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types of those of the future. Man and na- tions will always sell themselves into slavery, to gratify their passion and obtain revenge. The tyrant's plea is always available—ne- cessity is his motto, and once in power, the necessity of guarding himself makes him savage. He desires to control religion as a power. Men must believe as power wills, or die; and even if they believe as they will, all they have, lands, houses, body and soul, are stamped with the royal brand. “I am the state." said Louis XIV. to his peasants; “the very shirts on your backs are mine, and I can take them if I will.” Civil and religious freedom must go hand in hand and Masons at all ages and all times have been foremost in proclaiming equal rights and civil and religious liberty. Faust, with his types, or Luther. with his sermons, worked greater results than Alexander or Hannibal. A single thought sometimes sufiices to over- turn a dynasty. A song did more to unseat James II. than the acquittal of the bishops. Voltaire, Condorcet and Rousseau uttered words that will ring in change and revolutions through all the ages. Though life is short, thought and influence, and.the effect of what we do or say, are im- mortal; and no calculus has yet pretended to ascertain the law of proportion between cause and effect. The hammer of an Eng- lish blacksmith, smiting down an insolent of- ficial. led to a rebellion which came near to being a revolution. The word well spoken, the deed fitly done, even by the feeblest or humblest, cannot hlp but have their effect. More or less, the efiect is inevitable and eter- nal. The power of a free people is often at th disposal of a singl individual. Peter the Hermit held no office, yet what a work he wrought! .

In the past history of the world Free-

PAST AND PRESENT OF

masonry bore the banners of freedom and equal rights, and was in rebellion against temporal and spiritual tyranny. Its lodges were proscribed in 1735 by an edict of the states of Holland. In 1837 Louis XV. for- bade them in France. In 1738 Pope Clement XII. issued against them his famous Bull of Excommunication, which was renewed by Benedict XIV.; and in 1743 the Council of Berne also proscribed them. The title of the hull of Clement is, “The condemnation of the Society of Conventicles de Leberi Muratore, or the Freemasons, under the penalty of ipso facto excommunication, the absolution of which is reserved to the pope alone, except at the point of death.” And by it all bishops ordinaries and inquisitors were empowered to punish Freemasons “as vehemently suspected of heresy,” and to call in, if necessary, the help of the secular arm; that is, to cause the civil authority to put them to death.

Notwithstanding the violent persecution directed against the fraternity, it still sur- vives and is a powerful factor in all coun- tries to help to liberate the people from arbi- trary power and despotism. The demagogue is the predecessor of the despot. One springs from the other's loins. He who will basely fawn on those who have oflice to bestow, will betray like Iscariot, and prove a miserable and pitiable failure.

The aims and objects of Freemasonry have been misrepresented. Even in our day there are men who denounce it as a secret society an one which is subversive of the true interests of the common people. Freemasonry is strongly founded, and as a houSe wisely built and beautifully adorned. The princi- ples inculcated by it are purity of thought, integrity of life, benignity of manner and, above all, sweet charity, the beautiful gar- ment with which a true Mason is invested.