unced that the order took its origin at a time "when a few adepts,
distinguished by their life, their moral doctrine, and their sacred
interpretation of the arcanic truths, withdrew themselves from the
multitude in order more effectually to preserve uncontaminated the moral
precepts of that religion which is implanted in the mind of man."

We thus, then, have before us an aspect of Freemasonry as it existed in
the middle ages, when it presents itself to our view as both operative and
speculative in its character. The operative element that had been infused
into it by the Dionysiac artificers of Tyre, at the building of the
Solomonic temple, was not yet dissevered from the pure speculative element
which had prevailed in it anterior to that period.

IX.

Disseverance of the Operative Element.

The next point to which our attention is to be directed is when, a few
centuries later, the operative character of the institution began to be
less prominent, and the speculative to assume a pre-eminence which
eventually ended in the total separation of the two.

At what precise period the speculative began to predominate over the
operative element of the society, it is impossible to say. The change was
undoubtedly gradual, and is to be attributed, in all probability, to the
increased number of literary and scientific men who were admitted into the
ranks of the fraternity.

The Charter of Cologne, to which I have just alluded, speaks of "learned
and enlightened men" as constituting the society long before the date of
that document, which was 1535; but the authenticity of this work has, it
must be confessed, been impugned, and I will not, therefore, press the
argument on its doubtful authority. But the diary of that celebrated
antiquary, Elias Ashmole, which is admitted to be authentic, describes his
admission in the year 1646 into the order, when there is no doubt that the
operative character was fast giving way to the speculative. Preston tells
us that about thirty years before, when the Earl of Pembroke assumed the
Grand Mastership of England, "many eminent, wealthy, and learned men were
admitted."

In the year 1663 an assembly of the Freemasons of England was held at
London, and the Earl of St. Albans was elected Grand Master. At this
assembly certain regulations were adopted, in which the qualifications
prescribed for candidates clearly allude to the speculative character of
the institution.

And, finally, at