Spenser's House Of Holiness;

SPENSER'S HOUSE OF HOLINESS ;

tONDON , SATURDAY , JULY 18 , 1863 .

THE MODEL OF A MASONIC LODGE . By Bro . ROBERT MORRIS , LL . D ., of La Grange , Kentucky , U . S . America-Although the writer has adopted so positive a title for this essay , yet he will not affirm that

Freemasons' lodges were ever framed upon Spenser's theory of " the House of Holiness " nor that the poet laureate of Queen Elizabeth ever had a Freemason ' s lodg-e in his mind while composing his immortal poem , " The Faerie

Queene . " All that is proposed under this head , is to exhibit some apparent analogies between the two .

Masonic writers have scarcely touched the great field which the ethical and poetical works of early English authors—Chancer , Spenser , Shakespeare , and Milton , may be named in this connectionafford them in illustrating those features of human

brotherhood , chivalry , charity , prudence , temperance , and other graces and virtues , that make up so large a part of the Masonic code . The derivation of the institution from ancient societies , its symbolical machinery , and the practical details

of its workings , have secured the time and attention of our authors , to the exclusion , for the most part , of other things . The facility with which a Masonic speaker can illustrate his objects from the writings of Edmund Spenser , for instance , has not , to the writer ' s knowledge , occurred to any of our authors . Tet , unless his admiration for the

" gentle bard " has blinded his judgment , there is a mine of Masonic analogies , particularly in the "Eaerie Queen , " worthy of all note . Ancl should it prove that his opinion upon the subject is altogether fallacious , the reader will not deem

time misspent that is given to the companionship of so rare a bard as Edmund Spenser . A word concerning the man himself . Both the time and place of Spenser ' s birth are involved in some doubt . His life was for the most part

quiet ; the events of a poet ' s life are seldom marked or important . Among his patrons and companions were numbered Sir Walter Ealeigh , the Earl of Essex , Sir Philip Sidney , the Eavl of Leicester , and Shakespeare . His death occurred

m 1596 , and he was buried in Westminster Abbey by the side of his predecessor , Chaucer ; his monument bearing this inscription , " Heave lyes

( expecting the second coming of our Saviour ,. Christ Jesus ) , the body of Edmund Spenser , the prince of poets in his tyme ; whose divine spirit needs noe other witness then the works which he left behind him . He was borne in London in the

year 1510 , and died in the yeare 1596 . " A brief paragraph concerning his writings and particularly the poem of " The Faerie Queene . " A commentator justly says , that in no poem is the elevation of morality blended with the variance

of chivalry , with such singular success—in no work do we find the development of that graceful elevation of the female sex from the degradation of feudalism so nobly set forth—nowhere are the vagaries of the Pagan world made so admirably

subservient to the purposes of a Christian lesson —and , above all , no ancient English writer can be so safely and profitably read by the young . As a study of the English language , the " Faerie Queene " is highly instructive , while , as a glorious

storehouse of fancy , of legend , and of brilliant allegory , we may say with Lucretius , " Jnvat integros accedere fontes

Atque haurire , juvatque novos decerpere effores . " In the present paper I can only give a few quotations , selected with a view to attract the reader ' s attention . In a future article , if the editor approve , I will work up my theory more

elaborately . The numbers refer to book , canto , and stanza respectively . " Either embracing other lovingly , Ancl swearing faith to either on his blade , Never thenceforth to nourish enmity , But either others cause to maintaine mutually . " v ., 8 , 14 .

"These three did love each other dearely well . And with so firme affection were allycle , As if but one soul in them all did dwell , Which did her powre into three parts divyde , Like three faire branches budding farre and wide That from one roote deriv'd their vitall sap . " iv ., 2 , 43 .

" And eke of private persons many moe That were too long * a worke , to count them all , Some of sworne friends that did their faith forgoe , Some of borne brethren prov'd unnaturall . Some of clear lovers , foes perpetuail ;

Witnesse theiv broken bontlcs there to be scene , Their garland ' s rout , their bowers despoyled all , The monuments whereof there byding beene As plane as at the fivsfc when they were fresh and greene . " iv ., 1 . 24 ,