There may be such a thing as conferring on folly a sort of dignity nay, even a dangerous importance, by treating it too seriously. There may also be such a thing as pursuing vice and crime so far with one unvaried cry of denunciation as to give them a temporary advantage by the more easily eluding the pursuit, or by adroitly crying, "martyr," "persecution," &c., so far to enlist the sympathies of the spectator, who has thus seen but one of the aspects of "the frightful mien," as to induce him to say, "forbear enough!"
If the following pages shall succeed in presenting the various
and motley features of Freemasonry in their proper light show
where it is most effectual to laugh, where to censure and denounce,
and where to (not praise that word would be a white sheep in such
fellowship,) where to let it alone the aims of the author will
have been accomplished. His views of that extraordinary, strangely
compounded and certainly very powerful institution, are not dissimilar
to those of many others at the present day; but he may differ
from them in the manner in which he believes it most expedient
and politic to serve up for the public many of the materials of
which it is composed.
THE AUTHOR
The Adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esquire; or, Freemasonry Practically
Illustrated 1
April, 1835.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
TO HIS INEFFABLE POTENCY, EDWARD LIVINGSTON,
General Grand High Priest of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter
of the Celestial Canopy of the United States of America:
This feeble attempt at a practical illustration of the Beauties of Freemasonry is humbly dedicated, as a suitable tribute to the Man and the Mason, whose matchless wisdom, so admirably adapted to the genius of that institution of which he is the exalted head in this thus honored country, has successfully foiled its most formidable assailants by the unanswerable arguments of his Dignified Silence.
By THE AUTHOR
Anno Lucis, 5835
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