The Knife & Fork Degree.

prescriptive usage , and long established habits , but I think , Ave may also fairly claim after our lodge meetings to have refreshment alike for body and for mind . When , then , Ave hear it often alleged

aoainst us that our " AVOI-IC " is little , and our " refreshment" much , that there seems to be but a " modicum " of " bread , " for so large a quantity of " sack , " Ave need not set much store , either by the idle quip , or the

privileged jest . But AA'hat Ave should be on our guard against is , lest Freemasonry should come to be considered by ourselves or by others a club of good fellows , an opportunity mainly for social relaxation , for " the banquet and the feast . " I remember years ago hearing a young officer describe Freemasonry as an " excellent institution . " " For

there he said , " you meet such jolly good fellows , you get a clipping good dinner , and you hear a capital song . " No doubt , that young felloAv Avas in himself a goodfellow enough ; but though Freemasonry is , and let us always hope

it will be , an assembly of " good fellows , " it is not only that . E " o , Freemasonry is something more , something higher , something better , and though its social uses and advantages are both very obvious and very commendabletheyI

, , venture to think , take a IOAV vieAV of our Order , nay , a false vieAv of it altogether , AVIIO would confound it either AA'ith a benefit club on the one hand , or a mere social agglomeration on the other .

1 AOAV , AA'hat I venture to suggest to my brethren to-day , in all deference , is that there is a true test which Ave can easil y make for ourselves , by which to gunge the higher or lower view which predominates in our lodges . That is , to ask

ourselves this question , "Do our Payments to the Dinner Fund absorb so large a proportion of our annual recei pts as to prevent our lodges giving a lair ^ proportion of their income to Masonic charity , or have we in order to eke out our necessarily scanty lodge contributions to charity to have recourse

to the liberality and generosity of individual members of our lodges ?" TAVO systems at present mainly rule our Masonic arrangements and affect our lodge incomes . In the metropolis and in some of the larger toAvns , the dinner

is paid out of the lodge funds . The annual subscription being much higher generally in London , Avhile in the provinces generally also , Avhere the subscriptions are very much lower as a general rule , indeed , I may say universally ,

each brother , to use an old provincial term , " pays his OAVII shot , " and the lodge funds are unaffected by the dinner expenses . Both systems may have their advantages , as both have their supporters , and I am not at all prepared to say—remembering Avhat the London brethren have done for the Masonic

charities m years gone by , and still dothat the provincial system lias ' enabled the country lodges to do more for charity in the past , though I am inclined to think for obvious reasons that it Avill

enable them to do more m the future . Be this as it may , there can be no doubt whatever , that much more may be done by all our lodges for the great Masonic Charities , for instance , and it is therefore , " as it seems to me , most

important to check all unnecessary expenditure , in order to enable each lodge to deal with a larger surplus for charity . I think it cannot be denied that the dinner system is apt to foster in some instance a feeling amongst us ,

that the great aim of Freemasonry is " sociality , " and hence some Avho are not noted for proficiency in any of our regular degrees , are active and eulogistic members of the K . and F . degree , so much sothat the outer world seems

, to cling to an oft expressed belief that " Freemasonry and dining ahvays go hand in hand . " Hence the great need of caution in our admittance of neAV members , and of a timely protest against that vieAV not uncommon

which regards Freemasonry as mainl y a convivial association . ISTOAV , I do not venture to contend , or even to hint , that our present system is