One has need to be in the company of ghosts for some time, as I found,
and during the hours of more serious occupation, before rightly entering
into the spirit of their relaxed moments. Sundry interruptions during
progress of the Lodge meeting to which the shade of my great-great
grandfather invited me, had prepared me in a measure to expect the period
of diversion which followed, according to the ancient custom of the Craft.
I was, however, surprised and amused to note how dexterously the evidences
of Masonic labor were whisked aside. Benches, chairs and tables were
speedily put into place, that so the refreshment consequent to labor might
proceed to the liking, the comfort and the custom of our ancient brothers.
Whether the clumsy furniture of the inn, which appeared to me as of very
solid oak and iron, did indeed possess any qualities of weight and
substance; is beyond my telling. It is most likely that they were but
shadows of wood and metal, as best befitting their uses. But the
ponderability of ghosts, and their domestic and other conveniences was not
then, nor is it now, a matter of great concern. I was chiefly interested
to note how the accoutrements of cheer were so quickly disposed, as being
the chief business that had called these to "revisit the pale glimpses of
the moon.
"Egad, sir," said one of the truculent individuals before mentioned,
but whom I found, upon acquaintance, to be mild-mannered as the most timid
could wish; "egad, sir, it is to be hoped that our host has more than cold
ale such as we drank here a fortnight agone. By my faith, but I came near
to expiring a second time because of the chill and windiness of that same.
A ghost of right taste and touchy vitals, and he but drank thrice of such
brew, might come to a lightness of constitution that even mortal air would
prove a coarse intoxicant - which may the Fates forefend! In days of earth
it took good body and zest of wine to stir me from a devilish melancholy
humor to a proper mood. As for the raw spirits, or even Nantes of proof,
they are fit only for new-fledged ghosts; we who are seasoned with a
century or two of use, look with discernment on the bottle or the cask.
But pray thee, brother," thus he continued, "in thy own Lodge of mortal
place and time dost drink wines that are well ripened and chosen with
care, and is the ale of thy ordinary cheer of such quality and strength as
befits the drinking by brothers of our ancient fraternity"?
So here had I started to tell this inquisitive shade that the age had
greatly changed, bringing other sentiments and changes even into the Craft
of Freemasonry; that brothers could no longer bring refreshments, within
his meaning, into their places of gathering. I rather plumed myself, as I
now recall, on the sobriety and decorum of our solemn feasts, making
comparison somewhat to the discredit of that other age. But all my
moralizing was lost upon this poor ghost, who appealed on the spot to his
fellows whether they could indeed be Masons who refused at any time, and
especially after Lodge, their proper food and drink. And these, having
been men accounted wise in their own time, held to the unanswerable force
of his arguments, and were of accord that no other years could improve
upon the settled and satisfactory habits of their own generation. Very
like you and me, again, in cocksureness as to the superiority of their own
ways and the impossibility of betterment.
I am glad, brother," quoth a lean ghost, sliding up unperceived, "to
know that the godlessness of our time has not continued to your own. I am
so informed by sundry pious ghosts who make shift to know the latest news
of earthly life, and what our descendants are doing in London and even
beyond the seas. You are, as I take it, and all your fellows in the
colonies, strong for the Protestant succession, the crucifying of the
flesh and the coming of the kingdom? The blood in thy veins is of a
righteous sort, for though this grandfather of thine here present is
light-minded, his father was a stern and godly man."
But here was I immensely relieved to avoid answer, as a roisterer came
shoving in to declare that the tables were prepared, and that the Master
Mason was ready to start in with the round of toasts and songs. For it
might easily have happed, in my ignorance, to have stirred rancor even
upon the edge of conviviality. "The last of the Fifth Monarchy men," I
fancied that my ancestor whispered, as he passed me with beckoning finger
and a gesture of warning.
An oddly-assorted company, truly! So I thought as those about me pushed
their knees beneath the tables. Yet there they sat, cheek by jowl, as if
never a dividing interest in life had kept them erstwhile apart in all but
the bond of Masonic brotherhood. What else could there have been in common
to the mortality of yon sedate citizen, exchanging gossip as to the lading
of ships that had foundered or rotted at the wharfs many years ago with
another of his kind, and this nearer one who would have died more happily
on a stricken field than in his bed, could he but have given blows to the
enemies of an exiled king! Yet, after all, not so greatly different from
our own meetings and the diverse individuals that come together in them
for an hour's fraternizing, going thence to do and to be done, even by
each other.
Very excellent ghosts, too, so far as a mere mortal might presume to
judge of ghostly company. With some petty notions and a few prejudices
wore deeply engrained, perhaps, because of long disseverance from the
changing flesh, though at bottom not so much unlike ourselves. And, as
showing in themselves the changes in common thought that Time had
effected, these jovial shades were for the time more interesting and
amusing to me than any gathering of living men could possibly have
been.
Our forbears of the eighteenth century, if we have been rightly
informed, and as was now proven to me by example of their doings, needed
but small excuse for their potations. A toast or a song of any sort seemed
to be provocative of an instant thirst. And as for these toasts, I could
not but notice they were carefully arranged and recited in order to stir
loyalty to the reigning house and to pledge support to those in power. Yet
I caught some sly glances exchanged, indicative of mental evasion, and
that the "king over the water" was substituted in the minds of a few for
"Farmer George," in their time upon the throne of England. But so long as
the drink was to all their likings it was not wise for one to question his
neighbor as to unexpressed subterfuges, nor to quarrel 'with sentiments
that gave such frequent occasion for acquaintance of lips and pewter mugs.
As for the songs, for the most part they went to rollicking airs, and what
more was to be asked. The words were as negligible as those strung
together in Masonic poetry of our own times, though perhaps some of our
own verses might take the more readily if hitched to tunes that could hide
the lack of ideas and the rude measure of the lines.
Are ghosts concupiscent? I would have thought before that with the
laying off of flesh there was thenceforth a freedom from the carnalities.
But here were the shadows of men exchanging witticisms, that may have
passed muster in another time, the sole point of which for the telling was
some vulgar situation or intrigue. Just such jests, unwholesome in words
and suggestion, have I heard when a knot of men, salaciously-minded,
gathered in a remote corner of the Tyler's room of our own days and
Lodges. And, as I noted, they had the selfsame stories then as are now in
currency. Tradition holds best, apparently, to the worst rather than the
best.
What subtle stimulating essence was in this their drink would, as I
imagine, defy any earthly analysis to detect. But it sufficed to put into
these shadows at least the semblance of a great hilarity. Perhaps this was
the sole event worth mentioning in their colorless existence, and for the
next fortnight it is likely that they hail but the memories of their thin
potations. Be that as it may I failed altogether to note the passing of
time - if indeed there be any time for men disembodied - until the antique
Tyler proposed the famous closing toast, "to all poor, distressed and
wandering brothers, whithersoever dispersed on sea or land. May they have
speedy relief and a safe return to home and friends."
How, after this, those present slipped away, or perhaps just faded from
my sight, I cannot say. My great-great grandfather alone remained, and
with him I went through the shadowy hall, past the wide stairs that ran up
to guest chambers never occupied, unless by some ghost the worse for his
liquor, and back for a moment to the ancient chimney corner seat.
"It is time for thee now to be gone, for the hospitality of my inn goes
not to beds for those of flesh and blood." So spake this respectable
ancestor, and then he added, as in a tone of a final farewell: "Thou art
altogether too unchancy in humor and speech to mix rightly, and to my
credit, with decent and God-fearing ghosts. Yet am I glad that thou hast
been to our Lodge, and I would wish thee and all thy brothers well."
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