The Masonic Ladder.

p laces , in all trades , professions , or callings which men can pursue Avith profit or pleasure . The world has too little of it . It has been neglected . It requires to be cultivated . The peace , the happ iness , the prosperity of mankind , depend greatly upon it . Who can properly tell the power and

SAveetness of beneficence and charity ? Be kind , be generous always . Let your Avords , your looks , your acts , breathe the spirit of love and charity . — Masonic Record of Western India .

Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

Th * " Editor is not responsible for the opinions expressed by Correspondents . TO THE EDITOE OP THE FHEEMASOUS' 3 nGiZIA-I AJJD MASOHIC MIItBOB . DEAK SIE AND BEOTHEE , —I have copied the following lines from an ori ginal manuscript by the late Bro . Ebenezer Sibl y , M . D . and F . K . H . S ., preceding which I find these words"Lapis auxilii Siblius "

, ; also , "Lord Bacon , born 21 st Januarv , 19 h . 28 m . P . M . 1561 ; " "Urania Siblv , born 8 th March , 2 h . 38 min . morning , 1782 ; " John Wilkes , "born 2 nd Feb ., 6 h . morning , 1749 , about 5 ft . 6 in ., dark complexion , but fresh-coloured , by trade a printer ;" " Oliver CromAvellborn 25 th Aprillh . 24 rain . 4 sec .

, , , morning , 1599 , died 4 th Sept ., 1658 , " & c . Yours fraternally , JAMES EEEDEEICK SPUEE , P . M . Old Globe Lodge ( No . 200 . )

To those into whose hands this uoolc may fall . It is customary to say somewhat by Avay of preface . We shall comply with such custom in such manner as may be serviceable to the promoting of these studies ; for as the stars declare the glory of the first great causeso they are to us for signs of future

, contingencies , not absolutely necessitating our natures to this or that , but strongly inclining , and so consequently disposing our wills , the active productions of which are the subjects of foreknoAvledge being future in time , the which future events are considerable , under three notions ; the first of them which have a

certain determinate and infallible cause as the motions of the heavens , the rising and setting of the signs , the conjunctions of the planets , the eclipses of the luminaries , & c . Of these may be had a certain infallible pr & cognition , which being had , the effects clearly discover themselves in the general accidents of

the world , as war , famine , pestilence , peace , plenty , and barreness ; the mutations of sects and kingdoms , the great perturbations of the air , the commotions and complications of elements , earthquakes , and the like , all which , from age to age are daily acted bv a siderial motive poAver , which , because they equally

depend upon an invariable uniform motion on the heavens , ancl therefore a stuclient in celestial influx , cannot easily deviate from the truth unless the two causes he miraculously impeded by the prime cause , which is God . Secondly , other future contingencies are in the Avorld which have an indeterminate and

fallible cause , such are the operations and actions of men , merely , purely , and simply voluntary than are said to have neither a determinate verity nor a determinate falsity , the will of man being indeterminate and therefore vertible to either , because to him who proposeth this or that there may occur many

impediments ; wherefore , seeing the soul of man is more noble than the visible heavens , nor can any corporeal created substance act upon the same necessarily Avhich is spiritual , therefore it follows that the celestial influx cannot change the soul nor Avork thereupon , unless indirectly and contingently , by inclining the same-, from Avhencewemay conclude that arts or any human

science in respect of the voluntary action ; ' of tlio mind are in their foreknowledge only conjectural . Thirdly , we may conclude that tilings that have a determinate cause , and most part certain , jet are somewhat fallible , as namely those actions as partly depend on our wills and partly on celestial influx ,

ancl this because man hath a twofold nature in him , one celestial ancl etherial or intellectual soul , but the body compounded of the elements , a substance frail and mortal ; from hence it follows that man is necessarily acted by tAvo princiiples , the celestial influx and the human will , and on this ground it is that the operations in man and his actions are found mixed and various . The ancients have laid down in a particular manner some rules to ascertain the immediate

influx and heavenly operations on the human body , many of which are founded on truth , yet more are to be rejected , according to Lord Bacon , AVIIO was eminent in learning , who has thought fit to make the folloAving observations in the first volume of his works , page 77 . " We judge it necessary to lay doAvn some rules for

the examination of astrological matters , in order toreturn what is useful and reject what is significant therein . Eirst let the greater revolutions be retained , but the lesser of horoscopes and houses be rejected , the former being like ordnances which shoot at a mark at a great distance , while the other are like

small boAvs that do no execution . Secondly , the celestial operations affect not all kinds of bodies , but only the more sensible—here we except the operations of the sun ' s heat , which may doubtless penetrate metals and other subterraneous bodies , and confine the other operations chiefly to the airthe humourous

, spirit of things . Thirdly , all the celestial operations rather extend to masses of things than to individuals , though they may obliquely reach some individuals also , AA'hich are more sensible than the rest , as a

pestilent constitution of the air affects those bodies as are least able to resist it . Eourthly , all the celestial operations produce not their instantaneously and in a narrow compass , but exert them in large portions of time and space . Thus predictions as to the temperature of a year may hold good , but not to single days .. Eif ' thlythere is no fatal necessity of the starsand

, , this the more prudent astrologers have constantly alloAved . Sixthly , we will add one thing more , which , if amended and improved , might make for astrology , viz ., that we are certain the celestial bodies have other influences besides li ght and heat ; but these influences act not otherwise than by the foregoing

rules , though they lie so deep in physics as to require a fuller explanation , so that , upon the whole , we must reject as defective an astrology wrote in conformity to these princi ples under the name of " Astrologia Sana . " This j ust astrology should coutain — "Eirst ,

the doctrine of the commixture of rays , viz ., the conjunction , oppositions , and other situations and aspects of the planets with regard to one another ; their transits through the signs of the zodiac , and