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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by ALBERT PIKE,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Enteredaccording to Act of Congress, in the year 1906, by THE SUPREME COUNCILOF THE SOUTHERN JURISDICTION, A. A. S. R., U. S. A.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, L. H.
Jenkins, Inc. Edition Book Manufacturers Richmond. Va. Reprinted,
February, 1944.
The following work has been prepared by authority of the Supreme Councilof the Thirty-third Degree, for the Southern Jurisdiction of the UnitedStates, by the Grand Commander, and is now published by its direction.It contains the Lectures of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite inthat jurisdiction, and is specially intended to be read and studied bythe Brethren of that obedience, in connection with the Rituals of theDegrees. It is hoped and expected that each will furnish himself with acopy, and make himself familiar with it; for which purpose, as the costof the work consists entirely in the printing and binding, it will befurnished at a price as moderate as possible. No individual willreceive pecuniary profit from it, except the agents for its sale.
It has been copyrighted, to prevent its republication elsewhere, and thecopyright, like those of all the other works prepared for the SupremeCouncil, has been assigned to Trustees for that Body. Whatever profitsmay accrue from it will be devoted to purposes of charity.
The Brethren of the Rite in the United States and Canada will beafforded the opportunity to purchase it, nor is it forbidden thatother Masons shall; but they will not be solicited to do so.
In preparing this work, the Grand Commander has been about equallyAuthor and Compiler; since he has extracted quite half its contents fromthe works of the best writers and most philosophic or eloquent thinkers.Perhaps it would have been better and more acceptable if he hadextracted more and written less.
Still, perhaps half of it is his own; and, in incorporating here thethoughts and words of others, he has continually changed and added tothe language, often intermingling, in the same sentences, his own wordswith theirs. It not being intended for the world at large, he has feltat liberty to make, from all accessible sources, a Compendium of theMorals and Dogma of the Rite, to re-mould sentences, change and add towords and phrases, combine them with his own, and use them as if theywere his own, to be dealt with at his pleasure and so availed of as tomake the whole most valuable for the purposes intended. He claims,therefore, little of the merit of authorship, and has not cared todistinguish his own from that which he has taken from other sources,being quite willing that every portion of the book, in turn, may beregarded as bo