passing of their hidden loose affections; with the design of withdrawing all good and pious men from the ranks of masonry, and preventing such persons, who, it will be believed, constitute our best and most valuable members, from seeking admission amongst us. And this effect it succeeded, in a few instances, to produce.

The objections, four in number, were stated as follows:-1. That a true Christian cannot, or ought not, to join in masonry, because masons offer prayers to God without the mediation of a Redeemer. 2. That masonry inculcates the principles of brotherly love and charity to those peculiarly who have been initiated into the Order; whereas such acts, to be acceptable to God, should proceed from a love of him reconciled to mankind through the sacrifice of Christ; any other motive being not only not acceptable, but sinful. 3. That the mention of the Lord's name in the lodge is a contravention of the third commandment. And 4. That the Protestant Church of England knows nothing of the society of Freemasons, and therefore it is a desecration to suffer any section of that society to appear in the character of masons within the walls of its sacred edifices.

My attention was called to the subject by a zealous mason in India, who stated all the charges seriatim in a letter to Dr. Crucefix, with a request that they might be forwarded to me for refutation. Accordingly I discussed them fully in a series of papers in the Freemasons' Quarterly Review, as they were certain to reach their destination through the medium of that periodical. They were afterwards transferred to a pamphlet called AN APOLOGY FOR THE FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS, with additions, in reply to a statement which the Rev. Mr. Blunt, of Helston, in Cornwall, imputed to the Bishop of Exeter, to the effect that "the Church of England knows nothing of the distinctive principles of the society of Freemasons;" which, indeed, may be true in the

abstract, but by no means available as a reason for refus ing the use of a Christian church for a masonic sermon, because a numerous host of the clergy, with the then Archbishop of Canterbury at their head, belong to the masonic body, and consequently may be supposed to know something of the distinctive principles of the Order.

During the course of my researches for the illustration of the Historical Landmarks, I accidentally met with documents which singularly enough threw considerable light on other points in the history and details of the masonic system, that had hitherto remained in obscurity, and respecting which my enquiries had been previously unsuccessful. Several intelligent brethren had frequently expressed an earnest desire to be satisfied on certain undetermined questions which I was anxious to resolve. The result of these discoveries was given to the world in two pamphlets on the ORIGIN OF THE ROYAL ARCH, and on the unfortunate SCHISм which divided the Craft into two independent sectious for more than half a century; both of which I have reason to believe were satisfactory, and will set all speculation on each of these subjects at rest for ever.

I also published a series of letters on the JOHANNITE MASONRY, addressed to the Earl of Aboyne, P. G. M. for Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, on which two hostile opinions exist amongst the fraternity, although masonic lodges were always dedicated "to God and holy St. John," by our ancient brethren; and Scottish masonry acknowledges that holy Apostle as its peculiar patron and tutelary saint. Besides, our annual festivals are enjoined to be celebrated on the day of St. John the Baptist or St. John the Evangelist; and down to a very recent period these two holy men were universally considered the great parallels of the Order.

To place this important question on its proper basis,

and to afford materials for an impartial discussion of its merits, I first endeavoured to refute a few objections which had been urged against the masonic parallelism of the two St. Johns; then I instituted an enquiry whether the patronage of masonry was originally vested in the two St. Johns during the last century or at any earlier period; and gave my reasons for considering each of these saints separately as a patron of masonry. And after a copious explanation of the parallelism, I enquired whether the patronage of masonry in the hands of these two Christian saints be strictly conformable with the construction and character of the Order; and ended with a recapitulation of the whole argument, and a reply to some recent charges which had been published respecting the Rosicrucian origin of the Order.

These charges are of very ancient date, for anti-masons have existed in every age of the world, although they have been recently adduced as novelties, and there is nothing new under the sun. Passing over Sanballat and his associates, the first anti-mason we read of in Christian times was called Simon Magus, who mistook, as all his followers have done to the present day, the system of Christianity for a species of Rosicrucianism, by the exercise of which the Apostles were enabled to perform miracles and alter the ordinary course of nature. His fate is well known. He was followed by Barjesus, struck with blindness by St. Paul; the Nicolaitans, and the Gnostics. Then came Hymenæus, Marcion the teetotaller, Alexander the coppersmith, and the actors in the ten Roman persecutions. A goodly company; with whose proceedings and character the modern cowan appears ambitious to be classed.

One of his most famous prototypes is the celebrated Manes, who, like Simon Magus and the anti-masons of our own times, endeavoured to identify the system of Light with the occult philosophy and the practice of

judicial astronomy, which was afterwards called Rosicrucianism. He, like his predecessor Marcion, recommended total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, and substituted in their stead various amulets and charms as a protection from danger. Another worthy of the same. class was the impostor Basilides, whose Powers and Intelligences, good and evil angels, with his Serpent Serapis, Abraxas, and three hundred and sixty-five demons, our opponents would fain identify with Freemasonry ; but the utter absurdity of his doctrines and practices constitutes an undeniable proof that they have no alliance with its principles.

The catalogue might have been extended to the present time, terminating with the worthies Barruel and Robison, Soane and E. C. Pryer; for every age abounds with them; including Voltaire, Paine, and Carlisle in the old world, and Morgan, Allyn, Stone, and Bernard in the new. In company with such worthy associates, par nobile fratrum, the cowan will doubtless consider it honourable to persevere; and it may therefore be expected that the Order will never be without opponents, to restrict its means of doing good.

During the latter part of my masonic career, I have received frequent and particular enquiries respecting masonic ceremonies of public and private occurrences, about which the information has been scantily imparted, and consequently an exact uniformity is scarcely to be found. On public occasions particularly, such as processions, footstones, &c., a great diversity of practice has existed in different localities; and visiting brethren have found it difficult to reconcile the anomalies which they have discovered in various lodges, where accident or design has induced them to be present. Enquiries into the practice of antiquity respecting ceremonies on which the Book of Constitutions is silent, and consequently much is left to the knowledge or discretion of masters

of lodges, have been numerous and pressing, and descended to the minutest particulars; even to the form and colour of every article of the dress of a Master Mason, from the hat on his head to the buckle of his shoe; the former being supposed to be necessarily triangular, and the latter an oblong square.

Although I have never omitted to comply with such requests, but have always placed myself at the command of the fraternity, as a reasonable tribute of gratitude for the continual marks of uninterrupted favour with which I have been honoured; yet it was at length suggested that if all points of enquiry were collected, and categorically arranged in the form of a Hand-Book, it would constitute an acceptable present to the Craft, as an useful Manual which might be at every brother's disposal, and referred to on all occasions as an authority from which there could be no appeal. And accordingly I took the hint, and issued the BOOK OF THE LODGE, which I have no doubt will be esteemed a necessary companion to every brother who is desirous of obtaining, at little expence and trouble, correct information on the rites and ceremonies of the Order.

It may not be amiss, in this gossiping Address, which is confined to no particular subject, if I subjoin a few observations on the symbolical and actual habiliments of a Master Mason, as enjoined by authority in other times; which I think I have not enlarged on elsewhere. At the revival in 1717, it was directed-and that there might be no mistake about the matter, the canon was inserted by Anderson and Desaguliers in the earliest code of lectures known, that the symbolical clothing of a Master Mason was, "skull cap and jacket yellow, and nether garments blue." After the middle of the century he was said to be "clothed in the old colours," viz., purple, crimson, and blue; and the reason assigned for it was, “because they are royal, and such as the ancient kings and princes