to the creation of Italy, but
the point and centre of Masonic history is France in the eighteenth
century. To that country also is mainly confined the historical
connection between Masonry and mystic science, for the revival of
Mysticism which originated in Germany at the close of the eighteenth
century, and thence passed over to England, found its final field in
France at the period in question. There Rosicrucianism reappeared, there
Anton Mesmer recovered the initial process of transcendental practice,
there the Marquis de Puysegur discovered clairvoyance, there Martines de
Pasqually instructed his disciples in the mysteries of ceremonial magic;
there the illustrious Saint-Martin, _le philosophe inconnu_, developed a
special system of spiritual reconstruction; there alchemy flourished;
there spiritual and political princes betook themselves to extravagant
researches after an elixir of life; there also, as a consequence, rose
up a line of magnificent impostors who posed as initiates of the occult
sciences, as possessors of the grand secret and the grand mastery;
there, finally, under the influences of transcendental philosophy,
emblematic Freemasonry took root and grew and flourished, developing ten
thousand splendours of symbolic grades, of romantic legends, of sonorous
names and titles. In a word, the Mysticism of Europe concentrated its
forces at Paris and Lyons, and all French Mysticism gathered under the
shadow of the square and compass. To that, as to a centre, the whole
movement gravitated, and thence it worked. There is nothing to show that
it endeavoured to revolutionise Masonry in its own interest. The
Fraternity naturally attracted all Mystics to its ranks, and the
development of the mystic degrees took place as the result of that
attraction.

By the year 1825 a variety of circumstances had combined to suspend
transcendental activity, and the connection with Masonry ended, but the
present revival of mystic thought is rapidly picking up the links of the
broken chain; secretly or unobtrusively the spirit of transcendentalism
is working within the Fraternity, and the bogus question of Lucifer is
simply a hostile and unscrupulous method of recognising that fact. If
Masonry and Mysticism could be shown in the historical world to be
separated by the great sea, the consanguinity of their intention would
remain, which is more important than external affinity, and they are
sisters by that bond. But they have not bee