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TO ADVERTISERS . The Freemason has a large circulation in all parts of the Globe , its advantages as an advertising medium can therefore scarcely be overrated . ADVERTISEMENTS should reach the Office , 198 Fleetstreet , London , by 12 o ' clock on Wednesdays .

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NOTICE . To prevent delay or miscarriage , it is particularly requested that ALL communications for the " Freemason , " may be addressed to the Office , 198 , Fleet-street , London .

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IMPORTANT NOTICE . COLONIAL and FOREIGN SUBSCRIBERS are informed that acknowledgments of remittances received are published in the first number of every month .

It is very necessary for our readers to advise as of all money orders they remit , more especially those from the United States of America and India j otherwise we cannot tell where to credit them .

To Our Readers

TO OUR READERS

The Freemason is a sixteen-page weekly newspaper , price 2 d . It is published every Friday morning , and contains the most important , interesting , and useful information relating to Freemasonry in every degree . Annual subscription in the United Kingdom , Post free , 10 / 6 . P . O . O . ' s to be made payable at the chief office , London .

NEW POSTAL RATES . Owing to a reduction in the Postal Rates , the publisher is now enabled to send the " Freemason" to the following parts abroad for One Year for Thirteen Shillings ( payable in

advance ) : —Africa , Australia , Bombay , Canada , Cape of Good Hope , Ceylon , China , Constantinople , Demerara , France , Germany , Gibraltar , Jamaica , Malta , Newfoundland , New South Wales , New Zealand , Suez , Trinidad , United States of America , & c .

Answers To Correspondents.

Answers to Correspondents .

The following stand over : — Reports of Lodges : St . Mark ' s Lodge , 857 ; Globe Lodge , 23 ; United Lodge ] of Benevolence , 184 ; City of London Lodge , 901 ; West Smithfield Lodge , 1623 ; Hemming Lodge , 1512 ; St . Dunstan ' s Lodge , 1589 ; Fortescue Mark Lodge , No . 9 . A Masonic Ball at Brigg . New Masonic Hall at Bournemouth .

Births ,Marriages And Deaths.

Births , Marriages and Deaths .

[ The charge is 2 s . fid . for announcements , not exceeding four lines , under this heading . ]

BIH'I HS . ATKINS . —On the 23 rd inst ., at Loreiship-road , N ., the wife of A . C . Atkins , of a son . LEWIS . —On the 23 rd inst ., at Ashford Lodge , Putney , the wife of F . T . Lewis , of a son . MUIIHAY . —On the 20 th inst ., at Bournemouth , Laely Keith Murray , of a daughter .

MARRIAGES . MOOHE—MoNTAGij ; . —On the 21 st ult ., at San Francisco , U . S . A ., J . Murray Moore , M . D ., M . R . C . S , Sec , ( late of Liverpool ) , to Elizabeth Boardman Montague , of Hartford , Conn .

DEATHS . DYSON . —On the 23 rd inst ., at Denmark-hill , Wimbledon , Jane Hinde , widow of the late Capt . Dyson , aged 06 . HeMi'iniiEs . —On the 12 th inst ., at his residence , Garston , Lancashire , Bro . Charles Humphries , W . M . 220 , P . M . 1015 . LiMEiucK . —On the 24 th inst ., Caroline Maria , Countess

of Limerick , at 3 6 , Qucen's-gate-tcrrace , South Kensington . VEAL . —On the 22 nd inst ., at Stanmore , Eliza , sister of Bro . Veal , in her 4 i £ tyear , WILLIAMS . —On the 24 th inst ., at 44 , Upper Brook-street , aged 42 , Louise Annie Montagu Williams , the beloved wife of Bro , Montagu Williams .

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The Freemason , SATURDAY , J . a / , 1877 .

Is Freemasonry Materialism?

IS FREEMASONRY MATERIALISM ?

In recurring to this subject , we find that we have a good deal to say upon it . The more we consider Archbishop Vaughan ' s statement and charge alluded to in our last , the more strongly we feel the importance and depth of the whole subject matter , the more we regret that this Roman

Catholic Prelate should have permitted his unreasoning fear of Freemasons , and his burning desire to shoot out his " epea pleroenla" to overmaster alike his common sense and his critical perception . And not only this , but in the position he has assumed Archbishop

Vaughan is actually laying down the first canon of materialistic infidelity himself as the premise of his entire argument . So let us bring before us the statement he has openly made , " ad fideles , " and to the public generally . The history of the world , according to him , has been

governed by two potential systems in the past and the present , and the future is to be controlled by a third . And these he places in this order : — 1 , Paganism ; 1 , Supernaturalism ; 3 , Materialism . Hence , according to this distinguished member of the Roman Catholic hierarchy , the

principle involved in each of the two first systems or " isms" has successively governed the world : they are pretty much on a level , emanations from the internal and external consciousness of the human psychology , which may be dealt with , and have to be

dealt with , philosophically , as fair subjects for human thought and scholastic treatment . Nothing so illogical , so perversely false , or so unhistorical—no position so unreal has ever before been propounded by any but the most destructive of sceptical writers . What will such

thinkers as John Henry Newman say to such a specimen of the Roman Catholic teachingsof the modern dogmatism of Rome ? Have we in this mournful and distorted collocation of historical facts , of religious progress in the world , a scheme of a new alliance between Roman Catholics and

material infidelity ? It looks very like it , inasmuch as this outburst of positivism is made the " fulcrum " to attack Freemasonry . Now we should like to ask Archbishop Vaughan two other questions . Does he accept the Sacred Record ' Does he believe in it ? If so , how can he venture

to say to a startled audience at Sydney that paganism and supernaturalism governed the past ? Long before paganism , as he calls it , existed , was supernaturalism ; for paganism is but the perversion of the teaching of the " Theodidaktoi . " All the mysteries originally proclaimed

without doubt either the whole or a portion of the primeval truth , but which became distorted and perverted in the lapse of ages , and overlooked and forgotten in the childish inventions of men , while their foolish hearts were darkened and the y accepted fables instead of

truth . But all this time the world saw and received the religion of supernaturalism , and the history of the Jewish people from thecal ! of Abraham , is nothing but a record of the supernatural . To place paganism and supernaturalism on alevelj or to make the latter the sequel to the former ,

to treat them as coequal or correlative systems in the administration of the general government of the world , is a travesty alike of the history of religion and of man , such as we might have expected to find to proceed from the pen of some materialistic writer , but not from the . armoury

of a Roman Catholic Archbishop . We have never perused any statement with more pain , or greater repugnance . It is about as unscientific and as unfounded as anything we have ever seen , and when this proceeds from a writer , who professes to represent an infallible church , and to be protecting the interests of true

religion against the assaults of a materialistic infidelity , we are like the sleepers awakened , we can only rub our eyes , and shrug our shoulders , and wonder where we are , and what it all means . If such is in future to be the " modus procedendi " of Roman Catholic historians , professors , philosophers , and critics , then all that Religion can say is , " Save me from my friends , " as a

Is Freemasonry Materialism?

more treacherous and unsafe defence of religion itself cannot be made by any who assume to be its defenders and avow themselves its upholders . It has not escaped the notice of the observant and the critical , that in her destructive policy , in order to build up her infallible theory , the

Roman Catholic Church has more than once : n her history seemed to make an alliance in her propositions and teachings " ad populum , " with a so-called philosophical unbelief . Romanism is to be the refuge of the weak , the distressed , the weary , the hesitating , the doubting ,

the depressed ; and this coquetting with a pseudo liberalism of thought and declaration , may be made to subserve the cause of a corrective and a victorious infallibility . We write all this in no feeling of denominational controversy , nor with any wish to dilate upon Romanism , qua

Romanism , inasmuch as we are Freemasons , and have nothing to do with the contentions of Christians , or the doubtsand debatesof churches or sects . But , when a distinguished member of a denominational body , for the purpose mainly of assailing a perfectly peaceful and harmless , and loyal , and

religious Order , like our own , proceeds coolly to give us " history in ruins , " and to rend in pieces the whole framework of the religious witness , of the moral government of T . G . A . O . T . U ., we feel it to be our duty calmly to point out the hopeless and illogical nature of his arguments , and the

utter fallacy of hts baneful conclusions . But in saying what we have said , hastily and imperfectly at the best , we have but fringed , so to speak , the outside of the question , and as it is a very important one per se , and in its relation to us all , we shall proceed to consider in our

next what is this materialism of which Archbishop Vaughan speaks so glibly and so dogmatically . The subject has grown , as our readers will note , upon our hands , but such is not our fault , but the fault of the hasty and unsound inductions of , no doubt an honest , but mistaken and irate controversialist .

The Disappointments Of Life.

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS OF LIFE .

That life is full of disappointments we all of us are well aware . Indeed , if there is one word more than another inscribed on all the edifices of man it is this—disappointment . Our hopes are falsified , our dreams fade away , realization is not anticipation , plans fail , bright visions change

into darkness , and too often the joyous hours of youth are clouded over by the sterner experiences of manhood , by the sadder sensibilities of old age . Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this world ' s hopes , and promises , and pursuits , and gifts , is the character of disappointment

which clings to them from first to last , never leaves them nor forsakes them , and speaks with full-voiced , if solemn pathos , alike to the inexperienced as well as the experienced , the young as well as the old , the prosperous as well as the unfortunate , the grave as well as the gay . Go

where we will , do what we may , whatever , in fact , may be the labour of our hands or of our minds , disappointment lurks , as it were , like a worm beneath the luxuriant foliage , within the grateful fruit , tainting , cankering , destroying all . No station in life , no rank , no

calling , no ]_ wealth , no power , is exempt from disappointment ' s chilling grasp , and amidst our highest happiness or greatest success , disappointment confronts us all on the way , often marring noblest plans , breaking fondest hearts , and throwing its gloomy shade over the exulting trust

of youth , the calm assurance of maturity , the serene imbecility of old age . Sad often it is as life passes on , and time and we both grow old , to note how disappointment ever interferes with our gentlest aspirations , or turns into nothingness our most faithful strivings . No life is

exempt from its withering influence , no lot is free from its deadening powers , from first to last , from our cradles to our graves , we still are doomed to disappointment . The happiness we strive for eludes our grasp , the blessings we

enjoy perish with the using , the hopes we entertain come to nothing , the affections we cherish are blighted in the bud , and day by day , and hour by hour , the experience of the past is the experience of the present , " vanity of vanities , all is vanity . '' The houses we build , the homes