The Supreme Grand Council Of France And Marshal Magnan.

And what are the means to be employed " so repugnant to the feelings of the Grand Master ? " If it is by force that these things are to effected , what -will he the price when the Eite Ecossias lodges are entirely suppressed , for the same blow which strikes the one will resound fearfully in the lodges of the Grand

Orient , and bring ruin on Freemasonry in France , rendering it but the blind puppet of the state . ( To be continued . )

Masonic Fictions.

MASONIC FICTIONS .

I . THE TJHIYEIISAXIT-SL - FKEEMASONIIT . The very excellent series of papers appearing from time to time in the pages of the FEEEMASONS' MAGAZINE , under the title of Masonic Facts , have suggested to the present writer that there are also a

considerable number of " waifs and estrays " floating about the Masonic world , upheld by brethren , whose names have a certain repute in the Craft , which may with propriety be denominated " Masonic Fictions . " ' . " ¦ . " The first of these in importance from its daily

reiteration is the oft-repeated assertion of the Universality of Masonry , a dictum strenuously maintained by many in the Craft which , if even cursorily examined , will he found to be nothing more then a figure of speech—a " Masonic Fiction . " All fictions have a substratum of truth as their basis , and this one—the Universality of Freemasonry

—stands in the like position . It is not the purpose of the writer to decry the extent of the Craft , but to show that what is understood by the Universality of Masonry , as spoken of amongst us , cannot exist . Arguing from analogy , we often hear of the Catholicity of Christianity , yet more than one-half of the

population of the globe are not Christians ; and amongst those that are , there are churches and sects innumerable . Freemasonry is in exactly a similar position . Slaves cannot be Masons ; yet in Asia , Africa , and a large portion of America , slavery or bondage is the rule and not the exception . The Blue

Masons of England indignantly repudiate all brethren who belong to rites not acknowledged "b y their Grand Lodge . In these instances the parallelism is complete ; they are both fictions—mere figures of speech . Catholicity is not Catholic , and Freemasonry is not universal .

If we examine the grounds upon which Masonry is said to be universal , we shall find the fiction to contain the single grain of truth . Travelling over the whole surface of the globe Ave believe we shall meet Avith brethren in almost every clime and race . Good . But are they such Masons as our ritual and

Masonic Fictions.

lectures teach us ? No . They have certain signs in common with us , and reciprocate brotherly acts founded on their own religions , customs , and laws , but to assert that their Freemasonry is founded on a universality of principle ( actuating all the brotherhood alike ) is a fiction—a mere figure of speech .

The order admitsto itsbosom all men—irrespective of reli gious creed—who own the supremacy of a Creator and God . It does not enquire what phase a man ' s opinions take ; and yet , strange to say , brethren are to be found , one in particular whose reputation as a teacher of Masonry is loudly proclaimed , who assert the . Universality of Masonry .

If we look a little deeper , we shall arrive at the fiction . Because signs and tokens are recognised as brotherhood over a great portion of the globe , it proves that a part only of Freemasonry is universal , not in the sense in which our teachers -would have us to believe , that even the change of a sentence in

tlie lectures , such as Ave give , "is Masonic schism , and tending to weaken the universality of the science , " It is the dogma that what Ave do must be universal , that contains the fiction . That dogma is inculcated daily and the brethren are taught to believe that

" Masonry is the same all over the world . " As well might they be told that man is the same when we know , by ethnology , that though made in one form ,

there are as many differences between the races of inhabitants of the earth as there are to be found amongst the species of the inferior animals . The fiction is demonstrable from our ceremonies and lectures . Universality cannot be pleaded where it is necessary to obligate candidates on the Old

Testament , the Holy Bible ( i . e . the Old and New Testaments ) , the Alcoran , tlie Vedas of the Hindoo , or the Zendavesta of the Fire "Worshippers . All these sacred books , and many others , render the obligations separate and distinct , even if it be administered upon them .

A lodge is made "just" under certain provisions here ; but if Masonry , as taught us , is universal , then it cannot be "just , " under some of the circumstances alluded to above . The vicious habits of slavery are not confined to one portion of the world . In Asia and Africa slavery

and bondage are the rule , and in America , slaves outnumber all others . The Freemason must be a free man , and here we have nearly three-quarters of the globe ineligible , and yet Masonry is said to be universal . Taking the mass of mankind in the aggregate , the

millions of souls who never heard of King Solomon , or his Temple , treble , and nearly quadruple , those who have . How then can Masonry be universal , when tlie principal event , Avhich is the foundation of the Order ,