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SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES
By: William Preston

SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

Grammar teaches the proper arrangements of words, according to the idiom or dialect of any particular people; and enables us to speak or write alanguage with accuracy, agreeably to reason and correct usage.

Rhetoric teaches us to speak copiously and fluently on any subject, not merely with priority, but with all the advantages of force and elegance; wisely contriving to captivate the hearer by strength of argument and beauty of expression, whether it be to entreat or exhort, to admonish or applaud.

Logic teaches us to guide our reason discreetly in the general knowledge of things, and direct our inquiries after truth. It consists of a regular train of argument, whence we infer, deduce, and conclude, according to certain premises laid down, admitted, or granted, and in it are employed the faculties of conceiving, judging, reasoning, and disposing; which are naturally led on from one graduation to another, till the point in question is finally determined.

Arithmetic teaches the powers and properties of numbers; which is variously effected by letters, tables, figures, and instruments. By this art reasons and demonstrations are given for finding out any certain number,whose relation or affinity to others is already known.

Geometry treats of the powers and properties of magnitudes in general, where length, breadth, and thickness, are considered. By this science, the architect is enabled to construct his plans; the general, to arrange his soldiers; the engineer to mark out ground for encampments; the geographer, to give us the dimensions of the world, delineate the extent of seas, and specify the divisions of empires, kingdoms, and provinces; and by it, also, the astronomer is enabled to make his observations, and fix the durations of times and seasons, years and cycles. In fine, Geometry is the foundation of architecture, and the root of the mathematics.

Music teaches the art of forming concords, so as to compose delightful harmony, by a proportional arrangement of acute, grave, and mixed sounds. This art, by a series of experiments, is reduced to a science, with respect to tones and the interval of sound only. It inquires into the nature of concords and discords, and enables us to find out the proportion between them by numbers.

Astronomy is that art by which we are taught to read the wonderful works of the Almighty Creator in those sacred pages,the celestial hemisphere. Assisted by astronomy, we observe the options, measures the distances, comprehend the magnitudes, and calculate the periods and eclipses, of the heavenly bodies. By it we learn the use of the globes, the system of the world, and the primarily law of nature. While we are employed in the study of this science, we perceive unparalleled instances of wisdom and goodness, and through the whole of creation trace the glorious Author by his works.

(There are great truths at the foundation of Freemasonry, truths which it is its mission to teach and which is constituted very essence of, that sublime system which gives the venerable institution its peculiar identity as a science or morality, and it behooves every discipline diligently to ponder and inwardly digest. ALBERT PIKE.)