Note 331 — Part I (continued 3)
Reading edition
"Yarker pronounces Elias Ashmole to have been circa 1686 'the leading spirit, both in Craft Masonry and in Rosicrucianism,' and is of opinion that his diary establishes the fact 'that both societies fell into decay together in 1682.' He adds: 'It is evident therefore that the Rosicrucians ... found the operative Guild conveniently ready to their hand, and grafted upon it their own mysteries ... also, from this time Rosicrucianism disappears and Freemasonry springs into life with all the possessions of the former.' "--Speculative Freemasonry, an Historical Lecture, delivered March 31, 1883, p. 9; quoted by Gould, History of Freemasonry, II. 138.