PART FIRST.

Matters External to the Order.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORY OF ODD-FELLOWSHIP.

§ 1. Origin and Uses of Secret Societies.

THE earliest records of human history furnish proofs of the existence of secret associations among nearly all the nations of the earth. They have everywhere accompanied, if they have not advanced, civilization, and been the conservators, if not the promoters, of religious, scientific, and political truth.

Picture-writing, and afterward hieroglyphics or abbreviated symbols, were at first the only means men possessed of recording doctrines or events, or discoveries in science and the arts. And as nearly all learning was confined to the priesthood and royal family of each nation, these hieroglyphics readily suggested, if they did not constitute an exclusive art by which they communicated with each other, and handed down to their successors those doctrines, discoveries, and state secrets which they deemed it improper to disclose to the world. Hence in nearly every nation-in Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Germany, and Britain-religious mysteries were the foundation-doctrines, and the priesthood were the founders of secret societies. Even the

rites of religious worship were, in most cases, but acted symbols-speaking of common religious ideas to the multitude, but conveying deeper meanings to the initiated eye.

That these early societies were often perverted and grossly abused, is readily admitted. But that furnishes no argument against their proper use. All associations have been corrupted or perverted. Written language is abused every day-the tongue itself is an unruly member, breathing not only prayers to God, but curses on our fellow-man-yet no one, for that alone, would doom society to solitude and silence, or abolish pen and press forever.

On the contrary, the vast utility of ancient secret associations of priests, philosophers, and patriots in advancing religion, conserving literature, art, and science, and in ameliorating the condition of states and communities, has commended them to the imitation of the wise and good in all subsequent ages of the world. Christianity availed itself of the principle in its early progress. When the iron heel of the bigot and tyrant was raised to crush the springing germ into the dust, it was removed into privacy and was nurtured in secret until the storm was overblown, or its strength was increased to endure the tempest. Says one, whose opposition to Romanism is undoubted: "No instructed man can deny that the Roman Catholic Church presents one of the most solemn and majestic spectacles in history. The very arguments which are employed against its rites, remind us of the mighty part which it has played on the theatre of the world. For when we say that the ceremonies of its worship, the decorations of its altars, and the evolutions of its priests, are conceived in the spirit of Heathenism, how

can we forget that it was once the witness of ancient Paganism, the victor of its decrepit superstitions, the rival, yet imitator of its mythology? When we ask the use of the lights that burn during the mass, how can we fail to think of the secret worship of the early Christians, assembled at dead of night in some vault, beyond the eye of observation? When we wonder at the pantomimic character of its services, its long passages of gesticulation, are we not carried back to the time when the quick ear of the informer and persecutor lurked near, and devotion, finding words an unsafe vehicle of thought, invented the symbolical language which could be read only by the initiated eye?"* That which has proved so beneficial, though now it has ceased to be appropriate, or been corrupted, may well be imitated, and superseded by that wherein is life and purity.

The Albigenses, Waldenses, Cathari and other early Reformers, during the long persecutions of the Papacy, prior to the Reformation, also found in secret association, remote from the eye of the persecutor, safety in worshiping God. And all through the dark night of feudal ages, the various mechanic crafts and guilds, and other secret associations, kept the feeble light of knowledge, virtue, and freedom, glimmering amid the surrounding gloom of semi-heathen darkness, until the world at large, awakening from its leaden sleep, lit its thousand torches at the hardly preserved tapers, and threw the blaze of a general revival of religion, letters, arts and sciences, once more over our benighted race.

And since that revival, similar associations have aided no less in speeding onward the flood-tide of civili

* Martineau's "Rationale of Religious Inquiry,” Lecture II. p. 19

zation, humanity, and freedom, to its present fullflowing progress. The reform that has swept away doctrines and institutions of Error and of Wrong, grown hoary with ages of general acknowledgment and reverence, replacing them with the True and the Right, has oft been nourished in the silent secrecy of a few chosen souls, until it gained strength to go forth boldly and grapple successfully with the monster errors and giant vices of the age. And the revolution that, in a few days, overturned thrones and banished tyrants, replacing the one with better institutions, and giving the abused powers of the other into rightful hands, frequently gathered its earthquake-power in the privacy of isolated circles, which met to pray and deliberate for their country's welfare, and separated to spread abroad the light and strength which Heaven gave the few, to direct the minds and nerve the arms of the many.

We may be told, however, that error, vice, and diplomatic despotism have also had their secret organizations-even a "Holy Alliance!" True; so also have they had their public meetings and national congresses. Shall we reject the latter also, because bold, bad men have used openness and publicity for evil purposes?

Among so-called secret societies of modern times, we know of none that has excelled the beneficent influence of Odd-Fellowship, within its own pale, in relieving the sick and distressed, and especially in preventing suffering and poverty in the families of its members. Nor is there one whose measures of relief and benevolence have been more generally copied than those of this "friendly Order ;" and seldom, if ever, (astonishing as it is in this age of improvement,) with any important addition enhancing their efficiency.

An institution manifesting so much influence, per

forming so much good, preventing so much evil, and increasing so rapidly and widely its numbers and its power, may well attract public attention, and excite a laudable desire to know its origin, progress, principles, resources and measures, its aims and objects.

§ 2. Antiquity of the Order.

A love of mystery and blind veneration for antiquity has induced most associations to claim an origin traceable to the remotest ages of the world. There have not been wanting well-meaning Odd-Fellows to render that doubtful service for our Order. Confounding principles with the institution embodying them, they have claimed equal antiquity for both. And similarities which can easily be found between the modes of initiation and other ceremonials of ancient associations and those of our own Order, have been triumphantly appealed to, in proof of the unwarranted assumption. And even where such likeness could not be found, it was easy to draw upon imagination for facts, and cover modern inventions with a seeming rust of ages.

A brief enumeration of some of these fabulous histories of our Order may serve to guard the unwary against further imposition. The greatest exertion of tradition was to make our great forefather, Adam, the founder of our Order. Prying Mother Eve was probably excluded, and all her daughters with her! Grand Sire Wildey, during his visit to England, in 1826, procured an emblem from one of the Lodges there, representing Adam laying the foundation-stone, which emblem he presented to the Grand Lodge of the United States.

Another tradition declares the Order to date from an ancient society among the Jewish priesthood, founded