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Article THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY. ← Page 4 of 8 →
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The Freemasons' Repository.
establishment , of which her Imperial Majesty had made him the manager . ' When this conscientious trustee had taken his departure , and on such an occasion , who would not have had the curiosity To have opened the box and examined its contents ? But our author had so little of this impatient disposition , at that time , that it was near ten years before he made himself ainted with the treasures which had been
conacqu fided to him . Then , however , the ' Masonic spirit was evaporated , and cool philosophy had gained its seat , when all of a sudden the " Religions Begebenbeilen' roused the dormant spirit , acted with an electric force upon his mind , and he is all alive on the , subject of MASONRY , not , however , as its devotee , but as its determined foe .
According to the account given in the last mentioned work , 'Masonry , on the Continent , suffered the most exceptionable innovations and dissentions about the time that the . order of Loyola was suppressed . ' Now it appears that our author was well acquainted with the Lodges there , since that period . Whence is it then that his own observations have not confirmed the German accounts " Whence is it
that he , who was so highly caressed by the Brethren at Liege , should have remained ignorant of these things which he takes for gospel on the authority of the ' Reli gions Begebenbeiten ?' He has represented himself as assiduous in his Masonic researches at that period , he endeavours to pass as a man of close observation ,
and certainly he is a p hilosopher ; now we are naturally led from hence to wonder that he , who was on the spot , should not have remarked these innovations and dissensions which he now considers as of so alarming a nature . He professes himself to be greatly surprised at the information contained in the book which he met with ; but surely this surprise is much to be wondered at in a man who had mingled so much with foreign Masonsand had taken such great
, pains to make himself acquainted with their peculiar sentiments , degrees , and usages . He confesses , indeed , that the consideration of them rather excited his contempt than his admiration , ' that all the splendour and elegance which he saw could not conceal a frivolity in every part . ' In this , however , it seems he was mistaken ; for , according to his present discoveries , there was much important
substance in them , many seeds of serious mischief , which have since germinated and brought forth offensive weeds , which threaten to overrun all Europe , and choak the good plants . For the truth of this he is not indebted to his own patient observation and sagacious enquiry , exercised many years ago , but to a book written or compiled by somebodyand discovered bhim in 1795 . I will admitfor
-, y , argu ment sake , that the book contains a faithful collection of facts , thatall the reports in it are such as are to be believed , that many whimsical notions have been adopted by foreign Masons , that irreli gion and licentiousness have characterized too many of them , and that new degrees , inconsistent with the original system of Freemasonry , have been formed ; yet these irregularities will not warrant an anathema against the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Repository.
establishment , of which her Imperial Majesty had made him the manager . ' When this conscientious trustee had taken his departure , and on such an occasion , who would not have had the curiosity To have opened the box and examined its contents ? But our author had so little of this impatient disposition , at that time , that it was near ten years before he made himself ainted with the treasures which had been
conacqu fided to him . Then , however , the ' Masonic spirit was evaporated , and cool philosophy had gained its seat , when all of a sudden the " Religions Begebenbeilen' roused the dormant spirit , acted with an electric force upon his mind , and he is all alive on the , subject of MASONRY , not , however , as its devotee , but as its determined foe .
According to the account given in the last mentioned work , 'Masonry , on the Continent , suffered the most exceptionable innovations and dissentions about the time that the . order of Loyola was suppressed . ' Now it appears that our author was well acquainted with the Lodges there , since that period . Whence is it then that his own observations have not confirmed the German accounts " Whence is it
that he , who was so highly caressed by the Brethren at Liege , should have remained ignorant of these things which he takes for gospel on the authority of the ' Reli gions Begebenbeiten ?' He has represented himself as assiduous in his Masonic researches at that period , he endeavours to pass as a man of close observation ,
and certainly he is a p hilosopher ; now we are naturally led from hence to wonder that he , who was on the spot , should not have remarked these innovations and dissensions which he now considers as of so alarming a nature . He professes himself to be greatly surprised at the information contained in the book which he met with ; but surely this surprise is much to be wondered at in a man who had mingled so much with foreign Masonsand had taken such great
, pains to make himself acquainted with their peculiar sentiments , degrees , and usages . He confesses , indeed , that the consideration of them rather excited his contempt than his admiration , ' that all the splendour and elegance which he saw could not conceal a frivolity in every part . ' In this , however , it seems he was mistaken ; for , according to his present discoveries , there was much important
substance in them , many seeds of serious mischief , which have since germinated and brought forth offensive weeds , which threaten to overrun all Europe , and choak the good plants . For the truth of this he is not indebted to his own patient observation and sagacious enquiry , exercised many years ago , but to a book written or compiled by somebodyand discovered bhim in 1795 . I will admitfor
-, y , argu ment sake , that the book contains a faithful collection of facts , thatall the reports in it are such as are to be believed , that many whimsical notions have been adopted by foreign Masons , that irreli gion and licentiousness have characterized too many of them , and that new degrees , inconsistent with the original system of Freemasonry , have been formed ; yet these irregularities will not warrant an anathema against the