The Colleges Of Builders.*

conduct very much in advance of their age , and which they clothed in symbols and emblems , which we think were charged with a double signification ; and , like the Dyonisian priest architects , they had words and signs of recognition . These Colleges of Artisans , and principally those who professed excellence in ability to execute , civil and religious , naval and hydraulic architecture , at first extended from Rome into Venice and Lombardy , afterwards into France , BelgiumSwitzerlandancl laterinto SpainArabiaancl the East ; and a great

, , , , , number of these colleges , which at this time were known by the name of "fraternities , " followed the Roman legions . Their business was to trace the plans of all military constructions , such , as intrenched camps , stratagetic routes , bridges , aqueducts , arches of triumph , ancl tho like . They also directed the labourers and soldiers in the material execution of their works— -composed of artisanseducated and studious menas that age afforded . Those corporations

, , must have extended the knowledge of Roman manners and a taste for the art of that country wherever the Roman arms were victorious . And as in this way they contributed more largely to the victories of peace than those of war , they carried to the vanquished and the oppressed the pacific element of the

Roman power , the arts , ancl civil law . These colleges existed in all their vigour almost to the fall of the Roman Empire . The irruption of people called barbarians dispered ancl reduced their number , ancl they continued to decline while those ignorant and ferocious men continued to worship their rude gods ; but when they were converted to Christianity , the corporation flourished anew . We here see that the Colleges of Builders instructed their candidatesand

, saw that they became thoroughly conversant with their duties , and what we desire to call particularly to the notice of the fraternity is that total want of intelligent Masonic instruction—the labours of the lodge have been confined altogether to the ceremonies of initiation , the regular lectures , and the administration of their affairs . We think it is to this circumstance principally that it is necessary to attribute the indifference so generallmanifested for

y Freemasonry among the rich ancl the poor ; for we must admit that the greater portion of the intellectual initiates , finding nothing in the society , such as they expected to attract their attention , after attending a few meetings fall off , in the belief that Freemasonry has no moral signification to justify the consideration they hacl been induced to accord it .

These observations are painful to Freemasons convinced of the hi gh object ancl deep signification of Freemasonry , and who believe it destined to become one clay the religion of all nations . By all , however , by whom Masonry is estimated , Masonic instruction is looked upon as a sacred duty to those who are received into its bosom , ancl that instruction should be extended not only to all that concerns its history , its object , and the doctrines of the institution , but to all that is interesting to the friend of humanity and the lover of his

race . Masonry never was an order , it was a fraternity ; and its transformation , from a corporation of artisans to a philosophical institution did not change its character , is proven in the most incontestible manner by its own constitution , which , adopted in 1717 , and published by the Grand Lodge of England in 1723 , is entitled , " Constitution of the Ancient and Respectable Fraternity of Freemasons .