e interpretations
placed on the symbols and ritual. Naturally these interpretations vary
in different countries and at different periods. Freemasonry is
described in its Ritual as "a peculiar system of morality, veiled in
allegory and illustrated by symbols." But what code of morality? In
studying the history of the Order we shall find that the same code was
by no means common to all masonic bodies, nor is it to-day. Some
maintain a very high standard of morals; others appear to possess no
standard at all. Mr. Waite observes that "the two doctrines of the unity
of God and the immortality of the soul constitute 'the philosophy of
Freemasonry.'"[659] But these doctrines are by no means essential to
the existence of Freemasonry; the Grand Orient has renounced both, but
it still ranks as Freemasonry.

M. Paul Nourrisson is therefore perfectly right in saying: "There are as
many Masonries as countries; there is no such thing as universal
Masonry."[660] Broadly, however, modern Freemasonry may be divided into
two kinds: the variety worked in the British Empire, in America,
Holland, Sweden, Denmark, etc., and Grand Orient Masonry, which prevails
in Catholic countries and of which the most important centre is the
Grand Orient of Paris.

Continental Masonry

The fact that Masonry in Protestant countries is neither revolutionary
nor anti-religious is frequently used by Catholic writers to show that
Protestantism identifies itself with the aims of Masonry, and by
Freemasons to prove that the tyranny of the Church of Rome has driven
Masonry into an attitude hostile to Church and State. The point
overlooked in both these contentions is the essential difference in the
character of the two kinds of Masonry. If the Grand Orient had adhered
to the fundamental principle of British Masonry not to concern itself
with religion or politics, there is no reason why it should have come
into conflict with the Church. But its duplicity on this point is
apparent. Thus in one of its earlier manuals it declares, like British
Masonry, that it "never interferes with questions of government or of
civil and religious legislation, and that whilst making its members
participate in the perfecting of all sciences, it positively excepts in
the lodges two of the most beautiful, _politics_ and _theology_, because
these two sciences divide men and nations which Masonry constantly tends
to unite."[661] But on a further page of the same manual from which