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Article ON FREEMASONRY, ← Page 6 of 6 Article CHAPTER IV. Page 1 of 8 →
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On Freemasonry,
even your best friends and professed admirers , few though they be , are practising the game of the monkey and the eat , and care not whose fingers are burnt , so long as they get possession of the chestnuts . Yovi amuse us , and you amuse them ; and so long as you will continue to gratify the public at your own expense , you need not fear to receive the ironical cheers of your confederates , who slily push you into the breach , and then leave you to your fate ; as the Ilev . Mr . Blunt , of Helston , two or three years ago ,
bolstered up his own rude discourtesy , by thrusting his diocesan into the gap to bear the brunt of a hot attack , which he bad excited , but did not possess the moral courage to face ; thus degrading himself below the level of the bear in Hudibras , who
¦ resolv'd , rather than yield , To die with honour in the field , Ancl sell his hide and carcase at A price as high and desperate As e ' er he could . This resolution He forthwith put in execution , Ancl bravely threw himself among The enemy , i' th' greatest throng . Enough has heen said to show the benevolent feelings we entertain towards our opponents , and the mildness with which the principles of Freemasonry enjoin us to meet the attacks of our adversaries . We would refute hy sober argument , and vanquish by the milk of human kindness , in conformity with the example contained iu the following essay . —ED . P . Q . R .
Chapter Iv.
CHAPTER IV .
" The facultie of Abrac . "—ANCIENT MASONIC MS . " Buy therefore this christall , and you shall see them in their common appearance ; and read these exorcismes advisedly , and you may be sure to conjure them without crossings . But if any man long for a familiar for false dice , a spirit to tell fortunes , a charme to heale disease , this only book can best fit him . "—THOMAS LODGE . " The labours of the alchymist are nothing but a blind gropingin utter darkness ; and they are entangled in a labyrinth of ignorance , delusion , and deception , from which they do not know how to extricate themselves . The origin of alchymy is lost in the darkness of the fabulous ages . The ancient Egyptians were alchymists , antl their god Hermes is one of the most celebrated . "—FREEMASONS' LEXICON . " Masonry is not only the most ancient , but the most moral institution that has ever existed ; and every character , figure , and emblem depicted in the lodge , has a moral tendency , and contributes to the inculcation of virtue . "—LECTURES .
HAVING in former papers shown what Freemasonry is , I shall conclude this series by a demonstration of what it is not . It is not a system of Rosicrucianism , Illuminism , or Alchymy ; nor does it pretend to any exclusive knowledge of the invisible world , or of elemental spirits ; and an additional proof that Freemasonry renders essential benefits to society , is the absence of superstition , or a tendency , which we see developed in some of its phases amidst every grade of human life , to
interfere with the dispensations of an allwise Providence , by the use of charms , amulets , or the agency of supernatural causes . A modern writer thus explains the ori gin of amulets : — " When men , without disavowing the supreme Lord of all , undertook to relieve him from the care of their own small affairs , which they transferred to inferior agents , they ere long thought of attracting and fixing the beneficent attention and influence of those agents , by placing in their houses , or by attaching to their persons , certain symbolical or representative figures , which they appropriated to their determined use , with such rites and astrological or
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry,
even your best friends and professed admirers , few though they be , are practising the game of the monkey and the eat , and care not whose fingers are burnt , so long as they get possession of the chestnuts . Yovi amuse us , and you amuse them ; and so long as you will continue to gratify the public at your own expense , you need not fear to receive the ironical cheers of your confederates , who slily push you into the breach , and then leave you to your fate ; as the Ilev . Mr . Blunt , of Helston , two or three years ago ,
bolstered up his own rude discourtesy , by thrusting his diocesan into the gap to bear the brunt of a hot attack , which he bad excited , but did not possess the moral courage to face ; thus degrading himself below the level of the bear in Hudibras , who
¦ resolv'd , rather than yield , To die with honour in the field , Ancl sell his hide and carcase at A price as high and desperate As e ' er he could . This resolution He forthwith put in execution , Ancl bravely threw himself among The enemy , i' th' greatest throng . Enough has heen said to show the benevolent feelings we entertain towards our opponents , and the mildness with which the principles of Freemasonry enjoin us to meet the attacks of our adversaries . We would refute hy sober argument , and vanquish by the milk of human kindness , in conformity with the example contained iu the following essay . —ED . P . Q . R .
Chapter Iv.
CHAPTER IV .
" The facultie of Abrac . "—ANCIENT MASONIC MS . " Buy therefore this christall , and you shall see them in their common appearance ; and read these exorcismes advisedly , and you may be sure to conjure them without crossings . But if any man long for a familiar for false dice , a spirit to tell fortunes , a charme to heale disease , this only book can best fit him . "—THOMAS LODGE . " The labours of the alchymist are nothing but a blind gropingin utter darkness ; and they are entangled in a labyrinth of ignorance , delusion , and deception , from which they do not know how to extricate themselves . The origin of alchymy is lost in the darkness of the fabulous ages . The ancient Egyptians were alchymists , antl their god Hermes is one of the most celebrated . "—FREEMASONS' LEXICON . " Masonry is not only the most ancient , but the most moral institution that has ever existed ; and every character , figure , and emblem depicted in the lodge , has a moral tendency , and contributes to the inculcation of virtue . "—LECTURES .
HAVING in former papers shown what Freemasonry is , I shall conclude this series by a demonstration of what it is not . It is not a system of Rosicrucianism , Illuminism , or Alchymy ; nor does it pretend to any exclusive knowledge of the invisible world , or of elemental spirits ; and an additional proof that Freemasonry renders essential benefits to society , is the absence of superstition , or a tendency , which we see developed in some of its phases amidst every grade of human life , to
interfere with the dispensations of an allwise Providence , by the use of charms , amulets , or the agency of supernatural causes . A modern writer thus explains the ori gin of amulets : — " When men , without disavowing the supreme Lord of all , undertook to relieve him from the care of their own small affairs , which they transferred to inferior agents , they ere long thought of attracting and fixing the beneficent attention and influence of those agents , by placing in their houses , or by attaching to their persons , certain symbolical or representative figures , which they appropriated to their determined use , with such rites and astrological or