Bro. Sir Christopher Wren.*

up the account of Wren ' s funeral years ago , but there was no sign , if I remember rightly , of any Freemasons being present . " Nothing , we remark , however , can be argued from this negative . Some Grand Masters , nowadays , are buried without Masonic ceremonies , and the remains of so distinguished a Freemason and Past Grand Master as Bro . Dr . Benjamin Franklin were interred in a like manner .

Bro . R . F . Gould , author of " The Four Old Lodges , " promises to publish a pamphlet , at an early day , with the title , " Was Sir Christopher Wren a Freemason ? " Our brother takes , we believe , the negative view . His monograph cannot fail to' present an able plea , though , if in the negative , we scarcel y think it will be conclusive . The case is one that does not seem at present to admit of certainty—all that can be presented is a probability . Wren was

undoubtedly of a social disposition , and fond of relaxation . The drama , for example was , one of his amusements , and in 1652 he acted in private theatricals before the Elector Palatine ancl others . His intimate friends always called him " Kit Wren . " A man of such a disposition , and a leading architect besides , was most likely to have sought an acquaintance with the mysteries of

Freemasonry . Assuming , then , that Wren was a Freemason , upon the evidence given above , fortified by Masonic tradition , we now give a sketch of his very eventful life . Sir Christopher Wren won the praise of the greatest of his contemporaries , as well as of eminent men of later times . Evelyn , the author of the famous diary that bears his name , terms him " that miracle of a youth . " " that rare ancl earlprodi of universal science" " that prodiiousyoung scholar" " an

y gy , g , , extraordinary , ingenious , and knowing person , " and "the famous architect . " Sir Isaac Newton classed him , with two others , as "facile princeps among the geometricians of their age . " Dr . Robert Hooke wrote of him , " Since the time of Archimedes , there scarce has ever met in one man , in so great a perfection , such a mechanical hand and so philosophical a mind . " Evelyn wrote , in dedicating a book to him" If the whole art- of building were lostit might be

, , recovered in St . Paul ' s , the historical pillar , and those other monuments of your happy talent ancl extraordinary genius . " Ancl Macaulay says in his history , " No man born on our side of the Alps has imitated with so much success the magnificence of the palace-like churches of Italy . " Such are a few tributes to his genius .

Wren was , both by birth and education , essentially a gentleman . He was the son ancl only child of the Rev . Cristopher Wren , Dean of Windsor , Chaplain to Kino- Charles I ., and Registrar of the most noble Order of the Garter , ancl was also the nephew of Bishop Matthew Wren , also Chaplain to Charles I ., one of the Judges of the Star Chamber , ancl afterwards , in 1640 , impeached by the Commons , ancl imprisoned in the Tower of London for twenty His political enemiesin after timessarcastically referred to his

clisyears . , , tinoTiished family as "this Wren ' s nest . " He was born in 1632 , and in infancy ancl youth was quite delicate . He grew up amid the troublous time of the Civil War between the Royalists and the Roundheads . Between his eighth and tenth year , the great battle of Edgehill was fought , his uncle was impeached ancl sent to the Tower , ancl Archbishop Laud was beheaded . But he continued his studies as though profound peace prevailed . He early

developed a remarkable inventive genius . In bis thirteenth year he invented an astronomical instrument , which he filially dedicated to his father in some excellent Latin verses . In his fifteenth year he translated Oughtred ' s " Geometrical Diallino- " into Latin , and made a reflecting sun-dial for the ceiling of his room . He studied and was graduated at the University of Oxford . No branch of knowledge cultivated in his day did he lack . At the age of twenty-four his name was known over Europe . ( To be concluded . )