PREHISTORIC MASONRY

CHAPTER XXII
THE HUTCHINSONIAN THEORY
THE theory advanced by Bro. William Hutchinson as to the origin and the progress of Freemasonry, in his treatise, first published in the year 1775 and entitled The Spirit of Masonry, is so complicated and sometimes apparently so contradictory in its statements, as to require, for a due comprehension of his views, not only a careful perusal, but even an exhaustive study of the work alluded to. After such a study I think that I am able to present to the reader a collect summary of the opinions on the rise and progress of the Order which were entertained by this learned scholar. Let it be said, by way of preface to this review, that however we may dissent from the conclusions of Hutchinson, he is entitled to our utmost respect for his scholarly attainments. To the study of the history and the philosophy of Masonry he brought a fund of antiquarian research, in which he had previously been engaged in the examination of the ecclesiastical antiquities of the province of Durham. Of all the Masonic writers of the 18th century, Hutchinson was undoubtedly the most learned.
And yet the theory that he has propounded as to the origin of the Masonic Institution is altogether untenable and indeed, in many of its details, absurd. Of all the opinions entertained by Hutchinson concerning the origin of Freemasonry, the most heterodox is that which denies its descent from and its connection, at any period, with an operative society. "It is our opinion," he says, "that Masons in the present state of Masonry were never a body of architects.... We ground a judgment of the nature of our profession on our ceremonials and flatter ourselves every Mason will be convinced that they have not relation to building and architecture, but are emblematical and imply moral and spiritual and religious tenets." (1) Spirit of Masonry," lect. xiii., p. 131.

In another place, while admitting that there were in former times builders of cities, towers, temples, and fortifications, he doubts "that the artificers were formed into bodies ruled by their own proper laws and knowing mysteries and secrets which were kept from the world."
(1) Since he admits, as we will see hereafter, that Masonry existed at the Temple of Solomon, that it was there organized in what he calls the second stage of its progress, and that the builders of the edifice were Masons, one would naturally imagine that Hutchinson would here encounter an insuperable objection to his theory, which entirely disconnects Masonry and architecture. But he attempts to obviate this difficulty by supposing that the principles of Freemasonry had, before the commencement of the undertaking, been communicated by King Solomon to "the sages and religious men amongst his people," (2) and that these "chosen ones of Solomon, as a pious and holy duty conducted the work." Their labours as builders were simply incidental and they were no more to be regarded by reason of this duty as architects by profession, than were Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David by reason of the building of their altars, which were, like the Temple, works of piety and devotion. (3) This theory, in which all connection between operative and speculative Masonry is completely dissevered, and in which, in fact, the former is entirely ignored, is peculiar to Hutchinson. No other writer, no matter to what source he may have attributed the original rise of speculative Masonry, has denied that there was some period in the history of its progress when it was more or less intimately connected with the operative art.
While, therefore, it is plain that the opinion of Hutchinson is in opposition to that of all other Masonic writers, it is equally evident that it contradicts all the well established facts of history. But besides these opinions concerning the non-operative character of the Institution, Hutchinson has been scarcely less peculiar in his other views in respect to the rise and progress of Freemasonry and its relations to other associations of antiquity.
(1) "Spirit of Masonry," lect. x., p. 107.
(2) Hutchinson's language is here somewhat confused, but it seems that this is the only rational interpretation that can be given to it.
(3) "Spirit of Masonry," lect. x., p. 108.

The Hutchinsonian theory may indeed be regarded as especially and exclusively his own.
It is therefore worthy of consideration and review, rather in reference to the novelty of his ideas than in respect to anything of great value in the pseudo-historical statements that he has advanced.The prominent thought of Hutchinson in developing his theory is that Masonry in its progress from the earliest times of antiquity to the present day has been divided into three stages, respectively represented by the three ancient Craft degrees. (1) He does not give a very lucid or satisfactory explanation of the reasons which induced him to connect each of these "stages of progress" with one of the symbolical degrees, and indeed the connection appears to be based upon a rather fanciful hypothesis.
The three stages into which he divides the progress of Masonry from its birth onwards to modern times are distinguished from each other, and distinctively marked by the code of religious ethics professed and taught by each. The first stage, which is represented by the Entered Apprentice degree, commences with Adam and the Garden of Eden and extends to the time of Moses.
The religious code taught in this first stage of Masonry was confined to a "knowledge of the God of Nature and that acceptable service wherewith He was well pleased." (2) To Adam, while in a state of innocence, this knowledge was imparted, as well as that of all the science and learning which existed in the earliest ages of the world.
When our first parent fell, although he lost his innocence, he still retained the memory of all that he had been taught while in the Garden of Eden.
(1) It is known to the world, but more particularly to the brethren, that there are three degrees of Masons - Apprentices, Craftsmen, and Masters; their initiation, and the several advancements from the order of Apprentices, will necessarily lead us to observations in these distinct channels" - "spirit of Masonry," lect. i., p. 6.
(2) "Spirit of Masonry," lect. i., p. 6.

This very retention was, indeed, a portion of the punishment incurred for his disobedience.
It, however, enabled him to communicate to his children the sciences which he had comprehended in Eden, and the knowledge that he had acquired of Nature and the God of Nature. By them these lessons were transmitted to their descendants as the cornerstone and foundation of Masonry, whose teachings at that early period consisted of a belief in the God of Nature and a knowledge of the sciences as they had been transmitted by Adam to his posterity. This system appears to have been very nearly the same as that afterward called by Dr. Oliver the "Pure Freemasonry of Antiquity." All of the descendants of Adam did not, however, retain this purity and simplicity of dogma.
After the deluge, when mankind became separated, the lessons which had been taught by the antediluvians fell into confusion and oblivion and were corrupted by many peoples, so that the service of the true God, which had been taught in the pure Masonry of the first men, was defiled by idolatry.
These seceders from the pure Adamic Masonry formed institutions of their own, and degenerated, as the first deviation from the simple worship of the God of Nature, into the errors of Sabaism, or the adoration of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. They adopted symbols and allegories with which to teach esoterically their false doctrines. The earliest of these seceders were the Egyptians, whose priests secreted the mysteries of their religion from the multitude by symbols and hieroglyphics that were comprehensible to the members of their own order only. A similar system was adopted by the priests of Greece and Rome when they established their peculiar Mysteries. These examples of conveying truth by symbolic methods of teaching were wisely followed by the Masons for the purpose of concealing their own mysteries. From this we naturally make the deduction, although Hutchinson does not expressly say so, that, according to his theory, Masonry was at that early period merely a religious profession " whose principles, maxims, language, learning, and religion were derived from Eden, from the patriarchs, and from the sages of the East," and that the symbolism which now forms so essential an element of the system was not an original characteristic of it, but was borrowed, at a later period, from the mystical and religious associations of the pagans. (1) Long after, Mr. Grote, in his "History of Greece," spoke of an hypothesis of an ancient and highly instructed body of priests having their origin either in Egypt or the East, who communicated to the rude and barbarous Greeks religious, physical, and historical knowledge under the veil of symbols. The same current of thought appears to have been suggested to the Masonic writer and to the historian of Greece, but each has directed it in a different way - one to the history of the Pagan nations, the other to that of Masonry.

Such, according to the theory of Hutchinson, was the "first stage" in the progress of Masonry represented by the Entered Apprentice degree, and which consisted simply of a belief in and a worship of the true God as the doctrine was taught by Adam and the patriarchs. It was a system of religious principles, with few rites and ceremonies and fewer symbols. The second stage in the progress of Masonry, which Hutchinson supposes to be represented by the Fellow Craft degree, commences at the era of Moses and extends through the whole period of the Jewish history to the advent of Christianity.
According to the theory of Hutchinson, the Jewish lawgiver was, of course in possession of the pure Masonry of the patriarchs which constituted the first stage of the institution, but was enabled to extend its ethical and religious principles in consequence of the instructions in relation to God and the duties of man which he had himself received by an immediate revelation.
In other words, Masonry in its first stage was cosmopolitan in its religious teachings, requiring only a belief in the God of Nature as he had been revealed to Adam and his immediate descendants, but in the second stage, as inaugurated by Moses, that universal belief was exchanged for one in the Deity as He had made himself known on Mount Sinai. That is to say, the second or Mosaic stage of Masonry became judaic in its profession. But in another respect Masonry in its second stage assumed a different form from that which had marked its primitive state. Moses, from his peculiar education, was well acquainted with the rites, the ceremonies, the hieroglyphs, and the symbols used by the Egyptian priesthood. Many of these he introduced into Masonry, and thus began that system which, coming originally from the Egyptians and subsequently augmented by derivations from the Druids, the Essenes, the Pythagoreans, and other mystical associations, at last was developed into that science of symbolism which now constitutes so important and essential a characteristic of modern Freemasonry. A third change in the form of Masonry, which took place in its Mosaic or Judaic stage, was the introduction of the operative art of building among its disciples. Instances of this occurred in the days of Moses, when Aholiab, Bezaleel, and other Masons were engaged in the construction of the Tabernacle, and subsequently in the time of Solomon, when that monarch occupied his Masons in the erection of the Temple. But, as has already been shown in a preceding part of this chapter, Hutchinson does not conclude from these facts that Masonry was ever connected in its origin with "builders, architects, or mechanics." The occupation of these Masons as builders was entirely accidental, and did not at all interfere with or supersede their character as members of a purely speculative association.

But it may be as well to give, at this point, in his own words, his explanation of the manner in which the Masons became, on certain occasions, builders, and, whence arose in modern times the erroneous idea that the Masonic profession consisted of architects. (1) "I presume," he says, "that the name of Mason in this society doth not denote that the rise or origin of such society was solely from builders, architects, or mechanics; at the times in which Moses ordained the setting up of the sanctuary, and when Solomon was about to build the Temple at Jerusalem, they selected from out of the people those men who were enlightened with the true faith, and, being full of wisdom and religious fervour, were found proper to conduct these works of piety. It was on those occasions that our predecessors appeared to the world as architects and were formed into a body, under salutary rules, for the government of those who were employed in these great works, since which period builders have adopted the name of Masons, as an honourary distinction and title to their profession.
I am induced to believe the name of Mason has its derivation front a language in which it implies some indication or distinction of the nature of the society, and that it has not its relation to architects." (2) Masonry was not organized at the Temple of Solomon, as is believed by those who adopt the Temple theory, but yet that building occupies, according to the views of Hutchinson, an important place in the history of the institution. It was erected during the second stage of the progress of Masonry not, as we must infer from the language of our author, by the heathen operatives of Tyre, but solely by Israelitish Masons; or, if assisted by any, it was only by proselytes who on or before their initiation had accepted the Jewish faith.
(1) In a subsequent lecture (xiii.) he attempts, in an historical argument, to show that the guild of Masons incorporated in the reign of Henry V., and the laws concerning "congregations and confederacies of Masons," passed in the succeeding reign, had no reference whatever to the speculative society.
(2) "Spirit of Masonry," lect. i., p. 2. In another place in this work the etymological ideas of Hutchinson and other writers will be duly investigated.

The language of Hutchinson is on this point somewhat obscure, yet I think that it admits only of the interpretation which has been given He says: "As the sons of Aaron alone were admitted to the holy office and to the sacrificial rites, so none but devotees were admitted to this labour (on the temple). On this stage we see those religious who had received the truth and the light of understanding as possessed by the first men, embodied as artificers and engaged in this holy work as architects." (1)Still more explicit is the following statement, made in a subsequent part of the work: "Solomon was truly the executor of that plan which was revealed to him from above; he called forth the sages and religious men amongst his people to perform the work; he classed them according to their rank in their religious profession, as the priests of the Temple were stationed in the solemn rites and ceremonies instituted there.... The chosen ones of Solomon, as a pious and holy duty, conducted the work." (2) Solomon did not, therefore, organize, as has very commonly been believed, a system of Masonry by the aid of his Tyrian workmen, and especially Hiram Abif, who has always been designated by the Craft as his "Chief Builder," but he practiced and transmitted to his descendants the primitive Masonry derived from Adam and modified into its sectarian Jewish form by Moses. The Masonry of Solomon, like that of the great lawgiver of the Israelites, was essentially Judaic in its religious ethics. It was but a continuation of that second stage of Masonry which, as I have already said, lasted, according to the Hutchinsonian theory, until the era of Christianity. But the wisdom and power of Solomon had attracted to him the attention of the neighbouring nations, and the splendour of the edifice which he had erected extended his fame and won the admiration of the most distant parts of the world, so that his name and his artificers became the wonder of mankind, and the works of the latter excited their emulation. Hence the Masons of Solomon were dispersed from Jerusalem into various lands, where they superintended the architectural labours of other princes, converted infidels, initiated foreign brethren into their mysteries, and thus extended the order over the distant quarters of the known world. (3)
(1) "Spirit of Masonry," lect. vii., p. 86.
(2) Ibid., lect. x., p. 108.
(3) I have employed in this paragraph the very language of Hutchinson.

However mythical the statements therein contained may be deemed by the iconoclasts, there can be no doubt that they were accepted by the learned author as undeniably historical. Hence we see that, according to the theory of Hutchinson, King Solomon, although not the founder of Masonry at the Temple and not our first Grand Master, as he has been called, was the first to propagate the association into foreign countries. Until his time, it had been confined to the Jewish descendants of the patriarchs.
The next or third stage of the progress of Masonry, represented by the Master's degree, commenced at the advent of Christianity. As Hutchinson in his description of the two preceding progressive classes of Masons had assigned to the first, as represented by the Apprentices, only the knowledge of the God of Nature as it prevailed in the earliest ages of the world, and to the second, as represented by the Fellow Crafts, the further knowledge of God as revealed in the Mosaic Legation, so to this third stage, as represented by Master Masons, he had assigned the complete and perfect knowledge of God as revealed in the Christian dispensation.
Masonry is thus made by him to assume in this third stage of its progressive growth a purely Christian character.
The introduction of rites and ceremonies under the Jewish law, which had been derived from the neighbouring heathen nations, had clouded and obscured the service of God, and consequently corrupted the second stage of Masonry as established by Moses and followed by Solomon. God, perceiving the ruin which was overwhelming mankind by this pollution of His ordinances and laws, devised a new scheme for redeeming His creatures from the errors into which they had fallen. And this scheme was typified in the Third or Master's stage in the progressive course of Masonry.
Hence the Master's degree is, in this theory, exclusively a Christian invention; the legend receives a purely Christian interpretation, and the allegory of Hiram Abif is made to refer to the death or abolition of the Jewish law and the establishment of the new dispensation under Jesus Christ. A few citations from the language of Hutchinson will place this theory very clearly before the reader. (1)
The death and burial of the Master Builder, and the consequent loss of the true Word, are thus applied to the Christian dispensation. "Piety, which had planned the Temple at Jerusalem, was expunged. (2)
(1) They are taken from "Spirit of Masonry," lect. ix.
(2) The Master is slain.

The reverence and adoration due to the Divinity was buried in the filth and rubbish of the world. (1) Persecution had dispersed the few who retained their obedience, (2) and the name of the true God was almost lost and forgotten among men. (3) "In this situation it might well be said That the guide to Heaven was lost and the Master of the works of righteousness was smitten.'" (4) Again, "True religion was fled. 'Those who sought her through the wisdom of the ancients were not able to raise her; she eluded the grasp, and their polluted hands were stretched forth in vain for her restoration.'" (5) Finally he explains the allegory of the Third degree as directly referring to Christ, in the following words: "The great Father of All, commiserating the miseries of the world, sent His only Son, who was innocence (6) itself, to teach the doctrine of salvation, by whom man was raised from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; from the tomb of corruption unto the chambers of hope; from the darkness of despair to the celestial beams of faith." And finally, that there may be no doubt of his theory that the third degree was altogether Christian in its origin and design, he explicitly says: "Thus the Master Mason represents a man under the Christian doctrine saved from the grave of iniquity and raised to the faith of salvation. As the great testimonial that we are risen from he state of corruption, we bear the emblem of the Holy Trinity as the insignia of our vows and of the origin of the Master's order." (7) The christianization of the Third or Master's degree, that is, the interpretation of its symbols as referring to Christ and to Christian dogmas, is not peculiar to nor original with Hutchinson.
(1) Burial and concealment in the rubbish of the Temple first, and then in an obscure grave.
(2) The confusion and consternation of the Craft.
(3) The Master's word is lost.
(4) In the 18th century it was supposed, by an incorrect translation of the Hebrew, that the substitute word signified "The Master is smitten." Dr. Oliver adopted that interpretation.
(5) By "the wisdom of the ancients" is meant the two preceding stages of Masonry represented, as we have seen, by the Apprentices and the Fellow Craft. In the allegory of Hiram, the knowledge of each of these degrees is unsuccessfully applied to effect the raising.
(6) Acacia. The Greek word akakia means innocence. Hence in the succeeding paragraph he calls Masons "true Acacians."
(7) "Spirit of Masonry," lect. ix., p. 100.

It was the accepted doctrine of almost all his contemporaries, and several of the rituals of the 18th century contain unmistakable traces of it. It was not, indeed, until the revisal of the lectures by Dr. Hemming; in 1813, that all references in them to Christianity were expunged. Even as late as the middle of the 19th century, Dr. Oliver had explicitly declared that if he had not been fully convinced that Freemasonry is a system of Christian ethics - that it contributes its aid to point the way to the Grand Lodge above, through the Cross of Christ - he should never have been found among the number of its advocates. (1) Notwithstanding that the Grand Lodge of England had authoritatively declared, in the year 1723, that Masonry required a belief only in that religion in which all men agree, (2) the tendency among all our early writers after the revival of 1717 was to Christianize the institution.
The interpretation of the symbols of Freemasonry from a Christian point of view was, therefore, at the period when Hutchinson advanced his theory, neither novel to the Craft nor peculiar to him.
The peculiarity and novelty of his doctrine consisted not in its Christian interpretation of the symbols, but in the view that he has taken of the origin and historical value of the legend of the Third degree. At least from the time of Anderson and Desaguliers, the legend of Hiram Abif had been accepted by the Craft as an historical statement of an event that had actually occurred. Even the most skeptical writers of the present day receive it as a myth which possibly has been founded upon events that have been distorted in their passage down the stream of tradition. Now, neither of these views appears to have been entertained by Hutchinson. We look in vain throughout his work for any reference to the legend as connected with Hiram Abif. In his lecture on "The Temple at Jerusalem," in which he gives the details of the labors of Solomon in the construction of that edifice, the name of Hiram does not once occur, except in the extracts that he makes from the Book of Kings and the Antiquities of Josephus.
(1) "Antiquities of Masonry," chap. vi., p. i66, note.
(2) "Book of Constitutions," 1st ed., "Charges of a Freemason," I.

Indeed, we must infer that he did not recognize Hiram Abif as a Mason, for he expressly says that all the Masons at the Temple were Israelites and believers in the Jewish faith. In a subsequent lecture, on "The Secrecy of Masons," he, in fact, undervalues Hiram Abif as an architect, and says that he does not doubt that "Hiram's knowledge was in the business of a statuary and painter, and that he made graven images of stone and wood and molten images in metals," thus placing him in a subordinate position, and completely ignoring the rank given to him in all the Masonic rituals, as the equal and colleague of Solomon and the Master Builder of the Temple. (1) There is nowhere to be found in the work of Hutchinson any reference, however remote, to the circumstances of the death and raising of the "Widow's Son." He must have been acquainted with the legend, since it was preserved and taught in the lodges that he visited. But he speaks, in the most general terms, of the third degree as symbolizing the corruption and death of religion, and the moral resurrection of man in the new or Christian doctrine.
If he believed in the truth of his own theory - and we are bound to suppose that he did - then he could not but have looked upon the details of the Master's legend as absolutely false, for the legend and the theory can in no way be reconciled. If I rightly understand the language of Hutchinson, which, it must be admitted, is sometimes confused and the ideas are not plainly expressed, he denies the existence of the third degree at the Temple. That edifice was built, according to his theory, within the period of the second stage of the progress of Masonry. Now, that stage, which was inaugurated by Moses, was represented by the Fellow Craft's degree. It was not until the coming of Christ that the Master's degree with its rites and ceremonies came into existence, in the third stage of the progress of Masonry, which was represented by that degree. Indeed, in the following passage he explicitly makes that statement. "The ceremonies now known to Masons prove that the testimonials and insignia of the Master's order, in the present state of (1) Hutchinson bas here ventured on a truth which, however, none of his successors have accepted. See hereafter the chapter in this work on "The Legend of Hiram Abif," in which I bave advanced and endeavored to sustain the same view of the character of this celebrated artist.

Masonry, were devised within the ages of Christianity; and we are confident there are not any records in being, in any nation or in any language, which can show them to be pertinent to any other system or give them greater antiquity." (1) We can not explain this language with any respect for consistency and for the meaning of the words except by adopting the following explanation of the Hutchinsonian theory. At the building of the Temple, the Masonry then prevailing, which was the second or Fellow Crafts stage, was merely a system of religious ethics in which the doctrines of the Jewish faith, as revealed to Moses, had been superimposed upon the simple creed of the Patriarchs, which had constituted the first or Apprentice's stage of the institution. There was at that time no knowledge of the legend of Hiram Abif, which was a myth subsequently introduced in the Third or Master's stage of the progress of the Order. It was not until after the advent of Jesus Christ, "within the ages of Christianity," that the death and raising of the Master Builder was devised as a mythical symbol to constitute what Hutchinson calls "the testimonials and insignia of the Master's order."
The myth or legend thus fabricated was to be used as a symbol of the change which took place in the religious system of Masonry when the third stage of its progress was inaugurated by the invention of the Master's degree. Here again Hutchinson differs from all the writers who preceded or who have followed him. The orthodox doctrine of all those who have given a Christian interpretation to the legend of the Third Degree is that it is the narrative of events which actually occurred at the building of the Temple of Solomon, and that it was afterward, on the advent of Christianity, adopted as a symbol whereby the death and raising of Hiram Abif were considered as a type of the sufferings and death, the resurrection and ascension, of Christ. (1) "Spirit of Masonry," lect. x., p. 1,062. It is "passing strange" that a man of Hutchinson's learning should, in this passage, have appeared to be oblivious of the mythical character of the ancient Mysteries.
No words of Hutchinson give expression to any such idea.
With him the legend of Hiram the Builder is simply an allegory, invented at a much later period than that in which the events it details are supposed to have occurred, for the purpose of symbolizing the death and burial of the Jewish law with the Masonry which it had corrupted, and the resurrection of this defunct Masonry in a new and perfect form under the Christian dispensation. Such is the Hutchinsonian theory of the origin and progress of Masonry.
It is sui generis - peculiar to Hutchinson - and has been advanced or maintained by no other Masonic writer before or since. It may be summarized in a very few words:
1. Masonry was first taught by Adam, after the fall, to his descendants, and continued through the patriarchal age. It consisted of a simple code of ethics, teaching only a belief in the God of Nature. It was the Masonry of the Entered Apprentice.
2. It was enlarged by Moses and confirmed by Solomon, and thus lasted until the era of Christ. To its expanded code of ethics was added a number of symbols derived from the Egyptian priesthood. Its religion consisted in a belief in God as he had been revealed to the Jewish nation. It was the Masonry of the Fellow Craft.
3. The Masonry of this second stage becoming valueless in consequence of the corruption of the Jewish law, it was therefore abolished and the third stage was established in its place. This third stage was formed by the teachings of Christ, and the religion it inculcates is that which was revealed by Him. It is the Masonry of the Master Mason.

Hence the three stages of Masonry present three forms of religion: first, the Patriarchal; second, the Jewish; third, the Christian. Masonry, having thus reached its ultimate stage of progress, has continued in this last form to the present day. And now Hutchinson proceeds to advance his theory as to its introduction and growth in England. He had already accounted for its extension into other quarters of the world in consequence of the dispersion and travels of King Solomon's Masons, after the completion of the Temple. He thinks that during the first stage of Masonry - the Patriarchal - its principles were taught and practiced by the Druids. They received them from the Phoenicians, who visited England for trading purposes in very remote antiquity. The second stage - the Judaic - was with its ceremonials introduced among them by the Masons of Solomon, after the building of the Temple, but at what precise period he can not determine. The third and perfect form, as developed in the third stage, must have been adopted upon the conversion of the Druidical worshippers to Christianity, having been introduced into England, as we should infer, by the Christian missionaries who came from Rome into that country. While Hutchinson denies that there was ever any connection between the Operative and the Speculative Masons, he admits that among the former there might have been a few of the latter. He accounts for this fact in the following manner: After Christianity had become the popular religion of England, the ecclesiastics employed themselves in founding religious houses and in building churches. From the duty of assisting in this pious work, no man of whatever rank or profession was exempted.
There were also a set of men called "holy werk folk," to whom were assigned certain lands which they held by the tenure of repairing, building, or defending churches and sepulchers, for which labors they were released from all feudal and military services. These men were stone-cutters and builders, and might, he thinks, have been Speculative Masons, and were probably selected from that body. "These men," he says, "come the nearest to a similitude of Solomon's Masons, and the title of Free and Accepted Masons, of any degree of architects we have gained any knowledge of."

But he professes his ignorance whether their initiation was attended with peculiar ceremonies or by what laws they were regulated. That they had any connection with the Speculative Order whose origin from Adam he had been tracing, is denied. Finally, he attributes the moral precepts of the Masonry of the present day to the school of Pythagoras and to the Basilideans, a sect of Christians who flourished in the 2d century. For this opinion, so far as relates to Pythagoras, he is indebted to the celebrated Leland manuscript, of whose genuineness he had not the slightest doubt. These precepts and the Egyptian symbols introduced by Moses with Jewish additions constitute the system of modern Masonry, which has, however, been perfected by a Christian doctrine. Such is the theory of Hutchinson as to the origin and progress of Speculative Masonry. That it has been accepted as a whole by no other writer, is not surprising, as it not only is not supported by the facts of history, but is actually contradicted by every Masonic document that is extant. It is, indeed, a mere body of myths, which are not clad with the slightest garment of probability.
And yet there are here and there some glimmerings of truth, such as the appropriation of his real character to Hiram Abif, and the allusions to the "holy werk folk," as showing a connection between Operative and Speculative Masonry, which, though not pushed far enough by Hutchinson, may afford valuable suggestions, if extended, to the searcher after historic truth in Freemasonry.