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  • The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine
  • March 31, 1860
  • Page 8
  • ROUGH JOTTINGS ABOUT TEADITION.
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, March 31, 1860: Page 8

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Masonic Loyalty.

general regulations . " Again , " all these charges you are to observe , and also those that shall be communicated to you in another way : cultivating brotherly love , tiie foundation and cape stone , the cement and glory of this ancient fraternity — avoiding all Avrangling and quarreling , all slander and backbiting , nor permitting others to slander any honest brother , but defending his character , aud doing him all good oliices , as far as is consistent

Avith your honour and safety , and no further . " How forcibly , beautifully ancl eloquently the above extracts set forth the duties of Freemasons , and their obligations to be loyal ancl true to the civil government , the Masonic institution and its principles . It ivould be scarcely possible to express more clearly the duties and obligations of Freemasons , and the language is so plain that every one worthy to be admitted to the

privileges of Freemasonry , can understand them . These extracts have a particular significance . As they form a part of the Masonic Constitutions , the obligation to observe them is imperative . Let every Freemason put the questions to himself , for it is important that he should , if ho would be loyal to his trust . Do I live up to these requirements ? As a Mason , am I faithful and true to my country , to the Masonic institution , and to my Masonic brethren ?

Unless Freemasons can honestly and sincerely answer these questions affirmatively , they have covenanted falsely , and are living in violation of A-OWS solemnly made . Society can only progress in cii-ilization and morals when the people are loyal to the government and true to their obligations ; otherwise there must be anarchy and retrogression ; and in every community there is anarchy in proportion to the number who transgress the civil ancl moral laws . So in Masonry , every A-iolator of Masonic law is a disunionist . a promoter of ' discord , a disturber of order , an anarchist .

It is of the utmost importance for every Freemason to consider well the ancient charges , and square his conduct by them , so that each one will be able to give a satisfactory response to the inquiry —Am I living in conformity to my Masonic and civil obligations ? Freemasonry , as its disciples live up to its requirements and practise its teachings , is a promoter of good will among men , ancl always advances the best interests of society , of civil and legal because of the

government , loyal principles Avhich form the essential element of its constitutions . Eevolutionary ' and disunion sentiments are antagonistic to Freemasonry . The latter promotes peace and harmony among men , and advances the prosperity of society ; the former produces discord , confusion , strife , anarchy , with their attendant train of evils . AA'e actively participate in promoting the one or the other , as we live up to the teachings of Freemasonry , or violate its peaceful and beneficent precepts . — American Mirror and Keystone .

Rough Jottings About Teadition.

ROUGH JOTTINGS ABOUT TEADITION .

BY w . M . BRO . rnma . c . TUCKEH , G . SI . or VF . H _ . OXT . II- the traditions of ancient Masonry lay , like the fossil casts of geological science , in the solid rocks of the external crusts of the earth , we might not only hope , at some time , to find them , but to understand and comprehend them when they became the subjects of our observation . AVe are not thus favoured . The lowest reptile and the highest mammal ields its mould of form

y up " " to the bar , the chisel , and the hammer ofthe industrious geologist , to speak its history in the far past ages . They are the physical traditions of science . The traditions of Misonry are solely moral ; ancl where they exist or have existed , depended upon a far less permanent record , upon a far less solid and ever-continuing doubtful establishment of iacts . Tiie one takes its proof from the eternal hills the

; other from the uncertainty of mere human action . Still , with so slight a- base as mere human action , and the poverty of history in its preservation in the early ' a" -es of the earth , we shall not bo acting wisely in undervaluing all human tradition . True , the subject is surrounded b y difficulties and would probably gain no strength b y the action of an overcrcdnlous or hi ghly imaginative man : because such a man is apt to at anything sliht

grasp , upon ggrounds , Avhich would favour any preconceived opinion of his own : and reject anything even more strongly supported , which was adverse to it . In extracting real truth from traditionary transmissions of fact « teachings , and principles , not only a fair amount of learning but the most absolute candour and impartiality of 'judgment should be brought to the examination . The absence of this in many case * in past years has brought something worse than confusion amou " us . ° Traditions , in the early ages , were doubtless embarrassed bv

Rough Jottings About Teadition.

the religious aud political institutions of some of the ancient nations . AVho can tell us what the priests of Egypt , iu its glory , actually believed ? Nominally , they with then people , ivere absolutely pagans , worshipping the ibis , the crocodile and other animals . ' Ancl yet Joseph was a " Priest of On , " and Moses ivas learned " in all the wisdom of the Egyptians . " Did these two believers in the great I AM—the one teach paganism as a priest ,

and the other learn only that " Avisdom" Avhich ivas " of the earth , earthy ?* ' It is difficult to believe so . Ancl it is equally difficult to believe that when the historian Herodotus was initiated into the mysteries of the Egyptian priesthood , he found nothing better there than the paganism of the surface , which ivas somewhat more degraded than that which existed in his own country . His own account of it—though he was bound to secrecy—leads us to

a far different conclusion . The local position of Eg } 7 pt , its prominent place among the early existing nations , its conquests , its change of dynasties by war , the extent of its knowledge of building and architecture , its written language , all come up to our minds as reasons why it could not have missed the traditions of the East , and among them the almost universal tradition of one God , the Creator ancl

Preserver . AVe are often met by the assertion of the great difficulty of preserving any knowledge for long periods of time , through merely traditional transmissions , and the fact that any reliable transmission can thus be made has been strongly denied . If any man has lived , for the last hundred years , ivho has lived in stern facts and the hilosophical to which they naturally

p consequences and logically led , that man was the learned Baron Alexander Von Humboldt . I know of no other man ' s writings from whom I would dare to quote so much at length as I shall now do from his ; and I know of no paragraphs of great length in any other , which embody in the same space so much of information bearing

upon the subject before ns . He says that there are races and nations of men now existing , " whose ancestry , in their present localities , stretches backward till its fading memorials outmeasure not only all that have been written , but all that has been erected , in brick or in marble , or in the aged granite itself—the primeval father of mountain and of rock . They are the men of the mountains . Glance your eye OA'er Asia , and you Avill find that while lains of the h

conquest and change of race have swept the p Euprates and the Ganges like floods , and the level steppes of Siberia like the north Avind , Caucasus and Himalaya haA'e retained their people , and their tuneful cliffs echo the same language as they did in the clays of the patriarchs . Who had footing on the Alps before the Swiss , or on the Pyrenees before the Basques ; and how long did the expiring sounds of the Celtic language wail

among the Cornish rocks , after the lowlands of England had become Boman , Saxon , Dane , and Norman by turns , and the mingling of a five-fold race had given to that country the most capable population under the sun ? Turn Avhither yon will on the surface of the globe , or in the years of its history , the discovery is ever the same . The Phoenicians were once great in Northern Africa , and the Egyptians mighty by the flood of the Nile ; but where now are the ships of Carthage , the palaces of Memphis , or the gates of Thebes ; or where is the race by which they ivere erected , or the descendants of the conquerors by whom

they were laid waste . The cormorant sits solitary on those heaps by the Euphrates where the conqueror of Egypt erected his throne ; the Goth and the Hun tread with mockery over the tombs of the Scipios , ancl the turbaned Arab has erected his tent over the fallen palaces of Numantia ; but the cliffs of Atlas hare retained , their inhabitants , and the same race ivhich dwelt there before Carthage , or Eome , or Babylon , or Memphis had existence , mountains

dwell there still ; and shielded by the fastnesses of their , the sword will not slay them , nor the fire burn . It is everywhere the same . If we turn to the west—the plains of-Guiana , and Brazil , ancl Mexico , ancl Peru , and Chili , and Paraguay have been rendered up to the grasping hand of conquest ; and because of the gold aud silver they contain , the thickly serried Andes havo been held bthe skirtsbut the lied Indian is yet in his

y ; mountain dwelling ; ancl in spite of all that fanaticism and avarice have beeu able to accomplish , in the very passion and intoxication of their daring , Chimborazo looks down from his lofty dwelling among the earthquakes on the huts of his primeval inhabitants ; and Orizaba yet mingles his smoke Avith that of fires kindled by the descendants of those Avhose ancestors tenanted his sides before Mexico was a cityor the Aztec race had journeyed into Central

, America . " AA e have then , according to Humboldt , races and nations of men still intact , passing very far back into the " dim distance of the past , " and yet speaking the same language which their pre-

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1860-03-31, Page 8” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 28 March 2023, masonicperiodicals.org/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_31031860/page/8/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
CLASSICAL THEOLOGY.—XVI. Article 1
THE BRITISH MUSRUM SLANDER AND BRO. JOHN PAYNE COLLIER.* Article 2
THE GIRLS SCHOOL. Article 7
ARCHÆOLOGY. Article 7
MASONRY AT SMYRNA. Article 7
MASONIC LOYALTY. Article 7
ROUGH JOTTINGS ABOUT TEADITION. Article 8
ANCIENT SYMBOLISM ILLUSTRATED. Article 9
MASONIC NOTES AND QUEKIES. Article 13
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 15
BRO. PERCY WELLS. Article 15
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 16
METROPOLITAN. Article 16
PROVINCIAL. Article 18
MARK MASONEY. Article 18
ROYAL ARCH Article 18
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. Article 19
THE WEEK. Article 19
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Masonic Loyalty.

general regulations . " Again , " all these charges you are to observe , and also those that shall be communicated to you in another way : cultivating brotherly love , tiie foundation and cape stone , the cement and glory of this ancient fraternity — avoiding all Avrangling and quarreling , all slander and backbiting , nor permitting others to slander any honest brother , but defending his character , aud doing him all good oliices , as far as is consistent

Avith your honour and safety , and no further . " How forcibly , beautifully ancl eloquently the above extracts set forth the duties of Freemasons , and their obligations to be loyal ancl true to the civil government , the Masonic institution and its principles . It ivould be scarcely possible to express more clearly the duties and obligations of Freemasons , and the language is so plain that every one worthy to be admitted to the

privileges of Freemasonry , can understand them . These extracts have a particular significance . As they form a part of the Masonic Constitutions , the obligation to observe them is imperative . Let every Freemason put the questions to himself , for it is important that he should , if ho would be loyal to his trust . Do I live up to these requirements ? As a Mason , am I faithful and true to my country , to the Masonic institution , and to my Masonic brethren ?

Unless Freemasons can honestly and sincerely answer these questions affirmatively , they have covenanted falsely , and are living in violation of A-OWS solemnly made . Society can only progress in cii-ilization and morals when the people are loyal to the government and true to their obligations ; otherwise there must be anarchy and retrogression ; and in every community there is anarchy in proportion to the number who transgress the civil ancl moral laws . So in Masonry , every A-iolator of Masonic law is a disunionist . a promoter of ' discord , a disturber of order , an anarchist .

It is of the utmost importance for every Freemason to consider well the ancient charges , and square his conduct by them , so that each one will be able to give a satisfactory response to the inquiry —Am I living in conformity to my Masonic and civil obligations ? Freemasonry , as its disciples live up to its requirements and practise its teachings , is a promoter of good will among men , ancl always advances the best interests of society , of civil and legal because of the

government , loyal principles Avhich form the essential element of its constitutions . Eevolutionary ' and disunion sentiments are antagonistic to Freemasonry . The latter promotes peace and harmony among men , and advances the prosperity of society ; the former produces discord , confusion , strife , anarchy , with their attendant train of evils . AA'e actively participate in promoting the one or the other , as we live up to the teachings of Freemasonry , or violate its peaceful and beneficent precepts . — American Mirror and Keystone .

Rough Jottings About Teadition.

ROUGH JOTTINGS ABOUT TEADITION .

BY w . M . BRO . rnma . c . TUCKEH , G . SI . or VF . H _ . OXT . II- the traditions of ancient Masonry lay , like the fossil casts of geological science , in the solid rocks of the external crusts of the earth , we might not only hope , at some time , to find them , but to understand and comprehend them when they became the subjects of our observation . AVe are not thus favoured . The lowest reptile and the highest mammal ields its mould of form

y up " " to the bar , the chisel , and the hammer ofthe industrious geologist , to speak its history in the far past ages . They are the physical traditions of science . The traditions of Misonry are solely moral ; ancl where they exist or have existed , depended upon a far less permanent record , upon a far less solid and ever-continuing doubtful establishment of iacts . Tiie one takes its proof from the eternal hills the

; other from the uncertainty of mere human action . Still , with so slight a- base as mere human action , and the poverty of history in its preservation in the early ' a" -es of the earth , we shall not bo acting wisely in undervaluing all human tradition . True , the subject is surrounded b y difficulties and would probably gain no strength b y the action of an overcrcdnlous or hi ghly imaginative man : because such a man is apt to at anything sliht

grasp , upon ggrounds , Avhich would favour any preconceived opinion of his own : and reject anything even more strongly supported , which was adverse to it . In extracting real truth from traditionary transmissions of fact « teachings , and principles , not only a fair amount of learning but the most absolute candour and impartiality of 'judgment should be brought to the examination . The absence of this in many case * in past years has brought something worse than confusion amou " us . ° Traditions , in the early ages , were doubtless embarrassed bv

Rough Jottings About Teadition.

the religious aud political institutions of some of the ancient nations . AVho can tell us what the priests of Egypt , iu its glory , actually believed ? Nominally , they with then people , ivere absolutely pagans , worshipping the ibis , the crocodile and other animals . ' Ancl yet Joseph was a " Priest of On , " and Moses ivas learned " in all the wisdom of the Egyptians . " Did these two believers in the great I AM—the one teach paganism as a priest ,

and the other learn only that " Avisdom" Avhich ivas " of the earth , earthy ?* ' It is difficult to believe so . Ancl it is equally difficult to believe that when the historian Herodotus was initiated into the mysteries of the Egyptian priesthood , he found nothing better there than the paganism of the surface , which ivas somewhat more degraded than that which existed in his own country . His own account of it—though he was bound to secrecy—leads us to

a far different conclusion . The local position of Eg } 7 pt , its prominent place among the early existing nations , its conquests , its change of dynasties by war , the extent of its knowledge of building and architecture , its written language , all come up to our minds as reasons why it could not have missed the traditions of the East , and among them the almost universal tradition of one God , the Creator ancl

Preserver . AVe are often met by the assertion of the great difficulty of preserving any knowledge for long periods of time , through merely traditional transmissions , and the fact that any reliable transmission can thus be made has been strongly denied . If any man has lived , for the last hundred years , ivho has lived in stern facts and the hilosophical to which they naturally

p consequences and logically led , that man was the learned Baron Alexander Von Humboldt . I know of no other man ' s writings from whom I would dare to quote so much at length as I shall now do from his ; and I know of no paragraphs of great length in any other , which embody in the same space so much of information bearing

upon the subject before ns . He says that there are races and nations of men now existing , " whose ancestry , in their present localities , stretches backward till its fading memorials outmeasure not only all that have been written , but all that has been erected , in brick or in marble , or in the aged granite itself—the primeval father of mountain and of rock . They are the men of the mountains . Glance your eye OA'er Asia , and you Avill find that while lains of the h

conquest and change of race have swept the p Euprates and the Ganges like floods , and the level steppes of Siberia like the north Avind , Caucasus and Himalaya haA'e retained their people , and their tuneful cliffs echo the same language as they did in the clays of the patriarchs . Who had footing on the Alps before the Swiss , or on the Pyrenees before the Basques ; and how long did the expiring sounds of the Celtic language wail

among the Cornish rocks , after the lowlands of England had become Boman , Saxon , Dane , and Norman by turns , and the mingling of a five-fold race had given to that country the most capable population under the sun ? Turn Avhither yon will on the surface of the globe , or in the years of its history , the discovery is ever the same . The Phoenicians were once great in Northern Africa , and the Egyptians mighty by the flood of the Nile ; but where now are the ships of Carthage , the palaces of Memphis , or the gates of Thebes ; or where is the race by which they ivere erected , or the descendants of the conquerors by whom

they were laid waste . The cormorant sits solitary on those heaps by the Euphrates where the conqueror of Egypt erected his throne ; the Goth and the Hun tread with mockery over the tombs of the Scipios , ancl the turbaned Arab has erected his tent over the fallen palaces of Numantia ; but the cliffs of Atlas hare retained , their inhabitants , and the same race ivhich dwelt there before Carthage , or Eome , or Babylon , or Memphis had existence , mountains

dwell there still ; and shielded by the fastnesses of their , the sword will not slay them , nor the fire burn . It is everywhere the same . If we turn to the west—the plains of-Guiana , and Brazil , ancl Mexico , ancl Peru , and Chili , and Paraguay have been rendered up to the grasping hand of conquest ; and because of the gold aud silver they contain , the thickly serried Andes havo been held bthe skirtsbut the lied Indian is yet in his

y ; mountain dwelling ; ancl in spite of all that fanaticism and avarice have beeu able to accomplish , in the very passion and intoxication of their daring , Chimborazo looks down from his lofty dwelling among the earthquakes on the huts of his primeval inhabitants ; and Orizaba yet mingles his smoke Avith that of fires kindled by the descendants of those Avhose ancestors tenanted his sides before Mexico was a cityor the Aztec race had journeyed into Central

, America . " AA e have then , according to Humboldt , races and nations of men still intact , passing very far back into the " dim distance of the past , " and yet speaking the same language which their pre-

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