Masonic Notes And Queries.

EGOTISTIC PRINCIPLE . Of all principles an egotistic principle is the most difficult to reconcile with true Freemasonry . —From a manuscript volume in Bro . Purton Cooper ' s Masonic collection , entitled "Freemasons' Table Talk . " HIEROGLYPHICS .

I enclose for curious readers the following hieroglyphics off old tombs and other documents .- — M . E . Ivf . GL S . SWIG . IDOG-. G-EEADG-EA SEMEZ . EWM . G . M . E -J- = EC — * t K . H . x IvT f SPES . SGIG-. 0 ! ! ! ? —O . B .

WHEN TRUE FREEMASONRY WAS FIRST POSSIBLE . _ Bi'otlier , if it could be ascertained when man , rightly using his reason , first formed natural reli gion , then it would be known when true Freemasonry was first possible . —C . P . COOPER .

THE GREAT TRUTHS . Brother , the great truths of humanity—the truths of Freemasonry as a universal institutionare truths for all . It is plain , therefore " , that all must have a faculty enabling them to come at those truths . That faculty is reason , otherwise common sense . This all mankind possesses . —C . P . COOPER .

HENRY S . 3 IELVILLE . A Student , at p . 250 of the Freemasons'' Magazine , has asked if II . S . Melville is a Mason . I have endeavoured to ascertain this , hut have not been successful . I have , however , thought your readers would like to know what prompted a Student to ask the question , so I now send herewith the extract from "Notes and Queries" referred to . —P . Z .

MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS . Preserved among the State papers is a rude drawing of Mary Queen of Scots . The figure is a half woman with a straight fish ' s tail . A crown is on her head , a mystic caduce in her ri ght hand , and an hour-glass iu her left ; she is upon a tripod . The initials are

M . E . ; beneath is a hare surrounded with seventeen daggers . During the sixteenth and a great portion of the seventeenth centuries , the king was symbolised as the sun , or the sun was symbolised as the king . At the same time the queen was represented bthe moon or

y some brilliant heavenl y gem . Stronger evidence j cannot be adduced of this fact than what is still recorded iu every orthodox Bible . In the dedication addressed to James , he ( James ) is likened to the sun rising in his strength ( at tho vernal equinox ) on the sotting of the bright occidental star Queen Elizabeth .

The bright occidental star is " Spiea , " the Egyptian Isis exalted to heaven with her ears of corn—the winged angel Virgo ! "Spica'' is also "Azamech , " literally "the station of the moon . " As Elizabeth was queen on earth , so Virgo is queen in heaven . The virgin queen reigned forty-five years below , and

above the virgin reigns forty-five years or degrees . ( See Jamieson ' s ' - ' Atlas , " London , 1822 . ) Directl y opposite to "Virgo is Andromeda . She is in the pictured sign of Pisces ; indeed , the northern strai ght iish is united to her , and her brilliant " Mirach " is on ( above ) the back of the great dolphin , now called

Cetus . By means of certain laws obtained by using ] the Iioyal Arch Masonic keys on celestial plani-I spheres , "Spica'' represents the summer solstice in the pictured heavens , and Andromeda the winter solstice . Andromeda is always in tribulation , in bondage , in fact in chains ; indeed , her name of Andromeda means " a long chain . " She denotes

Misraimj and Mirach is Scotia , the Egyptian Venus . Venus is represented as rising from her shell , dripping with the foam of the ocean . Kcosse ( French ) means " shell" and "Scotland . " Mirach Venus is the sea maid , or mermaid—etoile de la mer and efcoile de la mere . Mary means " lady or mistress of

the sea , " or "bitterness of the sea , " also " exalted . " By the Masonic laws framed as described , " Mirach " ' applies to the opening of the year with "Algenib , " the brilliant of Perseus ; and Perseus has the caducewings on bis feet . With his drawn sword when , with " Markab " of Pegasushe rescues Mirach of

Andro-, meda from . " Menkar , " the sea monster Cetus . By the laws " Spica" rises to the Alpha of the Egyptian . Apollo ( the Gemini ) . So Mirach Scotia Mary when "exalted" is with the music master , who at sundown ( supper ) is killed with the dagger of Orion . Beneath the dagger is Lepus , the hare . From the

eclipticpole Apollo is at AS , 107 , The solstice of astronomers is at 90 , therefore the seventeen daggers . The tripod , or three-legged stool , is in officinasculptoris the mason ' s or sculptor ' s shop ; the crown , corona Borealis and the hour-glass modern Masonry has converted into the twenty-four inch gauge" Norma nilotica . " The following passage iu "A Midsummer rvight ' s-Dream'' can now be comprehended : —

Onco I sat upon a promontory , Aud hoard a niormaid on a dolphin ' s hack . Mirach with Cetus . —Montfaucon , in his "Antiquities , " plate 101 , vol . I ., gives the lovely woman , rising from a dolphin ' s back , and Cupid blowing a horn . The mermaid was

Uttering such dulcofc and harmonious breath . That tho l-udo soa grow civil at her song . The dulcet breath is from Vega of Lyra , which iswith Scotia . In Sloane ' s MS ., 3 so . 3 , 5 M < , British Museum , is a mermaid with the Pisces in her hands , and the Gemini in Argo opposite . - "When the

weather was strong , the mermaid begau her song , the sweetness of which lulled the sailors to sleep , and they perished . When Mirach rises , then must Spica ,. with the sailors of Argo , sink below the horizon .

And certain stars shot madly from thoir splioros , To hoar tho soa maid ' s music . The stars of Pisces must shoot ninety degrees from their spheres to hear the music of Lyra , and they do so on April 1 , or fool ' s day , poisson d ' avril . That vory time- . . . Flying botwoen tho cold moon and the earth ,

Cupid , all annod ; a corlain aim ho took At a fair vostal throned by tho west ; And loos'd his lovo-shaf t smartly from his bow , As it should pioi-co a hundred thousand hearts .

Cupid Antinous is with Scotia Mary . He has his bow and arrows , but " Sagitta " with the valentine is shot off and speeding to the bright occidental star : — But I might seo young Cupid ' s fiery shaft Quenched in tho chaste beams of tho wat ' rvmoon .