Qualifications For Office.

the power of Avell considering the matter , for ifc AA as not i : the boyish days of my youth , but at the more mature age of twenty-five or tAventy-six years . I did not take it up as a light and trivial matter , but as a grave and serious concern of my life . I Avorknd my way diligently , passing throuG'h all the different offices of Junior and Senior

Warden , Master of Lodge , then Deputy Grand Master , until I finally closed it by the proud station I have now the honour to hold . Therefore , having studied it , having reflected upon it , I know the A'alno oi tho institution ; ancl I may venture to say that in all my transactions through

hie , the rules and principles laid down and prescribed by our Order have been , to the best of my faculties , strictly folloAved . " If so eminent a Mason did not disdain to qualify himself for the responsibilities of office , it cannot be unwise in members of inferior rank to fit themselves also

for such posts as they may aspire to fill . Our rulers should be distinguished by superior knowledge , greater intellectual refinement , and greater prudence . But , to attain this superior knoAvledge , they must study unceasingly . Then perhaps they will be Avorthy officers—Avorthy , that is , in the sense of capable ; but not till then or otherwise .

Enthusiasm And Masonry.

ENTHUSIASM AND MASONRY .

A COLD blooded person , who is determined not to be cordially in love Avith anything , is usually a determined enemy of enthusiasm . He considers it a decidedl y un-English characteristic , and , in his estimation , those people who permit themselves to bo carried away by their

likes or dislikes are to be carefully avoided . He has no part or lot Avith them . The questions Avhich excite the feelings of the sanguine section of society haA'o no charms for him . Ho cannot be enthusiastic about the last new

play , or the last new prima donna at the Opera House . He cares nothing for the merits or demerits of a new book , or for the latest contributions to science . If some great light of the scientific Avorld should suddenly attempt to reverse the fundamental truths of physics he would care

nothing . If it could bo proved that the earth is as flat as a trencher , and not the oblate spheroid AVC know ifc to he , he Avould eat his breakfast with calm equanimity , and con over the births and deaths in the Times Avith the lordl y indifference of a man to Avhom matters of this kind were

of no moment . People of this stamp invariably imagine that this attitude of mind is a sign of superior mental endowments . Those believe they stand upon a moral platform , far above the heads of the vulgar croAvd , for Avhose aims ancl hopes or fears they entertain a genuine disdain .

The misfortune , too , is that this cynical indifference , Avhether real or affected , is growing upon society in our large cities . It is undoubtedly an eminently youthful failing , but it cannot be denied that some men , not youthful , Avho pass for being wise , are as cold-blooded as the

typical Englishman in a French play . Where coldbloodedness is conspicuous in youth it generally arises either from brutality , affectation , priggishness or disappointment . Nothing is more common than to hoar a young puppy , fresh from his mother ' s apron strings ,

sneering at everything that men of true metal hold dear . He has perhaps just acquired the art of smoking a mild cigar Avithoufc suffering physical inconvenience ; of life he knoAVS little or nothing beyond what he has picked up at second hand from his elders . Yet he affects to a roue upon

town , and to be so satiated Avith its pleasures and its vices that he can afford to speak with sneering contempt of everything in the nature of amusement . He does not know dry from sweet champagne , but he talks of " fizz " Avith the air of a man who has , in his time , drunk buckets full of

the genuine article . He drinks his diluted Hambro' spirit under the impression that it is sherry , and talks of his taste for dry wines , Avhen , in truth , he does not know bottled cider from sparkling Hock , or red ink from claret . He has , he tells yon , "seen life to the dregs , " an expression

Avhich , Avhen translated into English , moans that he knows tAvo fighting men , one music hall comic singer , and is on speaking terms ' Avith the cads AVIIO haunt the restaurants and billiard rooms of London . He is a member of a club ,

of coarse , the head quarters of Avhich are located somc-Avhere in the Strand , ancl here he smokes his bad cigar .-:, and occasionall y takes part in a rubber of whist . The members of the club , by the bye , are chiefly of the cad

Enthusiasm And Masonry.

' ype ; they are very much bocuffed ancl bejewelled , wear .. iothes of a loud cut , ancl rejoice in hats of the most resplendent brilliancy . If it has ever been your fortune / or misfortune , to get info a circle of this kind yon will find that yon havo entered upon a world in which the code of ofchics and the notions of honour are Avidelv different to

those ideas Avhich prevail m our dull , old-msliioned sphere Honour , in the sense of being- truthful , exact in the duties of life , and courteous to the fair sex , is travestied by a burlesque , the loading points of Avhich are the reverse of these old-fashioned marks of the gentleman . These

young felloAvs rarely speak of a Avoman without libelling her , or of a tradesman without rejoicing over the fact that these persons are green enough to trust their goods to those who never pay . They will talk of " rubbing a good lie " into a troublesome dun with all the effrontery of men

in Avhose eyes truthfulness is a quality only becoming in clowns or simpletons . They talk of " going on the loose " for a month or two at a stretch , and in the same breath boast of their muscles , and of the ease Avith which they might recover all their old strength and agility if they

Avere to go " into training " for a Aveek or two . One Avill boast that ho has fought a glove fight Avith a blackguard professional for a prize of ten pounds , aud has Avon it . Another brags of his intrigues with the vilest creatures noon toAvn , Avhile a third talks of that mvstcrious land

upon the borders of respectability , Avhere eads , in congenial company , reign supreme . This is no overdrawn or imaginary picture , every outline and tint is from the life . A large section of the young men of this groat city are going hurriedly to ruin by a most A ulgar road ,

ancl there is no poAver on earth that can stop them . The vast increase of Avoalth in this country has brought to tho surface of society a vile scum bearing all tho outward signs of respectability ancl all the inward marks of the savage ancl the rough . An educated ruffian is probably the most

repulsive of all the beings that bear the outward semblance of men . The training of school or college has given them a thin varnish , which , unlike the veneer of a better system of culture , does not even hide the coarse texture of their natures . Tho educated brute has enough knowledge

to speak grammatically and Avith a tolerable accent . He knoAvs how to swindle iu the city , and how to speculate on 'Change . He may bo able to converse in two or three European languages , but ho is unacquainted with the

literature of any language . His mind is dead to all ideas of beauty in its highest manifestations , to every lofty aspiration , and to all those higher domestic sentiments Avhich do so much to ennoble ancl refine the intellect . He

never speaks ot marriage without contempt , and virtue , a woman ' s greatest glory , he regards as an idle delusion of the l ! goody-goody" Avritcrs of an almost forgotten school of fiction . Manliness , as he understands it , is a compound of blackguardism aud meanness , mendacity ancl

sharporism . His idol is a creature Avho cheats in the city , and makes a " pot of money , " Avhich he spends upon racing ' , and in the coarsest sensuality . If the majority of Englishmen were like beings of this description , AVO might , indeed , mourn over the decline , ancl

approaching fall of a great people . If enthusiasm Avere dead , if all the noble impulses of humanity had passed from our midst , those islands Avould soon fall a prey to tho first brigand poAver on the continent that cared to annex them . Happily , there is yet salt enough in the country

to keep us SAveet . There is si ill enthusiasm left amongst us . Some of us , at least , live as if life Avere a mission , and as though there Avere a God above to weigh the deeds of humanity in His eternal scales . It is a positive relief to turn from the contemplation of the hells and slums of

the town , and enter , in imagination , one of those noble temples of Freemasonry Avhich still keep tho flame of brotherly love burning brightly . Here , nb all events , Ave meet Avith men , the object of whoso association is a noble one ; AVIIO aro enthusiastic in the cause of a brotherhood

Avhich comprehends men of every colour and creed , AVIIO have hearts to feci for the suffering and the opprcs ? ed , and Avhose Avatchwords arc Charity , in its broadest sense , Sympathy in its Avidosfc and most far reaching aspect , and Truth as a thing to be loved for its own sake . There may ,

indeed , be men in our midst who do not live up to the high code of ethics which is taught in the Lodge , but a good man is the better tor being a Mason , while many a , weak brot ! u : r has Colt his faltering impulses !<> . g «> . l strengthened merely by breathing the atmosphere of a high and pure morality . No man can be a good Mason