The History of Freemasonry, Vol. 2

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Excerpt from The History of Freemasonry, Vol. 2: Its Antiquities, Symbols, Constitutions, Customs, Etc, Embracing an Investigation of the Records of the Organisations of the Fraternity in England, Scotland, Ireland, British Colonies, France, Germany, and the United States Between the region of fancy and the province of authenticated history lies a border-land of tradition, full of difficulties, which can neither be passed without notice, nor ever, perhaps, very clearly or finally explained." Upon many of the questions which it would be most interesting to decide, no conclusion whatever is attainable. The historian knows very little of the real facts, of the lives of his personages only a contemptibly small fragment has been preserved. No doubt, if his imagination be strong, he will piece together the information he has, and instinctively shape for himself some theory which will combine them all, though, if his judgment be as strong as his imagination, he will hold very cheap these conjectural combinations, and will steadfastly bear in mind that, as an historian, he is concerned with facts and not with possibilities. Some, indeed, instead of employing those tests of credibility which are consistently applied to modern history, attempt to guide their judgment by the indications of internal evidence, and to assume that truth can be discovered by "an occult faculty of historical divination". Hence the task they have undertaken resembles an inquiry into the internal structure of the earth, or into the question, whether the stars are inhabited? It is an attempt to solve a problem, for the solution of which no sufficient data exist. Their ingenuity and labour can result in nothing but hypothesis and conjecture, which may be supported by analogies, and may sometimes appear specious and attractive, but can never rest on the solid foundation of proof. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.