Freemasonry In Cornwall.

selves with wands , and to introduce the ladies in due form ; and also gave instructions to the brethren as to their conduct while the ladies ivere present . HpAvards of fifty ladies were introduced and received with the usual plaudits of the

brethren . " It appears the ladies were much gratified with their visit , and subsequently departed , "in the midst of the acclamations of the brethren , who continued on their legs till all were gone . " In 1815 , however , ifc Avas decided

that the " Avine and fruit should be dispensed with afc future lodges , because the gratification of the ladies consisted not in eating and drinking , but in beholding their husbands , sons , and brothers met together for charitable purposes in "love and harmony . " ( To be continued . )

Masonic Oration,

MASONIC ORATION ,

Delivered by Bun . WM . P . BLACK , at Catlin , Illinois , June 24 ft , 1867 . ( Continued from page 106 . ) The oldest of the arts is that of the builders , the Masons . And the origin of our Order in this operative branch dates back even to those days when the first secrets of architecture were learned

by studying the forms of nature's pillars , and the grace and beauty of nature ' s friezes and capitals of leaves and vines . Study the progress of any nation in civilisation , in the splendour of its palaces , the ornamentation of its temples , the

beautifying of its homes , and you can trace the growth of operative Masonry , the first school of our glorious brotherhood . You see its triumphs , enduring as the ages , in the pyramids of Egypt ; and could speech be given to the lips of the

Sphynx , that for more than thirty centuries has been looking over the desert , filled with inscrutable mystery or could we listen again to the fabled music of the memnon , which sang its matin hymn Avhen first it felt the benediction of the rising god

of day , music and language alike Avould be in memoriam of those who studied out their planning , the Masonic priesthood , Avho even then held sAvay within the borders of that land of silence and dead empire . Thebes , Tyre , Arabia , Jerusalem ,

Athens , Rome , all with their mighty ruins groAV eloquent in speech of those Avho Avrought and perished , but left these monuments fche studies , the models of coming generations , Avho own their progrees in those earlier days alone to the

enduring influence of these works that hold their only general record of the past . But it was impossible that such progress should be made in the operative branch of Masonry , fche result ' of the constant labour of earth ' s wisest and best

workers , Avithout a coming into existence of speculative or spiritual Masonry . Human nature forty centuries ago was what human nature is now . The same causes effect like results , save as modified by circumstances , or changed by the progress

of opinion . It was impossible for noble-minded , pure-hearted men then to study the arts of Masonry , with nature and the works of the past for their models , without discovering the beautiful symbolism of nature's work and the imperfectness

of human imitation , without tracing in the perfect building of the world and its complete adaptedness to its purposes , as well as in the glory and mystery of the heavens , the work of a perfect Builder , hig her than man . Their only chronicle of the

past Avas the monuments and the ruins Avhich they saw about them , and from which they deduced the conclusion that before their days there had been

Avorkers who produced these visible results . By a like deduction , in the architecture of the world they found the evidence of the existence of a Supreme Grand Architect . And thus through the beautiful symmetry of nature , they looked up ,

even though with blind and doubting eyes , to nature ' s God . Then following the yearnings of the immortality within toAvards this Infinite Power , testified of by nature , Avho opens to all her prophecy , the unwritten revelation of The

Highest , they learned to feel the assurance of the existence of that city " whose maker and builder is God " to look to the future as the consummation of life . And this grand result , arrived at

through the combined studies of the magi of Egypt and the Orient , the philosophers of Greece and the West , and confirmed by the inspired preacher and philosopher of Israel , to Avhom , above all others , Ave ascribe the institution

of our present rites and creed , made Masonry perfect by adding to the use of the operative the beauty of its speculative part , by infusing into the glorious body the still more glorious spirit . Are any disposed to call this mere romancing , and

to demand the proofs ? We can only give to them that evidence on which all the uninspired history of the unchronicled ages rests for its foundation—carefully prepared tradition . But we add these circumstances to lend consistency arid