Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

t% PRETENSIONS OF FREE MASONRY.
mysteries are, by the laws of Free Masonry, forbidden to
her, but because they are negatively invaluable.
And here, while some grave men and Masons shake their
heads in disapprobation, the ladies wave their chaplets with
smiles of encouragement, and thus supported I shall proceed.
If the lodges are a little vexed, it is not so with the
social circles; and, as a lover of all that is Ioyely, I freely
confess, that the interest of the ladies is worth incomparably
more to my single self, than the interest of Free Masonry;
that one glance of encouragement from their eyes,
whom it is man's high privilege to love, to cherish, and to
admire, would enable the humble writer to withstand the
frowns of the lodges through time.
I desire to say this with some spirit, my reader, knowing
as I do that there are those who knit their brows, and make
use of swelling words against an honest attempt to investigate
an ancient institution, and who regard, as nearly allied
to sacrilege, any attempt to remove the rubbuh of the dark
ages from the inside, and to put the true colour upon the outside
of the fabric of Free Masonry. I warn all such gentlemen
of the compassion of their mothers, and of the pity of
their wives and sisters upon this their indiscriminate attachment
to the follies and to the charms of Masonry; and also
of the just indignation of every anti-mason in the community,
upon any meditated attempt to awe this peaceable effort
into silence. I caution them to keep cool, to reverence the
truth, although it make against their prejudices, and to read
these pagesJn the spirit in which they are written. Where
they can answer, no doubt they will do it with good temper;
and where they cannot, let them submit with grace.
Any wincing of theirs will be attributed to weakness; any
affected indifference, to want of consideration; and any
fretting or frowning, to want of good sense. Do they count
upon the strength of their influence ? Let me assist them
to consider, that the more influential half of the human
family are by nature shut out from our high claiming institution,
and will investigate its pretensions with a keen re-