SECOND DEGREE. ELEVEN LECTURES. "In early days, when Masonry was young, Temper'd with meekness from the realms above. Where'er she trod the Sciences arose ; Where'er she breath'd confusion sham'd her foes; For foes of her were foes of human kind." From an unpublished Poem on MASONRY by the REV. S. OLIVER. "The second, or Fellow-crafts Degree is rendered interesting by those scientific instructions and philosophical lectures which characterise later parts of the mysteries; though both of these degrees were made to tend to the glory of that God who had given such wonderful faculties to them, and to the welfare of their fellow-creatures."-ARCHDEACON MANT. "Nul ne sera admis au grade de compagnon, qu'il n'ait affirme, entre les mains du venerable, qu'il s'est retiré dans un lieu solitaire pour y méditer sur la vie humaine et qu'il croit s'être fortifié dans l'amour de la science et de la vertu par la lecture de philosophes anciens qu'il nommera. Il aura donné à deux pauvres de quoi vivre pendant un jour. Il sera mis dans un lieu de silence et occupé à résoudre par écrit des questions morales, avant d'être introduit dans la Loge."-DES ETANGS. "As a Craftsman, in our private assemblies, you may offer your sentiments and opinions on such subjects as are regularly introduced in the lecture, under the superintendence of an experienced Master, who will guard the landmarks against encroachment. By this privilege you may improve your intellectual powers, qualify yourself to become an useful member of society, and, like a skilful Brother, strive to excel in what is good and great. All regular signs and summonses, given and received, you are duly to honour, and punctually to obey, inasmuch as they consist with our professed principles. You are to encourage industry and reward merit: supply the wants and relieve the necessities of Brethren and Fellows, to the utmost of your power and ability; and on no account to wrong them or see them wronged, but timely to apprise them of approaching danger, and view their interest as inseparable from your own. Such is the nature of your engagements as a Craftsman, and these duties you are now bound, by the most sacred ties, to observe."-CHARGE SECOND DEGREE. LECTURE XIV. ON THE SYMBOLICAL REFERENCES CONTAINED IN THE MASONIC LECTURES. "What is Masonry? A beautiful system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols."-LECTURES. "Conferences were held with all the most distinguished Grand Officers and enlightened Masons resident in and near London, in order to establish a perfect agreement upon all the essential points of Masonry, according to the ancient traditions and general practice of the Craft."-QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION, Dec. 27, 1813. "In the representation of a pure church, an ancient patriarchal scheme of symbolical machinery, derived most plainly from the events of the deluge, and borrowed, with the usual perverse misapplication by the contrivers of paganism, has been reclaimed to its proper use."-FABER. "The first learning in the world consisted chiefly in symbols. The wisdom of the Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Jews, of Zoroaster, Sanchoniachon, Pherecydes Syrus, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, of all the ancients that is come to our hand, is symbolic. It was the mode,' says Serranus on Plato's Symposium, ' of the ancient philosophers, to represent truth by certain symbols and hidden images.'"-STUKELEY. THE Order of Freemasonry contains a great number of Brethren who are in the constant practice of its rites, and yet rarely apply the science they professedly admire to any other purpose than that which is broadly laid down in its ordinary lectures. The historical portion of these interesting elucidations is considered to possess a tendency to fix important truths in our recollection, and to possess no further utility or reference.1 The preceptive admonitions which read us a lesson on the theological, cardinal, or moral virtues, and other essential duties of our station, are prized on account of their intrinsic merits, as incitements to the practice of our relative and social duties to God, our neighbour, and ourselves; and when the attention is directed to 2 1 An old MS. in the British Museum defines a Mason to be “a man begot of a man, born of a woman, brother to a prince, &c." 2 Bro. Rosenberg, an office bearer in the Grand Lodge of France, thus moralizes on some of the references of Freemasonry. "A good Mason is necessarily a virtuous man, he searches for instruction in studying the different sciences; the one will be useful to him in this world, the other in another and a better one. The light he should look for is that which is presented to him when he passes from the profane world to enter amongst the initiated. When he presents himself as a candidate, he may be compared to an infant in the womb of his mother-when he receives existence he is a mere embryo, certain members and organs can scarcely be discovered; he develops, grows, and the form of a human being may be seen. At this period the need of light is felt; he frees himself from the narrow circle which surrounds him, and appears on the stage of the world; but it is not without pain and trouble that he passes through life. The initiation is also accompanied with pain and difficulty. He enters the world and the Lodge by the assistance of a person unknown to him, who assists and supports him." 3 On these points Professor Robison has most grievously misrepresented the tendency of the Order. He says that in the system of Freemasonry, "Christianity is considered as a mere allegory, or a Masonic type of natural religion; the moral duties are spun into the common-place declamations of universal benevolence; and the atten 4 the symbolical instructions of Freemasonry, the common interpretation is usually considered perfectly satisfactory; and the superficial Mason looks for no mystical or second meaning, which may tend to throw an additional light on the system, and invest it with new and increasing interest; forgetting that the principal cha tion is continually directed to the absurdities and horrors of superstition, the sufferings of the poor, the tyranny and oppression of the great, the tricks of the priests, and the indolent simplicity and patience of the laity and of the common people. The happiness of the patriarchal life, and the sweets of universal equality and freedom, are the burden of every paragraph; and the general tenor of the whole is to make men discontented with their condition of civil subordination, and the restraints of revealed religion." (Proofs, p. 93.) Ile is speaking of Freemasonry as it existed, or was supposed to exist, in Germany at the close of the last century; but his conclusions are in every respect untrue. "The usages and customs of Masons have ever corresponded with those of the ancient Egyptians, to which, indeed, they bear a near affinity. Those philosophers, unwilling to expose their mysteries to vulgar eyes, concealed their particular tenets and principles of polity and philosophy under hieroglyphical figures, and expressed their notions of government by signs and symbols, which they communicated to their magi alone, who were bound by oath never to reveal them. Pythagoras seems to have established his system on a similar plan; and many orders of a more recent date have copied the example. Masonry, however, is not only the most ancient, but the most moral institution that ever existed, as every character, figure, and emblem, depicted in the Lodge, has a moral meaning, and tends to inculcate the practice of virtue on those who behold it." (Preston, p. 40.) It is an illustration of the excellence, and moral and social tendency of the Order, to find it announced, in an official document, that "Freemasonry in Sweden is perhaps more in the ascendant than in any other country. All classes, from the king himself to the humble peasant, look on the institution with great veneration. In no part of |