An Online Electronic Edition
2006 10 25
This is an online electronic edition of the the first Masonic book
printed in America, which was produced in Philadelphia by Benjamin
Franklin in 1734, and was a reprint of a work by James Anderson (who
is identified as the author in an appendix) printed in London in 1723.
This is the seminal work of American Masonry, edited and published
by one of the founding fathers, and of great importance to the
development of colonial society and the formation of the Republic.
The work contains a 40-page history of Masonry: from Adam to
the reign of King George I, including, among others, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, Solomon, Hiram Abif, Nebuchadnezzar, Augustus Caesar,
Vitruvius, King Athelstan the Saxon, Inigo Jones, and James I
of England. There are extended descriptions of the Seven Wonders
of the World, viz. 1) the Great Pyramid, 2) Solomon’s Temple, 3) the
City and Hanging-Gardens of Babylon, 4) the Mausoleum or Tomb of
Mausolus, King of Caria, 5) the Lighthouse of Pharos at Alexandria,
6) Phidias’s statue of Jupiter Olympius in Achaia, and 7) the Colossus
at Rhodes (although some maintain the 5th is the Obelisk of Semiramis).
It is a celebration of the science of Geometry and the Royal Art
of Architecture, as practiced from ancient times until the then-current
revival of the Roman or Augustan Style. “The Charges of a Free-
Mason” and the “General Regulations” concern rules of conduct for
individuals and of governance for Lodges and their officers. The work
also includes five songs to be sung at meetings, one of which—“A New
Song”—appears in print for the first time and may have been composed
by Franklin.
The document suggests that Masonry, in its modern Anglo-American
form, was rooted in Old Testament exegesis (“So that the Israelites,
at their leaving Egypt, were a whole Kingdom of Masons, …
under the Conduct of their GRAND MASTER MOSES”) and
in contemporary Protestant ideals of morality, merit, and political
equality.
Download the pdf: The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734)
Article from: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi
?article=1028&context=libraryscience
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