conviction, who could call upon or claim the presence of a Divinity whose demonstration is good works? Hence are men naturally led to conceive that such a Divinity will accept only of works of righteousness. Standing forth for the approbation of heaven, the servants of the first revealed God bound themselves to maxims of purity and virtue; and, as Masons, we regard the principles of those who were the first worshippers of the true God, we imitate their apparel, and assume their badge of innocence.

Our jewels, or ornaments, imply that we try our affections by justice, and our actions by truth, as the square1 tries the workmanship of the mechanic; that we regard our mortal state, whether it is dignified by titles or not, whether it be opulent or indigent, as being of one nature in the beginning, and of one rank in its close. In sensations, passions, and pleasures; in infirmities, maladies, and wants, all mankind are on a level; Nature has given us no superiorities but from wisdom and virtue, which constitute superiority. From such maxims we make estimates of our Brother, when his calamities call for our counsel or our aid; the works of charity are from sympathetic feelings, and benevolence acts without respect of persons in dividing what she gives. The emblem of these sentiments is another of the jewels of our Society.

To walk uprightly before heaven and before men, without inclining to the right or to the left, is the duty of a Mason, neither as an enthusiast nor a persecutor in religion, nor bending towards innovation or infidelity. In civil government, firm in our allegiance, yet steadfast

4 In the translation of Cebes, by Syr Francis Poyngs, is the following passage:-"What is this place called? The habitation of blessed folke, (quoth he). For here dwell all vertues and felicitee. It must needs, then, be a fayre place (quoth I)? Then thou seest at the gate a certeyne woman, the which is verye fayre, and of a constant face and behaviour, in hir middel and lusti age, and hauynge hir apparell and garmentes symple. She standeth not upon a round stoane, but on a square, surely set and fixed; and with hir there be two other, that seeme to be hir daughters? It appereth soe. Of these the myddlemoste is Learning, the other Trouth, the other Perswasion. But why stondeth this woman upon a square stoane? It is a token (quoth he) that the way that leadeth folk to her is to them bothe fyrme and sure, and the gift of those thynges that she geveth is to the receivours sure and stable."--EDITOR.

to our laws, liberties, and constitution. In private life, yielding up every selfish propensity; inclining neither to avarice nor injustice, to malice nor revenge, to envy nor contempt, in our intercourse with mankind; but as the builder raises his column by the plane or perpendicular, so should the Mason carry himself towards the world.

To rule our affections by justice, and our actions by truth, is to wear a jewel which might ornament the bosom of the highest potentate on earth;-human nature has her impulses from desires which are often inordinate; love blinds with prejudice, and resentment burns with fever; contempt renders us incredulous, and covetousness deprives us of every generous or humane feeling. To steer the bark of life upon the sea of passion without quitting the course of rectitude, is one of the highest excellencies to which human nature can be brought, aided by the powers of philosophy and religion.

Yet merely to act with justice and truth is not all that man should attempt, for even that excellence would be selfishness; the duty in this case is not relative, but merely proper; it is only saving our own character and doing nothing for our neighbour, for justice is an indispensable duty in each individual: we were not born for ourselves alone, or merely to shape our course through life in the solitudes of tranquillity, and to study that which should afford peace to the conscience at home, but men were made for society, and, consequently, aids for each other; no one among us, be he ever so opulent, can subsist without the assistance of his fellow-creatures. Nature's wants are numerous: our nakedness must be clothed, our hunger satisfied, our maladies visited. Where shall even the proud man find sustenance, if he stand unaided by his neighbour? when we look through the varied scene of life, we see our fellow-creatures subject to innumerable calamities, and were we without compassion, we should exist without one of the finest feelings of the human heart. To love and to approve, are movements in the soul of a man which yield him pleasure, but to pity gives him heavenly sensations, and to relieve is divine. Charity, hence, has her existence; she acts from a consciousness of man's equality in nature; she knows the level on which mortality was created in the beginning. Accordingly, the Mason indulges sympa

thetic feelings from the affections of the heart-breathing love towards a Brother, coupled with that original estimation which considers all our species to be Brethren. The result of this humane judgment, induces us to weigh the necessities of our suffering fellow-creatures by our equality in nature, and pursuant thereto, we dispense our gifts from affection.

To be an upright man is to add still greater lustre to the Mason's character; to do justice and to have charity, are excellent steps in human life, but to act uprightly, gives a superlative degree of excellence; for In that situation we should become examples in religious, in civil, and in moral conduct. It is not enough that we are neither enthusiasts nor persecutors in religion, neither bending towards innovation nor infidelity; we must, also, not be merely passive, but appear in the active character; we should be zealous observers and steadfast members of religious duty. In civil matters we should not only submit to, but execute the laws of our country, and obey all its ordinances; we ought to be faithful to the constitution of the realm, and loyal to our king; true soldiers in the defence of our liberty, and of his crown and dignity. In morality it is required of us, not only that we should not err by injuring, betraying, or deceiving, but that we should do good in every capacity of that station in life wherein Providence has placed us.

By such means let the Mason be proved, and testify that his emblematical jewels are ensigns only of the inward man; so he will stand approved before heaven and before men, purchasing honour to his profession, and felicity to himself as a professor of Masonry.

ARGUMENT XII. ·

ON THE LETTER G, AND THE RELATION EXISTING BE TWEEN GEOMETRY AND THE MASONIC INSTITUTION.

It is incumbent on me to demonstrate the interesting signification of the letter G, wherewith Lodges and the medals of Masons are ornamented.

To apply it to the name of God only, is wrong; the symbols, indeed, used in Lodges are expressive of the Deity, as the great Master of Masonry, the Architect of the world, and the Divine object of worship and adoration.

But this significant letter also denotes with us Geometry; which, to artificers, is the science by which all their labours are calculated, formed and proved; and, to Masons, contains the determination, definition, and proof of the order, beauty, and wonderful wisdom of the power of God in his creation.

Geometry is said, originally, to have signified nothing more than the art of measuring the earth, or any distances or dimensions within it; but, at present, it denotes the science of magnitude in general, comprehending the doctrine and relations of whatsoever is susceptible of augmentation or diminution. So to Geometry may be referred the construction, not only of lines, surfaces, and solids, but also of time, motion, numbers, weights, and many other matters.

This is a science which is said to have had its rise, or, at least, its present rules, from the Egyptians, who were under a necessity of using it to remedy the confusion generally happening in their lands, by the overflowings of the river Nile, which carried away, yearly, all boundaries, and effaced all limits of their possessions. Thus this science, which consisted only, at first, of the means of measuring lands, that every person might have his property secured to him, was called Geometry, or the art of measuring the earth; and it is probab'e that the draughts and schemes the Egyptians were annually com

pelled to make, helped them to discover many excellent properties of those figures which future speculation continually inproved.

From Egypt Geometry passed into Greece, where it continued to receive new improvements in the hands of Thales, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Euclid, and others; the Elements of Geometry, which were written by Euclid, testify to us the great perfection to which this science was brought by the ancients, though much inferior to modern Geometry, the bounds of which, by the invention of fluxions, and the discovery of an infinite order of curves, are greatly enlarged.

The usefulness of Geometry extends to almost every art and science; by the help of it astronomers turn their observations to advantage, regulate the duration of times, seasons, years, cycles, and epochas; measure the distance, motions, and magnitude of the whole earth, and delineate the extent and bearings of kingdoms, provinces, oceans, harbours, and every place upon the globe. It is adapted to artificers in every branch, and, from thence, builders preserve regularity and due proportion in their works pursuant to the orders of architecture.

This naturally leads us to conjecture why the square is used as one of the lights of Masonry, and part of the furniture of the Lodge. To explain our ideas on that matter we will only repeat the words of a celebrated author; treating of the rise and progress of the sciences, he says, "We find nothing in ancient authors to direct us to the exact order in which the fundamental principles of measuring surfaces were discovered. They probably began with those surfaces which terminated by right lines, and amongst these with the most simple. It is hard, indeed, to determine which of those surfaces, which are terminated by a small number of right lines, are the most simple. If we were to judge by the number of sides, the triangle has, indisputably, the advantage. Yet I am inclined to think that the square was the figure which first engaged the attention of geometricians. It was not till some time after this, that they began to examine equilateral triangles, which are the most regular of all triangular figures. It is to be presumed that they understood the rectilinear figure first, to which they afterwards compared the areas of