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Article MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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Masonic Notes And Queries.
and their prejudices , and they do not always get hold of the right man for the right mission . Such as Dr . Wolff do not always acknowledge that souls may be saved by so many calm general rules . A missionary may do worse than respect authority , but he can do better than never recognise his own responsibility . He
must know when to act without hearing from home , from the civil secretary of this or that society , whether his action is likely to he recorded with satisfaction in the minutes . At the same time whilst Dr . Wolff was of opinion that the Society for Promoting Christianity only acted in this matter as any societ
y could that recognised its obligations , it cannot be well questioned that Joseph Wolff has more souls to his credit than any such organisation or society . His great Bokhara mission is , even after this lapse of time , like a marvel of romance . There is the
man AA'ithout any one of the ordinary facilities for a journey of extraordinary peril . Bokhara must be reached ; and nothing but Bibles are his help by the long way . At one time he is ticketed for fifty shillings , and offered as a slave ; at another , two hundred lashes strip his feet and leave
them bare ; at another , his voice is raised in preaching to cavelling thousands , with nothing for his pillow hut a pyramid of sand ; at another , he is crammed into a dungeon , at another lashed to an entire horse ' s tail . But not a Avord escapes him , not a sound , but "I will go on to Bokhara , I will proclaim God's Son ;"
and lest Ave should spoil , by condensing the eloquent words of the great missionary and traveller , we advise the " Seven Brethren" to procure from the nearest library The Travels and Adventures of the JRev . Joseph Wolff , B . I ) ., an autobiography as amusing as it is instructive , and as truthful as it is marvellous . ]
EAMSAY ' S " HISTOET OP ERSEMASONRT . " A brother quoted a Masonic dictum from Ramsay's Sistory of Freemasonry . Did the Chevalier Ramsay ever Avrite such a history , and if so under what title did it appear .
—f-rt-AEAGON A EIEE OE THE TEMPLAES . Who Avas the King of Aragon that bequeathed his kingdom to the Knights Templar ?—P . D . E . P . THE GRAND FESTIVAL . Why is the Grand Festival held on the Wednesday
following St . George ' s Day ? The patron saint of England has no connection with Craft Masonry , but the tAvo Saints John Avere believed to have and anciently the Grand Festival was held on St . John's Day as , even now , many lodges celebrate that anniversary . The change , however , having been made , will some one tell us the reason for it ?—S . JOHANNES .
THE HAMMER . When was the hammer discontinued as one of the symbolical tools of Freemasons ?—FADES PRIMUS . TRIANGULATION . Are there any instances of triangulation in Craft Masonry ?—EQUILATERAL . —[ Yesthe opening and
; closing a lodge in each degree . ] BROAVN ' S MASTER KEY . Who , and what , was the Brown who published A Master Key to Masonry ?—FABER PRIMUS .
TRACING BOARDS . I have three tracing boards , Avorked from copperplates , size about four inches by two and a half . Who Avas the design furnished by ?—F . CHARLESTOWN SUPREME COUNCIL OE THE 33 ° Where—during the last phase of the unhappy war
in America—is the head-quarters of the Supreme Council of Charlestown ? It is presumed that recently , if not for some time past , it must have changed its locale , as the . Northerners spare neither Masons nor Masonry . —K n .
w . H . SEWARD . Is the Northern W . H . Seward a brother Mason ? — -K ii . —[ He Avas initiated , but became one of the anti-Masonic party in 1829 , Avho , for a political purpose , trumped up the Morgan case . We have no room for a biography of such fellows . ]
BOOKS OE THE ORDER . What books of the Order are preserved in the Grand Secretary's office , and who has a right to inspect them ?—STUDENS . CAGLIOSTRO LETTERS . There are twenty-one letters from Cagliostro to his
Avife , written Avhen he Avas in the Bastile for his supposed participation in the affair of the celebrated diamond necklace . These letters , together Avith atranslation into French , are preserved amougst the select portions of the Egerton Manuscripts ( No . 4 s 7 ) in the British Museum . They are not of any special
interest , as far as their contents are concerned , being what may be called domestic communications . They are Avritten in a plain foreign round hand—not very good—and one , bearing date 7 th December [ 17 SG ] lias a signature very much like an alchemical character formed by a conjunction of the letters H and Z . — MATTHEAV COOKE .
THE OBJECT OF TEMPLARY . Where can I find the best definition of the object of Templary?—EXPERT . —[ Read Melmoth's Importance of a Religious Life . ~ ] A FRAGMENT . Will you have the kindness to tell me Avhat you
can make of the imperfect leaf enclosed ? I have shoAvn it to several brethren , but they cannot decypher more than the word "lodge . " —BROMPTON . —[ It is not difficult to read , but is so very mutilated , that we cannot make much of it ; however , what there is of it is the folloAving : — " * * during the meeting B "
[ rother ?] " John Bernay from the * * * lodge , Green Arbour-lane , attended and state" [ d ] " * * * the order was every M . " [ ason ?] " should present hisself" ( sic . ) " in full clothing such as had it not to be found by the lodge . The tiler" ( sic . ) " was cooking supper , and in the mean * * * * several of them
came pell-mell into * * * Avhere being stoutly resisted by the R . W . they were ex" [ pelled ?] " and peace being restored it Avas agreed upon that as the security of the house was not * * * * to some more safe place and that Brothers Wh * * * to seek for and ascertain price and conveniences against the next assembly . " * * * * " he was made a Mason and f . c . that night with a promise that the * * * Grand Lodge
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Notes And Queries.
and their prejudices , and they do not always get hold of the right man for the right mission . Such as Dr . Wolff do not always acknowledge that souls may be saved by so many calm general rules . A missionary may do worse than respect authority , but he can do better than never recognise his own responsibility . He
must know when to act without hearing from home , from the civil secretary of this or that society , whether his action is likely to he recorded with satisfaction in the minutes . At the same time whilst Dr . Wolff was of opinion that the Society for Promoting Christianity only acted in this matter as any societ
y could that recognised its obligations , it cannot be well questioned that Joseph Wolff has more souls to his credit than any such organisation or society . His great Bokhara mission is , even after this lapse of time , like a marvel of romance . There is the
man AA'ithout any one of the ordinary facilities for a journey of extraordinary peril . Bokhara must be reached ; and nothing but Bibles are his help by the long way . At one time he is ticketed for fifty shillings , and offered as a slave ; at another , two hundred lashes strip his feet and leave
them bare ; at another , his voice is raised in preaching to cavelling thousands , with nothing for his pillow hut a pyramid of sand ; at another , he is crammed into a dungeon , at another lashed to an entire horse ' s tail . But not a Avord escapes him , not a sound , but "I will go on to Bokhara , I will proclaim God's Son ;"
and lest Ave should spoil , by condensing the eloquent words of the great missionary and traveller , we advise the " Seven Brethren" to procure from the nearest library The Travels and Adventures of the JRev . Joseph Wolff , B . I ) ., an autobiography as amusing as it is instructive , and as truthful as it is marvellous . ]
EAMSAY ' S " HISTOET OP ERSEMASONRT . " A brother quoted a Masonic dictum from Ramsay's Sistory of Freemasonry . Did the Chevalier Ramsay ever Avrite such a history , and if so under what title did it appear .
—f-rt-AEAGON A EIEE OE THE TEMPLAES . Who Avas the King of Aragon that bequeathed his kingdom to the Knights Templar ?—P . D . E . P . THE GRAND FESTIVAL . Why is the Grand Festival held on the Wednesday
following St . George ' s Day ? The patron saint of England has no connection with Craft Masonry , but the tAvo Saints John Avere believed to have and anciently the Grand Festival was held on St . John's Day as , even now , many lodges celebrate that anniversary . The change , however , having been made , will some one tell us the reason for it ?—S . JOHANNES .
THE HAMMER . When was the hammer discontinued as one of the symbolical tools of Freemasons ?—FADES PRIMUS . TRIANGULATION . Are there any instances of triangulation in Craft Masonry ?—EQUILATERAL . —[ Yesthe opening and
; closing a lodge in each degree . ] BROAVN ' S MASTER KEY . Who , and what , was the Brown who published A Master Key to Masonry ?—FABER PRIMUS .
TRACING BOARDS . I have three tracing boards , Avorked from copperplates , size about four inches by two and a half . Who Avas the design furnished by ?—F . CHARLESTOWN SUPREME COUNCIL OE THE 33 ° Where—during the last phase of the unhappy war
in America—is the head-quarters of the Supreme Council of Charlestown ? It is presumed that recently , if not for some time past , it must have changed its locale , as the . Northerners spare neither Masons nor Masonry . —K n .
w . H . SEWARD . Is the Northern W . H . Seward a brother Mason ? — -K ii . —[ He Avas initiated , but became one of the anti-Masonic party in 1829 , Avho , for a political purpose , trumped up the Morgan case . We have no room for a biography of such fellows . ]
BOOKS OE THE ORDER . What books of the Order are preserved in the Grand Secretary's office , and who has a right to inspect them ?—STUDENS . CAGLIOSTRO LETTERS . There are twenty-one letters from Cagliostro to his
Avife , written Avhen he Avas in the Bastile for his supposed participation in the affair of the celebrated diamond necklace . These letters , together Avith atranslation into French , are preserved amougst the select portions of the Egerton Manuscripts ( No . 4 s 7 ) in the British Museum . They are not of any special
interest , as far as their contents are concerned , being what may be called domestic communications . They are Avritten in a plain foreign round hand—not very good—and one , bearing date 7 th December [ 17 SG ] lias a signature very much like an alchemical character formed by a conjunction of the letters H and Z . — MATTHEAV COOKE .
THE OBJECT OF TEMPLARY . Where can I find the best definition of the object of Templary?—EXPERT . —[ Read Melmoth's Importance of a Religious Life . ~ ] A FRAGMENT . Will you have the kindness to tell me Avhat you
can make of the imperfect leaf enclosed ? I have shoAvn it to several brethren , but they cannot decypher more than the word "lodge . " —BROMPTON . —[ It is not difficult to read , but is so very mutilated , that we cannot make much of it ; however , what there is of it is the folloAving : — " * * during the meeting B "
[ rother ?] " John Bernay from the * * * lodge , Green Arbour-lane , attended and state" [ d ] " * * * the order was every M . " [ ason ?] " should present hisself" ( sic . ) " in full clothing such as had it not to be found by the lodge . The tiler" ( sic . ) " was cooking supper , and in the mean * * * * several of them
came pell-mell into * * * Avhere being stoutly resisted by the R . W . they were ex" [ pelled ?] " and peace being restored it Avas agreed upon that as the security of the house was not * * * * to some more safe place and that Brothers Wh * * * to seek for and ascertain price and conveniences against the next assembly . " * * * * " he was made a Mason and f . c . that night with a promise that the * * * Grand Lodge