Excerpt from History of Freemasonry: From Its Rise Down to the Present Day Worshipful Sir and Brother. Your highly esteemed favour of Feb. 23, is received, and the intimation therein contained of your intention to dedicate your proposed English edition of a standard work upon Freemasonry, to the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, we deem a high compliment. Dating as far back as 1733, the M. W. Gd. Lodge of Massachusetts, has the honor to be the oldest Gd. Lodge in America, she can therefore also assure you, that it has been the practice of this venerable Gd. Lodge, to disseminate masonic knowledge and principles, to their fullest extent. We gratefully accept your flattering honor of the dedication. With sentiments of the highest esteem and masonic regard, in behalf of the Gd. Lodge of Massachusetts, I am Fraternally Yours William Parkman, Grand Master. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.