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impressive manner , his truly " graphic display of the sayings and doings of eminent Free and Accepted Masons , from the revival in 1717 , by Dr . Desaguiliers , to the re-union in 1813 , by their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Kent and Sussex , " is well conceived and sustained with considerable ability throughout .
Some of our readers , of course , will well recollect the papers which appeared in these pages , entitled , the " Revelations of a Square , " They constitute the first part of the work before us , in which they are continued and completed , with all that ability which might be expected from the application of a practised pen , to a subject with which the writer was fully conversant—a subject in itself so closely allied to a multiplicity of his most interesting reminiscences .
An old Silver Square was sent to Dr . Oliver by a friend and Brother , who knew his fondness for antiquities ; it had been used in one of the best and earliest Lodges after the revival in 1717 . It was a good deal battered , but upon one limb was inscribed , " Keepe within Compasse , " and upon the other , " Acte ok ye Squabe . "
Such a relic of a bygone age could not fail to be suggestive of a train of thought of the most interesting character to such a man as Brother Oliver . He meditated upon it , and thought of the solemn hours of labour—the convivial evenings— -the racy jests , the good-humoured sarcasms , the smart repartees , the judicious advice , the valuable instruction , and the gentle reproofs , of which that ancient Square
could tell , if endowed with the powers of speech ! Musing in this strain late one evening , with the Square on the table before him , he saw a face peer out from a heart inscribed at its angle- He traced the features as clearly as one traces the features of the faces in the fire during the winter nights . A thin small voice called upon him by name , and the Square stood up , with great solemnity , upon the exterior points of its limbs . The Doctor
rubbed his eyes and looked around . All was still , and everything was in its place as before , except the Square , which began to address him , promising , that if he would consent not to utter a word of interruption , it would tell him a few interesting facts , relating to the history of the Craft during the eighteenth century—the subject on
which he had been reflecting . The Doctor nodded assent , and the Square began his story by explaining that he ( the Square ) had originally been the property of Sir Christopher Wren , who was the Grand Master of Masonry at the close of the seventeenth century . George I . had the impolicy to supersede Wren by a Bro . Benson , who was so distasteful to the Craft that thev refused to acknowledge
him , and almost ceased to assemble as a regularly organized society . Several pamphleteers , in fact , had already begun to chuckle at the extinction of the Order . But they had reckoned without their host . About this time , one Dr . Desaguiliers , a Pellow of the Iloyal Society , and Professor of Philosophy , happened to read some of these publications . His curiosity was excited . He was made a Mason in the old Lodge , at the Goose and Gridiron , St . Paul ' s Churchyard , which now goes by the name of the "Lodge of Antiquity . " It occurred to him ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
impressive manner , his truly " graphic display of the sayings and doings of eminent Free and Accepted Masons , from the revival in 1717 , by Dr . Desaguiliers , to the re-union in 1813 , by their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Kent and Sussex , " is well conceived and sustained with considerable ability throughout .
Some of our readers , of course , will well recollect the papers which appeared in these pages , entitled , the " Revelations of a Square , " They constitute the first part of the work before us , in which they are continued and completed , with all that ability which might be expected from the application of a practised pen , to a subject with which the writer was fully conversant—a subject in itself so closely allied to a multiplicity of his most interesting reminiscences .
An old Silver Square was sent to Dr . Oliver by a friend and Brother , who knew his fondness for antiquities ; it had been used in one of the best and earliest Lodges after the revival in 1717 . It was a good deal battered , but upon one limb was inscribed , " Keepe within Compasse , " and upon the other , " Acte ok ye Squabe . "
Such a relic of a bygone age could not fail to be suggestive of a train of thought of the most interesting character to such a man as Brother Oliver . He meditated upon it , and thought of the solemn hours of labour—the convivial evenings— -the racy jests , the good-humoured sarcasms , the smart repartees , the judicious advice , the valuable instruction , and the gentle reproofs , of which that ancient Square
could tell , if endowed with the powers of speech ! Musing in this strain late one evening , with the Square on the table before him , he saw a face peer out from a heart inscribed at its angle- He traced the features as clearly as one traces the features of the faces in the fire during the winter nights . A thin small voice called upon him by name , and the Square stood up , with great solemnity , upon the exterior points of its limbs . The Doctor
rubbed his eyes and looked around . All was still , and everything was in its place as before , except the Square , which began to address him , promising , that if he would consent not to utter a word of interruption , it would tell him a few interesting facts , relating to the history of the Craft during the eighteenth century—the subject on
which he had been reflecting . The Doctor nodded assent , and the Square began his story by explaining that he ( the Square ) had originally been the property of Sir Christopher Wren , who was the Grand Master of Masonry at the close of the seventeenth century . George I . had the impolicy to supersede Wren by a Bro . Benson , who was so distasteful to the Craft that thev refused to acknowledge
him , and almost ceased to assemble as a regularly organized society . Several pamphleteers , in fact , had already begun to chuckle at the extinction of the Order . But they had reckoned without their host . About this time , one Dr . Desaguiliers , a Pellow of the Iloyal Society , and Professor of Philosophy , happened to read some of these publications . His curiosity was excited . He was made a Mason in the old Lodge , at the Goose and Gridiron , St . Paul ' s Churchyard , which now goes by the name of the "Lodge of Antiquity . " It occurred to him ,