Evening Thouhts On Masonry.

character and the wherewithal for the treasurer , it will be so even to the end of the chapter Is this an old story ? Is it not , then , all tho truer ? .... We have rambled far enough , following our evening thoughts . If any body think them worth the following we will have another stroll auother time . —Indian Freemasons Friend ,

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

THE GRAND LODGE OP ITALIC . „ Almost every European nation has its Grand Lodge , but I have never heard of there being one in Italy ; can you settle the question whether there is one or not ?—A TRAVELLING BROTHER . —[ We can . We have lying before us No . 10 of the first years issue of the Bollettino ojjiciale del Gi-anda Orient Italiano , dated from Turin , 1 st of June ,

1863 . It is a very careful compilation of news from every part of the globe , au fait with all recent matters , for we notice that our Editor , Bro . Warren ' s scheme for continuing this MAGAZINE under a limited liability company is given as a paragraph , as well as the Past Grand rank lately conferred on Bro . H . E . H . Marajah Duhleep Singh , by the M . W . G . M . Besides the Grand Lodge there are several other Masonic authorities in Italy , amongst the foremost of which stand the SS . G . II . G . of the xxxiii ° ]

FREEMASONRY IN 1709 . It is so common to hear Freemasonry spoken of as becoming known from the revival of Grand Lodge in 1717 , that it is with pleasure I send you a very remarkable extract from the Masonic Eclectic , a Now York publication , in which the writer notes his discover } ' , from one of our English classics , that Freemasonry was popularly understood in England , and known as Freemasonry as early as tho year 1709 . The article is as follows : —

" A FRAGMENT OP HISTORY , BY THE HON . . TOITN L . LEWIS , . TR . —In No . 26 of the Taller for Thursday , June 9 th , 1709 , occurs this passage , iu speaking of a class of men called Pretty . Fellows : ' You see them accost each other with effeminate airs ; they hare their signs and tokens like Freemasons ; they rail at woman-kind , ' etc . I do not remember of ever having seen the passage quoted ; hut the entire paper from which it is selected hears indisputable evidences of the peculiar stle of

y its writer , Sir Richard Steele , one of the wits of Queen Anne ' s time—a man about town , and a close observer of everything transpiring in London in his day . It was a favourite position of the Anti-masonic writers thirty years ago , and it is asserted and believed at the present time , by those who agree with them in sentiment , that Freemasonay had its origin in 1717 ( eight years after the date of the paper in question ) at the time of

, the revival of the Grand Lodge ; that previous to that timo its only existence was in the company or guild of operative Masons , styled free , because they were freemen of Loudon ; and that the secret language of the Craft was invented in 1717 by Payne , Desaguliers , Anderson , and their associates . The sentence , therefore , is important in its bearing upon the history of

the Fraternity at the commencement of the eighteenth century , and there is something more in it than a bare allusion . The writer is addressing a miscellaneous public , and is giving , in his usual lively style of description , mixed with good-humoured satire , an account of a hand of London dandies and loungers whom he terms , iu the quaint language of the day , ' Pretty Fellows . ' He describes their ell ' eminacy and gossip ; and to

give his readers the best idea that they were a closely-allied community , represents them as having signs and tokens like the Freemasons . Of course he would employ in this , as in every other other of his essays , such language as would convey the clearest and simplest idea to the mind ot his readers . Is it conceivable , therefore , if Freemasonry was a novelty , that he would content himself with this simple reference ? Si

gns and tokens are spoken of in the same technical language which is employed at the present time , and as being something peculiarly and distinctivel y Masonic . What orher society ever had its signs except Masons and their modern imitators ? In what other , even of modern societies , except the Masonic , is the grip termed " a token ? " Whether Sir Kiclmrd Steele was a Mason , I do not know , but I do know that , in the extract I have

given , he speaks of these signs and tokens as matters wellknown and well understood by the public in his day as belonging to a particular class of men . It is left for the intelligent inquirer to ascertain how long and how widely such a custom must have existed and extended , to render such a brief and pointed reference to them intelligible to the public at large , or even to a mere London public . Certainly it must have reached back to a period prior to the commencement of the century ,

and at a time , too , when Masonry , as described by its own historians , as well as its enemies , had fallen into neglect and and disuse under the Grand Mastership of Sir Christopher Wren , and hence claimed no -particular attention from the public to attract notice to its peculiarities . Again : they are spoken of as Freemasons , and not merely Masons , or artiliccrs in stone , and brick and mortar ; and this , too , like the signs and tokens ,

is unaccompanied by a single word of explanation . If it meant operative masons only , freemen of the guild or corporation , why should the compound word be used , connected , as in the original , by a hyphen ? ' ( I quote by the way , from an edition of the Taller , published in London in 1785 . ) Why not say Free-carpenters or Free-smiths as well ? But it is needless to urge or argue this question further . The conclusion forces

itself irresistibly upon the mind of every candid and intelligent person , that there existed in London in 1709 , and for a long time before , a society lenown as the Freemasons , having certain distinct modes of recognition , and that this fact

concerning them was known even when the four old lodges were idle ; and that the idle assertions of Anti-masons respecting its history have no better foundation than their stock objections to it in other respects . And the proof of it is found , not in the assertions of Masonic writers and historians , but in a standard work ; in one of that incomparable group of essays which are known wherever the English tongue is spoken or written , and which have become classical from the reputation and ability of

their writers , their purity of style , and soundness of morals . It is not found in an elaborate panegyric written by a Masonic pen , but in the bai-R statement of a . fact , unaccompanied by explantion , because it needed none then , as it needs none now , and is one of those sure and infallible gnide-marks whence the materials for truthful history are taken , and by which its veracity is tested . "

I would enquire if the quotation , given by the writer , is correct , and also if Sir Eichard Steele was a Freemason ? —Ex . Ex . —[ We have collated the words with the ' fatter , of June 9 th , 1709 , and find the extract to be " rig ht in every particular . " Sir Eichard Steele was a Freemason of the York rite , or ancient Masons . In a list of the ancient lodges , inserted in Picart's Ceremonies el

costumes rcligieuses de totes les peuvlcs da , Monde , 7 vols ., IbL , Amsterdam , 1723-37 , Sir Eichard Steele ' s portrait is given at the head of the sheet depicting the names and places of the ancient Masons lodgings and meetings . ]

HILTON . I am sorry to be obliged to disclaim relationship with Milton . Abraham Clarke was no relation of my family . My only connexion with Milton was finding out his grandfather , as a note on Professor Masson ' s Milton . —HYDE CLARKE .

RABELAIS . I have latterly been again reading Eabelais , after many years , and am astonished at the- number of passages which it contains in strict accordance with Freemasonry . I therefore wish to know if Eabelais was connected with anj- of the secret orders , so widely diffused over all Europe , which were Freemasons in all but the name . A reply will oblige . —CLERICUS .

MASONIC DRAWINGS . [ We have a set . They are only valuable as matters of antiquarian interest and scarcity . ] THE MARK DEGREE AND ITS COLOUR . What is the colour peculiar to the Mark degree ?—OVERSEER . —[ Its symbolic colour is purple . The apron white , edged with purpleand a purple collar edged with .

, eold . This is the authorised colour under Eoyal Arch hapters . Where the degree is practised under the Ancient and Accepted Eite , and it is worked under that jurisdiction in many countries , its symbolical colour is yellow , in the place of the purple before mentioned . ]