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Article MASONIC DIDACTICS; ← Page 3 of 3 Article HAFAZ, THE EGYPTIAN. Page 1 of 5 →
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Masonic Didactics;
in tropical climates . " Horner , Virgil , and Horace , were , indeed , natives of Greece and Italy ; but modern history presents us in Europe , under a ' less burning sun , certainly , with names very distinguished in poetic fame . And ' none more so than our own countrymen , Shakspeare , Milton , Dry den , Young , Pope , and Byron . The genius of those men was nourished even in so cold and foggy an atmosphere as England ' s , which plainly proves that the qualities of intellect are not limited to fairl with the
clime or country . Any one of those Poets may y compete ancient disciples of Apollo and Minerva in any one of the attributes , for which those heathen deities were celebrated . The benefits which emanate from the cultivation and influence of this elegant science are various . When directed to a virtuous purpose it sheds a mild calm over cur stormy passions—humanizing our deportment , and exalting our souls to regions of etherial sublimity . Nevertheless , it has been prostituted , like most other useful arts , to the service of vice , which , when clothed in so seductive a garb , is rendered perhaps less easy to be opposed . , . ..
To publicly expose the evil tendency of such compositions , and judiciously exhibit that which is most befitting the preservation of virtue and morality , is the duty of every . honest censor who takes upon himself the office of a critic and reviewer of every woik that comes from the press . Such conduct would preserve the proper freedom of that all-powerful engine for the spiritual and moral regeneration of the human race . Nor would poetry or prose ever be debased with
indecent rhyme , libellous scurrility , or treasonable sedition . Poetarum optima ; sentential discendte , et qua ; utiliter praBceperunt legenda sunt ; si quid vero apud eos occurrit , quod bonis moribus et castitati repugnat , hoc omnino prcetermisso , qua ? solia utila capere decet .
Hafaz, The Egyptian.
HAFAZ , THE EGYPTIAN .
" Truth the mystery men will not see , Though ever present to their view . " IN the far land of Egypt , where science first diffused the lig ht of her majestic truths , lived a youth called Hafaz . Nature had endowed him with her choicest intellectual gifts , and fortune had been no niggard of her worldly ones ; all that the Magi of the East could teach he had attained ; the mystic lore of the priests of Isis was familiar to him , for the hest
at the early age of eighteen , the coronal of golden beetles , hig badge of initiation , had graced his brow . When fathers wished for an example for their sons , they pointed out Hafaz ; when careful mothers prayed for a husband for their daughters , their thoughts glanced equally to the young Egyptian . Yet such is the perversity of human nature , that Hafaz , although thus gifted and thus esteemed , was unhappy . His native strength of mind had enabled himunassistedto penetrate the
, , sophistry and vain falsehood of the dark worship of his fathers , though not to reach the truths those mysteries orig inally concealed ; but which , from the ambition and culpable negligence of the priesthood , had been lost . In vain he sought the schools of philosophy ; in vain he conversed with the most renowned sages of his native land . The philosophy of Eygpt , based on false principles , amused him by its subtleties , but failed
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Didactics;
in tropical climates . " Horner , Virgil , and Horace , were , indeed , natives of Greece and Italy ; but modern history presents us in Europe , under a ' less burning sun , certainly , with names very distinguished in poetic fame . And ' none more so than our own countrymen , Shakspeare , Milton , Dry den , Young , Pope , and Byron . The genius of those men was nourished even in so cold and foggy an atmosphere as England ' s , which plainly proves that the qualities of intellect are not limited to fairl with the
clime or country . Any one of those Poets may y compete ancient disciples of Apollo and Minerva in any one of the attributes , for which those heathen deities were celebrated . The benefits which emanate from the cultivation and influence of this elegant science are various . When directed to a virtuous purpose it sheds a mild calm over cur stormy passions—humanizing our deportment , and exalting our souls to regions of etherial sublimity . Nevertheless , it has been prostituted , like most other useful arts , to the service of vice , which , when clothed in so seductive a garb , is rendered perhaps less easy to be opposed . , . ..
To publicly expose the evil tendency of such compositions , and judiciously exhibit that which is most befitting the preservation of virtue and morality , is the duty of every . honest censor who takes upon himself the office of a critic and reviewer of every woik that comes from the press . Such conduct would preserve the proper freedom of that all-powerful engine for the spiritual and moral regeneration of the human race . Nor would poetry or prose ever be debased with
indecent rhyme , libellous scurrility , or treasonable sedition . Poetarum optima ; sentential discendte , et qua ; utiliter praBceperunt legenda sunt ; si quid vero apud eos occurrit , quod bonis moribus et castitati repugnat , hoc omnino prcetermisso , qua ? solia utila capere decet .
Hafaz, The Egyptian.
HAFAZ , THE EGYPTIAN .
" Truth the mystery men will not see , Though ever present to their view . " IN the far land of Egypt , where science first diffused the lig ht of her majestic truths , lived a youth called Hafaz . Nature had endowed him with her choicest intellectual gifts , and fortune had been no niggard of her worldly ones ; all that the Magi of the East could teach he had attained ; the mystic lore of the priests of Isis was familiar to him , for the hest
at the early age of eighteen , the coronal of golden beetles , hig badge of initiation , had graced his brow . When fathers wished for an example for their sons , they pointed out Hafaz ; when careful mothers prayed for a husband for their daughters , their thoughts glanced equally to the young Egyptian . Yet such is the perversity of human nature , that Hafaz , although thus gifted and thus esteemed , was unhappy . His native strength of mind had enabled himunassistedto penetrate the
, , sophistry and vain falsehood of the dark worship of his fathers , though not to reach the truths those mysteries orig inally concealed ; but which , from the ambition and culpable negligence of the priesthood , had been lost . In vain he sought the schools of philosophy ; in vain he conversed with the most renowned sages of his native land . The philosophy of Eygpt , based on false principles , amused him by its subtleties , but failed