Freemasonry And The Press.

them . We have many able Masonic scholars among ns still , but like the prophets of old they are not honoured in their own country . Those who have ventured upon the

expense of printing the results of their learning and study have good reason to repent them of their temerity , and have realised the unwelcome and dishonouring fact that we aro not readers and students of Masonic books .

We sadly need a new birth , in spirit if not in form , a fresh baptism of intelligence , and a warmer zeal for the intellectual and spiritual lessons that lie concealed in the arcana of Freemasonry . Wo have no quarrel with the

social ceremonies of the Order , wo are not Mawworrns . Between asceticism and the luxury of the table thero is a wide division , large enough for the development of other growths . Wc are bound bv tho spirit and letter of the

ceremonies to study the material , intellectual nnd moral order of tho universe , we are taught to practise all the virtues ; and to neglect the sources whore thoy are the most perfectly examplified is to violate the principal

canons of tho Order . Newspapers and magazines may not be the best instructors , thoy are not equal in value to the works of deep thinkers and philosophers , but they are excellent substitutes . Very often they are the best

mediums of instruction , because thoy aro more general aud varied in the treatment of subjects , and have the additional advantage of conveying news and moral lessons in a popular form . If we cannot have the solid pabulum ,

let us have tho lig hter food . When tho taste has been cultivated , the digestion strengthened , then perhaps will como the desire for more substantial aliment . We arc not jealous of our American brethren , we do uot wish to

disparage their work . We could not follow m their footsteps altogether . Our sober methods are unsuited to their notions of enterprise , but we might fairly emulate their zeal in the acquisition of knowledge , and at any rate not

quite ignore the sources of instruetion which he ready to our hands . Wo owe it to tho position we hold in the Craft to maintain an interest in its literature , wo are

bound by strong moral obligations to seek knowledge and to diffuse it , ancl unless we are more faithful in tbe future than we have been in the past , we shall be false to our traditions and unworthy of the great inheritance we possess .

A Playful Critic Of Masonry.

A PLAYFUL CRITIC OF MASONRY .

ONE of tho most amusing men who ever made sport of Freemasonry was Thomas De Quincey , the English opium eater . He did not single out Masonry alone as the target for his literary arrows , feathered with

wit and sarcasm , which he kept shooting as long as he lived , but he made sport of almost everything . He liked to say odd things , to fake new views , and to

overturn old ones . We may instance his paper in which he whitewashed Judas Iseariot ; and another in which he discussed " Murder considered as one of tho Fine Arts . "

We have always enjoyed his writings , because they are so original—in fact , wo know scarcely any recent writer who excels him in this respect . De Quincey is a perfect dare-devil in originality . Perhaps none of his essays

is more enjoyable , especially to Freemasons , than tbat upon Secret Societies . In it he is in his best vein , not caring what lie says , only caring to be bizarre , brilliant and incisive . At an early age he says he became

interested in secret societies , from his desire to know , ( 1 ) What tbey do , and ( 2 ) Wbat tbey do it for ? His was no peculiar experience . Many a man has become a Mason instigated by this same curiosity ; but curiosity , while the

lowest form of intellectual motive , in Freemasonry always leads up to something higher . De Quinoey ' s curiosity , however , only led him to view our Fraternity from the outside , and always simply with the view of burlesquing it . Here is the first result of his sportive lucubrations :

The two best known of all Secret Societies that ever have been are tho two most extensive monuments of humbug on the ono side , and credulity on the other . Thoy divide themselves between the ancient world and the modern . The ^ reat and illustrious humbug of ancient

history was the Elonsininii Mysteries . 'Iho great and illustrious hnmbng of modern history , of the history which boasts a preseut and a future , as well as a past , is Freemasonry , let me tako a few liberties with both . And then he does take liberties with both , poking all

A Playful Critic Of Masonry.

the fun at each of them that his overflowing mirth could devise . Referring to the Eleusinian Mysteries he says : The goddess , and her establishment of hoaxers at Elensis , did a vast " stroke of business" for more than six centuries , without any " nnpleasanfcries" occurring * . * * "Misfortune acquaints a man

with strange bed-fellows j" aud the common misfortune of having been hoaxed lowers tho proudest ancl the humblest into a strange unanimity , for once , of pocketing their wrongs in silence . Elensis , with her fine bronzed face , may say , proudly and laughingly— " Expose me , indeed !—Why , I hoaxed this man's great-grandfather , and I

trust to hoax his great-grandson ; all generations of his house have been or shall bo hoaxed . " And the satirist adds , " There was an endless file of heroes , philosophers , statesmen , all hoaxed , ali , of course , incensed at being hoaxed , ancl yet not one of them is known to have blabbed .

De Quincey said he had . a very bad opinion of the ancient world , but it would grieve him if he thought such a world could beat ours , even in the quality of its hoaxes ! Here we must again quote his exact language , for it is brimful of humour :

I have , also , not a very favourable opinion of the modem world . Put I dure say that iu fifty thousand years it will be considerably improved ; and , in tho meantime , if we aro not quite so good or so

clover as wo ought to be , yet still we are a trifle better than onr ancestors ; I hopo we aro np to a hoax any clay . A mau must be a , poor creature that can't invent a hoax . For two centuries we have had a first-rate one : and its namo is Freemasonry . "

Mr . Crilfillan once called Mr . De Quincey paradoxical . But that did not offend him , for he replied , " Paradox is a very charming thing , and sinco leaving off opium

I have taken a great deal too much of it for my health , " Bat , most amusing of all , was De Quincey ' s statement of how he exploded Freemasonry , as it were b y a dynamite cartridge , at one blast . We quote again :

Seriously , however , the whole bnbble of Freemasonry waa shattered in a paper which I myself once threw into a London journal , abont tho year 1823 or 'd-. Ifc was a paper in this sense mine , that from tr . e it bad received form ancl arrangement ; bnt the materials belonged to a learned German , viz .: Buhle , the same that edited tho " Bipont

Aristotle , " and wrote a history of the Philosophy . " No German has any conception of stylo ; T therefore did hirn tho favour to wash bin dirty face , and make him presentable among Christians ; but the substance was drawn entirely from this German book . It was thero established that the whole hoax of Masonry had been invented in the year 1629 , by ono Andrea .

We wish all anti-Masons were as good-natured as De Quincey , for then we could laugh with them , as well as at them , and wo only regret thafc tbe "Opium Eater " did not take the opportunity , through initiation , to have an inside view of Freemasonry . With his love for the

humorous , he would have greatly enjoyed the Craft when at refreshment . Ho would have discovered thafc Masonry is not a hoax , after all ; tbat its philosophy is of the highest order , its company of the best , its opportunities for intellectual culture of the rarest , and all of its

surroundings just such as a man of his complex nature—with scholarly acquirements and an inexhaustible fund of humour—would have greatly enjoyed . Instead of his exploding Freemasonry , he would have found that it exploded all of bis satirical views , and left him a wiser , better , and even , if possible , a wittier man . —Keystone .

Is Masonry Religion ?

IS MASONRY RELIGION ?

TO answer , we must clearly define the word religion . Webster says that it is " the recognition of God as an object of worship , love and obedience . " Masonry teaches that from the youngest apprentice to the Master presiding , all should " with reverence most humbly

bow " iu worship . We , as Masons , are admonished , " to have faith in God , hope of immortality and love to all mankind . " To have " a faithful reliance upon divine

providence " and are given rules by which we may be better enabled to discern the power , the wisdom and the sroodness of the Grand Artificer of the Universe . "

As Masons we are taught to devote one-third of our time to " the service of God " and the distressed . That He " whom the Sun , Moon and Stars obey , and under whose

watchful care cornels perform their stupendous revolutions , pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart , and will reward us according to our merits . "

Masonry is full of such teachings . Webster says that religion is " any system of faith and worship . " But THE BIBLE , that Great Lig ht and Guide defines "True religion and undefiled . To visit the widow and