Geometrical And Other Sybols.

descended in a chain of unbroken succession even to our own days , the attainment of the croAvning point of the craft was typical of Death . It Avas alone by passing through the vale of its shadow that perfect Light could be obtained . * Apuleius , in the 11 th book of his Metamorphosis , or Fable ofthe Golden Ass , describes minutely this completion of initiation;•—the night-like darkness ;

tho approach to the confines of Death ; and then , in the very midst of this darkness , the Light revealed to him [ and in fact in him ] . In some of the various versions of these mysteries it is said that the candidate was shrouded in the shudder-cloth of death ; Avas placed in the narrow home to Avhich we all must go ; was raised again , and Avent forth the IIGAV bom and perfect

craftsman [ the initiative of an immortal life , ' new every morning' after ' dying daily" ] . In others it was represented by the candidate passing through an OA'al , symbolising that , as ho entered this scene of Avoe , so must he go forth again . Thus Avas it that we find Death styled , in aucieni ; Avrit , the portal of life . " That the death here alluded toor signifiedwas not

, , the death of corruption , as this writer may perhaps have thought it was , there is abundant proof ; as , for example , Avhere Apuleius himself speaking of the Goddess Ceres or Isis , the great nurse-mother " of a thousand names , " says— " The gates of the realms beneathand the guardianship of lifeare placed in

, , the hands of the goddess ; and the initiation into her mysteries is celebrated as bearing a close resemblance to a voluntary death , AA'ith a precocious chance of recovery . . . whom , through her providence , being after a manner born again , she restores to the career of a new existence . "

" The sage Isocrates , " says Warburton , Avhile speaking ofthe mysteries and night vigils of Eleusis , " called the mysteries the thing human nature principally stands in need of . . . indeed the Greeks seem to have placed their chief happiness in them .- so Euripides makes Hercules say , I Avas blest Avhen I got a sight of the mysteries ; and it Avas a proverbial speech , Avhen any one thought

himself in the highest degree happy [ in an ecstasy of entrancement , in short ] , to say , I seem as if I had been initiated iu the higher mysteries . Tho primitive Christians , in imitation perhaps of these pagan rites , or from the same kind of spirit , had a custom of celebrating vigils in the night . " The ideas of the sum-mum lonum or " highest good "

of man remind me of the less ancient doctrines ascribed to certain mystics A \ diom a Avriter ( believed to be Defoe ) , in aAvork on the history of magic , stigmatises as magicians . He is very virulent against the " effluvia of hell , " as lie calls them , but seems pretty fairly to describe the vieAvs he reprobates .

"Now magic , " he says , " puts an end to all difficulty . By consulting the dark oracle and entering a little into the secrets of the sacred science , as thej' Aviekedly tell you it is , they come out transformed into a HCAV kind of species [ a higher development of humanity , doubtless ] : they tell you that they are arrived to a complete knowledge of the eternal mysteries;—that God is nothing

but the sum of human desires ; the ecstasy of an exalted Spirit carried up into the regions of eternal calm and quiet , where the soul is in raptures of joy and love . This they resolve , by the Light of the refined sublime judgment , to be the perfection of happiness , and that is God . Amor Deus est ; ' Jupiter quodcunque cwpis . " Of the Eosicrucian Philosophy , perhaps all I need

Geometrical And Other Sybols.

here do is , for want of abetter , to quote my own brief condensation , from the Paper on Symbols in ths Builder of 15 th of January , 1 S 59 . . " The Rosicrucians taught that there are two kinds of life , ' the compound life' and ' the elementary life . ' The compound is the human or soul-life . The elementary is the lhide or irit-life . It was tho duty of the

syp sp sages , by fasting , Avatching , prayer , and conteirqilation , to bring about ' a Eosicrucian marriage' Avith the elementary or spirit-life . That life Avas the companion and bride of man ( the compound life ) in Paradise ; and tho desertion of this his Spirit bride constituted the very fall of man itself . The grand purpose ofthe brethren of'the Rosy Cross' Avasbhelof the Sirit-lifeto bring about the

, y p p , entire regeneration and the perfection and salvation or immortalisation of man , in body and soul and spirit . As in the Eleusinian initiation , ' science , genius , and immortality ' were to be the fruits ofthe glorious alliance which the sages sought . By the help of their spiritual brides , they could penetrate into all the secrets of nature , and ' see into the life of thingsand this accords Avith

; what the Taliesin says of the Druidical god-life . " We may now have some idea of what the Ereemasons mean when they speak of tlie similarity of their initiatiations to those of the ancient mysteries , and shall now be better able to indicate what such symbols as the hexalhaused as one of their most

p , precious jeAvels , must have been originally meant by them , as well as by many others , to signify . I fear , hoAvever , that I must postpone any furtherremarks on the Ereemasonic and other geometrical symbols , if you will allovr me , to another communication . J . E . DOVE .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

EXTRACTS l-KOAt OLD LODGE MINUTES . Amongst my collection of Masonic Notes and Scraps ,, there is the following , cut out of an American paper , lvhich may possibly show some of our enquiring brethren snme customs now obsolete . —Ex . Ex . Tradition informs us that the first Lodge held in Georgia was opened near what is now the corner of Hay and Drayton streets , in the citof Savannahin the month of Jul 1733 under a

y , y , , large oak tree . The charter Avas brought from England by Gen . James Oglethorpe , the founder of the colony of Georgia .. The Lodge was called King Solomon ' s Lodge , No . 123 , of tbe Province of Georgia anil continued to work under the original ,, charter till 17 S 6 , when it received a charter from the Grand Lodge of Georgia . This seems to me to conflict somewhat withthe facts as set forth in the chartera of which I send

, copy you , as it is there said that the " right and succession" was derived from the Grand Master of England in 1735 , although this may ,, perhaps , refer to the Grand Lodge alone . Some years since tlie lodge was unfortunate in having a Tyler whose inexcusable laziness , or culpable carelessness , led him to use the old minute books for lighting fires , and his vandalism was not discovered till irreparable damage had been

done-After a through overhauling of the old minutes , I find nothing prior to Feb ., 1785 , when a new book was commenced , Avliiclii has , fortunately , escaped the destructive hand of the Tyler . At this time , and for several years subsequently , the lodge met at tlie House of Mr . John Lowrey . The lodge now has in its possession a Bible " presented by Gen . James Oglethorpe to King Solomon ' s Lodge No . 510 , Province of Georgia . " The imprint the

reads , — " Oxford : Printed by John Baskett , printer to University . MDCCXXXIII . " There are also several ancient Jewels ,- one a Past Muster ' s of Union Lodge No . 10 , 3700 ; Secretary ' s of same lodge , and same date ; and Past Master ' s of Hirams £ lodgeNo . 2 , iiodate . Both these lodgesare long since dead . Also a Past Master' s Jen-el , Avithout date , but with the following inscription : " J . Box Youug , Esq ., W . P . M . of King Solomon' & Lodge No . 1 . Amor , Honor , and Justitia . " Mr . Young vca