Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
basked in the noon-tide glow of his affluence and fame ? Alas 1 for the integrity and holiness of the human character 1 The " lrmlti amici" ol his happier hours have forsaken and left him to the " merciless pelting of the pitiless storm" of adverse circumstances , and , unless God be with him , _ he is left alone ! And in return for the many favours and acts of charity clone to othersthe ivorld derides his want of discrimination
, — his imprudence , perhaps his extravagance , ancl dare ' s to justify its own cold-heartedness , duplicity , and dissimulation , by ungratefully exposing its victim ' s foibles , and fiendishly ridiculing that generous and ingenuous confidence hi human nature , which was the real and primary origin of his
misfortunes—He that ' s ungrateful has no crime but one . All other crimes may pass for virtues in him . Ovid winds up this melancholy tale of mortal sorrow , and mortal fickle ness , with a sententious fact as true as his thesis , and as unpalateable :-Cum Fortuna manct , vultuin servatis amici . Cum cccidit , turpi vertitur ora fug _ .
No . XVIII . —TYRANNY THE SHORTEST AND WORST RULE OF GOVERNMENT . " Violenta nemo imperia continuity '—Seneca . The Despot ' s swav is brief in ev'ry sphere ; He earns not love , but fills each heart witli Sms—Author . TYRANNY may be defined to mean the exercise of that absolute and
arbitrary poiver , whatever its sphere of action , ivhich one human being arrogantly and unnaturally usurps over another . In morals , such an irresponsible puissance may be styled a vice , because it is dangerous- to that order which is the fundamental constitution observable throughout the created universe . Gocl only can be supreme in power , because He only is supreme in that wisdom necessary to direct it . Man is finite in wisdomtherefore ought his poiver always to be controllable and
, responsible . This moral disease is not confined in' its operations to particular classes or particular persons , though history exhibits it most prominentl y developing itself in the regal capacity , whether the sovereign magistrate was elected hy the suffrages of his fellow-citizens , the most primitive and orthodox method , or placed himself in dominion over them hy conquest or by birth-right . Private persons undoubtedly , in their several degrees and stations
, are equally under the baneful influence of this vice , ancl where they can practice it , the greatest social evils and domestic mischiefs are its consequent effects . But these are infinitel y less deplorable when compared with the magnitude of misery occasioned by its exercise among states and empires . The maintaining of sole and absolute authority is purely an animal attribute , deriving its domineering quality either from brute force , artful cunning
, or improperly acquired supereminence . For it is observable that both ancient and modern tyrants have onl y been able to sustain their poiver or execute their arbitrary decrees either uncier the protection of large and numerous armies , or through some fox-like stratagem of state policy . The experiment , however , is always fraught with great danger both to the governor and the governed . A tyrannical monarch may be compared , as to his ultimate fate , with the fable of the tyrant
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
basked in the noon-tide glow of his affluence and fame ? Alas 1 for the integrity and holiness of the human character 1 The " lrmlti amici" ol his happier hours have forsaken and left him to the " merciless pelting of the pitiless storm" of adverse circumstances , and , unless God be with him , _ he is left alone ! And in return for the many favours and acts of charity clone to othersthe ivorld derides his want of discrimination
, — his imprudence , perhaps his extravagance , ancl dare ' s to justify its own cold-heartedness , duplicity , and dissimulation , by ungratefully exposing its victim ' s foibles , and fiendishly ridiculing that generous and ingenuous confidence hi human nature , which was the real and primary origin of his
misfortunes—He that ' s ungrateful has no crime but one . All other crimes may pass for virtues in him . Ovid winds up this melancholy tale of mortal sorrow , and mortal fickle ness , with a sententious fact as true as his thesis , and as unpalateable :-Cum Fortuna manct , vultuin servatis amici . Cum cccidit , turpi vertitur ora fug _ .
No . XVIII . —TYRANNY THE SHORTEST AND WORST RULE OF GOVERNMENT . " Violenta nemo imperia continuity '—Seneca . The Despot ' s swav is brief in ev'ry sphere ; He earns not love , but fills each heart witli Sms—Author . TYRANNY may be defined to mean the exercise of that absolute and
arbitrary poiver , whatever its sphere of action , ivhich one human being arrogantly and unnaturally usurps over another . In morals , such an irresponsible puissance may be styled a vice , because it is dangerous- to that order which is the fundamental constitution observable throughout the created universe . Gocl only can be supreme in power , because He only is supreme in that wisdom necessary to direct it . Man is finite in wisdomtherefore ought his poiver always to be controllable and
, responsible . This moral disease is not confined in' its operations to particular classes or particular persons , though history exhibits it most prominentl y developing itself in the regal capacity , whether the sovereign magistrate was elected hy the suffrages of his fellow-citizens , the most primitive and orthodox method , or placed himself in dominion over them hy conquest or by birth-right . Private persons undoubtedly , in their several degrees and stations
, are equally under the baneful influence of this vice , ancl where they can practice it , the greatest social evils and domestic mischiefs are its consequent effects . But these are infinitel y less deplorable when compared with the magnitude of misery occasioned by its exercise among states and empires . The maintaining of sole and absolute authority is purely an animal attribute , deriving its domineering quality either from brute force , artful cunning
, or improperly acquired supereminence . For it is observable that both ancient and modern tyrants have onl y been able to sustain their poiver or execute their arbitrary decrees either uncier the protection of large and numerous armies , or through some fox-like stratagem of state policy . The experiment , however , is always fraught with great danger both to the governor and the governed . A tyrannical monarch may be compared , as to his ultimate fate , with the fable of the tyrant