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Article CONTINENTAL FBEEMASONRY. Page 1 of 5 →
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Continental Fbeemasonry.
CONTINENTAL FBEEMASONBY .
BY BRO . THE REV . J . G . WOOD , M . A ., F . L . S ., & c .
"We often hear the non-Masonic world declare that the benefits of Freemasonry are imaginary , or , at all events , that they are restricted to the social enjoyment which may be equally found in any other society . But , although the Brethren of the Order may treat such a libel with
the contempt which it deserves at their , hands , and be better acquainted with the real benefits of their Craft , yet even they cannot appreciate the full beauties of Freemasonry , unless they have made trial of its virtues among strange men , or in strange countries . It is for two reasons that the following account is written;—firstly , to show that a Brother is received with as fraternal a welcome in another
land as in his own ; and secondly , to give some idea of Continental Freemasonry to those Brethren who have not enjoyed opportunities of witnessing for themselves the working of the Craft in that nation with whom we have recently fraternised in another manner . At the commencement of the last summer I had determined to
pay a visit to Paris , in company with a friend , and as he happened to be a Brother Mason , we decided upon giving our visit as much of a Masonic character as possible ; so , in addition to our ordinary baggage , we each took a small box exclusively devoted to Masonic clothing . This consisted of a full dress Prov . Grand suit , a Hoyal Arch , and a Knight Templar ' s costume , together with appropriate
jewels . The Templar ' s suit we found to be useless , because the Koyal Arch ranks considerably above that Order . But the Prov . Grand full dress clothing was exceedingly useful , and struck the Parisian Brethren with awe , giving them singularly exalted ideas of our dignity . The mystic powers of the Craft began their work immediately on our landing on French ground . My Masonic companion
carried with him a huge carpet-bag , which was instantly seized upon by the searchers at the Custom House , and its contents reduced to a state of direful confusion in an instant . My big box , however , was not destined to suffer quite such rough handling , for the chief douanier happened to be a Brother Mason , and being struck with a very decidedly Masonic jewel lying at the top of my box , he made a
few rapid inquiries , and having ascertained our rank , welcomed us to France , much to the surprise of a lad who was with me , and who , not being a Mason , was quite astonished at the excellent terms on which we were then with the officials , and all without having spoken a word . I may mention , that our boxes were not delayed by the rencontre .
We saw no more of Freemasonry until we arrived in Paris , although we signified several times that we were Brothers of the Craft . The most probable reason for this circumstance is , that our
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Continental Fbeemasonry.
CONTINENTAL FBEEMASONBY .
BY BRO . THE REV . J . G . WOOD , M . A ., F . L . S ., & c .
"We often hear the non-Masonic world declare that the benefits of Freemasonry are imaginary , or , at all events , that they are restricted to the social enjoyment which may be equally found in any other society . But , although the Brethren of the Order may treat such a libel with
the contempt which it deserves at their , hands , and be better acquainted with the real benefits of their Craft , yet even they cannot appreciate the full beauties of Freemasonry , unless they have made trial of its virtues among strange men , or in strange countries . It is for two reasons that the following account is written;—firstly , to show that a Brother is received with as fraternal a welcome in another
land as in his own ; and secondly , to give some idea of Continental Freemasonry to those Brethren who have not enjoyed opportunities of witnessing for themselves the working of the Craft in that nation with whom we have recently fraternised in another manner . At the commencement of the last summer I had determined to
pay a visit to Paris , in company with a friend , and as he happened to be a Brother Mason , we decided upon giving our visit as much of a Masonic character as possible ; so , in addition to our ordinary baggage , we each took a small box exclusively devoted to Masonic clothing . This consisted of a full dress Prov . Grand suit , a Hoyal Arch , and a Knight Templar ' s costume , together with appropriate
jewels . The Templar ' s suit we found to be useless , because the Koyal Arch ranks considerably above that Order . But the Prov . Grand full dress clothing was exceedingly useful , and struck the Parisian Brethren with awe , giving them singularly exalted ideas of our dignity . The mystic powers of the Craft began their work immediately on our landing on French ground . My Masonic companion
carried with him a huge carpet-bag , which was instantly seized upon by the searchers at the Custom House , and its contents reduced to a state of direful confusion in an instant . My big box , however , was not destined to suffer quite such rough handling , for the chief douanier happened to be a Brother Mason , and being struck with a very decidedly Masonic jewel lying at the top of my box , he made a
few rapid inquiries , and having ascertained our rank , welcomed us to France , much to the surprise of a lad who was with me , and who , not being a Mason , was quite astonished at the excellent terms on which we were then with the officials , and all without having spoken a word . I may mention , that our boxes were not delayed by the rencontre .
We saw no more of Freemasonry until we arrived in Paris , although we signified several times that we were Brothers of the Craft . The most probable reason for this circumstance is , that our