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Article ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 4 of 5 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
of the Cathedral of St . Paul was commenced and perfected b y one master-hand , the entire plans of whicli were g iven b y Sir Christopher Wren , the then Grand Master of the Order . Thus , without entering into the minutia of detail , we have
endeavoured to trace the progress of Masonic science through the earl y ages of the world—the superstitions which debased it in the East—the intellectual p hilosophy which , in the more polished nations of Greece and Rome , mystified and rendered its operation subservient to polytheism ,
—the darkness wliich succeeded tlie inroads of the barbarians of the North , and the oppression of feudal tyranny , clown to these , our modern times . The following illustration may not prove unacceptable : —
In Time ' s young morn , ere the scarce peopled earth Witness'd the dawn of taste—ere Science ' s birth - Had shed its halo o ' er the mind of man , Or Art , magnificent , her course began , The MASON ' Craft arose ! and hand-in-hand
With Genius , talent spread from land to land A human engine to improve mankind , Whose plan the Architect of all designed ; Where ' er its benign influence was spread , The desert smiled—and barbarism fled : —
The savage saw before his startled eyes The stately dome and graceful column rise , In cavern'd wastes no longer deign'd to dwell , Left the cool grotto and the shady cell . Then first the palace rear'd its gorgeous fane ,
And wall-girt cities rose from plain to plain—Israel ' s famed temple—the Ephesian pile—The Doric column , and the fretted aisle—
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
of the Cathedral of St . Paul was commenced and perfected b y one master-hand , the entire plans of whicli were g iven b y Sir Christopher Wren , the then Grand Master of the Order . Thus , without entering into the minutia of detail , we have
endeavoured to trace the progress of Masonic science through the earl y ages of the world—the superstitions which debased it in the East—the intellectual p hilosophy which , in the more polished nations of Greece and Rome , mystified and rendered its operation subservient to polytheism ,
—the darkness wliich succeeded tlie inroads of the barbarians of the North , and the oppression of feudal tyranny , clown to these , our modern times . The following illustration may not prove unacceptable : —
In Time ' s young morn , ere the scarce peopled earth Witness'd the dawn of taste—ere Science ' s birth - Had shed its halo o ' er the mind of man , Or Art , magnificent , her course began , The MASON ' Craft arose ! and hand-in-hand
With Genius , talent spread from land to land A human engine to improve mankind , Whose plan the Architect of all designed ; Where ' er its benign influence was spread , The desert smiled—and barbarism fled : —
The savage saw before his startled eyes The stately dome and graceful column rise , In cavern'd wastes no longer deign'd to dwell , Left the cool grotto and the shady cell . Then first the palace rear'd its gorgeous fane ,
And wall-girt cities rose from plain to plain—Israel ' s famed temple—the Ephesian pile—The Doric column , and the fretted aisle—