CHAPTER III.

FRIENDSHIP CONSIDERED, WITH THE ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM IT.
No subject can more properly engage the attention, than the humane and benevolent dispositions which indulgent Nature has bestowed upon the rational species. These are replete with the nappiest effects, and afford to the mind the most agreeable reflections. The breast which is inspired with tender feelings is naturally prompted to a reciprocal intercourse of kind and generous actions. As human nature rises in the scale of things, so do the social affections likewise arise. When friendship is firm and lasting, we enjoy the highest degree of happiness; but when it declines, we experience an equal degree of pain. Where friendship is unknown, jealousy and suspicion prevail ; but where virtue is the cement, true pleasure must be enjoyed. In every breast there exists a propensity to friendly acts, and, when those are exerted to effect, they sweeten every temporal enjoyment ; and, if they do not always totally remove the dis- quietudes, they at least tend to allay the calamities of life.
Friendship is traced through the circle of private connections to the grand system of universal benevolence, which no limits can circumscribe, and its influence extends to every branch of the human race. Actuated by these sentiments, each individ- ual centers his happiness in the happiness of his neighbor, and a fixed and permanent union is established among men.
Nevertheless, though friendship, considered as the source of universal benevolence, is unlimited, it exerts its influence more or less powerfully as the objects it favors are nearer or more remote. Hence, the love of friends and of country takes the lead in our affections, and gives rise to that true patriotism which fires the soul with the most generous flame, creates the best and most disinterested virtue, and inspires that public spirit and heroic ardor which enables us to support a good cause, and risk our lives in its defense.
To encourage virtue and reward merit, in whatever form it may appear, is truly commendable. Laudable actions will always meet the approbation of the good and virtuous, and these are the true principles inculcated by the science of philo- sophical Masonry, illustrating its utility to promote the happi- ness of man.
ANCIENT CHARGES. 15
THE CHARGES. OF A FREEMASON,
EXTRACTED FROM
THE ANCIENT RECORDS OF LODGES BEYOND SEA, AND
OF THOSE IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND
IRELAND, FOR THE USE OF THE
LODGES IN LONDON :
TO BE READ
AT THE MAKING OF NEW BRETHREN, OR WHEN THE MASTER SHALL ORDER IT.
THE GENERAL HEADS, viz :