Ramsay's Oration

1730

The noble ardour which you, gentlemen, evince to enter into the most noble and

very illustrious Order of Freemasons, is a certain proof that you already

possess all the qualities necessary to become members, that is, HUMANITY,

PURE MORALS, INVIOLABLE SECRECY, AND A TASTE FOR THE FINE ARTS.

Lycurgus, Solon, Numa, and all political legislators have failed to make their

institutions lasting. However wise their laws may have been, they have not been

able to spread through all countries and ages. As they only kept in view

victories and conquests, military violence, and the elevation of one people at

the expense of another, they have not had the power to become universal, nor to

make themselves acceptable to the taste, spirit, and interest of all nations.

Philanthropy was not their basis. Patriotism badly understood and pushed to

excess, often destroyed in these warrior republics love and humanity in general.

Mankind is not essentially distinguished by the tongues spoken, the clothes

worn, the lands occupied, or the dignities with which it is invested. THE WORLD

IS NOTHING BUT A HUGE REPUBLIC, OF WHICH EVERY NATION IS A FAMILY,

AND EVERY INDIVIDUAL A CHILD. Our Society was at the outset established to

revive and spread these essential maxims borrowed from the nature of man.

We desire to reunite all men of enlightened minds, gentle manners, and agreeable wit,

not only by a love for the fine arts, but much more by the grand principles of

virtue, science, and religion, where the interests of the Fraternity shall

become those of the whole human race, whence all Nations shall be enabled to

draw useful knowledge, and where the subjects of all Kingdoms shall learn to

cherish one another without renouncing, their own country.

Our ancestors, the Crusaders, gathered together from all parts of Christendom in

the Holy Land, desired thus to reunite into one sole Fraternity the individuals of

all nations.

What obligations do we not owe to these superior men who, without

gross selfish interests, without even listening to the inborn tendency to dominate,

imagined such an institution, the sole aim of which is to unite minds and hearts

in order to make them better, and form in the course of ages a spiritual empire where,

without derogating from the various duties which different States exact, a new

people shall be created, which, composed of many nations, shall in some sort

cement them all into one by the tie of virtue and science.

The second requisite of our Society is sound morals. The religious orders were

established to make perfect Christians, military orders to inspire a love of

true glory, and the Order of Freemasons, to make men lovable men, good citizens,

good subjects, inviolable in their promises, faithful adorers of the God of

Love, lovers rather of virtue than of reward.

        Polliciti servare fidem, sanctumque vereri Numen amicito, mores, non munera

        amare.[1]

Nevertheless, we do not confine ourselves to purely civic virtues. We have

amongst us three kinds of brothers: Novices or Apprentices, Fellows or Professed

Brothers, Masters or Perfected Brothers. To the first are explained the moral

virtues; to the second the heroic virtues; to the last the Christian virtues; so

that our institution embraces the whole philosophy of sentiment and the complete

theology of the heart. This is why one of our worshipful brothers [2] has said -

        Free-Maçons, Illustre grand Maître,

         Recevez mes premiers transports,

        Dans mon coeur l'ordre les fait naître;

        Heureux ! si de nobles efforts

        Me font mériter votre estime,

        M'élèvent à ce vrai sublime,

        A la première vérité,

        A l'essence pure et divine,

        De l'âme céleste origine,

        Source de vie et de clarté [2 bis].

Because a sad, savage, and misanthropic Philosophy disgusts virtuous men, our

ancestors, the Crusaders, wished to render it lovable by the attractions of

innocent pleasures, agreeable music, pure joy, and moderate gaiety. Our

festivals are not what the profane world and the ignorant vulgar imagine. All

the vices of heart and soul are banished there, and irreligion, libertinage,

incredulity, and debauch are proscribed. It is in that spirit that one of our

Poets [3] said :

        Nous suivons aujourd'hui des sentiers peu battus,

        Nous cherchons à bâtir, et tous nos édifices

        Sont ou des cachots pour les vices,

        Ou des temples pour les vertus.

Our banquets resemble those virtuous symposia of Horace, where the conversation

only touched what could enlighten the soul discipline the heart, and inspire a

taste for the true, the good, and the beautiful.

        O! noctes, coenaeque Deum...

        Sermo oritur non de regnis domibusque alienis;

         ...sed quod magis ad nos

        Pertinet, et nescire malum est, agitamus; utrumne

        Divitis homines, an sint virtute beati;

        Quidve ad amicitias usus rectumve trahat nos,

        Et quae sit natura boni, summumque quid ejus. [4]

Here the love of all desires is strengthened. From our Lodges we banish all disputes,

which might alter the tranquillity of the spirit, the sweetness of morals,

the feelings of friendship, and this perfect harmony that is only found in the

suppression of all indecent excesses and of all discordant passions.

Thus the obligations imposed upon you by the Order, are to protect your brothers

by your authority, to enlighten them by your knowledge, to edify them by your

virtues, to succour them in their necessities, to sacrifice all personal

resentment, and to strive after an that may contribute to the peace and unity of

society.

We have secrets; they are figurative signs and sacred words, composing a

language sometimes mute, sometimes very eloquent, in order to communicate with

one another at the greatest distance, and to recognise our brothers of

whatsoever tongue. These were words of war which the Crusaders gave each other

in order to guarantee them from the surprises of the Saracens, who often crept

in amongst them to kill them. These signs and words recall the remembrance

either of some part of our science, or of some moral virtue, or of some mystery

of the faith. That has happened to us which never befell any former Society. Our

Lodges have been established, and are spread in all civilised nations, and,

nevertheless, among this numerous multitude of men never has a brother betrayed

our secrets. Those natures most trivial, most indiscreet, least schooled to

silence, learn this great art on entering our Society. Such is the power over

all natures of the idea of a fraternal bond! This inviolable secret contributes

powerfully to unite the subjects of all nations, and to render the communication

of benefits easy and mutual between us. We have many examples in the annals of

our Order. Our brothers, travelling in divers lands, have only needed to make

themselves known in our Lodges in order to be there immediately overwhelmed by

all kinds of succour, even in time of the most bloody wars, and illustrious

prisoners have found brothers where they only expected to meet enemies. Should

any fail in the solemn promises which bind us, you know, gentlemen, that the

penalties which we impose upon him are remorse of conscience, shame at his

perfidy, and exclusion from our Society, according to those beautiful lines of

Horace -

        Est et fideli tuta silentio

        Merces; vetabo qui Cereris sacrum

        Vulgarit arcanae, sub isdem

        Sit tragibus, fragilemque mecum

        Solvat phaselum;... [5]

Yes, sirs, the famous festivals of Ceres at Eleusis, of Isis in Egypt, of

Minerva at Athens, of Urania amongst the Phenicians, and of Diana in Scythia

were connected with ours. In those places mysteries were celebrated which

concealed many vestiges of the ancient religion of Noah and the Patriarchs. They

concluded with banquets and libations, and neither that intemperance nor excess

were known into which the heathen gradually fell. The source of these infamies

was the admission to the nocturnal assembIies of persons of both sexes in

contravention of the primitive usages. It is in order to prevent similar abuses

that women are excluded from our Order. We are not so unjust as to regard the

fair sex as incapable of keeping a secret. But their presence might insensibly

corrupt the purity of our maxims and manners.

        Si le sexe est banni, qu'il n'en ait point d'alarmes,

        Ce n'est point un outrage à sa fidélité;

        Mais on craint que l'amour entrant avec ses charmes,

        Ne produise l'oubli de la fraternité.

        Noms de frère et d'ami seroient de faibles armes

        Pour garantir les coeurs de la rivalité.

The fourth quality required in our Order is the taste for useful sciences and

the liberal arts. Thus, the Order exacts of each of you to contribute, by his

protection, liberality, or labour, to a vast work for which no academy can

suffice, because all these societies being composed of a very small number of

men, their work cannot embrace an object so extended.

All the Grand Masters in Germany, England, Italy, and elsewhere, exhort all the

learned men and all the artisans of the Fraternity to unite to furnish the

materials for a Universal Dictionary of the liberal arts and useful sciences,

excepting only theology and politics. The work has already been commenced in

London, and by means of the union of our brothers it may be carried to a

conclusion in a few years. Not only are technical words and their etymology

explained, but the history of each art and science, its principles and

operations, are described. By this means the lights of all nations will be

united in one single work, which will be a universal library of all that is

beautiful, great, luminous, solid, and useful in all the sciences and in all

noble arts. This work will augment in each century, according to the increase of

knowledge, and it will spread emulation and the taste for things of beauty and

utility over all of Europe.

Every family, every Republic, every Empire, of which the origin is lost in

obscure antiquity, has its fable and its truth, its legend and its history. Some

ascribe our institution to Solomon, some to Moses, some to Abraham, some to

Noah, and some to Enoch, who built the first city, or even to Adam. Without any

pretence of denying these origins, I pass on to matters less ancient. This,

then, is a part of what I have gathered in the annals of Great Britain, in the

Acts of Parliament, which speak often of our privileges, and in the living

traditions of the English people, which has been the centre of our Society since

the eleventh century.

At the time of the Crusades in Palestine many princes, lords, and citizens

associated themselves, and vowed to restore the Temple of the Christians in the

Holy Land, and to employ themselves in bringing back their architecture to its

first institution. They agreed upon several ancient signs and symbolic words

drawn from the well of religion in order to recognise themselves amongst the

heathen and Saracens. These signs and words were only communicated to those who

promised solemnly, and even sometimes at the foot of the altar, never to reveal

them. This sacred promise was therefore not an execrable oath, as it has been

called, but a respectable bond to unite Christians of all nationalities in one

confraternity. Some time afterwards our Order formed an intimate union with the

Knights of St John of Jerusalem. From that time our Lodges took the name of

Lodges of St John. This union was made after the example set by the Israelites

when they erected the second Temple, who whilst they handled the trowel and

mortar with one hand, in the other held the sword and buckler. Our Order

therefore must not be considered a revival of the Bacchanals, but as an order

founded in remote antiquity, and renewed in the Holy Land by our ancestors in

order to recall the memory of the most sublime truths amidst the pleasures of

society.

The kings, princes, and lords returned from Palestine to their own lands, and

there established divers Lodges. At the time of the last Crusades many Lodges

were already erected in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and from thence in

Scotland, because of the close alliance between the French and the Scotch.

James, Lord Steward of Scotland, was Grand Master of a Lodge established at

Kilwinning, in the West of Scotland, MCCLXXXVI., (2) shortly after the death of

Alexander III., King of Scotland, and one year before John Baliol mounted the

throne. This lord received as Freemasons into his Lodge the Earls of Gloucester

and Ulster, the one English, the other Irish.

By degrees our Lodges and our rites were neglected in most places. This is why

of so many historians only those of Great Britain speak of our Order.

Nevertheless it preserved its splendour among those Scotsmen to whom the Kings

of France confided during many centuries the safeguard of their royal persons.

After the deplorable mishaps in the Crusades, the perishing of the Christian

armies, and the triumph of Bendocdar, Sultan of Egypt, during the eighth and

last Crusade, that great Prince Edward, son of Henry III., King of England,

seeing there was no longer any safety for his brethren in the Holy Land, from

whence the Christian troops were retiring, brought them all back, and this

colony of brothers was established in England. As this prince was endowed with

all heroic qualities, he loved the fine arts, declared himself protector of our

Order, conceded to it new privileges, and then the members of this fraternity

took the name of Freemasons, after the example set by their ancestors. Since

that time Great Britain became the seat of our Order, the conservator of our

laws, and the depository of our secrets. The fatal religious discords which

embarrassed and tore Europe in the sixteenth century caused our Order to

degenerate from the nobility of its origin. Many of our rites and usages which

were contrary to the prejudices of the times were changed, disguised,

suppressed.

Thus it was that many of our brothers forgot, like the ancient Jews, the spirit

of our laws, and only retained the letter and shell. The beginnings of a remedy

have already been made. It is only necessary to continue, and to at last bring

everything back to its original institution. This work cannot be difficult in a

State where religion and the, Government can only be favourable to our laws.

From the British Isles the Royal Art is now repassing into France, under the

reign of the most amiable of Kings, whose humanity animates all his virtues, and

under the ministry of a Mentor, who has realised all that could be imagined most

fabulous.

In this happy age when love of peace has become the virtue of heroes, this

nation one of the most spiritual of Europe, will become the centre of the Order.

She will clothe our work, our statutes, and our customs with grace, delicacy,

and good taste, essential qualities of the Order, of which the basis is the

wisdom, strength, and beauty of genius. It is in future in our Lodges, as it

were in public schools, that Frenchmen shall learn, without travelling, the

characters of all nations, and that strangers shall experience that France is

the home of all peoples. Patria gentis humano.

NOTES:

        [1] To faithfully keep a promise, to honour the holiness of friendship

        To love virtue, not its reward.

        [2] the Count de Tressan.

        [2 bis] Freemason, illustrious Grand Master,

        Receive my first transports,

        In my heart the Order has given them birth,

        Happy I, if noble efforts

        Cause me to merit your esteem

        By elevating me to the sublime,

        The primeval Truth,

        To the Essence pure and divine,

        The celestial Origin of the soul,

        The Source of life and love.

        [3] Procope, in "Apologie des Francs-Maçons".

        [4] O nights, o divine repasts !

        Without troubling ourselves with things that do not matter

        But to dwell on those which concern us

        ... and it would be bad to ignore :

        If wealth or virtue give happiness to Man

        What use do friendship or virtue bring us

        What is the nature of good, and what is the highest good.

        Horace, Satire VI du Livre II

        [5] Loyal silence is surely rewarded But he who reveals the sacred secret of

        Ceres Him I will not allow to dwell under my roof Or to share my fragile skiff

        Horace, Odes, Livre III