Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

ROYAL MASONIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION .

WE have great pleasure in announcing that at the Committee Meeting held on Wednesday , Major Creaton , P . G . D . in the Chair , it was resolved that 15 widows and 22 men be elected Annuitants at the Annual Meeting on 21 st May next . This increase , of 12 widows

and 10 males , it has been found possible to make in eonsequence of the liberality displayed by the Craft at the last Festival . The Committee very properly consider that where they have received so liberal an addition to the funds it is their duty , as far as possible , to increase the number

of beneficiaries . This will now make up tho number of annuitants to 100 widows , 130 men , and 10 widows each of whom receives a moiety of her late husband ' s annuity . We may add that there are 35 female and 33 male candidates to fdl tho vacancies announced above .

Egypt Considered As The Cradle Of Masonry.

EGYPT CONSIDERED AS THE CRADLE OF MASONRY .

IT is rather remarkable that few or no attempts have been made by learned Masons to trace the history of speculative Masonry back to its original sources . It would seem that writers upon the mysteries of the Craft have hitherto restricted themselves to a narrow survey of the Order as it has existed from time immemorial in

Europe , and it is only the more daring of these who have ventured to trace Masonic history to the time of the building of Solomon ' s Temple . Yet , as we pointed out in a recent article , the history of tho Craft stretches back into a past so remote , that the civilisation of the Jews looks

juvenile beside it . Practical Masonry is identified with the ancient history of Egypt ; and its speculative doctrines , there is reason to believe , are derived from the remarkable people who founded a monarchy on the banks of the Nile 5 , 000 years ago . A diligent search of the tombs , temples

and palaces of that land of wonder and science would undoubtedly afford us a rich mine of information in reference to those ancient mysterios in which the priesthood alone were initiated . That these mysteries were , as we have elsewhere stated , merely moral and scientific

truths concealed , under the form of symbols , from the eyes of the vulgar , there can now be no reason to doubt . We learn that they were divided into two grand divisions , the greater and the lesser ; in each of these there were ten grades , and all aspirants , with the exception of the king ,

had to ascend step by step , and were required to give proof that their lives were virtuous and truthful . The lesser mysteries are supposed to have embraced the pure sciences , and the student , while passing through them , was initiated into the secrets which were symbolised in the

forms of the numerous gods of Egyptian theology . The greater mysteries , no doubt , contained the clue to the real meaning of the strange story of Osiris , and gradually lead the learner up to the pivot , upon which the whole vested , the grand idea of a supreme Architect of the Universe ,

m wnoso omnipotence the whole hierarchy of gods was absorbed . The legend of Osiris is one of the most remarkable in the whole range of human tradition , and it wo aid seem that it played a most important part in the religious theories of the Egyptians . This great teacher is said to have been a god , who took upon himself the form of a man

Egypt Considered As The Cradle Of Masonry.

for the purpose of teaching the elements of science and civilisation to the human race . He was the son of Nepthe and Sep , and when he was born the people were startled by hearing a loud voice crying in the air , " The Lord of all the Earth is born . " Later in history he was known to the

Greeks as Bacchus , who is the centre around which tho mysteries of " Dionysius" are clustered . The wife of Osiris was Isis , who , in the Egyptian theology , propounds the riddle , to which , so far as we know , no satisfactory answer has yet been given— "I am all that is , and my veil

hath no man lifted . " Some writers have asserted , with much show of reason , that Isis represented the Earth and its fertilising principles , while Osiris was the Sun , or the male principle of p-oneration . Ho was called the good ,

or "the manifester of good , " " the opener of truth , " and was generally believed to bo full of goodness and truth . He was known as the " President of the West , " as the " Lord of Abyclos . " Others called him the " Lord of the World , " the " Eternal Ruler , " and " King of the Gods . "

To this divine pair was born a son— " Horus ; " and this triad of divinities had , by way of contrast , a persecutor in the form of Typhon , or the principle of Evil , who endeavoured , by every means in his power , to tempt Osiris to his destruction . The latter devoted many years of his

life to the task of instructing and civilising the Egyptians . He found them rude , coarse and barbarous , but under his teaching they advanced in knowledge and in the arts of Masonry and general science . As king of lower Egypt he was able to enforce his benign teachings , and it is stated

that the first buildings which were reared under his directions were granaries for storing the fruits of the earth . His beneficent career was , however , cut short by the machinations of Typhon , who entrapped him into a mummy case , the first which -was seen in Egypt . Typhon had

secretly obtained the measui * e of Osiris , aud the case , which was elegantly ornamented , was set up in a banquetting room . When it had been sufficiently admired by all present , Typhon declared that he in the company whom it fitted should take it as a present . The guests all tried in

succession , but it did not fit them . Osiris now entered it , and Typhon and his conspirators immediately rushed forward and closed the lid , upon which they poured melted lead , in order to close it up , having first put in some very strong nails . The case containing Osiris was then taken to one

of the mouths of the Nile , and cast into the sea . The connection of this fabulous story with the observed facts of natural phenomena is too palpable to be overlooked , The elevation of Osiris into the great judge of the quick and the dead followed as a natural consequence of the

judicial character of his reign on earth . In the tombs of the Egyptians he is represented adorned with the symbols of Eternity , receiving tho soul of the departed , while attendant spirits weigh its good and evil deeds in the balances . *

Another deity of the Egyptians , Pthah , was regarded as the protector , if not the founder , of Memphis . In the British Museum there is a full-sized figure of this god ; his body is enveloped in a close garment , open at the top , like a shirt ; on his head is a skull-cap , and both hands hold a

sceptre . He stands on a CUIUT , th : rmbh-m of truth , and its face is graduated . He was known as the "Lord of Truth , " from whence alone all truth proceeded . He was a i jrcrtt artificer , and leader of all artisan intellects , and represented the mechanical side of the great Being , in whom alone the initiated believed . It is , however , difficult to trace any * " Thoti art weighed in the balances , and art fonnd wanting , " Daniol v . 27 .