Worthy And Well Qualified.

of the Craft , and witnessed tho admission of one of tho greatest men of his generation , though he was from a far-off land and " an exile for Liberty's sake ! " His nationality was not further inquired into , bnt iu this regard , as in all others , he was considered " well qualified " for admission to tho ranks of Freemasonry . Two or threo years since I attended a meeting of Masons in ono of

tho large cities of tho West—I believe it was a Council of Eoyal and Select Masters . Thero was work to bo done , and I noticed ono who seemed to be a prominent actor in the ceremonies . Ho was a man abovo medium height , of fine physique , of good address and commanding presence . Ho seemed to bo well instructed in tho rituals , had a good voice and utterance , and I was charmed with his mannor .

I inquired of a friend sitting by me , a Past Grand Master of Masons , who tho brother was . Ho whispered to me , " Ho 13 a coloured brother ! " I asked him where he was made a Mason : and tho reply was "in one of the Lodges of this city . He is of African descent , though nearly white . He is well educated , a lawyer in good praotice , and a gentleman in every sense of the word . His sister , a finely

educated lady , is the wife of a United States Senator from one of the Southern States , Senator Bruce . " The brother was esteemed none tho less because of a tingo of African blood in his veins . He waa made a Mason in a legal Lodge , and , ns a man and Mason , was an honour to the Fratornifcy . In his lineage , as well as in all else , he was " worthy and well qualified " to be a member of our Anoiont and

Honourable Fraternity . Another question that may be asked , " Is ho of good report ? " Is his standing in community respectable , and does he maintain a good character as a man ? Is ho freo from vicious habits , honest in his dealings , temperate in his living , and kind and charitable to the needy and deserving about him ? All this , and more , is included in

the qnery , and shonld be answered in tho affirmative before it can truly be said he is " well qualified " to become a Freemason . He must be " of lawful age " also . The old rule said " mature age , " and that language should still bo used . The present requirement is twenty-one years , but neither Washington nor Warren was of that ago when initiated ; yet thev were both " well qualified " in the estimate of the

old law of Masonry , and that law should never have been changed . Tho law also says tho candidate must bo sound in body , and of " hale and entire limbs , as a man ought to be . " This quality refers to the age of practical Masonry when tho Craft were workmen , and needed all their limbs and faculties to enable them to discharge the duties of thoir calling . For the last hundred and fifty years the

requirement has onl y been symbolic ; and it will probably he another hundred years before this stringent rule can be modified , if ever . Another requirement to bo " well qualified " is that the candidato must be a man . I shall not attempt to enlarge upon this question now . I havo long been satisfied , however , that there should bo some law by which the wives and daughters of Freemasons might be

admitted to membership in the Order . Ifc is not yefc timo for the discussion of this question ; bnt when it comes up for consideration , if alive , I will be ready to meet it . We deny to onr wives and daughters what we claim for ourselves . Why ? Aro they not to be trusted ? Are they not as capable of appreciating kindness , and goodness , and charity , and as ready to aid in works of benevolence ?

Meeting Of The Lodge Of Benevolence.

MEETING OF THE LODGE OF BENEVOLENCE .

THE Lodgo of Benevolenco mot on Wednesday evening , at Freemasons' Hall . Bros . Joshua Nunn , James Brett , and Samuel Eawson occupied the chairs of President aud Senior and Junior Vice-Presidents . The brethren first confirmed the recommendations of the last meeting to tho amount of £ 1 G 5 , and afterwards relieved

twenty cases onfc of the now list with - £ 535 . Threo cases were de . ferred , and one was dismissed . There wero bnt twenty-four cases on tho new list , which is a great contrast to tho heavy lists with which tho Lodge has recently been burdened .

Metropolitan Chapter Of Improvement.

METROPOLITAN CHAPTER OF IMPROVEMENT .

THE weekly meeting of this Chapter of Improvement was held on Tuesday evening , 12 th April , afc the Jamaica Tavern , St . Michael ' s Alley , Cornhill . Present—Comps . Brown Z ., Taylor H ., J . S . Fraser J ., E . Payne N ., J . Payne P . S ., W . Fraser , Gillard , G . Brown , W . Chicken , Goodchild , McDonell , Btiggs , Thompson , Walker , Turner , and Burns . Tho ceremony of exaltation was ably worked , Comp .

J . Steingraber being the candidate . All the Officers were well np to their duties . The Chapter was closed and adjourned . The members of this Chapter again assembled at the Jamaica Tavern , on Tuesday evening , 19 th April ; but in consequence of the holiday week tho attendance was not so numerous as usual . Comps . Catterson Z ., Taylor H ., J . E . Fraser J ., Walker N ., Turner P . S . There were also present Comps . Kirke , Veal , Thompson , E . Payne ,

Pnlman , and W . Fraser . The ceremony of exaltation was rehearsed , Comp . W . Fraser being tho candidate . Comp . Pulman , of the Bedford Chapter , No . 157 , was elected a member of this Chapter of Improvement . The election of Officers for the next fortni ght then took place , as follows : —Comps . Thompson Z ., Pulman A ., J . S . Fraser J ., W . Fraser N ., McDonell P . S . The Chapter was closed and adjourned until Tuesday evening , 26 th April , at half-past six o ' clock .

The Annual Supper of the Burdett Coutts Lodge of Instruction , No . 1278 , will be held on Wednesday , the 4 th May , at the Lamb Tavern , Wilmot-street , Bethnal-green , at 7 o ' clock , under the presidency of Bro . Dr . Defriez ,

the W . M . of the mother Lodge . Tickets ( 4 s each ) should be applied for at once ; they may be had of Bro . Hand , Hon . Sec , 1 Southborough-road , South Hackney .

Whence? What? And Whither?

WHENCE ? WHAT ? AND WHITHER ?

FROM THE KEYSTONE . WHEN yon consider the spiritual , mental and physical equi pment of man , aro yon surprised that philosophers in all ages have in . quired , WHENCE camo he ? WHAT is he ? aud WHITHER is he tra velling ? In cortain thoughtful moments , havo you not had an intimation of prc-oxistenco , and said , with Wordsworth , in his exquisite Odo on Immortality ,

" Our birth is bnt a sleep and a forgetting : The Soul that rises with us , our life ' s Star , Hath had elsewhere its setting , And cometh from afar :

Not in entire forgetfulness , And not in utter nakedness , But , trailing olonds of glory do we come From God , who i 3 cur home : Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! "

In was in a sense akin to this that Socrates called himself a " raid , wife of the mind , " because he assisted in bringing to the birth truths with which the mind was in labour . He unfolded what was infolded . Sir Walter Scott seemed sometimes conscious of pre-existence ; while Plato taught that when we seem to be instructed , wo are only put in mind of what we knew in a former state .

Springing out of this doctrine of reminiscence , was the enrions one of the transmigration of souls , once largely taught in Egypt , Greece , and India , in the philosophy of Pythagoras , the Orphio Mysteries , and the religion of Brahma . One of the fundamental injunctions of the latter is , to abstain from flesh , fish and fowl , for fear of eating your ancestors ! Some of our American Indians wore permeated

with this belief . The Haidahs of California , Mr . Bancroft tells n <* , gravely affirmed , and steadfastly ma intained , their descent frr . i >\ crows . The Chipewayans derived their origin from a dog . Otluta assert their derivation from the prairie wolf , and to explain the 1 , ss of their tails , they say , " an acquired habit of sitting upright has uttorly erased and destroyed that beautiful member ! " Plato taught ,

in his Fhaedo , that those men who practise the civil and social virtues , when they die will pass into some gentle social nature , like their own , such as that of bees , or ants , or even back again into tho form of man . A related doctrino to metempsychosis was that of emanation , 1 el 1 by Zoroaster , the Gnostics and others—that all beings have procredo I

from , and are parts of , the Divine Being—in ono sense a sort of pantheism , but in another , and better sense , a doctrine that all may accept ; for our living sonl is , according * to Moses , an emanation from the breath of God , and thus a part of Him . The philosophers of today aro as busy ns their brethren wero thonsands of years ago , in inquiring , Whence is man ? And they are

often quite as erratic in their conclusions . Huxley and H-ieckel argue that we come from " protoplasm , " while Lorenz Oken deduces our origin from " primordial slime . " For ourselves wo shonld j-rt fer to skip the " slime " and the " protoplasm " and come rather from a coyote , a dog , or a crow . But wo reject all of these vagaries . Man came from God , so the First Great Light iu Masonry teaches us , and

wo can have no higher authority . We have not been " developed "wo are born , not made . Omnipotence calls ns into being . It is Ho that mado us , and not wo ourselves . Nor are wo any deduction , or physical inference , or tho end of a chain of being . We are , in short , ourselves , and ever shall be . What is man ? Look in your neighbour ' s face and answer the

question , if you can . The eye of a god ! The figure of an Apollo ! The mind of an angel ! And more ! What a mystery is this mind of ours , with its powers of reflection , expression and memory . Who can explain how ifc is that language comes instantly at tho bidding of thought ; how that no sooner is a conception framed , than the appropriate words come brimming to the lips , in apt description , glowing

metaphor and convincing logic ? That man lives not who can penetrafce the arcana of the human mind . We are , what we are , what God made ns to be ; bnt it doth not yet appear what we shall be . Doubtless glory will bo added to glory , and we shall shine as stars iu the firmament of heaven . Whither are wo travelling ? Ah ! who can penetrate through the

grave into the great hereafter ? Who , but the initiated , know tbe secrets of God ' s Greater Mysteries ? Plato tell 3 us of an ingenious Sicilian , or Italian , who compared the souls of men who were initiated into the " Mysteries " of his time , to staunch sailing vessels , which sped beautifully on their course towards the happy isles of the blest ; while the souls of the uninitiated he likened to leaky vessels ,

full of holes , that go down , and never on , bnt miserably sink in the waves . The souls of the ignorant , owing to a lack of faith , hope and charity , he says , are i ? s fnll of holes as is a colander . May we not say , then , that we are going whither our vessel of life is carrying ns ? Death is the mystery of mysteries . One day health mantles the cheeks , life sparkles in the eyes , the organs of speech give forth sweet

sounds , and the step is firm and elastic—and the next , the voice is still , the eyes closed , pallor overspreads the countenance , and the spirit has fled from its ruined tenement of clay . Eeleased , disembodied , ifc has sought , and found its own place . He who has exemplified the golden , Masonic virtues of Faith , Hope , and Charity , need fear no translation . He will only go over to the majorityhis spirit will return to God , who gave it .

The mo :. ument to the memory of the late Bro . John Dove , Grand Secretary uf the Grand Lodgo of Virginia , has been " comp leted and paid for . " Bro . James Evans , Grand Lecturer of this Grand Lodge , at the age of eighty years has declined a re-election . Keystone ,