Ears Of Wheat From A Cornucopia.

the capacity of apprentices , and held as competent to take part in any other business of the lodge . We cannot , therefore , regard the law rendering the presence of Apprentices necessary to the reception of Masters or Fellows in any other light

than as giving- strength to the supposition that in such receptions no secrets were communicated that were not known to apprentices ; and this is still more apparent when it is considered that the office of Deacon , the highest in the lodge , as well

as that of Warden , was sometimes held by brethren before they had been advanced to the grade of Fellow . This was the case in 1672 , when in view of some real or supposed advantage that was expected

to flow from the patronage of the nobility and other non-operatives of distinction , John , Earl of Cassillis , was elected Deacon of Mother Kilwinning , and also on the occasion of the same office being held in 1674 by Alexander , Earl of

Eglinton . * Even the first " Right Worshipful Master " of the Lodge of Kilwinning ( Patrick Montgomerie of Bourtrehill ) was elected and installed into office when only an 1 C Entered 'Prentice " ; and it is certain that the then Hereditary " Patron , Protector ,

and Overseer "f of the Craft knew nothing of Masonic degrees till the 13 th of May , 1736 , at which date he was in the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge " admitted a brother of the Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted

Masons . " His advancement to the degree of Fellow Craft took place on the 2 nd'of the following month , and to that of Master Mason within a few days of his election as "Grand Master" of the newly-formed Grand Lodge of Scotland .

Up to within a short period of the abdication by St . Clair of the Protectorate of the Craft , there is a total absence from lodge records of any allusion to secret Masonic rites other than what was embraced in giving "the Mason ' s Word "—a

privilege which seems in 1715 to have been conceded by St . Mary ' s Chapel to the founders of the Lodge Journeymen , who had previously done so upon their own responsibility . Great value was attached by Craftsmen to possession of this

talismanic monosyllable ; for all who were " without the Word" were regarded by the lodges as Cowans , to work with whom subjected defaulters to fine or expulsion . " The Word , " then , given , under oath , as a means of mutual recognition and

assistance , seems to have been the chief , if not the only , secret which was communicated to members of the Fraternity apart from those common to any trade or handicraft , and which could only be acquired by personal application , or through the wisdom aud experience of skilled artificers of the

same profession . Then there was the oath of fidelity , which , in presence of Apprentices , Fellows , aud Masters alike required to take , and in which they promised to be "leil and true " to Church and State , and to the Trade with its acts and

ordinances . From the fact of its being customary for the brother who " made " another at a distance from his lodge personally to report to head-quarters as to the " obligation" under whicli the novice had been entered , we are of opinion that the form

of initiation was simple in the extreme , and varied according to the capacity of the initiator and the circumstances under which the entry took place . As to the " Master Masons" of Operative times being the bona fide employers of labour , the

Masonic ordinances which we formerly quoted , as well as the tenor of the charter to the lodge of Kilmarnock that emanated from Kilwinning in 1734 , and which embraced regulations that were totally inapplicable to Speculative Masons , prove

that such was the case—and not only so , but it was also necessary that ere a Master could be recognised as such he should give practical proof of his skill as a craftsman in the particular department of work in which he purposed to serve the public : iu the employment of apprentices and