Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
How I Was First Prepared To Be Made A Mason.
lodge-room a period for reflection on the part of the candidate was allowed to intervene—a lapse—an interval of suspense , dread , doubt , who shall not say despair Many years afterwards , in sad and sober earnest , I went through a process somewhat similar to that I was then undergoing in hilarious play , and I sincerely declare that the uncertainty of the situation , the quasi terror , the semi-solemnity of the sport , affected me more seriously than the ordeal when I was about to engage in the reality . What were they about to do with me ? What about that bab y ? Why the kettle ? Whence the noise ? Were the white raiments sacrificial robes ? Had the poker a symbolical or a very practical meaning ? Wherefore charcoal ? How was the chalk to be employed ? * * . * * * * #
I believe Mistress Anne Agnew was stretched upon the rack , and that Lord Keeper ( or was he Lord Chancellor ?) Wriothesly , conceiving that the " sworn torturers " did not turn the levers of that machine " with a will , " as Captain Cuttle would say , did incontinently pull off his furred robe ancl " turn to " personally to give the lady ' s limbs an extra wrench . I am given to understand that the late Guy Fawkes , of Yorkshire , and of the army of His Majesty the Emperor , Esquire , made practical acquaintance with the
terrible frame I have mentioned . Mr . Peaehani , according to the unexceptionable authority of my lord of Yerulam , was " shrewdly pinched " by similar tortures . Monsieur Calas , of the Kingdom of France , a hundred and fifty years later , endured all his limbs beingbroken one by one , under the hangman ' s lever on the wheel . In the same happy country we have heard of " Damien ' s bed of steel , " and I profess I would rather suffer that would-be regicide ' s doom—he wasI believekicked to death by wild butterfliesor
, , , torn limb from limb by tame horses—I would prefer , I declare , to endure his agonies , or any of those I have above referred to , rather than reveal—unless for a very handsome consideration ( see ante as to the bank upon which cheques should be crossed)—what I beheld when ultimately the cincture was removed from my temples and the light restored . Anna viruvique cano , indeed ! Of arms—arms and the man , children in
arms , you mean—I sing ? Rather I cry . But there , if I do not rein up , I shall violate my obligation and let out all about that baby . Suffice it to say that the illumination revealed a situation which fully justified the otherwise unaccountable hilarity . And here let me endeavour partially to allay some of those excruciating pangs of unsatisfied curiosity which are now doubtlessly being suffered by the tantalised reader , Although tortures—indeed nothing short of tho gentle pressure before alluded
towhen the wind coulcl not coerce the traveller into divesting himself of his cloak , the sun tried , and we all know with what result ; when the lady of mature years requested a young gentleman to divulge a certain secret , and on his positive refusal asked him whether neither love nor money could induce him , the prudent youth replied that he didn't know so much about the love , but suppose his fair adjurer tried the money first—¦• ( verb . sat . sap . ) AlthoughI saynothingthat is to sayhardly anythingwould
per-, , , , , cuadc me into telling you what the secret was ; there is no clause that I am aware of in my solemn pledge to prevent me warning you what it is not . Now , a kind of spurious nursery society , working , of course , without any legal warrant , has sprung up of late professing to be the depository of the great secret so gravely imparted to me . I have
ascertained their signs ancl passwords , and , as an antidote to the mischief they no doubt try to disseminate , will disclose them fully . There can be no doubt about their spuriousness , inasmuch as the testing phrase was not even invented when I received my baptism in the merry rite . The assumed member of the craft , I am informed , is tried thus : —The examining brother makes a motion with his ri ght hand indicative of bushing p . n infant to sleep , at the same time whispering solemnly , and as if uttering a caution , "Don ' t make a noise . " Should the examinant be really a brotherhe will respond by
, elevating his right forefinger , as if acquiescing in the necessity of the warning , and reply , also in a low tone , " Or else you'll wake the baby ! " Shall I supply enthusiasts with an illustration that the immortal swan of Avon sung not for an age but for all time—that his genius could anticipate by two hundred and sixty years the refrain of a cockney lyric , and provide a situation wherein it would aptly fit ? Why , at Drury Lane the other day , when old Antigonus was toddling about on
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
How I Was First Prepared To Be Made A Mason.
lodge-room a period for reflection on the part of the candidate was allowed to intervene—a lapse—an interval of suspense , dread , doubt , who shall not say despair Many years afterwards , in sad and sober earnest , I went through a process somewhat similar to that I was then undergoing in hilarious play , and I sincerely declare that the uncertainty of the situation , the quasi terror , the semi-solemnity of the sport , affected me more seriously than the ordeal when I was about to engage in the reality . What were they about to do with me ? What about that bab y ? Why the kettle ? Whence the noise ? Were the white raiments sacrificial robes ? Had the poker a symbolical or a very practical meaning ? Wherefore charcoal ? How was the chalk to be employed ? * * . * * * * #
I believe Mistress Anne Agnew was stretched upon the rack , and that Lord Keeper ( or was he Lord Chancellor ?) Wriothesly , conceiving that the " sworn torturers " did not turn the levers of that machine " with a will , " as Captain Cuttle would say , did incontinently pull off his furred robe ancl " turn to " personally to give the lady ' s limbs an extra wrench . I am given to understand that the late Guy Fawkes , of Yorkshire , and of the army of His Majesty the Emperor , Esquire , made practical acquaintance with the
terrible frame I have mentioned . Mr . Peaehani , according to the unexceptionable authority of my lord of Yerulam , was " shrewdly pinched " by similar tortures . Monsieur Calas , of the Kingdom of France , a hundred and fifty years later , endured all his limbs beingbroken one by one , under the hangman ' s lever on the wheel . In the same happy country we have heard of " Damien ' s bed of steel , " and I profess I would rather suffer that would-be regicide ' s doom—he wasI believekicked to death by wild butterfliesor
, , , torn limb from limb by tame horses—I would prefer , I declare , to endure his agonies , or any of those I have above referred to , rather than reveal—unless for a very handsome consideration ( see ante as to the bank upon which cheques should be crossed)—what I beheld when ultimately the cincture was removed from my temples and the light restored . Anna viruvique cano , indeed ! Of arms—arms and the man , children in
arms , you mean—I sing ? Rather I cry . But there , if I do not rein up , I shall violate my obligation and let out all about that baby . Suffice it to say that the illumination revealed a situation which fully justified the otherwise unaccountable hilarity . And here let me endeavour partially to allay some of those excruciating pangs of unsatisfied curiosity which are now doubtlessly being suffered by the tantalised reader , Although tortures—indeed nothing short of tho gentle pressure before alluded
towhen the wind coulcl not coerce the traveller into divesting himself of his cloak , the sun tried , and we all know with what result ; when the lady of mature years requested a young gentleman to divulge a certain secret , and on his positive refusal asked him whether neither love nor money could induce him , the prudent youth replied that he didn't know so much about the love , but suppose his fair adjurer tried the money first—¦• ( verb . sat . sap . ) AlthoughI saynothingthat is to sayhardly anythingwould
per-, , , , , cuadc me into telling you what the secret was ; there is no clause that I am aware of in my solemn pledge to prevent me warning you what it is not . Now , a kind of spurious nursery society , working , of course , without any legal warrant , has sprung up of late professing to be the depository of the great secret so gravely imparted to me . I have
ascertained their signs ancl passwords , and , as an antidote to the mischief they no doubt try to disseminate , will disclose them fully . There can be no doubt about their spuriousness , inasmuch as the testing phrase was not even invented when I received my baptism in the merry rite . The assumed member of the craft , I am informed , is tried thus : —The examining brother makes a motion with his ri ght hand indicative of bushing p . n infant to sleep , at the same time whispering solemnly , and as if uttering a caution , "Don ' t make a noise . " Should the examinant be really a brotherhe will respond by
, elevating his right forefinger , as if acquiescing in the necessity of the warning , and reply , also in a low tone , " Or else you'll wake the baby ! " Shall I supply enthusiasts with an illustration that the immortal swan of Avon sung not for an age but for all time—that his genius could anticipate by two hundred and sixty years the refrain of a cockney lyric , and provide a situation wherein it would aptly fit ? Why , at Drury Lane the other day , when old Antigonus was toddling about on