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Article ORATION ON MASONRY, ← Page 2 of 7 →
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Oration On Masonry,
—who have proudly built your fame on rvide-spread rain , and fearful devastation ! how doth your false honour fade , and sink into darkness and obscurity , before the ever-living lustre of their genuine glory—those fathers , friends , and benefactors of mankind—those true heroes , who , like their just emblem , the Sun , have perpetually diffused life , blessing , beneficence ; have existed only to instructimproveand humanize the world .
, , THESE—Illustrious Hearers ! are the men , whom we exult to call BRETHREN : and of this truly honourable fraternity it is , that MASONRY , throughout all ages , hath been composed : an institution —not , as the ignorant and uninstructed vainly suppose , founded on unmeaning mystery , and supported by mere good-fellowship : —but " an Institution founded on eternal reason and truth ; whose deep
" basis is the civilization of mankind ; and whose everlasting glory " it is , to have the immoveable support of those two mighty pillars , " Science and Moralit y ! " In proof of what I advance , permit me just to touch , with a passing pencil , —as the time , —not as the unlimited nature of my subject will admitjust to touch upon —( i . ) the A NTIQUITY ;—( 2 . ) the
;—EXTENT ; —( 3 . ) the COMPREHENSIVENESS ;—( 4 . ) the EXCELLENCE and UTILITY of our Royal Art ; of whose daily advancing progress , highly flourishing state , and unquestionable merit , who can doubt a moment—that beholds this splendid EDIFICE ; that considers this
lovely , honourable , and illustrious assemblage ? 1 . And permit me to observe , that the brightest title suffer no diminution of lustre ; nay , that Nobility itself derives distinction , from the support and countenance of an institution so venerable . For , if ANTIQUITY merits our attention , and demands our reverence , —where will the society be found , that hath an equal claim ? —Masons are well informed from their own private and interior
records , that the building of Solomon ' s Temple is an important sera , from whence they derive many mysteries of their art . Now , be it remembered , that this great event took place above a thousand years before the Christian ( era ; and consequently more than a century before Homer , the first of the Grecian poets , wrote ; and above five centuries before Pythagoras brought from the East his sublime
system of truly masonic instruction , to illuminate our western world . But , remote as is ibis period , we date not from thence the commencement of our art . For though it mig ht owe to the wise and glorious king of'Israel some of it ' s many mysticforms and hieroglyphic ceremonies , yet certainly the art itself is coeval with Man , the great subject of it . Nay , it may be well stiled coeval with Creation ;
when the Sovereign ARCHITECT raised on masonic principles this beauteous g lobe ; - and commanded that master-science Geometry to lay the rule to the planetary world , and to regulate by it ' s laws the whole stupendous system , in just unerring proportion rolling round ! the central Sun I Cc
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Oration On Masonry,
—who have proudly built your fame on rvide-spread rain , and fearful devastation ! how doth your false honour fade , and sink into darkness and obscurity , before the ever-living lustre of their genuine glory—those fathers , friends , and benefactors of mankind—those true heroes , who , like their just emblem , the Sun , have perpetually diffused life , blessing , beneficence ; have existed only to instructimproveand humanize the world .
, , THESE—Illustrious Hearers ! are the men , whom we exult to call BRETHREN : and of this truly honourable fraternity it is , that MASONRY , throughout all ages , hath been composed : an institution —not , as the ignorant and uninstructed vainly suppose , founded on unmeaning mystery , and supported by mere good-fellowship : —but " an Institution founded on eternal reason and truth ; whose deep
" basis is the civilization of mankind ; and whose everlasting glory " it is , to have the immoveable support of those two mighty pillars , " Science and Moralit y ! " In proof of what I advance , permit me just to touch , with a passing pencil , —as the time , —not as the unlimited nature of my subject will admitjust to touch upon —( i . ) the A NTIQUITY ;—( 2 . ) the
;—EXTENT ; —( 3 . ) the COMPREHENSIVENESS ;—( 4 . ) the EXCELLENCE and UTILITY of our Royal Art ; of whose daily advancing progress , highly flourishing state , and unquestionable merit , who can doubt a moment—that beholds this splendid EDIFICE ; that considers this
lovely , honourable , and illustrious assemblage ? 1 . And permit me to observe , that the brightest title suffer no diminution of lustre ; nay , that Nobility itself derives distinction , from the support and countenance of an institution so venerable . For , if ANTIQUITY merits our attention , and demands our reverence , —where will the society be found , that hath an equal claim ? —Masons are well informed from their own private and interior
records , that the building of Solomon ' s Temple is an important sera , from whence they derive many mysteries of their art . Now , be it remembered , that this great event took place above a thousand years before the Christian ( era ; and consequently more than a century before Homer , the first of the Grecian poets , wrote ; and above five centuries before Pythagoras brought from the East his sublime
system of truly masonic instruction , to illuminate our western world . But , remote as is ibis period , we date not from thence the commencement of our art . For though it mig ht owe to the wise and glorious king of'Israel some of it ' s many mysticforms and hieroglyphic ceremonies , yet certainly the art itself is coeval with Man , the great subject of it . Nay , it may be well stiled coeval with Creation ;
when the Sovereign ARCHITECT raised on masonic principles this beauteous g lobe ; - and commanded that master-science Geometry to lay the rule to the planetary world , and to regulate by it ' s laws the whole stupendous system , in just unerring proportion rolling round ! the central Sun I Cc