Freemasonry And Its Institutes.—Ii.

FREEMASONRY AND ITS INSTITUTES . —II .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JPEIiHUA /!) ' , 1 SC 0 .

{ Con hn wed from page 43 ) . HAD it been designed by the G . A . O . T . U . that mankind should have remained in one portion of the eavfch , and only spread themselves as Avant of room compelled them to do so , there Avould have been no necessity for a formal division of the earth in tlie days of Phalog ; but God had not saved the

earth from the deluge to remain idle , therefore Noah was ordered to divide the earth among his offspring , which he did , - but Nimrod , the son of Ham ( the . Belus of profane history ) , £ > ei'suadod the people to act in opposition of the divine command , and about one hundred and fifty years after the flood , built Babelor Babylon ; all mankindhoivever

, , , do not appear to have joined in this impiety , as the A'olume of the saored law mentions " the children of men" only—a term applied to distinguish the impious aud profane from such us professed the true religion , "the sons or children of God / ' the Lord , however , having there " confounded the language of all the earth , from thence did scatter them abroad

upon the face of all the earth . " If this was chance iu respect of men , says Bochart [ Phaleg , lib . i , c . 16 ) , ifc was not ; so in respect of God . Eor He AVIIO sealeth up the stars in their places , fixed at first the several oomjiauies of mon in divers places of the earth ; and He who saith to the sea hitherto shalt thou go , and no farther , sets also bounds and limits unto kingdoms . " I have given , " says God ( Deut . ii . 5 ) , " Mount Seir Ainto Esau for a possession / ' and again , "I

have given Ur unto the children of Lot for a possession . And to Israel , " saith the Lord , " your God hath given you this land to possess it . " Every family now felt the punishment , and found itself separated , by a neiv speech , from their former friends and companions ; for their neiv languages , though formed from the ori ginal and retaining the primary

elements , were as various and numerous as there were families . Sir Wm . Jones , in his Asiatic Researches , says "The Greek , Latin , aud Sanscrit languages bear so great a resemblance to each other , that no philosopher could examine them all three Avithout believing them to have sprung from some common source ,-which perhaps no longer exists . " Indeed

the scholar may trace at the present day a similarity of words having the same signification , as " father "; Sanscrit , piter ,-Zend , palter ,- Persian , pader ; Greek and Latin , pater ; Sclavonic , bat ; Gothic , fadrein ; low German , fader ; old high German , valer ; Erse , atkair ; for the dividing of languages was , in fact , tlie dividing of families , that from each

might spring a separate and distinct nation , all inhabiting different lands till the ivliole earth was peopled . Tlie different families , astounded at this manifestation of the divine power , fled each to his appointed place . Of this , history and the travels of navigators and merchants , from the earliest date till now , boar Avitness : the hottest climes , the coldest regions , alike have their inhabitants ; wherever man can exist , there he is found , hero in crowded communities , there sparsely scattered .

In every society some form of government is necessary ; tho first government Avas merely the natural right of paternal . authority , for there being a necessity of society for the preservation of human , nature , and of government for the preservation of society , divine Avisdom so ordered it that no one could be born into the ivorld without being subject to a

superior ; every father having , by nature , the right to govern his children . This right of fathers , or , as Aquinas calls it , "jus paternum" to rule and govern their children and families , was absolute . Plato says that tlie paternal and regal power differed in nothing but in the number of subjects . Aristotle also ( Polit . i . S ) "The government ofthe

, says fathers over the children ivas regal / ' and Piiffeiidorf says " Cieterum patres familias qui nonduin in civitates snecessenint , in domo sua aliquod iusfcar priucipiim gerebanfc" ( De OfLic Horn , et Civ , Ju . v , Leg . Nat ., 1 . ii ., c . 3 . ) , or , the

primitive fathers of families , before their uniting into cities and communities , ivere " as princes in their houses . " Every family and tribe then was under the leadership of their chief , ivho also combined in his person the offices of priest and judge : as judge , he decided their quarrels and adjusted their differences ; as patriarchhis duty consisted in instructing

, all Avho composed his clan , in the principles of religion and morality , and of performing the rites of religion , especially sacrifice ; of this , Abraham and Melchisedec were great examples . Thus , Virgil says : —

" Hex annis rex idem hominum Phosbique Sacerdos . " and hence Thoth , tho famous son of Misraim , tho great founder of idolatry after the flood , ivas called Ter Maoiimus , because he was Philosophus Maoiimus , Sacerclo . s Maximus , and Hex Maximus . This is the origin of tho transition from domestic or patriarchal to something like civil society ; aud .

if the sons of a patriarch established themselves in separate habitations , they Avould each become the chiefs and priests of their immediate followers ; hence each tribe or sept on its departure from Shinar carried also its religioji with it ; in process of time , all learning , laivs and religion being handed doivn orally by tradition , innoA'ations crept in among them ,

and ceremonies were added or omitted as most conduced to the benefit of the chief . Among the ancients , as at Sparta , and Tarentuin , before any written order appeared , the law was promulgated by the poets or wise men , who sang the great deeds of their -ancestors and delivered their moral and political lessons in verso

, and it is a curious i ' aot that to the present day this custom is still in use among the aborigines of North America . Tho influence exercised by these men arose in a great measure from the belief that they were divinely inspired—a power ascribed to most of the ancient lawgivers ; thus the laws of Minos were said ( Fausan . iii . 2 § 4 ) to be a revelation

, from Jupiter . Lycurgus ivas the confidant of the Del phic god , Zaleucus of Pallas , Numa Pompilius of the nymph Egeria . Laivs arise necessarily and imperceptibl y from the condition , of society , and each particular law may bo traced from the state of manners or the political emergency which gave rise to it . The transition from customary or

traditionary law to fixed civil ordinances must have taken place gradually . "When people came to unite in cities and form societies , thoy began to feel the necessity of having permanent laAvs to define and secure their civil ri ghts , for every step in the progress from barbarism to civilization is the result of necessity after the experience of an error or tho feeling of a Avant . For in Avhat consists the difference

between civilization and barbarism , between a civilized man and a savage ? At first sight it will appear in tho former being possessed of superior knowledge , clothes , books , education , and all those innumerable things which constitute tlie amenities of life , Avhilst the savage is without auy of them but if Ave look beneath the surface and search deeper into

the subject , it will speedily appear that ifc consists in the one having laws , Avhilst the other has none . A laiv is not made for the benefit of an individual , but for the good of a community ; and therefore the true conception of a' civilized country is , a country in Avhich the whole population is under the control of the laws ; among savages there are no laAvs

, save those of revenge and superior strength—there mio-ht makes right , there each man ' s hand is against his felloAv no one feels himself safe , so no one thinks ifc worth while to provide for coming emergencies ; where no justice or no mercy is looked for none is given . The almi ghty Ruler of the universe Avith that love and omniscience Avhieh is so widely

displayed throughout creation , first appointed the wrand fundamental law and then pub it into the hearts and minds of men to make hws and appoint rulers and magistrates to see those laws duly enforced . Without fixed laws no man ' s life or property ivould lie safe ; each man AVOUM givere in to his ruling passion and do that Avhich seemed best for himself regardless of tbe injury such a course Avould inflipt upon his