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Article THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY. ← Page 6 of 8 →
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The Freemasons' Repository.
Out of patriotic zeal for the peace of his country Mr . Robison lias , therefore , reported an account of this sect , from a work professedly carried on in Germany , to render it odious . The spirit of the Germans , on subjects which they apprehend to be connected with their religious or political establishments , is known to be sufficiently intolerant ; and little moderation , therefore , can be expected in their party publications . They are furious in the extreme . Of this we
liave a striking instance in the philosopher lately mentioned . What can be more beautiful or philanthropic than his book on Solitude ? and yet never was there a memorial of the Dominicans , or any other set cf persecutors , more furious or more uncharitable than the one which he addressed to the Emperor Leopold against the ' Ilhuninati . ' Professed adversaries must be heard with caution . The evidence
of prejudiced men will be attended to with suspicion by an impartial jury ; and when the moral , political , and reli g ious character of a whole community is at stake , better testimony will be expected , before sentence of excision will be pronounced against them , than a German journal , or even the hearsay tales of a philosopher .
SECTION II . THE Professor's ' conjectures on the state of Freemasonry in England , about the year 1648 , are curious , and certain !* ' deserve some particular attention . ' It is not improbable ( he says ) that the coverts of secrecy in those [ i . e . the Masonic ] assemblies had made them courted b y the royalists , as occasions of meeting . Nay , the ritual of tlie Master ' s degree seems to have been formedor perhaps
twist-, ed from its ori g inal institution , so as to give an opportunity of sounding the political principles of the candidate , and of the whole Brethren present . For it bears so easy an adaptation to the death of the King , to the overturning of the venerable constitution of the English Government of three orders by a mean democracy , and its re-establishment by the efforts of the loyalists , that this would start into
every person ' s mind during the ceremonial , and could hardl y fail to show , by the countenances and behaviour of the Brethren , how they were affected . I recommend this hint to the consideration of the Brethren . ' P . 21 . If the Brethren can perceive any sort of analogy itfptvhis case , they must have much more ingenuity than I possess . Politics
haveevi-, dently , as little relation to the ritual of the Master ' s decree as to that of the first or to the simplest ceremonial in the Christian church-. That the royalists of those days were Masons , appears clear enough from genuine records ; but that they instituted that degree in allusion to the murder of the King , is a fanciful supposition , unworthy of a philosophical enquirer . We may as well conjectureand even with
, more plausibility too , that it was formed by the Lancastrians after the assassination of Henry the sixth , who , we know , " vvas a Mason audi patron of the order . Secret meetings , at that period , of this kind were more likely than during the interregnum . But our author proceeds in his suppositions , which he seems in--
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Repository.
Out of patriotic zeal for the peace of his country Mr . Robison lias , therefore , reported an account of this sect , from a work professedly carried on in Germany , to render it odious . The spirit of the Germans , on subjects which they apprehend to be connected with their religious or political establishments , is known to be sufficiently intolerant ; and little moderation , therefore , can be expected in their party publications . They are furious in the extreme . Of this we
liave a striking instance in the philosopher lately mentioned . What can be more beautiful or philanthropic than his book on Solitude ? and yet never was there a memorial of the Dominicans , or any other set cf persecutors , more furious or more uncharitable than the one which he addressed to the Emperor Leopold against the ' Ilhuninati . ' Professed adversaries must be heard with caution . The evidence
of prejudiced men will be attended to with suspicion by an impartial jury ; and when the moral , political , and reli g ious character of a whole community is at stake , better testimony will be expected , before sentence of excision will be pronounced against them , than a German journal , or even the hearsay tales of a philosopher .
SECTION II . THE Professor's ' conjectures on the state of Freemasonry in England , about the year 1648 , are curious , and certain !* ' deserve some particular attention . ' It is not improbable ( he says ) that the coverts of secrecy in those [ i . e . the Masonic ] assemblies had made them courted b y the royalists , as occasions of meeting . Nay , the ritual of tlie Master ' s degree seems to have been formedor perhaps
twist-, ed from its ori g inal institution , so as to give an opportunity of sounding the political principles of the candidate , and of the whole Brethren present . For it bears so easy an adaptation to the death of the King , to the overturning of the venerable constitution of the English Government of three orders by a mean democracy , and its re-establishment by the efforts of the loyalists , that this would start into
every person ' s mind during the ceremonial , and could hardl y fail to show , by the countenances and behaviour of the Brethren , how they were affected . I recommend this hint to the consideration of the Brethren . ' P . 21 . If the Brethren can perceive any sort of analogy itfptvhis case , they must have much more ingenuity than I possess . Politics
haveevi-, dently , as little relation to the ritual of the Master ' s decree as to that of the first or to the simplest ceremonial in the Christian church-. That the royalists of those days were Masons , appears clear enough from genuine records ; but that they instituted that degree in allusion to the murder of the King , is a fanciful supposition , unworthy of a philosophical enquirer . We may as well conjectureand even with
, more plausibility too , that it was formed by the Lancastrians after the assassination of Henry the sixth , who , we know , " vvas a Mason audi patron of the order . Secret meetings , at that period , of this kind were more likely than during the interregnum . But our author proceeds in his suppositions , which he seems in--