Table Of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Aids to Study 3 Bro . Lcssing and his Conversations 3 CORRESPONDENCE : Practical Freemasonry 3 Masonic Notes and Queries 3 21

Masonic Tidings 3 POET it Y : — Lilac Blossoms 3 American Indian Festivals 3 21 Illustrations of the History of the Craft 3 22

CRAFT M ASONRY : — isretropolitan 3 2 4 Provincial 3 2 4 District Grand Lodge of Bengal 33 S ROYAI . ARCH : —

Pro \ incial 3 z 5 Scotland 3 > RED CROSS OP C ONSTASTINI : : — Scotland 32 ( i

The Widow ' s Mite 326 The Freemasons' Hall , Liverpool 326 Masonic Meetings for next week 326 Advertisements 317 , 318 , 327 , 328

Aids To Study.

AIDS TO STUDY .

BY BRO . WM . CARPEXTKR , P . M . & P . Z . 177 . IV . In my former paper , on the diversities presented in the human family , I used , as is the

custom , the word Races , as designating the several varieties of mankind . The term , however , is not only vague , but is calculated to convey an erroneous idea ; namely , that they are distinct

species of a genus , and not forms and varieties of a single species . As Alexander Von Humboldt observes ( Cosmos , Sabine ' s translation , vol . 1 , p . 3 < i ) , ' -Whilst attention was exclusively

directed to the extremes of colour and of form , the result of the first vivid impressions derived from the senses was a tendency to view those differences as characteristic , not of mere varieties

but of originally distinct species . The permanence of certain types , in the midst of the most opposite influences , especially of climate , appeared to favour this view , notwithstanding the shortness of the time to which the historical

evidence applied . But , as I have previously intimated , more powerful reasons , as they have been exhibited and illustrated by the authorities I named in a former paper , lend their weight to

the other side of the question , and corroborate the unity of the human race . I may add , that Humboldt , uniting his testimony to that of other illustrious men , who have made this branch of

science the object of profound and extended study , refers to the many intermediate gradations of the tint of the skin and the form of the skull , which have been made known to us b y the rapid

progress of geographical science ; to the analogies derived from the history of varieties in animals , both domestic and wild ; and to the positive observations collected respecting the limits of

fecundity in h ybrids ; and then he remarks , that " the greater part of the supposed contrasts , to which so much wei ght was formerly assigned , have disappeared before the laborious investigations of Tiedemann , on the brain of negroes and

Aids To Study.

Europeans , and the anatomical researches of Vrolik and Weber on the form of the pelvis . " I have , however , no intention of entering into a discussion of this subject , though most

interesting and tempting . My object here , as it will be in all the papers I may be permitted to contribute , as Aids to Stud ; -, is to indicate the subjects which appear to mc to demand the special attention of

Freemasons , and to point out the best sources of information relating to them , rather than to put forward my own views , though I may incidentally do this . But I may add to what I have

already said , that by maintaining the unity ol the human species , and regarding the different races , as they are popularly called , as only forms and varieties of a single species , we repel the

cheerless assumption of superior and inferior races of men , and of slavery being an institution of nature , as it stands developed in Aristotle ' s Politica . "If , " in the words of Wilhelm Von

Humboldt , " we would point to an idea which all history , throughout its course discloses , as ever establishing more firmly , and extending more widely its salutary empire—if there is one

idea which , more than any other , contributes to the often contested , but still more often misunderstood , perfectibility of the whole human species —it is the idea of our common humanity :

tending to remove the hostile barriers which prejudices and partial views of every kind have raised between men , and to cause all mankind , without distinction of religion , nations or colour , to be

regarded as one great fraternity—aspiring" towards one common aim , the free development of their moral faculties . This is the ultimate and highest object of society ; it is also the direction planted

in man ' s nature , leading towards the indefinite expansion of his inner being . He regards the earth and the starry heavens as inwaully his own ,

g iven to him for the exercise of his intellectual and physical activity . The child longs to pass the hills or the waters which surround his native

dwelling , and the wish indulged , but as the bent tree springs back to its first form of growth , he longs to return to the home which lie had left ; for b y a double aspiration after the nnknewn future and

the forgotten past—after that which he desires , and that which he has lost—man is preserved , by a beautiful and touching instinct , from an exclusive attachment to that which is present .

Deepl y rooted in man ' s inmost nature , as well as commanded by his highest tendencies , the full recognition of the bond of humanity , of the community of the whole human race , with the

sentiments and sympathies which spring therefrom , become a leading principle in the history of man . Falling back now upon the varieties which present themselves in the great family of

mankind , I may observe that there has been a tendency , as the natural history of man has continued to furnish an object of study to men of science , to reduce the number of the varieties .

The division originally proposed by BIumenbach , included Jive races or varieties—the Caucasian , Ethiopian , Mongolian , Malay , and American . This division , with some sli ght

modification , was long acquiesced in . The later researches of Prichard , founded on more ample materials , led him to take the chief types of animal form — the characteristics fixed upon by naturalists , and the distinction of races

Aids To Study.

founded upon them , and reduce them to three , — the Prognothatts , the Pyramidal , and the oval or elliptical . The prognothous , or those marked by the predominance of the jaws , is the cranial type

of the lower negro and the Australian races ; the pyramidal crania , connected with the broad lozenge-formed face , furnish a type common to the Mongolian or Tartar nations , the Laplanders , the

Esquimaux , the Hottentots , and many of the American races . The oval or elliptical cranium expresses the form common to the Caucasian races , and all the more hig hly civilised nations of the world .

But these divisions , however useful for ths study of the science , and the elucidation of its several branches , cannot properly be pushed further than that ; for our present knowledge

enables us to follow the more strongly marked types into each other , through all the intermediate links . And we can go yet further , and affirm that some of these changes are taking place under

our own eyes . The Turks of Europe and Western Asia are doubtless of the same stem as the Turks of Central Asia ; yet they have gained , probably within a few centuries , the cranial form

and facial features of the Caucasian races , while those retaining their ori ginal seat and manner of life , retain also the pyramidal skull and Mongolian characters of the race .

Again , we have various and reliable testimony that the negro head , so strongly marked in its character , is gradually approximating to the European type , where successive generations of

negroes , without actual intermixture , have been in constant communication with European people and habits . Looking upon these divisions or races , as they are termed , then , as only so many

convenient distinctions , to aid us in our investigations , I rather prefer another division , as presenting itself more obviously , in the stature and proportions of the body , the complexion of the skin .

the colour and set of the hair , and the size and shape of the skull , the last mentioned particularbeing , as already stated , the most decisive . The races thus distinguished are the IVhile or

Caucasian , the 1 elhw or Mongolian , the Black , Negro , or Nigrilian , and the Red or American . The first was the sole possessor of ancient civilization , the second appears only occasionally on the

scene of ancient history , when its nomad hordes come down from their homes in the plateaux of Central Asia , over which they have always wandered , the third is represented only by the slaves

depicted on Egyptian monuments , the fourth does not appear at all in ancient history . The last three races , as Smith observes ( Anc . Hist of Asia , p . 6 ) are excluded from the familiesenumeratedin

Gen . x ., not as negativing their descent from Noah , but because they lay beyond the geographical range embraced by the writer ; which is limited to the priiiuini settlements of the

Caucasian race . It seems to lie entirely , as he suggests , within the 20 th to 60 th meridians of east longitude , and the 10 th to 50 th parallels of north latitude extending from the Peninsula

of Greece to the tableland of Iran , and from the northern shores of the Black Sea to the mouth of the Red Sea . A glance at the general results must lie over for another paper .