A Lecture.

Staffs and the Giant ' s Causeway , was a fitting- illustration of the ideas which then filled the human mind . In our youth , when love and beauty held sway , did we not illustrate the fact by the inventions of Grecian architecture . In manhood did we not originate the forms of Gothic temples , whose interiors remind one of the vast solitudes of primaeval forests , imitating in stone the stems of pinegroves closed in with leaf y tracery , and calculated to awaken in

early manhood that reverence and awe which result from the feeling that one is alone with his Creator . Does not this style also aptly illustrate the age of chivalry , when the proud but humble men , half Norman and half Teuton , subordinated all things first to faith , and then to honour , and made even their devotion to lady-love a part , and let me say , not unworthily ; no insignificant part , of their devotion to their God .

Thus , my brethren , the Freemasons have for ages played no insignificant part in the history of mankind . In . Archaic times we , qvsite wnquestioned , took the lead ; as ages rolled along our tenets became more widely spread . One nation , the Hebrews , and they alone , as a nation , accepted our theism ; but they neglected much of our other teachings . The brotherhood of manthe doctrines of brotherly love , relief , and truth , in short what is summed up

in the saying " Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you , " as well as the doctrine of the immortality of the soul , were for ages rejected by many , if not by all , the Jewish people , while energetically inculcated b y . the leaders of eastern religions in India . Yet , among- the more civilized communities of Greece and Rome we held ever increasing sway , until in their palmiest days no one with any pretensions to gentility could dare to confess himself one of

the unitiated . The almost universality of initiation into the mysteries among all who pretended to respectabilit y in the more enlightened days of Greece and Rome reduced in no degree the obligations of its recipients to secrecy , and the sentence of Socrates to death by hemlock is by many ascribed

to his advanced ideas being considered , when publicly taught , as a revelation of the mysteries . Many of the Hebrew nation at a later period also were condemned to violent deaths upon a similar charge , merely because their national religion and policy , being a theocracy founded upon monotheism , came so near to the tenets of our ancient order as taught in initiation . So firm a hold had the principles inculcated in our ancient mysteries obtained upon the minds of men some 1800 that possiblthe majorit

years ago , many , y y , of the Gentile converts to the christian reli gion looked upon it as merely an elaboration , simplification , or new phase of ancient initiation , so much so , that the very name of the Mass is but a corruption of a formula used equally by the old hierophants of our mysteries , and by the first Christian Priests , when the exoteric portion of their ceremonies was completed and the esoteric rites were about to commence : Re missa est , that is to say , " Begone ye profane , ye are

dismissed . " I think , my brethren , that by this time yon will believe with me that no human organization has ever held such sway , or had such a great effect upon the minds of the human race , as has our noble and ancient order . It is a pity that we see now-a-days so many gaining admission into our ranks who , without an inkling of our derivation or descent , and with but a very vague notion of our deepest and most permanent princiles through lifeand

p , go , even attain to rank and office among us , with no other idea than that certain ceremonials , which to them have no signification , constitute our only distinction from other men . I shall be glad if what I have said should lead some of you to really study the matter and see . whether my conclusions be without foundation ; and still mor . e shall I rejoice should it induce all of you to believe as I dothat we constitute the oldest and most permanent depository

, , of those great truths that I have mentioned ; that , while creeds and politics may vary as they please , and sects and denominations multiply over the face of the earth , till bickerings , heartburnings and polemical disputes have become a disgrace to civilized men , we yet have a firm hold of the fundamental points K 2