The Selfish Side Of Freemasonry.

THE SELFISH SIDE OF FREEMASONRY .

JUDGING from the number of articles that have lately appeared , a good deal of attention has been paid to the subject of woman in regard to Freemasonry . The subject is not one that can be lightly passed over ,

especially in these days , when women demand a somewhat higher platform of appreciation in an intellectual sense than in the past , albeit retaining an equal measure of womanliness and domestic virtue with their sisters of

a by-gone era . A recent article , " Masonry and Matrimony , " taken from the " Rough Ashlar , " and appearing in the " Indian Masonic Review , " dwells somewhat lengthily on a supposed antagonism of women in general

to the Order . So implicitly does the writer appear to believe these sentiments , that he views the position of a man in the throes of love before his marriage floundering between a veritable Scylla and Charybdis in respect to

his Masonic duty and the discovered dislike m the breast of his betrothed to his obligations to the Order ; on the

other side , the husband in danger of being harassed by his wife on all occasions where the thought of the one secret she cannot share with him rises up in her mind . For the man who becomes a Freemason before he marries , the writer apparently admits no medium . To

the question " which obligation has the preference ?" follows the unequivocal reply " that which was first assumed , " and he further adds , " unless his wife is prepared to countenance his membership in the Order . . . . if she will not agree to leave him his liberty

in respect to such oaths he has no right to marry . " We cannot quite follow this line of argument . In our experience , the question , if he is a Freemason , would be one of the least likely to arise , and even if it did , unless the lady be a Roman Catholic , and

thereby under the influence of a priesthood antagonistic to the Order , it would scarcely be taken into account . In courtship , there must always be more or less of the " give and take " element . If a man has not sufficient influence in an ordinary way to secure his Freemasonry

from uncomprising situations , he would be in other respects a failure in his domestic relations . It is not our intention to enlarge upon the several points of argument brought forward in the article under notice , though the latter portions form a subject somewhat akin to the

basis of our paper . Our contemporary in the two concluding paragraphs in question dwells upon men who may be put down as " bad husbands " and " bad Masons . " Such would naturally form a " Selfish Freemasonry , " but we would view the " Selfish side of Freemasonry , " judged from the standard of ordinary virtue where men are both

good Masons and husbands . Our wives , sisters and

sweethearts , chiefly the former , all resent Freemasonry , more or less , not so much on account of their not being able to participate in its secrets , as for its being thoroughly selfish from a social point of view . They know full well that for every hour spent in Lodge , three

is spent in eating , drinking and making merry ! In numbers of instances the aid of woman is solicited for the Order . How often do their apt lingers help us in making portions of our Regalia ? When a Concert or Bazaar is to be organised for Masonic charities who are the first

asked to assist , and whose services more ungrudgingly given ? And yet we may go on from year to year depriving our families of our society night after night , without once thinking of affording them a night ' s amusement or a day ' s pleasure .

There are , of course , instances where a Lodge has organised some kind of entertainment for lady friends , but the idea as a general one would be scouted , perhaps , from an apprehension that the Order would lose dignity thereby , or tbat wives and lady friends could not meet

sufficiently on the level , even for the nonce , without compromising social position . It may be safely argued , however , that if men can meet after Lodge in social intercourse , and , if need be , forget they ever did so in other places , the fair sex could do the same . The social

side of Freemasonry has a mission to perform almost , if not quite , equal to the Benevolent , the Philanthropic or the Intellectual one . That mission falls very short of

fulfilment if the social side of Freemasonry begins and ends at our banquet table , and its influence reaches no further than our stomachs . Many a man looks upon the time spent at Lodge

The Selfish Side Of Freemasonry.

as a respite from the calls of domesticity . Does not this reveal a spirit of selfishness entirely unbecoming in a Freemason ? Would not Freemasonry exert a better influence in the circle of our homes if a system of entertainment existed in which the members of our families

could participate from time to time ? By the everlasting banquet , a board lavish with luxuries few of us either get or desire in our private homes , our Order has often suffered in the estimation of the world , and resentment engendered in the bosom of our families . Our rites and

ceremonies are held sacred from women , and we Freemasons are naturally jealous to guard our secrets . But when the work of the Lodge is over , we should feel that the occasional presence of our wives , sisters , and lady

friends would , rather than detract from the dignity of the Order , tend to elevate and increase its sphere of usefulness and rid it of the last reproach of selfishness . — " Indian Freemason . "

The Freemasons And Mediaeval Art.

THE FREEMASONS AND MEDIAEVAL ART .

AKUHITECTS are apt to forget that by the very fact of copying their predecessors of the Middle Ages , they become most unlike them in that particular circumstance which is the life and soul of all material art , tho principle on which it is carried on . The present generation endeavours to recover ,, like a dead language or a lost science , what the men of old exercised as a living , progressive , self-developing thing . We have , indeed , the body , decayed

and worn out as it is , but they had the spirit which quickened it . It is a mistake fco suppose that that spirit was identical with , or even the necessary result of , the Mediroval faith . The two things are quite distinct in themselves , as is evident from the fact that wo retain fche latter , while we had utterly lost and are now only recovering the former . Gothic architecture was immediately and

essentially suspended by tho dissolution of the Freemasons , ID . whose hands it was vested like a vast monopoly , rather than by the rupture in the unity of tho Christian Church which took place in tho sixteenth century . Without such an organised system as that wonderful confraternity supplied , no amount of religious feeling or enthusiastic faith could havo achieved the great ecclesiastic works

of tbo Middle Ages , because ( as at present ) it would have been unable , so to speak , to embody itself in any definite , methodical , scientific way . At the present time few men of genius supply a want and , as it were , a vacuum in the department of ecclesiastical art which was unknown and unfelt in the days of the Freemasons . Our bond of unity , so far as it exists in giving the preference to a

particular stylo , is nothing moro than a common consent to admire and copy their works . What , indeed , but a kind of rivalry to be foremost in reviving a lost art could now insure anything like an agreement or uniformity in building and decorating churches ? Where each one strives to bo the best copyist of an existing model it is obvious that at least a very close approximation to uniformity

will be the result . But this uniformity is a totally different thing from that which formerly prevailed through the influence of cooperation and the restrictions of actual rule . It is just as different as the voluntary and independent attempts of five or six fellows of colleges to imitate the old monastic life would be from the working of an actual religious community living under the ancient rule .

In the one case monasticism is a thing extinct or at least merely traditionary , in the other ifc is a living reality . So it is with modern church building ; the selection of a stylo is arbitrary , and it is only to a general movement and a kind of fashion ( induced no doubt by the best feelings of love and reverence for the mighty past ) that we owe the improved character and furniture of the churches

which we sec rising everywhere around us . Of the history , organisation , rules and craft of fche ancient Freemasons next to nothing is known . Bufc we cannot contemplate their works without being filled with amazement at thc perfection of a system which for many centuries together could cover the face of Europe with buildings wherein every detail was , for the time being , in the strictest unison ,

a system under which every advancement and improvement of the art was spread simultaneously and adopted unanimously by the working thousands throughout a wide Continent . Not but that Christian architecture had national developments , or rather , perhaps , took national directions according to climate , material

and other external circumstances . For instance , the Early English and the contemporaneous continental Geometric-Decorated , our Perpendicular , and fche gorgeous Flamboyant of our neighbours are instances of these diverging tendencies , though all are essentially subordinate to one rule and evidently animated by one spirit . — " Architect . "

Certain whispers have reached me this week which

lead me to hope that the Freemasons of Dover may , before long , possess a building worthy of the Order , and more on a par with some other Kentish towns . It is now some two or three years ago since a proposal to this effect was thrown out in these columns , in which it was

suggested that a suitable site might be found , perhaps , in Pencester Road . If the rumours I have heard be

true , I wish the proposal every success , and I believe it will meet with the cordial approval of tbe large body of

Brethren in Dover . — " Dover Standard