The Ethics Of Visiting.

the call and admit the visitor at an early hour , when the exigencies of the work do not forbid it . Between the visitor aud visited there stands an important officer—the Tyler . Primarily he represents the Masonic body whose door he tyles , bnt secondarily he owes the

performance of important duties to every brother with whom he is officially brought in contact . In fact , he is the visible head of the Lodge . It is within , he is without , ancl it is , to a large degree , under his control . Every brother who addresses him , and bespeaks his kind offices , is entitled to receive them . He is the servant of the Craft . We use

this term in no invidious sense , for we are all servants ; but he specially owes to visiting brethren that fraternal acknowledgment of their greeting , aud that prompt and reasonable response to their Masonic request , that every brother owes to another when one is in authority , and the

other under his authority , and at the same time having certain well-defined rights . We are convinced that few Tylers transgress in this respect ; but none should . They are stationed at the outer door as the representatives of the Masonic bodies they tyle . The dignity and utility of these

bodies are , so far as tbe visitors are concerned , in their keeping . If they neglect to perform their dnties , or needlessly delay the applicant for admission , they do injustice no less to the dignity of their own place than to that of

the Lodge and the visitor . The prompt , courteous and attentive performance of duty in this regard is not only right and proper , but it reflects credit on the individual , the office , and the Lodge .

The profane world has the habit of saying " not at home" when any unwelcome visitor calls , or it is inconvenient to receive an otherwise welcome one . There is no

not at home m Masonry . If we are anything we are a band of brothers . He who professes his willingness to go out of his -way to aid a distressed worthy brother ought above all to receive him with wide-open hand when he comes in his way , and especially to see him .

Another truth in this connection is worth remembering . A visiting brother is entitled to more than twelve inches square , or any other number of inches square , of seat-room in a Lodge . He is entitled to more than to be let alone for a whole evening . Courtesy does not end at the door of the

Lodge . There should follow the cordial word of welcome , the bidding to be " at home " while in their midst , and not only at entering , but thereafter , when occasion permits , there shonld be tbat sociability which above everything

else gives zest to a visit by a strange brother , and causes him to remember with feelings of supreme pleasure the hour he spent with his brethren of the Mystic Tie . It is a very easy thing to treat a visiting brother fraternally , from tbe moment that he knocks at the door to the time

he leaves the Lodge , but it has a very large result . It blesses both giver and receiver . It proves Freemasonry to be no empty theory , no lofty impractical ideal , but

something which is truly and best exemplified in practice , ever displaying a courtesy as free as Freemasonry itself , and as substantial as the material masonry that gave birth and name to our glorious Fraternity . —Keystone .

The English Rite Of Freemasonry.

THE ENGLISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY .

( Continued from page 180 . ) WE remarked , at the conclusion of our last paper , that Chapter II ., entitled " Investigations on the Third Degree , " must be looked upon as supplementary to Chapter I ., and contains a great mass of interesting information . Having stated emphatically his opinion that the " trilex

p division" of our Rite dates from about 1717 , and having justified himself in the expression of this opinion by quotations to a like effect from Lyon , Gould , and others , Bro . Hnghan sets himself to the task of producing , from various sources , such references to the third degree as are

apposite to the question . The first in point of time is contained in the General Regulations of 1721 , compiled by M . W . p ast Grand Master Payne , the year 1721 being , curiousl y enough , the same in which Dr . Desaguliers is said

by Lyon to have visited Mary ' s Chapel and communicated to the members a knowledge of the ceremonial of the Degree . The words of Regulation XIII . are , A pprentices must be admitted Masters and Fellow drafts only here "—that is , the Quarterly Communica-

The English Rite Of Freemasonry.

tion— " unless by a dispensation ; " but the Regulation did uot long remain in foive , as , in tho Grand Lodge M : iutes of 27 th November 1725 , it is recorded , that " a motion being made that such part of tho 13 th Article of tho General Regulations relating to the making of Masters only

at a Quarterly Communication may be repealed , and that the Master of each Lodge , with the consent of his Wardens , awl the majority of the brethren being Masters , may make Masters at thoir discretion . Agreed to nam con . " As we havo already pointed out—and Bro . Hnghan

is of tho same opinion—this does not suggest a very great antiquity for the degree . The author nexfc quotes from the version given by Dormott in the " Ahiman Rezon , " the edition from which the quotation is made being the thirdof the year 1778 . The passage reads thus : " About the

year 1717 some joyous companions , who had passed the degree of a Craft , though very rusty , resolved to form a Lodge for themselves , in order , by conversation , to recollect what had been formerly dictated to them , or , if that should be found impracticable , to substitute

something new , which might for the future pass for Masonry amongst themselves . After this meeting the question was asked whether any person in tho assembly knew the Master ' s part , and being answered in the negative , it was resolved nem con that the deficiency should bo made up

with a new composition , and what fragments of the old Order found amongst them should be immediately reformed , and made more pliable to tho humours of the people . " In a note to this statement Dermott gives the names of the " geniuses " —eight in number— " to whom the world is

indebted for the memorable invention of modern Masonry . " In 1881 , however , Bro . Gould made the important discovery that these eight brethren—whose names appear in precisely the same order both in this edition of the " Ahiman

Rezon , " and Anderson ' s 1738 Edition of the Constitutions—were present , not at a meeting held in 1717 , but at the occasional Lodge at Kew in 1737 at which H . R . H . Frederick Prince of Wales was initiated and Crafted .

Tbe next reference to the Degree is contained in a work entitled " Philo Musicce et Architecture Societas , " which was presented to the British Museum in 1859 , the dates of the circumstances recorded being anterior to that of the minute of Grand Lodge sanctioning the conferring of the

Second and Third Degrees in subordinate Lodges . We give the passage in full as quoted by Bro . Hughan : " On the eighteenth day of February this Society was Founded and Begun at the Queen ' s Head , near Temple Barr , By ns the Eight underwritten , seven of which did

belong to tbe Lodge at tbe Queen ' s Head in Hollis Street , and were made Masons There In a just and perfect Lodge , viz ., Mr . Willm . Gulston , Merchant , & Mr . Edmund Squire , Gent ., were made Masons the 15 th of December , 1724 , By Mr . Thomas Bradbury , Master of the said Lodge . Coort

Knevit , Esqr ., ancl Mr . William Jones , Gent ., were made Masons the 22 nd of December , 1724 , by His Grace tbe Dnke of Richmond , Grand Master , who then constituted the Lodge . Mr . Papitton Ball , mercht ., and Seigr , Francesso Xanerio Germiniani were made Masons the

1 st of February , 1724 . Mr . Thomas Marshall , Gent ., was made a Mason at the George in Long Acre some time before . Tho said Mr . William Gulston , Coort Knevit , Esq ., Mr . William Jones , and Mr . Edmund Squire were Regularly pass'd Masters in the before mentioned Lodge of

Hollis Street , and before we founded this Society , a Lodge was held , consisting of Masters sufficient for that purpose , In order to pass Charles Cotton , Esq ., Mr . Papitton Ball , and Mr . Thomas Marshall Fellow Crafts . In the performance of which Mr . William Gulston acted as Senior

Warden . Immediately after which , vizt . —the 18 th Day of February , A . D . 1724 , lie , the said Mr . Willm . Gulston was chosen President of the said Society . " Other parti , culars are quoted , but they are of less material consequence .

Passing over the theory suggested by Brother Hyde Clarke , we nexfc come to some quotations given by Bro . Woodford from the Byelaws of a Lodge about 1730 preserved in the Rawlinson MSS . in the Bodleian Library at Oxford . The first reads thus : " 3 . Two pounds seven

shillings at his making , and received double clothing . Also , when this lodge shall think convenient to confer the Superior Degree of Masonry upon him , he shall pay five

shillings more . " The same Bro . Woodford then gives the following regulation made by a Lodge on the 5 th January , 1731-2 , namely , " That all and every person or persons recommended and accepted as above shall pay for his or