Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

888 ABBE BABRUEL'S VIEWS
tianity, to the peace of states, and conducive to virtue and
happiness; (and then what has it had to fear from kings
and pontiffe since Christianity was established ?) or, their
pretended science is ki opposition to the religion and the
laws of the Christian world, (and then we have only to say,
that the evil-doer seeks to hide himself.)
" 5th. Most certainly the Free Masons tio hot make a secret
of what is praiseworthy in their association. It is not
that fraternal affection for their neighbour which they hide,
and which they only have in common with every religious
observer of the gospel. Neither do they make a secret of
the sweets of that convivial equality which accompanies
their meetings, and their fraternal repasts. On the contrary,
they are perpetually extolling their benevolence, and
nobody is ignorant of the conviviality of their entertainments.
Their secret must, therefore, contain something
widely different from this fraternity, and something less innocent
than the mirth of the masonic table.
" Such language, in general, might have been held to all
masons; such reasonings might have made them suspect that
the higher degrees of their association contained mysteries,
which it was far more interested in hiding, than their fraternity,
their signs, and pass-words.
" That affected secrecy on the first principles of Masonry,
liberty and equality, the oath never to reveal that such was
the basis of the doctrines, premised that there existed such
an explanation of these words, as the sect was interested in
hiding, both from the state and church. And in reality it
was to attain to this explanation of the last mysteries, that
so many trials, oaths, and degrees, were necessary.
" To convince the reader how much these surmises are
realized in the occult lodges, it is necessary for us to go
back to the degree of master, and relate the allegorical
story, of which the successive explanations and interpretations
form the profound mysteries of the higher degrees.
"In this degree of master Mason, the lodge is hung round