Masonic Jottings.—No. 41.

flourishing of our descendants may , however , com to a conclusion which by no means accords Avith this statement . The subject is one that will not be lost sight of , should advanced age ancl increasing infirmities permit the continuance of these

Jottings a little longer . HISTORY OP CIVILIZATION . One philosophical student , on the one hand , may find the reasons for the belief of many things in the History of Civilization cogent and valid , whilst

his felloAv student finds them weak and insufficient . FAMILIES—SOCIETY—GOVERNMENT . When Families had multi p lied there AvasSociety ; and Avhen Societiy had become a People , there

was Government ; ancl the Government Avas sometimes that of the one , ancl sometimes that of the feAV , and sometimes that of the many . We Avant not proof of matters such as these .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

LORD ARDMILLAN ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIES . At the opening of a new Public Library and Reading Room for Ayr on the ofch inst ., Lord Ardraillan , who is a townsman of Ayr , observed , inter alia , "When you are told that man was not created as man , and in

ihe image of God , hut has been , in the progress of ages , developed from some inferior being , —monkey or monod , or globule , —then you should ascertain what is to he the result—what is the point aimed at hy those who state the proposition ? Either they hold matter to be self-existent and

self-originated , and deny the existence of a great first cause ¦ —an intelligent and Almighty Creator , or they admit an original act of Divine Creation , * however , far back into the regions of obscurity they place that act . Now , if you are prudent , you will look before you , and see what is the step you are asked to make

, and the view you are asked to accept , and you will pause and reflect before you move in that direction . If it is intended to deny the theory of a Divine Creation , and to seek in Nature herself the source and orgin of Nature , that is just materialism ancl Atheism , and against any proposition leading to that resultI

, hope and believe that your observation , your reason , your conscience , and your faith will combine to protect you . _ If , on the other hand , the fact of a Divine Creation is accepted and admitted , though the date may be thrown back to a more remote period , then the miracle presented to us is even greater—more

marvellous and much less credible—than that revealed in the Bible . The theory of the creation of a minute germ , capable of expansion and development into all

the varied forms of animated life , is to my mind more startling aud less easily conceived or believed than the grand simplicity of the Scripture statement , that God created man in his own image , but man sinnel and fell from his first estate , a statement to which all the great Bible doctrines of responsibility , judgment , grace , and redemption , stand in close relation , " & c . — PICTUS .

MARY'S CHAPEL RECORDS . In giving an account of the affiliation of Bro . H . R . H . the Prince of Wales into the Lodge of Edinburgh , Mary ' s Chapel , the Scotsman says " among other names singled out for special notice , were those of the first speculative Mason of Avhom

there is any authentic record—namely Thomas Bos well of Auchinleck , who Avas a member of the Lodge in 1 . 600 . " Now I challenge that statement , for , firstly I deny that Boswell was a " Speculativ < Mason , " and secondly , I am not aware of his being a member of the Lodge in 1600 ? " HoAvever , give a verbatim et literatim copy of the 1600 minutes , and if I be wrong I shall admit it . —W . P . B .

PLANTS CONNECTED AVITH ST . JOHN'S DAY . In Germany ( I am alluding to the northern parts , Avhere , as elsewhere , in tlie north of almost any country , superstitions and hereditary customs , often mixed up with a good deal of poetic conception , keep their ground the longest ) it is the custom of the

Freemasons to wear three roses—a white , a pink , and a dark red one—on their great patron ' s anniversary of sad remembrance . I understand that they denote innocence ( white ) , purity of heart ( pink ) , remembrance of death ( dark red ) . They are almost ahvays tied together with a sky-blue silk ribbon , the emblem ,

of constancy and faithfulness . I have aia : ' heard that roses have been taken to the graves of Freemasons on St . John ' s Day . Currants ( Bibes L . ) are called Johannisbeeren ( St . John ' s berries ) iu German , most probably on account of their berries being ripe about this time of the year . And I cannot hel p but mention here that the black currant , that delicious specific for colds , aud that still more delicious ingredient of black-currant gin ( the

cordial of all the good Mrs . Primoses in the North of England ) , is almost if not totally unknown in Germany . I have heard some ladies—more acute observers than the strong sex—who had seen both the shrub ancl the fruit , speak of them almost in the same terms as dear old Gerarde mentions the black currant . Being unfortunatelyand to my great dismay , but the

, possessor of many extracts aud transcriptions from that most delightful of all " Herballes " and not of a copy itself , I am not able to state the exact words of that clear old friend of mine ; but I think ho mentions the " naughty savor or smelle " exhaled by the young branches and leaves of this shrub , and advises

to plant it out of the reach of one ' s nose . The plant most particularly connected with St . John ' s Day is the St . John ' s Avort ( Hypericum , L . ) , in German Johannislcraul , now no longer " fashionable " as a household medicine , but in former times , the " good old time " of witchcraft and stocks , used with many superstitious forms and usages . Old Avomen ( that respectablee genus ) , says Tabernoemontanus—