As the author himself states in his Foreword, the series of essays collected under this title [1] were intended to show that, at least in England, there are other subjects worthy of interest beyond the purely historical and archaeological studies that currently seem the almost exclusive focus of Masonic literature, and we believe he has succeeded. In this volume he proposes to address various questions raised almost daily concerning what could be called the 'periphery' of Freemasonry; and he begins with the question of the number of its degrees, a subject we have ourself dealt with in a previous issue of this journal. [2]
According to the Book of Constitutions, 'there are only three degrees, including the Holy Royal Arch, [3] and this is indeed the only answer that conforms to the strictest orthodoxy. [4] From this it follows that 'Arch Masonry' is not really or originally distinct from
'Craft Masonry'. Within the latter, 'Arch Masonry' merely came to be superimposed upon 'Square Masonry' in order to serve as a complement to Mastery, [5] without in any way constituting a special degree. Another consequence of there being only three degrees is that the various orders, rites, and systems known as high grades cannot be considered essentially Masonic, or even having any effective part in Masonry. In reality they are only 'peripheral' organizations that have been grafted over the course of more or less distant-but always relatively recent-periods of time onto the primitive Fraternity of 'Ancient Free and Accepted Masons', [6] and more often than not have hardly any connection either with this Fraternity or with each other apart from the fact that they recruit their members exclusively from the possessors of such and such Masonic grade. [7] 'Mark Masonry', which could in a certain sense be
regarded as a continuation of the grade of companion (Fellow Craft), [8] and which in turn serves as the basis for the organization of 'Royal Ark Mariners', [9] is an example of such an organization. So also are the various orders of knighthood, most of which admit only 'Royal Arch Masons' as members; among which we could cite chiefly the 'United Orders of the Temple and of Malta' and the 'Order of the Red Cross of Rome and Constantinople'. [10] Among the other systems of high grades practiced in England (aside from the 'Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite') we shall mention only the 'Royal Order of Scotland' (comprising the two grades of H.R.D.M. and R.S.Y.C.S.), [11] the Rite of 'Royal and Select Masters' (or 'Cryptic Masonry'), and that of the 'Allied Masonic Degrees', to say nothing of the Order of the 'Secret Monitor', [12] the 'Rosicrucians', [13] etc.
We shall not speak here of the chapters that pertain only to specific aspects of English Masonry; of a much more general interest are those in which the author (who, let it be said in passing, shows himself somewhat severe with regard to the Grand Orient of France [14] ) considers various subjects of a symbolic and more properly specula-
tive order, yielding reflections that might contribute, notably, to the elucidation of various questions relating to the explication of the symbolic grades and their value from the historical point of view. Unfortunately, lack of space constrains us to do little more than translate here the titles of the most important of these chapters: 'King Solomon, The Bible, and Ritual'; [15] 'The Two Saint Johns'; [16] 'The Tetragrammaton'; [17] 'The Perfect Ashlar'; [18] 'Jacob's Ladder'; [19] 'The Holy Land'; and 'The Branch of Acacia'. We recommend this intriguing work to all who take an interest in Masonic studies.