forth with bridal glory; and, as our immortal poet speaks, "Bid the fields revive, The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings." ACCORDINGLY, since that disgraceful æra, Masonry, to use the words of the same poet, "Has rear'd her drooping head, And trickt her beams, and with new-spangled ore To speak without metaphor, we now behold it, as this beautiful edifice testifies, in its fairest and most flourishing state; and may justly cry out with the Roman orator, behold a sight, which God himself, intent upon his own work, may regard with pleasure; a society of men formed to support the interests of science, virtue, and benevolence, so closely cemented together, without compulsion or violence, that no flaw, no joint can be discerned; but as our Historian speaks, "All things are so adjusted, and accommodated one piece to another, that upon the whole it looks more like the work of providence and nature, than the product of art and human invention." BUT the circumstances which claim our most earnest and immediate attention, are the ornaments of Solomon's Temple; so applicable to our art, and so figurative of its excellence, that I trust it will be no trespass upon your time to dwell upon them more largely. We are told by the Historian that "it was overlaid with gold, interwoven with beautiful flowers and palm-trees, adorned with painting and sculpture." Nothing is " more observable in the history of mankind, than that Masonry and civilization, like twin sisters, have gone hand in hand together; and that wealth, arts, and sciences, every thing that could ernbellish and beautify human life, have followed with faithful steps, and composed their train. The very orders of architecture mark the growth and progress of civilization. Dark, dreary, and comfortless were those times, when Masonry never yet had laid her line, nor extended her compass. The race of mankind, in full possession of wild and savage liberty, sullen and solitary, mutually offending, and afraid of each other, shrouded themselves in thickets of the woods, or dens and caves of the earth. In these murky recesses, these sombrous solitudes, Masonry found them out; and, pitying their forlorn and destitute condition, instructed them to build habitations for convenience, defence, and comfort. The habitations they then built,* were, like their manners, rugged and unseemly, a prompt and artless imitation of simple and coarse nature. rude and inelegant as they were, they had this excellent effect, that, by aggregating mankind, they prepared the way for improvement and civilization. The hardest bodies will polish by collision; and the roughest manners by communion and intercourse. Thus they lost by degrees their asperity and ruggedness; and became insensibly mild and gentle, from fierce and barbarous nature. Masonry beheld and gloried in the change; and, as their minds expanded and softened, she shewed them new lights, and conducted them to new improvements. The rustic mansions pleased no *First Rustic or Tuscan Order. Yet more, they aimed at something higher and nobler, and, deriving their ideas of symmetry from the human form divine, they adopted that as their model and prototype. At this æra, their buildings, though simple. and natural, were proportioned in the exactest manner, and admirably calculated for strength and convenience. -Yet still there was a something wanting,-an ease, a grace, an elegance,-which nothing but an intercourse with the softer sex could supply. It is from this most amiable and accomplished part of the creation, that we catch all those bewitching delicacies,— those nicer, gentler, inexpressible graces,-which are not to be taught by dull, dry precept,-for they are far beyond all rules of art,-but are communicated from them to us-I know not how-shall I say by contagion? Accordingly, the succeeding Order* was formed after the model of a young woman, with loose, dishevelled hair, of an easy, elegant, flowing shape; a happy medium between the too massive and too delicate, the simple and the rich, We are now arrived at that period, when the human genius, which we have just seen in the bud, the leaf, the flower, ripened to perfection, and produced the fairest and sweetest fruit;-every ingenuous art, every liberal science, that could delight, exalt, refine, and humanize mankind.Now it was that Masonry put on her richest ropes, her most gorgeous Second Doric Order. *Third Ionic Order. Fourthly, the Corinthian Order, the capital of which took its origin, says Villalpandus, from an order in Solomon's Temple, the leaves whereof were those of the palm-tree. The Composite Order is not here taken notice of, for reasons too obvious to mention, apparel; and tricked herself out in a profusion of ornaments, the principal of which were eminently conspicuous in Solomon's Temple. And lo! not satisfied with the utmost exertion of her own powers, she holds out her torch, and enlightens the whole circle of arts and science. Commerce flies to her on canvass wings, fraught with the produce and treasure of the whole universe: painting and sculpture strain every nerve to decorate the building she has raised; and the curious hand of design contrives the furniture * and tapestry. Music-poetry-eloquence-But whither does this charming theme transport me? The time would fail me to recount half the blessings accruing to mankind from our most excellent and amiable institution: I shall conclude this part of my subject therefore with just mentioning another ornament of Solomon's Temple, the two cherubims made of olive-tree, whose wings expanded from one wall to the other, and touched in the midst. The olive, you know, is the symbol of peace, and the very essence of the cherubic order is said to be love. Let peace and love for ever distinguish our society! Let no private animosities, or party divisions, pollute our walls! Drive off from hence each thing of guilt and sin! THE very key-stone, as it were, of our mystical fabric is charity:-Let us cherish this amiable virtue, let us make it the vital principle of our souls, "Dear as the ruddy drops that warm our hearts," and it cannot fail to be the constant rule of our actions, the just square of our dealings with all mankind. And though pity may plead in more tender and eloquent terms for the distresses of a poor brother;-yet let us be ready to extend the hand of relief, as far as our circumstances afford, to misfortunes of every kind, wherever it meets us. It was an everlasting reproach to the Jews, that they contracted their benevolence within the narrow sphere of their own sect and party. Let ours be free and unconfined. "DROPPING like the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath." A GOOD Mason is a citizen of the world; and his charity should move along with him, like the sensible horizon, wherever he goes, and, like that too, embrace every object, as far as vision extends. THE temple, thus beautiful, thus complete, Solomon dedicated to the Lord,-in a stile of wonderful devotion and sublimity, as far above the most rapturous flights of pagan eloquence, as the religion of the Jews was superior to heathen idolatry and superstition. "LORD, says he, thou that inhabitest eternity, and hast raised out of nothing the mighty fabric of this universe, the heavens, the air, the earth, and the sea; thou that fillest the whole, and every thing that is in it, and art thyself boundless and incomprehensible; look down graciously upon thy servants, who have presumed to erect this house to the honour of thy name! Let thy holy spirit descend upon it in the blessing of thy peculiar presence: thou that art every where, deign also to be with us! Thou that seest and hearest all things, look down from thy throne of glory, and give ear to our supplications! And if at any time |