The Principle of Secrecy AND Secret Societies TWO DISCOURSES BY REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D. Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church CHARLESTON, S. C. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST Second Edition THE PRINCIPLE OF SECRECY. ART. I.-1. The Constitution of Man, by George Combeon Secretiveness. See Index. 2. The Covenant and Official Organ of the Grand Lodge of the United States. Vol. I. 1842. p. 97, on "The Secret Principle." 3. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 7th Ed. Art. Mysteries. OUR present object will be to discuss the principle of secrecy in its relations to man's moral and religious obligations. This inquiry is rendered necessary by the rapid extension and multiplication of secret societies of every kind, and the efforts which have been made to justify them upon the ground of philosophy and religion. The love of secrecy it is said "is an element in the constitution of mind" and "must therefore, in some mode or other, find its appropriate and lawful exercise.' "Secrecy is a virtue," says another, "a thing never yet denied."† Now to begin with the beginning of our subject, we deny both of these axiomatic and fundamental data. Secrecy is neither an element of mind nor is it a virtue. Secrecy is a quality of an action, or a state and condition. It is a state of separation, concealment or of being hid from view.§ "It is, says Dr. Johnson, "a state of privacy, solitude, retirement. A thing set apart, removed, withdrawn out of sight or view, hidden, concealed, is secret." Now the love of such a state of isolated separation is not a part of man's nature. It is, on the contrary, opposed to that nature, and painful to it. "It is not good for man to be alone," and hence the social principle, developing itself in love and friendship, in the family and in society, is the chief and characteristic distinction of human nature. It is only "use," as Shakspeare says, that "doth breed the habit in any man." "The shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, To better brook, than flourishing peopled towns." This a man may do to "tune his distresses and record his woes," but the truth still remains, that "In solitude What happiness who can enjoy alone, Or if enjoying, what contentment find." *The Covenant, p. 97. †Freemason's Monitor. § Webster. **Richardson's Dictionary. Milton. Nay, another great poet has said that solitude is but a slight relief from pain, and that "The vacant bosom's wilderness, Might thank the pang that made it less, Man is not then naturally disposed to be secret in any sense. He is on the contrary naturally social, free, open, unreserved, communicative and candid. These, beyond controversy, are the universal, unvaried, and proverbial qualities of natural and unsophisticated childhood. For a child to love solitude is unnatural, and to be secret and reserved impossible. An ability to endure retirement, to exercise reserve and to maintain secrecy, is a power which man attains with great difficulty, after long experience of the selfishness and evil of his fellow-men,after much training and indoctrination, and, after all, in a very feeble and imperfect degree. This is proven by the universal complaints respecting the faithlessness of men. Dr. Johnson doubted therefore whether the quality of retention be generally bestowed, and supposed that commonly secrets were unnatural and incapable of retention.* Chesterfield thought able men alone could exercise secrecy and that mystery was the only secrecy of weak and cunning ones, that is, of the great mass, and he advises therefore that neither fools, knaves, nor young men should be entrusted with them. The use of the word secrecy to express inviolate fidelity to any trust, is the very latest meaning to which it has been appropriated.† This use of the word is derivative, secondary, and figurative, and it indicates, not the primitive and natural condition of society, but that which is most advanced in civilization and philosophy. Secrecy therefore is not a virtue nor an element of mind and it is perfecty gratuitous to affirm that it is so. No philosopher or divine has ever laid down such a proposition. Until phrenologists undertook to make out every state and exercise of the human mind, and to provide for them a "local habitation and a name" among the cerebral functions, in what system of mental or moral science, ancient or modern, is secrecy enrolled among the principles or the virtues of the mind? It cannot be: because it is a state not an act-a means not an end. No man conceals himself for the mere purpose of being secret, but he is secret because he has a purpose in being so, to accomplish which this is necessary. The truth is, that as the quality of an action or a state of mind, secrecy is neither virtuous nor vicious. The principles on which it rests, and the motives by which it is maintained, give to secrecy the azure hue of virtue, the blackness of vice, or the perfectly colourless atmosphere of indeterminate moral character. Mr. Combe manufactures a faculty *See Rambler, No. 13. †See Johnson, &c., as above. |