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MASON MASONRY. 



with the reputation he ever afterwards sustained, of 

 a thorough classical scholar. Under his father, a 

 learned and respectable clergyman of the Presbyter- 

 ian denomination, he then prepared himself for the 

 I ministry, until the year 1791, when he left 

 his native country, in order to complete his education 

 at the university of Edinburgh. Here he attended 

 the most celebrated courses of lectures connected 

 with divinity, and formed valuable and distinguished 

 acquaintance. In the theological societies he made 

 himself conspicuous by the vigour of his understand- 

 ing, the energy of his elocution, and the rigour of 

 his doctrines. Towards the end of the year 1792, he 

 was obliged to return to New York, by the death of 

 his father, whom he soon succeeded in the Scotch 

 Presbyterian church in Cedar street. In this situa- 

 tion, he confined his attention almost entirely to the 

 benefit of his immediate flock, until the year 1798, 

 when he composed and published a series of Letters 

 on Frequent Communion. In 1800, he conceived the 

 idea of a public theological seminary, to be establish- 

 ed by the authority, and to continue under the super- 

 intendence, of the general synod of the associate 

 reformed church. The plan which he digested was 

 carried into operation, by his own agency and influ- 

 ence, in 1801. The synod appointed him their pro- 

 fessor, and with their sanction, he visited Europe for 

 the purpose of procuring a library. After his return, 

 he zealously discharged the duties of his office until 

 he was constrained to leave it by the decline of his 

 health. In 1810, he dissolved his pastoral relation 

 with the Cedar street church, and formed a new 

 congregation, with whom he took possession of the 

 Murray street church, when it was opened, in 1812. 

 In 1811, he accepted the appointment of provost of 

 Columbia college a station which he filled for five 

 years. The variety and severity of his labours at 

 length affected his health so seriously, that he re- 

 signed his provostship, and, in 1816, repaired to 

 Europe to recruit his debilitated frame. He returned 

 towards the. end of 1817, in better condition, and 

 preached and taught again with characteristic force 

 and success. In 1821 he undertook the charge of 

 Dickinson college, in Pennsylvania, but in this his 

 strength soon failed. In the autumn of 1824, he re- 

 turned to New York, where he died in 1829, in the 

 sixtieth year of his age. The principal works of 

 doctor Mason, besides his Letters on Frequent Com- 

 munion, are a Plea for sacramental Communion on 

 Catholic Principles (1816), Essays, Reviews, &c., 

 which are to be found in the Christian's Magazine, 

 together with a number of Sermons, Orations, &c., 

 published at different times. 



MASON'S AND DIXON'S LINE. See Mason, 

 Charles. 



MASONRY, FREE ; a term applied to the organi- 

 zation of a society, calling themselves free and ac- 

 cepted masons, and all the mysteries therewith con- 

 nected. The society, if we can treat as one a number 

 of societies, many of which are unconnected with 

 each other, though they have the same origin, and a 

 great similarity in their constitution, extends over 

 almost all the countries of Europe, many of America, 

 and some other parts of the globe. According to 

 its own peculiar language, it is founded on " the 

 practice of social and moral virtue." Its character 

 is charity, in the most extended sense, and " Bro- 

 therly Love, Relief, and Truth " are inculcated in it. 

 Like every other society of any magnitude, it has 

 been the object of hyperbolical encomium from its 

 friends, and obloquy from its enemies. Like every 

 other society of any duration, it has been subject to 

 the influences of human frailties, among which vanity 

 always takes a prominent part. Like any other 

 society founded on general principles, and, at the 



same time, well organized, it has, at particular times, 

 been subservient to the production of much good, 

 and at others of mucli evil, according to the different 

 purposes fur which it has been employed, and, like 

 every other society, which ever flourished, must sink 

 with the lapse of years and the changes in the spirit 

 of society. For about twenty years, much has been 

 written for and against free-masonry, and illustrative 

 of its history, ritual tendency, benefits, and dangers ; 

 from a view of which, many of the uninitiated think 

 themselves justified in maintaining that there neither 

 are secrets preserved in the society, nor any moral 

 principles inculcated, which are not of universal 

 obligation, particularly as several of such works 

 have been published by seceded members themselves ; 

 whilst most masons, on the other hand, maintain that 

 the true secret was never yet divulged. There are, 

 however, even masonic writers, who warmly defend 

 the society, and yet call the secret signs and rites of 

 masonry accidental and unimportant. 



No well informed mason will believe that the his- 

 tory of his society begins with the creation, as Mr 

 W. Preston gravely asserts, any more than a reflect- 

 ing Catholic of the present time will believe that the 

 double power of the pope, spiritual and worldly, is 

 proved from St Peter's having two swords at the 

 time of Christ's capture, or from the ground on 

 which it was put by Boniface VIII., that Genesis 

 begins " in the beginning," and not " in the begin- 

 nings." Nor does the well informed mason credit 

 the stories that his society originated with the Greek 

 mysteries, or even the Egyptian, or that it descends 

 from the Dionysian architects, from the Pythagorean 

 society, or from the Essenes. These institutions had 

 little of the character of a continued and connected 

 whole, and nothing appears to indicate that free- 

 masonry can be considered as descending from any 

 one of them. In Lawrie's History of Free-masonry 

 (Edinburgh, 1804), more may be found respecting 

 this point. As little can it be proved that the 

 masons sprung from the Templars, or any other 

 order of the middle ages, or, at a later time, from the 

 Jesuits, or indirectly from the Rosicrucians. Part of 

 these stories have been caused by the histories of the 

 order (historic ordinis), purposely invented for the 

 sake of the rites of the society, in which, however, 

 is also concealed, under ciphers, the true history of 

 the (so called) higher degrees. Nor is it the fact, 

 that the free-masons originated from the common 

 corporation of masons, for long before the origin of 

 the corporations of the separate crafts in any part of 

 modern Europe, there existed corporations or socie- 

 ties of artificers, who united all the crafts necessary 

 for building (and we must keep in mind what the 

 building of the middle ages was) under the direction 

 of one or more leaders, the architects. Protected by 

 the charters of the clerical and secular powers, and 

 united in one great society for the construction of 

 each great building, as the cathedrals, &c., these 

 societies erected, in all countries of Europe, those 

 gigantic monuments, generally termed Gothic, which 

 excite our amazement, and, as has been remarked by 

 Dr Henry, in his History of Great Britain, with an 

 economy of time and expense truly surprising. We 

 find these societies of architects everywhere. They 

 were composed of members from Italy, Germany, 

 the Netherlands, France, England, Scotland, and 

 other countries (sometimes even from Greece), and 

 united under very similar constitutions ; for instance, 

 at the erection of the convent of Batalha, in Portugal, 

 about 1400; of the minister of Strasburg, 1015 to 

 1439; that of Cologne, 950 and 1211 to 1365; of 

 the cathedral jf Meissen, in the tenth century ; of 

 the cathedral of Milan, the convent of Monte Cas- 

 sino, and of the most remarkable buildings of the 



