Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Preface.
PREFACE .
WITH another closing year , another volume of the Freemason is happily and successfully completed . Fourteen years ago , at a time when Masonic literature was at a low ebb , the Publisher commenced the Freemason under excellent
auspices , and with a promise of reality which has been more than justified by the result . Indeed , when we look back on ils progress through the intervening years , wo must bo greatly struck with thc remarkable position it has taken in Masonic journalism .
Read at home , and largely perused abroad , in the United States and Canada , it has
given a tone and temper to all subjects of Masonic interest and discussion . And this it has mainly succeeded in doing by the general fairness and impartiality which have characterised its pages . It has endeavoured to encourage literary discussion and
archaeological researches , artistic tastes and aesthetic developement , at the same time that it has manfully essayed to keep down the acrimonious tone of controversy , to restrain the acerbity of polemical struggles , and to restrain ritual allusions within
careful limits . All these are hard tasks to perform , and harder results to achieve ; but as on these points specially the Freemason may . fairly claim credit to itself , so to its liberal arrangements and careful Masonic management may much of its steady advance be attributed .
Another point is very noteworthy . While the Freemason has been open to fair complaints and reasonable discussion , it has never sought to pander to a clique , or to prop up a party ; and while , also , it has allowed numerous writers in its correspondence columns at times fair play , it has never forgotten the respect due to
our Masonic superiors , the befitting allegiance which can properly be claimed by constitutional authority . It is under these circumstances that the Publisher can justly
congratulate his numerous readers on the conclusion of this volume , assuring them that no pains will be spared in 1883 to render tho Freemason worthy of the always generous support and patronage of so many staunch friends in all lands .
16 , GREAT QUEEN STREET , LONDON * , W . C , 30 /// December , 1882 ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Preface.
PREFACE .
WITH another closing year , another volume of the Freemason is happily and successfully completed . Fourteen years ago , at a time when Masonic literature was at a low ebb , the Publisher commenced the Freemason under excellent
auspices , and with a promise of reality which has been more than justified by the result . Indeed , when we look back on ils progress through the intervening years , wo must bo greatly struck with thc remarkable position it has taken in Masonic journalism .
Read at home , and largely perused abroad , in the United States and Canada , it has
given a tone and temper to all subjects of Masonic interest and discussion . And this it has mainly succeeded in doing by the general fairness and impartiality which have characterised its pages . It has endeavoured to encourage literary discussion and
archaeological researches , artistic tastes and aesthetic developement , at the same time that it has manfully essayed to keep down the acrimonious tone of controversy , to restrain the acerbity of polemical struggles , and to restrain ritual allusions within
careful limits . All these are hard tasks to perform , and harder results to achieve ; but as on these points specially the Freemason may . fairly claim credit to itself , so to its liberal arrangements and careful Masonic management may much of its steady advance be attributed .
Another point is very noteworthy . While the Freemason has been open to fair complaints and reasonable discussion , it has never sought to pander to a clique , or to prop up a party ; and while , also , it has allowed numerous writers in its correspondence columns at times fair play , it has never forgotten the respect due to
our Masonic superiors , the befitting allegiance which can properly be claimed by constitutional authority . It is under these circumstances that the Publisher can justly
congratulate his numerous readers on the conclusion of this volume , assuring them that no pains will be spared in 1883 to render tho Freemason worthy of the always generous support and patronage of so many staunch friends in all lands .
16 , GREAT QUEEN STREET , LONDON * , W . C , 30 /// December , 1882 ,