Gossip About Freemasonry; Its History And Traditions.

sophor , holding , as I do , tho opinion thafc poefs and painters hive been tho makers of much of what we now call "Ancient History . " As ages rolled on , the flesh and the form has fallen from the event , and the dry skeleton

only has remained ; the skeleton has been re-clothed , according to tho imagination of the poet and the painter , and , in olden time , too often by their offspring the historian . It may be said , with Shakespeare : —

" The dust on antique time does lie unawept , And mountainous errors be too highly heaped for truth to overpeer . " The historian has also , in matters relating to Ancient History relied materially on tradition , the consequence being

that very much so-called history is bufc tradition . It is ascribed to an apparently ardent traditionalist , tho erudite . Rabbi Hillel , who devoted a lifetime to God's service , that during one of his disputatious , on being asked by an opponent , " What is Tradition ? " the Rabbi asked him to repeat

the threo first letters of the alphabet . Slowly and distinctly ho did so . "Who , " said Hillel , "taught you to repeat those letters ? " "My father , " was the reply ; and , answered the Rabbi , " You will teach tho same to your children ? Thafc is tradition . " This anecdote is pretty and

popular , bufc wifch all respect and reverence to the enormous genius of Hillel , if Hillel did say this , 1 scarcely think the answer met the question . The man wbo first made a certain sound the means by which a want could be supplied , or help bo given , created a fact ; that particular fact

which is now called language ; tbe individual who first produced the sound , or formed the language , may be only traditionally known , but the sounds and the letters are facts . If of a vacant piece of ground it is said , a palace is to be built upon ifc , we havo an assertion ; if generations

paas away and the ground remain unbuilt on , it might be said , a splendid edifice was to havo been erected thereon ; that would have been tho creation of a tradition ; but when the palace is really built , tho tradition dies ; it has become a fact that lives .

The most ; difficult of all traditions to contend with are thoso which are a mixture of truth and fable , and of such one of the most mistaken ( thafc is to say , according to my lights ) is that which has taken its origin from the simple ( though none tho less powerful by its simplicity ) statement

of the death of Abel , as set forth in the Book of Genesis , a statement which I accept as fact . But whafc says tradition respecting the cause of this fratricide . Here is

one" The two brothers being born with a twin sister , God directed Adam to marry each of them to the sister of tho other . Cain refused his consent to the arrangement , because his twin sister was the more beautiful

woman , and he waa desirous of marrying her himself . To settle the dispute , Adam directed them to make their offerings to God , and thus refer it to bis decision . Cain complied , wifch great reluctance , and offered a sheaf of the very worst of his corn , while Abel sacrificed

the very best of his flock . " Tradition is born of tradition , and thns we find the quality of Cain ' s offering stated in a somewhat similar manner by regarded authorities such as the Talmud and Josephus . Thus the Talmud states , " Cain brought from the fruits of the ground , and

Abel from the firstlings of his flock ; but while Abel selected the finest and best conditioned animals , Cain offered fruit of an inferior quality , the poorest which tho earth offered . " Josephus writes : — " Abel was a righteous man , and akeeper of sheep ; Cain , on the contrary , was a wicked and

graceless person , and the inventor of tillage . He governed himself wholly by his interest , and finally , upon the following account , he murdered his own brother . Tho two brothers were agreed to a sacrifice to the Lord ; Cain brought an offering of the fruits of the ground ; Abel ' s offering was of

the milk and firstlings of his flock . The latter was the moro acceptable to God of the two , as being only the pure bounty and production of nature , whereas the other looked more like an oblation extracted by avarice and force than an homage of good will . Cain took it so heinously to have

his younger brother preferred to him , that ho fell upon and killed him . " Here is a tradition , in itself false , founded on a fact ; the fact being the murder of Cain ; the falsehood the cause through which his offerings were rejected . And when the fatal event was accomplished , Genesis iv . 8 proves

that this did nofc follow immediately on the rejection of Cain ' s sacrifice , but was rather the result of a subsequent quarrel . Bufc the tradition as given by Josephus has been permitted to a groat extent to supplant the Biblical history , thanks to its perpetuation by . moans of the pencil and

Gossip About Freemasonry; Its History And Traditions.

graving tool of the artist , and thus we find so many of what purports to be artistic representations of this sad event generally present a dark and stern countenanced , well-built , and well-knitted man , either rushing from , or standing over the prostrate body of a slim , fair , handsome youth . In

tho background two altars ; one blazing , the other overturned . I have seen such representations introduced into Pictorial Bibles . The child before whom ifc is placed sees the pictures before ifc can read the text , and its nurse probably fixes an idea into its head by telling it the story of

how "the wicked man killed his brother , because God liked Abel , who was very good , better than he did Cain , who was naught y and bad , " and thus aro many of our Opinions formed , well justifying the quotation I have given from Locke . Josephus , however , is very merciless toward the

memory of Cam , and evidently considers him guilty of any enormity , from murder to the " invention of weights and measures . " I have already read to you that in his opinion Cain " was a wicked and graceless person , and the inventor of tillage , " but he goes on thus —( I had perhaps

better mention here that in my extracts from this writer I have nofc quite confined myself to " Whiston ' s Translation , " but have to a slight extent availed myself of thafc by L'Estrange)— " Cain went further , from bad to worse , abandoning himself to lust and all manner

of outrages . Without regard to common justice , he enriched himself by rapine and violence , and made choice of the mosfc profligate of monsters for his companions . He corrupted the plain dealing of former times with a novel invention of ' weights and

measures , and exchanged the innocence of their primitive generosity and candour for the new tricks of policy and craft . He was the first that invaded the common liberties of mankind by boundaries and enclosures . Nay , even

while Adam was alive , it came to pass that tho posterity of Cain became exceedingly wicked , every one successively dying , one after tho other , more wicked than the former . " I fear mo that much of history has been woven from material such as this . ( To be continued . )

Candidates For Masonry.

CANDIDATES FOR MASONRY .

C 1 0 NNECTED with the working of the institution , / perhaps there is no subject that has been more often referred to in the addresses of Grand Masters , reports of Correspondence Committees , and tho Masonic press , than the careful selection of material to be admitted to membership . The Craffc have been admonished from time

immemorial how important it is that care should be taken thafc no one be admitted without the most careful scrutiny ; and yet ifc always has been , and most probably always will be , a fact that a large share of Lodge troubles arise from carelessness at this very initial step .

A brief reference to this important subject ; , if not of interest to older brethren , will at least be of interest to those who are commencing their Masonic life . Among the earliest landmarks and the printed Constitutions of Anderson , 1723 , provides thafc " No man can be made or

admitted a member of a particular Lodge without previous notice ono month before given to said Lodge , in order to make due inquiry into tbe reputation and capacity of the

candidate ; " from which we perceive that the Craffc of those early days were fully impressed with the idea that an evil tree cannot bear wholesome fruit , nor a bad man make a good Mason .

The third of the " Ancient Charges ' declares that " the persons admitted members of a Lodgo must be good and true men , fvee-bora and of matured , discreet age ; no immoral men , bufc of good report . " Wholesome as this regulation unquestionably is , it must be admitted that there has

been a culpable negligence in some Lodges in enforcing it . It may be true , thafc with the best intentions , a committee or a Lodge may be imposed upon by some of the many who seek admission to our institution . But it is not only tbe character of the candidate that is to be inquired into ,

but also his capacity ; that is , we aro not only to satisfy ourselves that he is of mature and discreet ago , of sound body , aud of good report , bufc whether big mind ia of such

quality as not only to enable him to receive and understand the esoteric instructions of the institution , but in timo to return to it , as interest for tho benefit conferred on him by his admission , the result of his study and inveati-