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Article THE BOOK OF THE LODGE.* ← Page 3 of 7 →
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The Book Of The Lodge.*
which are unbecoming of our profession as christians ; giving us credit for being as perfect in our nomenclature as the squire of Hudibras , who - ' * Anthroposophus and Flood , And Jacob Bellmen understood ; Knew many an amulet and charm , That would do neither good nor harm ; In Rosicrucian lore as learned , As he that vere adcr , tns earned . ' *
Heaven help the impenetrable blockheads ! they would have us to be what they wish , rather than what we are . Even some of our own brethren , who have not entered deeply into the intricacies of masonic lore , but rest satisfied with a knowledge of the external trappings of the Order , —like a boon companion in an ancient corporation that we wot of , before the municipal reform came into operation , on being elected a common-councilman , declared that he had attained the height of his
ambition in the privilege of enjoying the civic dinners scot-free—these , we repeat , entertain unworthy ideas of an institution which they are either too proud or too ignorant to comprehend ; thinking , bless their simple souls ! that operapretium non est . It will be unnecessary to consult the oracle , as Panurge ( the Bishop of Valence , ) is represented to have done at the recommendation of Friar John ofthe Funnels , who was the Rabelaic personation of the Cardinal Castillon , to be assured that the
result will be a helpless and deplorable ignorance of the very first principles of the Order . As witness , the purple brother , who seriously enquired of a friend what was meant by a landmark ; a piece of information which he thought peradventure he might , at some time or other , be called on officially to explain . These wavering brothers resemble the recreant Pliable , described by honest John Bunyan , who says , " Now I saw in my dream , that by this time Pliable was got home to his house .
So his neighbours came to visit him ; and some of them called him wise man for coming back , and some of them called him fool for hazarding himself with Christian ; others again did mock at his cowardliness , saying , surely since you began to venture , I would not have been so
base to have given out for a few difficulties . So Pliable sat sneaking among them . " The " Book of the Lodge " sets all this right , and neither the fraternity nor the uninitiated need be at any further loss on the subject of Freemasonry . If its design be not entirely incomprehensible , the author ' s ten definitions , which have been selected with great care from authentic sources in different eras of the art , will explain it to the satisfaction of the most obdurate cowanand after this revelationif
; , any one should be so obtuse in intellect , or vicious in intention , as to assign improper motives to the fraternity , he must , like Sir Mungo Malagrowther , be afflicted with a convenient insensibility to the truth . Having disposed satisfactorily of the question , " What is Masonry ? " our author proceeds to a description of the Lodge ; its situation , ground , ornaments , furniture , jewels , fixed lights , & c . & c , which some of our brethren , even if they have attained official eminence , might study with and
profit pleasure . The fraternity will readily understand the reasoning and descriptions in this chapter , while to the cowan , it will appear like an unknown tongue ; although when he reads it , he may plume himself upon his knowledge , and exclaim with the tinker in the play—* ' Am I a lord ? Or do I dream ? or have 1 dream'd till now ? I do not sleep ; I see , I hear , I speak , 1 smell sweet savours , and I feci soft things . Upon my life , I am a lord indeed , And not a tinker , nor Christonhero Slv . '"
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Book Of The Lodge.*
which are unbecoming of our profession as christians ; giving us credit for being as perfect in our nomenclature as the squire of Hudibras , who - ' * Anthroposophus and Flood , And Jacob Bellmen understood ; Knew many an amulet and charm , That would do neither good nor harm ; In Rosicrucian lore as learned , As he that vere adcr , tns earned . ' *
Heaven help the impenetrable blockheads ! they would have us to be what they wish , rather than what we are . Even some of our own brethren , who have not entered deeply into the intricacies of masonic lore , but rest satisfied with a knowledge of the external trappings of the Order , —like a boon companion in an ancient corporation that we wot of , before the municipal reform came into operation , on being elected a common-councilman , declared that he had attained the height of his
ambition in the privilege of enjoying the civic dinners scot-free—these , we repeat , entertain unworthy ideas of an institution which they are either too proud or too ignorant to comprehend ; thinking , bless their simple souls ! that operapretium non est . It will be unnecessary to consult the oracle , as Panurge ( the Bishop of Valence , ) is represented to have done at the recommendation of Friar John ofthe Funnels , who was the Rabelaic personation of the Cardinal Castillon , to be assured that the
result will be a helpless and deplorable ignorance of the very first principles of the Order . As witness , the purple brother , who seriously enquired of a friend what was meant by a landmark ; a piece of information which he thought peradventure he might , at some time or other , be called on officially to explain . These wavering brothers resemble the recreant Pliable , described by honest John Bunyan , who says , " Now I saw in my dream , that by this time Pliable was got home to his house .
So his neighbours came to visit him ; and some of them called him wise man for coming back , and some of them called him fool for hazarding himself with Christian ; others again did mock at his cowardliness , saying , surely since you began to venture , I would not have been so
base to have given out for a few difficulties . So Pliable sat sneaking among them . " The " Book of the Lodge " sets all this right , and neither the fraternity nor the uninitiated need be at any further loss on the subject of Freemasonry . If its design be not entirely incomprehensible , the author ' s ten definitions , which have been selected with great care from authentic sources in different eras of the art , will explain it to the satisfaction of the most obdurate cowanand after this revelationif
; , any one should be so obtuse in intellect , or vicious in intention , as to assign improper motives to the fraternity , he must , like Sir Mungo Malagrowther , be afflicted with a convenient insensibility to the truth . Having disposed satisfactorily of the question , " What is Masonry ? " our author proceeds to a description of the Lodge ; its situation , ground , ornaments , furniture , jewels , fixed lights , & c . & c , which some of our brethren , even if they have attained official eminence , might study with and
profit pleasure . The fraternity will readily understand the reasoning and descriptions in this chapter , while to the cowan , it will appear like an unknown tongue ; although when he reads it , he may plume himself upon his knowledge , and exclaim with the tinker in the play—* ' Am I a lord ? Or do I dream ? or have 1 dream'd till now ? I do not sleep ; I see , I hear , I speak , 1 smell sweet savours , and I feci soft things . Upon my life , I am a lord indeed , And not a tinker , nor Christonhero Slv . '"