The First Masonic Meeting In Damascus.

THE FIRST MASONIC MEETING IN DAMASCUS .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JUNEG , 1863 .

BY BEO . EOBEKT MORRIS ,, LL . D . Somebody has said , and very truthfully , that " Damascus is rightly named the oldest city of the world . " It dates back , certainly , anterior to the days of Abraham ( B . C . 2000 , or thereabouts ) ,

having been founded , according to the best records , by TJz , the son of Aram , the son of Shem , the son of Noah . ( Genesis , x ., 21—23 ) . If we omit the first eleven chapters of Genesis , there has no recorded event occurred in theivorld ' s history but Damascus

good was in existence to receive it . Had the good hebdominal , now issued at Damascus under the auspices of H . E . Raschid Pasha , Governor General , entitled La Syria , been commenced a few thousand years earlier , its

files would certainly be a thesauros of historical facts unequalled for value , because containing nothing less than that " universal history " which Sir Walter Raleigh and other aspiring composei's meditated . Go back as far as you will in the past and there was always a Damascus .. In the

writings of every century , for more than four thousand years , its name has been mentioned and its praises sung . To this old place years are only minutes , decades only flitting trifles of time . She saw the foundation of Baalbec and Thebes , and

Ephesus laid ; saw them grow into mighty cities , and amaze the Avorld with their grandeur ; saw them desolate , deserted , ancl given over to the owls and bats . She saAV the Israelitish empire exalted , and she saw it annihilated . She saw

Greece rise , and flourish her twenty centuriesthen die . In her old age she saw Rome founded , builded , overshadow the earth with greatnessthen perish . All that has ever occurred upon the earth Damascus has seen , and yet she lives . She

has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires , and will probably see the tombs of a thousand more before she passes from the stage . Far more truthfully than the " seven-hilled " city of Rome does Damascus deserve the name of the ' Eternal Oity .

Perhaps all this is not much to the purpose in inditing an article upon "The First Masonic Meeting in Damascus , " yet it is this which makes all the difference between one place and another . The new town of Pumpkinville , in the new State

of Nebrasko , is a more sightly object by far than this old city on the banks of the Baraba , as its river is far larger and more noble than this ; but who can arouse any mental or spiritual glow in Pumpkinville ? Every drop in the flow of the

Baraba is historical . The very mud of which these walls of Damascus are constructed , contains the dust of a thousand generations . Those overhanging hills yonder have witnessed in their grand reticence such sights , as could we rend their

secrets from them , would fill volumes of history ! And it is the consideration of these things tha / made my entry upon the top of the dili ge * > through that mountain cleft and clown br that singing stream , " a joy for ever . "

I had been in Damascus hut a day when I paid , my respects to H . B . M Consul , Bro . E . J . Rogers . This gentleman is acting iu the absence of the

Consul-General of Syria , Bro . Eldridge ; but his oivn official position is here . He is the Worshipful Master elect of the lodge at Beyrout , Palestine ( No . 415 , Scotch Registry ) , while Bro . Eldridge is Deputy Grand Master of the district . The fame

of Bro . Rogers as an exemplar of gentlemanly courtesy , benevolence , and the largest cosmopolitan friendships , has gone out , long years ago , and all that I can say in regard to it is just so much surplusage . His knowledge of Arabic is

remarkable ; even here where so many foreigners , learned in that rich and abounding language , are found . His French is that of a native . Standing as the representative of so great a nation , foremost among Syrian consuls , his own urbanity ,

shrewdness , knowledge of the people and their peculiarities of government , religion , ancl habits , places him far higher than any mere office could do .

My call upon " Bro . Rogers " ( for so in unbent hours he delights to be styled ) was at an opportune moment . We had " spiritual affinities " ( ivhatever that expression means ) . An hour Avas sufficient to lay the foundation of a friendship that

mors non separabit . I may forget a good many things that have occurred iu my life ( and hope I shall ) but I never expect to forget this and subsequent conferences with the good Consul Rogers at Damascus .

Amongst my first requests ( ancl goodness knows I made enough ) was a personal introduction to our distinguisded brother , the Governor General of Syria , Raschid Pasha . This was readily had , and " we three" passed an evening together in Bro . Rogers' parlour , much to my gratification . At