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Article ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 2 of 2
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On Freemasonry.
set an example inimitably of creative art , but whose critical precision was thus religiously essayed to be symbolised anil shadowed forth by the secondary materials of his own creature , man . " In tile mid plains fair A . ^ amea stands , And lV-Xt Eniessa , on the nt-i ^ iihoin isiff lands : Th ' . se to tlie sun their adorations pay . And victims bleed to the bright god of day ; His fame with t'm- 'rin ; r Lsbunus contends , And in tlie clouds its _ -liti * ri : ii * summit ends . "
Such , then , is an example of practical Freemasonry , or , to speak according to system , of its exoteric form ; but , in its speculative elucidations , —in its aspiring conceptions , and in its grand , diverging , esoteric , capacities , —Pleavens ! who can without emotion comprehend it , much less portray ? Who but the Regulator of " that greater Light , whence all have come , whither all return , and which alone can communicate Truth ' s irradiations ? " * esotericwhich the
Those conventional devices of exoteric and , founders of Freemasomy first established , as the indications of what doctrines mig ht be imparted to the profane , contradistinguished from those confided only to the initiated , have afforded scope in all ages for misrepresentation and for aggression ; and the result is , that while treatises upon the subject , from the hands of ignorant but designing foes , have kept pace almost with the infinity of number itself , yet was there to insiht
not one single principle of substantial information , tending an g into the nature of the secrets which they professed , approached even in thought , before arrival of the age in which our own horoscope has been projected ! Yes , we repeat , there is not a subject upon earth , whose character has called forth so many efforts at elucidation , as that which we now discuss . We are certain it cannot be contravened that there is no one well
upon which such efforts have so miserably re-acted : begetting , as to the task as the author , only the cheerless rewards of scorn and of contempt . And , yet , how happens it that , undeterred by former failures , there have been still found individuals ready to embark anew in the speculation , and stake interest and character in the fruitless attempt of an irregular investigation of the same enigma ? It is because that , however momentarilchagrined bthe dullness of disappointment ,
y y there is a buoyancy in the human mind , when in search after Truth , which will ever renovate it to a second charge ; and while there exist so many evidences of internal light as characterise the aggregate of this Heaveii--taught community , it is not at all to be wondered at that those hankerings after its source , which have so influenced man in all ages , and which could not have been so universal without an admission at
least of its reality , should have propelled fresh adventurers anon upon the arena , and bewildered them , too , in the same shadowy assimilations which mocked their predecessors in quest of the GLORIOUS ORIGINAL .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
set an example inimitably of creative art , but whose critical precision was thus religiously essayed to be symbolised anil shadowed forth by the secondary materials of his own creature , man . " In tile mid plains fair A . ^ amea stands , And lV-Xt Eniessa , on the nt-i ^ iihoin isiff lands : Th ' . se to tlie sun their adorations pay . And victims bleed to the bright god of day ; His fame with t'm- 'rin ; r Lsbunus contends , And in tlie clouds its _ -liti * ri : ii * summit ends . "
Such , then , is an example of practical Freemasonry , or , to speak according to system , of its exoteric form ; but , in its speculative elucidations , —in its aspiring conceptions , and in its grand , diverging , esoteric , capacities , —Pleavens ! who can without emotion comprehend it , much less portray ? Who but the Regulator of " that greater Light , whence all have come , whither all return , and which alone can communicate Truth ' s irradiations ? " * esotericwhich the
Those conventional devices of exoteric and , founders of Freemasomy first established , as the indications of what doctrines mig ht be imparted to the profane , contradistinguished from those confided only to the initiated , have afforded scope in all ages for misrepresentation and for aggression ; and the result is , that while treatises upon the subject , from the hands of ignorant but designing foes , have kept pace almost with the infinity of number itself , yet was there to insiht
not one single principle of substantial information , tending an g into the nature of the secrets which they professed , approached even in thought , before arrival of the age in which our own horoscope has been projected ! Yes , we repeat , there is not a subject upon earth , whose character has called forth so many efforts at elucidation , as that which we now discuss . We are certain it cannot be contravened that there is no one well
upon which such efforts have so miserably re-acted : begetting , as to the task as the author , only the cheerless rewards of scorn and of contempt . And , yet , how happens it that , undeterred by former failures , there have been still found individuals ready to embark anew in the speculation , and stake interest and character in the fruitless attempt of an irregular investigation of the same enigma ? It is because that , however momentarilchagrined bthe dullness of disappointment ,
y y there is a buoyancy in the human mind , when in search after Truth , which will ever renovate it to a second charge ; and while there exist so many evidences of internal light as characterise the aggregate of this Heaveii--taught community , it is not at all to be wondered at that those hankerings after its source , which have so influenced man in all ages , and which could not have been so universal without an admission at
least of its reality , should have propelled fresh adventurers anon upon the arena , and bewildered them , too , in the same shadowy assimilations which mocked their predecessors in quest of the GLORIOUS ORIGINAL .