Lady Masonry, Or Masonry Of Adoption. *

its favour . Very many are the discourses written on this matter by Bro . Cesar Moreau , and he has allotted a large space in his " Univers Maconnique " to this subject . —Masonic Eclectic .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

VIKGII / , HOBACE , AITD THE ELEr / SOTA . The question of the connection of the ancient mysteries with those of the Craft , broached by me in the EEEEirASOsrs' MAGAZINU of May 5 th , in reply to a question by " EK - QUIREB , " has been successively treated by " PALiEorniios " and "HIEAM , " in the numbers of

May 12 th and 19 fch . The first-named expostulates with me for having denied that Virgil was initiated in the mysteries of Eleusis . I maintain my assertion on chronological grounds ; Virgil never went to Greece till the last year of his life , and returned in the same year to Italy , where he expired a few weeks after his landing . [ See Carol . RuaW Life of Virgil , in the Valpy edition , VoL I ., p . 29 .

A . TJ . C . 735 . Augusti 45 . Virgilii 52 . _ Virgilius , Aeneide confecta , proficiscitur in Grosciain , ut divinum opus per otium expolirefc . _ We have no contemporaneous proof of his initiation while in Attica , and had he really been initiated there , the character of his epic song could hardly have been affected by thisconsidering the short

, very lapse of time between his return and his death . In . this respect I beg to correct a mis-statement I inadvertently made in my first communication . In the chronological data which I had then before me , the year 725 , after the foundation of Rome , was given as the epoch of Virgil's return to Italthis is a mistake

y ; ; as I have shewn here , his departure , return , and death took place in 73 a , and from this is to be inferred that the sixth book of the JEneicl as well as the remainder of the poem , must have been written , if not completed , previous to his departure .

The passages quoted by " Palagophilos " from the Georgics prove nothing . The " mystic van of God " which he underlines in the translation , does not appear in the original at all . The Georgics are a didactical poem on agriculture , and if my contradictor can find in them no better specimens of the

" purest Masonic spirit of antiquity" than those quoted , he had better look somewhere else . Indeed , I do not believe that the mysteries ever occupied in Italy a position similar to that which they enjoyed in Attica . There are two passages in Horace frequently quoted as proofs of the existence of those mysteries

; first , Odes iii . 2 , 25 : — Yetabo qui cereris sacra Vulgarit arcana ; , sub isdem Sit trabibus , fragilemque mecum Solvat phaselum . *

The Rev . John Macleane , in his comment on this passage , remarks : — "Tho precise character of the worship of Ceres at Borne is not easily made out . There were no mysteries among the Romans corresponding to the Eleus ' mian or any other Greek fivarripia . But Cicero , aiiatheiuisiiig Verres at the close of his last oration , speaks of the rites of Ceres and Libera ( whom the

Romans joined together , though the latter was a Latin and the former a Greek divinity ) , as those which ' sicufc opiniones lioniinuin ac religiones ferunt longe maximis alque occultissimis C £ fii-emoni : s continental- ; ' and , though introduced from abroad , he says these rites were observed by the Romans in public and private with such exactness that they might appear to have been not imported into Rome from other countries , but exported to them from Rome . Ho does not seem to have known much about the matter . "

The other passage is still more salient on account of the terms used , but more liable to disappoint the seeker after mysteries ; it is the well-known stanza : — Odi profauum vulgus et arceo ; Faveto Unguis ; carmiuanon prius Audita , Musarum sacerdes Virginibus puerisque canto . * similar to the exorcism of the spirits of hell in Virgil ' s "iEneid " vi . 25 S : —

Procul o , procul este , pvofani , and to that used by the Hellenic priests : — litas , Be '/ 3 i )? ioi ! e / cas , IKKS , oaris aXirpbs . But in Horace's ode the sequel does not come up to the expectations awakened by the initiatory invocationfor it contains nothing hidden or occultbut

, , merely an exhortation to do good and eschew evil , to " rest and be thankful , " & c . ; all things which could certainly not form the pith of the ancient mysteries . "Hiram" concurs in Bishop"Warhurton's view of the character of the sixth book of the iEneid , and thinks that even Gibbon coincided with the latter in

substance . But this is by no means the case . The Bishop of Gloucester endeavours to make the most of a few passages of that book , and to magnify the importance of the mysteries ; he commences his commentary with these words : —

" The purpose of this discourse is to show that Aeneas ' s adventure to the infernal shades , is no other than a figurative description of his initiation into the mysteries ; and particularly a very exact one of the spectacles of the Eleusinian . " The great historian , on the contrary , rejects altogether the mystic meaning attributed to the book in questionand refutes the prelate ' s arguments with his

, wonted sagacity and clear-sightedness : he even reduces the Eleusiuia to their very simplest expression ; his sketch of the latter is very lucid , but had he quoted his authorities , his description of the mysteries would not be open to the objection of resting on no authority but his own . He says : —

" For my own part , I am very apt to consider the mysteries in the same light as the oracles . An intimate connection subsisted between them ; both were preceded and accompanied with fasts , sacrifices , and lustrations ; with mystic sights and preternatural sounds ; but the most essential preparation for the aspirant