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Article TREVILIAN ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 26 of 34 →
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Trevilian On Freemasonry.
To the Editor of the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette . SIR , —Premising that it is not my intention to reply to any future remarks of Major Trevilian , I have a few words to say on the matter of his letter of the 15 th inst . After admitting how " ill-timed " were his remarks on Dr .
Carwithin , the Major expresses something like regret that they were founded on an erroneous surmise ; he should have extended his regret to all he has published , which is precisely in the same category . He then intimates that he intended to convey a compliment to Dr . Carwithen ' s judgment . Nowhis remarks amounted to this
, , that for thirty years of his life and Christian ministry the Doctor was in the constant observance of "impious and blasphemous " rites , and that his "judgment" only sufficed to turn him from them in his last hour , and that only when bowing to the superior judgment of Major Trevilian . The Major has a most original idea of a compliment ! He affords us a good testtooof his own
, , powers of judgment , in designating , as a " dark and hidden speech , invisible to common eyes , " the statement ( see " Trewman ' s Flying Post , " April 25 ) that Dr . Carwithen ' s tender of his resignation was made under the high feeling that the honours of office should accompany the performance of its duties . " In my simplicity I thought that passage must be clear to the meanest capacity ; it seems I was
mistaken . I had hitherto doubted , and ¦ wished to doubt , the fact of any oathbreaking—but the Major will have it so , —he will insist upon it , — and I may no longer question the fact , as he names the lodge in which he says " I took the oath with all that scandalous mock sanctity of manner" (!) which his experience of a single visit to a lodge enables him to charge as the " universal characteristic " of Masonry ,
—a large conclusion , indeed , and a charitable ; drawn from singularly inadequate premises . But what an avowel is here ! Is it possible that the design to break this " solemn oath" was not an afterthought induced by the corrupt practices which it sheltered , but that the idea was present to his mind at the time when he took the oath with " mock sanctity of manner"' —when he dared to call
, on the name of God in witness of his sincerity ! I adopt Major Trevilian ' s sentence , and tell him that "if such be his notion of holiness and truth , I have nothing thereof in common with him . " I intended no " hint that the Major had some difficulty to obtain the Dean of Exeter ' s leave to publish his note" but I called for
, publication of the whole note and of the correspjondence , or an accurate detail of the conversation which led to it , convinced that the suppressed context would materially modify the quoted opinion , ' —for of course the Dean ' s opinion was founded on the Major's statement , and the soundness of the first must depend on the authenticity of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trevilian On Freemasonry.
To the Editor of the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette . SIR , —Premising that it is not my intention to reply to any future remarks of Major Trevilian , I have a few words to say on the matter of his letter of the 15 th inst . After admitting how " ill-timed " were his remarks on Dr .
Carwithin , the Major expresses something like regret that they were founded on an erroneous surmise ; he should have extended his regret to all he has published , which is precisely in the same category . He then intimates that he intended to convey a compliment to Dr . Carwithen ' s judgment . Nowhis remarks amounted to this
, , that for thirty years of his life and Christian ministry the Doctor was in the constant observance of "impious and blasphemous " rites , and that his "judgment" only sufficed to turn him from them in his last hour , and that only when bowing to the superior judgment of Major Trevilian . The Major has a most original idea of a compliment ! He affords us a good testtooof his own
, , powers of judgment , in designating , as a " dark and hidden speech , invisible to common eyes , " the statement ( see " Trewman ' s Flying Post , " April 25 ) that Dr . Carwithen ' s tender of his resignation was made under the high feeling that the honours of office should accompany the performance of its duties . " In my simplicity I thought that passage must be clear to the meanest capacity ; it seems I was
mistaken . I had hitherto doubted , and ¦ wished to doubt , the fact of any oathbreaking—but the Major will have it so , —he will insist upon it , — and I may no longer question the fact , as he names the lodge in which he says " I took the oath with all that scandalous mock sanctity of manner" (!) which his experience of a single visit to a lodge enables him to charge as the " universal characteristic " of Masonry ,
—a large conclusion , indeed , and a charitable ; drawn from singularly inadequate premises . But what an avowel is here ! Is it possible that the design to break this " solemn oath" was not an afterthought induced by the corrupt practices which it sheltered , but that the idea was present to his mind at the time when he took the oath with " mock sanctity of manner"' —when he dared to call
, on the name of God in witness of his sincerity ! I adopt Major Trevilian ' s sentence , and tell him that "if such be his notion of holiness and truth , I have nothing thereof in common with him . " I intended no " hint that the Major had some difficulty to obtain the Dean of Exeter ' s leave to publish his note" but I called for
, publication of the whole note and of the correspjondence , or an accurate detail of the conversation which led to it , convinced that the suppressed context would materially modify the quoted opinion , ' —for of course the Dean ' s opinion was founded on the Major's statement , and the soundness of the first must depend on the authenticity of