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in establishing nktional greatness of moral , we must meet two objections : the one , that of the venal idler in his country ' s trials ; the other , perhaps , that of the too scrupulous Masonic Brother . By the one we shall be told , in the stereotyped cant of the inattentive , that it is useless to endeavour to mend human nature ; whilst the other will
fear we overstep our Masonic restriction in trenching , upon political matters . "We reply to the first , that no one can entertain a worse idea of human nature than we do ; that we regard those who think to make courtiers honest , senators truthful , princes discerning , prelates meek , patrons upright , as classed in the same category with the paper-crowned and straw-sceptred monarch iii Bedlam , or the
credulous dependant upon the veracity of a newspaper . We know that to wholly expunge moral or corporeal evil from the mundane system is hopeless ; hence we aim only at its mitigation : apothecaries may otherwise burn their shops because rhubarb will not cure the plague , and physicians abandon their office in self-abasement at the fact that
they merely pour drugs of which they know little , into bodies of which they know less . As to the other objection , that Ereemasonry ignores politics , we entirely concur with the principle and imitate it , by eschewing the futile labour of purifying politicians , desiring onl y to practise the truly Masonic virtue of encouraging uprightness and honesty , to the welfare of mankind .
Heaven forbid that the day should ever arrive when "Freemasonry , oblivious of its proper and expanded scope , should stoop to cleanse the Augean stable of political schemers or venal journalists , or ignore its legitimate duty towards the vital interests of every country blessed with its presence , and enlightened by its operation . All state-handicraft is knavery , in a greater or less degree ; the basis of the system being either verbal or practical falsehood , and the
superstructure self-interest ; so that there is not the difference of a pin between Premier A or Premier B , as to honesty , for a man cannot have two consciences , one public , the other private . But when evils occur nationally , Masonry should , as the patroness of moral education and exalted principle , interfere , unseen yet all-influential , to promote good , by encouraging its earliest struggles under incumbent pressure ; to effect which a calm and searching scrutiny into the aspects of the times necessarily appertains .
We regard , then , the present epoch as marking an approaching , if not an absolute crisis in our country ' s history ; when opposite elements are culminating towards their point of collision . Education , carried on in a rapidly increasing ratio during the last twenty years , has caused " the toe of the peasant to gibe the heel of the courtier" so
closely that , scarcely beneath the peer in manners , the once illiterate clown is far before many of our aristocratic members in development of general intellectual power . Kailways do not leave smoke only behind them , but throw off ideas with their steam ; and rapid as the locomotive progress , is the diffusion of thought engendered amongst the temporarily lower classes . We say temporarily lower , for ( though the outlets are scanty , and selfishly narrowed by men in power ) their
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
in establishing nktional greatness of moral , we must meet two objections : the one , that of the venal idler in his country ' s trials ; the other , perhaps , that of the too scrupulous Masonic Brother . By the one we shall be told , in the stereotyped cant of the inattentive , that it is useless to endeavour to mend human nature ; whilst the other will
fear we overstep our Masonic restriction in trenching , upon political matters . "We reply to the first , that no one can entertain a worse idea of human nature than we do ; that we regard those who think to make courtiers honest , senators truthful , princes discerning , prelates meek , patrons upright , as classed in the same category with the paper-crowned and straw-sceptred monarch iii Bedlam , or the
credulous dependant upon the veracity of a newspaper . We know that to wholly expunge moral or corporeal evil from the mundane system is hopeless ; hence we aim only at its mitigation : apothecaries may otherwise burn their shops because rhubarb will not cure the plague , and physicians abandon their office in self-abasement at the fact that
they merely pour drugs of which they know little , into bodies of which they know less . As to the other objection , that Ereemasonry ignores politics , we entirely concur with the principle and imitate it , by eschewing the futile labour of purifying politicians , desiring onl y to practise the truly Masonic virtue of encouraging uprightness and honesty , to the welfare of mankind .
Heaven forbid that the day should ever arrive when "Freemasonry , oblivious of its proper and expanded scope , should stoop to cleanse the Augean stable of political schemers or venal journalists , or ignore its legitimate duty towards the vital interests of every country blessed with its presence , and enlightened by its operation . All state-handicraft is knavery , in a greater or less degree ; the basis of the system being either verbal or practical falsehood , and the
superstructure self-interest ; so that there is not the difference of a pin between Premier A or Premier B , as to honesty , for a man cannot have two consciences , one public , the other private . But when evils occur nationally , Masonry should , as the patroness of moral education and exalted principle , interfere , unseen yet all-influential , to promote good , by encouraging its earliest struggles under incumbent pressure ; to effect which a calm and searching scrutiny into the aspects of the times necessarily appertains .
We regard , then , the present epoch as marking an approaching , if not an absolute crisis in our country ' s history ; when opposite elements are culminating towards their point of collision . Education , carried on in a rapidly increasing ratio during the last twenty years , has caused " the toe of the peasant to gibe the heel of the courtier" so
closely that , scarcely beneath the peer in manners , the once illiterate clown is far before many of our aristocratic members in development of general intellectual power . Kailways do not leave smoke only behind them , but throw off ideas with their steam ; and rapid as the locomotive progress , is the diffusion of thought engendered amongst the temporarily lower classes . We say temporarily lower , for ( though the outlets are scanty , and selfishly narrowed by men in power ) their