Thoughts on the origin of knowledge and Freemasonry.
What are the specific purposes of Freemasonry ; what is the essence of Freemasonry ; what is the raison d'etre, ; why is it ; in short., what is the very soul of Freemasonry ?
When came it ; whence came it ; how came it ?
In considering the evolution of Freemasonry, it is necessary for us also to consider the evolution of civilisation.
The one is so bound up in the other that there is no line of demarcation — they cannot be separated. A study of the one necessitates a consideration of the other, and so I would ask you to bear with me while I take you back to the time of the earliest civilisation the very dawn of civilisation.
Now as regards time, we know that the limit of human ken is but fifty years. The allotted span of life is three score years and ten. Beyond that we depend upon our historians for our facts and our data.
Their chronicles can only be relied upon for some 2,000, or probably at most, 3,000 years.
