Gothic Constitutions—What Are They?

¦ or at any time hereafter , shall be made known unto me . So help me God and the holy contents of this book . Anderson , in his " New Book of Constitutions , " ( Hyneman's Library , vol . 2 , page 80 ) , says , that

an assembly was held in 1663 , when the Earl of Saint Albans Avas Grand Master , and Sir C . Wren was a Grand Warden , at which meeting six articles Avere ordained . I have compared the 1663 articles with the six printed in Bro . Moore ' s

Magazine , and I find some are identical and some are not . SamuelPritchard , however , informs us that a meeting was held "in 1691 , when lords and dukes , lawyers and shopkeepers , and other inferior tradesmen , were admitted into this mystery . "

Pritchard ' s authority would not stand high in my -estimation Avas it not supported by Aubrey . Mr . Halliwell says that he found a manuscript "Natural History of Wiltshire , " by Aubrey , preserved in the library of the Royal Society , Avith the following " memorandum" in it : — "This day ,

May the ISth ., being Monday , 1691 , after Rogation Sunday , is a great convention at St . Paul ' s Church , of the fraternity of the adopted Masons , ¦ where Sir Christopher Wren is to be adopted a brother , and Sir Henry Goodrice , of the Tower ,

and divers others , " etc . Now it is not likely that Pritchard could , in 1730 , have learned that information from Aubrey's manuscript ; . he must have had it from some other source . Certain , however , it is that a meeting of the Masons took place in

the neighbourhood of St . Paul ' s Church in 1691 , and it is not impossible that these very " neAV articles , " with the new O . B ., may have emanated in that meeting . It is rather strange that Anderson , who replied to Pritchard , should not have

noticed the 1696 meeting in his 1738 edition of the Book of Constitutions ; but the truth is , Anderson told a good many fibs—in fact , there was neither Grand Masters , Grand Wardens , or Grand Lodges in 1663 , and Aubrey's memorandum is doubtless the most true .

I have already suggested that , by comparing all these documents , we can arrive at the most correct history of the successive changes in the laws , legends , aud even ceremonies of the Masonic brotherhood , from say 1375 , until the formation of

the Grand Lodge , in 1717 . We can also see how ridiculous ifc is to call these documents " Gothic . " I am , however , not going to specify everything that mav be learned from those documents ;

Gothic Constitutions—What Are They?

something must be left for the reader himself to find out . One thing , however , must be noticed , viz : —that in no constitution written previous to 1721 is the name of St . John , St . Johns , or St . John ' s Day , ever mentioned or alluded to . I

hope that my readers will now be satisfied , not only that tho St . John legend is a manufacture of a later date , but also that our oracles , who pretend so know so much , really know little or uothing , and that when demands are in future

made for a reform in our laws or ritual , that their pretended ancient landmarks will no longer be regarded as obstacles for the passage of such reforms . —Evergreen .

Necessity Of Study To A Mason.

NECESSITY OF STUDY TO A MASON .

Masonry is a succession of allegories , the mere vehicles of great lessons in morals and philosophy . You will more fully appreciate its spirit , its object and purposes , as you advance in the different degress , which you will find to

constitute a great , complete and harmonious system . If you have been disappointed in the three first degrees ; if it has seemed to you that the performance has not come up to the promise , and that the common places which are utterred in them

with such an air , the lessons in science and the arts , merely rudimentary , and known to every school-boy , the trite maxims of morality and the trivial ceremonies are unworthy the serious attention of a grave and sensible man , occupied with

the weighty cares of life , and to whom his time is valuable , remember that those ceremonies and lessons come to us from an age Avhen the commonist learning was confined to a select feAv , when the most ordinary and fundamental principles of

morality were new discoveries ; and that the three first degrees stand in the these latter days , like Druidic Temple in their rude and primeval simplicity , mutilated also and corrupted by the action of time , and the additions and interpolations of

illiterate ignorance . They are but the entrance to the great Masonic Temple , the mere pillars of the portico . You have now taken the first step over its threshold , the first step towards the inmost sanctuary and heart of the Temple . You are in the path