Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sketch Of The History Of The " Loges D'Adoption."
these societies , but much with which no serious person could fail of being disgusted . The " Order of Felicity , " which is the third of these societies , was of a more amiable and elegant kind , and served to pass away time most agreeably . It was instituted b y M . de Charbonnet , a man of a highly cultivated and inventive mind , who , perceiving the many objections which there were to the societies we have named , and also seeing that in such there
meetings were advantages , determined to establish one which should possess all their pleasures without any of their revolting ceremonies , and accordingly founded the " Order of Felicity . " The ceremonies of this Order deserve to be mentioned . The initiation consisted m a figurative and allegorical voyage to the Island of Felicity , which the candidate was supposed to go , and in the course of which he met with dangers and difficultiesthat produced suitable remarks from
, the president and at length he or she arrived at the desired haven . I here were four degrees in this order , taking their names from those of the different ranks in the navy , and all the officers of the society also bore nautical appellations , the meeting itself being called a squadron . I he members wore a cable twined round a gold anchor . This institution , though only tending to produce conviviality and good fellowship , deserved a longer duration than it had—a terminated its existence
year . Soon after the dissolution of the " Order of Felicity , " M . Chamont , the private Secretary of the Due de Chartres , who was desirous only of pleasing his master in all things , invented a neiv order for this purpose , under the name of "The Nymphs and Knights of the Rose . "
VI e must here omit any description of this society , save only to remark that morality was not one of its characteristics * . In the year 1767 , the mania for such associations was at its height , and their number daily increased ; there was not a romance , not an opera , from which a new Order did not arise in France . The Freemasons of France hitherto had viewed all these vagaries with indifference , but now they began to think them of more importance from the
folloiving circumstances . Several members of the Masonic fraternity had been induced to join these spurious Orders , and had thought themselves hound to defend them . They accordingly , in every respect , wished to assimilate them to Masonry , and therefore endeavoured to apply to the former all arguments ' adduced in favour of the antiquity and the value of the latter . The sober Members of our order in vain wrote against these upstart advocates of the new societiesThey had powerful
. one party to contend with ; one whom , as they could only treat with reverence and affection , they could not persuade in favour of genuine masonry—their opponents were " Le Beau Sexe . " The ladies almost unanimously declared themselves in favour of the novelty and against Freemasonry , for they were admitted , and their society courted by the former , but rejected in the latter , and against such adversaries who could succeed ? While several works issued from the
press , proving the antiquity of Masonry , and showing the beautiful morality which it inculcated , others equally were published complaining of the exclusion of one part , and that the fairest part , of the creation , from its hallowed fane ; and also , after making desperate attempts to prove the beauty of their own mysteries , these latter concluded by saying , that then did not
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sketch Of The History Of The " Loges D'Adoption."
these societies , but much with which no serious person could fail of being disgusted . The " Order of Felicity , " which is the third of these societies , was of a more amiable and elegant kind , and served to pass away time most agreeably . It was instituted b y M . de Charbonnet , a man of a highly cultivated and inventive mind , who , perceiving the many objections which there were to the societies we have named , and also seeing that in such there
meetings were advantages , determined to establish one which should possess all their pleasures without any of their revolting ceremonies , and accordingly founded the " Order of Felicity . " The ceremonies of this Order deserve to be mentioned . The initiation consisted m a figurative and allegorical voyage to the Island of Felicity , which the candidate was supposed to go , and in the course of which he met with dangers and difficultiesthat produced suitable remarks from
, the president and at length he or she arrived at the desired haven . I here were four degrees in this order , taking their names from those of the different ranks in the navy , and all the officers of the society also bore nautical appellations , the meeting itself being called a squadron . I he members wore a cable twined round a gold anchor . This institution , though only tending to produce conviviality and good fellowship , deserved a longer duration than it had—a terminated its existence
year . Soon after the dissolution of the " Order of Felicity , " M . Chamont , the private Secretary of the Due de Chartres , who was desirous only of pleasing his master in all things , invented a neiv order for this purpose , under the name of "The Nymphs and Knights of the Rose . "
VI e must here omit any description of this society , save only to remark that morality was not one of its characteristics * . In the year 1767 , the mania for such associations was at its height , and their number daily increased ; there was not a romance , not an opera , from which a new Order did not arise in France . The Freemasons of France hitherto had viewed all these vagaries with indifference , but now they began to think them of more importance from the
folloiving circumstances . Several members of the Masonic fraternity had been induced to join these spurious Orders , and had thought themselves hound to defend them . They accordingly , in every respect , wished to assimilate them to Masonry , and therefore endeavoured to apply to the former all arguments ' adduced in favour of the antiquity and the value of the latter . The sober Members of our order in vain wrote against these upstart advocates of the new societiesThey had powerful
. one party to contend with ; one whom , as they could only treat with reverence and affection , they could not persuade in favour of genuine masonry—their opponents were " Le Beau Sexe . " The ladies almost unanimously declared themselves in favour of the novelty and against Freemasonry , for they were admitted , and their society courted by the former , but rejected in the latter , and against such adversaries who could succeed ? While several works issued from the
press , proving the antiquity of Masonry , and showing the beautiful morality which it inculcated , others equally were published complaining of the exclusion of one part , and that the fairest part , of the creation , from its hallowed fane ; and also , after making desperate attempts to prove the beauty of their own mysteries , these latter concluded by saying , that then did not