Masons' Marks.*

monogram in alto relievo , which represents the Abbot prostrate on the ground with an eye before him , he having slipped out of a tree . On a neighbouring frieze is another rebus of the Abbot ' s name—a human eye lying by the side of a slip or a branch of a tree ; while the third conceit is that of a man sliding from the branch of a tree and of course exclaiming , I SLIP . SO in York Minsteron the magnificent Rood Screenerected in the year A . D . 1500 while

, , , William Hyndley was the Master Mason of the edifice , is the device of that architect—a hind lying . There is high classical authority for these whimsical rebnsses . ( By the way , the word Rebus is the plural of the Latin Res , a thing , fact , or truth , and is defined by Dr . Johnson as " a word represented by a picture . " ) Even the great-minded Cicero w as not too proud to represent his name by the paltry

species of pulse called by us chick-pease , and b y the Romans Dicer ; while many of the coins of Julius Ctesar bear the impress of an elephant—as the word ceswr signifies elephant ( as Camden tells us ) in the ancient language of Mauritania . Probably the most curious Mason ' s Mark ever adopted was that of John Thorpe , the inventor of the Elizabethan sty le of . architecture . He designed a house for himself as a monogram , formed of the initial letters of his name—¦ I and T joined by a corridor , with the following eccentric distich over the doorway : —

" These two letters , I and T , Joined together as you see , Make dwelling house for me . " This design is still in existence . It will be seen that this subject of Master Masons' Marks opens up a chapter in the Craft ' s history that is full of amusing interest . The architects of

the middle ages were proud of their works , ' and lcved to carve their names upon them . Each of the marks is a delightful puzzle—indeed , we might say a gem of a puzzle , did we desire to make a very modern allusion . But the puzzle is not very puzzling—being pictorial , so that he that runs may read . To all persons of intelligence such Masons' Marks are interesting ; hut to modern Freemasons , who are the descendants and living representatives of the mediaeval Masons , they are more so , and hence we have thus briefly looked up the subject .

Origin And Short History Of The Kabbalah.*

ORIGIN AND SHORT HISTORY OF THE KABBALAH . *

rPHOUGH there were several mystical hooks extant at or about the end of J- the twelfth century , the Kabbalah was born in the first quarter of the thirteenth century . The returning crusaders had filled the minds of the people in western Europe with the marvellous things which they had seen in the Orient , and a prominence was given to all that was marvellous and mystical . Also the Jews in Western Europe , especially in France , did not remain free from the common mania , and a book b y the name of " Proehma Nistara" circulated , was eagerly read , and was frequentl y copied , although by only a small circle of Jewish scholars . Maimonides'