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Untitled Article
And there is no reason why our food should be as filthy as physic ; nature abhors the idea and sets about making it nice ; but our defects are such , that if each man fed alone instinct would probably outweigh judgment , and this nicety would occasion excess . It was therefore no common wisdom that first taught men to eat and drink in company , imposing , as they grew in knowledge and morality ,
such checks as their better nature suggested , which mutual presence tended to perpetuate and enforce . In this manner civilization has arrested grossness of feeding and bestiality in drink ; but the accumulated experience of ages has certified the real blessings of hospitality and good cheer . Dinners , feasts , banquets , suppers , are , and will be , till man shall be rarified into an ethereal being without a stomach .
There is no need to ransack old . and new book lore to testify the fact ; literature teems with it . To-day we endorse it , for that tangled web of wisdom and folly , called society , is mainly knit together by " parties , " and the friendship which grows in the parlour has its roots down in the kitchen . Passing by generalities ,, however , let us
take the hard fact of modern times , unallured by beauty of form and colour , —by the treasures of world-renowned art , and the fairest loveliness of flower and tree . Human nature at the Crystal Palace is busiest and happiest , alas ! in the cookshop , to the lasting grief of artists and illuminati , and the glory of cooks and
caterers—The why is clear as way to parish church " — having dined , the wolf within is soothed into fawning docility , —the most ferocious Cerberus gives in before a dainty sop . " When we have stuffed These pipes and these conveyances of our blood With wine and feeding—we have suppler souls . "
Our ancient Brethren knew all this . Their universal scheme grasped whatsoever tended to unite our species , while it discarded all discordant elements , and we have shown how in the world , without eating and drinking , nothing else has this uniting tendency . And have we exhausted the subject , have we not left untouched our aldermen's revels , our ministerial full-dress dinners and white-bait
" finish , " our charity feastings and political holocausts ; to say nothing of wedding breakfasts , christening dinners , missionary teas , and suppers from Ghmter ' s ? Here , then , is a point of table-land whence we can survey our position with certainty . The K and F Degree is an ingredient of Preemasonry , founded on a just comprehension of the necessities of
our humanity ; it is , nevertheless , so properly guarded , that any undue attachment to this , the grossest part of our system , cannot be indulged iii without detracting seriously from the excellence and purity of our Masonic character . Some , with a shrug of the shoulders , tell us that , without its good feeding , Freemasonry would long ago have evaporated ; others affirm that its Truth lies so deep ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
And there is no reason why our food should be as filthy as physic ; nature abhors the idea and sets about making it nice ; but our defects are such , that if each man fed alone instinct would probably outweigh judgment , and this nicety would occasion excess . It was therefore no common wisdom that first taught men to eat and drink in company , imposing , as they grew in knowledge and morality ,
such checks as their better nature suggested , which mutual presence tended to perpetuate and enforce . In this manner civilization has arrested grossness of feeding and bestiality in drink ; but the accumulated experience of ages has certified the real blessings of hospitality and good cheer . Dinners , feasts , banquets , suppers , are , and will be , till man shall be rarified into an ethereal being without a stomach .
There is no need to ransack old . and new book lore to testify the fact ; literature teems with it . To-day we endorse it , for that tangled web of wisdom and folly , called society , is mainly knit together by " parties , " and the friendship which grows in the parlour has its roots down in the kitchen . Passing by generalities ,, however , let us
take the hard fact of modern times , unallured by beauty of form and colour , —by the treasures of world-renowned art , and the fairest loveliness of flower and tree . Human nature at the Crystal Palace is busiest and happiest , alas ! in the cookshop , to the lasting grief of artists and illuminati , and the glory of cooks and
caterers—The why is clear as way to parish church " — having dined , the wolf within is soothed into fawning docility , —the most ferocious Cerberus gives in before a dainty sop . " When we have stuffed These pipes and these conveyances of our blood With wine and feeding—we have suppler souls . "
Our ancient Brethren knew all this . Their universal scheme grasped whatsoever tended to unite our species , while it discarded all discordant elements , and we have shown how in the world , without eating and drinking , nothing else has this uniting tendency . And have we exhausted the subject , have we not left untouched our aldermen's revels , our ministerial full-dress dinners and white-bait
" finish , " our charity feastings and political holocausts ; to say nothing of wedding breakfasts , christening dinners , missionary teas , and suppers from Ghmter ' s ? Here , then , is a point of table-land whence we can survey our position with certainty . The K and F Degree is an ingredient of Preemasonry , founded on a just comprehension of the necessities of
our humanity ; it is , nevertheless , so properly guarded , that any undue attachment to this , the grossest part of our system , cannot be indulged iii without detracting seriously from the excellence and purity of our Masonic character . Some , with a shrug of the shoulders , tell us that , without its good feeding , Freemasonry would long ago have evaporated ; others affirm that its Truth lies so deep ,