Progress Of Freemasonry In India.

infuse fresh spirits into the companions of this degree , and induce them to establish other chapters , so that there maybe more frequent meetings , if only to impart instruction . The Scotch Royal Arch Chapter in Bombay has broken through the barrier Avhich heretofore

prevented the brethren of Lodge Rising Star receiving the benefit of this degree . About a dozen of our Par see brethren have already been exalted , and are noAV thinking of applying for a charter to establish a chapter in connection with Lodge Rising Star . The Knihts Templar Encampment at Bombay

g has been actively at AA ork , and a great number of members have been installed . The Ascalon Encampment at Poorra , Avhich Avas in abeyance , has been recently revived . Calcutta continues to maintain a vigorous tone under the superintendence of their most energetic

Provincial Grand Master , Avlrose untiring exertions in the cause of the Order are manifest in the successive quarterly communications . He recently paid a visit to Rangoon , where he Avas enthusiastically received by the brethren in their new lodge room , which AA as expressly fitted up for his

reception . Two neAV lodges have been opened in Bengal and a Royal Arch chapter at Rangoon . In Madras everything goes on smoothly . TAVO neAV lodges haA'e been added to this Presidencyone at Bangalore , and another at Cannanore . — Masonic Record of Western India .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

FATALISM AND EKEEJIA SONET . " Ought an individual avowing his belief in fatalism to be received into our Craft ? " Two brothers have written making this inquiry . The species of fatalism to which they refer is thus described in a late publication : — " A le considerer sous le point de vue le

plus general , le fatalism est la doctrine de ceux qui regardent tout ce qui se fait dans l'linivers , non comme l ' ceuvre d'une cause intelligente , mais comme le resultat d'uue aveugle necessite . Dans ce cas il se confonde avec l'atheisme ou le pantheisme et son histoire est celle des plus deplorables aberrations de

l ' esprit humain et dela pb . ilosopb . ie ? " "We ought not , in my judgment , to admit into Freemasonry an individual professing this species of fatalism . —CHABI . ES PUKTON COOPER . MASONIC CONEEEENCE OE PAEIS . There never was any report publishedbut the

re-, sults were officially communicated to all the Grand Lodges . A copy of this document no doubt is in the archives of the Grand Secretary ' s office , Great Queenstreet . —PAST GKAND OEEICEE . —[ In such a receptacle it might as Avell be at the bottom of the sea , so far as the Craft is concerned . —ED . F . M . & M . M . ]

TUE LATE BEO . DE . W 0 LEE . We should very much like , if you can find room for it , if you Avould giva us some account of what Dr . Wolff really was ? Several brethren have been

Masonic Notes And Queries.

discussing certain matters connected with Freemasonry , and it is asserted Dr . Wolff was one of us . This was as strenuously denied , but none of us know much about him , so we have all resolved to send to "Notes and Queries" in the M AGAZINE for some knowledge of him . —SEVEN BRETHEEN OE THE WEST ,

IN SEAECH OE KNOWLEDGE . [ The Reverend Dr . Joseph Wolff was a Freemason . He was initiated in your neighbourhood , and he died vicar of lie-Brewers , in Somersetshire . This celebrated man has been as successfully misrepresented as any other living protest against the miserable mockery

of mediocrity . He tells us that when his brothers were thinking that the glory of this -world -was compassed by a fair price for old clothes , he asked " Who this Jesus was ? " Joseph Wolff was a child when , a Jew , he asked of Jews this question . Many parents , long-headed parents , think that little lads should only

seek what they are desired to find ; and Wolff ' s father did not well like to hear his boy inquiring in this fashion . He sard , " God have mercy upon us , our son will not remain a Jew . He is continually Avalking about and thinking , which is not natural . " h Wolff had onllived seven years when he

Josep y asked , " Who this Jesus was ? " He preached in . eleven tongues . He had raised his voice to proclaim his Saviour amongst congregations of thousands who worshipped devils . His father said he was " continually walking about . " He caught the inspiration which was to lead him on when he was sevenand

; within sight of seventy , his labours abated nothing . His kin made the usual allusion to his being disinherited ; but his uncle after a Avhile blessed him rather freely , upon which the money was not uncertain to

follow ; and Joseph Wolff went on his way to the house of his cousin . The end of all this early persecution was , that Wolff was violently assaulted by his cousin ' s wife—the lady losing ber temper , and throwing a poker at him with a curse . It is impossible that we should follow this wonderful man through all the

various circumstances of his conversion to Christianity ; but when he had got clear of the poker and the curse , both of which seem to have fallen harmless , he went on his way without a farthing in his pocket , and arrived at Frankfort , a shepherd who had housed and fed himsharing with Wolff the half of his all . We

, learn that he here found the JeAvs accomplished infidels , and the Protestants the same ; and he tells us if the boys of the place did not get out of their fathers Avhatever they might care to ask , they " apostatised" until they got the coin they wanted . Wolff ' s meeting with Goethe will be read with interest ; and

in the eighteenth year of his age , he was baptised at Prague , by the abbot of a Benedictine monastery . Whilst staying with Stolberg , Wolff translated the Bible ; and so pleased Avas the Count with many specimens read by Wolff , that the translator was " kissed and tickled" with a heartiness that drew from

the Countess the expression of a fear " that it would make the young man A'arn . " Whilst Wolff was in the Eternal City , he , was introduced to Pope Pius VII ., whom he caressed and patted on the shoulder , and whose blessing in return for this demonstration , he will always , he tells us , think well of , though there are " Protestants who declare the Pope to be Antichrist . " There are Protestants who frequent a large hall in the Strand in the