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GRAND MASTER OF SYMBOLIC LODGES. 309
you may ever remember that duty, you will now, un-
der the direction of the Senior "Warden, proceed
symbolically to perform it, by restoring to us the
splendor of our nine great lights in Masonry.
LECTURE.
The true Mason, my brother, is a practical philos-
opher, who, under religious emblems, in all ages
adopted by wisdom, builds, upon plans traced by
nature and reason, the moral edifice of knowledge.
Masonry and Philosophy, without being one and the
same thing, have the same object, and propose to
themselves the same end—the worship of the Great
Architect of the Universe.
As Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, it is
your especial duty to aid in restoring Masonry to its
primitive purity.
Tou have become an instructor. Masonry long
wandered in error. Instead of improving, it degen-
erated from its primitive simplicity. Less than two
hundred
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years ago its organization was simple and
altogether moral ; its emblems, allegories, and ceremonies
easy to be understood.
Innovators and inventors overturned that primitive
simplicity. Ignorance engaged in the work of ma-
king degrees, and trifles, and gewgaws, and pretend-
ed mysteries, absurd or hideous, usurped the place
of Masonic truth Oaths, out of all proportion with