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Article ANCIENT WRITERS AND MODERN PRACTICES ← Page 2 of 5 →
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Ancient Writers And Modern Practices
hint that such originality of sentiment springs from no ordinary mind ; much more so when the subject is one to which our thoughts frequently recur with pleasure , on which the mind is wont to dwell with an earnestness amounting , in some instances , almost to enthusiasm . What Free-Mason is there who , on looking back to his early Masonic days , or to the period preceding his initiation , does not sympathize with Thomas De Quincey in his early interest "in the mystery that surrounds secret societies r " Still more , what lady
does not so sympathize with him ? More especially if she happen to have a tribe of brothers and cousins—perhaps a son and a few nephews—in that Craft whose ritual and whose signs and passwords are to her even more a sealed book than if they were committed to paper or print . But this very natural feeling is not confined wholly to the fair sex . Well do we remember the laudable—shall we call it curiosity ?—yes , we boldly will , for it was the feeling which led
him to make such preliminary inquiries as produced the allowable answers , and to enter on us with that course of reasoning or argument which , made him a Iree-Mason- —displayed by a friend , previous to his initiation , on the subject of Pree-Masonry . A short time before , he had been its violent opponent , and so we thought would have continued , for he never could meet us without abusing the whole
system . On asking a friend one day , bowever , if he had heard any more abuse of our Order lately , he said that on the contrary , —— s opinions seemed to have suddenly changed , for that he was not half so violent against us ; he knew what a Past Master meant , and was beginning to make inquiries about Wardens and Deacons , & c . Por some weeks after he gradually " warmed" to the subject ; and in due time we ourselves proposed him in open Lodge ,
A certain amount of mystery is necessary to ITree-Masonry , we do not mean that the mystery is of our own creation , or that the Order cannot do without it , but simply the mystery whicli we do not even affect , but which is made for us by our friends or our enemies , as the case maybe . The true Free-Mason never surrounds himself with this mystery , which is said to be common to us all ; this is done for
him . Were it not for those enemies of , or cavillers at , the Craft , who never lose an opportunity of attacking in the most illiberal spirit a system of whose practical working they know nothing—with whose very principles they are unacquainted—many a respectable man might pass through the world , and mix constantly in the society to which his station entitles him , without the fact of his being a Mason being
ever mentioned , much less questioned or discussed . But , somehow , there are always some individuals who seem to make their own business anything that is the business of other persons . Such an one we know well . Soon after the opening of a now Lodge a few miles from his own town , he walked nearly a mile on purpose to see " his Brethren , " as lie called them , come back by railway , and to add a little to his stock of genuine Masonic information . But his greatest delight is to try to pass himself off for a Mason , as a wasp sometimes , in the words of a Masonic naturalist , trios to delude bees into
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ancient Writers And Modern Practices
hint that such originality of sentiment springs from no ordinary mind ; much more so when the subject is one to which our thoughts frequently recur with pleasure , on which the mind is wont to dwell with an earnestness amounting , in some instances , almost to enthusiasm . What Free-Mason is there who , on looking back to his early Masonic days , or to the period preceding his initiation , does not sympathize with Thomas De Quincey in his early interest "in the mystery that surrounds secret societies r " Still more , what lady
does not so sympathize with him ? More especially if she happen to have a tribe of brothers and cousins—perhaps a son and a few nephews—in that Craft whose ritual and whose signs and passwords are to her even more a sealed book than if they were committed to paper or print . But this very natural feeling is not confined wholly to the fair sex . Well do we remember the laudable—shall we call it curiosity ?—yes , we boldly will , for it was the feeling which led
him to make such preliminary inquiries as produced the allowable answers , and to enter on us with that course of reasoning or argument which , made him a Iree-Mason- —displayed by a friend , previous to his initiation , on the subject of Pree-Masonry . A short time before , he had been its violent opponent , and so we thought would have continued , for he never could meet us without abusing the whole
system . On asking a friend one day , bowever , if he had heard any more abuse of our Order lately , he said that on the contrary , —— s opinions seemed to have suddenly changed , for that he was not half so violent against us ; he knew what a Past Master meant , and was beginning to make inquiries about Wardens and Deacons , & c . Por some weeks after he gradually " warmed" to the subject ; and in due time we ourselves proposed him in open Lodge ,
A certain amount of mystery is necessary to ITree-Masonry , we do not mean that the mystery is of our own creation , or that the Order cannot do without it , but simply the mystery whicli we do not even affect , but which is made for us by our friends or our enemies , as the case maybe . The true Free-Mason never surrounds himself with this mystery , which is said to be common to us all ; this is done for
him . Were it not for those enemies of , or cavillers at , the Craft , who never lose an opportunity of attacking in the most illiberal spirit a system of whose practical working they know nothing—with whose very principles they are unacquainted—many a respectable man might pass through the world , and mix constantly in the society to which his station entitles him , without the fact of his being a Mason being
ever mentioned , much less questioned or discussed . But , somehow , there are always some individuals who seem to make their own business anything that is the business of other persons . Such an one we know well . Soon after the opening of a now Lodge a few miles from his own town , he walked nearly a mile on purpose to see " his Brethren , " as lie called them , come back by railway , and to add a little to his stock of genuine Masonic information . But his greatest delight is to try to pass himself off for a Mason , as a wasp sometimes , in the words of a Masonic naturalist , trios to delude bees into