As the inaugural lecturer from Western Australia, and one who is particularly interested in social history, I invite your consideration of the impact of social history in the 18th and 19th centuries upon Freemasonry.
As speculative Masons, we endeavour to recapitulate the experiences of our forbears by the preservation of our ritual, but I would contend that many of us may be bewildered and have little idea or preconceptions governing the thinking in an alien society.
Are we just obediently regurgitating our ritual, as a student might dutifully learn the contents of his history book in order to pass an examination, with a diminished sense of reality and contact with actual human experience?
Title
1992 - The impact on Freemasonry of Social History in the 18th and 19th centuries - Bryn Hitchin.
