Masonic Notes And Queries.

nothing to do . There is no obligation resting on us to trumpet forth our disapproval of every wrongful or injudicious act that every other man commits . " There is but one rule for the Freemasou iu this matter . If there be virtues , and he is called upon to speak of him that owns themlet him tell them forth

, impartially . Aud if there be vices mixed with them , let him he content the world shall know them by some other tongue than his . For if the evil-doer deserves uo pity , his wife , his parents , or his children , or other innocent persons who love him may : and the bravo ' s trade , practised by him who stabs the

defenceless for a price paid by an individual or party , is really no more respectable now than it was a hundred years ago in Veuice . Where we want experience , Charity bids us think the best , and leave what we know not to the Searcher of Hearts : for mistakes , suspicions , and envy often injure a clear fame ; and there is least danger iu a charitable construction .

"Again , the Freemason should be humble and modest towards the Grand Architect of the Universe , and not impugn His wisdom , nor set up his own imperfect sense 01 right against His providence and dispensations , nor attempt too rashl y to explore the mysteries of God ' s Infinite Essence and inscrutable plans , and of that great nature which we are not

made capable to understand . " Let him steer far away from all those vain philosophies which endeavour to aceouut for all that is , without admitting that there is a God , separate aud apart from the universe , whicli is His work : that erect universal nature into a Godand worshiit

, p alone : that annihilate Spirit , and believe no testimony except that of the bodily senses : that by logical formulas and a dexterous collocation of words , made the actual , living , guiding , and protecting God fade into the dim mistiness of a mere abstraction and unreality , itself a mere logical formula

. " JN or let him have any alliauee with those theorists who chide the delays of Providence , and busy themselves to hasten the slow march which it has imposed upon events : who neglect the practical to struggle after impossibilities : who are wiser than Heaven ;

know the aims and purposes of the Deity , and can see a shorter aud more direct means of attaining them than it pleases Him to employ : -who would have no discords in the great harmony of the universe of things ; hut equal distribution of property , no subjection of one man to the will of another , no compulsory labour ,

and still no starvation , nor destitution , nor pauperism . " Let him not spend his life , as they do , in building a new Tower of Babel ; iu attempting to change that which is fixed b y an inflexible law of God ' s enactment ; but let him yielding to the superior

wis-, dom of Providence , be content to believe that the march of events is rightly ordered by an Infinite Wisdom , and leads , though we cannot see it , to a great and perfect result . Let him , my brother , be satisfied to follow the path pointed out by that Providence , and to labour for the good of the human race in that mode

in which God has chosen to enact that that good shall be effected : and above all let him build no Tower of Babel , under the belief that , by ascending , he will mount so hi gh that God will disappear , or be superseded by a great monstrous aggregate of material forces , or a mere glittering logical formula : but ,

evermore , standing humbly aud reverently upon the earth , and looking with awe and confidence towards Heaven , let him be satisfied that there is a real God ¦ —a person , and not a formula , a Father aud a Protector—who loves , and sympathises , and compassionates ; and that the eternal ways by which He

rules the world are infinitely wise , no matter how far they may be above the feeble comprehension aud limited vision of man . " [ Innovations are better avoided . The charge you seud is all very well , as far as it goes , but will never supplant the recognised one . By inserting it here it

will obtain all the popularity it deserves , without being foisted iuto a ceremony already too frequently tampered with by the whims aud oddities of wellinteutioned , though mistaken , improvers . Where our ceremonies require emendation a return to more ancient models and principles is preferable to any

mere modern amateur tinkering . Will " Tyro" inform us if the charge iu question is really original ? Wo have some imperfect—perhaps , erroneous—idea of having seeu it before . ]

JEWISH TRADITIONS . Evidently many of the legends of Freemasonry are of Judaic origin . If I inquire about such things in a lodge of instruction , I take nothing for my pains . There , I am told , is " the place to learn the ceremonies and lectures according to the ritual . " I never

obtain anything beyoud this at such meetings . Can 3 * 011 tell me anything about the Jewish traditions ? and oblige—A STUDENT . —[ An old personal friend , the Eeverend Henry Christmas , F . E . S . and F . S . A ., & c , published a little volume , octavo , in 1838 , entitled Universal Mythology , from which we extract the

following portion on "The Talmud" and " . Moses : "It is among the chosen people that we must expect to find the most extensive knowledge , and the most unmixed purity of tradition ; and so far as the writings of Moses go , this will be at ouce acknowledged ; but by a singular perversion of mindthe

, Jews seem , of all nations , to have wandered farthest from the truth , and most to have corrupted the oral traditions which they received . This people appear to have had a strong bias towards idolatry ; even

when Moses , their prince and lawgiver , was in the mount communing with God , they made a golden calf ( in imitation of the Egyptian idol , afterwards called Apis ) , and fell down and worshipped it . Their frequent relapses into idolatry , in spite of the most astounding miracles and the most awful judgments , give us but too much reason to believe that there

was among them a deep-seated ignorance , producing then , as it does now , and ever will produce , a strange and debasing mixture of superstition and infidelity . That all systems of religion have been based upon patriarchal traditions we shall soon attempt to show ; but those traditions were preserved afterwards iu the

Mosaic writings , and thus presented to us without any mixture of human invention . Had they not been so preserved , we should have been as much in error about antediluvian history , cosmogony , and revelation , as were the Greeks , the Hindoos , or the Chinese . Those events which have come down to us only by tradition , appear , after coming out of the rabbinical alembic , so distorted aud disguised , as to be perfectly useless , and , for the most part , of doubtful authority .