Chinese Freemasonry.

ethical morality for ordinary life . It is sufficient to say that they are instinct with goodness and elevation of thought , and fresh from that mint of God ever at the disposition of the Hermetic philosopher . This Tan , of whom or which Lau-tzse so constantly speaks , is nowhere defined by him . Indeed , he says : " Tau , as it is eternal , has no name . But , though it is insignificant ( so little

even as to have no name ) , in its primordial simplicity , the world does not make a servant of it . " And in another place he says : " Great Tau is all pervading . It can be on the right hand , and also at the same time on the left . All things wait upon it for life , and it refuses none . When its meritorious work is done , it takes not the name of merit . In love it nourishes all things , ancl does not lord it over them . It is ever free from ambitious desires . It may be named

with the smallest . All things return home to it , ancl it does not lord it over them . It may be named with the greatest . This is how the wise man , to the last , does not make him great , and therefore he is able to achieve greatness . Lay hold on the great form of Tau , and the whole world will go to you . It will go to you , ancl suffer no injury ; and its rest and peace will be glorious . "

My Rosicrucian brethren are entreated to ponder also the cosmogony of Lau-tzse , which he thus gives in the thirty-ninth section of his work ; a fulness of idea is here expressed with the utmost directness of phrase , which our modern metaphysicians with their cloudy phantasmic logic leave less intelligible than before . " The things which from old have obtained unity are these : Heavenwhich

, by unity is clear ; Earth , which by unity is steady ; Spirits , which by unity are spiritual ; the valleys , which by unity are full ( of water ) . All creatures which by unity live . Princes and kings , who by unit y rule the world . This is all the result of . nnitv ( i . e .. each of these subsistand can subsistonh as a

, , part of the Unity of the Universe ) . Returning is the motion of Tau , ( i . e ., turning back , retrogression , the opposite of development or progress , which is all a departure from the primordial simplicity of Tau ) . Weakness is the character of Tau . ( By this weakness of Tau is signified its non-interference with human free will , which it does not oppose . ' Masonry is free , ' & c . ) All things in the world are produced from existence , ancl existence is produced

from non-existence . " Oken , in his " Natur Philosophie , " has a similar idea : "Das Zero bestimm allein den Werth in der Mathematik , obwohl es fiir sich nichts ist . Die Mathematik ist aber auf das Nichts gegriindet und entspringt mithin aus dem Nichts . Zero alone determines values in mathematics , although in itself it is nothing . But mathematics are founded upon zero , and from zero they arise . " Tauaccording to Lau-tzseisthereforethe

mathe-, , , , matical zez-o , but at the same time the psychological or spiritual everything . In section forty-two he proceeds thus : " Tau produced one ( unity ) ; one ( unity ) produced two ( duality ) ; two ( duality ) produced three ( trinity ) ; and three ( trinity ) produced all things . Everything carries the yin ( shady , dark , still , deathlike , & o . ) on its back ; and the yang ( bright , active , lively , & c . ) on its front ; and is harmonized by an intermediate ( immaterial ) breath . "

Lau-tzse scatters allusions over the whole of his book in reference to the value of silence : " They that know don't speak , and they that speak don't know . To shut the lips ancl close the portals of the eyes ancl ears ; to blunt the sharp angles ; to unravel disorder ; to soften the glare ; to share the dust ; this I call being the same as deep heaven ( the abysses ) . " "The sage says , I do nothing , and the people are spontaneously transformed . I love quietness , and the people are spontaneousl y rectified . I take no measures , and the people become spontaneousl y rich . I have no lusts , and the people become spontaneously simple-minded . "

This sentence refers to an arcanum well known to occult students , as to the silent power of will , and may be correlated to the following expression in section fifty-eight : " The sage is himself strictly correct , but does not cut and K 2