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Article MASONRY RESTORED TO ITS GENUINE PRINCIPLES. ← Page 4 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonry Restored To Its Genuine Principles.
should constantly seek for falsehood and ignorance as the means and hopes of life . Therein consisted the fortune of their masters and the masterpiece of their rulers' politics . They are the models that almost all their successors in legislation have imitated . And here we must observe , that it is indispensably necessary never to separate science from virtue .
Science alone , as in the instance of the Egyptian priests , when severed from virtue , made them able deceivers . Virtue alone , without science , would make dupes and clumsy instructors .
f he two must be for ever joined in order to make real meu . The VV . M . of Lodges taking the precisely opposite character to that of the Egyptian priests , will have nearly all their duties traced out . Far from being obliged to teach falsehoods , they will be obliged , on the contrary , to seek every means of telling the truth . Their only art will he to speak truth without giving offence . It is a difficulty they should know how to conquer .
As the world has been long in existence , it everywhere bears traces of good and of evil , of virtues and of vices . History will prove to W . M . a greater resource than they will need ; and as man , whatever he be , cannot entirely subdue his conscience , the audience , whosoever they be , will receive the truth as they receive the light of day , and will be obliged to exclaim , This is rnvni . Thus the apprenticeshi p to Masonry will be neither so long nor so laborious that of the
as Egyptian priests ; for there is nothing so long , nothing so difficult to retain as the reasonings of falsehood . It is the bane of all sacerdotal schools * . The teachers themselves admit it . It will suffice if the W . M . be an honest man , and known to be such , that he have received or given to himself a rational education , which will make him love his fellow men as hrethren . He should have a good address , a pleasing voice , talent and prudence ; witli these , let him but stud y his ritual as the priest studies his books , and it will be sufficient .
CHAPTER IV . Conditions precedent to Initiation . Let us now say that there are certain conditions which are to be complied with by theprofane who seek for initiation . Those conditions we are about to specify .
To become a Mason , a man must be free , and of moral habits ; in other words , a man must be well born and well brought up . Masonry has been too much in the hands of the vulgar , and the vulvar have destroyed it . The low-born of this age do not as those of former times , seek for lying fables , but they do worse ; they have acquired a boldness in all things , a spirit of turbulence and a folly which spoils every thing , and makes the approach of good impossible . This is not the fault ot the vulgar ; they have seen ill instituted by the contradictory events which have occurred by the still more contradictory institutions
* This remark tallies with and illustrates the author ' s observations in paKe 4-1 . 1 . —
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonry Restored To Its Genuine Principles.
should constantly seek for falsehood and ignorance as the means and hopes of life . Therein consisted the fortune of their masters and the masterpiece of their rulers' politics . They are the models that almost all their successors in legislation have imitated . And here we must observe , that it is indispensably necessary never to separate science from virtue .
Science alone , as in the instance of the Egyptian priests , when severed from virtue , made them able deceivers . Virtue alone , without science , would make dupes and clumsy instructors .
f he two must be for ever joined in order to make real meu . The VV . M . of Lodges taking the precisely opposite character to that of the Egyptian priests , will have nearly all their duties traced out . Far from being obliged to teach falsehoods , they will be obliged , on the contrary , to seek every means of telling the truth . Their only art will he to speak truth without giving offence . It is a difficulty they should know how to conquer .
As the world has been long in existence , it everywhere bears traces of good and of evil , of virtues and of vices . History will prove to W . M . a greater resource than they will need ; and as man , whatever he be , cannot entirely subdue his conscience , the audience , whosoever they be , will receive the truth as they receive the light of day , and will be obliged to exclaim , This is rnvni . Thus the apprenticeshi p to Masonry will be neither so long nor so laborious that of the
as Egyptian priests ; for there is nothing so long , nothing so difficult to retain as the reasonings of falsehood . It is the bane of all sacerdotal schools * . The teachers themselves admit it . It will suffice if the W . M . be an honest man , and known to be such , that he have received or given to himself a rational education , which will make him love his fellow men as hrethren . He should have a good address , a pleasing voice , talent and prudence ; witli these , let him but stud y his ritual as the priest studies his books , and it will be sufficient .
CHAPTER IV . Conditions precedent to Initiation . Let us now say that there are certain conditions which are to be complied with by theprofane who seek for initiation . Those conditions we are about to specify .
To become a Mason , a man must be free , and of moral habits ; in other words , a man must be well born and well brought up . Masonry has been too much in the hands of the vulgar , and the vulvar have destroyed it . The low-born of this age do not as those of former times , seek for lying fables , but they do worse ; they have acquired a boldness in all things , a spirit of turbulence and a folly which spoils every thing , and makes the approach of good impossible . This is not the fault ot the vulgar ; they have seen ill instituted by the contradictory events which have occurred by the still more contradictory institutions
* This remark tallies with and illustrates the author ' s observations in paKe 4-1 . 1 . —