Freemasonry In Ceylon.

during the past four months , held weekly lodges . Already the "Sphinx" counts more than seventy names admitted and proposed , and we see every reason for believing that the number of members will scarcely fall short of that of the lodge , ere the current year be expired .

The general reader will be prepared to admit the excellent nature and character of Masonry , ¦ when it be known , that men whose time is fully occupied during the heat of the day do not hesitate to leave their houses at night , week after week , to attend the lodge meetingswhen no other cause could induce them to

, quit the ease and quiet of their own homes . The enervating agency of a tropical climate fails in its effect on the spirit of Masonry . Were it otherwise we should not perhaps have to record the marked success which has attended the working of the lodge "under notice .

It is now in contemplation amongst the brethren to petition for the institution of the more exalted Order of a Chapter of a Royal Arch , for which we believe there are a sufficient number in the island ; and at no distant date we hope to see the number of lodges multi plied until there are enough to induce

Grand Lodge to appoint a Provincial Grand Master . We note these proceedings as not without interest to the general public , whilst Masons , whether in Europe or the East , will be glad to learn the progress of the Craft in " India ' s utmost isle . "

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

DEUIDISJI AND FREEMASONRY . [ A valued , correspondent has asked for some good account of Druidism to compare it with the rites , of , Ey . eemasonry , in order that he may judge of the similarity between them ; and , although the extract is a long one , and extends through three numbers of the old FUEEMASOJSTS MAGAZINE for 1793 , yet . / wo presume it will be

welcome to many of our readers besides our correspondent in question . ] ¦ .. , An Account of Druidism . From Mr . Polyivhele ' s " Historical Views of Devonshire . " It appears that the British Druids , like the Indian Gymnosophists , or the Persian Magi , had two sets of doctrines ; the first , for the initiated ; the second , for the

people . That there is one God , the creator of heaven aind earth , was a secret doctrine of the Brachmans . And the nature and perfection of the deity were among the Druidical arcana . * Pomponius Mela confirms this account of Caasar : Druidas teraimundigue magnitudinem etlformam , notus cceli et siderum , et quid Dii velint scire se profiteri . And Lucan : Solis nosse Deos , et codi numina vobis . That these ideas were derived from rToah , f I

have scarcely a doubt ; they were brought into this island by the immediate descendants of those holy men , to whom only the secrets of Eoah were commnnicated ; and who , as consecrated to religion , were thus entrusted with the secrets of Heaven . The imperishable nature of the soul was another doctrine of the Druids , which , in its genuine purity , perhaps , was incommunicable to

the vulgar . But the soul ' s immortality , connected with many sensitive ideas , was generally preached to the people . It was with unvarying firmness that the Druids asserted tbe immortality of the soul . And the universal influence of this doctrine on their conduct excited the surprise of the Greeks and Romans . It was tliis which inspired the soldier with courage in the day of battle ; .

which animated the slave to die with his master , and the . wife to share the fate of her husband ; which urged the old and the feeble to precipitate themselves from rocks , and the victim to become a willing sacrifice ; and , hence , the creditor postponed his debts till the next life , and the merchant threw letters for his correspondents into the funeral fires , to be thence remitted into the world of

spirits ! The Druids believed also that the soul ,- having left one earthly habitation , entered into another ; thatfrom one body , decayed and turned to clay , it passed intoanother fresh and lively , and fit to perform all the functions of animal life . This was the doctrine of transmigration , maintained in common by the Druids and the Brachmans . * Sir William Jones describes a great empire , the empire of Iram , the religion of which was-Sabian , so called from the word Sabu , that signifies a

host , or more properly , the host of Heaven , m the worship of which the Sabian ritual consisted . Mahabeli was the first monarch of Iram : his religion he was said to have received from the Creator , as well as the orders established throughout his monarchy , religious , military , mercantile , and servile . These regulations were said to be written in the language of the gods . f The tenets of

this religion were , that there is but one God , pure and good ; that the soul was immortal , and an emanation from the Deity ; ' that it was for a season separated from the-Supreme J Being , and confined to the earth to inhabit human bodies , but would return to the Divine Essence again . The purer sectaries of this religion maintained , that the worship of fire was merely popularand that

, they appeared only to venerate that sun upon whose exalted orb they fixed their eyes , whilst they really humbled themselves before the Supreme God . They were assiduous observers of the motions of the luminaries , arid , established artificial cycles , with distinct namp ° , ;„ indicate the periods in which the fixed stars appeared to revolve . They are also said to have known the secretpoiuers

of nature , and thence have acquired the reputation of magicians . Sects of these still remain in India , sailed Sufi , clad in woollen garments or mantles . In ancient times every priesthood among the eastern nations had ' several species of sacred characters , which they used in their hiero-grammatic writings to render their religion more mysterious , whilst they preserved its written doctrines and precepts in such characters as none but their