Like this veracity is the cellent moral influence; but she is a deceiver, and cannot be trusted when she speaks the truth. All have heard of the veracity of the thirsty savage, who, on a winter's day, received his quart for a deer, which the shopman "might find" but did not find. The savage, when afterwards challenged, replied, "You found Sigamond lake?" "Yes." "And the great white oak?" "Yes." "It is well if Indian tell two truths to one lie." moral influence of Free Masonry. and the sciences, like Playfair; and tells you, "these are the delight of the lodges." You find the lodge, as certain as the shopman did the big white oak by Sigamond lake, but no deer is there. She discourses upon religion and morality, like a saint; and pretends to guide her followers to a blessed immortality. They find the white oak and the lake, two truths; but the main thing is false: Free Masonry is a blind guide. She pretends that "the wORD in the first verse of St. John, in all its relations to man, time, and eternity, constitutes the very spirit and essence of speculative Free Masonry:" Town's Spec. Free Mas. p. 154.) an assertion, so barefaced, that it beats the effrontery of the Indian by two bow shots; and it is impossible to conceive how it could be solemnly pronounced, and officially sanctioned, and, after five years opportunity of reflection, repeated, in the second edition of Town's S. M. But there it is, p. 144; let the Grand Chapter look to it; Free Masonry can answer it only with her life. O, could this voice reach the ears of the honest fraternity, how distinctly would it cry: "Free Masonry is a fiend, a legion of foul spirits; a wonder, like the smoke coming up from the bottomless pit, that darkens the sun and the air. Full of all subtlety and craftiness, she takes the profession of an angel of light, yet dwells unseen in the darkness. She plants herself upon the same co-eternal and unshaken foundation with Christianity, as taught in divine revelation, thus comparing her midnight face with the church, "clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." She dwells in the midst of deceit, teaching her children to "bend their tongues like their bows for lies." Professing to" embrace in body and substance the whole duty of man as a moral being;" (Gr. Chapter N. York. Town, p. 23.) professing to be, in the inimitable language of the scriptures, a fountain of living waters; she is, indeed, hewn out with men's hands, a broken cistern, that can hold no water." CHAPTER XXVI. Royal Arch Masonry. "Attention, Mark Master, you're called to appear "There is no more occasion for level or plumb-line, Ibid. p. 232. COMMENCING this work with an earnest desire to do it up thoroughly, my heart leaped with the hope of taking the highest degrees of Free Masonry in a fraternity of Right Honourables. Leisure, and wealth, and ambition to carry every good thing to a high state of perfection, enable the gentlemen of England in some points, to surpass the business men of our Republic; and it could not be doubted that Free Masonry would receive deserved attention in the metropolis of Europe. Soberly I resolved upon it: "the institution appears hollow and senseless; yet it is sustained by judicious and substantial men. I have undertaken to investigate it, and London will afford a field rich with satisfaction to my doubts. To London let me go." While meditating on this matter, and shaping my purposes in due season to accomplish it, I happened in another metropolis to meet an excellent grand master of the Grand Lodge, and challenging him upon the outrageous pretensions of our fraternity, he soon put me at rest upon the score of obtaining more satisfactory information in London. What! not be able to take a degree of Masonry in all Great Britain higher than the third, or sublime degree of master Mason? How must the masonic reader be surprised to hear it it is not credible: yet the most excellent grand master affirmed that it was so. "How do they manage in the master's degree, where our lodges give a substitute for the lost word ?" "They give the word at once," he replied, "and the chase ends there.” I have heard that the British have a portion of good sense, and was inclined to believe this true friend of Ancient Free Masonry; but the affair was too important to rest upon individual testimony. He kindly referred me to the second article of the union of the Grand Lodge of England with the Dissenters, headed by the Duke of Athol, ratified in London, 27th December, A. D. 1813; copies of which were sent to each of the Grand Lodges of the United States of America. I can never obtain that, which declares, according to my grand master, that all ancient Free Masonry is contained within the lodges of Master Masons. And here are some good reasons for believing it, until the article itself is found. Preston's Illustrations of Masonry pretend, to give a full and perfect illustration of all the degrees, public ceremonies, and forms of Free Masonry. He takes no notice of any degree in Masonry higher than the master's. But in the historical part of his later editions, he mentions the formation of the Harodim Chapter, A. D. 1787; and, at the same time, expresses fears for the consequences of some modern innovations in Masonry. Hutchinson's Spirit of Masonry, published in 1764, treats liberally of the three degrees, and of the three only. He speaks of the royal arch; but indistinctly, and does not account it a fourth degree of Masonry. He was a man who would not have spared to honour the glorious craft, Mesourania, with higher degrees, had they been known then to English Masons. Jachin and Boaz professes to give a perfect key to all the arcana of Free Masonry, without an intimation of a degree above the lodges: that was published about 1770. Ahiman Rezon, published in London, 1764, treats of the three degrees, and names the holy royal arch, as the very marrow of Free Masonry; but not as a distinct degree, not as a separate order of Masonry. 66 Three principal steps in our ladder there be, A mystery to all but to those that are free." Ahiman Rezon. The Book of Constitutions of Massachusetts, ed. 1792, professes to give a complete history of Free Masonry, both in England and Massachusetts, but it makes no mention of any degree, in either country, above the lodges of master Masons. Lawrie's History of Free Masonry professes to give a full history of the craft, and makes no mention of any body of Masons higher than masters; but in the constitution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, it is expressly declared, that all ancient St. John's Masonry is contained within the three degrees of apprentice, fellow craft, and master Mason. (Lawrie's History of Masonry, chap. Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.) Smith's Use and Abuse of Masonry is an elaborate octavo of some 400 pages, critical and historical, published in London, 1784, without noticing a chapter, or the royal arch degree, or any degree higher than the master's. Calcott's Disquisition upon Free Masonry, republished at Boston, 1770, gives no treatise upon the royal arch degree. or any degree above the master's. By act of Parliament, 1799, all secret assemblies whatever are made penal, except those of the Free Masons lodges. Vide Ency. Britt. art. Masonry. Visiting London, then, with a view practically to acquire a correct knowledge of the higher degrees of Free Masonry, would be labour lost. No; we have the information nearer home. Hear the voice of experience, "of a distinguished member of our fraternity," says the Free Mason's Library. "The brief analysis which it gives of Masonry cannot be too deeply impressed upon the minds of all who are, or who would become, Free and Accepted Masons." (F. M. Lib. p. 6 of the preface.) "In the mark Mason's degree I obtained a plan 'well ordered in all things,' to avert the evils of any disorganizing power, and prevent the calamities of poverty and want. (Excellent! who would not be a Free Mason?) As a past master, I learned the true art of governing myself, and those over whom I should be appointed to preside. In the most excellent master's degree, I was carried back to the time when the temple was finished, the capstone brought forth with shoutings of grace, grace to it,' the ark safely seated, the most excellent masters prostrate before the Eternal, praising his goodness and mercy; and the fire of heaven not only burning on the altar, but in the hearts of the worthy; my heart was touched as with a live |