Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

001111011 SENSE . In uneducated minds Common Sense sometimes supplies the place of Logic , and a correct conclusion is arrived at , and it is not known how or why . But in the instance which a Correspondent mentions there is , at present , small appearance of such a termination . —A PAST P UOVIKCIAI GEAND MASTEB .

EEMGIONS WHICH TEUE EEEEMASONEV J 50 ES HOT BE COGNISE . Bro . F . L . P . * * * religions which true Freemasonrv , not finding in them the Great Architect of the Universe , does not recognise , are * Buddhism—It is atheistic .

The system of Laotseu , China . The system of Confucius , China . The Emanation Theory—It is believed to be a sort of mystic Pantheism ; but see my communication , Freemasons' Magazine , vol . xvi ., page 386 . Fatalism—It is the doctrine of those who consider

all that takes place in the universe not as the work of an intelligent Cause , but as the result of a Hind necessity . See my communication , Freemasons' Magazine , vol . xii ., page 279 . Hegelianism—That kind of Hegelianism in which there is a negation of the personality of the Great

Architect of the Universe . See my communication , Freemasons' Magazine , vol . xi ., page 824 . Hindooism . —It is Pantheism , either mystic or atheistic . La Morale Independante—when it ignores the Great Architect of the Universe .

Materialism—when known to be atheistic . Naturalism—Bead in my communication , Freemasons' Magazine , vol . xiii ., page ISO , what an able writer says of modern naturalism . It will be there seen that I considered it plain that an individual—a convert to Naturalism—ought not to be admitted

into our Freemasonry . That Avas in October , 1 S 65 . A like opinion was expressed by me a year afterwards . Nihilism—It is au absolute scepticism . Pantheism—Both atheistic and mystic . Positivism—It is commonly , but not necessarily ,

atheistic . Scepticism—A recognition of the Great Architect of the Universe would be quite inconsistent with the principles of Scepticism , both ancient and modern . The Idealism of Monsieur Yacherot— See my communication , Freemasons' Magazine , vol . xiv ., page 348 . L

Dualism—I haA T e expressed an opinion that an individual stating Dualism to be the religious system he has adopted , ought to be received into Freemasonry , supposing it can be shoAvn that the God of Dualism ia equivalent to our Great Architect of the Universe . See Freemasons' Maqazinevolxiii

, . ., page 291 . _ Ideology—In a communication , Freemasons' Magazine , vol . xiii ., page 246 , I have stated that Ideology is not Atheism , and the entrance to the lodge ought

not , as it seemed to me , to he closed against its followers . Secularism—In a communication , Freemasons' Magazine , vol . xvi ., page 405 , I have stated that before an individual professing Secularism is admitted into the Craft , it should be ascertained that he recognises

the Great Architect of the Universe . Solidarity—The Pastoral Letters of Eoman Catholic bishops , which a few years ago denounced . Freemasonry , commonly , at the same time , denounced Solidarity . But Solidarity belongs not to religion— -it seems rather to belong to Social Science .

Voltairianism—Voltairianism is , I am told , a pure Natural Theism . It is no ground for the rejection of a candidate . See my communication , Freemasons ' Magazine , vol . xv ., page 6 .

The list of my communications to our periodical upon this subject is in the hands of a young Correspondent at Auteuil . He promises to make a copy , and forward it to you forthwith . —CIIAELES PUETON COOPEE .

EAEL OE E 0 SSLYN . "Alexander Weddevbum , first Earl of Rosslyn , a distinguished _ lawyer and politician , was born in 1733 at Chesterhall , in Bast Lothian . A few months later ( after the Gordon Eiots in 1780 ) , he was promoted to the office of Lord Chief Justice of the Common

Pleas , and was elevated to tho peerage by the title of Lord Loughborough , & c . On his retirement from public life , he Avas , in 1801 , created Earl of Kosslyn , with remainder to his nephew . Ha died suddenly , of an attack of gout in the stomach , on the 2 nd of January 1805 in the seventy-second year of his age .

, , —J . T . " The nephew was Sir James St . Clair-Erskine , who became second earl . He died in 1 S 37 . Succeeded by Sir James-Alexander St . Clair-Erskine , third earl . — W . P . BUCHAN .

ST . OIiAIE OE EOSLYN . William St . Clair , or Sinclair , third Earl of Orkney and Lord Sinclair . In 1455 he got grant of Earldom of Caithness . In 1471 he was obliged to resign his Earldom of Orkney to James III ., which Avas annexed to the CroAvn by Act of Parliament . At his

death , in 1480 , he was Earl of Caithness and Lord Sinclair . By his second Avife he had Oliver , to Avhom he assigned the estate of lioslyn . He was ancestor of the family of St . Clair of Boalyn , now extinct in the male line . James St . Clair , ninth Lord Sinclair , or his brother John , in 1735 purchased the ancient ancestral castle of lioslyn from the last heir of that cadet branch . — "W . P . B .

Mi'STICAIi ANTIQUE . The following , from Tennyson's late poem , "The Holy Grail , " illustrates the mystical manner in which the men of old time gave their oracles : — " Rain , rain and sun ; a rainbow in the sky , A young man will be wiser by ami by : An old man ' s wit may wander ere he die .

Rain , rain and sun : a rain on the lea—And truth is this to me and that to thee : And truth , or clothed or naked , let it be . Rain , rain and sun—and the free blossom blows : Sun , rain and sun—and where is he AVIIO knows ? Prom the great deep to the great deep he goes . [ rOtt CONIINUATIOJ . 01 ? "NOIiiS AND ( . UiiBIIis" SEE PAGE 12 . ]