The Badge Of Innocence."

George ' s Day , 5348 ( A . L . ) , * in imitation of the order of Knights of King Arthur ' s Round Table , founded in the 406 th century ( A . L . ) , is stated by Selden , to " exceed in majesty , honour and fame , all chivalrous orders in the world . "—Can our Badge be yet more honourable than this ? " Questions

easily answered in the affirmative , when we recognize in the time of the institution of our Badge the earliest age of the Jewish Church , and , in its founder , the Great Architect of the Universe Himself .

After the Children of Israel , then , had been formed into a Church and Nation , amongst other instructions given to Moses by God , we find , on turning to the volume of the Sacred Law , that one direction ran as folloAvs : —

"Speak unto the Children of Israel and bid them that they make them fringesi in the borders of their garments throughout their generations , and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue . " " And it shall be unto : [ : you for a fringe

, that ye may look upon it , and remember all the Commandments of the Lord , and do them ; and that ye seek not after your own hearts and your own eyes * * * " " That ye may remember , and do all my Commandments , aud be holy unto your

God . " § This injunction was laid upon them about 2514 ( A . L . ) , some 200 years before the date fixed upon as that of the supposed Argonautic voyage before referred to . This command we find thus repeated some 40 years later , but still more than 150 years prior to the expedition of the Golden Fleece : —

" Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters ^ , of thy vesture wherewith thou coverest thyself . " * * This appointment of a distinguishing Badge , like most of the Mosaic injunctions

Avas very brief and concise , and the carrying out of the details Avas left , as was usually the case , to the spiritual rulers , Those learned Doctors of the Law , having regard to the spirit as well as the letter of the direction , decided to mark it with a high degree of symbolism ; or , more

properly speaking , found the matter , as it was worked out , become invested with a deep . symbolical significance . Now the Tassels Avere to continually remind the Jews of God and His LaAV , consequently the doctors determined that

they should be formed in such a manner as to bring both before the worshipper ' s eye at a singleglance , and theyaccordingly designed , and worked out , the details of them , so that by their numerical significance , they should

typify at one and the same time the Unity of the Deity , and the precepts of the Sacred Law , the number of which precepts had been fixed , by the authorised expounders of them , at 613 . This was , to them , easy of accomplishmentasinasmuch as each letter of the

, , Hebrew alphabet had a numerical , * value , every word in the language could be represented by the aggregate number made up of the several numbers which were represented by the individual letters composing it . j

The learned doctors , therefore , determined that the combination of numbers formed by the convolutions of the threads , and by the knots ivhich secured them , should represent , according to the system just mentioned , and known-as the Literary