by, mankind can see too plainly to be any longer the dupes of such absurd pretences?'" "Snuff me those candles, quoth the barber! Yes; I am perfectly indifferent to all assertions which are unreasonable; and particularly to such absurd pretences as distinguish Mr. Soane's hypothesis; for the conclusion is the very same, and almost expressed in the very words, which Voltaire, Weishaupt, Cagliostro, and their associates, pressed upon the French people, to destroy the influence of religion, before that Great Revolution which brought a monarch and myriads of his subjects to the guillotine; and was reiterated by Paine, Carlile, and all the atheists and infidels of our own country, who were desirous of relaxing the bonds that cement the allegiance of the people to the altar and the throne. Its soundness has been tested, and cast aside, not merely as useless, but as destructive of the happiness of civil and social life." We might probably have expressed ourselves warmly on this point, for our companion took us up with," Keep your temper, my dear friend; your hobby still remains intact. The only wonder is, how Freemasonry, although it may be perfectly innocent, should be a hobby with any man of sense." "There it is now! You think our pursuits are childish; and we admit it is not the first time that we have heard such an accusation maintained. Our opponents, assuming that Freemasonry is frivolous, will still allowwhich is no slight recommendation of the Order-that it does not inculcate any practices which are at variance with the interests of society, for frivolity, however it may be unbecoming to the dignity of man, is at all events innocent." "And therefore useless;" my companion quickly interposed. "Useless! Let Masonry be carefully and minutely examined-let it be traced through all its divisions and degrees-let its doctrine, its discipline, and its ceremonies, be critically analyzed, by friends or by enemies--no matter which-and there will be found in it nothing really objectionablenothing useless. The caviller may express his doubts about the eligibility or expediency of some particular rites, but it is because he does not possess the key to enable him to ascertain their moral and social reference." "All this is very well," said B―, with that knowing twinkle of the eye for which he is so remarkable, "but cui bono? wherein is the Freemason superior to the profane?" "Because he is in membership with an institution which embraces all those prominent virtues that bear directly on the public good, and tend to cement the general interests of our species, by an amelioration of the mind and manners, and a prevention of the evils which usually arise from the absence of moral cultivation." 66 Why, then, are not these effects visible to the eye? Why do they not appear on the surface?" 66 My friend, they are visible to the eyes of every wise and prudent man. But the cowan is wilfully blind-he will not enquire-he will not analyze— it is too much trouble. He has learnt by rote a few parrot-like phrases, and drivelling attempts at argument; and these he repeats, ad nauseam, without ever trying to ascertain whether they are true or false; although they have been refuted a thousand and a thousand times over. He can form no idea of the beauty of masonic sociality; and therefore he is content with retailing a certain modicum of twaddle, which goes down very well with superficial or prejudiced hearers, and satisfies them that he is a very clever fellow." "It may be so. I am quite willing to confess that I know nothing certain about your practices.' "Then you have not read Dr. Oliver's masonic works, which we have so frequently recommended as worthy of your attention?" No, indeed. I am neither a Mason nor a lover of Masonry, and therefore it is very unlikely that I should spend my time in reading masonic books. I laugh at you, because I sincerely believe that your labours, as you gravely call them, are a mere plaything, and therefore beneath the notice of an educated man. Beyond this, your deponent saith not." "If this be the amount of your prejudices, we shall have you under the operation of the brand one of these days; for you admit---which is a preparatory step to a favourable opinion of the institution, and a desire of knowledge that it contains nothing absolutely vicious, or contrary to the dictates of morality and religion; for in a confession of ignorance, there is a reasonable hope of amendment." "I will go with you one step further, and acknowledge that I have often thought it strange that men should be bold enough to write condemnatory essays on any given subject, and commence their tirade with an open confession that they are profoundly ignorant of its first principles. Thus evoking a ghost, and enjoying a great deal of self-satisfaction in having been fortunate enough to knock it on the head. There seems to be a fair proportion of Irish bullism in such a proceeding." "Since you appear open to conviction, we shall have some pleasure in enlightening your understanding; and before we have done, we shall undoubtedly inspire a desire for that more perfect knowledge which can only be attained by initiation." From this conversation we felt ourselves pledged to pursue the subject by a series of essays in our widely circulated miscellany; assured that no other medium would so effectually promulgate the theory-when lo! the parcel of our friend, the Doctor, arrived most opportunely-our anxiety was assuaged our labours superceded-and we have only the easy task of presenting the contribution for the perusal of those whom it may concern ;— merely premising that every argument which has been at any time advanced against the institution, may be considered as answered by the very quiet method which the Historian of Masonry has pursued in the papers now placed at our disposal. He descends to no personal arguments-casts no uncharitable reflections on any individual opponent, how embittered soever be may have shown himself against the Order; but enforces the great principle, that an institution which inculcates all the moral virtues, both negatively and positively, must be fairly entitled to public approbation-worthy of the practice of all good and pious men ;-and cannot be justly chargeable with such "6 high crimes and misdemeanours," as our adversaries so stoutly prefer.-ED. F. Q. R. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. "Hail Masonry, thou Craft divine! Thy praises due, who can rehearse, From which mankind receives such aid "That I might learn as a Mason to practice universal beneficence, by being eyes to the blind and feet to the lame; and that, in my progress through life, if I should meet a worthy brother in a state of distress, I should consider myself bound to stretch forth the right hand of fellowship, to comfort, succour, and relieve him."-MASONIC LECTURE. FREEMASONRY is a comprehensive institution which embraces all mankind in a common bond of universal brotherhood. Creeds or modes of faith are not allowed to interfere with or destroy its genial operation. All men are brethren. Those who are not Masons, lie under the same general obligation to act as brethren to us, and to each other, as we do to all the world, and in particular to those of our pious and honourable community. For by creation we are all the children of one common parent; of one blood, the Great Architect of the World made all the families of the earth. See the order of his work: he laid the broad foundation of the universe; he raised, without axe or hammer, the circular walls of this terraqueous globe; he roofed it with yonder beautiful canopy, and ornamented it with all those unnumbered and unmeasurable glittering orbs of shining light and lustre; perfected it in all its beauty, and furnished it with all its utility; and, like a workman who needeth not to be ashamed of his performance, pronounced the wondrous fabric good, perfect, and complete. Next he built the human frame, and furnished it with immortality; pronounced his creature man very good; sent him forth as an inhabitant of his new-made world; bid him multiply; and declared him the common father of the intended human race. From this stock all mankind were propagated-ALL ARE BRETHREN; -Adam was our federal head, and Adam was the son of God.* As, therefore, all men bear the same relation to each other, Freemasonry, which professes to convey benefits to all ranks and descriptions of men, extends her arms of love and charity to the inhabitants of the earth, without reference to birth, language, education, or the colour of the skin; male and female, infancy, manhood, and old age-all are included in its universal bond; and all, I am inclined to believe, participate in its blessings. It is true the benefits derived by the uninitiated are less obvious, because they refuse to acknowledge them; but still they do partake, to a certain extent, in the unalloyed good which is distributed throughout society by the prevailing, though secret influence of masonry, to promote its moral and social interests. Our Rev. Bro. Town says, "when we speak of the moral principles of Freemasonry, we mean such as emanate from the divine essence, and immutable perfections of God. Such as impress their own truth, and carry conviction of a just sense of duty to every enlightened conscience; —such as are perfectly adapted to the constitutional endowments of man as an intellectual, moral, and social being, and especially such as the understanding will at once perceive to involve his highest and best interests, both as a creature of time, and an heir of immortality. In this, we are not to be understood as saying that the masonic code embodies every distinctive principle of moral virtue, in its more expanded form, but only such as may be brought to bear on a specific object of common interest, and in the best manner subserve the accomplishment of a special purpose connected with the happiness of all our species." This proposition, which every thinking Mason will be able to verify, and none will venture to dispute, is still doubted by some of our opponents amongst the uninitiated, and denied by others. And it is most extraordinary, that men of talent, who are professedly ignorant of the true design of Masonry, should compromise their reputation by writing on a subject where the information is sure to be superficial and imperfect, because it is derived from false lights, which always lead the enquirer into error. And it is seldom that our foes will take the trouble of reading any authorized work on Masonry, lest, perhaps, they should be enlightened, and cease to be opponents. Such uncandid persons com * See Inwood's first sermon, Golden Remains, vol. iv. mence their hostility by retailing slanders, and throwing out insinuations at clubs and private coteries, which are generally well received, because such assemblies are congregated for amusement only, and require nothing but racy anecdotes, true or untrue, to promote the exhilaration of the present moment. A rolling snowball rapidly increases in magnitude, and so does an unfounded report. The debutant, proud of his applause, widens the circle of his charges against the Order; and his popularity increases in proportion as they become more improbable and mysterious. Finding, greatly to his astonishment, that he has become, not only "a hero of dinner tables," but also "the pet of the drawing room," by denouncing an institution which excludes females from its secret celebrations; he at length determines to write, and thus seal the perpetuity of his fame. This, I believe, will be a correct description of the usual progress which has distinguished the career of all the adversaries of Freemasonry. "The charges which pertness, flippancy, and bigotry, prefer against us," as the Chevalier Adamo once observed in a speech at a festival of Lodge 50, in Dublin, "I disdain to meet; but if any man in a spirit of sober investigation, seeks to know in what Masonry consists, I tell him that it venerates and honours religion; I tell him it prohibits intemperance, inculcates order, honesty, sobriety, decorum-that it enjoins the practice of abstemiousness, sincerity, and universal benevolence. If he says this is a vague assertion, I will convince him by facts. I will take him to the house of mourning, where the widow weeps hopelessly over her desolate children-where penury and want have made their abodewhere the silence of despair is only broken by the sigh of the brokenhearted orphan. I will show him the benevolent spirit of our institution, entering the abode of wretchedness, presenting the masonic cup of consolation to the widow, assuring her of protection, and the orphan of support. But while the objects of our peculiar care are the members of our own confraternity, whom poverty and misfortune have prostrated in the dust, there is nothing selfish in the charity we profess, for we are enjoined in the practice of universal benevolence. I may be told that every Christian may do as much; I answer, yes, he ought,—but a Mason must." Such testimonies, from such men, must be sufficient, if candidly considered, to disarm this malignity, and make them friendly to the Order. Should it fail, there is no remedy but the infliction of that curious punishment which we find described in an ancient writer,* as a slight memento to those unfortunate persons who dogmatically presumed to dictate to others what they did not understand themselves; it was to this effect. A certain witty rake, called Muthodes, was much given to slander, and entertained his friends, at their symposiacs, with anecdotes that were invented for the occasion, and strictures on various sciences of which he was known to be notoriously ignorant. At length he began to meddle with the affairs of state, condemning all the wise and benevolent institutions of antiquity. Intelligence of this being conveyed to the Archon, he caused two tall stakes to be placed perpendicularly in the ground, and a third laid horizontally across the top; and commanded that the culprit should be suspended by the heels from the centre of the machine; this being considered the proper position of those who wilfully misrepresent facts, and turn the truth upside down. The unauthorized * Discip. Cant. de verb. Trut. 1. 84, c. 19, words which Muthodes had been guilty of using, were then fairly transcribed, each on a separate piece of paper, and being rolled up into pellets, were enclosed in the leaf of a cabbage, and he was compelled to swallow them in detail, one by one, till all were consumed. Now the cabbage being esteemed a sovereign antidote against drunkenness, it was prescribed in this case, because the man who pretends to give an opinion on a subject which he does not understand, is guilty of wilful falsehood -and wilful falsehood is a species of moral intoxication. And, as a further precaution against a renewal of the offence, the delinquent was placed in an inverted posture, that the fumes of the indigestible verbiage might rise into the epigastrium, and the brain remain untouched. This was considered to be a never-failing cure for the complaint. Our opponents will perhaps be gratified to learn, how reluctant soever they may be to admit the fact, in what manner the influence of Masonry operates; because, they may probably think, that as its effects do not always appear on the surface, and the institution does not obtrude itself on public notice by the use of such means as are resorted to by some other societies, to secure the applause of the multitude, its moral efficacy is questionable. I am ready to admit, that Freemasonry is of a retiring character; that it distributes its benefits noiselessly, and does not let its left hand know what its right hand doeth. But its influence on society is not the less certain, nor its benefits the less operative, on that account. And I shall endeavour to demonstrate this proposition by showing, that Freemasonry actually recommends all those virtues, and forbids all those vices, which tend to promote or retard the welfare of civil society; and that the example of its members imparts a silent lesson, which, though it may not be obvious to the sight, works secretly for the benefit of the community at large. And first it will be observed, that influence is of two kinds, direct and indirect. The first embraces precept and example, the second may be subdivided into positive and negative. These I shall consider seriatim ; and I flatter myself that I shall convince the reader—as I am myself convinced that Freemasonry possesses considerable influence on the moral and social condition of man, however it may be overlooked by the thoughtless, doubted by the sceptic, or denied by those who regard our proceedings with envy and ill-will. All such persons, from what cause soever their hostility may arise, in their ignorance of our practices, expose themselves in mass, by contradicting and refuting each others theory. One wittily accuses us of practising an institution which is out of the pale of Christianity; another condemns us because, as he says, we make it a Christian institution, and endeavour to pass it off as a substitute for the gospel. How can these two adversaries reconcile the grounds of their hostility to the Order, when neither of them can tell which is right and which is wrong? There are many other anomalies into which these critics fall and ensnare themselves, when they plunge into a stream whose depth has not been sounded. Our transgressions, according to the evidence of these worthies, are too numerous to be either overlooked or forgiven. Freemasonry is frivolous and absurd-it is useless-it is unsocial-it is anti-monarchial it is an emanation of paganism-it imposes unlawful oaths-it is a spirit raising, gold making, fortune telling deception, exuded from the dross and filth of Rosicrucianism, &c. &c. But the exclusion of females appears to be the pons asinorum of the objectors. And he must be an adventurous knight, indeed, and clad cap-a-pie in armour of proof, who |