The Approaching Election Of The Girls' School.

on tho list , who is an only child dependent on a widowed mother . Her case is a foreign one , tho father having been initiated in the Royal Victoria Lodge . No . 443 , Bahamas , in 1858 . He continued a subscriber thereto for seven years ,

that is to say he ceased his connection with Freemasonry some 11 years before the birth of the child now a candidate for the benefits of the Girls' School . This can hardly be described as a case in which a brother joined Freemasonry

in the hope of leaving his family in a position to receive the support dispensed through its Charities . If the child is successful it will bo a striking illustration of the lasting benefits of Freemasonry .

In conclusion , we can but express a hope that the most deserving candidates will receive the largest share of support , and that ere another month has passed over their

heads , they and their friends may bo in the happy position of knowing that their education and early training will be carried out through the liberality of English Craftsmen .

Masonic Character Building.

MASONIC CHARACTER BUILDING .

An Address by Bro . George Wells Lamson , Grand Orator , before the Grand Lodge of Minnesota , 12 th January 1886 .

HUMAN character is a great mystery , a mystery in so far as it is determined by nature , a mystery in all that it becomes by the accretions and mouldings of circumstance , and a mystery in tho subtlety of its existence

by which its certain ascertainment is for us impossible . How it is born and how it is grown are questions of great interest . As the physical man by features , proportions

and actions attracts or offends through the eye , so character invites or repels through the perceptive faculties by which we conceive its beauties or deformities .

And yet a man ' s character is not for his fellow men an exact and perfectly defined quantity . A man utters words , makes gestures , assumes attitudes , speaks with his eye and

all the wonderful dramatic and comic powers of facial expression , performs certain acts , omits others , and all these as we associate them in our minds are an expression to us of what we conceive his character to be .

Now just as these expressions are varied under pressure of circumstances , and just as our perceptions are similarly affected , and just as the man ' s neighbours and friends all differ in their perceptive faculties , so is the construction of what we call the man ' s character varied . And no one of us

constructs precisely the same character at different times . From this it would appear ( and it is a fact ) that while every man has an absolute , fixed essence , that essentiality can be known only to God , who actually sees us by divine

sight , in our own eyes and those of our neighbours we have as many phases of character as barman infirmity , or adroitness of expression and perception , multiplied by time , place

and circumstance , can produce . From some marked deed of our neighbour we deduce courage , while others conclude cowardice to be the source of the act . The two motives

cannot both absolutely sway ; one or the other must predominate , and one or the other must and does express the man ' s character in reference to these particular attributes . For how many years have we accorded to certain men

characters of honesty and purity , only to learn some later day that defalcation and debauchery constituted their real composition . " Men so demurely can confront their God , much more their fellow man . " It is not for us , therefore ,

by observation and logic , both perhaps distorted by prejudice , to always conclude correctly as to the qualities that project our neighbours' expressions upon the retina of our inquiring mental vision . The whole world to-day is

divided in opinion as to whether suicide is bravery or cowardice , and both opinions are probably equally , fairly and logically conclusive in different cases . This difficulty of ascertainment is not confined to estimations of human

character . It is very evident in the various and multiplied opinions of books , works of art , stage playing , and all those products of study and effort by which men endeavour to express thought and ideas . It is so evident at times to

the general reader that the thought of its prevalence becomes painful and one almost concludes that all actuality and positive qualities in men and things have been washed

away like knolls of sand before the waves of the ceaselessly recurring and ever-varying conceptions aud delineations of new observers .

Masonic Character Building.

In observations of physical nature this variety of conception by man is perhaps more apparent and oftener recognised . In the recitals of tourists the different impressions received are as variable as the relators are

numerous , and while all nature—the rock , the river , tho ocean , the mountain , the valley , the sunbeam , the snowllake , have their distinct properties and functions which are

weighed , measured , analyzed and tabulated by the scientist , to the great mass of human beings , tho universe is one grand mysterious seeming .

The forces of nature : all the elements are or have been

as inaccurately appreciated . God's lightning-flashes in the heavens had a certain character in the minds of the ancients—a character that was grand—that represented

the ultimatum of all that was sudden and swift—startlingly beautiful and awfully luminous , leaping instantly from horizon to zenith and from zenith to horizon—now one

great canopy of flame , a magnificently dreadful , painful illumination , suggesting universal conflagration and anon concentrating into darts and arrows and needles , as if it would project its terrible destruction with the most minute

discrimination . How gloriously David described these wonderful displays in song ! And yet what did David know of the real character of electricity ? As he dwelt in

his old age with appalling recollections of those mighty storms that made the cedars of Lebanon skip like a calf , how little did he dream that this same fierce

heavenfilling , world-abashing element could have danced a most gentle attendance to the maid that was sought for through all the coasts of Israel to lie in his bosom and have assisted her miles away to whisper in her own natural tone and

sweetest emphasis her consent to go to him . So also with that great force steam ; for how many ages it ascended harmlessly and uselessly ( so far as power was concerned ) out of domestic vessels innocent of commotion or

disturbance larger than " a tempest in a teapot , ' and yet had its real character been known throughout the coasts of Israel in David's time , how certainly would his expected maid have supplemented her telephonic message with a promise of arrival by the first fast express train !

From these reflections we must also conclude that all we

know of nature is relative and qualified . Hills are impossible without valleys . Every conception we have of altitude or expanse is entirely relative . Immensity is indebted to the diminutive for all its glory , and the latter to tbe former

for its insignificance . Everything in nature , then , is at the mercy of these three processes .- observation , conception , and conclusion , and through the sadly imperfect finite

operation of these is introduced all the errata in what we attribute to nature of powers and functions—in a word , character . And so of all our knowledge that is not of

divine revelation . We may study and delve and formulate and call results truth , but after all they are not " the whole truth and nothing but the truth . " Everything filtered through man's imperfections of sight ,

apprehension and deductions must be limited , partial , distorted . Actuality is only known to God . And so we , men and Masons , stand before God as ive are . Divine sight perceives us . We are not conceived of and concluded

about;—all we say and do , attitudes , gestures , volubility or reticence are nothing . We are seen and positively known . To ourselves and each other we seem to be

chiefly , and that seeming is what goe 3 for our character this side of the great judgment day . With all the uncertainty , however , as to the reality of ourselves and our

neighbours and all earth's people , there is much that we apprehend correctly of each other and the race . Exceptionally totally erroneous conclusions as to some and erratic minuta ) as to all do not disprove the rule . ( To be continued . )

LODGE OF TOE THREE GLOBES . — "Whoever wishes to be initiated as a Freemason in the Lodges nuclei' the jurisdiction of the National Grand Mother Lodgo of the Three Globes , of Germany , mast confess the Christian faith and have completed his twenty-fifth year . — Light .

HOIT . OWAY ' S PUIS arc the medicine most in repute for curing thomultifarious maladies which attack humanity , when wet and cold weather Rives place to more genial temperatures . In short , these Pills afford relief , if they fail of being an absolute remedy in all the disturbances of circulation , digestion , and nervous energy , which at times oppress a vast portion of tho population . exerted these

Under the wholesome , purifying , and strengthening powers , by excelleut Pills , tho tongue becomes clean , the appetite improves , digestion is quickened , and assimilation rendered perfect . Holloway ' s medicine possesses tho highly estimable property of cleansing the whole mass of blood , which , iu its renovated condition , carries purity , strength and vigour to every tissue ot the body .