Dedication Of A Masonic Hall In 1777.

brooded all over Europe : —Just as Mists and Clouds may obscure the Sun , and the whole Creation may droop for a while under his pale and sickly Influence : —but nothing can impair his intrinsic splendour : he will again burst forth with bridal Glory , and . as our immortal Poet speaks ,

" Bid the Fields revive , The Birds their Notes renew , and bleating Herds Attest their Joy , that Hill and Valley rings . " Accordingly , since that disgraceful era , Masonry , to use the Words of the same Poet , " Has repair'd her drooping Head , Aud tiickt her and with

Beams , new-spangled Ore Flames in the Forehead of the Morning Sky . " To speak without Metaphor , we now behold it , as this beautiful Edifice testifies , in its fairest and most flourishing State ; and may justly cry out with the Roman Orator , behold a Sight , which God himself , intent upon his own Workmay regard with Pleasure ; a Society of Men formed to support the

, Interest of Science , Virtue , and Benevolence , so closel y cemented together , without Compulsion or Violence , that no Flaw , no Joint can be discerned ; but as our Historian speaks , "All things are so adjusted , and accommodated one Piece to another , that upon the whole , it looks more like the Work of Providence and Nature , than the Product of Art and Human Invention . " But the circumstanceswhich claim our most earnest and immediate

, Attention , are the Ornaments of Solomon ' s Temple ; so applicable to our Art , and so figurative of its Excellence , that I trust it will be no Trespass upon your Time or Patience to dwell upon them more largely . We are told by the Historian that " it was overlaid with Gold interwoven with beautiful Flowers and Palm Trees , and adorned with Painting and Sculpture . " Nothing is more observable in the History of Mankind , than that Masonry and

Civilization , like twin Sisters , have gone hand in hand together ; and that Wealth , Arts , Science , —every Thing that could embellish and beautify human . Life , have followed with faithful Steps , and composed their Train . The very Orders of Architecture mark the Growth and Progress of Civilization . Dark , dreary , comfortless were those Times , when Masonry never yet laid her Line , not extended her Compass . The Race of Mankind , in full Possession of wild and savage Libertysullen and solitary , mutually offending and afraid of each

, other , shrouded themselves in Thickets of the Woods , or Dens and Caves of the Earth . In these murk y Recesses , these sombrous Solitudes , Masonry found them out ; and , pitying their forlorn and destitute Condition , instructed them to build Habitations for Convenience , Defence , and Comfort . The Habitations * they then built were like their Manners , rugged and unseemly , a prompt and artless imitation of simple and course nature . Yet rude and

inelegant as they were , they had this excellent effect , that by aggregating mankind , they prepared the way for improvement and civilization . The hardest bodies will polish by collision , and the roughest manners by communion and intercourse . Thus , they lost by degrees their asperity and ruggedness , and became insensibly mild and gentle , from fierce and barbarous nature . Masonry beheldand glorified in the change and as their minds expanded and softened

, ; she shewed them new li ghts , and conducted them to new improvements . Their rustic Masons pleased no more—they aimed at something hig her and nobler , and deriving their ideas of Symmetry from the Human Form Divine , they adopted that as their modelf and prototype . At this era , their buildings , though simple and natural , were proportioned in the exactest manner , and admirably calculated for strength and convenience . Yet still there was some-