Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Magazine, Or General And Complete Library.
born . What obligations do we not owe to those superior souls , who , without listening to the suggestions of interest , or the natural desire to surpass others in power , first conceived an establishment whose end was the reunion of the understanding and the heart , to render both better by the contact ? The sanctity which attends the moral qualities of the Societyis
, the next branch of the subject worthy of observation . Iteligious orders were instituted to render men more perfect Christians ; military orders were founded to inspire the love of glory ; but the Order of Freemasonry was instituted to form men into good citizens and good subjects ; to make them inviolable in their promises , faithful votaries to tlie God of Friendshiand more lovers of liberality than
p , of recompence . _ But Freemasonry is not bounded by the display of virtues merely civil . As a severe , savage , sorrowful , and misanthropic kind of philosophy disgusts its votaries , so tlie establishment under consideration renders men amiable , by the attraction of innocent pleasures , pure joys , and rational gaieties . The sentiments of this Society are
not such as a world which loves ridicule may be tempted to ' suppose . Every vice of the head and heart is excluded : libertinism , ineligion , incredulity , and debauchery are banished and unqualified . The meetings of the Masons resemble those amiable entertainments spoken of by Horace , where all those are made welcome guests , whose understandings may be enlightened , whose hearts may be mended , or who
may be any way . emulous to excel in the true ,, the good , or the a-reat . O noctcs , ccenseque Deum . Scrmo oritur , non de villis , domibusve alienis ; set ) quod magis ad nos Pertinet , et nescire malum est agitamus : Utrumne dh-itiis homines .
From the Society in question are banished all those disputes which , mi ght alter the tranquillity of friendship , or interrupt that perfect harmony which cannot subsist but by rejecting all indecent excesses , and every discordant passion . The obligation ' which is imposed upon this Order is , that each member is to protect a Brother by his authori ty , to advise him b y his abilities , to edify him by his virtues , to assist him in
an exigence , to sacrifice all personal resentment , and to seek diligently * for every thing that may contribute to the pleasure and profit of the Society . True itis , that this Society hath its secrets ; but let not those who are not initiated laugh at the confession ; for those figurative si » vns and sacred words which constitute amongst Freemasons a language
sometimes mute and sometimes eloquent , are only invented to prevent imposition , ' and to communicate at the greatest distance , and to know the true member from the false , of whatever country or tongue he may be . Another quality required by those who enter into the Order of Freemasonry is the taste for all useful sciences , and liberal arts of all kinds ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Magazine, Or General And Complete Library.
born . What obligations do we not owe to those superior souls , who , without listening to the suggestions of interest , or the natural desire to surpass others in power , first conceived an establishment whose end was the reunion of the understanding and the heart , to render both better by the contact ? The sanctity which attends the moral qualities of the Societyis
, the next branch of the subject worthy of observation . Iteligious orders were instituted to render men more perfect Christians ; military orders were founded to inspire the love of glory ; but the Order of Freemasonry was instituted to form men into good citizens and good subjects ; to make them inviolable in their promises , faithful votaries to tlie God of Friendshiand more lovers of liberality than
p , of recompence . _ But Freemasonry is not bounded by the display of virtues merely civil . As a severe , savage , sorrowful , and misanthropic kind of philosophy disgusts its votaries , so tlie establishment under consideration renders men amiable , by the attraction of innocent pleasures , pure joys , and rational gaieties . The sentiments of this Society are
not such as a world which loves ridicule may be tempted to ' suppose . Every vice of the head and heart is excluded : libertinism , ineligion , incredulity , and debauchery are banished and unqualified . The meetings of the Masons resemble those amiable entertainments spoken of by Horace , where all those are made welcome guests , whose understandings may be enlightened , whose hearts may be mended , or who
may be any way . emulous to excel in the true ,, the good , or the a-reat . O noctcs , ccenseque Deum . Scrmo oritur , non de villis , domibusve alienis ; set ) quod magis ad nos Pertinet , et nescire malum est agitamus : Utrumne dh-itiis homines .
From the Society in question are banished all those disputes which , mi ght alter the tranquillity of friendship , or interrupt that perfect harmony which cannot subsist but by rejecting all indecent excesses , and every discordant passion . The obligation ' which is imposed upon this Order is , that each member is to protect a Brother by his authori ty , to advise him b y his abilities , to edify him by his virtues , to assist him in
an exigence , to sacrifice all personal resentment , and to seek diligently * for every thing that may contribute to the pleasure and profit of the Society . True itis , that this Society hath its secrets ; but let not those who are not initiated laugh at the confession ; for those figurative si » vns and sacred words which constitute amongst Freemasons a language
sometimes mute and sometimes eloquent , are only invented to prevent imposition , ' and to communicate at the greatest distance , and to know the true member from the false , of whatever country or tongue he may be . Another quality required by those who enter into the Order of Freemasonry is the taste for all useful sciences , and liberal arts of all kinds ,