Reviews Of New Books.

prevent them from forgetting those sublime truths winch elevated them far above the Egyptians , aud upon the preservation of which a glorious future depended . " But our brother goes further than this , and adds ( from his own peculiar sources of information ) some facts whicli have regard to the development of the science . He is quite satisfied with the result at which he has arrived , and says : —

" Nor can the position we have assumed be overthrown or controverted by any arguments of a reliable character based upon sacred or profane history . The working tools and other emblems to symbolize the moral teachings of Freemasonry , were not introduced until such times as circumstances developed the propriety of their use . The obligation administered by Joseph to his brothers was all that was necessary during the sojonrn of the Israelites in Egypt , and this obligation was the beginning of Freemasonry . The division into degrees by imposing additional duties and increasing the obligations , were the result of circumstances occasioned by their grievous servitude ancl connected with their wanderings in the wilderness , and were only perfected at the building of the temple by Solomon . "

The perfecting of the laws ancl ceremonial of thefratermty , 'Bro . Hyneman elsewhere attributes to the Grand Master Moses , the connexion between whom and Joseph is ingeniously worked out in a quotation from Professor Wines ' s book , from which the author borrows largely throughout . The whole of the arguments to prove the positions assumed b y the writer , such as they are , might have been amply considered in a work one tenth part of the size of the present one . By far the larger portion of this

" history" is devoted to a laudation of the American ancl Jewish nations , which the author considers to be the chosen peoples , and the undoubted superiors of every other race , past or present . With this is mixed up a farrago of the writer ' s peculiar ideas upon various subjects , none of which have , as far as we can see , the least connexion with either the origin or the history of Masonry , hut appear to have been dragged in by the head and shoulders in order to construct a volume of the required magnitude . ^ Sp iritualism and kindred pseudo-philosophical topics are touched upon , and the author ' s uolitical views are nut urominentlv forward . .

Though Bro . Hyneman loudly asserts his " universalist" opinions , we must say that his language and arguments would not tend to increase our sense of the liberality of those opinions . Indeed , throughout the work Masonry is considered entirely from a Jewish point of view ; we find stroii " and most uncharitable denunciations of Oliver , Dunckerley , and Macka-v " which we can only attribute to the author ' s Hebrew prejudices . His " universality" we suspect is confined to the Jew's view of Ereemasonry ,

which he would wish to see adopted by all Christian brethren ; and in this we certainly cannot agree with him , any more than we can with his excessive praise of the law of Moses , which he holds up as the model code for the guidance of men in the paths of rectitude , as well as for the preservation of their intellectual and political liberty . We think Bro . Hyneman forgets certain parts of the Mosaic law as promul gated in Leviticus and Deuteronomy ; and that it has been tried as the law of the land in former days in landbut believe the Mosaic

New Eng , we ( or as it ivas then termed , the " Blue " ) code did not promote morality , mercy , brotherly love , or liberty . To the dedication of Lodges to the ' "holy St . John , " he of course strenuously objects , and sneers at that time honoured custom with very little reason on his side , connecting it with " man-worshi p , " an innuendo as unfounded as it is absurd . The author's deficiencies in the knowled ge requisite for an inquiry such as that which he has undertaken , are painfully , and almost ludicrousl y apparent . Eeferences are made , at second hand , to passages in the works