Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Connexion Between Speculative And Operative Masonry.
ciples which adorn the Craft , will at once admit , that , inasmuch as all those feelings and passions , good and bad , fruitful and unfruitful , which govern and distinguish the natural dispositions and conduct of men , were concentrated in the first fallen being whom the Great Architect of the universe in his benign icisdom , endowed with strength and power , to take possession ofthe netherworld , ancl to enjoy the radiance and beauty which adorn its every atomso clo the princiles of our Society
com-, p mence with the creation , and so does , consequently , its history ; and although the whole of those feelings and passions were possessed by Adam , probably without a perfect knowledge of their existence in him , yet it cannot be doubted that they were made manifest to him to a considerable extent , in the opposite dispositions of Cain and Abe ) , which an immortal author , in ah address to the former , thus beautifully describes :
** Stern hast thou been , ancl stubborn from the womb , As theground thou must henceforth till , but he Thou slevv ' st . was gentle as the flocks he tended , " That operative Masonry also existed in the very earliest ages , a perusal of the Masonic accounts will prove , but the precise date of our science becoming an exclusive order , certainly seems wrapt in a veil , which has not as yet , notwithstanding all the hypothesis that have been advanced by theological writersin opposition to the dogmatical inions of the
, op uninitiated , been drawn sufficiently aside to bring all opinions on so important and interesting an object of our solicitation to a level , though it must be believed there is not one who is " well informed" who does not sincerel y believe the establishment of our order to have been in being in the most remote ages , and that it is more ancient than any other order of which we have any proof of existence . In the early agesand before it became the perfect system it now iswe
, , are informed / " Masonry was unknown by that name , but those who practised it were designated the Sons of Light , " and one of the most celebrated of them was Enoch , and to him is assigned the invention of the first alphabet for the purpose of perpetuating sounds , which was indeed the origin of grammar . The knowledge of this invention seems to
have been considered a great and important science , and with which few were entrusted ; of the truth of which , the entire lack of any written evidence in elucidation of the history of the creation , until that of Moses , affords an ample proof . The knowledge of this al phabet evidently formed a component part of speculative Masonry , and , one of the great objects which its inventor had in the erection of his celebrated Temple , was particularly to seclude it from the observation of the world at large , and
depositing it where none but the true Mason could dare to intrude , and thus introducing an exclusive character into Masonry . Grammar is also the " first" and most important of the " seven sciences" which the Craft tends to inculcate , and was then , as it is still held to be , the foundation of every other , and as Enoch must have been in his time well skilled in the operative art , which must be presumed from the fact of the first city that was ever built having been dedicated to his name
; thus in him were the two sciences so concentrated , that the study and application of the operative in the erection of temples and edifices to the worship of the true God , rendered the speculative , in the cultivation of the mind and morals of men , and fitting them for receiving those advantages for which his operative art was applied , not only necessary but in-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Connexion Between Speculative And Operative Masonry.
ciples which adorn the Craft , will at once admit , that , inasmuch as all those feelings and passions , good and bad , fruitful and unfruitful , which govern and distinguish the natural dispositions and conduct of men , were concentrated in the first fallen being whom the Great Architect of the universe in his benign icisdom , endowed with strength and power , to take possession ofthe netherworld , ancl to enjoy the radiance and beauty which adorn its every atomso clo the princiles of our Society
com-, p mence with the creation , and so does , consequently , its history ; and although the whole of those feelings and passions were possessed by Adam , probably without a perfect knowledge of their existence in him , yet it cannot be doubted that they were made manifest to him to a considerable extent , in the opposite dispositions of Cain and Abe ) , which an immortal author , in ah address to the former , thus beautifully describes :
** Stern hast thou been , ancl stubborn from the womb , As theground thou must henceforth till , but he Thou slevv ' st . was gentle as the flocks he tended , " That operative Masonry also existed in the very earliest ages , a perusal of the Masonic accounts will prove , but the precise date of our science becoming an exclusive order , certainly seems wrapt in a veil , which has not as yet , notwithstanding all the hypothesis that have been advanced by theological writersin opposition to the dogmatical inions of the
, op uninitiated , been drawn sufficiently aside to bring all opinions on so important and interesting an object of our solicitation to a level , though it must be believed there is not one who is " well informed" who does not sincerel y believe the establishment of our order to have been in being in the most remote ages , and that it is more ancient than any other order of which we have any proof of existence . In the early agesand before it became the perfect system it now iswe
, , are informed / " Masonry was unknown by that name , but those who practised it were designated the Sons of Light , " and one of the most celebrated of them was Enoch , and to him is assigned the invention of the first alphabet for the purpose of perpetuating sounds , which was indeed the origin of grammar . The knowledge of this invention seems to
have been considered a great and important science , and with which few were entrusted ; of the truth of which , the entire lack of any written evidence in elucidation of the history of the creation , until that of Moses , affords an ample proof . The knowledge of this al phabet evidently formed a component part of speculative Masonry , and , one of the great objects which its inventor had in the erection of his celebrated Temple , was particularly to seclude it from the observation of the world at large , and
depositing it where none but the true Mason could dare to intrude , and thus introducing an exclusive character into Masonry . Grammar is also the " first" and most important of the " seven sciences" which the Craft tends to inculcate , and was then , as it is still held to be , the foundation of every other , and as Enoch must have been in his time well skilled in the operative art , which must be presumed from the fact of the first city that was ever built having been dedicated to his name
; thus in him were the two sciences so concentrated , that the study and application of the operative in the erection of temples and edifices to the worship of the true God , rendered the speculative , in the cultivation of the mind and morals of men , and fitting them for receiving those advantages for which his operative art was applied , not only necessary but in-