religion were equally sanguinary; and a benevolent feeling towards those miserable beings who filled the laborious situations of life, would have been considered the extremity of weakness and folly. "They showed no mercy to the widow, did no good to the fatherless, nor helped any man in his distress." To accomplish a favorite object, human life was sacrificed freely and without compunction or regret, as Pharaoh Necho sacrificed 120,000 men in a fruitless attempt to cut a channel from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.

And if we refer to morality in a national point of view, the result will be exactly the same. Philosophers and hierophants gave public dissertations in praise of virtue, while they practised in private the most unbounded licentiousness. The morality of the Pagans in India may be estimated from the Bayaderes or dancing girls, who were the property of the priests; and the public worship of the Lingam;-that of Greece and Rome by the excesses of the Dionysiaca, and the prostitution of virgins in the temple of Mylitta;-while the nations of northern Europe and America were addicted to the sacrifice of human victims, and believed the practice to be a service well pleasing to God.

It is evident, therefore, that if we would apply the last definition to the ages which were past at the advent of Christ; we must reject the first member of the sentence, and leave out the allusion to morality. Its practice is indeed cosmopolite, and it was lauded amongst every description of people, but its object was mistaken, and consequently true morality-the love of God and of our neighbour, and the practice of every moral and social virtue-was unknown. But the remainder of the definition applies with great propriety to the ancient mysteries of every country in the world, which were truly veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols. The former consisted in a description of the reputed death of a celebrated individual who was indifferently named Osiris, or Bacchus, or Adonis, or its equivalent in every other nation; with the ceremony of discovering the lost remains, and raising them to a more decent interment. The same legend with precisely the same

* Baruch vi. 37, 38.

reference, formed the basis of the Spurious Freemasonry, in every quarter of the globe.

10. The following, with which I conclude this portion of the subject, can scarcely be termed a definition of Masonry. It is rather a general admonition respecting the practice of religion, which has been introduced into the ancient charges for the express purpose of showing the cosmopolitical nature of the institution. "In ancient times the Christian Masons were charged to comply with the Christian usages of each country where they travelled and worked; but masonry being found in all nations, even of divers religions, they are now only charged to adhere to that religion in which all men agree (leaving each brother to his own particular opinions) by whatever names, religions, or persuasions they may be distinguished; for they all agree in the three great articles Noah, enough to preserve the cement of the lodge. Thus masonry is the centre of their union, and the happy means of conciliating persons that otherwise must have remained at a perpetual distance."

This latitudinarian principle is well adapted to a society which is considered to be universal. It is expressed in such general terms as to be no burden upon any man's conscience, because it meddles with no system of religion, and leaves every member at full liberty to follow that way of faith in which he had been educated.

The modern lectures have rather encroached upon this universal principle by the introduction of subjects which bear a direct and exclusive reference to Christianity. The historical Landmarks of masonry, as laid down in the lectures which are enjoined by authority in the 19th century, are, many of them, types of the Christian religion; and they cannot be otherwise explained. And in a Christian lodge, they either refer to Christianity or nothing. In a Jewish lodge, our Hebrew brethren would interpret them differently, if they form a portion of their lectures, which is somewhat doubtful; and we are quite certain that in a Turkish lodge they would be carefully excluded. It is clear therefore that the lectures of masonry are arbitrary; and, with the exception of a few determinate Landmarks, vary essentially in different countries; being constituted in such a manner as to agree with the peculiar habits and belief of the fraternity who

use them; that the introduction of no startling facts or unacceptable doctrines, may cause disputes or divisions to arise amongst a brotherhood who profess to be cemented by the indissoluble chain of Brotherly Love.

The cosmopolitical construction of masonry may be also verified by the reputed extent of the lodge, which in length, and breadth, and depth, and heighth, is a representation of the universe as the temple of the living God. Thus the Lectures of masonry teach that "the universe is the temple of the Deity whom we serve;-wisdom, strength, and beauty are about his throne as the pillars of his work; for his wisdom is infinite, his strength is omnipotent, and beauty shines forth throughout all creation in symmetry and order; he hath stretched forth the heavens as a canopy, and the earth he planted as his footstool; the canopy of his temple is crowned with stars as with a diadem; the sun and moon are messengers of his will, and all his law is concord."

In this quotation from the old lectures of masonry we find that à mason's lodge is a symbol of the universe, which is the magnificent temple of the Deity, or the centre of the divine circle. But where is the circumference? This we are totally ignorant of. The centre however, is sufficient for our present purpose, for it fills all known space, and extends throughout extent. The centre of the Almighty circle which the Deity alone can fill, occupies millions upon millions of miles, farther than the human eye can reach, with all the assistance which the most improved instruments are able to afford. Sir John Herschel, in his "Essay on the power of the Telescope to penetrate into Space," a quality distinct from the magnifying power, informs us that there are stars so infinitely remote as to be situated at the distance of twelve millions of millions of millions of miles from our earth; so that light, which travels with a velocity of twelve millions of miles in a minute, would require two millions of years for its transit from those distant orbs to our own, while the astronomer, who should record the aspect or mutation of such a star, would not be relating its history at the present day, but that which took place two millions of years gone by.

So universal is masonry. All mankind are creatures of the same God, and equally the objects of his care. He

makes his Sun to shine upon the evil and the good alike, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust, for there is no respect of persons with him. Thus also in Freemasonry "a king is reminded that though a crown may adorn his head and a sceptre his hand, the blood in his veins is derived from the common parent of mankind, and is no better than that of his meanest subject. The statesman, the senator, and the artist, are there taught that, equally with others, they are by nature exposed to infirmity and disease; and that an unforeseen misfortune or a disordered frame, may impair their faculties, and level them with the most ignorant of their species. Men of inferior talents, who are not placed by fortune in such exalted stations, are instructed by masonry to regard their superiors with respect, when they behold them voluntarily divested of the trappings of external grandeur, and condescending, in a badge of innocence and bond of friendship, to trace wisdom and to follow virtue, assisted by those who are of a rank beneath them. Virtue is true nobility, and wisdom is the channel by which virtue is directed and conveyed. Wisdom and virtue alone, mark distinction amongst masons."

From all these arguments and demonstrations we conclude that masonry is an institution which is applicable to all mankind, in all ages and conditions of humanity; and its construction is so perfect, that, although it has been strictly scrutinized, by enemies as well as friends, yet, notwithstanding the existence of a few anomalies, from which no human establishment is free, no material flaw has hitherto been found, of sufficient importance to endanger its existence. It has outlived the envy of its opponents, and gathered strength from every hostile attack. In some countries Church and State have been arrayed against it without effect;-demagogues and adventurers have endeavoured to obscure its purity by heaping upon it every kind of absurd innovation; but their respective systems, after an ephemeral existence, have sunk, one after another, into merited oblivion, leaving Freemasonry to enjoy its triumph;-seceders have threatened to betray its secrets, but all their attempts have signally failed. The order being based on Brotherly Love and Charity, is imperishable. "Masonic secresy," says brother Blanchard, à learned transatlantic

mason, "is a mysterious thing-it has never been divulged. The most tattling man, if he be a mason, keeps the secret. There is no risk of him. Enrage, discipline, expel-he never tells! Mad, drunk, or crazy-he never tells! Does he talk in his sleep? It is not about masonry. Bribe him in his wants-tempt him in his pleasures-threaten him, or torture him, he will endure being a martyr, but -he never tells!" All that have opposed its progress have shared the same fate, being met by the obloquy and derision of mankind."