Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

IN THE AXCIENT SAMARITAN CHARACTERS. 213
itself, [from their wives,*] but even the manner of pronouncing
it. In this way both might have been transmitted with
little or no variation, through Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and
the Jewish priests, till the days of Solomon. That language
may have varied during this period, can be no objection.
Since the time of Solomon, however, we have no
doubt but the very same WORD, with the manner of pronunciation,
has been religiously observed in the masonic
institution in every age and country to the present day."
u For mystic learning, wondrous able,
u In magic, talisman, and cabal;
u Whose primitive tradition reaches
44 AB far as Adam's first green breeches."
Exactly so.
" If, therefore, the above be correct, we may plainly discover
why Speculative Free Masonry involves so many
principles which are fundamental in the Christian system.
As the WORD, in the first verse of St. John, constitutes the
foundation, the subject matter, and the great ultimate end
of the Christian economy, so does the same WORD, in all
its relations to man, time, and eternity, constitute the very
spirit and essence of Speculative Free Masonry," So ends
the chapter.
Now, lest the reader should suspect that Mr. Town never
delivered this chapter of his work in the presence of the
grand chapter, but put it in his printed work on his own re-
* This fact is introduced by a masonic poet into the following wretched
lines: lines worthy of the Tyler's office on this occasion.
u In the deluge, where mortals lost their lives,
" God saved four worthy Masons and their wives;
u And in the ark great Noah a lodge did hold,
•• Shem and Japheth his wardens we are told;
" And Ham, as tyler, ordered to secure
44 From all their WIVES the secret door."—A. Re*on, p. 172.