ADDRESS

                                 O F

   PAST GRAID MASTER ELISHA S. FITCH,

IN  ANSWER      TO  A   VOTE    OF THANKS, ADOPTED           BY TIE
                GRAND LOD3a       OF KENTUCKY,

         On the 21st day of October, A. D. 1869, A. L. 5869.



Brethren of the Grand Lodge of KIentucky:
  I accept the resolttitin just adopted as an honorable discharge from ser-
vicC, and I tlhalck v'oit for it.
  It is otving entirely to your kind and continued partiality, and not, I am
slure, to fltV meritorious achiievemnents on my part, that I have been thus
signally promoted from the ratiks, ly repeated Ibrevet commissions, to tile
highest post of command; and, in looking back from this proud elevation to
the linnulde position from  ivichl you have generously transferred mce, I am
quite overpowered lby it sense or personal obligation.
  To chan)e the il.ustration from tile camp to our Mystic Temple: We
have a symnbtolic stairway, which, salhile it is represented as long anvd wind-
ing,, and embracing many intermedliate steps, has ::evertt.eless but three
prominent divisions or landings, and in ascending this stairway, instead of
being required to a(lvance step by etep, I lhave been kindly borne in your
fraternal arms from one of these landings or platlormsto another, and have
thus madle a rapidl thlongh irregular transition from the mosaic of its ground-
floor into the very pen(tralia of the Temple itself.
  T'me manner of my elevation has been as flattering as thle elevation itself
has been honoring. But, although thus doubly distinguished by your par-
tial favor, I assure you I have found no occasion for thle indulgence of any
feelings of self-exultation; for the same symbo:ic stairway wvhicIh led me to
these high honors bronght me also in contact withl solemn and subduing
responsibilities; and in thsli inner chamber, I have been constantly con-
fronted by another Masonic symbnol, which while, it explains the mystery of
admission, also impresses the heart most forcibly by its initial symbolism,
with tile important leson of humility, and points significantly to that "Ii-
vinity whiich shapes our ends, rough lhew themn as we may," and before