The Mystic Beauties Of Freemasonry.

emotion that fully demonstrates the existence of our spiritual being , and animates us to the glorious certainty of immortality . —Fomeroy ' s Democrat .

Masonic Jottings, No. 72.

MASONIC JOTTINGS , No . 72 .

BY A PAST PEOVINCIAL GKAND MASTEE . TOTAL NUMBERS . The total number of Masons , members of English Lodges , would , it is believed , be very little

diminished , were deductions made of all those brothers who have really been admitted as Jews , Mahommedans , Parsees , and Natural Theists .

THE THEORY OF UNIVERSALITY . The rightly instructed Mason knows that it is not possible to set too high a value on the theory of universality . OUR LECTURES—TRADITION . See a communication , ante page 386 . The

Tradition of the Craft is that there were lectures before the revival , but that they were extempore . For obvious reasons this usage could not fail to be inconvenient and often hurtful . In consequence , about the year 1720 , Desaguliers and Anderson

framed our earliest written lectures . No attempt , so far as I know , has hitherto been made to show this tradition to be untrue .

MYSTIC PANTHEISM . Brother , Mystic Pantheism promotes a certain kind of devotion . But you must not fail to bear in mind that , notwithstanding two great examples of brothers becoming Mystic Pantheists subsequently to their initiation ( one iu the last , the other in the present century ) , Mystic Pantheism is irreconcilable with true Masonry .

THE TERM " SPECULATYFE . " This term occurs in the old Masonic Manuscript published by Bro . Matthew Cooke . —See a communication , "Freemasons' Magazine , " vol . xxi ., page 251 .

MASONRY . The reader of these Jottings ought to know that there is a necessary part of Masonry , which is eternal , which is indestructible . GENERAL REGULATIONS . A brother will find that at the Revival , June

24-th , 1717 , the new Lodges were forbidden to establish laws amongst them , which might be contrary to , or subversive of , fche general regulations by which the Fraternity had been long governed .

Masonic Jottings, No. 72.

THE STOICS . The religion and philosophy of the Stoics is incompatible with true Freemasonry . LODGE AT CHICHESTER , A . D . 1697 . A brother will find the following passage in Preston ' s Illustrations page 154 , Dr . Oliver ' s

Edition : — " At a general assembly and feast of Masons in 1697 , many noble and eminent brethren were present , and amongst the rest , Charles , Duke of Richmond and Lennox , who was at that time Master ofthe Lodge at Chichester . "

EXPERIENCE—THEORY . In our Masonry , as in our Legislation , experience is preferred to theory .

Masonic Science—Geometry.

MASONIC SCIENCE—GEOMETRY .

Freemasonry has always patronized the liberal Arts and Sciences . This fact is impressed upon the initiate as soon as he has crossed our threshold ; but in the F . C . degree , he especially learns the noble purposes of the craft in this respect . We

propose , from time to time , to explain the origin of these different sciences , to enumerate the valuable ends to which they contribute , and mention th connection which exists between them and Freemasonry . We naturally begin with the most ancient and valuable of all—Geometry .

Geometry is so intimately connected with th © practice of operative Masonry , that our brethren of antiquity were as often called Geometricians as Masons ; the two names were considered synonymous . In Anderson ' s Book of Constitutions ,

Free masonry is frequently called Geometiw , " for , " says he , " the whole being of the Order is comprehended in it . " It possesses the peculiarity which is the distinguishing mark of everything Masonic—that while ifc demonstrates the

wonderful properties of Nature , it at the same time enforces the more important truths of Morality . This double significance runs through all the teachings of the Lodge , and of itself proves that the Craft was originally an operative art , from

which it has grown since into a speculative science . Josephus tells us that the leading principles of Geometry were known to the inhabitants of the world before the flood . Indeed he says that the very reason why Providence endowed primitive man with centuries of life , so that the average age of the human race down to the time of Noah was