The Prospects Of Masonic Literature.

THE PROSPECTS OF MASONIC LITERATURE .

Summer is upon us all , and another half year of Masonic literary work , has been reached and passed by . It seems to us a good opportunity then to review the past , and discount

the future . And though the progress we have made be somewhat like that of the march of the tortoise , it is nevertheless progress , and if slow , let us hope sure . We have to thank

an increased number of readers for kindly support tj The Freemason , and we are glad to hear the same , and to be able to report the same , of our monthly contemporary , The Masonic

Magazine . It would indeed have been a grave reflection on English Freemasons , and English Freemasonry , if these , our only two Masonic periodicals , should have failed for want of

Masonic aid , or English fraternal sympathy . Now we want to put the matter as simply and as concisely as we can before the common sense , and calm appreciation of our readers .

Many of our good brethren talk and act as if Masonic publications were the most lucrative investment in the world , and Masonic journalism required no aid . But the truth is , Masonic

literary efforts have never yet succeeded , from a purely financial point of view . They would not be regarded a favourable investment in the

City , and all Masonic publishers have had to cater for a very limited circle of readers . Either our brethren have no time , or they cannot devote sufficient attention to Masonic

literature , for until Bro . Kenning took up the literary contest so to say , in the name of the entire Order , the competitors in the arena were few , and universally unsuccessful . And therefore

with another half year , we think it well to ask our friends to help us by extending the circulation of The Freemason , amidst the lodges first of all , and then amidst the brethren . If every

English lodge took a copy weekly , that would form a good basis for the subscribers' list , and it would be an encouragement and inducement tojour enterprising publisher to make still other efforts

in the good cause of literary improvement , and Masonic light . Having said this , we again thank our many readers for their kind and

cheering support , and we trust that our continuous eftbrts will prove that we are alike grateful for the past , and hopeful for the future .

Masonic Archæology.

MASONIC ARCH ? OLOGY .

Bro . Geo . Bake , Deputy Controller in the War Department , has shown us very kindly a most interesting Chinese image , in yellow jade which , in his opinion , may perhaps

represent Confucius , and which bears on it a long apron in red , tied round the waist by golden cords and tassels , and on which are clearl y to be seen the Masonic square , and what is evidently

intended for the double triangle . The square separates the two triangles . On this apron , painted in red , the square being in jade , and

the triangles gilt , are also to be seen seven stars , and what have the appearance at the bottom of two pillars . There are also some

Masonic Archæology.

Chinese Marks gilt on the apron . One great peculiarity of this statuette is , that , images in yellow jade are very scarce indeed , and date from a long antiquity . The

green jade has not been worked lor some centuries into images , and the yellow jade was given up long anterior to the time when the working in green jade began . This { act gives to the

statuette a hoary antiquity , and renders it of the greatest interest and value to all Masonic students . It was taken , with other statuettes , by a French officer on the Staff of General Count

Palikao from the Summer Palace of the Emperor , when the allied armies entered Pekin . These statuettes were sold in Dublin to a friend of Bro . Bake , who discovered the Masonic emblems on this statuette alone . The

person represented by the statuette must evidently have been a high personage , as he bears under his right arm the stone of honour , which is only presented by the Emperor of China to

persons of great celebrity . We believe that Bro . Bake would kindly allow the statuette to be seen by Masonic students at

198 , Fleet-street . Brethren wishing to see it , had betfer ; however , communicate with the Editor , who will make an arrangement with Bro . Bake .

The True Mission Of Freemasonry.

THE TRUE MISSION OF FREEMASONRY .

There have been , there still are , many opinions now among Masons , as to what is the true mission of Freemasonry . Probably we shall not be doing any wrong if we reduce them to-day ,

for the purpose of our present argument to two principal ones , which may not unfairly be termed the Foreign view and the English view . Wc pass

over necessarily m saying this , and laying down such a basis for our present consideration , many of those fancy views , if we may so call them , which have from time to time either startled

society or amused mankind . Freemasonry , like anything else that is not clearly understood of men , has had its dogmatic professors , its " veiled prophets , " and its calumnious critics . But it

also generally happens , however , much its dogmatic professors , to use an old and a vile joke , have "barked , " their " outcome , " has been rather the yelping of curs than of thorough-bred

Freemasons j they have often been ignorant of the first principles of the great science they piofessed so carefully to unfold , they have not added one iota of knowledge , or lent one gleam of light

to the order , and they have for the most part left the subject , by their very treatment of it , darker and more mysterious than it was before ! We have had—we are not without still some " veiled

prophets , not of " Khorassan " but of Freema ¦ nry ; who , by the use of a few pet phrases of r . ondite verbiage , and a jargen which is a com und of mysticism and credulity , explain

what needs no explanation , and leave an utter enigma what is , in truth , susceptible of an easy and simple explanation . While our calumnious

critics , many of old , as now , complacently affect to treat a subject of which they are utterly ignorant , and as they are ignorant of what they profess to open out clearly to all men , they are

The True Mission Of Freemasonry.

very often abusive , and , being both ignorant and abusive , they , one and all , end , as some of us will remembfir , in mendacious calumny ! Well , we leave out to-day all these professors , and mystics ,

and calumniators , and we look at the two great views , divergent and antagonistic , though they necessarily be , of Freemasonry . Let us take the Foreign view first . Without troubling ourselves

with possible modifications or variations , let us assume this to be , as no doubt it is , the popular view of many foreign Masonic writers . Masonry to them , wheresoever it has sprung from , whence

it is derived , is a great eclectic system , which , rejecting all other known religious and denominational views , is the one great school of illuminating philosophy and of moral elevation , and

psychological training for man . With such it admits a belief in God and the immortality ] of the soul , ( though this even is denied by some , ) but beyond this it does not profess to go , and

hence , as a natural consequence , where such views prevail the use and value of J the bible in the lodges are often seriousl y questioned . To this view is superadded the expansive idea of a

community or brotherhood in Masonry , which . s to absorb all others , to extend universally and [ o educate and elevate the human race . Thus with such exalted notions of what Freemasonry

is , and what it is meant to be , many writers have gone so far as to term Freemasonry the " true p hilosophy , " the " great brotherhood / the " moral elevator , " the " spiritual teacher and

guide of man . ' We are , in this country , very practical , as a general rule , anJ we have sometimes to come down from ths lofty summits of foreign teaching on this and kindred subjects , to

our own humbler level of common sense and reality . We think that in advancing such a view of Freemasonry as we have laid before our readers , those good brethren , who so write and think

are losing themselves in what is ideal and purely theoretical , instead of dealing with what is actual and evidential . We confess we have always been of opinion , and advancing years

have only served to strengthen our original conviction , that , it is unwise , on well known principles of thought and action ever to attempt to claim too widely or to prove too much . Our English

view is we think a far safer view , and more defensible by us to-day . We look upon Freemasonry as a great world-wide Order , of ancient date and peculiar organization . It extends all over

the world , and we all rejoice to be considered brethren of the same one great family . It is founded , we believe , on that great principle which pervades the most divine of all prayers ,

namely the recognition of the Universal Father , and it excludes none from its lodges , except the actual unbeliever or the openly immoral . Thus Christians , Hebrews , Hindoos , Mahomedans ,

Parsees , are all , and can be rreemasons , and no religious views " par excellence" bar any from joining Freemasonry . But beyond this Freemasonry does not profess to go . It inculcates

no dogmas , and it lays down no canons . It places before us the Bible , the inspired word of God , as the rule of our life , and the test of our

practice , and it enjoins us to conform our outward steps , and our daily course , to the divine precepts the Best of Books contains . But Freemasonry with us has neither philosophical