On Symbols As Applied To Masonic Instruction.

ON SYMBOLS AS APPLIED TO MASONIC INSTRUCTION .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JTTNF 22 , 1861 .

( Continued from page 464 ) The three senses of hearing , seeing , and feeling , are the chief sources of Masonic knowledge ; by hearing yon acquire a knowledge of the lectures ; by seeing , you observe the symbols which read a silent lesson to the observant brother ; and bfeeling handle the

y , you implements of Masonry , and * discover a brother in the dark as well as in the light . The road to excellency is steep and arduous , and in many places strewed with thorns ; these , however , should be but incentives to prick forward in the pursuit , and incite diligence in the application of talents to the work . "Well has old Horace

sung , " Nil sine mat / no vita Icibore declit mortalibus ; " for labour is the rule in Masonry , and refreshment the exception ; and this brings me to the second division , labour . Mankind naturally is averse to labour ; and it is part of the punishment inherited from the fall of our first parents that we all should work . " In the sweat of

thy face shalt thou eat bread , " said God to Adam . Now , looking at the world as a whole , we often hear people say , "Oh ! so-and-so does nothing ; he does not work . " "What an egregious mistake ; there is not a man in England , or a woman either , that does not work . I don't mean that every one does manual labour , yet all hai r e to work . The lower classes do manual labour—the

learned professions labour mentally—and the fine gentleman , who would be horrified at the idea of work , -works as hard as any one to kill time . He is not immediately usefully employed in his own person , yet he is doing good unwittingly , and though he may be a bad man , he does good by employing others , by purchasing often useless articles ; still , he thus promotes industry and manufactures—so he "works .

Tne inspired Psalmist shows us at what time we should commence our labour after having offered our morning sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving to God . ' ¦ ' The sun ariseth , man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening . " Labour , then , is the common lot of all , and our duty in this world as citizens thereof is to learn and labour truly to get our own

living in that state of life to which it hath pleased G-od to call us . Many are the disagreeable epithets given to labour . Surely this is a mistake ; honest labour is honourable , nay , it is more , for an old Latin proverb hath it , " Laborare est orare . " Now prayer , we know , is acceptable in the sight of Heaven ¦ therefore , if to labour

is to pray , and inasmuch as it is working out God ' s commandment corporeally , it is a kind of prayer . This certainly should be a consolation to men ; but , as Virgil says , " Labor omnia vincit improhis . " Labour , though unpleasant , overcomes all- things ; what , indeed , may not be effected by labour and perseverance ? It has been computed by some political arithmetician that if every man and woman would work for four hours each day on something useful , that labour would be sufficient to

procure all the necessaries and comforts of life ; want and misery would be banished out of the world , and the rest of the twenty-four hours might be leisure and pleasure . Moreover , labour or bodily exertion of some kind or other is absolutely necessary to the preservation of good health . We all know what the effect of a life of sloth and inactivity has upon even a dog , much less a man ; he grows fat and sluggish , loses the active powers both of body and mind ; for we know that , as Horace

hath it , " Mens sana in corpore sano " is always the case ; takes no pleasure or interest in his own or public matters , and becomes a useless member of society , a blot in creation , a huge locust only useful to consume food . One of our greatest orators and legislators ( Burke ) says , " Labour is not only requisite to preserve the coarser

organs in a fit state for their functions , but it is equally necessary to those finer and more delicate organs , on which and by which the imagination , and perhaps the other mental powers , act . Since it is probable that not only the inferior parts of the soul , as the passions are called , but the understanding itself , makes use of some

fine corporeal instruments in its operation ; though what they are and where they are may be somewhat hard to settle ; but that it does make use of such , appears from this , that a long exercise of the mental powers induces a remarkable lassitu . de of the -whole body ; andon the other handthat great bodillabour

, , y or pain weakens , and sometimes actually destroys , the mental faculties . JSlo'w , as due exercise is essential to the coarse , muscular parts of the constitution , and that without this rousing they would become languid and diseased , the very same rule holds with regard to those finer parts we have mentioned ; to have them in proper

order they must be shaken and worked to a proper degree . " This second portion of the implement then teaches us that Ave must do our duty in our several vocations in life , and thereby endeavour to do our duty to our Creator and ourselves , in such a manner as will

maintain us in' our proper position in life , and enable us to exercise that most excellent virtue , charity , by relieving a brother in distress . But , as a how that is kept constantly strung in process of time becomes useless , we find from the old adage , that- " All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy , " so some refreshment and relaxation is necessary .

In former times it was customary to have refreshment in the lodge room , and , in some few English lodges this practice is still continued . The J . W . calls from labour to refreshment , and viands are introduced ; this , however , is now almost universally discontinued . The principal things for the whole use of man ' s life are water , fire ,

iron , and salt , flour of wheat , honey , milk , and the blood of the grape , and oil and clothing . All these things are for good to the godly , but to the sinners they are turned into evil ( Lccles . xxxix . 26 , 27 ) . Eood is necessary for the preservation of health and life . Everything which the G . A . O . T . U . has created is endued with vitality ; aye , even things which , to all outward appearances , are dead and inanimate , even to the stones

beneath oiir feet . "We call a running stream live water , and rightly , for when it is kept in a state of stagnation it becomes foul , dead , and putrifies . Miners and quarrymen speak of the live rock ; stones cannot move , think , or feel , but they have a life ivhich is sustained hy tho action of the juices of the earth upon their convponent

parts . When they are excavated and exposed to the action of the atmosphere , which is not their natural place , the life of the stone begins to pass from it it begins to peel and crumble away , and turns to dust and clay , which again turns into soil and affords the means of life and sustenance to plants and herbs , which , in their turn , are

consumed by the animals who again afford food and raiment to mankind . All this is very wonderful , but it is true ; it is a part of the beneficent design of the great Creator that everything should possess a kind of life according to its nature , and , in turn , assist in preserving the life of the rest of creation . "He , " says David ( Psalms civ . 13 . 15 ) , ' * ' walereththe hills from Hia chambers ; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works . He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle ,