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Article ON FREEMASONRY, ← Page 3 of 5 →
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On Freemasonry,
on this . The terms of such a league , with the sole end in view of embarrassing the charitable operations of Freemasonry , would be worth knowing , if they could be correctly ascertained . " " But they are too well guarded , " rejoined B ; " and I opine , that these bold contemners of your secret , will keep their own too closely to incur any danger of a discovery . " " It is alas , too true ; but I am still at a loss to know what there can be in Masonry to excite the ire of Protestant and Catholicand cause them to
, unite , like Herod and Pilate against Christ , to disturb the onward progress of an unassuming society , and to restrict its means of doing good . We may venture however to remind them of a few historical facts from which they may learn the insufficiency of persecution to crush an adversary . Did the ten primitive persecutions , from Nero to Diocletian , extirpate Christianity ? By no means ; for even Gibbon could say— ' these persecutions served only to revive the zeal and restore the discipline of the faithful . ' Did the massitci-e of St . Bartholomew extirpate the Huguenots ? Did the persecutions
under our own Mary , destroy the Protestant succession in England ? Did the Morgan persecution , although it was carried to such a length as to number two thirds of the population in the league against it , succeed in extirpating ( as it threatened ) every vestige of Masonry in the United States ? All these tremendous engines of oppression signally failed in their effect . And so will the present crusade against Freemasonry in England , although Catholic and Protestant may exert their utmost energies to inflict upon it some grievous injury . "
" There may be some truth in this , but it is to be hoped these worthies are not actuated by such vindictive feelings . " " My dear friend , we should be sorry to impute uncharitable motives to the contracting parties in this unholy alliance ; but we confess our
incapability of tracing it to a pure source . " [ We shall leave them therefore to their own reflections , which will not be very enviable when they discover , by perusing the following chapters , if they are candid enough to devote a few minutes to their consideration , how widely they have steered from the mark in accusing us of practices which have not virtue for their basis . ] " And supposing we are willing to admit the validity of this plea , what will you say to Mr . Soane ' s attack ? He has taken a different line of argument from the reviewers ; and , I think , has ably refuted your absurd pretensions to hi
a gh antiquity . " " Mr . Soane is a Bachelor of Arts , and ambitious of popularity . He has therefore offered himself as a candidate for the doubtful fame which attends an attempted exposure of the designs of Masonry . He has been imprudent enough to launch his javelin against the immortal Order . But , alas , the hand is feeble , and the dart recoils guiltless of blood . We hope no one will attempt to answer Mr . Soane . It will give him a consequence which he little merits . He has placed himself in precisely the situation which we wish him to
keep ; for he stands exposed to the ridicule of the whole fraternity , and we should be sorry to see his position disturbed . In the language of Cervantes , ' though injuries are apt to awaken choler in the humblest breasts , yet in ours this rule must admit of an exception . You would have me , perhaps , call him ass , madman , and coxcomb ; but I have no such design . Let his own sin be his punishment ; let him eat it with his food , and much good may it do him ! ' We are not sorry however to find that the doctor has iven him a touch—a sliht — waft with
g very gonea mere the feather of his quill pen—but sufficient to fetter him so tightly to his position , with a chain of dates , that his ineffectual attempts to extricate himself will make our joyous fraternity laugh all the louder . " * " What ! are ycu indifferent to Mr . Soane ' s assertion that Freemasonry is ' the fiction of a credulous age , and that , as the day of mysticism has gone
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry,
on this . The terms of such a league , with the sole end in view of embarrassing the charitable operations of Freemasonry , would be worth knowing , if they could be correctly ascertained . " " But they are too well guarded , " rejoined B ; " and I opine , that these bold contemners of your secret , will keep their own too closely to incur any danger of a discovery . " " It is alas , too true ; but I am still at a loss to know what there can be in Masonry to excite the ire of Protestant and Catholicand cause them to
, unite , like Herod and Pilate against Christ , to disturb the onward progress of an unassuming society , and to restrict its means of doing good . We may venture however to remind them of a few historical facts from which they may learn the insufficiency of persecution to crush an adversary . Did the ten primitive persecutions , from Nero to Diocletian , extirpate Christianity ? By no means ; for even Gibbon could say— ' these persecutions served only to revive the zeal and restore the discipline of the faithful . ' Did the massitci-e of St . Bartholomew extirpate the Huguenots ? Did the persecutions
under our own Mary , destroy the Protestant succession in England ? Did the Morgan persecution , although it was carried to such a length as to number two thirds of the population in the league against it , succeed in extirpating ( as it threatened ) every vestige of Masonry in the United States ? All these tremendous engines of oppression signally failed in their effect . And so will the present crusade against Freemasonry in England , although Catholic and Protestant may exert their utmost energies to inflict upon it some grievous injury . "
" There may be some truth in this , but it is to be hoped these worthies are not actuated by such vindictive feelings . " " My dear friend , we should be sorry to impute uncharitable motives to the contracting parties in this unholy alliance ; but we confess our
incapability of tracing it to a pure source . " [ We shall leave them therefore to their own reflections , which will not be very enviable when they discover , by perusing the following chapters , if they are candid enough to devote a few minutes to their consideration , how widely they have steered from the mark in accusing us of practices which have not virtue for their basis . ] " And supposing we are willing to admit the validity of this plea , what will you say to Mr . Soane ' s attack ? He has taken a different line of argument from the reviewers ; and , I think , has ably refuted your absurd pretensions to hi
a gh antiquity . " " Mr . Soane is a Bachelor of Arts , and ambitious of popularity . He has therefore offered himself as a candidate for the doubtful fame which attends an attempted exposure of the designs of Masonry . He has been imprudent enough to launch his javelin against the immortal Order . But , alas , the hand is feeble , and the dart recoils guiltless of blood . We hope no one will attempt to answer Mr . Soane . It will give him a consequence which he little merits . He has placed himself in precisely the situation which we wish him to
keep ; for he stands exposed to the ridicule of the whole fraternity , and we should be sorry to see his position disturbed . In the language of Cervantes , ' though injuries are apt to awaken choler in the humblest breasts , yet in ours this rule must admit of an exception . You would have me , perhaps , call him ass , madman , and coxcomb ; but I have no such design . Let his own sin be his punishment ; let him eat it with his food , and much good may it do him ! ' We are not sorry however to find that the doctor has iven him a touch—a sliht — waft with
g very gonea mere the feather of his quill pen—but sufficient to fetter him so tightly to his position , with a chain of dates , that his ineffectual attempts to extricate himself will make our joyous fraternity laugh all the louder . " * " What ! are ycu indifferent to Mr . Soane ' s assertion that Freemasonry is ' the fiction of a credulous age , and that , as the day of mysticism has gone