Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
wms with confidence the prize which the other desired but feared to run for . A proper quantity of assurance , is absolutely necessary to secure success in most of the pursuits of active life : and for want of that animal auxiliary , many minds of first rate intellect have been , and are , deterred proceeding in their schemes . How requisite , therefore , is it to prune the redundant branches of the arbor vital , and train them b y discipline , learning , and experience , steadily to grow up both useful and ornamental trees in the garden of life ; for , says the heathen poet ,
Ammum rege , qui nisi paret , impcrat . No XXXVI . —AN UNDUE EXERCISE OP AUTHORITY SUBVERSIVE OP THE END FOR WHICH IT WAS ENTRUSTED . Minima rteeet libere , cui multum litct—SENECA .
All human power is delegated , permissively , by the Great Disposer of all events , and immediately by man to man , for the benefit of protection to the weak , security to the strong , and good government over all . These are the essential principles of legitimate authority , and , therefore , the abuse of either is an abrogation of the trust under which it was gran ted . AVhen persons or princes are put into authority bthe people—the
y source of all justly derived power—they should exercise their elective privilege with moderation and a most strict regard to justice , never exposing themselves , or the sacred cause which they represent , to the charge of perverting their entrusted power to the purposes of faction or personal antipathies . They were invested with their authority , be it regal or magisterial , over a national community , or any particular section of itthat they miht exercise its functions according to a
con-, g stituted code of fixed laws , or the natural rules of equity and honor , for the welfare of the whole ; and they are accountable for any misuse or dereliction of their duty to that supreme power whence all power is derived—the people directly , God hereafter . An unjust stretch of authority too imminently endangers both the stability and popularity of the offender in his particular office , and the integrity and unity ofthe body to govern which in wisdom andharmony
that office was conferred , inciting aversion to himself , and general contempt for the occupation he belongs to . How different the result of an opposite conduct . A lenient and temperate execution of positive regulations , where they really bear upon a delinquent point , secures the respect of the governed , and the cheerful obedience of the condemned , settling the equity of its decrees , and securing the affections of the public . In confirmation of what clemency and sagacity will effect in place of austerity and rigor , the old adage
affirms' I otcntiam cautis quam acrilms conciliis tutiorem Iiaberi . " Violence , whatever its character , is similar in its desolating effects to a volcanic eruption ; hut unlike the burning lava , which no impediment can stop , the violence of a moral or social eruption may be impeded by some more potent and timely interference . The biography of rulers in every age affords very many examples of the impolicy of assuming an
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
wms with confidence the prize which the other desired but feared to run for . A proper quantity of assurance , is absolutely necessary to secure success in most of the pursuits of active life : and for want of that animal auxiliary , many minds of first rate intellect have been , and are , deterred proceeding in their schemes . How requisite , therefore , is it to prune the redundant branches of the arbor vital , and train them b y discipline , learning , and experience , steadily to grow up both useful and ornamental trees in the garden of life ; for , says the heathen poet ,
Ammum rege , qui nisi paret , impcrat . No XXXVI . —AN UNDUE EXERCISE OP AUTHORITY SUBVERSIVE OP THE END FOR WHICH IT WAS ENTRUSTED . Minima rteeet libere , cui multum litct—SENECA .
All human power is delegated , permissively , by the Great Disposer of all events , and immediately by man to man , for the benefit of protection to the weak , security to the strong , and good government over all . These are the essential principles of legitimate authority , and , therefore , the abuse of either is an abrogation of the trust under which it was gran ted . AVhen persons or princes are put into authority bthe people—the
y source of all justly derived power—they should exercise their elective privilege with moderation and a most strict regard to justice , never exposing themselves , or the sacred cause which they represent , to the charge of perverting their entrusted power to the purposes of faction or personal antipathies . They were invested with their authority , be it regal or magisterial , over a national community , or any particular section of itthat they miht exercise its functions according to a
con-, g stituted code of fixed laws , or the natural rules of equity and honor , for the welfare of the whole ; and they are accountable for any misuse or dereliction of their duty to that supreme power whence all power is derived—the people directly , God hereafter . An unjust stretch of authority too imminently endangers both the stability and popularity of the offender in his particular office , and the integrity and unity ofthe body to govern which in wisdom andharmony
that office was conferred , inciting aversion to himself , and general contempt for the occupation he belongs to . How different the result of an opposite conduct . A lenient and temperate execution of positive regulations , where they really bear upon a delinquent point , secures the respect of the governed , and the cheerful obedience of the condemned , settling the equity of its decrees , and securing the affections of the public . In confirmation of what clemency and sagacity will effect in place of austerity and rigor , the old adage
affirms' I otcntiam cautis quam acrilms conciliis tutiorem Iiaberi . " Violence , whatever its character , is similar in its desolating effects to a volcanic eruption ; hut unlike the burning lava , which no impediment can stop , the violence of a moral or social eruption may be impeded by some more potent and timely interference . The biography of rulers in every age affords very many examples of the impolicy of assuming an