SECRET SOCIETIES.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4580, 8 September 1883, Page 2

SECRET SOCIETIES.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sib,—All sorts and conditions of men ' of the present day manifest an active disposition to act in bodies, companies, or societies. Associations of individuals are fouad for,the promotion of every branch of Home or foreign commerce for the investigation and furtherance of almost every recognised section of science, art, and literature; the diffusion of knowledge, religion, and morality, and to promote intercourse between those of the same profession or trade, or the removal of political grievances or legal abuses. There are societies also for mutual aid in case of distress, and avast number of other purposes which are beneficai either, to the general public or the individual members of the body alone. In all civilized countries aoy number of persons may agree to. constitute themselves a company or society if their union be legal. Secret societies, however, although ostensibly formed to promote social welfare mostly aim at, or are used ' for, the accomplishment of some object j which involves the subversionof existing I political or religious arrangements. They [ are based on mystery or the mysterious, I which appellations are derived from the Greek mysteria, from muco, " I initiate," cf. mucin "to be shut." In all places and in all times the mysterious has lent, and does lend, a peculiar charm to life ; for curiosity, and the acquisition of knowledge are passions common to mankind. The first efforts of designing and cunning men were to avail themselves of the weakness of the vulgar, to deceive them for sinister purposes, by consulting oracles, or speaking in parables, and the inculcation of doctrines by outward signs and ceremonies, tokens and grips, were commonly then, as now, employed to this end; On the road frpm Athens to the Isthmus was situated the beautiful town of Eleusis, ' where, perhaps, the earliest secret society of historic ' times performed its ' rites. From this old Pagan material have been founded secret societies in France, Ireland, Italy, England, Eussia, and almost all over the world, and from them have sprung superstition, magic, fortunetelling, and all kinds of delusions, to* gether with secret murder, assassinations, burnings, destruction of property, plots, treason, hatred, persecutions, sectarianism, the [separation of brethren, and all the crimes that embitter and embrute men. The tokens, pass-words, signs, symbols, aliegiances, traditions, furniture, decorations, lectures, jewels, pictures, formulas, degrees, are for the most part of Pagan origin. The amplified oaths and obligations arecxtravagantly barbarous, and if not blasphemous and demoralising, a disgrace to modern civilisation. There are many more grave objections- to secret societies than these; but the crucial question which has been repeatedly asked, but never satisfactorily answered is "If a system, or anything else, is good, why should it be made or kept a secret ?." It is a sacred duty we owe to our fellow-men to conceal nothing that is good or useful from them. There should be no divisions amongst mankind, except those which are or may be of service to good government and the happy existence of the people, and no society, secret or otherwise, should be tolerated that permits or sanctions the infliction of wrong or pain to man, woman, child, or animal. Ifc is essential to human salvation from evil that the mind should be cultivated, not treated as heritable property, independent of improvements. If it be truly the object of secret societies to produce a better future state of mankind, it must be done by offering their knowledge or discoveries freely- to all; for, all secret societies for human evils are but destruction to those who need but cannot reach them. The results of science, the creation of arts, and the discoveries and conclusions of philosophy are freely opened to the world. The lessons that sublimes!; wisdom came to teach were enunciated in open day, spoken on a mountain,'or in boats or ships by the seashore under the canopy of Heaven, or in the open Temple. They were proclaimed, and decided to be disseminated to the whole world. Hetaughfc nothing in secret, and shall vain man dare to scan the wisdom of the wisest, and Teil his petty—not to say guilty—purposes and systems, in allegories, symbols, and secrecy. Almost all tyranny and oppressions, and a considerable part of this world's evils, are traceable to witholding from the people the knowledge and moral culture which should be conferred freely upon all capable of their reception. To conceal learning is most certainly a crime as great as that of inculcating false doctrines or superstition. The mischief " and misery of sectarianism resulting from secret societies being patent to all readers and thinkers, let them be abo. hshed; for men should study to be useful to all their fellow-creatures, seeking to secure for all the greatest obtainable 'bappU ness.—l am, &c, Reformer.