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Article THE FREEMASONS' QUARTERLY REVIEW. ← Page 4 of 8 →
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The Freemasons' Quarterly Review.
be set to his term of office ; so that , every royal or noble Brother mi ght have the highest office in the Craft open to him , within a reasonable period , his merit being tested by the opinion of Grand Lodge , with the certainty that his willingness to take office could never be construed into
disrespect for the worth y Brother about to vacate it . We could enlarge our arguments on this head , by showing the advantages to be derived from the accession of many noblemen to our ranks , who have hitherto been withheld by looking at our society as the followers of a sino-le chief ;
instead of a society whose relative importance mi ght be increased by the distribution ofthe highest honours amonoseveral of the leading men of the day—as a society , indeed ,
which dispensed honour instead of being simply honoured . But we will content ourselves , at present , with referring to the Constitution of a Private Lodge . Now it is clear , that a Lodge of Freemasons may continue to exist to eternity , without the constitution of a Grand Lodge ; but that a
Grand Lodge would soon expire if there were no private Lodges to sustain it . How , then , can we more fairl y illustrate our position ? In Private Lodges no Brother is permitted to fill the office of Master more than two years consecutively ; unless b y especial dispensation . And for
this self-evident reason—that he may not , by perpetuity of office , obtain aught like personal preponderance , or absolute power . If this be a valid reason in Private Lodges , how much more cogent is it in application to Grand Lodge ? And who is there , after all , who would venture to affirm
that the annual elections of Grand Master were intended to be annual farces ?—that the Book of Constitutions was intended to convey fallacy or falsehood on its pages ? Who is there who would wish any Brother , royal or noble , affiliated or expectant , to be elected as Grand Master for life ? We assume , that through the whole fraternity
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Quarterly Review.
be set to his term of office ; so that , every royal or noble Brother mi ght have the highest office in the Craft open to him , within a reasonable period , his merit being tested by the opinion of Grand Lodge , with the certainty that his willingness to take office could never be construed into
disrespect for the worth y Brother about to vacate it . We could enlarge our arguments on this head , by showing the advantages to be derived from the accession of many noblemen to our ranks , who have hitherto been withheld by looking at our society as the followers of a sino-le chief ;
instead of a society whose relative importance mi ght be increased by the distribution ofthe highest honours amonoseveral of the leading men of the day—as a society , indeed ,
which dispensed honour instead of being simply honoured . But we will content ourselves , at present , with referring to the Constitution of a Private Lodge . Now it is clear , that a Lodge of Freemasons may continue to exist to eternity , without the constitution of a Grand Lodge ; but that a
Grand Lodge would soon expire if there were no private Lodges to sustain it . How , then , can we more fairl y illustrate our position ? In Private Lodges no Brother is permitted to fill the office of Master more than two years consecutively ; unless b y especial dispensation . And for
this self-evident reason—that he may not , by perpetuity of office , obtain aught like personal preponderance , or absolute power . If this be a valid reason in Private Lodges , how much more cogent is it in application to Grand Lodge ? And who is there , after all , who would venture to affirm
that the annual elections of Grand Master were intended to be annual farces ?—that the Book of Constitutions was intended to convey fallacy or falsehood on its pages ? Who is there who would wish any Brother , royal or noble , affiliated or expectant , to be elected as Grand Master for life ? We assume , that through the whole fraternity