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Article ROBISON ON FREEMASONRY: ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Robison On Freemasonry:
in disappointment , and must have been attended with remorse . The act brought with it its own punishment , in the loss of self-respect , and of the intercourse of many friends in a country where Masonry has been so much honoured as Scotland .
The account Robison gives of foreign Masonry and of the rival rites is interesting , and is i ^ of the period . He had heard in England of high degrees and ceremonies , but had thought little of them . On the continent , however , he found them matters of serious concern and debate . To this account I shall at some other time refer .
The work is chiefly devoted to a history of the introduction of Masonry on the continent and of its corruptions , and in particular to a violent attack on the Illuminati , This latter takes up a great part of his book . All this is connected with an appeal to the prejudices of the population against Jacobinism , and is worked up from the congenial authorities of French emigrant priests and Austrian
Jesuits . With regard to Masonry England , the public who bought it on account of its flaming title must have been strangely disappointed , for it contains not a single Masonic revelation whereby the uninitiated could get the slightest enlightenment . There is nothing there relating to the Order but what could be got from accessible works . In fact , the author owns his obligation to his oath of secrecy , and must
have whetted the public appetite . The author refers disparagingly to the objects of the Order in reference to their importance , but he acknowledges the simplicity of its organization , its charity of purpose , and its respectability of character . He does not pretend that the Order had been corrupted or perverted as the foreign Lodges had been , or that it had committed any of the offences he had laid against the latter ,
He nevertheless recommended that all the Lodges in England should be suspended , as the G-erman Lodges had been , in order that they might not be used as Lodges of initiation or selection by the Illuminati or other eclectic orders , He urged that no good , and no charity , rendered secrecy imperative , and that , therefore , a secret order must be politically dangerous ; preaching , indeed , on the set text of the Jesuits and priests , who always represent that secrecy
may be , or must be , dangerous . This was not , however , proved by Robison , who showed by his own evidence that , in a century and a half , Masonry in England had done no political harm . He urged , too , that young men in Lodges , warmed by the inculcation of the general principles of virtue , were very susceptible of being led astrav bv the doctrines of the Illuminati . In particular he inveighs
against the danger of holding up for observance the doctrine of brotherhood , as admitting a foundation for the French republican doctrines of liberty , equality , and fraternity . One step more would have led him to recommend on the same ground , that young men and young women should not go to churches where they might hear the like doctrines , or read the Scriptures .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Robison On Freemasonry:
in disappointment , and must have been attended with remorse . The act brought with it its own punishment , in the loss of self-respect , and of the intercourse of many friends in a country where Masonry has been so much honoured as Scotland .
The account Robison gives of foreign Masonry and of the rival rites is interesting , and is i ^ of the period . He had heard in England of high degrees and ceremonies , but had thought little of them . On the continent , however , he found them matters of serious concern and debate . To this account I shall at some other time refer .
The work is chiefly devoted to a history of the introduction of Masonry on the continent and of its corruptions , and in particular to a violent attack on the Illuminati , This latter takes up a great part of his book . All this is connected with an appeal to the prejudices of the population against Jacobinism , and is worked up from the congenial authorities of French emigrant priests and Austrian
Jesuits . With regard to Masonry England , the public who bought it on account of its flaming title must have been strangely disappointed , for it contains not a single Masonic revelation whereby the uninitiated could get the slightest enlightenment . There is nothing there relating to the Order but what could be got from accessible works . In fact , the author owns his obligation to his oath of secrecy , and must
have whetted the public appetite . The author refers disparagingly to the objects of the Order in reference to their importance , but he acknowledges the simplicity of its organization , its charity of purpose , and its respectability of character . He does not pretend that the Order had been corrupted or perverted as the foreign Lodges had been , or that it had committed any of the offences he had laid against the latter ,
He nevertheless recommended that all the Lodges in England should be suspended , as the G-erman Lodges had been , in order that they might not be used as Lodges of initiation or selection by the Illuminati or other eclectic orders , He urged that no good , and no charity , rendered secrecy imperative , and that , therefore , a secret order must be politically dangerous ; preaching , indeed , on the set text of the Jesuits and priests , who always represent that secrecy
may be , or must be , dangerous . This was not , however , proved by Robison , who showed by his own evidence that , in a century and a half , Masonry in England had done no political harm . He urged , too , that young men in Lodges , warmed by the inculcation of the general principles of virtue , were very susceptible of being led astrav bv the doctrines of the Illuminati . In particular he inveighs
against the danger of holding up for observance the doctrine of brotherhood , as admitting a foundation for the French republican doctrines of liberty , equality , and fraternity . One step more would have led him to recommend on the same ground , that young men and young women should not go to churches where they might hear the like doctrines , or read the Scriptures .