Masonic Notes And Queries.

they were laid , or the materials of which they are composed . Whatever is needed to repair their beauty or increase their strength , it is his mission to share in the common effort ; but lie never perils his stability , by the desire to innovate , where he cannot improve ; he is not anxious to imitate the strong man of old in his physical power , nor yet in his blindness , lest in

the fall of the edifice , whose pillars he has shaken , he should he lost himself among its ruins . Nor does he feel the legal or moral codes are bonds of restraint , but rather the silken ties of honest obedience to just enactments . To his apprehension , there is no tyranny where tlie virtues have free play , and the vices only are chained : where honest merit is encouraged , ancl impudent knavery only placed upou the ban . What the moral sense of mankind denominates a crime , lie

alike reprobates , whether committed by the fraudulent banker or railroad director , or the humbler ancl grosser exhibitions of sin hy the degraded felon . He visits upon all the just retribution their delinquencies demand , shielding no offender from punishment , but yet rebuking in mercy while lie inflicts the penalty .

He is ever true to himself . Having vowed to cherish the cardinal virtues with a new zeal , when he became a Craftsman , he must illustrate their claims in his daily life , or he has misunderstood his mission . An irregular Mason is but auother name for a Mason whose graces are fast wearing out ; who has forgotten the square ancl the plumb-line ; who is in the desolate region between the Euphrates and tbe Jordan , journeying without a guide , now lost in the valley , again

stumbling upon the mountains , heedless of the covenant he has made to enter the Holy City and rebuild the temple of his Master . Temperance is thus added to justice , and the sister virtues cluster together in charity . All are required to preserve the symmetrical proportions of Masonic character . Like the hues of the rainbow , they form , when blended , the pure white

light which is a symbol of the glory around the throne . The brazen laver before the altar , filled with pure water , and presenting on its surface a sea of glass , was a type of spiritual cleansing to those who touched the consecrated element . It was the preparation to enter the holy place ; as the purification also from corporal defilement . So do our ceremonies

impose the solemn obligation to live purely and soberly . They prepared the initiated at every step of his journey from degree to degree , for the just appreciation of the great fact that he really lives ; thus developing every hour his moral nature for good or for ill , until he is called at last from labour to refreshment in the Grand Lodge above . Hence it isMasonry holds no

, communion with the infidel or the atheist . Under the keystone of her glorious arch is suspended the initial letter of his name , who laid the foundation of the univeree , aud spread out the heavens as a curtain . Around and above us , every object displaying His perfectionand speaking to the sincere worshipper in

, tones as solemn as the grave , of man ' s disobedience and God ' s love -. of that all-seeing eye whose scrutiny penetrates the inmost soul , ' While it notes the fall of the sparrow , and numbers the hairs of our heads . ' "JUDGE STOBEE .

PAPACY VERSUS PKEEirASONET . In Lawrie ' s History of Freemasonry , p . 122 , mention is made of the Bull of Excommunication which

was issued by the Papal Conclave against the fraternity in 1738 . The text of the hrutum fulmen may be interesting to the readers of Masonic Notes aud Queries : — " In the midst of the cares of tho Apostleship , and the continual attention we have to extirpate heresies

and maintain the Lord ' s Vineyard in all its purity , wehave heard with grief and bitterness of soul that a certain society , who style themselves the fraternity of Freemasons , after making progress in several states in-Europe , have likewise spread into Italy , ancl even had some increase . We have considered that the

impenetrable secret of this so mysterious society is the essential part , and , as it were , the basis of its institution ; ancl that being become thereby suspicious to

tne temporal powers , several ot them have proscribed it iu their dominions . "We have , likewise , considered that by much stronger reasons it ought to be suspicious to the spiritual power , whose charge it is to have an ever-watchful eye to everything that may concern the salvation of souls . For these reasons , and animated hy our pastoral carewe have condemned

, , aud do coudemn by the present Bull , the societies of Freemasons , as perverse , contrary to public order , and having incurred the major excommunication in itsutmost extent ; forbidding all persons , of what rank , qualit 3 , or condition soever who profess the Catholic ,. Apostolicaud Roman religion to cause themselves

to-, be written down or received into that society , or to frequent any of its members , or to hold correspondence with them , or to suffer or tolerate any assemblies of Freemasons in their houses under penalty to thecontraveners of incurring likewise the same

excommunication—reserving to ourselves alone the right of takiug it off except iu case of death . " Given at Rome , May 29 , 1738 . " Lawrie goes on to relate that his Holiness , in thefollowing year , ordered a French book , entitled an "Apology for the Society of Freemasons , " to beburnt . The Gentleman ' s Magazine for that year

hasthe following notice of the auto-da-fe : — "ROME . — There was lately burnt here with great solemnity , by order of the Inquisition , a piece in French , wrote by the Chevalier Ramsay ( author of the 'Travels of Cyrus , ' & c . ) entitled- ' Au Apologetical ancl Historical Relation of the Secret of the Freemasons , ' printed at

Dublin by Patrie Odonoko . This was published at Paris in answer to a pretended Catechism printed there by order of the Lieutenant de Police , much lik & Pritchard ' s iu English . " The "Catechism" here alluded to is the one which appeared in the FEEEMASOXS' MAOAZIXE , No . 271 , amongst the Notes and Queries . —A . W .

3 IOEE ABOUT ItOBGAS . In a leading article on " The Chicago Convention , " which appeared in The Guardian of the 14 th of September , Mr . Thurlow Weed , one of the Northern States politicians , is alluded to , and the followiug passage occui-s : — " A good story is told of Mr .

Thurlow Weed , a gentleman of much experience as a suggestor of counsels to the Whig-Republican party . He was once engaged , on the eve of an election , in raising a strong excitement against the Freemasons , who were associated with the Democratic party . One Morgan was said to have been carried off , and , as many thought , to have been murdered by the Free-