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Article THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY. Page 1 of 4 →
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The Freemasons' Repository.
THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY .
AN IMPARTIAL EXAMINATION OF PROFESSOR ROBISON ' s BOOK AGAINST FREEMAS 0 NR 1 \ ® c .
BY DR . WATKINS .
[ CQXTISUED FItOM OUR IAST . ]
SECTION in . jl EFORE T proceed farther in the examination of the Professor ' s positions , 1 cannot hel p noticing the curious circumstance of his retracting , in a public newspaper , an invidious assertion contained in Ins book respecting a Minister of the Church of Scotland . Mr . Robison frankly acknowled ges that his information had been incorrect , and even injurious to the partyI am not without hopesthat he will
. , see reason to retract his invectives against a whole community , when Ire shall suffer the still voice of truth to prevail over the violence of passion . He asserts , with great confidence , that the ' Brethren abroad profess to have received the M ystery of Freemasonry from Britain . ' In itself this mi ght be treated as a matter of little moment . For the honour ofthe Institution , however , it is incumbent on us to repel this assertion far relates
, as as to the fact , without any consideration ofthe opinions of Forei gn Brethren on the subject . Those Brethren possibly may be as ignorant of the ori gin of the Society as many are among us . But , in all probability , the Foreign Lodges may have been , in a great degree , indebted to this country for the revival oi Masonry among them Some of them have been constituted from hence . But does this prove that Masonry originated in Britain ?
lias ivlr . Hobison paid so little attention to the subject on which he has written , as to have sli ghted the evidence of its antiquity arising from the Croisades only ? I must confess , that when the inclination first seized my mind of vindicating the Society , of which I have the honour to be a member , so far from having any thought of entering into the discussion of its remote history , I studiously resolved to omit every thing that should seem to wear the of such dis
appearance a - cussion ; and the reason was , because the great outline of such a work has long- since been sketched out , and partly filled up , and will , probably , soon appear before the public eye . I cannot , however , but observe in this place , that the affinity subsisting between the Masonic and the Military Orders is too strong to escape the discernment of an antiquarian , though it may be thought insignificant by the frigid mind of the mathematician Th
. -se military bodies were composed of men or different countries . They were all bound to the east , to recover the great , and according to their estimation , inestimable prize . On their ainval in Palestine they would meet with very powerful , ferocuu ! . and at live tin mies . Many of the Knights of the same Order were ignorant of each other ' s language , at a period , too , when t « a . it . ¦ . ¦ n . -n . ce for e-.-e ) ' m n of lank lo be unable either to wiite or lead . Under the covert of the ni g ht , therefore , it would be ex-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Repository.
THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY .
AN IMPARTIAL EXAMINATION OF PROFESSOR ROBISON ' s BOOK AGAINST FREEMAS 0 NR 1 \ ® c .
BY DR . WATKINS .
[ CQXTISUED FItOM OUR IAST . ]
SECTION in . jl EFORE T proceed farther in the examination of the Professor ' s positions , 1 cannot hel p noticing the curious circumstance of his retracting , in a public newspaper , an invidious assertion contained in Ins book respecting a Minister of the Church of Scotland . Mr . Robison frankly acknowled ges that his information had been incorrect , and even injurious to the partyI am not without hopesthat he will
. , see reason to retract his invectives against a whole community , when Ire shall suffer the still voice of truth to prevail over the violence of passion . He asserts , with great confidence , that the ' Brethren abroad profess to have received the M ystery of Freemasonry from Britain . ' In itself this mi ght be treated as a matter of little moment . For the honour ofthe Institution , however , it is incumbent on us to repel this assertion far relates
, as as to the fact , without any consideration ofthe opinions of Forei gn Brethren on the subject . Those Brethren possibly may be as ignorant of the ori gin of the Society as many are among us . But , in all probability , the Foreign Lodges may have been , in a great degree , indebted to this country for the revival oi Masonry among them Some of them have been constituted from hence . But does this prove that Masonry originated in Britain ?
lias ivlr . Hobison paid so little attention to the subject on which he has written , as to have sli ghted the evidence of its antiquity arising from the Croisades only ? I must confess , that when the inclination first seized my mind of vindicating the Society , of which I have the honour to be a member , so far from having any thought of entering into the discussion of its remote history , I studiously resolved to omit every thing that should seem to wear the of such dis
appearance a - cussion ; and the reason was , because the great outline of such a work has long- since been sketched out , and partly filled up , and will , probably , soon appear before the public eye . I cannot , however , but observe in this place , that the affinity subsisting between the Masonic and the Military Orders is too strong to escape the discernment of an antiquarian , though it may be thought insignificant by the frigid mind of the mathematician Th
. -se military bodies were composed of men or different countries . They were all bound to the east , to recover the great , and according to their estimation , inestimable prize . On their ainval in Palestine they would meet with very powerful , ferocuu ! . and at live tin mies . Many of the Knights of the same Order were ignorant of each other ' s language , at a period , too , when t « a . it . ¦ . ¦ n . -n . ce for e-.-e ) ' m n of lank lo be unable either to wiite or lead . Under the covert of the ni g ht , therefore , it would be ex-