Rough Jottings About Teadition.

deccssors spoke as early as " the days of tho patriarchs . " So fatas Ave know , those races had no written language , and , of course , no written history . Is it fairly supposable , that iu such circumstances , the knowledge of the past was permitted to be extinguished from age to age , and that no effort was made to preserve it ? But if preserved at all , its traditionary transmission seems to be the only channel by which it coulcl have passed .

Although Humboldt's examples come solely from " the men of the mountains , " jret it appears to me that the same probabilities exist as to any race of men ivhich has for ages remained intact and separate from other races , irrespective of location . Such is the situation of the Jewish race . AVith one language , one religion , distinguished in their very countenances from all other races which exist on earth , the facilities for traditionary knowledge with them

seems hardly less than among the races " of the mountains . " From their own writers we learn their fondness for traditional information , and the strong reliance they place upon it even in reli gious matters ; ancl wc are well aware that- several religious customs and duties are mentioned as existing by some of the later writers of the Old Testament , ivhich are not named in the Pentateuch , and the knowledge of ivhich , so far as we can know , could only hai-e passed by tradition . The passage of information from age to age by tradition seems ,

at least , highly probable . But perhaps no subject connected with Freemasonry has been more strangely tortured or more grossly abused . Egypt has been appealed to thousands of times , but no writer has yet been able to point to a single reliable Masonic tradition ^ from the country of the Nile . As evidences of embodied traditions , we have been pointed to " the use of hieroglyphic characters , of the study of geometry and astronomy , and the

culti-A-ation of ethics b y figurative emblems . " But all this is far short of being satisfactory . None of the hieroglyphics are Masonic ones ; geometry ancl astronomy are not and never were Freemasonry , ancl the " emblems" alluded to have not even yet found favour enough with the Craft to get introduced upon the worst got up Master's carpet in the world . I will not say that it is impossible for any traces of Freemasonry to bo found ' in Egypt . A

feiyyears ago we were told that the late Egyptian traveller , Belzoni , has left behind him a manuscript for his widow , ivhich embodied all the Masonic inscriptions ho had found among the ruined temples , monuments , ancl tombs of Egypt , and that the manuscript had been presented by Mrs . Belzoni to the Grancl Lodge of England . If there is any such ivork in existence , it is to be hoped that it will in good time see the light , that we may be able to judge whether there is really a Masonic sun vet to rise over Egyptian Masonic darkness .

The commercial Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon have also been pointed to , as having visited Northern Africa . Spain , and Britain , ancl as having carried Alasonic traditions along with them . Where they were left in the two former places is not stated ; but , as to Britain , the Druids have been fixed on as their recipients . And yet Druidical annals arc silent about them ; no Druidical remains have yet disclosed a single Masonic emblem . That peculiar institution controlled b

was y priestesses as well as priests—who coulcl not have received tlieni " ; and it is well known that ]\ lasonry passed into Britain through an entirely different channel . AA e have no evidence that the Phoenicians had any Masonic traditions to transmit , or that any such ever passed into a Druidical temple . And we are no better off as to the Eleusinian mysteries of Greece . AVe may infer that they had something moral in them from the favourable

description of Cicero , and that is all . No evidence exists that they wero founded upon any Masonic tradition from E gypt , Phoenicia , or Jiulea , or that any ever descended from tlieni to after ages . The only reliable ancient Masonic traditions now known to ns come from Jerusalem , and from the days of the first temple . AA ' e touch bottom traditionallno Avhere elseHere ive reach

y . something which is tangible on the subject , and have no small support from correlative evidence . Masonry , ancl the historical portion of the Old Testament , referring to the first temple , stand together side by side ; and the Jews have furnished , in all ages since , a natural channel for the transmission of our traditions .

, SIVI ; ARIXCI AT LAROK . —A Highlander present described the Perth writer's indignation , and his mode of showing it , by a most elaborate course of swearing . " But who did he swear at ? " was the inquiry made of the narrator , who replied , " Ou' he dic'ln . i sweet- at ony thing parteecular , but juist stude in ta middle of ta road and sivoor at lau-ge , '—Dean Ramsay .

Ancient Symbolism Illustrated.

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM ILLUSTRATED .

BY BltO . ItOBUM SIAMIX , I ' . E . C . S ., t'AST D . I' . GKAKD MASTER ' SUIITOI - ; ASD P . E . COM . OP K . aiuns Tii-UM-Aii , ETC . ONE of the most ancient dialects ivas brought by the Brahmins ancl Persian Druids into this country , the name of Avhich , though occasionally used , is employed by most persons Avithout knowledge of the root from whence it sprung . Sir AVilliam Jones states that a race of Brahmins anciently sat

cm the throne of Persia , and that nine Avords out of ten of the old Pahhtve dialect introduced by them , are the genuine ancient Sanscrit . O'Brien makes nearly the same remark ancl insists on the old Persian language having been the first spoken ; thus the vulgar expression , "None of your palaver , " literally signifies a desire to hear none of that language

proved to be the most ancient on record . In its various forms ancl combinations the single principle of sound affords a vast number of symbols which represent the material objects of nature , and the action of these objects upon one another ;¦ for instance , the neighing of the horse , the crowing of the cock , the bellowing of the bull , present to our senses the notion of these animals ; and such are called phonetic symbols , or symbols of sound . The articulated

name of any person is a phonetic symbol of him . vhich , conveyed to the ear of another , presents him to the mind ; while the Avritten name is an idiographic symbol , which , conveyed to the eye , produces the same effect as the phonetic symbol on the ear . A portrait or pictorial symbol differs from the latter , producing its effect by association ; a certain set of

features aud cast of countenance are presented to the eye , Avhich it associates Avith those of the original . The effect of certain associations of sound upon corresponding feelings of the mind is Avell knoAvn to CA'ery one , since there must he few ivho have not felt softened by the soothing strains of laintive melodcheered by the gay and lively air of jocund

p y , minstrelsy , or stirred to enthusiasm by the exciting sounds of martial music , and thus the remembrance of the sad , tho gay , or the active scenes of strife , are presented to the mind by respective combinations of the symbols of sound . That such must have been the origin of oral symbols , or spoken languageis amply borne outnot only by reasonable

sur-, , mise , but by the best authenticated historical investigations ; ancl thus phonetic symbols , or symbols of sound , Avere instituted ancl made available to the most urgent wants ancl important purposes of man .

' Had however no other means of communicating sentences been brought into existence , this object , so important to our interest , must have been confined within the narrow limits of persons present to each other , as for the purposes of such communication it is indispensable that the ear addressed should he within reach of the articulated sounds ; and hence the necessity for the invention of pictorial language or

symbols , which being impressed on the sense of si ght , could not only make known to absent persons present impressions , but bring back to the memory past events . The time soon arrived when it became necessary to record for a shorter or longer period , the acts and thoughts , the commands and duties of manand for this purpose pictorial or idiographic

, symbols could alone be employed , the durability of which depended on tho material selected for the tablets on which they were represented . In less than a second of time the sound of the human voice dies away , but the picture drawn even on the sands of the sea , lasts till obliterated by the nextreturning tide ; ancl if engraved on brass or stone , AA'ill , under

favourable circumstances , defy the power of ages ancl convey their record to a distant posterity . The imitative faculty of man rendered the representation of visible actions and visible objects an easy task through the agency of pictorial symbols or hieroglyphics , Avhilst the sign for abstract qualities was obtained , as in sounds , upon the princi p le of association ; thus , an ox was represented hy the most distinguishing part of the beast , say the head and horns , ivhich , according to Clemens Alexandrians , was on the principle of association .