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Article PROVINCIAL. ← Page 15 of 26 →
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Provincial.
protection of the Order , for his many works on its magnificent mysteries , and for his letter to-day , wishing him and his family every blessing which Providence coulcl bestow —( applause ) . The toast was most enthusiastically drunk . Brother J . E . CARPENTER was next called upon by the AV . M . He said— "I would that the toast I am about to propose , had fallen into worthier hands than minebut I suppose yonAV . M . imagined that ,
, , , although there are many Brothers present who coulcl have expressed themselves more ably upon the subject , there were none who would more deeply feel its importance than myself . I should haye regretted had it been my lot to have proposed , in a festive moment like this , the memory of any Brother dear to us , as Masons , the mention of whose name would have cast a gloom on our festivities ; but there are some to whom death gives a glory , and the very memory of whom sheds a lustre
over all with whom they have been associated;—the memory of such a one 1 am about to propose , and the recollection of his genius is one of the lights of our Craft- ( cheers ) . In a Lodge situated in the centre of that county which gave birth to the greatest poet England ever produced —in the Shakspeare Lodge , it becomes us with peculiar aptness to do honour to the great Bard of Scotland—to the memory of our Brother , Robert Burns . Scott , the great Wizard of the North , for his classic lore may claim the hig hest station in the rank of the Scottish literati , but her only bard was the unsophisticated child of Nature—Robert Burns . He , in the language of one of our greatest living poets
. < was the chief of bards that swell The heart with songs of social flame And high delicious revelry : ' ( cheering ) . The breathings of his lyre were all that a Mason coulcl desire or hope for , strong , deep , and fervent , and springing from a heart full of affection and generosity ; none , of all the bards whose names are blazoned the scroll of fame have expressed themselves more forciblyand at
on , the same time more naturally . Struggling as he did , and , alas ! as too many of his Craft have done , amid scenes of poverty and distress , the soul of song was alive within him , and was his solace amid all his difficulties . That such a man should have spared so much of his time as to render himself capable of being ' honoured with supreme command , ' is as gratify ing to our feelings , as it was creditable to his heart , —happy , indeed , must have been those meetings with the
" Favoured hut enlightened few Companions of his social joy ' . ' —( applause . ) How favoured , they little then imagined , since posterity has done the justice that the world denied , in his life-time , to that man who has associated the Lodge of Tarbolton and Masonry with his name and fame for ever . It is , however , no slig ht satisfaction to find , that although those who miht in the fife-time of the Bard have done
g more for him were tardy , those who now feel his high merits ^ do ample justice to his memory ; to know that his family are moving in a position in which his genius entitled them to move ; and further , to know , that among those who assisted in accomplishing those things , none were more zealous than his Brother Freemasons . 1 will not intrude further on your time , for words fail to express the sentiment I
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Provincial.
protection of the Order , for his many works on its magnificent mysteries , and for his letter to-day , wishing him and his family every blessing which Providence coulcl bestow —( applause ) . The toast was most enthusiastically drunk . Brother J . E . CARPENTER was next called upon by the AV . M . He said— "I would that the toast I am about to propose , had fallen into worthier hands than minebut I suppose yonAV . M . imagined that ,
, , , although there are many Brothers present who coulcl have expressed themselves more ably upon the subject , there were none who would more deeply feel its importance than myself . I should haye regretted had it been my lot to have proposed , in a festive moment like this , the memory of any Brother dear to us , as Masons , the mention of whose name would have cast a gloom on our festivities ; but there are some to whom death gives a glory , and the very memory of whom sheds a lustre
over all with whom they have been associated;—the memory of such a one 1 am about to propose , and the recollection of his genius is one of the lights of our Craft- ( cheers ) . In a Lodge situated in the centre of that county which gave birth to the greatest poet England ever produced —in the Shakspeare Lodge , it becomes us with peculiar aptness to do honour to the great Bard of Scotland—to the memory of our Brother , Robert Burns . Scott , the great Wizard of the North , for his classic lore may claim the hig hest station in the rank of the Scottish literati , but her only bard was the unsophisticated child of Nature—Robert Burns . He , in the language of one of our greatest living poets
. < was the chief of bards that swell The heart with songs of social flame And high delicious revelry : ' ( cheering ) . The breathings of his lyre were all that a Mason coulcl desire or hope for , strong , deep , and fervent , and springing from a heart full of affection and generosity ; none , of all the bards whose names are blazoned the scroll of fame have expressed themselves more forciblyand at
on , the same time more naturally . Struggling as he did , and , alas ! as too many of his Craft have done , amid scenes of poverty and distress , the soul of song was alive within him , and was his solace amid all his difficulties . That such a man should have spared so much of his time as to render himself capable of being ' honoured with supreme command , ' is as gratify ing to our feelings , as it was creditable to his heart , —happy , indeed , must have been those meetings with the
" Favoured hut enlightened few Companions of his social joy ' . ' —( applause . ) How favoured , they little then imagined , since posterity has done the justice that the world denied , in his life-time , to that man who has associated the Lodge of Tarbolton and Masonry with his name and fame for ever . It is , however , no slig ht satisfaction to find , that although those who miht in the fife-time of the Bard have done
g more for him were tardy , those who now feel his high merits ^ do ample justice to his memory ; to know that his family are moving in a position in which his genius entitled them to move ; and further , to know , that among those who assisted in accomplishing those things , none were more zealous than his Brother Freemasons . 1 will not intrude further on your time , for words fail to express the sentiment I