opened in The Hague in 1761, the Equality of Brothers, the opening discourse in French appeared in a diary as late as 1793. Elsewhere I have argued that the lodge, and its name, may have been opened in reaction against the lodge for men and women that had flourished in the city at mid-century.39 Reprinting the opening oration, again and again, may have been a way of continuing opposition to women being in the lodges. Perhaps the brothers who wanted to dwell solely on their equality had in their disapproving mind lodges of adoption, women’s lodges in Bordeaux, or one closer to home in The Hague. Other diaries offered more gender-benign poems and songs, “A brother has a heart for the work/He lives more content than a King.”40 The tune to which it was to be sung in French was also provided. Still other almanacs, in search of gender equality, gave ceremonies to be used by men and women at a masonic “fête de table.” “We drink brothers, we drink to our amicable sisters,” who in turn answered, “We drink to our tender confrères.”41
In general, moral uplift, rather than gender polemics, filled the pages of typical diaries. “The lodges must be schools of the Moral and Philosophy … in effect … in the discourses that are spoken in them, always Virtue, Charity, and the Love of our neighbor, lie at the base of our intentions.” So said a French diary published in The Hague in 1781.42 It also published an oration given to the national Grand Lodge in The Hague the previous year. The speaker praised the Dutch nation and also asked the Grand Architect of the Universe “to perpetuate generation after generation a race of citizens useful to their country, heroic defenders of Liberty and Religion, and enlightened masters who can revivify our virtues.”43 The appearance of liberty in the language in that year suggests a number of possibilities. The reference may reflect the growing impact of the American Revolution in European consciousness. But the implication that virtue needs reviving may also signal the growing discontent seen in the Dutch Republic by the 1780s. By 1787 revolution would erupt in Amsterdam that was only put to rest by the invasion of Prussian soldiers. We can only wonder what loyal freemasons made of those events because this same diary was warm in its praise of Frederick, king of Prussia, who a mere seven years later ordered the antirevolutionary invasion. We know that some lodges supported the revolution, and that others were Orangist, supporting the stadtholder and the Prussians.
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