The author was a minister of the Genesee (N.Y.) Baptist Association, who had taken fifteen degrees of masonry and was intimate secretary of the Lodge of Perfection. He was among the first in that section of the country to recede from the order. cf. J. Q. Adams, Letters on the masonic institution, 1847, p. 228 et seq. C. T. McClenachan, History of freemasonry in New York, 1888-1894, while going very fully into the Morgan affair, v. 2, p. 458-596, does not mention Bernard's book. In 1883, Robert Morris published his "William Morgan; or, Political anti-masonry, its rise, growth, and decadence," "by which," says McClenachan, "it was endeavored to show the innocence of our brotherhood, with a zeal almost as great as the fanatics of 1829 exercised to condemn the institution for the acts of a few over-zealous, unworthy members."

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Collation of the original: 506, 54 p. front. (port.) plates

Sabin 4919