Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
MASONIC DIDACTICS ; OR , SHORT MORAL ESSAYS OF UNIVERSAL ADAPTATION .
BY BROTHER H . R . SLADE , LL . B . * ' Masonry is a peculiar system of morals . " No . XIX . —DECEPTION AN ERRONEOUS RULE OF CONDUCT .
Simulata remove verba—S ENECA . Deceit is hateful to the nohle mind , Marking the nature of a base-born hind . —A trnioR .
SIMULATION , or hypocrisy , is a reigning error of the day , exhibiting its dissembling features iu the political sphere under the disguise of expediency ; in the fashionable world under the mask of politeness ; and in the reli gious circle beneath the cloak of a pharisaical righteousness ; but by all , who esteem and would possess the character of an honest and good heart , it is a moral evil most diligently to be avoided , as both offensive to God and injurious to man . Most moral writers have stronglinveihed against this evilbecause
y g , deceit under any form is calculated to debase the human understanding , laying it open to the depraved attacks of perfidy and duplicity—acts of the mind which are destructive of the best interests of human society . For , what can be more certain than that the individual who resorts to simulation , has a design either upon your domestic happiness , your judgment , or your purse . In ch ' plomacyit is used to injure nations ; in religion it is employed to cover ignorance and infidelity . But the
frivolous are too wedded to the opinions of the world to perceive the disgust it excites in all right-minded persons ; and the selfish are too intent on their own interest to heed the mischief it creates throughout the social community . Besides , such an absurd and pernicious mode of gaining applause , or accomplishing a purpose , awakens suspicion in the keen-sighted , weakens confidence , and , finally , provokes the supreme contempt and ridicule of all discriminating persons . On the contrary ,
in proof of the solid value of an ingenuous nature , however it may sometimes bring its possessor into trouble through the misconstructions ofthe maliciously disposed ., history relates that , " One Duke Ossuna , being dispatched by his sovereign to release some galley-slaves from the oar , passing through the benches to which they were chained , inquired of them what their several offences were ? One excused himself , saying , ' Pie was put there out of malice . ' Another' Bthe bribery of the jud but all
, y ge , unjustly . ' Among the rest was a little sturdy fellow , whom the Duke questioning , demanded the reason of his appearance there ? ' Sir , ' said he , ' I cannot deny but that I was justly sent here ; for wanting money , 1 took a purse on the highway to keep me from starving . ' Upon which the Duke , tapping him on the shoulder , said , ' You rogue , what do you
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics; Or, Short Moral Essays Of Universal Adaptation.
MASONIC DIDACTICS ; OR , SHORT MORAL ESSAYS OF UNIVERSAL ADAPTATION .
BY BROTHER H . R . SLADE , LL . B . * ' Masonry is a peculiar system of morals . " No . XIX . —DECEPTION AN ERRONEOUS RULE OF CONDUCT .
Simulata remove verba—S ENECA . Deceit is hateful to the nohle mind , Marking the nature of a base-born hind . —A trnioR .
SIMULATION , or hypocrisy , is a reigning error of the day , exhibiting its dissembling features iu the political sphere under the disguise of expediency ; in the fashionable world under the mask of politeness ; and in the reli gious circle beneath the cloak of a pharisaical righteousness ; but by all , who esteem and would possess the character of an honest and good heart , it is a moral evil most diligently to be avoided , as both offensive to God and injurious to man . Most moral writers have stronglinveihed against this evilbecause
y g , deceit under any form is calculated to debase the human understanding , laying it open to the depraved attacks of perfidy and duplicity—acts of the mind which are destructive of the best interests of human society . For , what can be more certain than that the individual who resorts to simulation , has a design either upon your domestic happiness , your judgment , or your purse . In ch ' plomacyit is used to injure nations ; in religion it is employed to cover ignorance and infidelity . But the
frivolous are too wedded to the opinions of the world to perceive the disgust it excites in all right-minded persons ; and the selfish are too intent on their own interest to heed the mischief it creates throughout the social community . Besides , such an absurd and pernicious mode of gaining applause , or accomplishing a purpose , awakens suspicion in the keen-sighted , weakens confidence , and , finally , provokes the supreme contempt and ridicule of all discriminating persons . On the contrary ,
in proof of the solid value of an ingenuous nature , however it may sometimes bring its possessor into trouble through the misconstructions ofthe maliciously disposed ., history relates that , " One Duke Ossuna , being dispatched by his sovereign to release some galley-slaves from the oar , passing through the benches to which they were chained , inquired of them what their several offences were ? One excused himself , saying , ' Pie was put there out of malice . ' Another' Bthe bribery of the jud but all
, y ge , unjustly . ' Among the rest was a little sturdy fellow , whom the Duke questioning , demanded the reason of his appearance there ? ' Sir , ' said he , ' I cannot deny but that I was justly sent here ; for wanting money , 1 took a purse on the highway to keep me from starving . ' Upon which the Duke , tapping him on the shoulder , said , ' You rogue , what do you