Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

MAMS A JTUCE MASON* 98S
pierce the breast of the traitor, and declared to him that it
was impossible to escape their vengeance. The candidate
then swears, " that rather than betray the secret, he coosents
to have his head cut off, his heart and entrails torn
out, and his ashes cast before the wind. 9 Having taken
the oath, the master said the following words to him, which
the reader may easily conceive have not escaped my memory,
as I had expected them with so much impatience, 4 My
dear brother, the secret of Masonry consists in these words,
Liberty and Equality: all men are free and equal: cM
Men are brethren.' The master did not utter another sylfo>
ble, and every body embraced the new brother, equal and
free. The lodge broke up, and we gaily adjourned to a
masonic repast.
" I was so far from suspecting any further meaning in
this famous secret, that I could scarcely refrain from burst*
ing into a fit of laughter on hearing it; and with the great*
est simplicity, told those who had introduced me, if that
was all their secret, I had known it a long time.*
" And certainly there was no occasion for being a mason;
to learn that man is not born for slavery, but to enjoy a
true liberty, under the empire of the laws; or if they understand
by equality, that as we are the children of one
common parent, the creatures of the same God, we are to
love and help each other as brethren; such truths certainly
are better taught in the gospel, than by the childish rites of
Masonry. I must say, that though the lodge was numerously
attended, I did not see a single craftsman who gave
any other interpretation to this famous secret The reader
will see that it was necessary to go through many other degrees,
before they were initiated into a very different liberty
* The AbM's surprise and mirth at the secret are perfectly natural; yet
that adopted by the French was so much added to our Free Masonry.
They desired to have a utret; and Free Masonry furnishing none except
its senseless words and pass words, it would seem that the political reformersof
France artfully seised upon this: "Liberty and Banality."