Triads In Masonry.

that had three legs . An analogy to the three judges we find in the three principal officers of a Masonic Lodge necessary to be present to open it . An old German regulation prescribed that three members made a guild . Iu Norway possession of a dwelling was symbolically delivered by

cutting three chips from the door-post and giving them to the purchaser . Service of a legal writ was made by the officer cutting three times into the door post of the party served and placing the summons over the transom . The Welsh Bards denominated

their poetical histories triads , and recorded all of their facts in groups of threes . The Grecian goddess , Hecate , reputed to have been a mysterious deity , had a triple form , and was hence named Triformis , and she ruled ever the three periods of human existence —birth , life , and death , and the three parts of creation—heaven , earth , and the under-world . The first three of the

seven liberal arts and sciences fostered by Freemasonry , were also scholastically termed the Triviwm , viz ., grammar , rhetoric , and logic . Any reference to triads would be incomplete without a mention of the tripod , or three-legged stool , on which ancient

prophetesses and wonder-workers sat while exercising their office , and , in this connection , we may mention that editors are always supposed to sit on a tripod when they fulminate those leaders that startle the world . Hurrah for the tripod , or rather , to adopt the form of the triad iu giving expression to the thought , three cheers for the tripod .

But we have traced enough analogies to prove the universal adopticn and force of the triad . In heaven and earth , among gods and men , three is matchless as a number . But in Freemasonry we are most interested in its application , and how

numerous they are . Who can forget . the three degrees he has received , or the three p illars of wisdom , strength , and beauty , represented by the Master , Senior , and Junior Wardens ? or that supremely beautiful illustration of the number three

, " Seek and ye shall find ; ask and ye shall receive ; knock and it shall be opened unto you . " The words , taken from our First Great Light in Masonry , not only exemplify the introduction of the candidate to the Brethren , but also as well the

Triads In Masonry.

whole future course of bis life . Every Freemason who continues to ask and seek knowledge , that is " more Light" in Masonry , finds and receives it , and no portal of truth remains closed against his earnest knock . Let us highly esteem Freemasonry ,

the science and the sacred three . Like the three magi , or wise men , it has come from the East to enli ghten the world . The cathedral of Cologne vainly boasts of possessing the bodies of these magi , and a monument is there erected to their memory , whence they are denominated the " three

kings of Cologne . " Among our German Brethren of the Continent this legend is preserved in the Craft . However it is no legend , but historic truth , that Freemasonry was the first conservator of science and theology . All of the great philosophers

of antiquity were members of the Mystic Fraternity of their time , which is in the line of ascent of our Craft , and taught therein the truth of reli gion , and the most advanced secular learning . We have reason to believe that Freemasonry existed in the

beginning and middle , as it will to the end of the world—a triad that covers all time . The past has been , the present is , and the future will be ours .

Notes On The Old Minute Books Of The British Union Lodge, No. 114, Ipswich. A.D. 1762.

NOTES ON THE OLD MINUTE BOOKS OF THE BRITISH UNION LODGE , No . 114 , IPSWICH . A . D . 1762 .

BY BRO . EJtRA HOLMES , 31 ° , P . M ., M . E . Z ., St . Luke ' s Chapter , P . M . M . P . E . C ., P . E . P ., P . M . W . S . , Past Provincial Grand Registrar of Suffolk , Past Grand Inspector of Works ( Murk ) , Past Grand Provost Order of the Temiile , P . P . G , Baimer-Bearer Royal Order of Scotland , & c , & c ,

{ Continued from page 508 . ) THE third Minute Book of this old Lodge commences with a list of the members in 1786 and 7—and the account of their quarterly subscriptions , from which it

would appear that they were all free from arrears—with only a single exception , and that brother only owed for one quarter . We rather fancy there are a great many Lodges now-a-days would be glad to report so satisfactory a state of their financial condition . It may perhaps be of interest