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Article CHAPTER I. ← Page 3 of 6 →
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Chapter I.
mence their hostility hy retailing slanders , and throwing out insinuations at clubs and private coteries , which are generally well received , because such assemblies are congregated for amusement only , and require nothing but racy anecdotes , true or untrue , to promote the exhilaration of the present moment . A rolling snowball rapidly increases in magnitude , and so does an unfounded report . The debutant , proud of his applause , widens the circle of his charges against the Orderand his popularity
; increases in proportion as they become more improbable and mysterious . Finding , greatly to his astonishment , that he has become , not only " a hero of dinner tables , " but also " the pet of the drawing room , " by denouncing an institution which excludes females from its secret
celebrations ; he at length determines to write , aud thus seal the perpetuity of his fame . This , I believe , will be a correct description of the usual progress which has distinguished the career of all the adversaries of Freemasonry . "The charges which pertness , flippancy , and bigotry , prefer against us , " as the Chevalier Adamo once observed in a speech at a festival of Lodge 50 , in Dublin , " I disdain to meet ; but if any man in a spirit of sober
investigation , seeks to know in what Masonry consists , I tell him that it venerates and honours religion , I tell him it prohibits intemperance , inculcates order , honesty , sobriety , decorum—that it enjoins the practice of abstemiousness , sincerity , and universal benevolence . If he says this is a vague assertion , I will convince him by facts . I will take him to the house of mourning , where the widow weeps hopelessly over her desolate children—where penury and want have made their abodewhere the silence of is onl
despair y broken by the sigh of the brokenhearted orphan . I will show him the benevolent spirit of our institution , entering the abode of wretchedness , presenting the masonic cup of consolation to the widow , assuring her of protection , and the orphan of support . But while the objects of our peculiar care are the members of our own confraternity , whom poverty and misfortune have prostrated in the dust , there is nothing selfish in the charity we profess , for we are enjoined in the practice of universal benevolence . I may be told that every Christian may do as much ; I answer , yes , he ought . — -hut a Mason must . "
_ Such testimonies , from such men , must be sufficient , if candidly considered , to disarm this malignity , and make them friendly to the Order . Should it fail , there is no remedy but the infliction of that curious punishment which we find described in an ancient writer , * as a slight memento to those unfortunate persons who dogmatically presumed to dictate to others what they did not understand themselves ; it was to this effect . A certain witty rake , called Muthodes , was much -given to slanderand entertained his friends
, , at their symposiacs , with anecdotes £ ' u u e lnvented for the occasion , and strictures on various sciences of which he was known to be notoriousl y ignorant . At length he began to meddle with the affairs of state , condemning all the wise and benevolent institutions of antiquity . Intelli gence of this being conveyed to the Archon , he caused two tall stakes to be placed perpendicularly in the ground , and a third laid horizontall y across tlie top ; and commanded that the culprit should be suspended by the heels from the centre of the machine ; this being considered the proper position of those who wilfully misrepresent facts , and turn the truth upside down . The unauthorized
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chapter I.
mence their hostility hy retailing slanders , and throwing out insinuations at clubs and private coteries , which are generally well received , because such assemblies are congregated for amusement only , and require nothing but racy anecdotes , true or untrue , to promote the exhilaration of the present moment . A rolling snowball rapidly increases in magnitude , and so does an unfounded report . The debutant , proud of his applause , widens the circle of his charges against the Orderand his popularity
; increases in proportion as they become more improbable and mysterious . Finding , greatly to his astonishment , that he has become , not only " a hero of dinner tables , " but also " the pet of the drawing room , " by denouncing an institution which excludes females from its secret
celebrations ; he at length determines to write , aud thus seal the perpetuity of his fame . This , I believe , will be a correct description of the usual progress which has distinguished the career of all the adversaries of Freemasonry . "The charges which pertness , flippancy , and bigotry , prefer against us , " as the Chevalier Adamo once observed in a speech at a festival of Lodge 50 , in Dublin , " I disdain to meet ; but if any man in a spirit of sober
investigation , seeks to know in what Masonry consists , I tell him that it venerates and honours religion , I tell him it prohibits intemperance , inculcates order , honesty , sobriety , decorum—that it enjoins the practice of abstemiousness , sincerity , and universal benevolence . If he says this is a vague assertion , I will convince him by facts . I will take him to the house of mourning , where the widow weeps hopelessly over her desolate children—where penury and want have made their abodewhere the silence of is onl
despair y broken by the sigh of the brokenhearted orphan . I will show him the benevolent spirit of our institution , entering the abode of wretchedness , presenting the masonic cup of consolation to the widow , assuring her of protection , and the orphan of support . But while the objects of our peculiar care are the members of our own confraternity , whom poverty and misfortune have prostrated in the dust , there is nothing selfish in the charity we profess , for we are enjoined in the practice of universal benevolence . I may be told that every Christian may do as much ; I answer , yes , he ought . — -hut a Mason must . "
_ Such testimonies , from such men , must be sufficient , if candidly considered , to disarm this malignity , and make them friendly to the Order . Should it fail , there is no remedy but the infliction of that curious punishment which we find described in an ancient writer , * as a slight memento to those unfortunate persons who dogmatically presumed to dictate to others what they did not understand themselves ; it was to this effect . A certain witty rake , called Muthodes , was much -given to slanderand entertained his friends
, , at their symposiacs , with anecdotes £ ' u u e lnvented for the occasion , and strictures on various sciences of which he was known to be notoriousl y ignorant . At length he began to meddle with the affairs of state , condemning all the wise and benevolent institutions of antiquity . Intelli gence of this being conveyed to the Archon , he caused two tall stakes to be placed perpendicularly in the ground , and a third laid horizontall y across tlie top ; and commanded that the culprit should be suspended by the heels from the centre of the machine ; this being considered the proper position of those who wilfully misrepresent facts , and turn the truth upside down . The unauthorized