" Once Upon A Time."

" ONCE UPON A TIME . "

BY OMEGA . " Ldbitur occulte fallit-que vohibilis cetas . " nj'lHESE are words which we hear almost every day of our lives . They occur J- in common conversation ; they are to be found in the customary literature of the hour . Perhaps few expressions are in more wonted use or are more

familiar to us all , and yet , as it seems to me , we hardly ever ( as is too frequently the case in this our way of the world ) realize their full meaning , their actual intensity of truth . I think it well to send a few moralizing lines "thereanent , " for which , perhaps , a corner niay be kindly found in the Masonic Magazine . I do not suppose that I shall say anything very new or striking ; but still even my "dull tenour " may have its use , ancl give some one reader a few pleasant if

passing thoughts , ancl to render the useful pages of the "Maga . " profitable for all who month by month peruse them , or at any rate profess to peruse them , For , to say the truth , I am myself somewhat inclined to agree with the cynic who say of our age , " much talking , little reading , less thinking . " Ancl yet . to judge from literary announcements one should " a priori" be ready to suppose that never was so much read generallynever beforecertainlywere s 6 many

, , , " serials " issued , never literally were there so many means of mental improvement and instruction provided by intellectual caterers for a passing , reading , thoughtful generation . Let us leave the question , as Mr . Gladstone would say , to "its own solution in the fulness of time , " ancl let us attend to the little "text" on which I propose to hang a Masonic essay—not a sermonplease note this !

" Once upon a time is full , surely , of vivid reminiscences to us all , when it takes us back , as it often does , from this realistic ancl dull and dust y life to-day of ours to the hopes and aspirations , the " glamour " and fancies of far off earlier years . To-day , when all seems so commonplace and dreary often to the acute sensibilities of active thought and actual experience , what a relief it is to betake ourselves to that " once upon a time " in the "long ago " so touchingly painted by Lord Houghton , when we ourselves had not given

up our golden dreams , ancl when callous realism and crushing certainty had not dimmed and dispensed with the fascination of anticipation , the longings of untainted sympathies . Then all was bright ancl fair before us . We foresaw no disappointment , we forereckoned no decay , we could not conceive how anything was to darken those blue skies , to change those fair fl iwers , to deform or disturb those happy hours . Alas , to-day , how few of us but must echo

sadly these words " once upon a time , " when we know how time , and change , and crosses , ancl cares , and heartburdens , and heartaches have thrown as it were a funeral pall of sadness ancl gloom over all the glowing ancl gracious imaginings which then were ours . Reality is very very different from anticipation , ancl often all that " once upon a time " promised such lengthened happiness to us and ours turns out to have been a deceiving figment or a deluding phantasy . So too , how true it is as regards old friends and mates . " Once upon a time " we were a very merry party , ancl bound together b y most congenial ties of friendship , interest , and affection . Praed sang , of old , —

Where are my old companions gone ? I ' ve few to share my beaker ; Some lie before the churchyard stone , And some before the speaker ; and most true it still is in its way for us all . Let us fix our attention for a moment at a given point or landmark on the receding shore of time . How n