Lights And Shadows Of Scottish Freemasonry.

of the second degree hitherto unthonght of . But the excitement and the interest seemed to centre in the third degree . The attendance Avas large , and the attention praise-AA'orthy . All went well . The officebearers , coached to perfection , did their

Avork particularly Avell , the choir Avas in excellent voice , and the music Avas grand , the speaker Avas eloquent , and the lodge room , save for the sound of bis A'oicc , was still ancl quiet as the ni ght , and better than all the initiate received impressions

of the grandeur , the solemnity , and the sublimity of the great degree Avhich under less favourable circumstances ho Avould never have done . AfterAvards , opinions Avere very freely expressed that a continuance of such meetings would bo greatl

y beneficial to the Craft , and that could the ritual be gone through as it had been at them , an impulse Avould be given to Freemasonry , the like of which it had not received for many years . Sirs , Ave Jolt our hearts bounding ; wo bohoA-ed that new

life was instilled into tho cause , and that a new era had dawned upon the history of Freemasonry in the west of Scotland . But 'Sic transit Gloria '; twelve mouths have come aud gone since then , and Lodges of

Instruction live only in our memorials of the past . Why cannot AVO have them occasionall y ? They have them regularly in England and Ireland . It is impossible that the initiate can remember everything he heard when being initiated , and there

are many points which his private friends may not be aware of and which would most probably crop up at such meetings , that would be of inestimable advantage to him . It is on our young men that the future hopes of the Craft dependand it is

, at meetings for instruction that the talents and genius of ouv young men would be more apt to bo revealed than at our regular meetings for tho transaction of our usual business . A most pertinent remark was lately made in our hearin g , by an initiate

belonging to the legal profession . He said : « That is a very beautiful and impressive ceremony , but I ' ve been Avondering what must it be , when it is performed by an illiterate man and without the proper material for irorkiug with ? " We could

have answered him then as we do now : It is to all appearance a piece of ridiculous nonsense . Scotch men , Brother Freemasons , Avhy Avill you not exert yourselves to have your ritual properly gone through ? Do

you know that they laugh at us m the sistei countries when this subject is mentioned 1 Ancl is it any Avonder ? Visit one of their Lodges , ancl Avhat do you find ? Every one vieing Avith another who shall gii'c the greatest attention or add most to the impressiveness of the scene . There are

none speaking but those AVIIO ought to , and they are ever fully prepared . Come back to our own country and see the difference . There is passing out aud iu the Lodge ancl moving about ; tho office bearers are in many cases , incapable of doing anything

like justice to the work required of them ; still by mutually Avhispering and signing to each other like pantomimists , they manage to patch up a degree ; ancl worse than all . there is a constant buzz of A-oices , and HOAV aud then a very audible titter passes round

the Lodge . We have seen this , not once , but often , ancl Ave have felt for tho time almost ashamed of the old Craft with AA'hich AVO had cast in our fortunes . We ask you , is such conduct seemly ? Ought there not to bo a different state of affairs ? Is it

becoming in any body of men so to behave Avhile an initiate sivears the most inviolable secrecy in the greatest and most sacred of names ? Bethink 3 ou AVOII , ancl the answer Avill como back , upon yourselves . In the course of our visitations , Ave have seen iu

tcveuty diffo . reut Lodges the third degree Avorked in almost as many different Ava 3 'S . NOAV this is not as it ought to be . The Grand Lodge ought to see that there is a general assimilation of the ritual ; but the Grand Lodge seems to act upon the

principle of leaving AVCII alone , and is quite unwilling to move in anything unpleasaufc except under the greatest pressure . We Avould like to know how many Masters there are in Scotland AVIIO knoAV the ritual

approved of by the Grand Lodge ? We are afraid they arc few . And AVO would further like to kuoAv how many Avho do know it , practise it ? We are afraid they are feAver still . NOAV , Avhy does not the Grand Lodge enforce the using of its proserbia formulas ? If it did , good results Avould folloAV . It is

by no means fair to any of our brethren that they should be compelled to say : — " I cannot visit such-and-such a Lodge , I am not up to their ways of working . " Ancl yet Ave heard these very Avorcls used by one Avhom Ave had every reason to

believe a worthy man and Avho must needs be a Avorthy Brother . " There is something rotten in the state