Projected Extension Of The Girls' School.

paratively small outlay a vast amount of good could be done if this suggestion was acted upon , and more especially is this the case with Provincial candidates whose friends reside in the smaller towns , where education and the general necessaries pf life are usually much cheaper than in the metropolis .

Freemasonry And Its Etymologies.

FREEMASONRY AND ITS ETYMOLOGIES .

BY BRO . JACOB NORTON .

LOOKING over the American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry I came across some very curious speculations about the etymo . logy of Freemasonry . The Rev . Bro . S . G . Morrison , of Dublin , held it that " The word Is derived from secrecy aud exclusiveness observed in onr Lodges . Every Lodge is guarded by a Tiler . It is supposed that he is armed . Formerly his protective weapon was a club , the old Latin for this is mace . It is the word yet in Spain ; the meaning

of maca is club or mace . The club is borne by corporate bodies , because , therefore , bodies of architects , including all trades necessary for effecting or carrying out their plans , preserve their secrets by deliberating within n closed or guarded Lodge—a Lodge guarded by the maca—mason was the designation of a brother , " & c , & c . The above method of reasoning amounts to this : maca meant mace , and

mace may be stretched into mason , hence , mason is of Latin origin . Brother Rockwell quoted Mackey ' s Lexicon , " that the Hebrew •word vw , whicb the doctor pronounced ' masang '— ' woson' signifies a stone quarry . " Hence , as the y is sounded with a nasal twang , masa is sounded as masang , and masang sounds something like mason , nnd as masa or masang means a stone quarry , therefore Dr . Mackey

concluded that mason was of Hebrew origin . Bro . Rockwell , however , who also knew a little Hebrew , could not consent to Mackey's etymology . His own opinion was , " that the word Freemason antedates the exodo of the Israelites . "' ' M . Chaiapollian , " says he , " furnishes a table of active participles which occur in the hieroglyphic inscriptions , as qualifying nouns ; among these will bo

found the participle of the Coptic verb mai , to love , ( represented in the hieroglyphic alphabet by a character which has been denominated a plow , and denoting the articulation M ) qualifying the substantive SON son , " brother , " also represented in the hieroglyphic alphabet by a character snpposed to bo some unknown tool in trade , which I take to be a chisel , or perhaps a seal or stamp . This

combination , Coptic maison , expresses exactly in sound onr word MASON , and signifies literally loving brother , that is , philadelpbus , brother of an association .... to this Egyptian word ... I am disposed to refer our word mason . " The above specimen of luminous reasoning traced tbe word mason to the Coptic ; but as our word is freemason where does the

prefix free come from ? Our Bro . Rockwell will not have that freemason was derived from the word freeman , who alone was eligible for the privileges of the order . Oh no ! Freemason , he says , is derived fro « i an altogether different source , that is , that its origin is neither derived from freeman , nor from the Egyptian . Now what next ?

"Mr . Layard , in a visit to Amadigah , a Chaldean Christian village of Kurdistan , represents tho Albanian chief Ismail Agha as exclaiming , " we aie all framasonns ; " and in a note thereto , Mr . Layard explains that " framasonn" meant " freemason . " Tbe above explanation by Mr . Layard , who ought to know best what tho Kurdistan chief meant by the word framasonn , is not satis .

factory to Bro . Rockwell . He cannot conceive it possible that an Albanian Christian should know a solitary English word : and especially so the word "freemason . " Besides which , says Bro . B ., Ismail Agha , said fra , iustead of free ; as if foreigners invariably give correct pronunciation when attempting to speak English . It wonld fatigue the reader were I to quote more of Bro . Rockwell ' s

patchwork combinations from the Coptic , Arabic , Hebrew , and other languages . OF course it ia all superlative , transcendental and scholarly . Bnt , upon my word , I can make neither head nor tail out of it . I must however transcribe the pith of his reasoning : he says , " The pronominal suffix to the third person plural iu the ancient Egyptian was S . N . Writing with the radical prefix and suffix , we

have phremrs sn m Coptic freemason , literally signifying the sun regenerated them , and symbolically meaning sons of light . " To which Bro . B . adds two Hebrew words , which indeed cannot be tortured to mean freemason , or to sound like freemason , but as tho said two Hebrew words signify sons of light , it makes his analogy in his own estim-tion complete , and so he proves his point .

Bro . Nicolai , a friend of Lessing , shows , that he , as well as Bro . Lessing was puz 2 led about the etymology of masonry : ho says , What is the meaning of freemasonry ? Lessing says that masa in Anglo Saxon signifies a table . I do not know whether masa signifies a table , but I know that in Anglo Saxon maca denotes a companion and I have found masonia onl y in the writings of the middle agesas

, signifying a society of the table . . . . Here again , it is possible that the papers of Lessing might afford the necessary information , although the passage of Agricola , to which he refers , and which I have found , is anything but an ancient source ; besides , messeney , as Agricola writes it , is not masonia . I think I have traced out an

entirely different origin for this word . Massonya , in the Latin of the middle ages , is the same as clava , a club ; but clava is also nsed for clavis , a key , and hence comes the word clavare , which denotes the right of entrance into a house , and of refusing entrance to another . But it will be seen that what we call in Germany a club , a private or exclusive society , . , , is expressed in English by the same

Freemasonry And Its Etymologies.

word club . Does this bring ns back to our masonia , which has the same relation to the word club ? It follows then , that masonia , or masonnia , signifies not only a society of the table , but an exclusive society—a club—such as the round table , and the etymology I have given here does not ia any way contradict Lessing . " According then to these distinguished German masonio investi .

gators , masonry was derived either from the Anglo Saxon or front the Latin , and by a little screwing and twisting they proved , from both sources , that "mason" denotes a society of the table . The Historian | Bro . Fort claims , that the prefix free is a corruption from the French word frere , brother , and that frere-macon means brother-mason . Bro . Fort does not pretend that he had found "

freemacon , " in any French Masonio MS ., but he merely imagines that whereas England was conquered by the Normans , Norman Masons must have brought that phrase into England , where ifc was corrupted into freemason . That Lessing and Nicolai iu the last century should have wandered

into Anglo Saxon and Latin regions for the etymology of freemason is not so much to be wondered at , but that brethren writing within twenty-five years should have travelled so much out of the way for the origin of a word easily traced to tbe English language , would really astonish me , if I had not previously had to combat the fanciful notions of the same class of Masonic luminaries .

The Dictionary defines the word mason , " u builder in stone or brick . " As to the etymology of the word mason , I care no more about it than I do about the etymology of the word carpenter , tailor , or any name of a trade . Suppose mason was derived from the French macon , then comes the question , Whence did the French got macon ? Suppose from the Latin , then , whence have the Latins got it ?

know now that Speculative Masonry originated in England , and that And so we may go on and on , and not become wiser by questioning . We it was built upon the debris of the society of builders of the middle ages . These were at one time designated as masons , but afterwards they assumed the name of freemasons . I know that acts of Parliament debarred English masons from teaching their trade to bondmen .

The two German Masons Constitutions , respectively dated 1452 and 1462 , contain no clause about bondman , freeborn , or freeman . But I also know that the same statute debarred likewise all other artizans from taking a bondman as an apprentice . Now if the prefix free originated from freeman , then we ought to have had free-tailors , free . carpenters , & c , bufc tho very fact that Masons alone appropriated

the prefix free , and as I shall presently show that it was only part of the masons who were known as freemasons , we must therefore find another reason for the origin of freemason . Bufc instead of hunting for that phrase in tbe Dictionaries of all tho dead langogea , and among all the dead gods and goddesses , I can move rationally trace it to Old England itself . In 1875 I was led to expect thafc tho age of the ILilltwell

Constitution might be ascertained from the English statutes . A lawyer kindly lent me the statutes , but they were mainly in the French language . And such French ! Rro . Brenan , who translated Rehold ' s " History of Freemasonry " from the French , could nofc make ont the said statutes . Tho Anglo-Norman French , in the days of Edward III ., conld scarcely be understood in France itself . Chaucer , in describing an English accomplished Lady Abbess ,

says" And French she spake fnl featously , After the School of Straford att Bow , For French of Paris was to her unknow . " However , I afterwards got hold of a copy , giving the French version in one column , and the English translation iti the other , and here is

the English version of a statute passed in 1350 : — "Item . That carpenters , masons , tilers , and other workmen of houses , shall not take by the day for their work , but in the manner as they were wont—that is to say , a master carpenter 3 d , and another 23 , a master ( freemason ) 4 d , and another mason 3 d . "

Finding "freemason" placed between parentheses , I looked to the French column for the reason , but instead of freemason , I found thero " mestro mason de franche pare , " which would read in English thus— " A master mason of freeston 4 d , and another masou 3 d . " Here , then , we see that there were then two classes of masons , —the freeston mason and the mason . The word freemason was nofc born

then . A statute in 1360 has the following : — " So thafc every mason and carpenter , of what condition , ho shall be compelled by his master . . to do the work thafc to him appertain to do , or of freestone or of rough stone . " On tho French column it is— " Ou de franch pere , ou do gross pere . " This defines the distinction between the said two classes of masons—viz ., freestone and rongh stone .

Mr . Halhwell refers to a statute passed in 1518 , in the reign of Edward VI ., when the parliamentary records were kept in English . "Allowing" ( as ho says ) "freemasons to practise their craft in any town in England , although not free of that town , " and , ho adds , "This last mentioned statute is important as showing the recent application of the term freemason to those who practised the actual

trade . " And ho further copied from an indenture dated June 5 , 21 Henry VII ., taken by Ashmole from the original archives of the Dean and Chapter of Windsor , as follows : — " In the year 1500 , John Hylmer nnd William Vertu , freemasons , were engaged to ' vault or doo to be vawlted with freestone the roof of the quere of the College Roiall of our Lady and Saint Geor"e ,

within the Cast ell of Wyndsore . " Mr . Halliwell then remarked , " A friend has- suggested to me the possible connection between the terms freemason and freestone . " Now I will try to sum up the evidence . In the days of Edward III . there were two classes of masons—masons of freestone and masons of rongh stone . The former received -Id a clay , while the

latter received only 3 d . The translator of the statutes designated the former by the term freemason . As earl y as 150 G two masons undertook to vault a roof with freestone , and were designated in the contract as freemasons . And in 1548 an Act of Parliament allowed freemasons to work at their trade in any English towns , though not free of those towns , The inference therefore is , as suggested b y