Brotherly Love.

grew , your faculties unfolded , and eyes of love hailed your growth , and watched with rapture your dawning and ripening intelligence . I grew , every fibre of my frame was stringing , and the spirit of enquiry came forth , ellicited by expanding intelligence ; but what eye marked my physical or mental development . There were none to praise , not even to censure ; for though thoughts and feelings , and fancies , warm and pure

and varied , grew out of my heart and brain , they withered in the bleak atmosphere of neglect ; for who could regard this rude tenement that contained them ? Go ; you have called forth the past from grateful oblivion , to embitter the present and render hopeless the future . " "If I have done so , heaven is my witness , Simon , that it was unintentional . I feel for youfor all creation , only genuine sentiments of

, brotherly love . It is only recently that I have joined the Masonic body , and my natural feelings have become more intensified by my union with that fraternity . Would that you were one of us I The vulgar mind and superstition have thrown an absurd aspersion or . us , and yet what is our sole object ? To promote universal brotherhood to meet with the cordial grasp of friendship our fellow men who have enrolled themselves amongst

us , without reference to rank , country , or creed ; to rise superior to social , local , or religious distinctions ; and to hail as a brother every man who treads the earth untainted with crime . Would that you were one

of us , Simon . I repeat , yon would find amongst us a solace for the wounds your feelings might sustain in your intercourse with the cold , the malevolent , or thoughtless . " "And yet , " said Simon , with a sneer , " with such professions , and though you are a Freemason , you could interpose between me and a paltry toy I sought , whose possession could yield you little gratification . "

" I grant , that in so doing , " said Alfred , " I acted according to the impulses of my vanity , and you must make some allowance for the frailty of human nature , which will sometimes tempt us to stray from the path of principle . " "Human nature , whose very development is to make the strongoppress the weak . Can your boasted Order loosen the gripe of the strong

from the throat of the weak ? Ton may form yourselves into societies , clothe yourselves with formalities , and veil yourselves in mysteries , butyon cannot change human nature . The man who can trample down his fellow man , ' will do so when he stands in Ms way , in the face of aE the Freemasonry in the world . Physical strength will beat down physical weakness , mental power will prostrate mental imbecility , and beauty

crush deformity . The beast of the desert , the brute creation generally , are a correct type of man in his deeds , only the one acts from his physical impulses , the other from the promptings of a depraved heart and reason , the most relentless of the two . " " I grant that there is much of truth in what you say . The imperfection of humanity too often tempts the human being from the path of duty .

He infringes the impulses of his better nature , and the Divine Archtype which is impressed upon his spirit , which I maintain asserts its supremacy though warped and disfigured by the circumstances of his being . But ,