Ears Of Wheat From A Cornucopia.

the picture of St . Clair in the possession of the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning , where he was initiated .

Laurie says that the Level was in the early part of last century the general badge of the Masonic Order—" no ordinary lodges then meeting in the third degree , Avhich accounts for the brethren at large adopting the symbol of the Senior Warden and of the fellow Crafts whom he represented . ' If ¦ the non-existence of a third degree can be inferred

from the description of symbol recognised as that of the Craft , such inference holds good with respect to Mother Kilwinning ; but that at the period in question no such degree was known at Kilwinning , is p laced beyond doubt by the records ofthe lodge

itself . It Avas not till June , 1736 , six months prior to the erection of the Grand Lodge of Scotland , that Mother Kilwinning made any pretensions to an acquaintance with Masonic degrees other than those embraced in entering apprentices and

passing fellows of Craft—to wit , framing aud recording the indentures betAveen masters and their apprentices , imparting " the word , " testing the professional qualifications of candidates for advancement to the grade of " brother or fellow , " and assigning

to each journeyman such " mark " as should serve to distinguish his work from that of another . In the year mentioned the Lodge of Kilwinning is found enacting that " such as are found duly qualified after their entry as an Apprentice and

passing as a Fellow Craft shall be RAISED to the ¦ di gnity of a Master gratis ; " and in this resolution , associated as it is with another , relative to the

amonnfc of entry-money to be paid by operative and non-operative applicants respectively , may we not , in absence of any more definite record on the subject , recognise the absorption of the operative element Avhich till then had with very few exceptions characterised the constitution of that ancient

court of the Mason Craft . Notwithstanding this enactment , however , there is no record of any "fellow" of the lodge having before 1741 been dignified with the title of Master Mason;—although , on the first occasion of granting a charter after

adoption of the resolution in question . Mother Kilwinning is found in January , 1738 , giving authority to its daughter of East Kilbride ( Renfrewshire ) to " enter , pass , and raise " members . Apropos of " degrees . " —a word of modern

application as referring to the esoteric observances of the Masonic body , —if the communication by onr ancient brethren of secret words or signs constituted a degree , then there was , under the purely operative regime , only one known to

Mother Kilwinning , viz ., that in which , under an " obligation " to secrecy ( in presence of Masters and fellows , and a notary-public ) , apprentices received THE Avord .

Beyond this there is no evidence that the communication of secrets , as these are Masonically understood ,- constituted part of the formula of Operative lodges iu the reception of members . Bro . Hughan , in one of the series of papers

comprised in the very interesting and carefully prepared "Analysis of ancient and modern Freemasonry , " upon which he is at present engaged , g ives an extract from a private letter in Avhich Ave took occasion to express it as our opinion that

before the revival , or , rather , manufacture of Speculative Masonry , there were no secrets communicated to either Masters or Fellows that were

not known to Apprentices , seeing that members of the latter grade were necessary to the legal constitution of meetings for the " reception or admission" of Fellows and Masters . To this opinion Ave adhere . And further , we are of

opinion—our conclusions being founded upon personal examination of Craft records dating from the middle of the sixteenth century—that in no Scottish Incorporation of the building fraternity did the ceremonial at the admission of members ,

Avhether in the quality of Apprentice , FelloAV , or Master , ever bear the slig htest resemblance to the communication of any secret Avhatever ; and in this the practice of incorporations differed from