|
The Adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esquire; or, Freemasonry
Practically Illustrated
preface
Daniel P. Thompson
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.
April, 1835.
back to top |
