Classical Theology.—Lxxx.

were brought to respond , and even in some cases raised up unto renewed life the dead . There were many more orders of natural divination , amongst which there were those after their fashion , similar to such as we read of in the

Sacred Volume ; particularly so when it is borne in mind that Abraham had thought , " Surely the fear of G-od is not in this place "—viz ., Gerar , a city of the Philistines . For example , in the twentieth chapter of Genesis it is written , " God came

to Abimelech ( or the King of Gerar ) in a dream by night , and said to him , Behold thou art but a dead man , for the woman which thou hast taken Now , therefore restore the man his wife ; for he is a prophet , and he shall pray for thee , and

thou shalt live ; and if thou restore her not , know then that thou shalt surely die , thou and all that art thine . " Therefore , Abi-nelech and all his house became sore afraid . The kins' besought Abraham , and " took sheep , and oxen , ancl

menservants , and womenservants , and gave them unto Abraham , and restored him Sarah his wife So Abraham prayed unto God And God healed Abimelech , and his wife , and his maidservants . " For the Lord , because of the abduction of Abraham's wife , had smitten them with barrenness .

This unfruitful infliction may have been , perhaps , due to the enchantments of the Mas . i , but we cannot positively so determine it , although we do not doubt of its performance , XPW- . G U ( Creinatismus ) was of that division of divinations by dreams when

the gods themselves , or spirits in their own shapes , or under assumed forms , conversed with persons in sleep . Thus we are told in the second Iliad of the God of Dreams in the form of Nestor , advising Agamemnon to give battle to the Trojans . It is

also related by Pausanias , that in a dream Proserpine appeared to Pindar to complain of his neglect towards her . " Thou hast honoured , " she said , " in thine hymns all the other deities , but me thou hast not mentioned . When thou cometh into my

dominions thou shalt also celebrate my praise , " The poet , not many days after , died ; and in ^ f - more days afterwards appeared to an " "" ^ f emaj e relation of his who used to enir > ; oy much of lier leisurQ time in reading ^ sill < , ing his vei . seSj and submitted to her

- momoiy a byma composed by him m W p roserpine . L is asserted , by some , of Jupiter that he was the first author of all dreams and other divinations ; but as Homer says , such mean offices being be-

Classical Theology.—Lxxx.

neath the dignity of Jupiter , he bestowed them , as the case might be , upon inferior divinities . Thence Ovid is not slow to confer upon them such names as Morpheus , Phobetor , or Icelos , and Phantasus . The first , we are told , assumes the

forms of men , the second the likeness of brutes , the third the representation of inanimate things . The ghost of Petroclus desires Achilles to have his body interred . Furthermore , we are told that "the earth brought forth nocturnal spectres ;"

aud we read of "that dark cell inhabited with dreams ; " also of infernal ghosts , the deities that bring"Into the upper worlds fantastic dreams . " Or , as Tirgil has

it" Two gates the silent house of sleep adorn , Of polish'd ivory this , tbat of transparent horn , True visions through transparent horn arise , Through polished ivory pass deluding lies . " These divinations by dreams , let it be understood , were , however , signified by other words , as , for example , 0 su . p 7 u 1 wT . Kos ( Theoremanticos ) , and Ove . pos ( Oneiros ) , & c .

General Charges.

GENERAL CHARGES .

( Extracted from a Manuscript of Ancient Date by Bro . JAMES FREDERICK SPUEE , P . M . ) Every man that is a Mason take right good heed to the following charges , and if any man find himself guilty in any of them , that he ought

to pray to God for His grace to amend ; arid especially you that are to be charged , take heed that you may keep these charges right well , for it is a great peril for a man to forswear himself upou a book .

Tlie first charge is , —That no Master or fellow shall take upon him any Lord ' s work , nor any other man ' s work , unless he know himself able and sufficient of skill and ability to perform the same , so that the Craft have no slander or

disworshi p thereby , but that the Lord may be well and truly served . 2 . That no Master take no work , but that he take it reasonable , so that the Lord may be well served with his own good , and the Master to live

honestly and to pay his fellows , 3 . That no Master nor fellowshall supplant any other of their work in hand , or else stand Master of the Lord ' s work ; he shall not put him out except he be incapable to finish the same . 4 . That no Master nor fellow take an apprentice but for the term of seven years , and that the