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Article THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY. ← Page 3 of 3 Article THE INFLUENCE OF FREEMASONRY ON SOCIETY Page 1 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Repository.
rne in conceiving it capable of being traced to as early an eera as Operative Masonry . The customs , principles , and practices of the former are strongly characterised by simplicity , uniformity , and universality : they are not numerous , but they are impressive : they tend rather to make men humble and well-informed , than presumptuous and pedanticto point out to the Mason rather what is ornamental
; and useful , than what is trifling and insignificant—to beware of the slavish effects of ignorance and of prejudice , and to cherish an unbounded affection for the independency of real knowledge . B . MASONICUS .
The Influence Of Freemasonry On Society
THE INFLUENCE OF FREEMASONRY ON SOCIETY
PHILOSOPHICALLY INQUIRED INTO . WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE INSTITUTION .
THE facts which I shall attempt to prove in the present investigation are these : —That the Institution of Freemasonry has an absolute tendency to inculcate every thing laudable and useful to society ; and that its leading qualities are , Philanthropy well-directed , Morality pure , Secrecy inviolable , and a taste for the Fine Arts . It may be observed , that Solon , Lycurgus , Numa , and all . the other political legislators , have not been able to render their
establishments durable ; and that however sagacious might have been their laws , they had at no time the power to ~ expand themselves over all countries , and to all ages . Plaving little more in view than victories and conquests , " military violence , and the elevation of one set of people above another , they were never universal , nor consonant" to the taste , or genius , or interest of all nations . Philanthropy was not their baris . The love of country , badly understood , and pushed into limits on which they should not verge , destroys often , in warlike
republics , the love of general humanity . Men are not to be essentially distinguished by the difference of tongues which they speak , of clothes which they wear , of countries which they inhabit , nor of dignities with which they are ornamented : the whole world is no other than one great republic , of which each nation is a famil y , and each individual a child . It was to revive and re-animate such maxims ,
that the Society of Freemasons was first instituted . The great design was to unite all men of sense , knowledge , and worthy qualities , not only by a reciprocal love of the Fine Arts , but still more b y the great principles of virtue , where the interest of the Fraternity mi ght become that of the whole human race ; where all nations mi ght increase all knowledge ; ? nd where every subject of every country
mi ght exert himself without jealousy , live without discord , and embrace mutually , without forgetting , or too scrupulously remembering the spot in which he was born . What obligations do we not owe to those superior souls , . who , without listening to the suggestions of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Repository.
rne in conceiving it capable of being traced to as early an eera as Operative Masonry . The customs , principles , and practices of the former are strongly characterised by simplicity , uniformity , and universality : they are not numerous , but they are impressive : they tend rather to make men humble and well-informed , than presumptuous and pedanticto point out to the Mason rather what is ornamental
; and useful , than what is trifling and insignificant—to beware of the slavish effects of ignorance and of prejudice , and to cherish an unbounded affection for the independency of real knowledge . B . MASONICUS .
The Influence Of Freemasonry On Society
THE INFLUENCE OF FREEMASONRY ON SOCIETY
PHILOSOPHICALLY INQUIRED INTO . WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE INSTITUTION .
THE facts which I shall attempt to prove in the present investigation are these : —That the Institution of Freemasonry has an absolute tendency to inculcate every thing laudable and useful to society ; and that its leading qualities are , Philanthropy well-directed , Morality pure , Secrecy inviolable , and a taste for the Fine Arts . It may be observed , that Solon , Lycurgus , Numa , and all . the other political legislators , have not been able to render their
establishments durable ; and that however sagacious might have been their laws , they had at no time the power to ~ expand themselves over all countries , and to all ages . Plaving little more in view than victories and conquests , " military violence , and the elevation of one set of people above another , they were never universal , nor consonant" to the taste , or genius , or interest of all nations . Philanthropy was not their baris . The love of country , badly understood , and pushed into limits on which they should not verge , destroys often , in warlike
republics , the love of general humanity . Men are not to be essentially distinguished by the difference of tongues which they speak , of clothes which they wear , of countries which they inhabit , nor of dignities with which they are ornamented : the whole world is no other than one great republic , of which each nation is a famil y , and each individual a child . It was to revive and re-animate such maxims ,
that the Society of Freemasons was first instituted . The great design was to unite all men of sense , knowledge , and worthy qualities , not only by a reciprocal love of the Fine Arts , but still more b y the great principles of virtue , where the interest of the Fraternity mi ght become that of the whole human race ; where all nations mi ght increase all knowledge ; ? nd where every subject of every country
mi ght exert himself without jealousy , live without discord , and embrace mutually , without forgetting , or too scrupulously remembering the spot in which he was born . What obligations do we not owe to those superior souls , . who , without listening to the suggestions of