Note 149 — Chapter V · ToC

The history of the Ritual is most interesting, and should be written in more detail (History of Masonry, by Steinbrenner, chap. vii, "The Ritual"). An article giving a brief story of it appeared in the Masonic Monthly, of Boston, November, 1863 (reprinted in the New England Craftsman, vol. vii, and still later in the Bulletin of Iowa Masonic Library, vol. xv, April, 1914). This article is valuable as showing the growth of the Ritual—as much by subtraction as by addition—and especially the introduction into it of Christian imagery and interpretation, first by Martin Clare in 1732, and by Duckerley and Hutchinson later. One need only turn to The Spirit of Masonry, by Hutchinson (1802), to see how far this tendency had gone when at last checked in 1813. At that time a committee made a careful comparative study of all rituals in use among Masons, and the ultimate result was the Preston-Webb lectures now generally in use in this country. (See a valuable article by Dr. Mackey on "The Lectures of Freemasonry," American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry, vol. ii, p. 297.) What a pity that this Review died of too much excellence!