to every current of fashion or prejudice. This, again, gives him unlimited power; for he can make use of these prejudices to lead men by troops. He finds them already associated by their prejudices, and waiting for a leader to concentrate their strength, and set them in motion. And when once great bodies of men are set in motion, with a creature of their fancy for a guide, even the engineer him self cannot say, "thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.""

And here I would stop, fearing to weaken the force of the appeal of this enlightened and just man: but I have a word to say to my brethren.

CHAPTER LX.

CONCLUSION.

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good: be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another."-Romans, xii. 9, 10.

FOR you, brethren, I commenced this work; to you have I dedicated it; and, if you have accompanied me through its pages, your heart will testify with me, that it is not an effort to seize the present excitement for the worship of Mammon; but a collection of documents, selected with labour and arranged with care, having in its aim solely the illustration of Free Masonry, without the fear of man, or the hope of earthly reward, to turn aside the shaft of truth.

And what, my brethren, do we find Free Masonry?—

But

When men that have never been behind the curtain, attempt to describe what is done there, your patience fails; your indignation finds not how to restrain itself. Messrs. Stearns, and Barruel, and Robison, with ten thousand more who are beginning to speak, have been behind the scenes. You will not refuse to hear them; otherwise the world will hear them, and the retort ignoramus, will set home effectually.

Again, you have not known much about Free Masonry. It is a fact. You compared the little you saw with the character of the upright men in the lodges, and with the purity of your own intentions, and thus Free Masonry has been concealed from you. To make an inspection of her volumes, an examination of her peculiar principles, and to note the downward course of her tendency, as seen in her European history, you have had neither the means, nor the leisure, nor the inclination.

I have done it for you, rising early and watching late, sparing neither labour nor pains, but bringing what knowledge and what powers I possess, cheerfully and unremittingly to the task, in the exercise of that faithfulness which looks towards immortality. It is not in the hearts of my countrymen to condemn me unheard, or, having heard, to doubt what I say.

And what do we find Free Masonry?

This interesting question is yet difficult satisfactorily to answer. To reply negatively is not difficult: "It is not what it pretends to be:" but to tell what it is, you can see, brethren, is scarcely possible.

It is undoubtedly an imposture; but not on this account do men, on their death bed, request its funeral honours. It is a fearless hypocrite; but not for this do men bestow its charities upon the widow and the orphan. It is the enemy of divine revelation; but not on that account do men of piety hallow its mysteries with their prayers, and fill its husks with the bread of heaven.

What is Free Masonry? Who can tell?

None doubt that it is very frivolous; (Professor Robison;) but then what have men of sense to do with it ?None doubt that it is a selfish institution; but why have generous souls a share of its honours? None can doubt that its pretended origin, antiquity, and universality, are false; but then why do men of truth clothe in aprons on St. John's day?

Ah! I fear we have all been deceived in this scheme of darkness, but the old adversary. We have thought it empty, while he has known how to fill it: we have thought it innocent hypocrisy, while he has proved that no hypocrisy is innocent.

What is Free Masonry? I reply freely, brethren.

The mother we know; there can be no doubt of that; she yet wears her apron and trowel like an honest woman. But, how, when, or by whom she was defiled to bring forth the monster Free Masonry, does not appear. Many circumstances fix the birth in the beginning of the 18th century certainly that was the time when the child first began to run to and fro in the earth; and the mother lodge which nourished and clothed the bantling, and sent her forth into the four quarters of the earth to deceive mankind, came herself into being A. D. 1717; indeed it is so; and in 1720,"to the irreparable loss of the fraternity, several valuable manuscripts concerning the lodges, regulations, charges, secrets, and usages of Masons, were too hastily burnt by some scrupulous brethren, who were alarmed at the intended publication of the masonic constitutions."

These important facts are stated by Preston, p. 171, Grand Mastership of George Payne, by Hardie, p. 27, and by Tannehill, p. 29. They are contradicted by no one.

The Book of Constitutions which occasioned the above alarm and loss, came to the light three years after, A. D. 1723, and modestly claimed all those heavenly things and names in support of Free Masonry, which thousands since have been so simple as to repeat. And that book was the

first book, so far as my knowledge extends, in any language, treating of Free Masonry.

Now, for what was the fire three years before kindled by the scrupulous brethren, except, by destroying the records, to throw an air of mystery over the monstrous birth they were hatching? It is but too plain: for Preston, Lawrie, Smith, and others, agree to state, that Free Masonry first went from this same mother lodge to India, in 1728–9, and to America, in 1730; to Gibraltar and Madrid, 1727, and to Saxony, 1730. "From this period," says "the renowned historian of Free Masonry," Mr. William Preston, from 1730 "we may date the commencement of the consequence and reputation of the society in Europe, as daily applications were made for constituting new lodges, and the most respectable characters of the age desired their names to be enrolled in our records." (Illustrations of Masonry, p. 180. Duke of Norfolk, Grand Master.) And Smith gives, at great length, the names and dates of the patents, including some for every people in Europe, Germans, Russians, Swedes, Prussians; for the East and West Indies; Africa and America; Boston and the Cape of Good Hope; the most distant parts of the earth, where Britain had colonies, or commercial relations.

For these facts, as for most others in this volume, I am indebted, not to the enemies of Masonry, but to her standard authors; and they indisputably prove the very modern extension of the society, whatever was its origin. To this same point the testimony of most diverse men, Robison and Weishaupt, fully accords.

I will not cloud these singular facts with one conjecture, but leave them to the supposed descendants of Solomon to chew upon, as I have done; and, if at length, brethren, they find the true story of old Hiram and the temple is wholly a lie, and that they have been abused with solemn and multiplied asseverations of divinity, universality, and excellent antiquity, while the bastard is scarcely a hundred years old, and no better than she should be, I hope they

will sympathize with the writer in the full expression of indignation and abhorrence; that they will be heartily glad to mock at her, who, by her numerous Books of Constitutions, professes to teach the seven liberal arts, and also the black art; who proffers to give one a wonderful secret, which is that she has none; who sprung from the cloudsformed by the smoke of her own records, which were burnt for the honour of the mystery; who stood the shock of ages, and the revolutions of time, on the reputation of King Solomon; who is always and unchangeably the same glorious fraternity, whether of three degrees, of seven degrees, of thirty-three degrees, or forty-three degrees, or fiftythree degrees, or of ninety degrees!

Yes, brethren, I hope you will feel no kindness of heart towards one who has so abused your confidence, mocked your credulity, and trifled with your good sense. Pay her double for all her indecencies. The shameless harlot! she has palmed herself upon us for chaste virtue. Full of all subtlety and craftiness, she would seem as simple and plainfaced as a trowel. Promising to bring us to the light, she first put a thick bandage over our eyes. Seeming to honour the Bible, she makes it one light, where the square and the compasses are the other two: pronouncing charity with ten thousand tongues, she is careful how she extends it beyond her own. She can read "mystic chronicles long since forgotten in tradition, and lost in history." She can hold converse with the spirit of other times, while she peruses the mossy stones of dilapidated walls. She can speak the language of Eden, "which has come down uncorrupted from the plains of Shinar ;" and she who employed Ham in the ignoble office of Tyler, to the disrespect of his own mother and sisters, now admits sisters to have their tyler and lodge!

"Your zeal, my friend, carries you beyond the bounds of modesty. You say tough things that are true; but you have added to the extravagance of Free Masonry, giving