The Perfect Mason.

THE PERFECT MASON .

The lesson of the three degrees .

THE mass of marble , in tlie quarry piled , Lay hidden , under vegetation wild . Time passed , and rising o ' er the common mart

Stood statues , robed in loveliness of art , And Temples in magnificence appear'd On perfect ashlars in due order rear'd . Upon the marble , Genius came and shone , And wrought ideals from the blocks of stone .

E'en so , in human nature ' s hidden deeps , In every human breast a giant sleeps ; Unrecognised , inert , unfelt , unknown ,

Like those ideals in their homes of stone ; Until Occasion ' s spirit-stirring din Eouses the tenant from his rest within .

For all the prodigies that shake the earth Spring up unmark'd and from a common birth : The mighty conqueror who all subdued , Whose dinted tracks ran o ' er with kindred blood :

The frenzied orator , whose words of fire Kindled the peoples to their fierce desire ; The stern lawgiver , in his creed arrayed , Planning his empire-vision , undismayed ;

The dauntless maiden , pure and simply grand , Driving the spoilers from her native land ; These brilliant types all herded with the rest Till Destiny woke tho giant in the breast .

The Perfect Mason.

A type like these , tho' flaming out so bright , Is but the meteor , not the steady light ; Infrequent , and at night , the meteors fall ; The Great Occasion cannot come to all . Yet every earthling grovelling below

May beam with brighter and celestial glow , Iu the GRAND LODGE ' infinite design Each may adorn the OVERSEER ' shrine : For ends more glorious our race is ripe , Our culmination is a higher type . '

The GREAT GEOMETRICIAN above By whose behest the Craftsmen live and move-Each sordid human frame His image holds , Altho' disguised within its mortal folds . The Master Mason , sculptor of the soul ,

With this ideal for his work and goal , Developes it in love , thro' patient years ; Trait after trait the typo divine appears With beauty that its Prototype endues , Chef cVceuvre for the GREAT ARCHITECT to use .

"ill , when the timo is come , as come it must , For what is dust to fall to kindred dust , The type divine soars up to the Divine

With an immortal brilliancy to shine , Proved by the aid of Wisdom , Truth and Love—A perfect Ashlar in its place above . Walter Spencer ,

The Installation Of Prince Leopold.

THE INSTALLATION OF PRINCE LEOPOLD .

LESS than a year ago it was our pleasing duty to chronicle the elevation of the heir to the throne to the highest dignity in the power of our Craft to bestow . Tho Prince of Wales was , in April last , installed Most Worshipful Grand Master of English Freemasons , and we

need scarcely say that the afFability , frankness , and generosity of disposition which have ever distinguished our right royal brother render him a peculiarly fitting representative of his exalted office . To-day we have again

to record the accession to Masonic dignity of a prince of the royal blood . His Royal Highness Prince Leopold was , on Tuesday last , installed Worshipful Master of the Apollo University Lodge ( No . 357 , Oxford ) , and on the following

day , at a meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge , he was formally installed Provincial Grand Master of Oxfordshire . It may be remembered that the Prince of Wales was himself Worshipful Master of the Apollo Lodge , in 1873 , and

it was in the following year , upon his proposition , seconded by Bro . Morrell , the then Worshipful Master , that Prince Leopold was initiated into the mysteries and privileges

of the Craft . He became an active member of the Lodge , and rapidly extended his knowledge of the ceremonies and ritual of the Order . For twelve

months he occupied the Chair of Senior Warden , and distinguished himself by the attention and skill which he bestowed upon the performance of his duties . He has now reached what may be regarded as the culminating point of every Mason ' s ambition—the Mastership of his mother

The Installation Of Prince Leopold.

Lodge . The ceremony was impressively performed , before a very full Lodge of members , and a distinguished circle of visitors . Among the latter may be mentioned the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot , Provincial Grand Master of Staffordshire , Lord De Tabley , Provincial Grand Master of

Cheshire , Lord Methuen , Provincial Grand Master of Wiltshire , Colonel Burdett , Provincial Grand Master of Middlesex , Bro . M'Intyre , Q . C ., Major Shad well Clerke , Colonel Campbell , and other well-known members of the Craft .

The Lodge over which Prince Leopold has been elected to preside is not one of very venerable antiquity , the day of the installation coinciding very nearly with the 57 th anniversary of its establishment . In an institution like Freemasonry , whose history dates back

to the very earliest times , an existence of 57 years supplies but an insignificant title to distinction . But the Apollo Lodge has other and more genuine claims to honour amongst the fraternity . It appears that as far back as the year 1769 a Lodge was established in connection with the

University of Oxford , under the title of the Lodge of Alfred . It is improbable that this Lodge ever attained a high degree of vitality , and in 1783 it died a natural death . For 36 years the University was without a Lodge , and this fact , combined with the failure of the Alfred ,

affords a sufficient evidence of the difficulties that had to be surmounted before a Lodge could be successfully established . In 1818 , however , the attempt was again made ,

and in the February following the Lodge was safely launched , and its prosperous career commenced . Since then ib has steadily advanced in popularity , andat the present time it can boast a roll of members in number and social