Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

Multum in Parbo , or Masonic Notes and Queries .

—*—I have been informed by members of the Craft that in foreign lodges , under the English Constitution , it is customary to give the E . A . the password and grip of the

F . C . previous to the O . B . being administered , and the same of the M . M . degree to the F . C . Can you inform me if there is any truth in this assertion ? MONTRA .

MASONIC SKETCHES AND REPRINTS . I have not troubled your readers for some weeks , but I cannot help asking your permission to record my public thanks to Bro . W . J . Hughan for his very valuable

contribution to the literature of Masonry . These reprints of documentary evidences , be they for or against the antiquity of the Craft , are worth all the arguments and assertions of individual opinions which have

ever been propounded . Bro . Hughan has placed the Craft under an obligation for the most useful service he has performed ,

and I hope he may render the obligation still more weighty by the publication of a second volume at no distant date . LUPUS .

ANCIENT MSS . STILL ONCE MORE . I notice that your American correspondent , who favoured your readers some weeks since with a criticism of my writing , in which he endeavoured to cast ridicule

upon my mode of argument , now cries out because he finds that his gratuitous observations are not permitted to pass in silence . I , too , appeal to " the impartial and gentle reader , " and shall be content with his

opinion whether any brother who has nothing to say upon the subject in which he interferes ought to publish a criticism like that at page 26 . One " impartial and gentle reader" ( " Beta , " p . 57 ) , has already

expressed a strong opinion on the subject , and , if I mistake not , others will think it far from a complimentary manner of getting rid of an impediment to say that Bro . Cooke ' s use of the word " speculative " is

strained , and apparently for a purpose . " Your correspondent talks about the " rendering " of these words , but your readers will be well aware that in what professes to be a verbatim reprint of a MS ., no "

rendering" can possibly occur . The word " speculative " is either in the MS . or it is not ; and as Bro . Cooke ' s accuracy is now

impeached by way of escaping a difficulty I will take means to ascertain whether thc word is there beyond any mistake . LUPUS .

ST . JOHN THE EVANGELIST AND THE 1717 THEORY ( p . 89 ) . Looking over some numbers of THE FREEMASON , I found at page 89 a few remarks which had previously escaped my

notice , by Bro . W . P . Buchan , under the heading of " St . John the Evangelist and the 1717 Theory . " Bro . Buchan comments upon my remarks on the relation of St , John the Evangelist to Freemasonry ,

which were published in THE FREEMASON of February 4 th , 1871 , on page 68 . He is pleased to say that the author of these remarks " not only shows his ignorance of what the 1717 theory really is , but also

shows his want of observation as to what takes place in the columns of TlIE FREEMASON . " These are sweeping charges , but how are they supported ? By this statement " he implies that the supporters of the 1717 theory denied the connection

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

between St . John and the Masons . " He goes on to say : "Now , that is untrue , for I did the very opposite , asserting that many of the old fifteenth century operativeMasons , like good Catholics , held St . John as their

patron saint , just as the shoemakers held St . Crispin . However , while saying so , I deny that any sixteenth or pre-sixteenth century speculative Mason held St . John as their patron saint , for that was

impossible , simply because no Speculative Freemasons were then in existence . " It must evident to everybody but Bro . Buchan himself that he is here begging the whole question , and arguing from the assumption

that no Speculative Freemasonry existed in the sixteenth century or at an earlier period—for so I suppose the phrase presixteenth century must be understood , although I confess it is new to me , and I am inclined to think it is a new

contribution to the English language . Bro . Buchan must have entirely failed to perceive the drift of my remarks , in which I endeavoured to show that the connection of the Freemasons of the present day with those of the seventeenth and former centuries—their

lineal descent from them , as it may be said—is established by the reverence with which the festival of St . John the Evangelist is regarded in the present times as

much as three or four hundred years ago This is a connecting link of no little importance , showing a similarity which centuries have not been able to obliterate . I

have no intention at , present of recapitulating my argument . But as I do not attempt to settle theque _ i : ionin a summary

manner myself by an off-hand assertion , neither can I acknowledge Bro . Buchan ' s right to do so . CHALMERS I . PAT-ON .

I shall be happy to answer the query of "W . M . " in your impression of nth inst . Having carefully studied the working of our ceremonies , as well as of our various Boards , for the last thirty years , and more

especially the laws and working of the Board of Benevolence and the ceremonial of installing a Master in the chair—and as regards the latter , having in bygone

days performed that ceremony more times than I can now count up—any knowledge I possess on the subject is very much at the service of your correspondent .

" W . M . " asks , " Is it necessary to go through the whole ceremony of installation in the case of a brother who is already a P . M . of another lodge ? " I answer : There

is no necessity . The whole of that portion of the ceremonial which takes place in thc Board of Masters may be , and ought to be , omitted . The remainder of the ceremony should be performed in its entirety .

As I have pen in hand , I take the opportunity of adding that the Craft owes you many thanks for the excellent and full report you have given of tlie unveiling the memorial at Freemasons' Hall . I may be

pardoned for referring to it , because the proceedings of that day and the events connected therewith will surely be engraven on the tablet of my memory . J SAVAGE .

" MASONIC WRITERS AND CORRESPONDENCE . " The paragraph under this head on p . 57 , present volume , will not , I trust , be taken in the sense that all criticism of thc correspondence , annonymous and otherwise , of

THE FREEMASON is inhibited . It is , I believe , by the attrition of opposing minds that even Masonic light , like sparks from flint and steel , is evoked ; and the more persistent the attrition the greater is the

Multum In Parbo, Or Masonic Notes And Queries.

display of such—fireworks . I do not think that any brother who , desirous though he be as well to receive light as to give it , should , in consequence of his production being gratuitous , consider it so royally

hedged about that all criticism of it' must be enjoined . A contributor , whether paid or free , to a public journal , is , I believe , a fair target for every other contributor ; and for one such to threaten as does " Beta " in

the paragraph here noticed , must leave him liable to be interpreted in one of two ways , viz ., that he has attempted to perpetrate a

very dry joke , or he has written himself down in manner as Dogberry desired he should be written for the play in " Midsummer Night ' s Dream . " GAMMA .

THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL FORCES IN MAN ' Man has two forces working within him , the static and the dynamic . The static or moral force is always the same ; the dynamic or intellectual never rests . Both these forces must be

developed , or imperfection will result . The Greeks , Romans , Carthaginians , and now the French , highly exalted and cultivated the intellect , while morals were considered to be of comparatively small importance , and the result

in each case was disaster . The English , Dutch , Americans , Germans , Scandinavians , and Anglo-Saxons generally will be found to have done

more for the progress of civilization than other nations , because in them was found to exist a more perfect balance of the two forces working in humanity . W . P . BUCHAN .

THE ROSICRUCIANS . In THE FREEMASON , page 657 , vol . 3 , your readers were favoured with an extract from an old dictionary of 1776 , " as being the opinion of an author of nearly a century ago " on the old

Society of the Rosicrucians . Immediately after reading it , I turned up my old ditto of 16 94 ( of which I have become the fortunate possessor of two copies ) , and I beg to send you an extract

from it on the same subject , as it may amuse some of your readers , " as being the opinion of an author of nearly two centuries ago . " The spelling and italics are the same : —

" jjosj-rot ! - or Uos . mtfi'ins , called also the Inlightened , Immortal and Invisible . This was given to a certain Fraternity or Cabal which appcar'd in Germany in the beginning of this age ; those who are admitted thereunto called

the brethren , or Rosecrucians , swear Fidelity , promise Secrecy , write Enigmatically or in Character , and oblige themselves to observe the Laws of that Society which hath for its End the reestablishing of all Disciplines and Sciences , and

especially Physick , which according to their notion is not understood , and but ill-practised they boast they have excellent Secrets , whereof the Philosopher ' s Stone is the least ; and they hold , That the ancient Philosophers of Egypt ,

the Chaldccans , Magi of Persia , and Gymnosophists of the Indies have taught but what they themselves teach . They affirm , That in 1378 , a Gentelman of Germany , whose name is not known but by these two letters A . C , being put

in a Monastery , had learnt the Greek and Latin Tongue , and that some time after going into Palestine he fell sick at Damascus , where having heard speak of the Sages of Arabia , he consulted them at Damear , where they had an University .

It's added that these wise Arabians saluted him by his name , taught him their Secrets , and that the German , after he had travelled a long t : ..-, returned into his own Country : where

associating with some Companions he made them Heirs of his Knowledge , and died in 1484 . These Brothers hacl their successors till 1604 , when one of the Cabal found the Tomb ofthe first of

them with divers Devices , Characters , and Inscriptions thereon ; the principal of which contained these four Letters in Gold A . C . R . E . and a Parchment-Book written in golden letters , with the Eulogies of that pretended Founder .