The Knights Templars,

dying regretted and bewailed by his less eminently pious , but still less famously criminal , brethren . Another instance is that of Eulk de Nerra , or the Black Count of Anjou . Eulk was one of those cold-blooded , stony-hearted seigniors of the dark

ages who shed blood for the brutal pleasure of seeing it flow . His retainers , following the example of their master , were desperadoes of the worst character , ready at a nod to rob and murder . One wife Eulk roasted alive before a slow fire , with

hellish laughter ; and his second , anticipating a similar fate , fled for safety from his cruelty to the Holy Land . He confined his brother in a dark and noisome dnngeon , where he died of ill-treatment and hunger , and contrived the death of his nephew , the Count of Brittaiuy . At length public opinion and the terrors of an awakened

conscience caused a change , and he sank into a state of gloomy despair and remorse . His bed at night was surrounded by the grisly shapes of those innocents whom he had murdered , and he saw the dead , breaking through the trammels of

the grave , threaten him with their bony fingers . Harassed and terrified by these spectres , anxious to escape from their persecution , and to win back the esteem and affection of his fellow-men , Eulk , by the advice of his confessor , and attended by

two servants only , donned the dress of a pilgrim , and departed far the East . But terror and danger pursued him on his journey , tempests raged around him , the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed , while in the Syrian seas he was in constant expectation of shipwreck . { To oe coniinucd . )

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

THEISM—FATALISM—NATURALISM . Dominion—Providence—Final Causes . In Theism these are , of course , admitted . Iu Fatalism and Naturalism they are excluded . Theism is the religion of Freemasonry . A brother ' s question is to mo unintelligible , unless the foregoing words furnish the

answer . He may look at my communications to the Freemasons' Magazine—first , " " A God who is not the God of English Freemasonry , " vol . xii ., page 474 , and the "Erratum , " vol . xiii ., page 200 , where there is an unsuccessful attempt to correct the misprint of a word in some Latin lines of Sir Isaac Newton ; nextThe God of

, " English Freemasonry—Explanation of a former Communication , " vol . xiv ., page 34 S . In this second communication the same Latin lines again occur , and this time without any misprint . My brother may also look at two other of my communications to the Freemasons' Magazine , " Fatalism and Freemasonry , " vol . xii ., page 2 / 9 , and "

Naturalism and Freemasonry , " vol . xiii ., page 189 . —0 . P COOPEE .

PROVINCIAL GEAND LODGE OI KENT AND OUR CHAEITIES . Dear Brother , at the time of my resignation of the office of Provincial Grand Master for Kent ,, there existed the following arrangement in regard to the Provincial Grand Lodge Fund and our Charities :

that the lodge having the greatest number of members , according to the returns , should receive the amount of subscriptions , or such portion of it as should be voted in Grand Lodge , to be applied by way of contribution to such one or more of the Masonic Charities as the Provincial Grand

Lodgemight direct , so as to give the lodge so contributing the advantage during its existence of a Life Governor ,, and in the following year each lodge in succession having the next greatest number of members should receive the like advantages . This arrangement hasremained unaltered ; and there will soon have been f-. iven to everv lod _ re in the nrovince during- its

existence a Life Governor ' s advantages of each of our four thriving Charities—the Girls' School , the Boys ' School , and the Benevolent Institutions , the one for Aged Freemasons , the other for the " Widows of Freemasons . It appears from the Provincial Grand Treasurer ' s account with the Provincial Grand Lodge

of Kent IS 66-7 , with a copy of which I have been favoured , that , in the year I 860 , in execution of this arrangement , the Erith and Sidcup lodges respectively acquired each during its existence the advantages of a Life Governor of the two Benevolent Institutions ; , and the SheernessRamsgateDoverand Maidstone

, , , lodges respectively acquired each during its existence tho advantages of a Life Governor of the Boys' ' School . Iu reference to this important matter , see my letters to the editor of the Freemasons' Magazine ,, vol . xi ., pages 7 S and 143 of that useful publication . — C . P . COOPED .

THE GREAT ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE . Brother , it has been truly said that , to a clear eye , the smallest fact is a window through whichthe Great Architect of the Universe may be seen . — C . P . COOPER .

THE CRUSADES . —FREEMASONET . Dear young friend , your studies , you say , have brought you to the conclusion that the origin of Freemasonry is to be found in the Crusades ; aud you mention an assertion of the Chevalier Ramsay to that effect . Butis Eamsay a reliable authority ?'

, Methinks some of his assertions were put forth with a political object , and with a total disregard of facts-Was not Eamsay wont to ascribe to Freemasonry the restoration of the Stuarts ?—C . P . COOPER .

MASONIC WRITERS . He who without inquiry can believe the strangest popular rumour may , perhaps , without inquiry believe the historical statements of Masonic writers . — From a manuscript volume in Bro . Purton Cooper's-Masonic collections , entitled "Freemasons' Table Talk . "

UNIVERSALITY OE FREEMASONRY . Monsieur , No . I did not say the brother who " reads , " but the brother who " reads and thinks . '' The words "Freemasonry" and " natural