Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Great Freemasons: James Bruce (1730 - 1794)
James Bruce was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile.
Bruce also brought back to Europe a select collection of Ethiopian manuscripts. "They opened up entirely new vistas for the study of Ethiopian languages and placed this branch of Oriental scholarship on a much more secure basis," writes Ullendorff. "It is not known how many MSS. reached Europe through his endeavours, but the present writer is aware of at least twenty-seven, all of which are exquisite examples of Ethiopian manuscript art. Bruce presented a fine and specially prepared copy of the Book of Enoch to Louis XV in Paris." While most of these manuscripts are in Ge'ez, one notable exception is a version of the Song of Songs written in Gafat, a language which Ullendorff states "is known to us only from this manuscript."
Monday, October 3, 2011
Great Freemasons: Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)
Affliction's sons are brothers in distress; A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!
Robert Burns
The Master's Apron
Ther's mony a badge that's unco braw;
Wi' ribbon, lace and tape on;
Let kings an' princes wear them a' —
Gie me the Master's apron!
The honest craftsman's apron,
The jolly Freemason's apron,
Be he at hame, or roam afar,
Before his touch fa's bolt and bar,
The gates of fortune fly ajar,
`Gin he but wears the apron!
For wealth and honor, pride and power
Are crumbling stanes to base on;
Eternity suld rule the hour,
And ilka worthy Mason!
Each Free Accepted Mason,
Each Ancient Crafted Mason.
Then, brithers, let a halesome sang
Arise your friendly ranks alang!
Guidwives and bairnies blithely sing
To the ancient badge wi' the apron string
That is worn by the Master Mason!
(St. David's Lodge No. 174, Tarbolton)
Great Freemasons: William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846 – 1917)
"Frontiersmen good and bad, gunmen as well as inspired prophets of the future, have been my camp companions. Thus, I know the country of which I am about to write as few men now living have known it."
Buffalo Bill
(Raised in Platte Valley Lodge No. 15, Nebraska)
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Great Freemasons: Roy Rogers (1911 - 1998)
"I did pretty good for a guy who never finished high school and used to yodel at square dances."
(Hollywood Lodge No. 355, California)
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Great Freemasons: Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette (1757 - 1834)
"An irresistible passion that would induce me to believe in innate ideas, and the truth of prophecy, has decided my career. I have always loved liberty with the enthusiasm which actuates the religious man with the passion of a lover, and with the conviction of a geometrician. On leaving college, where nothing had displeased me more than a state of dependance, I viewed the greatness and the littleness of the court with contempt, the frivolities of society with pity, the minute pedantry of the army with disgust, and oppression of every sort with indignation. The attraction of the American revolution transported me suddenly to my place. I felt myself tranquil only when sailing between the continent whose powers I had braved, and that where, although our arrival and our ultimate success were problematical, I could, at the age of nineteen, take refuge in the alternative of conquering or perishing in the cause to which I had devoted myself.
o Letter to the Bailli de Ploën, as quoted in Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette (1836) by Jules Germain Cloquet, Vol. I, p. 24
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