This Is A New Release Of The Original 1874 Edition.

Here is a GREAT tool for anyone interested in the Scottish Rite. Albert Pike's 1857 Masonic classic "Morals and Dogma" in searchable text PDF format. With this ebook, every word in this Pike classic is at your fingertips and bookmarked by chapters for ease of use.

In 1871, Albert Pike created Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite as a guide to the 32 degrees of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. It was his intention that becoming a Scottish Rite Mason require years of study to understand the allegories, the underlying moral lessons, and their applications. Pike's scholarly but practical instruction serves as a guide for every Mason working to be the best husband, father, brother, friend, and citizen that he can be. In 2007, a complete and comprehensive review was initiated to provide insight into Albert Pike's original work. This new book is the only edition that is not abridged, a digest, or an editorial commentary of the original book. The entire original book was translated into modern English from the difficult sentence structure and language prevalent in 19th century literature. Morals and Dogma for the 21st Century brings these important lessons back within the grasp of the modern Mason.

Morals and Dogma has been described as "a collection of thirty-two essays which provide a philosophical rationale for the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The lectures provided a backdrop for the degrees by giving lessons in comparative religion, history and philosophy".Though it discusses the minutiae of Masonic ritual at length, it is written so as not to reveal the Masonic secrets. Ritual motions and objects are named and elaborated upon, but not described. In his allocution of 1947, Pike's successor, Grand Commander John Henry Cowles, noted that some Masonic publications had used large extracts from the text, which practice he sought to curtail by adding the following words to the title page: 'Esoteric Book, for Scottish Rite use only; to be Returned upon Withdrawal or Death of Recipient' (Transactions of the Supreme Council, 33�, S.J. (1947), p. 38). Although Morals and Dogma is an esoteric book, it was not a secret one; Pike's original preface was clear that any Mason could own the book, but only Scottish Rite Masons would be encouraged to own one.There are 32 chapters (1 per degree in the masonic ranks of the southern jurisdiction, the 33� being the only exception), These chapters generally consist of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, Comparative Etymologies, Symbolism, And Numerology. The primary themes are the "Secrets" or the "Great Mysteries" and their symbolism & rituals. It is stated that nothing in the book is meant to reveal any of the secrets to freemasonry but to simply hint or shed light. An emphasis on religious and cultural tolerance is shown throughout the work, emphasizing that the root of all religion was the same. These common traits and symbols in all religions are explained in detailed, Beginning with the Orphic Egg or the Cosmic Egg, and then moving towards Ancient Egyptian, Phoenician, Buddhist, Hindu Texts, & The Abrahamic Religions.A copy of Morals and Dogma was given to every new member of the Southern Jurisdiction from the early 1900s until 1969 (although some local Scottish Rite bodies offered copies through the mid-1970s), when it was deemed "too advanced to be helpful to the new Scottish Rite member."[ In 1974 it was initially replaced by Clausen's Commentaries on Morals and Dogma, written by Henry Clausen, 33�, Sovereign Grand Commander, which in 1988 was itself replaced by A Bridge To Light, by Rex Hutchens, 33�, G∴C∴, which book continues to be given to initiates into the Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction. With the release of the authorized edition of 2011, Morals and Dogmais once more being given to new Scottish Rite Masons in the Southern Jurisdiction, and all restrictions on sales to the general public have been removed.During Pike's lifetime the Northern Jurisdiction based many of their degrees upon Pike's rituals, although they subsequently revised them many times, and never presented initiates with Morals and Dogma, nor any of the subsequent commentaries.

In 1829 Robert Southey published a book of his imaginary conversations with the original Utopian: Sir Thomas More; or Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. The product of almost two decades of social and political engagement, Colloquies is Southey’s most important late prose work, and a key text of late 'Lake School' Romanticism. It is Southey’s own Espriella’s Letters (1807) reimagined as a dialogue of tory and radical selves; Coleridge’s Church and State (1830) cast in historical dramatic form. Over a series of wide-ranging conversations between the Ghost of More and his own Spanish alter-ego, ‘Montesinos’, Southey develops a richly detailed panorama of British history since the 1530s - from the Reformation to Catholic Emancipation. Exploring issues of religious toleration, urban poverty, and constitutional reform, and mixing the genres of dialogue, commonplace book, and picturesque guide, the Colloquies became a source of challenge and inspiration for important Victorian writers including Macaulay, Ruskin, Pugin, and Carlyle.