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DISCOURSE I.

OF THE DESIGN AND GENIUS

OF

FREE MASONRY.

"Hæc est vera et indirupta FRATERNITAS, quæ animorum perfectione ac virtute concrescit; cujus semel initum fœdus, nec desideriorum varietas, nec contentiosa dirumpet contrarietas voluntatum : quæ fratrem veneratur devotum, corripit dissolutum, præsentum obsequitur, absentem non rodit, sanum applaudit, infirmum non deserit, divitem gaudet, pauperum adjuvat.”

RABANUS, Super Matth. cap. ult.

DISCOURSE 1.

Delivered at Bridgwater, November 3, 1797, at the Consecration of Fellowship Lodge.

PROVERBS XVII. 17.

"A FRIEND LOVETH AT ALL TIMES, AND A BROTHER IS BORN FOR ADVERSITY."

WHO does not know and feel that

man is ordained to converse with his brethren; to impart to them what he is and has; to interchange his reflections and sentiments with theirs? Who has not tasted the pleasures of social life, or been charmed with the more intimate union of friendship? Therefore, who does not find in himself sufficient impulse to the use of the one, and the enjoyment of the other?

BUT whether this tendency to society procure us all the good it might; whether there

C

be not some forms in which a wise and benevolent man may derive from his companionable propensities and affectionate dispoistions greater utility and more noble pleasures than in their common application; is a subject worthy of investigation.

MAN is fond of social life. But if the fondness be without limitation it is extravagant; if it be not regulated it is unreasonable. When the affections are diffused indiscriminately they become languid : When confined to an individual object they are straitened and contracted. Like the rays of light, if widely diverged, they are scattered and lost; if concentrated in a very small focus, they are intense: their real use is in a due medium, where they are collected so as to warm, to vivify, and to cheer; not to burn, effervesce, and consume.

"A FRIEND," says Solomon, "loveth at all times." But how rare is such a friend! When found, tried, and proved, how valuable! Well might an antient wise man advise "not to change a friend for any good, by no means; neither a faithful brother for the gold of ophir."* "A brother is born for adversity" but how seldom does he inherit a

* Ecclesiasticus vii. 18.

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