5º – Perfect Master 13 страница

⇐ ПредыдущаяСтр 15 из 17Следующая ⇒

whom it enables to find friends and brothers

in countries where else he would be isolated and solitary;

2158.

to the worthy man in misfortune,

to whom it gives assistance;

2159.

to the afflicted,

on whom it lavishes consolation;

2160.

to the charitable man,

whom it enables to do more good,

by uniting with those who are charitable like him;

2161.

and to all who have souls capable of appreciating its importance,

and of enjoying the charms of a friendship founded on the same principles

of religion, morality, and philanthropy.

2162.

A Freemason, therefore, should be a man of honor and of conscience,

preferring his duty to everything beside, even to his life;

2163.

independent in his opinions, and of good morals;

submissive to the laws,

devoted to humanity, to his country, to his family;

2164.

kind and indulgent to his brethren,

friend of all virtuous men,

and ready to assist his fellows by all means in his power.

2165.

Thus will you be faithful to yourself, to your fellows, and to God,

and thus will you do honor to the name and rank of SECRET MASTER;

which, like other Masonic honors, degrades if it is not deserved

Morals & Dogma CHAPTER SIXTY SIX

Divisions 2166-2205

5º – Perfect Master

MORALS & DOGMA 5

2166.

The Master Khurum was an industrious and an honest man.

2167.

What he was employed to do he did diligently,

and he did it well and faithfully.

2168.

He received no wages that were not his due.

2169.

Industry and honesty are the virtues peculiarly inculcated in this Degree.

2170.

They are common and homely virtues;

yet not for that beneath our notice.

2171.

As the bees do not love or respect the drones,

so Masonry neither loves nor respects the idle and those who live by their wits;

and least of all those parasitic acari that live upon themselves.

2172.

For those who are indolent are likely to become dissipated and vicious;

and perfect honesty, which ought to be the common qualification of all,

is more rare than diamonds.

2173.

To do earnestly and steadily,

and to do faithfully and honestly that which we have to do--

perhaps this wants only little, when looked at from every point of view,

of including the whole body of the moral law;

2174.

and even in their commonest and homeliest application,

these virtues belong to the character of a Perfect Master.

2175.

Idleness is the burial of a living man.

2176.

For an idle person is so useless to any purposes of God and man,

that he is like one who is dead, unconcerned in the changes and necessities of the world;

and he only lives to spend his time, and eat the fruits of the earth.

2177.

Like a vermin or a wolf, when his time comes,

he dies and perishes, and in the meantime is nought.

2178.

He neither ploughs nor carries burdens:

all that he does is either unprofitable or mischievous.

2179.

It is a vast work that any man may do, if he never be idle:

2180.

and it is a huge way that a man may go in virtue,

if he never go out of his way by a vicious habit or a great crime:

2181.

and he who perpetually reads good books,

if his readingbe answerable, will have a huge stock of knowledge.

2182.

St. Ambrose, and from his example, St. Augustine,

divided every day into these tertias of employment:

2183.

eight hours they spent in the necessities of nature and recreation:

2184.

eight hours in charity,

in doing assistance to others,

dispatching their business,

reconciling their enmities,

2185.

reproving their vices,

correcting their errors,

instructing their ignorance,

and in transacting the affairs of their dioceses;

2186.

and the other eight hours they spent in study and prayer.

2187.

We think, at the age of twenty, that life is much too long for that which we have to learn and do; and that there is an almost fabulous distance between our age and that of our grandfather.

2188.

Yet when, at the age of sixty, if we are fortunate enough to reach it,

or unfortunate enough, as the case may be,

and according as we have profitably invested or wasted our time,

2189.

we halt, and look back along the way we have come,

and cast up and endeavour to balance our accounts with time and opportunity,

we find that we have made life much too short, and thrown away a huge portion of our time.

2190.

Then we, in our mind,

deduct from the sum total of our years the hours that we have needlessly passed in sleep;

the working-hours each day,

when the surface of the mind's sluggish pool has not been stirred or ruffled by a single thought;

2191.

the days that we have gladly got rid of,

to attain some real or fancied object that lay beyond,

in the way between us and which stood irksomely the intervening days;

2192.

the hours worse than wasted in follies and dissipation,

or misspent in useless and unprofitable studies;

and we acknowledge, with a sigh,

that we could have learned and done, in half a score of years well spent,

more than we have done in all our forty years of manhood.

2194.

To learn and to do!

--this is the soul's work here below.

2195.

The soul grows as truly as an oak grows.

2196.

As the tree takes the carbon of the air, the dew, the rain, and the light,

and the food that the earth supplies to its roots,

and by its mysterious chemistry transmutes them into sap and fibre,

into wood and leaf, and flower and fruit, and colour and perfume,

2197.

so the soul imbibes knowledge

and by a divine alchemy changes what it learns into its own substance,

and grows from within outwardly with an inherent force and power

like those that lie hidden in the grain of wheat.

2198.

The soul hath its senses, like the body,

that may be cultivated, enlarged, refined, as it grows in stature and proportion;

2199.

and he who cannot appreciate a fine painting or statue,

a noble poem, a sweet harmony,

a heroic thought, or a disinterested (altruistic) action,

2200.

or to whom the wisdom of philosophy is merely foolishness and babble,

and the loftiest truths of less importance than the price of stocks or cotton,

or the elevation of baseness to office,

2201.

merely lives on the level of commonplace,

and fitly prides himself upon that inferiority of the soul's senses,

which is the inferiority and imperfect development of the soul itself.

2202.

To sleep little,

and to study much;

2203.

to say little,

and to hear and think much;

2204.

to learn, that we may be able to do,

and then to do, earnestly and vigorously,

whatever may be required of us by duty,

and by the good of our fellows, our country, and mankind,

2205.

-- these are the duties of every Mason who desires to imitate the Master Khurum.

Morals & Dogma CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN

Divisions 2206-2235

MORALS & DOGMA 5

2206.

The duty of a Mason as an honest man is plain and easy.

2207.

It requires of us honesty in contracts, sincerity in arming,

simplicity in bargaining, and faithfulness in performing.

2208.

Lie not at all, neither in a little thing nor in a great,

neither in the substance nor in the circumstance, neither in word nor deed:

2209.

that is, pretend not what is false;

cover not what is true;

and let the measure of your affirmation or denial be the understanding of your contractor;

2210.

for he who deceives the buyer or the seller by speaking what is true,

in a sense not intended or understood by the other, is a liar and a thief.

2211.

A Perfect Master must avoid that which deceives,

equally with that which is false.

2212.

Let your prices be according to that measure of good and evil

that is established in the fame and common accounts of the wisest and most merciful men,

skilled in that manufacture or commodity;

2213.

and the gain such, which, without scandal,

is allowed to persons in all the same circumstances.

2214.

In intercourse with others, do not do all which thou mayest lawfully do;

yet keep something within thy power;

2215.

and, because there is a latitude of gain in buying and selling,

take not thou the utmost penny that is lawful, or which thou thinkest so;

2216.

for although it be lawful, yet it is not safe;

and he who gains all that he can gain lawfully, this year,

will possibly be tempted, next year, to gain something unlawfully.

2217.

Let no man, for his own poverty, become more oppressing and cruel in his bargain;

yet quietly, modestly, diligently, and patiently recommend his estate to God,

and follow his interest, and leave the success to Him.

2218.

Detain not the wages of the hireling;

for every degree of detention of it beyond the time, is injustice and uncharitableness,

and grinds his face till tears and blood come out; (and God hear it and His anger be kindled)

yet pay him exactly according to covenant, or according to his needs.

2219.

Religiously keep all promises and covenants, (within reason)

though made to your disadvantage,

though afterward you perceive you might have done better;

and let not any precedent act of yours be altered by any after-accident.

2220.

Let nothing make you break your promise, unless it be unlawful or impossible;

2221.

that is, either out of your nature or out of your civil power,

yourself being under the power of another;

or that it be intolerably inconvenient to yourself, and of no advantage to another;

or that you have leave expressed or reasonably presumed.

2222.

Let no man take wages or fees for a work that he cannot do, or cannot with probability undertake;

or in some sense profitably, and with ease, or with advantage manage.

2223.

Let no man appropriate to his own use, what God, by a special mercy, or the Republic,

hath made common property of the people;

for that is against both Justice and Charity.

2224.

That any man should be the worse for us, (a bad deal for us)

and for our direct act, and approved by our intention,

is against the rule of equity, of justice, and of charity.

2225.

We then do not that to others, which we would have done to ourselves;

for we grow richer upon the ruins of their fortune.

2226.

It is not honest to receive anything from another

without returning him an equivalent therefor.

2227.

The gamester who wins the money of another is dishonest.

2228.

There should be no such thing as bets and gaming among Masons:

for no honest man should desire that for nothing which belongs to another.

2229.

The merchant who sells an inferior article for a sound price,

the speculator who makes the distresses and needs of others fill his exchequer

are neither fair nor honest,

yet base, ignoble, unfit for immortality.

2230.

It should be the earnest desire of every Perfect Master so to live and deal and act,

that when it comes to him to die, he may be able to say, and his conscience to adjudge,

that no man on earth is poorer, because he is richer;

2231.

that what he hath he has honestly earned,

and no man can go before God, and claim

that by the rules of equity administered in His great chancery,

this house in which we die,

this land we devise to our heirs this money that enriches those who survive to bear our name,

is his and not ours, and we in that forum are only his trustees.

2232.

For it is most certain that God is just, and will sternly enforce every such trust;

2233.

and that to all whom we despoil, to all whom we defraud,

to all from whom we take or win anything whatever, without fair consideration and equivalent,

He will decree a full and adequate compensation.

2234.

Be careful, then, that thou receive no wages, here or elsewhere,

that are not thy due!

2235.

For if thou doest, thou wrongst somebody,

by taking that which in God's chancery belongs to him;

and whether that which thou takest thus be wealth, or rank, or influence, or reputation or affection,

thou wilt surely be held to make full satisfaction.

Morals & Dogma CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHT

Divisions 2236-2265

6º – Confidential Secretary

MORALS & DOGMA 6

2236.

You are especially taught in this Degree to be zealous and faithful;

to be disinterested and benevolent;

and to act the peacemaker, in case of dissensions, disputes, and quarrels among the brethren.

2237.

Duty is the moral magnetism which controls and guides the true Mason's course

over the tumultuous seas of life.

2238.

Whether the stars of honour, reputation, and reward do or do not shine,

in the light of day or in the darkness of the night of trouble and adversity,

in calm or storm,

2239.

that unerring magnet still shows him the true course to steer,

and indicates with certainty where-away lies the port

which not to reach involves shipwreck and dishonour.

2240.

He follows its silent bidding, as the mariner, when land is for many days not in sight,

and the ocean without path or landmark spreads out all around him,

follows the bidding of the needle, never doubting that it points truly to the north.

2241.

To perform that duty, whether the performance be rewarded or unrewarded,

is his sole care.

2242.

And it doth not matter, though of this performance there may be no witnesses,

and though what he does will be forever unknown to all mankind.

2243.

A little consideration will teach us that Fame has other limits than mountains and oceans;

and that he who places happiness in the frequent repetition of his name,

may spend his life in propagating it,

without any danger of weeping for new worlds,

or any necessity of crossing over the Atlantic sea.

2244.

If, therefore, he who imagines the world to be filled with his actions and praises,

shall subduct from the number of his encomiasts

all those who are placed below the flight of fame,

and who hear in the valley of life no voice except that of necessity;

2245.

all those who imagine themselves too important to regard him,

and consider the mention of his name as a usurpation of their time;

2246.

all who are too much or too little pleased with themselves to attend to anything external;

all who are attracted by pleasure, or chained down by pain to unvaried ideas;

2247.

all who are withheld from attending his triumph by different pursuits;

and all who slumber in universal negligence;

2248.

he will find his renown straitened by nearer bounds than the rocks of Caucasus;

and perceive that no man can be venerable or formidable,

yet to a small part of his fellow-creatures.

2249.

And therefore, that we may not languish in our endeavors after excellence,

it is necessary that, as Africanus counsels his descendants,

we raise our eyes to higher prospects, and contemplate our future and eternal state,

without giving up our hearts to the praise of crowds,

or fixing our hopes on such rewards as human power can bestow.

2250.

We are not born for ourselves alone;

and our country claims her share, and our friends their share of us.

2251.

As all that the earth produces is created for the use of man,

so men are created for the sake of men, that they may mutually do good to one another.

2252.

In this we ought to take nature for our guide,

and throw into the public stock (treasury) the ounces of general utility,

by a reciprocation of duties;

2253.

sometimes by receiving, sometimes by giving,

and sometimes to cement human society by arts, by industry, and by our resources.

2254.

Suffer others to be praised in thy presence,

and entertain their good and glory with delight;

2255.

yet at no hand disparage them, or lessen the report, or make an objection;

and think not the advancement of thy brother is a lessening of thy worth.

2256.

Upbraid no man's weakness to him to discomfit him, neither report it to disparage him,

neither delight to remember it to lessen him, or to set thee above him;

2257.

nor ever praise thyself or dispraise any man else,

unless some sufficient worthy end do hallow it.

2258.

Remember that we usually disparage others

upon slight grounds and little instances;

and if a man be highly recommended, we think him sufficiently lessened,

if we can only charge one sin of folly or inferiority in his account.

2260.

We should either be more severe to ourselves, or less so to others,

and consider that whatsoever good any one can think or say of us,

we can tell him of many unworthy and foolish and perhaps worse actions of ours,

any one of which, done by another,

would be enough, with us, to destroy his reputation.

2261.

If we think the people wise and sagacious, and just and appreciative,

when they praise and make idols of us,

let us not call them unlearned and ignorant, and ill and stupid judges,

when our neighbour is cried up by public fame and popular noises.

2262.

Every man hath in his own life sins enough,

in his own mind trouble enough,

in his own fortunes evil enough,

and in performance of his offices failings more than enough, to entertain his own inquiry;

so that curiosity after the affairs of others can not be without envy and an ill mind.

2263.

The generous man will be solicitous and inquisitive

into the beauty and order of a well-governed family,

and after the virtues of an excellent person;

2264.

yet anything for which men keep locks and bars, or that blushes to see the light,

or that is either shameful in manner or private in nature,

this thing will not be his care and business.

2265.

It should be objection sufficient to exclude any man from the society of Masons,

that he is not disinterested and generous,

both in his acts, and in his opinions of men, and his constructions of their conduct.

Morals & Dogma CHAPTER SIXTY NINE

Divisions 2266-2300

MORALS & DOGMA 6

2266.

He who is self-concerned and grasping, or censorious and ungenerous,

will not long remain within the strict limits of honesty and truth,

yet will shortly commit injustice.

2267.

He who loves his life too much will love others too little;

and he who habitually gives harsh judgment will not long delay to give unjust judgment.

2268.

The generous man is not careful to return no more than he receives;

yet prefers that the balances upon the ledgers of benefits shall be in his favour.

2269.

He who hath received pay in full for all the benefits and favours that he has conferred,

is like a wasteful spendthrift who has consumed his whole estate,

and laments over an empty exchequer.

2270.

He who requites my favours with ingratitude adds to, instead of diminishing, my wealth;

and he who cannot return a favour is equally poor,

whether his inability arises from poverty of spirit, sordidness of soul, or pecuniary indigence.

2271.

If he is wealthy who hath large sums invested,

and the mass of whose fortune consists in obligations that bind other men to pay him money,

he is still more so to whom many owe large returns of kindnesses and favours.

2272.

Beyond a moderate sum each year, the wealthy man merely invests his means:

and that which he never uses is still like favours unreturned and kindnesses unreciprocated,

an actual and real portion of his fortune.

2273.

Generosity and a liberal spirit make men to be humane and genial,

open-hearted, frank, and sincere,

2274.

earnest to do good,

easy and contented,

and well-wishers of mankind.

2275.

They protect the feeble against the strong,

and the defenceless against rapacity and craft.

2276.

They succour and comfort the poor,

and are the guardians, under God, of his innocent and helpless wards.

2277.

They value friends more than riches or fame,

and gratitude more than money or power.

2278.

They are noble by God's patent,

and their escutcheons and quarterings are to be found in heaven's great book of heraldry.

2279.

Nor can any man any more be a Mason than he can be a gentleman, unless he is generous, liberal, and disinterested.

2280.

To be liberal, yet only of that which is our own;

to be generous, yet only when we have first been just;

2281.

to give, when to give deprives us of a luxury or a comfort,

this is Masonry indeed.

2282.

He who is worldly, covetous, or sensual

must change before he can be a good Mason.

2282.

If we are governed by inclination and not by duty;

if we are unkind, severe, censorious, or injurious, in the relations or intercourse of life;

2283.

if we are unfaithful parents or undutiful children;

if we are harsh masters or faithless servants;

2284.

if we are treacherous friends or bad neighbours or bitter competitors

or corrupt unprincipled politicians or overreaching dealers in business,

we are wandering at a great distance from the true Masonic light.

2285.

Masons must be kind and affectionate one to another.

2286.

Frequenting the same temples, kneeling at the same altars,

they should feel that respect and that kindness for each other,

which their common relation and common approach to one God should inspire.

2287.

There needs to be much more of the spirit of the ancient fellowship among us;

2288.

more tenderness for each other's faults,

more forgiveness,

more solicitude for each other's improvement and good fortune;

2289.

somewhat of brotherly feeling,

that it be not shame to use the word " brother. "

2290.

Nothing should be allowed to interfere with that kindness and affection:

2291.

neither the spirit of business,

absorbing, eager, and overreaching,

ungenerous and hard in its dealings,

keen and bitter in its competitions,

low and sordid in its purposes;

2292.

nor that of ambition,

self-concern, mercenary, restless, circumventing,

living only in the opinion of others,

2293.

envious of the good fortune of others,

miserably vain of its own success,

unjust, unscrupulous, and slanderous.

2294.

He that does me a favour, hath bound me to make him a return of thankfulness.

2295.

The obligation comes not by covenant,

nor by his own express intention;

yet by the nature of the thing;

2296.

and is a duty springing up within the spirit of the obliged person,

to whom it is more natural to love his friend,

and to do good for good, than to return evil for evil;

because a man may forgive an injury,

yet he must never forget a good turn.

2297.

He that refuses to do good to them whom he is bound to love, or to love that which did him good,

is unnatural and monstrous in his affections,

and thinks all the world born to minister to him;

2298.

with a greediness worse than that of the sea, which, although it receives all rivers into itself,

yet it furnishes the clouds and springs with a return of all they need.

2299.

Our duty to those who are our benefactors is, to esteem and love their persons,

to make them proportionable returns of service, or duty, or profit,

according as we can, or as they need, or as opportunity presents itself;

and according to the greatness of their kindnesses.

2300.

The generous man cannot but regret to see dissensions and disputes among his brethren.

Morals & Dogma CHAPTER SEVENTY

Divisions 2301-2340

MORALS & DOGMA 6

2301.

Only the base and ungenerous delight in discord.

2302.

It is the poorest occupation of humanity to labour to make men think worse of each other,

as the press, and too commonly the pulpit,

changing places with the hustings and the tribune, do.

2303.

The duty of the Mason is to endeavour to make man think better of his neighbour;

to quiet, instead of aggravating any difficulties;

2304.

to bring together those who are severed or estranged;

to keep friends from becoming foes, and to persuade foes to become friends.

2305.

To do this, he must needs control his own passions,

and be not rash and hasty,

nor swift to take offence, nor easy to be angered.

2306.

For anger is a professed enemy to counsel.

2307.

It is a direct storm, in which no man can be heard to speak or call from without;

for if you counsel gently, you are disregarded;

if you urge it and be vehement, you provoke it more.

2308.

It is neither manly nor ingenuous.

2309.

It makes marriage to be a necessary and unavoidable trouble;

friendships and societies and familiarities, to be intolerable.

2310.

It multiplies the evils of drunkenness,

and makes the levities of wine to run into madness.

2311.

It makes innocent jesting to be the beginning of tragedies.

2312.

It turns friendship into hatred;

it makes a man lose himself, and his reason and his argument, in disputation.

2313.

It turns the desires of knowledge into an itch of wrangling.

2314.

It adds insolency to power.

2315.

It turns justice into cruelty, and judgment into oppression.

2316.

It changes discipline into tediousness and hatred of liberal institution.

2317.

It makes a prosperous man to be envied,

and the unfortunate to be unpitied.

2318.

See, therefore, that first controlling your own temper, and governing your own passions,

you fit yourself to keep peace and harmony among other men, and especially the brethren.

2319.

Above all remember that Masonry is the realm of peace,

and that " among Masons there must be no dissension,

yet only that noble emulation., which can best work and best agree. "

2320.

Wherever there is strife and hatred among the brethren, there is no Masonry;

⇐ Предыдущая 8 9 10 11 12 13 141516 17 Следующая ⇒