Clavel, with his usual boldness of assertion, which is too often independent of facts, declares that the degree was invented by the Jesuits for the purpose of countermining the insidious attacks of the free-thinkers upon the Roman Catholic religion, but that the philosophers parried the attempt by seizing upon the degree and giving to all its symbols an astronomical signification. Clavel's opinion is probably derived from one of those sweeping charges of Professor Robison, in which that systematic enemy of our institution declares, that about the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits interfered considerably with masonry, "insinuating themselves into the lodges, and contributing to increase that religious mysticism that is to be observed in all the ceremonies of the order."* But there is no better evidence than these mere vague assertions, of the connection of the Jesuits with the Rose Croix degree.

Oliver says that the earliest notice that he finds of this degree, is in a publication of 1613, entitled "La Reformation universelle du monde entier avec la fama fraternitatis de l' Ordre respectable de la Rose Croix." But he adds, that "it was known much sooner, although not probably as a degree in masonry; for it existed as a cabalistic science from the earliest times in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as among the Jews and Moors in times more recent."+

Oliver, however, undoubtedly, in the latter part of this paragraph, confounds the masonic Rose Croix with the alchemical Rosicrucians, and the former is singularly inconsistent with the details that he gives in another part of his writings respecting an order to which we are now about to allude, and which it seems probable to us had as much as any other, to do with the institution of the degree in question.

There is a tradition among the Masons of Scotland, that after the dissolution of the Templars, many of the knights repaired to

*Proofs of a Conspiracy, p. 21.

† Oliver's Landmarks, vol. ii. p. 81, n. 35.

Divine mind. The cube was the symbol of the mind of man, after it had been purified by piety and acts of devotion, and thus prepared for mingling with the celestial gods. The point within a circle, and the dodecahedron or figure of twelve sides, were symbols of the universe. The triple triangle was an emblem of health, and the letter Y a representation of the course of human life, in which there are two diverging paths, the one of virtue, leading to happiness, and the other of vice, conducting to misery.

Among the doctrines peculiar to the school of Pythagoras, was that of the metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, which he derived during his travels from the Brahmins of India. He forbade the eating of flesh, and the offering of animals in sacrifice. He taught that the universe was created out of the passive principle of matter, by the Divine Being, who was its mover and source, and out of whose substance the souls of men were formed. He believed in the universal influence of numbers, which he supposed to be the controlling principle of all things. He perceived in the human mind, not only propensities to vice and passion, but the better seeds of virtue. "These he sought to cultivate and cherish by labour, study, and abstinence of life. In short, he appears to have extracted from the various sects of heathen philosophy, all that was good, and to have rejected all that was bad, forming thereby an eclectic system which apany that had ever, before proached nearer to light and truth, than his day, emanated from the unassisted wisdom of man.

Q.

QUALIFICATIONS OF CANDIDATES. The pre-requi

site qualification of candidates for admission into the mysteries of Freemasonry, are of three kinds-mental, moral, and physical.

33*

portance of the degree may be obtained from a brief detail of the preparatory ceremonies which are necessary to be performed by all candidates who make application for it.

The ceremonies and history of a chapter of Rose Croix, are of such a nature as to render it impossible to give any account of them here. The presiding officer is called "Ever Most Perfect Sovereign," and the two Wardens are styled "Most Excellent and Perfect Brothers." The annual feast of the order is on Shrove Tuesday, and must be celebrated by every member. There are five other obligatory days of meeting, viz. Ascension day; St. John the Baptist's day, Pentecost; St. John the Evangelist's day; Tuesday after Easter; and All Saints' day.

The degree is conferred in a body called a "Chapter of the Sovereign Princes of Rose Croix," which derives its authority immediately from the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third, and which confers with it, only one other and inferior degree, that of "Knights of the East and West." The aspirant for the degree of Rose Croix, who must, of course, have received all the preparatory degrees, applies at the door of the chapter with a petition for admission; and if his prayer be granted, the time and place of his reception are made known to him, when he retires to return on the appointed day.

On his second application, before admission, he is called upon to make the following engagements: 1, That he will never reveal the place where he was received, nor the names of those who were present at his reception; 2, That he will conform to all the ordinances of the chapter, and keep himself uniformly clothed as far as he is able; 3, That he will acknowledge his master at all times and in all places, and never confer this degree without permission from proper authority, as well as answer for the probity and respectability of those whom he may thereafter propose; 4, That he will be extremely cautious in granting the degree, so that it may not be unnecessarily multiplied.

There are two kinds of aprons. The first, or mourning apron, is white bordered with black; on the flap are a skull and cross

The second apron, used bordered with the same;

bones between three red roses; on the apron is a globe surrounded by a serpent, and above the letter J. on festive occasions, is red, lined and on it a triple triangle of gold, with three squares within three circles, and a J in the centre; above these the compasses extended, one point resting on the triangle, the other on the circles. This is the apron of the Scotch rite. The first apron in the French rite is black with a red cross. The second is white, bordered with red, and inscribed with the jewel of the degree. The collar is red, with the eagle of the degree embroidered on it.

The jewel of the Rose Croix is a golden compass, extended on an arc to the sixteenth part of a circle or twenty-two and a half degrees. The head of the compass is surmounted by a triple crown, consisting of three series of points, arranged by three, five, and seven. Between the legs of the compass is a cross resting on the arc of the circle; its centre is occupied by a full blown rose, whose stem twines around the lower limb of the cross; at the foot of the cross, on the same side on which the rose is exhibited, is the figure of a pelican wounding its breast to feed its young, which are in a nest surrounding it, while on the other side of the jewel is the figure of an eagle with wings displayed. On the arc of the circle, the P.. W.. of the degree is engraved in the cipher of the order.

In this jewel are included the most important symbols of the degree. The cross, the rose, the pelican, and the eagle, are all important symbols, the explanation of which will go far to a comprehension of what is the true design of the Rose Croix order.

Of these emblems the eagle is perhaps the least important, and its application the most difficult to explain. The symbol, however, is of great antiquity. In Egypt, Greece, and Persia, this bird was sacred to the sun. Among the pagans it was an emblem of Jupiter, and with the Druids it was a symbol of their supreme God. In the Scriptures a distinguished reference is in many instances made to the eagle; especially do we find Moses

representing Jehovah as saying, in allusion to the belief that this bird assists its feeble young in their flight, by bearing them upon its own pinions,-"Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself."* Hence the eagle in the Rose Croix is very appositely selected as a symbol of Christ in his divine character, bearing the children of his adoption on his wings, teaching them with unequalled love and tenderness to poise their unfledged wings and soar from the dull corruptions of earth to a higher and holier sphere. And for this reason the eagle in the jewel is very significantly represented as having the wings displayed as if in the very act of flight.

The same allusion to Christ, but still more significantly, is found in the pelican feeding its young, which occupies the other side of the jewel. As this bird was formerly supposed to wound. its own breast that it might with its blood feed its young, so has it been adopted as an emblem of the Saviour who shed his blood for the salvation of the human race. The pelican, therefore, on the jewel of the Rose Croix, is a fitting symbol of Christ in his mediatorial character. Ragont says that in the hieroglyphic monuments the eagle was the symbol of a wise man, and the pelican of a benevolent one; and, therefore, he thinks that the eagle and pelican of the Rose Croix are intended to symbolize perfect wisdom and perfect charity. But this explanation applying these attributes to Christ, is not at all inconsistent with the one we have advanced.

It is scarcely necessary to speak of the cross as a Christian emblem. Although it is an ancient symbol of eternal life, and is to be found in use even among the Egyptians with that signification, long before the days of Moses, yet since the crucifixion it has been peculiarly adopted as an emblem of Him who suffered on it. In this restricted sense, then, and not in that more general one of immortality, in which it is used in other parts of ma

Exodus xix. 4.

† Cours des Initiations.