Correspondence.

insult , not to Bro . Haye only , hut likewise to the whole Union . " Yours fraternally , SEC . GEN . M . L . A . [ We have omitted some strong and offensive adjectives from this letter , as Ave concur in an observation used by the writer of it that they are foreign to the question and unbecoming in Masons . ]

Freemasory Considered

FREEMASORY CONSIDERED

10 THE EDITOR OF TIIE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE AND MASONIC MIRROR . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —Three brethren , with more zeal than discretion , have rushed into the lists to combat , my opinions . I always feel it a painful duty to correct such very verdaut brethren , but since they have so wisely ( and in their cases I confess a cle lume is the

nom p correct thing ) concealed their names from your readers , my remarks will not cause them to suffer any ridicule at the hands of their acquaintances . I may be permitted to premise that , before rushing into print , these brethren should have first verified their historical and other statements . Crucis

"Rosa , " in his first and somewhat incoherent letter , _ mixes me up with an American brother , Avho , on visiting York Minster , declared that his money had been thrown away , ancl asks , " What did he expect to find ? Rituals at 2 s . Gd . a-piece ? " He then adds , " The brethren of the Rosy Cross did not

want to betray the alphabet of the Order to Bro . Haye , even if he knew the password , which he did not . " To Avhat does " Rosa Crucis " refer ? for I must plead ignorance . I may state that I have always considered myself a Scotsman , Avithout a drop of alien blood in my veins , ancl that I never visited York Minster with the expectations which "Rosa Crucis " insinuates our American brother did . His stvle would lead

anyone to believe that I was the brother in question . To what again does he refer Avhen he says , "The Knights of St . John ancl the disciples of " Ignatius Loyola knew better than to trust their secrets to such shallow Masons as Bro . Haye ? " I am aware the Jesuits have been charged Avith the invention

of the Rose Croix Degree , but have always understood the Order to deny this . Does " Rosa Crucis " affirm it ? I confess that I am a shallow Mason compared with "Rosa Crucis "—that is , I never go beyond my Masonic depths , Avhile "Rosa Crucis " never appears at any time to have been in his . Decidedly

my reading of the esoteric teaching of the Craft degrees is totally different from that of "Rosa Crucis , " as given in his second letter , but he will not be surprised to learn that I prefer my own . His second letter is not Avorth noticing , were it not for the display he makes of his Biblical and Masonic

ignorance . One instance he says : " Kerubbabel was the founder of the second Temple , that Temple whose courts were afterwards made holy by the Son of God . " Now , Herod pulled down Zerubbabel ' s temple , and built upon it the third , called after him " Herod's Temple . " This was the temple sanctified by the

presence of our Saviour . And this is the brother who comes forward to do battle ancl to conquer . Oh , for shame , "Rosa Crucis !" I am not exactly certain Avhat to make of > l < 18 ° . He calls me a young man , a young Mason , and a young Masonic Avriter . I am , certes , not thirty ; I haA'e not been nine years complete a Mason , and I have only written on 3 fasonic subjects for the last

Freemasory Considered

six years . I fear I must plead guilty to his charges . Doubtless the brother who modestly conceals his honoured name will pardon me upon this frank confession ; and that the Craft may know what to look for in a writer in Israel , perhaps he will afford us the satisfaction of knowing his name , his Masonic

attainments , ancl his Avorks in connection Avith the Craft . As to his remarks upon the Templars , Avith the beginning of a new volume I shall present to his notice the opening chapters of the History of the Order , upon which I have been engaged for the last ten years , when I hope to show that I understand what

I am writing about in calling the moderns spurious . This brother does not appear to understand the English language . I did not say that , on their suppression , all the Templars joined the Hospitallers . My Avords are , "Pope Clement ' s bull utterly annihilated tho Order of the Templethe members o £

, which entered into that of the Hospital . " We know Denis of Portugal , to preserve the Order in his kingdom , changed its name to that of Christ , which exists at the present day . The Templars were ordered to enter the Society of the Hospital , and I ask the brother , in any historian , to point out to me an

instance of a Templar being in existence as such , in England or elsewhere , after the publication of Pope John ' s Bull in 1319 . The greater part of the knights and others entered the Hospital ; a few of the clergy and serving brethren , Avith a very few of the knights may have entered other religious orders , but we have no proof of this , ancl still less proof of their existing as a secret society , which , indeed , looking at the constitution of the Order , the knightly character of the

brethren , their pride of birth , aud the full sway of the feudal system , they could not have done among the Masons of the Middle Ages . Brethren who assert this , only shoAV their utter ignorance of chivalric manners and customs . I agree Avith this brother with regard to the appending of titles to names , when such

are inerelij titles . Without laying myself open to the charge of vanity , I see nothing to condemn in putting the titles of offices I held or do hold , ancl the names of books of Avhich I am author . Furthermore , I dispute the correctness of his views relative to the virtues of anonymous writings . I place no faith in

either letter or article containing a personal attack , Avhich is unsigned . It shows simply that the Avriter is desirous of venting his spleen Avithout being knoAvn , and I have yet to learn that any man of sense has given the preference to a letter Avritten anonymously over one signed bthe author . It musttherefore

y , , be perfectly clear to the brother , that , holding the views which I do , his dissent makes very little odds to me , more especially as he has shown no grounds for objecting to my ipse dixit , as he calls it , except by his own , and I must confess that I believe in my own viewsand I am very far from believing in his

, , especially as the grounds of his objections to my statements lie not in the statements themselves , but in my assumed youth . I think nine years of active occupation in lodge duties , and nine years given to the study of Masonry , fully entitle me to be heard . Perhapshoweverin this brother ' s ideaone should

, , , be of a certain age before a Craftsman can be presumed to have a correct opinion , even although the party has not been half a dozen times a year in a lodge , and out of lodgo never given the Craft a