conclusion, that there could be
no motive for this imposture, and further that these two clergymen
cannot be supposed to have evolved the whole thing out of their heads.
Obviously some movement of a kindred nature must have led up to this
crisis. And since Elias Ashmole's diary clearly proves that a ceremony
of masonic initiation had existed in the preceding century, it is surely
only reasonable to conclude that Drs. Anderson and Desaguliers revised
but did not originate the ritual and constitutions drawn up by them.

Now, although the ritual of Freemasonry is couched in modern and by no
means classical English, the ideas running through it certainly bear
traces of extreme antiquity. The central idea of Freemasonry concerning
a loss which has befallen man and the hope of its ultimate recovery is
in fact no other than the ancient secret tradition described in the
first chapter of this book. Certain masonic writers indeed ascribe to
Freemasonry precisely the same genealogy as that of the early Cabala,
declaring that it descended from Adam and the first patriarchs of the
human race, and thence through groups of Wise Men amongst the Egyptians,
Chaldeans, Persians, and Greeks.[277] Mr. Albert Churchward insists
particularly on the Egyptian origin of the speculative element in
Freemasonry: "Brother Gould and other Freemasons will never understand
the meaning and origin of our sacred tenets till they have studied and
unlocked the mysteries of the past." This study will then reveal the
fact that "the Druids, the Gymnosophists of India, the Magi of Persia,
and the Chaldeans of Assyria had all the same religious rites and
ceremonies as practised by their priests who were initiated to their
Order, and that these were solemnly sworn to keep the doctrines a
profound secret from the rest of mankind. All these flowed from one
source--Egypt."[278]

Mr. Churchward further quotes the speech of the Rev. Dr. William Dodd at
the opening of a masonic temple in 1794, who traced Freemasonry from
"the first astronomers on the plains of Chaldea, the wise and mystic
kings and priests of Egypt, the sages of Greece and philosophers of
Rome," etc.[279]

But how did these traditions descend to the masons of the West?
According to a large body of masonic opinion in this country which
recognizes only a single source of inspiration to the system we now know
as Freemasonry, the speculative as well as the operative traditions of
the Order descended fro