Oration.

occasion with the presence of the Grand Master of Scotland , and the Deputy Grand Master of Irelaud . We hail them with a hearty Masonic welcome , and we rejoice that they are present on an occasion which may testify to them and to our

¦ brethren of Scotland and Ireland , that the Masons of England are builders in every sense of the term , and that they regard their own Grand Master with respect and affection . On Thursday , May 23 rd , 1776 , this hall was

dedicated in solemn form , and handed down to us by our brethren of that day as a rich inheritance . And here we stand , at the distance of nearly a century , to renew and enlarge this building in a

manner worthy of this later age and more suited to our increased numbers and requirements . They worked nob only for themselves but for us . We , in our turn , work for ourselves , but also for those -who shallsucceedus when we have fallen asleep , and

who shall rejoice in this noble edifice as the central home of English Masonry . A home—a sacred home—where our holy rites may be duly performed in the solemn repose of a Temple and of Lodges , set apart for such high purposes ; a home which

shall be a type and model for the lodges of England , and which , while in no way preventing the happy social intercourse that I trust may ever mark our festive gatherings in their pvopor place , shall secure a sacred enclosure for those most solemn

and beautiful ceremonies which have regard to that Grand Master on high whom Jacob adored at Bethel and Solomon worshipped on the hill of Sion . And as in the material , so in the moral and

intellectual world , we hope to do our part in our generation . It has been well observed by an eminent writer , that " subject to certain cycles of partial revolution , every generation of man is a labourer for that which succeeds it , and makes an

addition to that great sum total of achieved results which may , in commercial phrase , be called the capital of the race . " Every generation of men , as they traverse the vale of life , are bound to accumulate new treasures for the race , and thus leave

the world ( as far as they are concerned at least ) richer than they found it . Of the mental portion of this treasure , no small part is stored . The Greeks , perhaps , had the largest ideas upon the training of man , and produced samples of our race

with gifts unsurpassed . But the nature of man , such as they knew , it was scarcely at all developed ; nay it , was maimed in its supreme capacity , in its

relations to the Great Architect of the Universe , to the Father of Spirits . Hence , as in the visions of the Prophet , so upon the roll of history , the imposing fabrics of ancient civilization have never endured . Greece has bequeathed to us her

everliving tongue , and the undying labours of her intellect . Rome made ready for a later age the germs of policy and law ; but the bright collection of endowments which goes to form civilization , having no root in itself , could not weaiher the

storms of time and change . But there is a community that has weathered all these storms ; taking its rise in the earliest ages , founded on the purest principles of piety and virtue , it has pursued an onward course from age to age , a three-thousand

years' tale not yet full . But there is light along all its course ; a light to those who sat iu darkness and in the shadow of death , guiding their feet into

the way of peace , and pointing the pathway to a happier land . | Yes , brethren , Freemasonry can boast , not only a most remote origin , but a most glorious career ; like a golden thread in some texture of beauty , it

has run through the varying fabric of human thought , and , like the great river of Egypt , it has wound its devious way through many a land , overflowing and fertilizing the nations in its course , meeting with various forms of religious belief and

civil government , it has allied itself to all in proportion as each system was disci plined by order , practised in virtue , and founded on truth . Breaking through the fetters of mere human systems it has ever boldly proclaimed those great cardinal

truths which cherish virtue and point to Heaven . Salted with perpetual life , it has passed throuo-h the terrors of heathen darkness , media ? val corruptions , and modern Atheism . It has kindled , —

"That freedom of mind which no vulgar dominion , Can turn from the path a pure conscience approves ; "Which , with hope in the heart aud no chain on the pinion , Holds upward its course to the light that it loves . " Hence it is that Freemasony has had to encounter many formidable foes , hence especially

has our Order been denounced by superstition and been persecuted by intolerance : but like the g-ranite promontory it stands unmoved amid the wild ravings of fanaticism—which surge around ir , only to be hurled back into their native foam .

Unhappy is he who in his morose bigoted selfsufficiency can see nothing but evil in the history of humanity—and who overlooks all those conceptions of truth and of good—all those kind