Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
India.
bounded kindness . AVhat can I say , Right AVorshipful Brother , in reply to your glowing and eloquent address ? Alas , my Brother , I cannot repay you in kind , more especially when I balance an estimate formed by the too great partiality of friendship , with the humiliating consciousness of my own great deficiencies . The embarrassment of such a magnificent reception as this disqualifies me for the proper expression of feelings that oppress by their very intensity , denying the power of
utterance . You yourself have , I doubt not , experienced , Right AVorshipful Brother , that to an ingenuous mind , it is even easier to confer a favour than for the recipient to express his sense of it . It is no affectation of me to state , that I now experience this difficulty in no common degree . If I might have formed a supposition that , from my official position in the Craft , some little mark of recognition might possibly be extended to it by yourselfRight AVorshipful Brotherand a few of the Brethren
, , here ; I am free to confess that the magnificent reality immeasurably transcends all expectation , and that by its extensive character , its prompt cordiality of kindness , no less than by its spontaneous unity of generous ancl hospitable co-opeiation , it quite overpowers me . " To call this a mere compliment were a misuse of terms . It is
something much more impressive ; a noble effusion of sentiment for the Craft , and a public testimonial to the claims of Freemasonry as a conservator of good feeling , and efficient instrument of social and moral amelioration . Disclaiming , therefore , the vanity of considering such a reception as due to any supposed personal merits of an individual , but referring it rather to a manifestation on your part , my Brethren , of a determination to continue steadfast in upholding the sacred interests of our venerable institution ; I cannot withhold my warmest admiration at the energy ancl
perseverance with whicli those interests have been promoted with such successful results in AA ' estern India , more especially under the masterly management of Right AVorshipful Brother Burnes . " Among the anomalies of the physical world , accounts have been given by some who have gone clown to the deep in ships , and seen the wonders therein displayed , of founts of living fresh water in the midst of the sea ; ancl in arid deserts the weary traveller has been comforted by spots of loveliness and verdure . It is even so in the moral world . In these cold
utilitarian days , whatever clings to the past or cherishes the tender and the ideal , is apt to be looked upon with leer malign , by material philosophy and worldly wisdom . Springing up from the dim depths of remote antiquity , like freshets of the ocean , preserving their sweetness amid the waste bitterness around , the institutions of Masonry , from primeval eras even through the darkness of the middle ages , athwart which they gleamed star-like , have ever evinced a salient power , and living freshness of their ownnot to be overborne by barbarism ancl tyrannyor to be
, , annihilated by political changes and revolutions . " You have heard of a dry mathematician , who dead to the imperishable glories of the noblest epic poem of modern times , objected to the Paradise Lost that it proved nothing . There are those also who cavil at Freemasonry as trivial or useless . Let such rail on . As true charity vaunteth not itself , so must the Mason , in general ( save defensively on occasion ) , be silent regarding the active benevolence which operates as
the living principle of his Order . Sufficient for him , that through his veiled agency , good is contrived and done ; that the indigent aged Brother is supported ; the bereaved widow relieved and comforted ; and the orphan ready to perish succoured and nurtured . Aye ! but yours is
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
India.
bounded kindness . AVhat can I say , Right AVorshipful Brother , in reply to your glowing and eloquent address ? Alas , my Brother , I cannot repay you in kind , more especially when I balance an estimate formed by the too great partiality of friendship , with the humiliating consciousness of my own great deficiencies . The embarrassment of such a magnificent reception as this disqualifies me for the proper expression of feelings that oppress by their very intensity , denying the power of
utterance . You yourself have , I doubt not , experienced , Right AVorshipful Brother , that to an ingenuous mind , it is even easier to confer a favour than for the recipient to express his sense of it . It is no affectation of me to state , that I now experience this difficulty in no common degree . If I might have formed a supposition that , from my official position in the Craft , some little mark of recognition might possibly be extended to it by yourselfRight AVorshipful Brotherand a few of the Brethren
, , here ; I am free to confess that the magnificent reality immeasurably transcends all expectation , and that by its extensive character , its prompt cordiality of kindness , no less than by its spontaneous unity of generous ancl hospitable co-opeiation , it quite overpowers me . " To call this a mere compliment were a misuse of terms . It is
something much more impressive ; a noble effusion of sentiment for the Craft , and a public testimonial to the claims of Freemasonry as a conservator of good feeling , and efficient instrument of social and moral amelioration . Disclaiming , therefore , the vanity of considering such a reception as due to any supposed personal merits of an individual , but referring it rather to a manifestation on your part , my Brethren , of a determination to continue steadfast in upholding the sacred interests of our venerable institution ; I cannot withhold my warmest admiration at the energy ancl
perseverance with whicli those interests have been promoted with such successful results in AA ' estern India , more especially under the masterly management of Right AVorshipful Brother Burnes . " Among the anomalies of the physical world , accounts have been given by some who have gone clown to the deep in ships , and seen the wonders therein displayed , of founts of living fresh water in the midst of the sea ; ancl in arid deserts the weary traveller has been comforted by spots of loveliness and verdure . It is even so in the moral world . In these cold
utilitarian days , whatever clings to the past or cherishes the tender and the ideal , is apt to be looked upon with leer malign , by material philosophy and worldly wisdom . Springing up from the dim depths of remote antiquity , like freshets of the ocean , preserving their sweetness amid the waste bitterness around , the institutions of Masonry , from primeval eras even through the darkness of the middle ages , athwart which they gleamed star-like , have ever evinced a salient power , and living freshness of their ownnot to be overborne by barbarism ancl tyrannyor to be
, , annihilated by political changes and revolutions . " You have heard of a dry mathematician , who dead to the imperishable glories of the noblest epic poem of modern times , objected to the Paradise Lost that it proved nothing . There are those also who cavil at Freemasonry as trivial or useless . Let such rail on . As true charity vaunteth not itself , so must the Mason , in general ( save defensively on occasion ) , be silent regarding the active benevolence which operates as
the living principle of his Order . Sufficient for him , that through his veiled agency , good is contrived and done ; that the indigent aged Brother is supported ; the bereaved widow relieved and comforted ; and the orphan ready to perish succoured and nurtured . Aye ! but yours is