Alexandre," in Paris. He likewise undertook to forward the interest of Freemasonry in Persia, and to found as many lodges therein as possible; he received powers for the purpose of doing so, after repeated applications, and in the following year he requested to have sent to him masonic emblems, and books, which request was complied with; among other works sent to him was a new one by the late Bro. Desetury, which requires especial notice; its title was "le Veritable Lieu de Peuples, ou la Franc Maçonnerie rendue à ses Vrais Principes," and the motto"build temples, and spread the knowledge of Freemasonry," with you will effect more real good than all the makers of laws and legislatures, put together.

We fear we have already tired the patience of our readers enough, and shall postpone to some future opportunity the more important continuation of this subject, and perhaps may give the instructions forwarded to Bro. Askery Khan, in the above work, for founding lodges in Persia, and on initiations, and shew that it is one of the roads Freemasonry has taken to assimilate all men in the understanding of our Order, and that it is based on knowledge and brotherly love, to endure for all time. But to give an idea of the spirit in which the above instructions were issued, we make a short extract of a calculation and result, which are given in the shape of questions and answers in the original.

"How many inhabitants has the earth? About a milliard, and may be apportioned for Europe 170,000,000; Asia and New Holland, 550,000,000; Africa, 130,000,000; America, 150,000,000; total 1,000,000,000. What are these milliard of people doing? What do they think of? What is their destiny? What is the state of their enlightenment or ignorance? What of their fortunes or misfortunes?— One portion are Jews, and number about 9,000,000; another Christians, and number 170,000,000; another again is Mahomedan, 155,000,000; a fourth division is neither Mahomedan, Christian, nor Jew, but consists of Chinese, Indians, New Hollanders, and others, 666,000,000; total 1,000,000,000.

*

"We find here 845,000,000 men* who are not Mahomedans, yet they are men*-830,000,000 are not Christians but not the less men 991,000,000 are not Jews but they are men*-—666,000,000 are found to be neither Mahommedans, Christians, nor Jews, but men nevertheless. Thus 1,000,000,000 of people are divided by their different beliefs; the Christians, Jews, and Mahomedans despise, hate, and fight each other, and have done so as long as their faiths have existed; each strives to exterminate the other, and says that he does it in the name of heaven. The 666,000,000 agree better among themselves, but in a religious view are despised by the other three sorts, whom they despise in return.

"The inhabitants of the earth continue to live thus in a state of doubt and misunderstandings, which is opposed to common sense, to the best wishes of the heart, to nature, and to the design of the Almighty Ruler and Disposer of all.

"The Great Architect of the Universe has not created man from dust to calumniate and murder his fellow.

"He has given man understanding to enlighten his fellow man; a heart to love him; else would be a contradiction, a folly, and a misfortune.

* Men means here human beings, or mankind; the German word menschen, the French genre humain.

"But who has misled these milliard men? Who gave them different and opposing creeds? different worship? and different gods? Who has made them villains? Who has driven them to such madness, to such wicked and malicious acts? to become revengeful and unhappy beings?

"This is a secret, which the history of every people explains to him who knows how to read and understand it.

"But who can reconcile and appease them; bring them back to tolerate and love, to support and maintain each other, to form a column of mutual defence?

"That is the direct (precisement), the great secret of Freemasonry, -that is the OBLIGATION, the DUTY, the SECRET, the INSTRUCTION of every properly initiated brother."

(To be continued.)

THE LADIES.*

From an Address before Solomon's Lodge, Lafayette, Alabama.

BY BRO. L. LA TASTE.

"ALTHOUGH I am admonished to hasten to a close, my task would be incomplete did I omit addressing a few words to that sex 'whose good opinion we are ever desirous to cultivate-whose favour we cordially desire to conciliate.' There are so many good reasons why the ladies should not be admitted into our ranks, that I ask them to give me a patient hearing, and then a fair and impartial judgment.

"Their exclusion is an ancient landmark of our Order, which we are not permitted to remove. When Masonry was operative in its character, no one will contend that they ought to have been found wielding the trowel, the gavel, the square and the level. No one will place them so low in the scale of creation as to say they ought to have assisted in removing the stone from the quarry, preparing its surface for its place in the building, tempering the mortar, felling and squaring the timber, and performing other duties required of operative Masons. Their physical strength disqualified them for the task, and nature had intended them for another and different sphere. It has been said, too, that their exclusion was owing to the fact, that the Craft was, at times, exposed to the severest persecutions, and to the greatest peril, and out of kindness to the sex, and with a desire, which we still possess, to enable them to perform their social relations, for which they are so admirably fitted, they were not admitted to membership.

"There is another reason why they are not admitted. Masonry was intended to check vice, to restrain evil passions, to cultivate morality and love;' and will you, ladies, admit that you need such aid to restrain your vices, to curb your evil passions, to elevate your morality, and tỏ encourage your love? Are not charity and love essential ingredients in female character-inwrought in their very constitution ?

"This objection is so beautifully and triumphantly removed in the words of another, that I cannot refrain from quoting them. Bro. J. H.

* From the Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, U. S.

Wheeler, late Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina, says: 'As in operative Masonry, their fair hands are not made to wield the trowel, or heavy gavel, so in speculative Masonry, they need no gavel to divest their hearts of the common vices of life, and no pass-word is necessary to call forth the charities of their benevolent natures. The famous traveller, Ledyard, leaves this memorable testimony in favour of women;-that he has passed through every quarter of the globethrough frozen Russia, inhospitable Norway, and savage Finland, and in all his travels, he never met a woman and addressed her in language of respect, from whom he did not receive a respectful answer;-if he was hungry, she gave him meat; if thirsty, she gave him drink. With man, it was often otherwise.'

"It seems to me, that, after so lofty and truthful a panegyric, the response should be, from every female heart present, Let the landmark stand for ever and be respected. But I proceed with my quotation: 'If the exclusion of women were a just ground for complaint, why do we not admit them into our congress or state legislature, why not allow them to command our navies, or lead our armies? It is not her element. To her, the pomp and circumstance of glorious war,' have no charms; and she desires not 'the applause of listening senates to command.' She has no delight

"On the tented field,

Where column after column wheel.
Where cannons roar, and chargers reel,

Amid destruction's revelry."

"No! the element of woman is at home, by the domestic fireside, heightening every joy, soothing every care, administering every comfort. Truly does Lord Bacon tell us, that in childhood, you are our nurses; in youth, our mistresses; in middle age, our companions; in all ages, our friends.

"To the female sex, Freemasonry is a constant friend. When expiring humanity is about to bid adieu to the scenes of earthly trial, when the silver cord of life is to be loosed, and the wheel is broken at the cistern, to the departing spirit of our nature what consolation can be more solid than that his disconsolate widow will be cheered by the kindness of fraternal affection? Have there been no cases of this kind in the recollection of many here? Will not a thousand arms be raised and ready to avenge the least insult to a Mason's wife or a Mason's daughter? Then if this objection exists with any, dismiss it, as unworthy of a name. It is unjust. Masonry is woman's best friendher constant benefactor, and her abiding protector.

"If Masonry possessed no other excellent feature, this one alone is sufficient to commend it to the favourable consideration of the ladiesthat it is every Mason's duty to respect them in prosperity, and to protect and defend them in adversity. Should affliction in its most blighting form assail you, in the true and honest Mason, you will find the good Samaritan, who will pour the oil of consolation into your wounded heart, and shield you from your dependence upon the mock charities of a friendless world."

MASONIC COLLOQUISMS (Query QUIZZINGS?)

AGAINST US.

A friend of mine, who was made in Scotland, and was passed and raised all on the same evening, says " Pish! I never knew any thing derived from Masonry, but frequent meetings to drink whisky toddy! O tempora! O mores!

Another, a veteran in the British army, who was many years in India with his regiment, and in which was a lodge, says, he never thought much of the craft, and, though frequently solicited, he never would be made a Mason, because it appeared always to end in hard drinking, whenever the lodge met. Alas! my brethren !

Two allegations in the above may serve as a caution not to confer the degrees in a hasty and slovenly manner, and not to infringe those rules of moderation and temperance, which are fundamental articles of the masonic symbolism.

Our good deeds oft lie buried in oblivion: the ill we do lives in the memory, losing nought of the odium of a first offence!

FOR US.

A celebrated architect residing in a fashionable city in the West of England had given rise to the idea that he wished to join the fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, and being asked why he did not gratify the wishes of his friends by putting his idea into execution, replied that he had been making every enquiry into the subject previous to taking a decided step, but did not find that he was less a Mason from being simply a Christian, without risking the trials of initiation.

A chaplain of a lodge in the same city-a man deeply imbued with the holy principles of the Christian faith-assured me, that he has frequently met numbers of his masonic brethren of every grade and oc· cupation in life, at various festivities, and never had the smallest occasion to regret his presence among them.

It was related to me by a very intelligent and well-informed young officer in the Hon. East India Company's maritime service, that it was always a matter of vexation and regret to him on his voyages that he was not a Mason, he being the only individual who was so circumstanced of all the officers of his ship.

R

A laughable incident happened once at a dinner party given by a reverend brother of the craft. With two exceptions all the men were Free and Accepted. One of the exceptions went away early. After chatting awhile the conversation turned upon the peculiar pleasures and privileges of the society, and the host, a most worthy fellow, said enquiringly to one of the company, what say you, would you desire to be unmade? "I should think not," replied R- Then turning to the non-initiated with whom we had previously been talking about the advantages of Masonry to men who frequent foreign partsour friend being a military man-and asking how it was he had not followed his excellent father's example, and his uncle's, our host, both of whom were Royal Arch Masons, our reverend brother instantly proposes a Lodge of Emergency, and, as there was a good roaring Christmas fire before us, without further delay, make Cousin F-- a Free and Accepted Mason! The vehement earnestness with which the surprised neophyte seized the poker to defend himself against our supposed intentions produced a hearty laugh!

From the Album of ANTIPOSTERIOREM.

ISRAEL, GREECE, AND ROME.

A PARALLEL SKETCH.*

We resume this sketch, by placing the origin of these nations in juxta-position. We are all aware what decisive influence that period has in the history of nations. Israel's origin was the peculiarity of his family. We know the patriarch with whom this great chain began. The chiefs, the tribes, the tie of social and fraternal connexion, were, and always remained, the essential element of Israel's external existence. Greece, on the other hand, originated from a collection of colonies of Egyptian, Phoenician, Thracian, and Minor Asiatic extraction, if not from more races. True, a later invented genealogy pretends to trace an universal origin, but that trace is very vague and obscure. The various characteristics of these tribes never formed a whole. Rome is indebted for her origin to a collected horde who purposed nothing else than to obtain a common asylum, and to display unremitting and indefatigable strength. Do we not even behold in this the delineation of the entire career of these nations? But let us also examine the localities wherein they respectively appear.

Israel occupied a certain district whose boundaries were limited by nature, being encompassed by considerable mountains, and by sea-coasts, which are so rocky that they hardly admit of a single port to connect them with the world. The country is half mountains, half valleys; the whole length of the latter is intersected by streams which emanate and disembogue in them, with an annual inundation. The soil is partly adapted to agriculture and partly to pasture; the country, yielding every necessary for maintenance, is sufficient in itself, with an unchangeable climate, a constant temperature, and a steady atmosphere.

Greece, on the other hand, was partly situated on a peninsula, partly in islands, and partly along the coasts. These districts are everywhere provided with creeks and tracts of land, accessible to the whole world, being in the centre of Asia, Europe, and Africa, the main point of the transition of civilization from the East to the West. They are fertile, though more stirring and stimulating than satisfying, and are everywhere provided with streams and rivulets, hills and plains, the serenest sky, and a temperature cooled by gentle sea-breezes.

Rome, the hilly city, was surrounded by the Campagna, which, as it were, appeared to invite one to descend therein, to take possession thereof, and to proceed further on, without losing sight of the focus of her powers, the all-comprising and the all-sustaining centre-the heart with its pulse -ROME herself. The whole world appeared as a plain; the seven hills as the only prominence therein. Rome acquired nothing unless she was compelled by want. On her arrival at the sea she obtained vessels; but not till she found them indispensably necessary. Rome could neither be maintained by herself nor by her provinces. Rome could not exist without Sicily and Egypt; to obtain them she required to possess several other countries; and the more she had the more she wanted, even everything. Rome's position was, either to gain all or nothing!

The origin and the locality of these three respective nations are in harmony with their character. Israel's peculiar characteristic was fervent affection and cordial attachment-the felicity of internal life. That of

* From the Jewish Chronicle.