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Contents . PAG-E FBEEMASONS' MAGAZINE : — Randon Xotos on Freemasonry 317 General Masonic Benevolent Fund for Bombay ., 310

Masonic Notes and Queries 321 Correspondence 322 Masonic Sayings and Doings Abroad 322 MASONIC MIKEOB : — Masonic Mems 323 CRAFT LODGE MEETINGS : — Metropolitan 323

Instruction 324 . Provincial 324 India 325 South Australia 325 Royal Arch 325 Mark Masonry 326 Ancient and Accepted Rite 32 G Obituary 326 List of Lodge Meetings 316 Notices to Correspondents 316

Random Notes On Freemasonry.

RANDOM NOTES ON FREEMASONRY .

LONDON , SATURDAY , OCTOBER 28 , 1 S 71

A LECTURE DELIVERED TO THE BRETHREN OF THE PHCENIX LODGE , STOAVMARKET , BY BRO . EMEA HOLMES , 30 ° , P . M ., P . G . A . D . C . SUFFOLK . Worship ful Master and Brethren : —

It would be difficult , nay almost impossible , to [ say all that I could say on our beloved Masonry in the brief hour to which I limit myself on this occasion , but I trust I may suggest—for I can do no more than suggest—sufficient to enable

some brother better qualified than myself to treat at greater length on the subject of my lecture , " Random Notes on Freemasonry . " I must ask your indulgence , too , for the somewhat discursive nature of my address , and beg jou to remember that it scarcely aspires to the dignity

of a lecture , but merely to what I have called itrandom notes , sketches by the way . I do not pretend to preach any new doctrine , to have discovered any fresh secret , but I only aim at leading my younger brethren into the same

road I have travelled—to follow the same channels of information to whicli 1 have obtained access , and to come back with greater love and reverence for the great fraternity of which we are members , a greater regard for and sympathy Avith the

brethren of the mystic tie , wheresoever dispersed over land or water . I do not profess to be a teacher . I am only a student , and there may be many before me better qualified than myself to speak to you on this subject , but I am sore you will listen with a kindly indulgence lo what 1

advance , and forgive my zeal , if you should have cause to doubt my discretion . In the first place , then , as to the Antiquity of Masonry . I am quite aware that there are those , even amongst the initiated , who think it a creature

of to-day , and that 1717 is the year from which we must date our venerable institution . I am quite willing to admit that almost all our information is based upon tradition ; that absolute historical evidence as to its remote origin is not to be found ;

and that , being a secret society , with but few written documents as evidences of its antiquity in the possession of the fraternity , there is a greater difficulty in proving its immemorial constitution ; and that much be taken on faith as to its objects

and origin . But , on the other hand , I would ask , are not the Church of England , and the Churches of Greece and Rome , founded on tradition ; and are ive to set aside as fables all that has been brought forward to illustrate the early history of the Church in the dark ages , simply because it cannot all be proven ?

As a secret society , its aims and history must from all time have been locked up in tradition . I am of opinion that there were points of similarity between the ancient mysteries of Egypt and Greece to warrant us in the belief that they were

in fact a kind of spurious Freemasonry , as Dr . Oliver teaches . I will even go further , and say that there is a strong resemblance to a true Freemasonry in some of them , though veiled and obscured with much that was false and impure . The

Kassedeans and the Essenes were also thought to be masonic bodies . I will call your attention to Mackey ' s Lexicon of Masonry on this subject . In the Popular Cyclopaedia there is along article

on Freemasonry , in which the writer denies that it has or ever had anything to do with the Eleusinian or Egyptian mysteries , hut traces it to the Roman Collegium Arbificum , founded by Numa Pompilius , B . C . 714 .

I will , with your permission , read some portion of this article , since it contains much that is interesting and valuable , ancl since it accepts for truth much that has been condemned as false by certain would-be ivise brethren of a sceptical turn

of mind . There can be no doubt , however , that we are descended from the operative masons of the middle ages , and it is to my mind a matter of great regret that operative masonry should have censed to have any connection with us in England .