Song.

that they are corrupted from the Greek word mitsterion , mystery , and musics , one initiated into the ancient mysteries . He also thinks that the ivord may be derived from the two Greek Avords signifying I seek , what is safeand mesouraneo" I am in the

, , midst of heaven . " Another Avriter , as we learn from Mackney ' s Lexicon of Masonry , attributes to Masonry a Druidical origin , and traces the Avord " Mason " from what

he calls may s on , or the men of May on being men , as in the French on clit , and may ' s on are therefore the Druids Avhose principal celebrations Avere in the month of May . The Hebrew Avord massang or mason signifies a " stone quarry" Buchanan , in his technical dictionary , refers to tho

free and accepted Masons , under this latter idea , as forming " a very ancient society , so called , because the founders of the fraternity Avere persons of that craft or occupation , being incorporated by the Pope , and endoAved Avith certain important

privileges . " Tho society , says this compiler Avith a sneer , " professes to be founded on the practice of social and moral virtue , ancl inculcates brotherly love , relief , ancl truth ; but it has long been nothing more than a Avreck of the original institution . " Masonry

passes under two denominations—operative and speculative . The former treats of architecture , from Avhencc a structure derives figure , strength and beauty , embracing a just correspondence in all its parts . Speculative Masonry , on tho other hand" is

, occupied in the erection of a spiritual temple by means of symbolic instruction . The latter , AA'hich is called Freemasonry , adopts and symbolises for its sacred purpose tho implements and materials Avhich are used in the former . Operative Masonry

is an an art and speculative a science ; the objects of the one are profane and temporal , that of the other sacred ancl eternal .

" . Speculative Masonry is so far inter-Avoven Avith religion , as to lay us under the strongest obligations to pay that rational homage to the Deity , Avhich at once constitutes our duty and our hapjnness . It leads the contemplative to vieAv Avith reverence and admiration the glorious

Avorks of creation , and inspires them Avith the most exalted ideas of the perfections of the divine Creator . —Operative Masonry furnishes us Avith dwellings , ancl convenient shelters from the inclemencies of seasons _

ancl Avbile it displays the effects of human Avisdom , as Avell in tho choice as in the arrangement of tho materials of which an edifice is composed , it demonstrates that a fund of science ancl industry is implanted in man for the bestmost salutary , and

, beneficent purposes . "The lapse of time , the ruthless hand of ignorance , and the deA r astations of war , have laid Avaste ancl destroyed many valuable monuments of antiquity , on Avhich tho utmost exertions of human genius

have been employed . Even the temple of Solomon , so spacious ancl magnificent , and constructed by so many celebrated artists , escaped not the unsparing ravages of barbarous force . Freemasonry , not-Avifchstanding , has still survived . The attentive oar receives the sound from the

instructive tongue , and the sacred mysteries arc safely lodged in the repository of faithful breasts . Tools and implements of architecture , symbols the most expressive ! are selected by the fraternity to imprint on the memory serious truths ; and thus the excellent tenets of the

institution are transmitted unimpaired , under circumstances precarious and adverse , through a succession of ages . " In the extract just cpioted , allusion is made to tho architectural symbols as being used in the capacity of channels of religious truth . The folioAving is a definition of some of them from Pearson's Avork : —

" The rule directs that Ave should punctually observe our duty , press forward in the I path of virtue , and neither inclining to tho right nor to the left , in all our actions have eternity in view . " Tho line teaches the criterion of moral

rectitude , to avoid dissimulation in conversation and action , and to direct our steps to tho path AA'hich leads to immortality . " The trowel teaches that nothing can bo united Avithout proper cement , and that the perfection of a building must depend

on the suitable disposition of that cement ; so Charity , the bond of perfection and social union , must link separate minds and separate interests , that like the radii of a circle , AA'hich extend from the centre to every part of the circumference , the principle of

universal benevolence may be diffused t ° every member of the community . ( To le continued . )