Random Notes And Reflections.

is not so reliable as the latter , although we by no means despise the oral transmission of facts , fancies , and theories , from age to age . We owe a good deal that is esteemed of

the highest value to such means . If Bro . Lambert relies upon minutes taken and recorded , it would be an easy task to search out all the facts relating to the time of which

they speak . Now , with regard to Bro . Stephen Barton Wilson , we think if Bro . Lambert will take the trouble he will find that Bro . Wilson was a member of the Percy Lodge of Instruction , and that his name is recorded as

having attended , if he did not superintend its working . The inference is , that interested as Bro . Wilson was in the ritual that bears his name , he would take every opportunity of vihiting all the Lodges of Instruction within his reach ,

a task far easier in his day than now . Then the number was comparatively few , now they are many indeed . Nothing is more feasible than that he would seek to lea ? e

the impress of his own thoughts and style upon such a body of earnest workers as the Percy Lodge of Instruction . It is , therefore , more than probable that he did visit the Lodge in question , and did identify himself with its work .

Bro . Lambert says the real Simon Pure was Brother Peter Gilkes . He it was who founded the ritual now used in the Emulation Lodge of Improvement , of which Brother Wilson was a Preceptor . The two are thus linked

together very closely . But . Brother L mbert goes farther , and states that Brother Gilkes was the Preceptor of the Percy Lodge of Instruction , and adds the very gratifying

piece of news that his pupils presented him with a gold jewel of the value of a hundred guineas . Still , that does not alter the claim made for Brother Wilson . Both u ^ ed

the same system—the latter being really the teacher of the system founded by Brother Gilkes himself . We are of course accepting Brother Lambert ' s statements as correct . — : o : — There can be no mistake about the jewel , for it is still

in existence , the pride of the Percy Lodge , and the cherished inheritance of Bro . Lambert himself . He says Bro . Gilkes " willed the jewel to Bro . Geo . W . Roht . Key , who left it on his decease to me . I permit the Master of

the Percy Lodge to wear it as the Master ' s Badge for the time being , and the jewel is now in my possession . It is the Master ' s and the Past Master ' s jewels , surrounded by a framework of brilliants , the square powdered with close

set rose diamonds . " We cannot tell what Bro . Lamberts intentions are with respect to the future disposal of the jewel . We are certain he is too good a Mason to allow such a splendid gift to lie idle in hidden security . It

represents a system of working ; it was given to a brother who was the beloved Preceptor of the Percy Lodge of Instruction ; it is now permitted to adorn the breast of the W . M . of the mother Lodge , and , subject to Bro . Lambert ' s discretion , its home should be in the Lodge for ever .

Epochs.

EPOCHS .

EPOCHS seem to sit down to a certain task . Not all forms ot industry are pnrsned with equal thought and fervour . Even had pin aDd vice not entered into the nature and problems nf society , we should still have had a progress of impnbers and of idleness ; for as good men are creatures of inspiration and of repose and lapsit . nde , so good nations would have advanced by unequal steps . Man , sinful or holy , is of varying enthusiasm , and may dash onward for a

timp , and then bo smitten with the spirit of peace . The best souls have a flow and ebb like tho sea . Sin and vice have modified the phenomena of mankind , but tbey have not created them . By decree of his Maker man hurls himself onward and then rests . Bence all . socie'y presents the two scenes of amazing industry and amazing inaction . It is probable that as the mind advances the hours of

idleness will diminish in number , and those great deserts in history , on which no live or sweet tiling grew , will be narrowed , and the area of life and veidm c will bo correspondingly enlarged . Best will never be displaced , for it is that condition of contrast which is demanded in all the pictures of moral beauty . We could as easily think of light without shade as of labour without repose .

The Hebrew age , with lis Moses at one end and its Jesns Christ at the other , was man at a special task . Egypt and other adjoining nations were busy over tho same general work , that of struggling with the mysteries of religion . Tho nations were all theocracies , the philosophies theologies , and the sciences were all colonred with the

supernatuial , and most of the learned men were priests . The a * r » ud land and sea were in the possession of superhuman creatures ful of evil or good . In that long day the foundations of worship wen slowly but deeply laid . The human mind , unable to do two thiug .-at the same time , uuable to serve two masters , was faithful to a certain study of the invincible , and negleoted many possible paths that

Epochs.

it might ornament and measure and freqnenfc a favourite road . Ifc was a via sacra for many generations . Egypt built ohiefly temples because God was the theme of most thought ; it embalmed tho dead of mankind and of the domestio animals because its mind was possessed hv the hereafter of the forms of life . Meanwhile the snn-wors'n ' ppers were as busy over their forms of

inqniry and worship and belief . Their temples are among the most impressive ruins upon earth . Those tremendous aggregations of steps and platforms and columns arose in the name of a moral system that resembled that of the New Testament of later date . The oldest parts of the Zend Avesta lie alongside the best days of Egypt and Judea . Prom what we can learn in history , man first toiled in the field of

religion and left nntonrhed many areas of thought and feeling upon the right and left . This made np a great day in the construction of society . Tho moaning and evening brought about a great result . The classic nations were just as incapable of doing several works at one time ; and accepting of the religious toil undergone by others , thev concentrated npon the beautiful . They carried onward the arts ,

including literature as an art . Greece became a noble specialist . It discovpred many laws of taste , it applied mnny . It is not probable that Egypt or Judea or Persia , could paint a good portrait , or hew out a symmetrical statute , or write a good pnem , or construct a great oration , or compose a complete tragedy . Greece ns muoh founded the fine arts as Jerusalem founded religion or the Romans the

principles of law . Greece studied the human face and form . And having reached a conception of the eternal beauty it demanded that by means of exercise and diet and manners , its living men and women should be specimens of grace and power . Following her special sense Greece fashioned a literatnre as fnll of grace a 3 wera her statnes and columns , and she had as many poets as painters , as mnny ihvthmieal ora'ors as skilled scnlptors . Her statesmen were

literati , her generals were soholars and students , her war was part of her finp art . Her evening and morning were another day in the sublime drama of creation . In those long and rich hours something arose np out of the face of the great deep —something beautiful , not destined to sink again , bnt to be the property of the human family for ever . The beautiful in Rome was a continuation of Greece , and the beautiful which re-appearpd under the Medici family was only a resurrection of the sonl of Athens .

It may be the special calling of our age to act as a reviewer of all the past . The thousands of years gone have thrown together an immense quantity of things . The quality of much iB poor , of much good . Perhaps this is a day of reckoning and of general review—a preparation for a new advance . Ifc is , at least , difficult to believe that a century so full of liberty and edneation and power is ' oot upon

any trifling errand . In mind and energy the greatest of all periods it must contain within its hidden heart a mission worthy of its power . A part of its task evidently may be found in its ability to subject the forces of nature to the uses of man . It is helping man master the powers of the land and sea and air . It is making fifty years equal to a hnndred of the older times . Each modern life is equal to

at least two old lives as lived in the seventeenth century . If our age is now making the physical powers to spring forward equal to the new intellect it is living a worthy life . The moruing and evening are making another day , and the Creator will call it good . Thus in outline a moral creation is seen as now taking place . We are all in the midst of the sublime scene carrying onward the tnsk

and carried also by it toward a far off destiny . We shall not live here to see the conclusion of the whole tumult and to join in any perfect triumph ; but to look down upon such pageants must be a reason and joy of immortality . God is still creating the moral world . Each Nation has been the hurling forward of a similar column . No part of the living host

retrents as beaten . The advance is in successive waves . As in the further north the white and red shafts of the Aurora begin in the evening to shoot upward a little above the horizon , and withdraw only to climb still higher as the hours pass , and after long reaching and binding meet iu the zenith and form an impressive crown , so

these many branches of mortal thought and love and action are cast forward and upward , all pointing to some final glory of man and God . All the worthy children of God will see the matchless splendour of the mind and soul , for God is not a God of the dead , but of the living . Iu Eim all live . —Masonic Review .

On Saturday last there died at Leytonstone , in Essex , a Freemason who wi 1 be remembered by the brethren as worthy of all the honour that Lodges and Chapters have conferred upon him . Thomas Barfoid , who then , in his 54 fch year , ceased to exist , was a member of whom the Fraternity may justly be proud . His original social position was of the very humblest ; he had no one to assist him ; and yet , by

intelligence , industry , honesty , and perseverance , he became a man of considerable importance , influeuce , and wealth . Of quiet , retired , and nnassuming manners , he pursued hiscalliDg with seemingly no desire to assert himself , while his geniality and liberality won for him friends who saw that in all he did there was no self-seeking . He was

a Past Master and one of the oldest members of the Constitutional Lodge , No . 55 , and , besides this , he belonged to other Lodges , as well as Royal Arch Chapter . He was a supporter of all the Masonic Institutions , and was a living and moving spirit in every Masouic association with which he identified himself . —Evening News .

HOLIOWAY ' S PIM . S . —Indigestion , Stomach , and Liver Complaints . —Persons suffering from any derangements of 'he liver , stomach , or the organs ot digestion should have recourse to Holloway ' s Pills , as there is no medicine known that acts on these particular complaints with such certain succsss . IU eculiar properties purify and regulate the circulation , strengthen the stomach , to

incre » se the appetite and rouse the sluggish licer It is invaluab ' e lyspeptics , restoring tho patient to the s-ninclest health and strength . These preparations may be used at all times aud in all climates by persons affecteu by biliousness , flatulency , coiie , nausea , or disordered liver j for heartburn , water . pangs , aDd sick-headaches , they are specifics . Indeed , no ailment of tne digestive organs can long resist their purifying and corrective powers .