Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
How I Was First Prepared To Be Made A Mason.
day would incontinently presume to do , only I put this ancl that together , and came to the conclusion that I was not altogether satisfied that the millennuin would arrive when all mankind had become converted to a belief in the utter indisputability of the axiom that the whole theory of human happiness was contained in the injunction to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the clearest . Of course it was obvious that such a mistaken indulgence in emotion as benevolence rendered by heaven-born charity could find no place in this scheme of philosophy
—a philosophy which , of course , by eliminating charity altogether from its field , bundles the offshoot or manifestation of benevolence along with it—for it is plain that the branch must go with the tree . This , however , was a necessary application of the " survival of the fittest" theory , and I was not scholar enough to controvert its soundness . Somehow , I thought it seemed to clash with scriptural teachings ; but then the philosophers would say , "So much the worse for the scriptural teachings , " if they came into collision with their creed . The earthenware pitcher , floating down the stream in company with the brass pot , must give the latter a wide berth , or the crockery will come to grief .
But there was something else . On the principle that birds oi a feather nock together , my apostle of utilitarianism was wont to gather around him certain worthy missionaries of the new faith , whose professions I was sometimes privileged to hear . I need not—it would be distasteful to me and repugnant to my readers—attempt to reproduce the profound , the ponderous , the invaluable utterances of these sages . Suffice it to say , I gathered that in literature , the bank-book , the ledger , the title deeds , the rent roll , were all the products of the human brain worthy a prudent man ' s attention . Art meant
profligacy , degradation , ruin , for it involved idleness and dissipation . Those forms which appealed to the senses under the seductive presentations of music and the drama were not to be named , or alluded to only to evoke a wholesome denunciation in an expression of righteous abhorrence . I used sometimes to think , however—no doubt it was very irreverent , but youth is not without its aberrations into levity—that it would have been unsafe to tempt one of these old gentlemen with an order for the L
very yceum , and bet heavily on the faith of its not being used . Don't you remember' how a hero of fiction of this school , the late lamented Mr . Jonas , Chuzzlewit , attempts to obtain KUSOS with his lady-love by treating her and her sister when up from the country to the sights of the town . The passage is worth quoting , —
He " submitted their pedestrian powers to a pretty severe test ; for he showed them as many sights in the way of bridges , churches , streets , outsides of theatres , and other free spectacles , in that one forenoon , as most people see in a twelvemonth .. It was observable in this gentleman that he had an insurmountable distaste to the insides of buildings ; and that he was perfectly acquainted with the merits of all showsin respect of which there was any charge for admission , which it seemed were every
one detestable , and of the very lowest grade of merit . He was so thoroughly possessed with this opinion , that when Miss Charity happened to mention the circumstance of their having been twice or thrice to the theatre with Mr . Jinkins ancl party , he enquired , as a matter of course , ' where the orders came from ? ' ancl being told that Mr . Jinkins and party paid , was beyond description entertained , observing that ' they must be nice flats certainly , ' and often in ' the course of the walk bursting out again into , a perfect convulsion of laughter at the surpassing silliness of those gentlemen , and ( doubtless ) at his own superior wisdom . "
. In short , the happy individuals who had thus attained to that apogee of human excellence to be expressed by the persistent reiteration of the , to them , most essential part of the refrain of the old song , " I care for nobody , no not I , " and acting in accordance with the assertion , had achieved the summum bonum of human felicity , which , we may take to be not far removed from having but one object and . sticking to it . Steadily pursuing your aimas King Dick achieved the throne . Toas it werefocus intellect and ies
, , , your energ . To imitate Harry Gow in the melee , and fight for your own hand . As Lord Houghton illustrates singleness of object by a figure also drawn from the lists when combatants , were" Content as men-at-ai-ms to fight , Each with Ms fronting foe . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
How I Was First Prepared To Be Made A Mason.
day would incontinently presume to do , only I put this ancl that together , and came to the conclusion that I was not altogether satisfied that the millennuin would arrive when all mankind had become converted to a belief in the utter indisputability of the axiom that the whole theory of human happiness was contained in the injunction to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the clearest . Of course it was obvious that such a mistaken indulgence in emotion as benevolence rendered by heaven-born charity could find no place in this scheme of philosophy
—a philosophy which , of course , by eliminating charity altogether from its field , bundles the offshoot or manifestation of benevolence along with it—for it is plain that the branch must go with the tree . This , however , was a necessary application of the " survival of the fittest" theory , and I was not scholar enough to controvert its soundness . Somehow , I thought it seemed to clash with scriptural teachings ; but then the philosophers would say , "So much the worse for the scriptural teachings , " if they came into collision with their creed . The earthenware pitcher , floating down the stream in company with the brass pot , must give the latter a wide berth , or the crockery will come to grief .
But there was something else . On the principle that birds oi a feather nock together , my apostle of utilitarianism was wont to gather around him certain worthy missionaries of the new faith , whose professions I was sometimes privileged to hear . I need not—it would be distasteful to me and repugnant to my readers—attempt to reproduce the profound , the ponderous , the invaluable utterances of these sages . Suffice it to say , I gathered that in literature , the bank-book , the ledger , the title deeds , the rent roll , were all the products of the human brain worthy a prudent man ' s attention . Art meant
profligacy , degradation , ruin , for it involved idleness and dissipation . Those forms which appealed to the senses under the seductive presentations of music and the drama were not to be named , or alluded to only to evoke a wholesome denunciation in an expression of righteous abhorrence . I used sometimes to think , however—no doubt it was very irreverent , but youth is not without its aberrations into levity—that it would have been unsafe to tempt one of these old gentlemen with an order for the L
very yceum , and bet heavily on the faith of its not being used . Don't you remember' how a hero of fiction of this school , the late lamented Mr . Jonas , Chuzzlewit , attempts to obtain KUSOS with his lady-love by treating her and her sister when up from the country to the sights of the town . The passage is worth quoting , —
He " submitted their pedestrian powers to a pretty severe test ; for he showed them as many sights in the way of bridges , churches , streets , outsides of theatres , and other free spectacles , in that one forenoon , as most people see in a twelvemonth .. It was observable in this gentleman that he had an insurmountable distaste to the insides of buildings ; and that he was perfectly acquainted with the merits of all showsin respect of which there was any charge for admission , which it seemed were every
one detestable , and of the very lowest grade of merit . He was so thoroughly possessed with this opinion , that when Miss Charity happened to mention the circumstance of their having been twice or thrice to the theatre with Mr . Jinkins ancl party , he enquired , as a matter of course , ' where the orders came from ? ' ancl being told that Mr . Jinkins and party paid , was beyond description entertained , observing that ' they must be nice flats certainly , ' and often in ' the course of the walk bursting out again into , a perfect convulsion of laughter at the surpassing silliness of those gentlemen , and ( doubtless ) at his own superior wisdom . "
. In short , the happy individuals who had thus attained to that apogee of human excellence to be expressed by the persistent reiteration of the , to them , most essential part of the refrain of the old song , " I care for nobody , no not I , " and acting in accordance with the assertion , had achieved the summum bonum of human felicity , which , we may take to be not far removed from having but one object and . sticking to it . Steadily pursuing your aimas King Dick achieved the throne . Toas it werefocus intellect and ies
, , , your energ . To imitate Harry Gow in the melee , and fight for your own hand . As Lord Houghton illustrates singleness of object by a figure also drawn from the lists when combatants , were" Content as men-at-ai-ms to fight , Each with Ms fronting foe . "