A Compliment.

A COMPLIMENT .

TO THS EDITOR OF TKl . FRKEM _ . SO _ tS' MA . G _ . ZlNE AMD M _ . SO . UC MIRROR . Dear Sir and Brother , —I am going abroad , and I trust you will insert this , so that I may become a contributor to the Freemasons' Magazine , and entitled to be admitted to the meetings of foreign lodges in ¦ such capacity . Yours fraternally , P . M .

Royal Arch Masonry.

ROYAL ARCH MASONRY .

" 10 THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIRROR . Dear Sir and Brother , —Having worked the York Eite , I can attest that it includes the seven degrees recited by J . L . W . Yours fraternally , P . D . G . M .

The Boys' School.

THE BOYS' SCHOOL .

TO THE EDITOR OV THE EREEMASONS' MAGAZINE ANDjlIASONIO MIKKOE . Dear Sir and Brother , —The report raises the true question as to the real cause of comparative expense of the Boys' School , and I hope it will be ventilated and well understood by the Craft . The expense of the Boys' School is large , and it can be greatly

reduced if the Craft so determine . It is very easily done . All that has to be determined is whether the boys shall be treated as paupers , as some persons think they ought to be , or in the full spirit of brotherly love and relief , treated as the sons of our brethren , that is as Masons .

It is allowed as a general principle that the more pauperism ancl its spirit can be abolished the better , and surely in Masonry , where the members ought to belong to the independent classes of the community , their unfortunate children ought to be treated so as to lessen their afflictiontaught iu their new home

, that they are fed and clad as the sons of neiv fathers , as they ivere before they were the orphans of their natural fathers . Thus are grief ancl misery lessened , and relief beyond money given , the true sympathy of Masons with sorroiv and the spirit of independence which shall make the Lewis a man through life .

One reason for some wishing to treat the orphan boys as paupers may be that such has been the ancient spirit of the Board of Benevolence in administering relief in £ 5 doles to distressed brethren without giving effective relief . I trust this ivill be reformedancl then perhaps we shall be better satisfied

, with the principle on which the Boys' School is administered , ancl better assured that it is right , humane , and Masonic . Yours fraternally , P . D . G . M .

The Three Orders.

THE THREE ORDERS .

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIRROR . Dear Sir and Brother , —Permit me to observe , in reference to the opinions quoted by Pictus on the origin of the Doric and Ionic Orders , that the views of Ferguson and Layard have been much confirmed by the results of more recent investigations . This I may be allowed to do , as I have taken some part in these researches .

These facts , all tending to confirm an Egyptian origin for the Doric or Hellenic style , and an Eastern origin for the Ionic or Asiatic style , are chiefly under two heads , and in connexion with the delineation of the rock-cut monuments of Asia Minor made by M . Perrot aud M . Guillaume , architect , for the

Erench Government and by myself . These establish that there was an archaic style in Western Asia Minor , called by M . Perrot Lydo-Phrygian , as being found in Lydia and Phrygia , but by myself Lydo-Assyrian to mark its sympathy with the Assyrian styles . Layard does not consider these monuments as strictly Assyrian , but allied to it and belonging to that class .

Perhaps the most important point is my confirmation that the so-called monument of Sesostris is not , as stated by Herodotus , Egyptian , but non-Egyptian and Lydo-Assyrian . This leaves Eastern influence as the prevalent influence in Ionia . A paper of mine , read before the Society for the Encouragement of

Fine Arts , will be found in the Building News . More recent investigations of mine are calculated to confirm the independent origins of the Eastern styles as apart from the Egyptian . I had already assigned to Persia and Babylonia an antecedent ire belonging to what I have termed the

Tibitoemp Caucasian race , but I have lately found that Asia Minor had this race among its earliest inhabitants , who figure in fable as the Amazons . This solution connects the pre-historic period with the historic , p . onniliatfis the lea-finds , and unites the ancient

nonulation ivith that of the Lazes and Georgians still subsisting in the province of Trebizond and in the Caucasus . It gives us an early civilization , antecedent even to that of the Iberians , discovered by myself in Asia Minor , and consequently of the Hellenes or Greeks .

It is interesting to see how each discovery supports the views propounded by Ferguson and attests his sagacity . As to the question whether the three Orders were known to King Solomon , it is a trivial one . This cannot have been so knownbeing

subsequentlde-, y veloped , though , as Pictus states , their germs then existed , for I may say the history of remote antiquity io not that of unmitigated savagery , but of the continued propagation and transmission of human knowledge . There was a communion in more matters than one

between Babylonia and Egypt , each ivas at one time under Semetic influence , and there are relations between the cuneiform characters and the hieroglyphics . If I may give an opinion , that view is correct which seeks not to obtain absolute exactness in the

symbols or legends of Masonry , but that which is content with accepting ancient legends aa such , not vouching for their historical truth , but accepting them as memorials of antiquity . We shall have quite antiquity enough if we have a mediasval antiquity of three or five ordersand without insisting on satisfing

, y the exactitude of detail of King Solomon ' s time without possessing his knowledge of what then subsisted . Yours fraternally , HIDE CIABKE . 32 , St . George's-square , S . W .