A chance remark of one of our associate members, expressing a wish that a paper would sometime be brought forward dealing with the origin of our Fraternity, impelled me to consider that subject with a view of attempting to throw some light on a question that has been, and will probably ever continue to be, a cause of endless speculation.
It is one, however, that presents no little difficulty, and I am afraid that it will be almost impossible in the short space of time set apart to attempt to deal with the subject at all satisfactorily. That our Order was first entirely operative and gradually merged into its present speculative form is an axiom that admits of little argument, but to indicate when and where the speculative element was first introduced is quite a different matter.
Title
1914 - Operative and Speculative Freemasonry – read by Bro S Clifton Bingham.
