-
Articles/Ads
Article V ANCIENT WR1TEES AND MODEEN PRACTICES. Page 1 of 5 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
V Ancient Wr1tees And Modeen Practices.
V ANCIENT WR 1 TEES AND MODEEN PRACTICES .
( Continued from page 4 : 88 . ) De QtJincey on " Secret Societies" again lies open before ns , and the first passage our eye lights upon , is , whether intended or not to apply to Free-Masonry , singularly applicable to it .
"In Baruel , " he writes , " I had heard only of secret societies that were consciously formed for mischievous ends ; or , if not always for a distinct purpose of evil , yet always in a spirit of malignant contradiction and hatred . Soon I read of other societies even more secret , that watched over Truth dangerous to publish or even to whisper , like the sleepless dragons that oriental fable associated with the subterraneous guardianship of regal treasures . The secresy , and the reasons for the secresy , were alike sublime . The very image , unveiling itself by unsteady glimpses , of men linked by brotherly love and perfect confidence , meeting in secret chambers , at the noon-tide of night , to shelter , by muffling , with their own persons interposed , and at their own risk , some solitary mystery—sheltering it from the carelessness of the world , and its stormy ignorance ; that w ould soon have blown it out—sheltering it from the hatred of-the world ; that would soon have made war upon its life—all this was superhumanly divine . " '
Such is the involuntary tribute which De Quincey , although one who makes a joke of Free-Masonry , pays to its system in the above passage , referring generally to secret societies whose aim is good and benevolent . For to say that the aim of Free-Masonry , a society whose most immediate object is to relieve the distressed , to support the widow , to educate the orphan in sound religious principles , is not good and benevolent , is to assert a paradox , to which no thinking man w ould willingly commit himself ; and undoubtedly the idea of a combination of men , united for the purpose of cementing brotherly
love and regard m a bond closer than ordinary—a combination sumciently numerous and powerful , if need be , to carry out any political purposes , and yet bound not to apply their power to any political purpose whatever—is in itself , even wfere no truths whatever enshrined within its secret recesses , unquestionably sublime . Let us however turn to our author ' s further good-humoured raillery upon our Craft . We often have a stupid laugh raised against us for one
reason or another , or oftener for no reason at all—we can bear a clever one . After running a severe tilt against the Eleusinian mysteries as the great hoax of the ancient world , he says that the modern world has also had a first-rate hoax for the last Wo centuries , and that its name is " Free-Masonry . "
" Do you know the secret my reader , " he continues , " or shall I tell you ? Send me a consideration , and 1 will . Or stay , the weather being so iine , and philosophers therefore so good tempered , I'll tell it you for nothing ; whereas if you become a Mason , you must pay for it . Here is the secret . When the novice is introduced " into the conclave of the Free-Masons , the Grand Master looks very fierce at him , and draws his sword , which makes the novice melancholy , as he is not aware of having had
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
V Ancient Wr1tees And Modeen Practices.
V ANCIENT WR 1 TEES AND MODEEN PRACTICES .
( Continued from page 4 : 88 . ) De QtJincey on " Secret Societies" again lies open before ns , and the first passage our eye lights upon , is , whether intended or not to apply to Free-Masonry , singularly applicable to it .
"In Baruel , " he writes , " I had heard only of secret societies that were consciously formed for mischievous ends ; or , if not always for a distinct purpose of evil , yet always in a spirit of malignant contradiction and hatred . Soon I read of other societies even more secret , that watched over Truth dangerous to publish or even to whisper , like the sleepless dragons that oriental fable associated with the subterraneous guardianship of regal treasures . The secresy , and the reasons for the secresy , were alike sublime . The very image , unveiling itself by unsteady glimpses , of men linked by brotherly love and perfect confidence , meeting in secret chambers , at the noon-tide of night , to shelter , by muffling , with their own persons interposed , and at their own risk , some solitary mystery—sheltering it from the carelessness of the world , and its stormy ignorance ; that w ould soon have blown it out—sheltering it from the hatred of-the world ; that would soon have made war upon its life—all this was superhumanly divine . " '
Such is the involuntary tribute which De Quincey , although one who makes a joke of Free-Masonry , pays to its system in the above passage , referring generally to secret societies whose aim is good and benevolent . For to say that the aim of Free-Masonry , a society whose most immediate object is to relieve the distressed , to support the widow , to educate the orphan in sound religious principles , is not good and benevolent , is to assert a paradox , to which no thinking man w ould willingly commit himself ; and undoubtedly the idea of a combination of men , united for the purpose of cementing brotherly
love and regard m a bond closer than ordinary—a combination sumciently numerous and powerful , if need be , to carry out any political purposes , and yet bound not to apply their power to any political purpose whatever—is in itself , even wfere no truths whatever enshrined within its secret recesses , unquestionably sublime . Let us however turn to our author ' s further good-humoured raillery upon our Craft . We often have a stupid laugh raised against us for one
reason or another , or oftener for no reason at all—we can bear a clever one . After running a severe tilt against the Eleusinian mysteries as the great hoax of the ancient world , he says that the modern world has also had a first-rate hoax for the last Wo centuries , and that its name is " Free-Masonry . "
" Do you know the secret my reader , " he continues , " or shall I tell you ? Send me a consideration , and 1 will . Or stay , the weather being so iine , and philosophers therefore so good tempered , I'll tell it you for nothing ; whereas if you become a Mason , you must pay for it . Here is the secret . When the novice is introduced " into the conclave of the Free-Masons , the Grand Master looks very fierce at him , and draws his sword , which makes the novice melancholy , as he is not aware of having had