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Article A PLEA FOR FREEMASONRY. ← Page 2 of 4 Article A PLEA FOR FREEMASONRY. Page 2 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Plea For Freemasonry.
and then again there are sudden uprisings of bigotry and intolerance which seek , in a tempest of calumny , to overpoAver every attempt at healthful progress in the work of man ' s developement . History records these periods with a certainty as painful as it is unerring . It points to the lamentable fact that there has been no association for
human improvement that has not been met by detraction ; no grand idea of reformation that has nofc been encountered by persecution . But truth , with whom are " the eternal years of God , " survives the struggles , and , Antaeus-like , rises
from each shock Avith renovated vigour . All great discoveries , all novel inventions , all unaccustomed schemes have encountered this
never-failing opposition of ignorance . Galileo , when he taught new truths in astronomy , Avas visited with the anathemas of the church . Hervey , when he promulgated the theory of the arterial and venous circulation of the blood , was
derided as chimerical . Jenner , as a reward for his immortal discovery of the preventive powers of vaccination , was met with charges of imposture and impiety . Science has no enemy so bitter as the bigotry
of ignorance . Freemasonry , which professes to be a philosophy whose tendency is to make men better in a way peculiar to itself , has encountered this fate common to every scheme that does not move on
in the ordinary and scarcely more than stagnant current of unprogressive life . One hundred and thirty years ago the Church invoked its curses
upon Lie disciples of the Order . But the fulminations of the Vatican could not repress its progress , and it continued to flourish in defiance of papal bulls . Forty years ago , in this country , the persecution was renewed , and the attempt to
crush the Association Avas again made , but happily made in vain . The political storm of anti-Masonry passed away , with no effect , save to purify the moral atmosphere ; and during the ensuing calm of half a century Freemasonry has
grown and strengthened , and made successful progress in all in which progress is desirable . And now a new persecution is sought to be awakened , and from the pulpit and the press , in rare instances , and obscure places , are heard
bitter objurgations against the Order . So rare indeed are these , and so obscure their authors , that they would be unworthy of notice did not
A Plea For Freemasonry.
the spirit of intolerance by which they are moved deserve a serious condemnation . I have not ,, therefore , thought it inappropriate on this official occasion and before this audience , to select as the subject of my address " a Plea for Freemasonry . " '
" The absurdities and puerilities of Freemasonry are fit ; only for children , and are umvorfchy of the time or attention of Avise men . " Such is
thelanguage of our antagonists , and the apothegm is delivered with all that self-sufficiency which shows that the speaker is well satisfied with his own wisdom , and is very ready to place himself in thecategory of those wise men whose opinion
heinvokes . This , then , is one of the supposed strong points whence Ave are to be attacked . Others there are ,, it is true—such as the immorality of the institution , its impiety in claiming to be a religion ,
theexclusiveness and selfishness of its charities , theuuchristian chai-acter of its teachings—all of which being assumed , for the sake of argument , as valid points of attack , might afford substantial topics of defence ; bufc to night I shall confine myself to
this single charge that Freemasonry is puerile in its object and design , and contains nothing within ifc that can entitle it to the respect or even to the attention of sensible men .
Is it then possible that those scholars of unquestioned strength of intellect and depth of science , Avho have devoted themselves to the study of Masonry , and who have in thousands of volumes given the result of their researches , have been
altogether mistaken in the direction of their labors , and have been seeking to develope ,- nofc the principles of a philosophy , but the mechanism of a toy ! Or is the assertion that such is the fact , a . mere sophism such as ignorance is every
dayuttering , and a conclusion to which men are most likely to arrive Avhen they talk of thafc of which they know nothing , like the critic who reviews a » - book that he has never read , or the skeptic , whoattacks a creed that he does not comprehend ? -
Such claims to an inspired infallibility are notuncommon among men of unsound judgment-Thus , when Gall and Spurzheim first gave to the Avorld their Avonderful discoveries in reference
tothe organization and the functions of the braindiscoveries which have since wrought a marked revolution in the sciences of anatomy , physiology and ethics—the Edinburgh reviewers attempted to demolish these philosophers and their new system ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Plea For Freemasonry.
and then again there are sudden uprisings of bigotry and intolerance which seek , in a tempest of calumny , to overpoAver every attempt at healthful progress in the work of man ' s developement . History records these periods with a certainty as painful as it is unerring . It points to the lamentable fact that there has been no association for
human improvement that has not been met by detraction ; no grand idea of reformation that has nofc been encountered by persecution . But truth , with whom are " the eternal years of God , " survives the struggles , and , Antaeus-like , rises
from each shock Avith renovated vigour . All great discoveries , all novel inventions , all unaccustomed schemes have encountered this
never-failing opposition of ignorance . Galileo , when he taught new truths in astronomy , Avas visited with the anathemas of the church . Hervey , when he promulgated the theory of the arterial and venous circulation of the blood , was
derided as chimerical . Jenner , as a reward for his immortal discovery of the preventive powers of vaccination , was met with charges of imposture and impiety . Science has no enemy so bitter as the bigotry
of ignorance . Freemasonry , which professes to be a philosophy whose tendency is to make men better in a way peculiar to itself , has encountered this fate common to every scheme that does not move on
in the ordinary and scarcely more than stagnant current of unprogressive life . One hundred and thirty years ago the Church invoked its curses
upon Lie disciples of the Order . But the fulminations of the Vatican could not repress its progress , and it continued to flourish in defiance of papal bulls . Forty years ago , in this country , the persecution was renewed , and the attempt to
crush the Association Avas again made , but happily made in vain . The political storm of anti-Masonry passed away , with no effect , save to purify the moral atmosphere ; and during the ensuing calm of half a century Freemasonry has
grown and strengthened , and made successful progress in all in which progress is desirable . And now a new persecution is sought to be awakened , and from the pulpit and the press , in rare instances , and obscure places , are heard
bitter objurgations against the Order . So rare indeed are these , and so obscure their authors , that they would be unworthy of notice did not
A Plea For Freemasonry.
the spirit of intolerance by which they are moved deserve a serious condemnation . I have not ,, therefore , thought it inappropriate on this official occasion and before this audience , to select as the subject of my address " a Plea for Freemasonry . " '
" The absurdities and puerilities of Freemasonry are fit ; only for children , and are umvorfchy of the time or attention of Avise men . " Such is
thelanguage of our antagonists , and the apothegm is delivered with all that self-sufficiency which shows that the speaker is well satisfied with his own wisdom , and is very ready to place himself in thecategory of those wise men whose opinion
heinvokes . This , then , is one of the supposed strong points whence Ave are to be attacked . Others there are ,, it is true—such as the immorality of the institution , its impiety in claiming to be a religion ,
theexclusiveness and selfishness of its charities , theuuchristian chai-acter of its teachings—all of which being assumed , for the sake of argument , as valid points of attack , might afford substantial topics of defence ; bufc to night I shall confine myself to
this single charge that Freemasonry is puerile in its object and design , and contains nothing within ifc that can entitle it to the respect or even to the attention of sensible men .
Is it then possible that those scholars of unquestioned strength of intellect and depth of science , Avho have devoted themselves to the study of Masonry , and who have in thousands of volumes given the result of their researches , have been
altogether mistaken in the direction of their labors , and have been seeking to develope ,- nofc the principles of a philosophy , but the mechanism of a toy ! Or is the assertion that such is the fact , a . mere sophism such as ignorance is every
dayuttering , and a conclusion to which men are most likely to arrive Avhen they talk of thafc of which they know nothing , like the critic who reviews a » - book that he has never read , or the skeptic , whoattacks a creed that he does not comprehend ? -
Such claims to an inspired infallibility are notuncommon among men of unsound judgment-Thus , when Gall and Spurzheim first gave to the Avorld their Avonderful discoveries in reference
tothe organization and the functions of the braindiscoveries which have since wrought a marked revolution in the sciences of anatomy , physiology and ethics—the Edinburgh reviewers attempted to demolish these philosophers and their new system ,