Note i-447 — INTRODUCTION (continued 2)

It would be interesting to know if M. Faÿ is able to document his statement that the Junto "had Masonic leanings" ("Learned Societies in Europe and America in the Eighteenth Century," American Historical Review, XXXVII, 258 [1932]). R. F. Gould (The History of Freemasonry, London, 1887, III, 424) conjectures whether where was a lodge in Boston as early as 1720 but can offer no evidence of a real history of Masonry in the colonies until 1730, when colonial Masonry "may be said to have its commencement." Chroniclers of Franklin's Masonic career have found no documentary evidence of his affiliation with Masonry until February, 1731, when he entered St. John's Lodge. See J. F. Sachse, Benjamin Franklin as a Free Mason; J. H. Tatsch, Freemasonry in the Thirteen Colonies (New York, 1924); Early Newspaper Accounts of Free Masonry in Pennsylvania, England, Ireland, and Scotland. From 1730 to 1750 by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Reprinted from Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, 1886); Masonic Letters of Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia to H. Price of Boston, ed. by C. P. MacCalla (Philadelphia, 1888); M. M. Johnson, The Beginnings of Freemasonry in America (New York, 1924). See "Prefatory Note" in W. B. Loewy's reprint of Anderson's Constitutions (a reprint of Franklin's imprint of 1734) in Publications of the Masonic Historical Society of New York, No. 3 (New York, 1905). Arriving in London only seven years after the inauguration of the Grand Lodge, Franklin could hardly have been unaware of the broader speculations of Masonry. In London only a year after Anderson's Constitutions were printed (in 1723), he may conceivably have read the volume.

Stressing toleration, the universality of natural religion, morality rather than theology, reason rather than faith, Masonry could easily have augmented these ideas as they were latent or already developed in Franklin's mind. Scholars have yet to work out the extent to which Freemasonry, yokefellow of deism, reinforced free thought and was one of the subversive forces breaking down colonial orthodoxy. B. Faÿ's Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800 neglects non-political influences of Freemasonry.

Although there is no evidence that Franklin as early as 1728 read such works (popular in the colonies) as De Ramsay's The Travels of Cyrus and Rowe's translation of The Golden Sayings of Pythagoras, the manner in which oriental lore augmented science and Masonry in fostering deism is an intriguing problem in eighteenth-century colonial letters.