Could our modern freemasons continue to hide their watchwords and ritual, or even make a pretence of doing so, if they were constrained by public opinion to initiate every child three years of age?

These watchwords are said to have arisen in Germany during the disputed succession of the empire between 1135 and 1152, when the Welfs of Bavaria opposed the Swabian princes of Waiblingen origin.

His popularity had temporarily declined, and the fact that his proposals for parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation had become the watchwords of the rebellious United Irishmen had brought upon him the bitter hostility of the governing classes.

New blood of the best quality nourished and stimulated the whole body politic. Expansion and progress were the watchwords at home, and abroad it seemed as if Denmark were about to regain her former position as a great power.

Their watchwords were freedom and independence, but they were not agreed as to any particular form of government to be afterwards established.