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Article THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; MASONICALLY VIEWED. Page 1 of 2 Article THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; MASONICALLY VIEWED. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Nineteenth Century; Masonically Viewed.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ; MASONICALLY VIEWED .
Being an Address for the Festival of St . John the Baptist , 1 S 99 , by Bro . CHARLES FREDERICK SILBERBAUER , Orator of the Lodge De Goede Hoop , Cape Town , Cape Colony , under the Grand East of the Netherlands in South Africa . During the past Masonic year two events have occurred of more than ordinary interest to every Craftsman in South Africa , and worthy of special notice on this occasion . As a lodge we gladly shared in the local celebrations in honour of the coronation of Oueen Wilhelmina—that sweet flower
of the House of Orange ( a House to which our Empire was so deeply indebted in iCSS for placing its civil and religious liberties on a firmer basis , and whose scions have during this century taken high rank among the rulers of the Order ) . May the Almighty abundantly bless her and her people , and grant that she may more than fulfil the lofty expectations which her career hitherto so amply warrants ! By a happy coincidence we have
also been privileged , more recently , to take our part in the loyal outburst of gratitude to the Giver of all-good gifts for His mercies vouchsafsd to our Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria during her prolongedrbenign , and prosperous reign over a far-extended realm . Herself the daughter of a Freemason and the mother of Royal Craftsmen , we most heartily join in the Laureate ' s aspiration regarding our beloved
Empress—May our children s children say : "She wrought her people lasting good ; Her Court was pure ; her life serene ; A thousand claims to reverence closed In her as Mother , Wife , and Queen . " We are nearing the threshold of the year 1930 , and—if our lives are spared —we may become to the generation about to be born objects of a reverential
awe akin to that with which we in our early youth regarded the aged survivors of the 1 Sth century . A rare Stoic indeed would he be who could unmoved reflect that little short of a physiological miracle will enable anyone here present to behold the last day of the year 1999 . No ! for ever stilled shall our voices be then , and our toilworn bodies laid to rest after life's fitful fever—even as it hath already been with the majority of the brethren of the Victorian era
Who , in their fair abodes of peace and truth With allegory deep and symbols old , Set forth in rite mysterious all that man May know , learn , fear , or hope . Though the Craft , as a general rule , takes no cognizance of matters external to itself , yet—seeing that every temple is supposed to be a symbol of the universe , and that the ancient charges enjoin the study of the liberal
arts and sciences—it may not be amiss , if , under the circumstances , we dwell for a brief space on a few of the many triumphs of our race during the 19 th century . It has been well said that the progress made in all spheres of human work since 1800 has been greater and more far-reaching than that attained during hundreds of years before it . Were Sophocles to flourish in these days , how many additional thoughts suggested by modern achievements would sparkle gem-like in that diadem of deathless
verse—Since first this native world began , Nature is busy all in every part ; But passing all in wisdom and in art , Superior shines inventive man .
Fearless of wintry winds and circling waves , He rides the ocean andtthe tempest braves j On him unwearied earth , with lavish hand , Immortal goddess , all her bounty pours , Patient beneath the rigid plough's command ,
, Year after year she yields her plenteous stores . ***** By learning and fair science crowned , Behold him now full-fraught with wisdom ' s lore , The laws of nature anxious to explore , With depth of thought profound .
The mining shaft is sunk to Tartarean depths , the tunnel is driven through the snow-capped mountain by the aid of power primarily generated by streams flowing down its very slopes ; the artesian well makes the desert to blossom as the rose ; the persevering Netherlander is now safeguarding with a success hitherto unprecedented the dykes which protect his lands wrested from the hoary main . The Suez Canal unites the waters of the
Mediterranean and Red Seas ; the construction of the Manchester and the North Sea Canals are events of yesterday , while there are rumours of a resumption of the works of the Panama Canal , which shall join the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans . The railway train whirls us rapidly with safety and comfort for thousands of miles along a road which engineering skill has taught to burrow beneath the beds of the mightiest rivers or through the
hearts of the eternal hills , to span the widest frith or even climb thc dizzy peak . The great African railway has recently emerged from the brain of the empire-dreamer , and is being steadily pushed on not only from the land of Pyramid and Sphinx ( reminiscent of hieratic and , as some aver , ancient Masonic associations ) , but also from this Cape of Storms ( soon we pray to be in very truth that of Good Hope once more ) , in which our lot is cast , and
\ yhere , in 1772 , our revered forefathers , under the Dutch Constitution , first lit the lamp of modern Freemasonry in the southern hemisphere with sacred fire originally derived from England's shrine . Reservoirs , whose proportions entitle them to be styled lakes , have been constructed in various portions of the globe , and recently the iniriemorial Nile has beheld the commencement of a gigantic barrier , which shall control the tide when in
flood or impound the waters for distribution over many a mile of otherwise parched land . The ocean steamer—the leviathan of the deep—has rendered those that go down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters wellnigh independent of the winds and waves . The science of aeronautics has made immense progress , and dirigible balloons now play important parts in
the operations of war and the investigation of atmospheric phenomena . Improvements in the microscope have revealed to us numerous mysteries in the domain of the infinitely small in almost every form of matter—whether animate or inanimate—and taught us to recognise and , therefore , to fight the bacillus of disease , to distinguish between beneficent bacteria and noxious microbes , to discover adulterations in our food , and to convict the
The Nineteenth Century; Masonically Viewed.
murderer or acquit the innocent from an examination of the suspicious bloodstains . Astronomical telescopes of huge dimensions have not only increased our knowledge respecting those heavenly bodies familiar to the men of old , but brought within our ken myriads upon myriads of shining worlds and systems which to the unaided eye seem but primal darkness of interstellar space . With the photographic camera we are enabled to readily
obtain counterfeit presentments of those near and dear to us , to permanently fix the fleeting impressions of nature in her various moods , to detect the ingenious erasure or forgery in the document produced as evidence in the court of justice , and to register on the negative stars invisible to us even with the most powerful telescope . Electricity lights our towns and dwellings , instantaneously conveys our messages to the uttermost ends of the earth
either over the vast continent or under the deepest ocean , and also ( for shorter distances ) through the trackless fields of air . It tips with healing fire the surgical instrument in operations where other methods would prove fatal ; with skilfully graduated force , it cures or alleviates many ills that flesh is heir to ; in electroplating , it renders yeoman ' s service to art ; and chemistry is dependent upon
its aid in a variety of important processes . Through its agency some of the energy which thunders down Niagara or in lesser volumes descends from crag to crag all over the world is converted into power , heat , and light for the benefit of the populous cities . By means of the telephone , friends miles apart hold converse as if they were in the same room together ; the phonograph and graphophone reproduce at will the words once spoken
by many a voice now hushed in death , while the bioscope or Kinetoscope re-enacts on the lantern screen any phase of movement—whether it be the innumerable laughter of the waves , the tree tops bending to the breeze , or some busy scene of human life . With the spectroscope we determine with accuracy the chemical composition of the remotest star ; and RSntgen Rays pass through the body and locate the bullet which eludes the torturing
probe , or reveals the death that lurks within the seemingly innocent packet received from the cowardly assassin . The practical application of the laws of optics in the combination of lenses and prisms enables the lighthouse to send forth its warning beams to a distance never dreamt of by our ancestors . Coal has been made to furnish us with a convenient illuminant , with powerful disinfectants and with dyes of rarest beauty . As the earliest artificer in
metals , Tubal-Cain , would be lost in amazement were he permitted to behold the rolling mill or the well nigh miraculous Bessemer steel processto say naught of the machine tools which bore into , plane , saw , and stamp cold iron as if it were wood , or the steam hammer smiting with an accuracy and force worthy of comparison with the mythic exploits of Vulcan himself . Think also of the thought and ingenuity expended upon the prosaic but
useful sewing machine , the typewriter , the bicycle , the electric tramway , or the motor car . New metals—such as aluminium—have been discovered , and improved means devised for extracting those previously known from the reluctant ore . We may well style all trades and industries new , by reason of the entirely different machinery and other methods of working recently brought to bear upon them . To take one solitary instance , what a
far cry it is from the earliest printing press to the linotype and similar contrivances of the present day ! The hydraulic press , with its resistless force so silently applied in diverse forms , reminds one of the slow but sure operations of mighty nature herself . Various also are the uses to which air under pressure is put . It works the rock drill in the bowels of the earth , propels the mail-laden carrier through the pneumatic despatch tube and
keeps at bay the waters and mud which threaten to overwhelm the tunnel drivers in the " greathead shield , " or—in its gentler manifestations—causes a hundred clocks far apart to synchronise with a central standard timepiece , and ( replacing the antiquated " trackers" ) makes the full organ peal forth with as little effort to the musician ' s fingers as if only one stop of softest voice were sounding-. High explosives—to name gun cotton and dynamite
alone—rend huge masses of rock asunder with a power stupendous as that of the fabled Titans . Substances unknown not many years ago are in daily use with us ; need I instance Indiarubber and guttapercha , or paraffin and petroleum ? Cases have been liquified , nay , even solidified , and the most refractory metals vaporised , while recent experiments with low temperatures and liquid air seem to point to startling developments in the near
future . Chloroform and other amesthetics lull consciousness to sleep and still the quivering nerves—thus enabling the surgeon ' s blade to do its beneficent work within a hairbreadth of the very citadel of being ; and scientific nursing often fans the almost expiring embers of life into the full blaze of health restored . Hypnotism ( already in some quarters a branch of the healing art ) professes , with her sister thoughtreading ] to be capable of
further extensions ; and patient observers are devoting attention to that mysterious sixth sense which insects possess but which his lacking in man Lunacy is no longer considered as somewhat akin to dishonour , but as a disease capable of successful treatment by loving tact in suitably equipped asylums . Geology is now a science most rich in practical results , and the trusted adviser of those proposing to incur heavy expenditure in the search for
minerals or for water-storing strata . Almost all portions of the earth ' s surface and of the ocean ' s bed have been explored ; the frozen North retains but few of her secrets , and a vigorous effort is being made to lift the veil of ages from the l . ttle-known Antarctic regions . The determination of the mechanical equivalent of heat , the doctrine of the indestructibility of matter and of the conservation of energy , not to mention our present
knowledge of the laws of chemistry , have done much to save inventors and investigators from pursuing labours as illusory as those fo . merly bestowed upon the problem of perpetual motion . Ag lin , the theories of evolution and natural selection have solved many an enigma whbh baflhd the speculations of our predecessors . Trie Egyptian hieroglyphics—unintelligible for centuries—have at last found able interpreters ; and the painstaking toils of
antiquaries have been crowned with wondrous success in many other fields of labour . The founding may here be noted of the Lidge Quatuor Coronati , No . 2076 , London ( now numbering over 2700 members tnroughout the world ) , which focusses the rays of the leading intellectual lights of the Craft , and publishes the results of careful inquiries into all subjects of interest to our Order . When we visit the ancient seats of learning , we find that , although still loyally standing upon the old paths of mental and
spiritual culture for their own sakes , they , nevertheless , have their modern side also , which is destined to add to their already great renown . Every historian worthy of the name now devotes more thought to the illustration of streams of tendency than lo the description of battles , sieges , and Court intrigues ; while the novelist must not only strive to emulate the excellences of the earlier writers of fiction , but also be absolutely accurate in his portrayal of persons who actually lived at the period of his narrative . The principles of equity have been so largely blended with the otherwise
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Nineteenth Century; Masonically Viewed.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ; MASONICALLY VIEWED .
Being an Address for the Festival of St . John the Baptist , 1 S 99 , by Bro . CHARLES FREDERICK SILBERBAUER , Orator of the Lodge De Goede Hoop , Cape Town , Cape Colony , under the Grand East of the Netherlands in South Africa . During the past Masonic year two events have occurred of more than ordinary interest to every Craftsman in South Africa , and worthy of special notice on this occasion . As a lodge we gladly shared in the local celebrations in honour of the coronation of Oueen Wilhelmina—that sweet flower
of the House of Orange ( a House to which our Empire was so deeply indebted in iCSS for placing its civil and religious liberties on a firmer basis , and whose scions have during this century taken high rank among the rulers of the Order ) . May the Almighty abundantly bless her and her people , and grant that she may more than fulfil the lofty expectations which her career hitherto so amply warrants ! By a happy coincidence we have
also been privileged , more recently , to take our part in the loyal outburst of gratitude to the Giver of all-good gifts for His mercies vouchsafsd to our Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria during her prolongedrbenign , and prosperous reign over a far-extended realm . Herself the daughter of a Freemason and the mother of Royal Craftsmen , we most heartily join in the Laureate ' s aspiration regarding our beloved
Empress—May our children s children say : "She wrought her people lasting good ; Her Court was pure ; her life serene ; A thousand claims to reverence closed In her as Mother , Wife , and Queen . " We are nearing the threshold of the year 1930 , and—if our lives are spared —we may become to the generation about to be born objects of a reverential
awe akin to that with which we in our early youth regarded the aged survivors of the 1 Sth century . A rare Stoic indeed would he be who could unmoved reflect that little short of a physiological miracle will enable anyone here present to behold the last day of the year 1999 . No ! for ever stilled shall our voices be then , and our toilworn bodies laid to rest after life's fitful fever—even as it hath already been with the majority of the brethren of the Victorian era
Who , in their fair abodes of peace and truth With allegory deep and symbols old , Set forth in rite mysterious all that man May know , learn , fear , or hope . Though the Craft , as a general rule , takes no cognizance of matters external to itself , yet—seeing that every temple is supposed to be a symbol of the universe , and that the ancient charges enjoin the study of the liberal
arts and sciences—it may not be amiss , if , under the circumstances , we dwell for a brief space on a few of the many triumphs of our race during the 19 th century . It has been well said that the progress made in all spheres of human work since 1800 has been greater and more far-reaching than that attained during hundreds of years before it . Were Sophocles to flourish in these days , how many additional thoughts suggested by modern achievements would sparkle gem-like in that diadem of deathless
verse—Since first this native world began , Nature is busy all in every part ; But passing all in wisdom and in art , Superior shines inventive man .
Fearless of wintry winds and circling waves , He rides the ocean andtthe tempest braves j On him unwearied earth , with lavish hand , Immortal goddess , all her bounty pours , Patient beneath the rigid plough's command ,
, Year after year she yields her plenteous stores . ***** By learning and fair science crowned , Behold him now full-fraught with wisdom ' s lore , The laws of nature anxious to explore , With depth of thought profound .
The mining shaft is sunk to Tartarean depths , the tunnel is driven through the snow-capped mountain by the aid of power primarily generated by streams flowing down its very slopes ; the artesian well makes the desert to blossom as the rose ; the persevering Netherlander is now safeguarding with a success hitherto unprecedented the dykes which protect his lands wrested from the hoary main . The Suez Canal unites the waters of the
Mediterranean and Red Seas ; the construction of the Manchester and the North Sea Canals are events of yesterday , while there are rumours of a resumption of the works of the Panama Canal , which shall join the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans . The railway train whirls us rapidly with safety and comfort for thousands of miles along a road which engineering skill has taught to burrow beneath the beds of the mightiest rivers or through the
hearts of the eternal hills , to span the widest frith or even climb thc dizzy peak . The great African railway has recently emerged from the brain of the empire-dreamer , and is being steadily pushed on not only from the land of Pyramid and Sphinx ( reminiscent of hieratic and , as some aver , ancient Masonic associations ) , but also from this Cape of Storms ( soon we pray to be in very truth that of Good Hope once more ) , in which our lot is cast , and
\ yhere , in 1772 , our revered forefathers , under the Dutch Constitution , first lit the lamp of modern Freemasonry in the southern hemisphere with sacred fire originally derived from England's shrine . Reservoirs , whose proportions entitle them to be styled lakes , have been constructed in various portions of the globe , and recently the iniriemorial Nile has beheld the commencement of a gigantic barrier , which shall control the tide when in
flood or impound the waters for distribution over many a mile of otherwise parched land . The ocean steamer—the leviathan of the deep—has rendered those that go down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters wellnigh independent of the winds and waves . The science of aeronautics has made immense progress , and dirigible balloons now play important parts in
the operations of war and the investigation of atmospheric phenomena . Improvements in the microscope have revealed to us numerous mysteries in the domain of the infinitely small in almost every form of matter—whether animate or inanimate—and taught us to recognise and , therefore , to fight the bacillus of disease , to distinguish between beneficent bacteria and noxious microbes , to discover adulterations in our food , and to convict the
The Nineteenth Century; Masonically Viewed.
murderer or acquit the innocent from an examination of the suspicious bloodstains . Astronomical telescopes of huge dimensions have not only increased our knowledge respecting those heavenly bodies familiar to the men of old , but brought within our ken myriads upon myriads of shining worlds and systems which to the unaided eye seem but primal darkness of interstellar space . With the photographic camera we are enabled to readily
obtain counterfeit presentments of those near and dear to us , to permanently fix the fleeting impressions of nature in her various moods , to detect the ingenious erasure or forgery in the document produced as evidence in the court of justice , and to register on the negative stars invisible to us even with the most powerful telescope . Electricity lights our towns and dwellings , instantaneously conveys our messages to the uttermost ends of the earth
either over the vast continent or under the deepest ocean , and also ( for shorter distances ) through the trackless fields of air . It tips with healing fire the surgical instrument in operations where other methods would prove fatal ; with skilfully graduated force , it cures or alleviates many ills that flesh is heir to ; in electroplating , it renders yeoman ' s service to art ; and chemistry is dependent upon
its aid in a variety of important processes . Through its agency some of the energy which thunders down Niagara or in lesser volumes descends from crag to crag all over the world is converted into power , heat , and light for the benefit of the populous cities . By means of the telephone , friends miles apart hold converse as if they were in the same room together ; the phonograph and graphophone reproduce at will the words once spoken
by many a voice now hushed in death , while the bioscope or Kinetoscope re-enacts on the lantern screen any phase of movement—whether it be the innumerable laughter of the waves , the tree tops bending to the breeze , or some busy scene of human life . With the spectroscope we determine with accuracy the chemical composition of the remotest star ; and RSntgen Rays pass through the body and locate the bullet which eludes the torturing
probe , or reveals the death that lurks within the seemingly innocent packet received from the cowardly assassin . The practical application of the laws of optics in the combination of lenses and prisms enables the lighthouse to send forth its warning beams to a distance never dreamt of by our ancestors . Coal has been made to furnish us with a convenient illuminant , with powerful disinfectants and with dyes of rarest beauty . As the earliest artificer in
metals , Tubal-Cain , would be lost in amazement were he permitted to behold the rolling mill or the well nigh miraculous Bessemer steel processto say naught of the machine tools which bore into , plane , saw , and stamp cold iron as if it were wood , or the steam hammer smiting with an accuracy and force worthy of comparison with the mythic exploits of Vulcan himself . Think also of the thought and ingenuity expended upon the prosaic but
useful sewing machine , the typewriter , the bicycle , the electric tramway , or the motor car . New metals—such as aluminium—have been discovered , and improved means devised for extracting those previously known from the reluctant ore . We may well style all trades and industries new , by reason of the entirely different machinery and other methods of working recently brought to bear upon them . To take one solitary instance , what a
far cry it is from the earliest printing press to the linotype and similar contrivances of the present day ! The hydraulic press , with its resistless force so silently applied in diverse forms , reminds one of the slow but sure operations of mighty nature herself . Various also are the uses to which air under pressure is put . It works the rock drill in the bowels of the earth , propels the mail-laden carrier through the pneumatic despatch tube and
keeps at bay the waters and mud which threaten to overwhelm the tunnel drivers in the " greathead shield , " or—in its gentler manifestations—causes a hundred clocks far apart to synchronise with a central standard timepiece , and ( replacing the antiquated " trackers" ) makes the full organ peal forth with as little effort to the musician ' s fingers as if only one stop of softest voice were sounding-. High explosives—to name gun cotton and dynamite
alone—rend huge masses of rock asunder with a power stupendous as that of the fabled Titans . Substances unknown not many years ago are in daily use with us ; need I instance Indiarubber and guttapercha , or paraffin and petroleum ? Cases have been liquified , nay , even solidified , and the most refractory metals vaporised , while recent experiments with low temperatures and liquid air seem to point to startling developments in the near
future . Chloroform and other amesthetics lull consciousness to sleep and still the quivering nerves—thus enabling the surgeon ' s blade to do its beneficent work within a hairbreadth of the very citadel of being ; and scientific nursing often fans the almost expiring embers of life into the full blaze of health restored . Hypnotism ( already in some quarters a branch of the healing art ) professes , with her sister thoughtreading ] to be capable of
further extensions ; and patient observers are devoting attention to that mysterious sixth sense which insects possess but which his lacking in man Lunacy is no longer considered as somewhat akin to dishonour , but as a disease capable of successful treatment by loving tact in suitably equipped asylums . Geology is now a science most rich in practical results , and the trusted adviser of those proposing to incur heavy expenditure in the search for
minerals or for water-storing strata . Almost all portions of the earth ' s surface and of the ocean ' s bed have been explored ; the frozen North retains but few of her secrets , and a vigorous effort is being made to lift the veil of ages from the l . ttle-known Antarctic regions . The determination of the mechanical equivalent of heat , the doctrine of the indestructibility of matter and of the conservation of energy , not to mention our present
knowledge of the laws of chemistry , have done much to save inventors and investigators from pursuing labours as illusory as those fo . merly bestowed upon the problem of perpetual motion . Ag lin , the theories of evolution and natural selection have solved many an enigma whbh baflhd the speculations of our predecessors . Trie Egyptian hieroglyphics—unintelligible for centuries—have at last found able interpreters ; and the painstaking toils of
antiquaries have been crowned with wondrous success in many other fields of labour . The founding may here be noted of the Lidge Quatuor Coronati , No . 2076 , London ( now numbering over 2700 members tnroughout the world ) , which focusses the rays of the leading intellectual lights of the Craft , and publishes the results of careful inquiries into all subjects of interest to our Order . When we visit the ancient seats of learning , we find that , although still loyally standing upon the old paths of mental and
spiritual culture for their own sakes , they , nevertheless , have their modern side also , which is destined to add to their already great renown . Every historian worthy of the name now devotes more thought to the illustration of streams of tendency than lo the description of battles , sieges , and Court intrigues ; while the novelist must not only strive to emulate the excellences of the earlier writers of fiction , but also be absolutely accurate in his portrayal of persons who actually lived at the period of his narrative . The principles of equity have been so largely blended with the otherwise