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attitude and bearing speak yet plainer—they convey a meaning , be it true or false . The ^ ery p ersons who profess to repudiate forms and ceremonies altogether , are the most intrusive and conspicuous of formalists : the Society of Friends , for instance , is the most formal of all sects . Their peculiar attire , their stiff , unbending , uncourteous
manners , their affected and corrupt English ; all these may be taken for the adopted symbols of the Fraternity . The Quaker who would dispense with forms could no longer be a Quaker : he simply repudiates the usages of society , and affects his own : to live utterly without ceremony , he must , Nebuchadnezzar-like , associate with the beasts of the field .
Eorms , however , are not only necessary , they go far to mark , in a nation , the stage of civilization ; and / in the individual , the position in society . There is no branch of ethnology more interesting or instructive than the manners , customs , forms , and ceremonies peculiar to each nation and tribe . Those who regard these matters with indifference
or contempt must be sorry students of human nature , and of everything which pertains to the history and fortunes of the human race . In the more rude and uncivilised tribes , the forms of social life are few and simple , yet not the less interesting on that account . By comparing ancient records with the observations of modern travellers , we educe the remarkable fact , that in barbarous nations / customs
and ceremonies remain unaltered for thousands of years . There is no advance , no change . In the manners of to-day you read the history of the past , and in the changeless round of ceremonies which have lost their meaning and their force for twenty centuries , you see the stagnant mind and mere animal instinct of the degraded and uninstructed race . In nations one step removed from barbarity and
animalism , as in the Chinese , among whom stagnation has been the rule , and advance the exception , forms and ceremonies take a somewhat higher and more complex character . They compass both the remote and the proximate , the past and the present . In nations in which civilisation has shone upon the higher classes , without sensibly raising the masses , as in Hussia , forms and ceremonies assume a more modern aspect , and tell less of the remote than of the recent .
In countries Wholly brought under the influence of modern civilisation , but few of the most ancient forms date their origin beyond a few centuries , though some of them still retain the rough model of a barbarous age . Forms and ceremonies , therefore , as well as buildings and relics , cast an important light on history . They tend to confirm the truth of ancient testimony , and , in the case of the Jews , establish the authenticity of the most ancient of all records , the Old Testament .
The details of this subject would be far too voluminous for our limits , but we commend them as an object of study to all who have been accustomed to regard ancient usages with indifference or contempt . We trust , however , there are few of these to be found in our own Brotherhood . It is needless to revert here to the ancient date and symbolic character of our Masonic institutions , which ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
attitude and bearing speak yet plainer—they convey a meaning , be it true or false . The ^ ery p ersons who profess to repudiate forms and ceremonies altogether , are the most intrusive and conspicuous of formalists : the Society of Friends , for instance , is the most formal of all sects . Their peculiar attire , their stiff , unbending , uncourteous
manners , their affected and corrupt English ; all these may be taken for the adopted symbols of the Fraternity . The Quaker who would dispense with forms could no longer be a Quaker : he simply repudiates the usages of society , and affects his own : to live utterly without ceremony , he must , Nebuchadnezzar-like , associate with the beasts of the field .
Eorms , however , are not only necessary , they go far to mark , in a nation , the stage of civilization ; and / in the individual , the position in society . There is no branch of ethnology more interesting or instructive than the manners , customs , forms , and ceremonies peculiar to each nation and tribe . Those who regard these matters with indifference
or contempt must be sorry students of human nature , and of everything which pertains to the history and fortunes of the human race . In the more rude and uncivilised tribes , the forms of social life are few and simple , yet not the less interesting on that account . By comparing ancient records with the observations of modern travellers , we educe the remarkable fact , that in barbarous nations / customs
and ceremonies remain unaltered for thousands of years . There is no advance , no change . In the manners of to-day you read the history of the past , and in the changeless round of ceremonies which have lost their meaning and their force for twenty centuries , you see the stagnant mind and mere animal instinct of the degraded and uninstructed race . In nations one step removed from barbarity and
animalism , as in the Chinese , among whom stagnation has been the rule , and advance the exception , forms and ceremonies take a somewhat higher and more complex character . They compass both the remote and the proximate , the past and the present . In nations in which civilisation has shone upon the higher classes , without sensibly raising the masses , as in Hussia , forms and ceremonies assume a more modern aspect , and tell less of the remote than of the recent .
In countries Wholly brought under the influence of modern civilisation , but few of the most ancient forms date their origin beyond a few centuries , though some of them still retain the rough model of a barbarous age . Forms and ceremonies , therefore , as well as buildings and relics , cast an important light on history . They tend to confirm the truth of ancient testimony , and , in the case of the Jews , establish the authenticity of the most ancient of all records , the Old Testament .
The details of this subject would be far too voluminous for our limits , but we commend them as an object of study to all who have been accustomed to regard ancient usages with indifference or contempt . We trust , however , there are few of these to be found in our own Brotherhood . It is needless to revert here to the ancient date and symbolic character of our Masonic institutions , which ,