Reviews.

or daughters , Avith this truthful estimate of our widely-spread and inimitable institution . But , unfortunately , too many of us fall far short of living out the sublime precepts of Freemasonry ; and , in an age when hard drinking Avas the fashion amongst all . classes of the community—when it Avas

considered no disgrace to fall inebriated beneath the table of the peer or the country squire— " Masons' meetings , " as Burns terms them were too often polluted Avith the filthy flood of intemperance which deluged the laud ; and some doggrel

songsters AVIIO had crept into the Craft , assuming to themselves the singing-robes Avhich belong only to the true bard , rhymed and ranted as though guzzling and drinking Avas the principal object for Avhich lodges were established , although the least attention to our beautiful ritual Avould have

soon convinced them to the contrary . True , a few bright Masons , in Avhose souls chvelt the true spirit of song , like our immortal brothers , Robert Burns and John Cunningham , pealed a purer strain from their lyres , enunciating sentiments not uiiAvorthy of the Grand Lodge above . Butfor the most

, part , Avhat arrant trash many of the socalled Masonic Songs are that have come doAvn to us I Not in that spirit did our ancient operative brethren build those magnificent fabrics , which , even Avhen in ruinshave ever since been the wonder

, and admiration of posterity . And even some of the best of our prose Avritersthough they have truly delineated our beautiful system of morality , veiled in allegory , and illustrated by symbols—have

been so childishly credulous in matters relating to its history that they have chronicled alike fact and fiction as equally Avorthy of acceptance , and thus brought our ancient Craft to be lightly esteemed , if not altogether despised , by men AVIIO ought to have been its truest friends and

most stalwart champions . Some of the charges brought against our Fraternity are so ultra-ridiculous , that I confess they have afforded me a fund of amusement . Nothing in Mandeville , RabelaisLemuel SulliverArabian Nights

, , , Tristram Shandy , Ingoldsby Legends , Hood ' s Own , or any book I have read , seems to me half so comical as a grave man , like Professor Robinson in the last century , Avriting a goodly-sized octavo volume , to announce to an astonished

Avorld , that a brotherhood which embraced in one fraternal grasp , men of all nations , tongues , and kindred . Trinitarian and Unitarian , Christians , JBAVS , IVlahometans , and all Avho believe in the Grand

Geometrician of the Universe—men AA'I IO not only believe in monarchy , or in republics , but kings Avho reigu by right of birth , and presidents elected by the people—in short , men of the most discordant opinions in politics or theology , but beliving in the brotherhood of man—are all united in one

formidable confederacy to upset all governments and all reli gions , ancl make a hell upon earth . That Pope after Pope should thunder his curses from the Vatican against us , ought not to surprise those AVIIO knoAV that nothing less will ever content that

Avorst of all despotisms than trampling under foot that civil ancl religious liberty of Avhich Freemasonry , Avithout meddling in party squabbles , is really the true protector . But that Protestants—who ought to be prepared to die , like their illustrious fathers

before them , for the most glorious of all rights and privileges , the freedom of conscience , should join in the hue and cry against us , with the same pig-headed stupidity as Avas clone by the bigotted Presbyterians in their Associate Synod at Edinburgh , August 2 ith , 1757 , is to me

rather tragical than comical , and not at all a hopeful sign of the times . Were it not that I frequently meet Avith persons of good natural faculties , Avho have been so ill-educated as not to know that the English drama is purer IIOAV than it Avas on the stage just after the

Restoration , ancl AVIIO know no difference betAveen the novels of Scott , Cooper , or Dickens , and those of Mrs . Behm , having never Avituessed the performance of a play , or read either dramatic or romantic literature ; I should feel surprised that the " mares '

nests" found by the Abbe Barruel ancl Professor Robinson towards the close of the last century , should turn up again in the present clay . Surely fourscore more years of quiet benevolence on the part of the members of the Craft in Britain and

her Colonies , to say nothing about the many Avorks of charity performed in other countries , ought to have rendered it quite unnecessary for our esteemed and gifted Brother Woodford , or for any other man , to have to come fonvard Avith a " Defence of Freemasonry . "