Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
MASONIC DIDACTICS ; OR , SHORT MORAL ESSAYS OF UNIVERSAL ADAPTATION .
BY BROTHER II . K . SLADE , IX . B . *• Masonry is a peculiar system of morals .
No . XLIIL—EXPERIMENT THE ONLY EFFICIENT TEACHER OF HUMAN WISDOM . Sens . veirit usus ab annis . —Orm . IT is a common remark , though not the less true , that ' * experience makes men wise , " which ivesee verified in many instances , and in most , tending to one useful end—practical wisdom
. Young men , in making their debut on the chequered stage of life , cannot be supposed to be aware of the different characters with whom they will have probably to associate during their progress through its varied scenes ; nor can they be expected to enter on that stage prepared to discover at a glance , the fraudulent designs of their fellow-actors in the general drama , until the bitter fruits of experiment have taught them discretion . The -hearted school-boy—the histicated
open unsop lad at college—the tyro in the walks of commerce—the novice in professional intrigue and jealousy , is like the young chamois sporting on the glacier ' s brow , ignorant of the danger that momentarily besets his footsteps . Severe practical acquaintance , therefore , alone can initiate the young into the secrets of that prison-house of man ' s thoughts , which actions develope , but words conceal , and inure him to undergo with calm
serenity the multiplied pranks and reverses of fickle fortune . Indeed , in all that pertains to a painful familiarity with the sliding scale of temporal affairs , practical experiment must be the best instructor . No paternal or friendly monition is equal to it . One fact in the passage of our career is better than a thousand " wise saws , " come they from the lips of the most venerated . A thorough knowledgeof the world is to be acquired only by half a life spent in collision with its inhabitants . That eminent
poet Pope , has asserted that " ¦ the study of mankind is man . " In the wild hey-day of buoyant youth , when the animal spirits are elated with the sanguine prospects of an unknown future , when every thought of coming events is tinged with the eouleur de rose , the mind of a Neophyte , untutored in the craft and cunning of a selfish world , is innocently free from all suspicion and duplicity , —his generous nature disdains all hypocrisy and dissimulationThe mansion of his heart is
. open to welcome the reception of every plausible guest , and he weens not of the sting which lies beneath the social adder ' s fang . Hoary age , with humanity feels for the incautious stripling . He bends his sage brow with foreboding look , and while warning him of the calamities which pend over his unripened years , tells the sad tale of his own unlucky youth . But ' tis all lost on the sceptical ear of his inexperienced listener . He must navigate the turbulent ocean of life himself for some
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
MASONIC DIDACTICS ; OR , SHORT MORAL ESSAYS OF UNIVERSAL ADAPTATION .
BY BROTHER II . K . SLADE , IX . B . *• Masonry is a peculiar system of morals .
No . XLIIL—EXPERIMENT THE ONLY EFFICIENT TEACHER OF HUMAN WISDOM . Sens . veirit usus ab annis . —Orm . IT is a common remark , though not the less true , that ' * experience makes men wise , " which ivesee verified in many instances , and in most , tending to one useful end—practical wisdom
. Young men , in making their debut on the chequered stage of life , cannot be supposed to be aware of the different characters with whom they will have probably to associate during their progress through its varied scenes ; nor can they be expected to enter on that stage prepared to discover at a glance , the fraudulent designs of their fellow-actors in the general drama , until the bitter fruits of experiment have taught them discretion . The -hearted school-boy—the histicated
open unsop lad at college—the tyro in the walks of commerce—the novice in professional intrigue and jealousy , is like the young chamois sporting on the glacier ' s brow , ignorant of the danger that momentarily besets his footsteps . Severe practical acquaintance , therefore , alone can initiate the young into the secrets of that prison-house of man ' s thoughts , which actions develope , but words conceal , and inure him to undergo with calm
serenity the multiplied pranks and reverses of fickle fortune . Indeed , in all that pertains to a painful familiarity with the sliding scale of temporal affairs , practical experiment must be the best instructor . No paternal or friendly monition is equal to it . One fact in the passage of our career is better than a thousand " wise saws , " come they from the lips of the most venerated . A thorough knowledgeof the world is to be acquired only by half a life spent in collision with its inhabitants . That eminent
poet Pope , has asserted that " ¦ the study of mankind is man . " In the wild hey-day of buoyant youth , when the animal spirits are elated with the sanguine prospects of an unknown future , when every thought of coming events is tinged with the eouleur de rose , the mind of a Neophyte , untutored in the craft and cunning of a selfish world , is innocently free from all suspicion and duplicity , —his generous nature disdains all hypocrisy and dissimulationThe mansion of his heart is
. open to welcome the reception of every plausible guest , and he weens not of the sting which lies beneath the social adder ' s fang . Hoary age , with humanity feels for the incautious stripling . He bends his sage brow with foreboding look , and while warning him of the calamities which pend over his unripened years , tells the sad tale of his own unlucky youth . But ' tis all lost on the sceptical ear of his inexperienced listener . He must navigate the turbulent ocean of life himself for some