institution, instead of being an object of deserved veneration, fall into disrepute and become a subject of ridicule. It is therefore to be expected, that neither the wealth, the station, or the power of any man, shall procure from us his admission into our respectable lodges: but his propriety of conduct, his uprightness, his goodness. Such indeed as answer this description, will be an honour to our sublime craft, and are best qualified to reap from it every desirable advantage. And although it is a maxim with us to solicit none to enter into our Society, yet we shall be always exceedingly glad to enrol such worthy members in the honourable lists of our numerous members. These are egregiously deceived, and may they ever be disappointed in their application for admittance, as Free Masons, who consider us in the light of a Bacchanalian society, or under any similar ignoble idea. Our association, indeed, admits of all becoming cheerfulness, festivity, and gaiety of temper, at suitable seasons and intervals; but indeed our assemblies are principally convened for the most beneficial and exalted purposes: for purifying the heart, correcting the manners, and enlightening the understanding. Thus the useful and the agreeable are by us happily united; instruction and pleasure are blended together. Order, decorum, concord, and complacency, are constant attendants upon our lodges. Now is Masonry so good, so valuable a science? Does it tend to instruct the mind, and tame each unruly passion? Does it reconcile men of all religions and of all nations? Does it expel rancour, hatred and envy? Is it an universal cement, binding its followers to charity, good will, and secret friendship? Is it calculated to promote the greatest freedom? Does it teach men to lead quiet lives? In short, are not its precepts a complete system of moral virtue? Then, hail, thou glorious craft, bright transcript of all that is amiable! Hail, thou blest moral science, which so beau ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM FRIENDSHIP. 123 tifully exemplifies virtue! Welcome, ye delightful mansions, where all enjoy the pleasures of a serene and tranquil life! Welcome, ye blessed retreats, where smiling friendship ever blooms, and from her throne dispenses pleasure with unbounded liberality! Welcome, sacred habitations, where peace and innocence for ever dwell. CHAPTER II. FRIENDSHIP CONSIDERED, WITH THE ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM IT. No subject can more properly engage the attention, than the humane and benevolent dispositions which indulgent nature has bestowed upon the rational species. These are replete with the happiest effects, and afford to the mind the most agreeable reflections. The breast which is inspired with tender feelings, is naturally prompted to a reciprocal intercourse of kind and generous actions. As human nature rises in the scale of things, so do the social affections likewise arise. When friendship is firm and lasting, we enjoy the highest degree of happiness: but when it declines, we experience an equal degree of pain. Where friendship is unknown, jealousy and suspicion prevail; but where virtue is the cement, true pleasure must be enjoyed. In every breast there exists a propensity to friendly acts, and when these are exerted to effect, they sweeten every temporal enjoyment; and if they do not always totally remove the disquietudes, they at least tend to allay the calamities, of life. Friendship is traced through the circle of private connexions to the grand system of universal benevolence, which no limits can circumscribe, and its influence extends to every 124 ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM FRIENDSHIP. branch of the human race. Actuated by these sentiments, each individual centres his happiness in that of his neighbour, and a fixed and permanent union is established among men. Nevertheless, though friendship, considered as the source of universal benevolence, is unlimited, it exerts its influence more or less powerfully as the objects it favours are nearer or more remote. Hence, the love of friends and of country takes the lead in our affections, and gives rise to that true patriotism, which fires the soul with the most generous flame, creates the best and most disinterested virtue, and inspires that public spirit and heroic ardour, which enables us to support a good cause, and risk our lives in its defence. This commendable virtue crowns the lover of his country with unfading laurels, gives a lustre to his actions, and consecrates his name to posterity. The warrior's glory may consist in murder, and the rude ravage of the desolating sword; but the blood of thousands will never stain the hands of his country's friend. His virtues are open, and of the noblest kind. Conscious integrity supports him against the arm of power; and should he bleed by tyrant's hands, he gloriously dies a martyr in the cause of liberty, and leaves to posterity an everlasting monument of the greatness of his soul. Friendship not only appears divine when employed in preserving the liberties of our country, but shines with equal splendour in the more tranquil scenes of life. Before it rises into the noble flame of patriotism, aiming destruction at the heads of tyrants, thundering for liberty, and courting danger in defence of rights, we behold it calm and moderate, burning with an even glow, improving the soft hours of peace, and heightening the relish for virtue. In these happy moments contracts are formed, societies are instituted, and the vacant hours of life wisely employed, in the cultivation of social and polished manners. CHAPTER III. ON MASONIC SECRESY. MANY are the charges brought against the society on account of secresy; one of our grand charcteristics, and the innocent cause of most of the persecutions and reproaches we suffer. We are condemned for keeping the essentials of our institution from the knowledge of those who are not members of it; which, it is said, must sufficiently prove them to be of a very bad nature and tendency, else why are they not made public for the satisfaction of mankind. If secresy be a virtue, (a thing never yet denied,) can that be imputed to us as a crime, which has always been considered as an excellence in all ages? Does not Solomon, the wisest of all men, tell us, "He that discovers secrets is a traitor, but a man of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter." In conducting all worldly affairs, secresy is not only essential, but absolutely necessary; and was ever esteemed a quality of the greatest worth. To be faithful in keeping secrets, is the constant aim of a Mason, and to possess a degree of taciturnity ought to be his constant study, by which he ought to divest himself of that close mysterious air, so common to the reserved; for while it appears that he carries his whole heart upon his lips, communicating what is of no importance, yet he ought to know how to stop just in the proper moment, without proceeding to those things which might raise up any suspicion, or furnish even a hint to discover the purposes of his mind. If we turn our eyes to antiquity, we shall find the ancient Egyptians had so great a regard for silence and secresy in the mysteries of their religion, that they set up the God Harpocrates, to whom they paid peculiar honour and veneration, who was represented with his right hand placed near his heart, and the left down by his side, covered with a skin before full of eyes and ears, to signify, that of many things to be seen and heard, few are to be spoken. And among the same people, their great Isis, the Minerva of the Greeks, had always an image of a sphynx* placed at the entrance of her temples, to denote that secrets were there preserved under sacred coverings, that they might be kept from the knowledge of the vulgar, as much as the riddles of that creature. Among the Greek nations, the Athenians had a statue of brass, which they awfully revered. This figure was without a tongue, by which secresy was intimated. The Romans had a goddess of silence, named Angerona, represented with her fore-finger on her lips, a symbol of prudence and taciturnity.† Annacarchus, who (according to Pliny) was apprehended in order to extort his secrets from him, bit his tongue off in the midst, and afterwards spit it in the tyrant's face, rather choosing to lose that organ, than to discover those things which he had promised to conceal. Therefore, since it evidently appears from the foregoing instances, (among many others) that there were ever secrets among mankind, as well respecting societies as individuals, and that the keeping of these inviolable was always reputed an indispensable duty, and attended with an honourable estimation, it must be very difficult to assign a sufficient * The Sphynx was a famous monster in Egypt, having the face of a virgin and the body of a lion; it was hewn out of the rock, and about thirty feet high, and placed near one of the pyramids. + A beautiful representation of this goddess must be familiar to all who have visited the New Masonic Hall in Philadelphia. |