The true Democrat., 1856-11-18

and purest love and pleasure that marks the checkered scenes of life.
 In fact the true Mason looks upon vou as the "lfe' daughter, sister, or mother of bro- ther and as such entitled to his assistance and protection. Again, Masonry interferes not with other mems avocations. Thus Frederick the Great was Mason, yet he alone relied on mer- It for promotion, and raised his nation from mere province, to a rank among the first na- tlons of Europe.
 washington was Mason yet no one ever heard ol his favoring or seeking to have men promoted simply because they were Masons.
 But to conclude--man, say what you may, Is greSarlous animal; and though DO cts, (and philosophers even0 may descant upon the pure delights of "the natural state" where wants are lew-and though visionary men may at- tempt to carry such doctrines into actual prac- tice, yet the history of the past and our own Knowledge of the present teach us, that in ex- act proportion as man has bowed to social re- strants and submitted to social laws the hap Pihess of mankind in general has increased and civilization and refinement taking the place of savage rudeness have raised man to that station which it was intended by the divine law he should occupy.
 True in submitting to the laws that society might enact, man yielded natural rights that he would otherwise possess-but such rights were neither essential to his prosperity or hap plness; and it is but utter;ng trusm to re- mark, that by so yielding he was enabled to en- joy in far greater degree other rights which were essential to his temporal welfare Thus society's chief object and aim is to promote the welfare of man-and though complete success has not yet attended its efforts, yet who but acknowledges the great progress it has a- ready made towards a consummation so devost- ly to be wished - notwithstanding the great obstacles that lay in its path Men have always been, and are yet, (hough not to so strik ing an extent.) divided into three classes
 Those possessing overs coupled with un- bounded wealth and their satalites, who vanly imagining that they are born to consume the fruits of the earth,' look upon life as dream and the earth as pleasure garden, constitute one extreme-whilst the Parahs of earth who. reduced to crime, misery or misfortune, to po- verty or wretchedness live upon this vast earth, (givcn by God as an inheritance to all his chldren,) as wanderers in strange land and see no rest for themselves or their descend ants, (for the hovel is oft entailed as we'll as the palace,) but in the grave, no hope but in death constitute the other extreme-whilst the third class is constituted of those who nei- ther possessing the unbounded wealth of the former, nor exposed to the wretchedness an d miseryof the latter, find in remuneratve labor, ease, comfort and prosperity. This class, in days gone bye, was looked upon in antagonism by both extremes, by the one as constituting a check upon their pleasures, the other upon their passions. Yet this class always advocat- ed the equality of man and the dignity of la Dor; and exposed as it was to the constant at Jacks of the two extremes of society, its mem- bers, in order to make successful defence, were forced to band together, as in union alone was there strength Hence sprung those trades N''O'A were the source of the liberties which we now enjoy; and that nation must be the happiest and greatest when the two extremes shall blend in the greatest degree in the just mean, and where great wealth and extreme poverty exist the least among the individuals compos- ing it.
 Masons likewise from time immemoral acted upon the great principle that by union alone could they successfully carry out their phian- thropic designs; and in all its long and weary pill grimase has incuicated this great doctrine-what a long and weary pilgrimage has not Masonry had upon earth. Wecinin the imagination go back into that dim and dreary path where history Is but myth, and can wander along the banks of the Nile. so sacred in song and story, with those brothers, the traditions of whose won drous love cen now strike dumb with amaze ment, and under sky brighter than our own, gaze upon those eternal stars that then spark led in the heavens as now, or filled with aston lshment and awe gaze upon the queen of night shedding her silvery rays upon the tired earth as sweetly and softly as the smiles of an in- fant, who sleeping in his mothers arms, falls back and dreams of heaven feel the same impulses awakening in our hearts, that awak- ened in theirs the belief in the existence of a strange God-or descending the historic ladder, we can kneel with Masonry, a weary pilgrim with dishevelled locks and dusty robes, at the foot of those lofty mountains, and weep over the memories of those wondrous brethren whose mortal remains rest so far beneath the sands under our feet.
 We can see Grecian glory wax faint and ex- pire. We can see the Eagle of Rome grow old, and fa prey to the vultures of the earth; we can shudder as we hear the tramp of the fiery Hun; and trembling gaze upon the dread ed Northman, as forSaking his abode in the fro- zen north and laughing to scorn the weary tempest, urges his light bark through the ra- ging waves towards the fertile plains of south ern Europe; and when the night of ignorance and tyranny broods like black pail upon the earth, still clinging to that brave old faith; still hoping for the long promised time-we can cry with our borther---it will come.
 And 10! the man of Gottingen appears-his types are at work, burning thoughts become actual visible substances. Hopes are born, they fly on every blast--listen! the nations are rising-God save the right.
 See, new flag rises in the west-it sinks 1t rises-watch with what intense gaze the na- tions regard its progress. It triumphs--its proud folds are flung out to the breeze-the very heavens ring with cries of joy, 'tis the flag of our own country--the flag of equality, of liberty, of labor. And what, though wrong still oft goes unpunished? what though might oft still makes right, still the long wished for day is breaking-nights shadows are fringed with light--well may the Mason clasping his brother by the hand in the fulness of his hope