From West To East—From East To West.*

to the East , " hailing from the Lodge of St . John at Jerusalem , " for the purpose of receiving scientific instruction from their more experienced brethren . And this declaration occupies a prominent place in the system adopted by most Grand Lodges at the present day ; but having sustained some alteration , a difficulty

has arisen which requires a brief notice . _ It is easy to imagine tbat , as the East is a place of light and wisdom , a novice might beneficially travel thither to seek for information in the science ; foj ; , if our traditions are to be relied on , the Dionysiacs , who built the Temple of Solomon , travelled eastward from

Jerusalem , bearing with them their skill and taste in architecture , and other secrets of the Fraternity , into various countries , where they were more readily employed , and received better wages than those who did not possess the same advantages . In manyplaces wbere they sojourned they obtained special privileges ; and because they taught their secrets onl y to the freeborn , their successors acquired

the name oi EnEEMASOi _ rs ; constituting lodges and erecting stately piles of building under the patronage of great and wealth y princes , many of whom were accepted as members and brothers of the Order , and became Grand Masters , each in his own dominions , in imitation of King Solomon , whose memory as a Mason was reverenced by all other peoplesand will

, be till architecture shall be consumed in the general conflagration . * It follows , therefore , that the above formula was strictly correct when applied to Solomon ' s Masons , for they proceeded literally from the West to the TEast , hailing from the lodges at Jerusalem , which

constituted the undoubted ori gin of this peculiar phraseology , and , having been embodied in our primitive rituals , still applies with accurate consistency to the practice of the Eraternit y in India and the Australian Islands . But how is it borne out in countries toestivarcl of Jerusalem ? That is the question to be considered .

The discrepancy in the phrase from West to East , starting from the Lodge of St . John at Jerusalem , as it was expressed in the ordinary ritual of the last century , and applied to the several countries of Europe and America , where the institution at the present time flourishes in its greatest purity , appears to bave entered into the deliberations of the Com

mittee appointed , in 1814 > , to reconstruct the Lodge Lectures ; and being unable to solve the difficulty , like Alexander they cut the knot , by utterly repudiating both St . John ( who is styled by Preston " our ancient and venerable patron " ) and his lodges , and expunging his honoured name from the ritual ,

although it was probably introduced at the formation of the York Grand Lodge ; and not only acknowledged by Calcott , Dunckerley , and Hutchinson , bnt advisedly embodied by Preston in his version of the lectures , which contain a plain record of the fact . But the misfortune is , that the alteration was

accompanied by no certain clue to direct us how to account for the anomoly . The lectures simply stated that the visitor , or more correctly the Senior Warden of the lodge , who was the actual respondent , came from the West for instruction ; and when the name of his lodge was demanded , he distinctly replied " the Holy Lodge of St . John at Jerusalem , " with a recommendation

from "tbe Rig ht Worthy and Worshi pful Brothers and Eellows of that lodge , who sent their hearty greeting . " But the Lodge of St . John of Jerusalem lies geographically eastward of this country ; and therefore the sojourner in his course from thence to Europe or the new worldwould not literally proceed from

, West to East , but from East to West . This is the difficulty . How is this to be reconciled ? The solution of this problem will form tbe subject of another lecture .

IBOM- EAST TO WEST . " If you are a Master Mason , as I suppose you are , I trust you are not ignorant of the rule of three . The rule of three I understand , for the hey of this lodge is at my command . The name shall make you free ; and what you want iu Masonry shall be made known to thee . Good Masonry I understand , for the key of all lodges is at my command . You speak boldly . Prom whence come you ? From the BAST . AVhither going ? To the AVest . "—FBOM AS- AKCIENT RITUAL .

"More than a hundred years ago , Numbering but twelve in all , They met within a little room , And ;' ere the night was gone , Had worked a good Masonic Lodge , And named it for ST . Jons . "—VA _ . ZAOTIT . " To ail worthy Masons , wheresoever dispersed under the wide

and lofty canopy of heaven . " —SECTIOKAI , CHAHGE . In forming speculative Masonry with a system , its founders , whoever they may have been , evidently intended to advance gradually through the existing degrees in a well-regulated climax . Eor this purpose , with great ingenuitythey constructed a series of

, Landmarks on a corresponding principle ; amongst which must be included the references to the equatorial points of the compass . Thus the E . A . P . is taught to say that he comes from . West to East for instruction ; the E . C . that he travels , or rather that his forefathers travelled , East and West ; those

who went eastward sought for instruction , and when they journeyed westward , it was to propagate the same in various' parts of the world ; and the M . M . is represented as going from East to West , in search , of something that had beeen lost , and which , according to the primitive system , he finds : although modern interpretation makes him unsuccessful , and

furnishes certain substitutes which fall infinitel y short of the thing required . Hence this reference to the cardinal points was formerly a literal and grammatical climax , ivhich the alterations of Dr . Hemming and his associates have utterly destroyed . JM " ow it is clear that a great many precedents , from

a remote period of time , might be adduced as prototypes of the custom of proceeding from West to East , and from East to 'West . At the dispersion from the plains of Shinar , for instance , the migrating tribes spread themselves over the earth towards all the four quarters of the compass . I have already

observed that Solomon ' s Masons , when the Temple was finished , travelled from West to East in search , of employment . The sun , the glory ofthe firmanent , apparently travels from East to West , but in reality it is the earth that proceeds in its diurnal rotation from West to East . The camp of the Israelites , as

well as the Tabernacle , which was a type of our lodges , was placed due East and West . The Magi , conducted by the Blazing Star , travelled from the East to the West in search ofthe expected Deliverer ; and evangelical and moral truth had their ori gin in the East , and travelled westward to enli ghten mankind