Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

294 ABBE BARRUEl/S VIEWS
trouble to understand the real signification of them; and
as long as they have any sentiments of religion, or attachment
to their prince, they reject with indignation, all interpretations
which militate against either. Many of them are
disgusted with the multiplicity of trials, and are content to
remain in the inferior degrees, which suffice to give them
the title, of Masons, admit them to all masonic repasts, and
even entitle them to the alms and benefactions which the
lodges bestow on their indigent brethren. Those whose
zeal is not cooled by this multiplicity of trials, are generally
admitted from the degree of master, or from that of elect,
to the three Scotch degrees. We shall not seek for the
history and tendency of these three degrees in books which
have been written to discredit the craft. The German
adept who translated them into his language for the instruction
of his brethren, is one of the most zealous knights
for the doctrine therein contained. His whole genius is
exerted in their defence, nor could we follow a more unexceptionable
author. His object was to infuse light into
his brethren; and we, profane beings, may draw the fol-
under the emblem of the serpent. It it a faithful representation of that
which She ignorant vulgar adore under the name of religion.
"* It was the profane and timid Abiram, who, transformed by a fanatic
seal into a tool of the monkish and religious rites, struck the first blows on
the breast of our father Hiram ; that is to say, who sapped the foundations
of the celestial temple, which the ETERNAL had himself erected upon earth
to sublime virtue.
."'The first age of the world witnessed what I assert. The most simple
law of nature rendered our first fathers the happiest of mortals. The
monster Pride appears on earth, he bellows, he is heard by men, and by the
happy mortals of those days. He promises them happiness in another life,
and persuades them by his mellifluous words, that he taught men to adore
the Eternal Creator of all things in a more extensive and more special manner,
than any person had done before on earth. This hydra with an hundred heads,
misled and misleads those men who are subject to its laws, and will continue
its deceptions until the moment when the true Elect shall appear to
combat and crush it entirely.'" (See the degrees of Knights of the Sun.)
" Such doctrine needs no comment.-'