers or Philosophers of it; and their symbol was a St.
Andrew's cross with four roses, one between each arm of the cross.
This, it is said, was the coat of arms of Andrea's own family.
Their word was Rosy Cross. The Order was of value, whatever its
origin, for its members were bound to cure the sick without fee or
reward. They were to be noted not for their dress, but for their
tolerance and charity. Accepting the foregoing as history, can this
cult be connected with Freemasonry? It is just at this crucial
point that De Quincey fails. He says that Robert Fludd, who in 1629
wrote, or is said to have written, a treatise entitled "Summum
Bonum," was the connecting link. We know that Robert Fludd, M. D.,
did in 1617 write an "Apology for the Reality of the Society of the
Rosy Cross." But De Quincey says that Fludd formally withdrew the
name Rosicrucian, in attempting to popularize the Society in
England, and re-named it a Society of Masons in 1633.

PROOF THAT IS NOT PROOF

All the proof of this theory that he offers is found in two or
three passages he quotes from Fludd's work. Under pressure of
argument he does wish that the name were buried, and proposes the
name Wise Men for the members of this Society. De Quincey, without
a shred of evidence, supposes the name "Mason" to have been
suggested by the "House of the Holy Ghost" in Andrea's "Fama
Fraternitatis." Because Fludd speaks of men becoming living stones
by philosophy, De Quincey says that "living stone" means "Mason."
This is not so much discovery as invention on our author's part.
Naively enough, he mentions that Fludd and others call the
Apostles, who were supposed to be the original Rosy Cross brothers,
"Husbandmen," as well as Architects, and says, "had the former type
been adopted we should have had the Free Husbandmen instead of
Freemason." Since De Quincey's day much new material relating to
Masonic origins has come to light. His other discussions on the
origin of the Order are seen to be beside the mark since their
connection with the old Craft or Operative Masons Lodges has been
established.

THE VALUE UNCHANGED

Believing all the foregoing, De Quincey is yet assured of the
essential value of Freemasonry. He cannot speak too highly of its
assertion of the equality of personal rights and this in days when
they were universally challenged, while he misunderstands his
mysteries and cannot see the value of its signs, he is assured that
its effect is wholly beneficent. "It cannot be denied," he says,
"by those who are least favourably disposed to the Order of
Freemasonry that many States of Europe, where Lodges have formerly
existed or do still exist, are indebted to them for the original
establishment of many salutory institutions having for their object
the mitigation of human suffering."

In these days when we are in danger of judging things rather by
their origin than by their qualities, it is well to remember with
De Quincey that whatever was the origin of Freemasonry, it is of
the same value. As a Universal Brotherhood with the ideals of
Relief and Truth, it is of eternal value, whether it originated in
a German hoax, the Garden of Eden, or in the hearts of men who
loved their fellows and adopted an ancient society as a vehicle for
their faith and words. In De Quincey's studies there is much to
interest and amuse, no little by way of enlightening suggestion;
but most will be gained by those who grasp his fundamental idea,
that it is not a question of what Freemasonry was, but of what it
is.

THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE

An Ode to an Ode

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,--
What words of precious meaning those words Masonic are,"
And they still are ringing, ringing as the Craft today doth know 
As they did when Morris sang them more than fifty years ago.

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,"
Did the Bard who caught the meaning and who flung it out so fair,
Did the vision of the REAL that the years so soon should see Give
the Poet the perspective of what IS and is to be ?

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square," 
In its true symbolic meaning was unfolded with such care, 
That it carried with its rhythm and its setting into song 
The true spirit that will ever to the Mystic Art belong.

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square "
With the Plumb in the triangle 'mong the symbols gleaming there,
All their meanings were embellished for the Craft for coming time
Through the Art and through the Poet of the Art that is sublime.

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square"
Carries with it the momentum that the Bard transcribed so fair,
Carries with it, upright ever by the true, unerring Plumb
All that lies in mortal vision of the Masonry to come.

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square" 
In its meaning has been finding hearts responsive everywhere; 
It has met a nature longing in the hungry human heart 
Undiscovered till 'twas written into real Masonic Art.

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square," 
On the Level as it finds us; on the Square as we repair 
To our stations in the Temple, to our stations in the world 
Upright in the light of heaven flashing in the gems impearled.

"We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square" 
Is the answer of the ages to its longing and its prayer. 
The solution of the problem of the world's unrest today 
Must be solved by this same token for there is no other way.

Let us then be forging, forging stronger still the Mystic chain,
For the glory of the meeting and the work that doth remain. 
In the spirit of the Poet let us do our work with care 
"As we meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square."

--L. B. Mitchell.
o
THE REAL RICH MAN

He is the rich man who can avail himself of all men's faculties. He
is the richest man who knows how to draw a benefit from the labors
of the greatest number of men, of men in distant lands and in past
times.-- Emerson.

