I am Providence, Lovecraft's connection to Freemasonry
“I am Providence, & Providence is myself— together, indissolubly as one, we stand thro’ the ages ; a fixt monument set aeternally in the shadow of Durfee’s ice-clad peak!” — H. P. Lovecraft, Letter to James Ferdinand Morton The narrative of the founding of Providence, Rhode Island reads like an epic poem reminiscent of John Milton’s works Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. This should not be a surprise since the city’s legendary founder was a friend and tutor to the poet. In 1631, Rev. Roger Williams arrived in Boston on the HMS Lyon. Within five years, reminiscent of Milton’s Adam and Eve, would find himself cast out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony after being convicted of the crimes of sedition and heresy. However, in contrast, he would soon be delivered from evil. Finding suitable refuge in the land of the Narragansett, he named the settlement Providence, in honor of the divine and merciful providence that God had blessed him with in his time of distress