Lodge Libraries, No. I.

Lodge Libraries, No. I. [No. 92]

I would that every Masons’ Lodge should have
A Library of good Masonic Lore.
The Arts and Sciences we should explore,
And all that’s calculated Man to save
From Ignorance and Vice. Mere Sign and Word 5
Were never Masonry: they help to guard
The Craft from Cowans; but the great reward
Is his who fights with Masonry’s keen sword
To slaughter Error. Men have labour’d hard,
Age after age, to chronicle each Thought 10
They felt was worthy; and all Masons ought
To cherish and to spread them, and to guard
Them from destruction. Thus a choice Library,
By all good Masons, ever must well-treasured be.

by George Markham Tweddell 1st published c 1887