"The attachment of the continental nations to innovation and external finery, produced the most unwarrantable alterations upon the principles and ceremonies of the Order. A number of new degrees were created; the office-bearers of the Craft were arrayed in the most splendid and costly attire; and the lodges were transformed into lecturing rooms, where the wiser Brethren sported the most extravagant opinions, discussed the abstrusest questions in theology and political economy, and broached opinions which were certainly hostile to true religion and sound government. Such dangerous innovations have not the smallest connexion with the principles of Freemasonry. They are unnatural excrescences formed by a warm imagination and fostered by the interference of designing men." - Laurie
Excerpted from The Historical Landmarks and other Evidences of Freemasonry Explained, by George Oliver
