May your bark for the future as calmly glide

'Neath a sky as serene as the past has crown'd ; And your stream of life at its ebbing tide,

With Flowers and Friends such as these abound.

Sir Knights Lash and Hammatt both feelingly responded to the welcome extended to them by the Sir Knights. Past Com. Daniel Harwood, was then introduced, and referred to the occasion of the semi-centennial celebration, in a very pleasing and interesting manner. Remarks were also made by Sir Knight Marshall P. Wilder, Sir Knight Rev. Wm. R. Alger, and others, and thus terminated a most interesting and pleasant occasion, which it may not be vouch. safed to us to again witness.

GRAND LODGE OF LOUISIANA.

THE last Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, was held at New Orleans in February of the present year. Most of the Grand Officers were present, and there was a very good representation from the Lodges, though the number of delegates was not so large as in more prosperous times. The M. W. J. Q. A. Fellows presided, and read his annual address at the opening of the Body, from which we make the following extracts:

THE ABSENT.

[The following is well and Masonically said. We wish we could say as much of the Report from the "Relief Lodge," given a few pages further on. Besides the bad taste and temper in which it is written, it reveals the discreditable fact, that relief was refused poor Brethren, who were desirous to return home to the North, on the breaking out of the rebellion, in order that, being unable to get away, they might be driven by their destitute condition to enlist in the rebel army! Such a spirit is fiendish, not Masonic. The Address of the Grand Master is in better taste.] He says:

"It is with a feeling of sadness that I notice the absence of many a face which I have had the pleasure to greet here during the last ten years. Many who have heretofore come up to this annual assembly and assisted us with their counsels, have at the call of their country, left friends and home to serve its behests on the tended field and in the deadly strife of battle. A Masons duty is to his country next after that to his God, and then to his neighbor before himself. This is the order of a Mason's duties, and the true Mason knows how best to fulfill them. May we who remain behind remember them in our prayers; may their success be in proportion to the justness of their cause and may they be permitted to return in God's own time, to rejoice with us in our country's deliverance and to receive the welcome of their friends and Brethren."

"I have called upon each Lodge to preserve a record of all who have gone to the war, and to state the fact in their returns, as an interesting matter for future reference. In the present time of trouble, it behoves our elder Brethren to return again to their active duties in the Lodge, and by their exertions keep the Order

alive and provide for the wants of the families of the younger Brethren now absent in the service of their country. As has been said of old, Masonry best flourishes in times or peace; yet, as we love the Order, our exertions to preserve it will be in proportion to the present necessities. Let us meet like men and Masons the greater calls upon us, and also remember, in this our time of peril, that the charity of Freemasonry is universal, and is even to be extended, so far as safety will allow, to a fallen foe."

LODGES IN THE ARMY.

"I have granted but one Dispensation for a new Lodge during the past year, and that was to Brother A. S. Heron and others, for a Lodge to be called Pelican Lodge, and attached to the Seventh Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers, and of which Brother Harry T. Hays is the Colonel, and with instructions to receive no materials for Work outside of that Regiment. Several applications have been made to me for similar dispensations, and which I professed my willingness to grant on a proper showing, but the near approach of this session has prevented further action. I would grant one to proper parties in each regiment of Louisiana Volunteers, on proper application, with the view that the tedium of camp life might be lessened by the practice of our rites on suitable occasions.

"I have been informed that the Grand Master of Virginia has granted a dispensation to certain of our own Brethren in the Fifth Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers. This we cannot approve; for the soldiers of that regiment, though in Virginia, are yet our own citizens, and I cannot but regard this as an invasion of our jurisdiction. We do not invade theirs, for we confine the working of our Lodges to our own citizens and to the members of the particular regiment to which the Lodge is attached. Our late and our present Grand Secretary have had some correspondence on this subject with Brother Dove, the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, but as yet no definite action has been taken. Such other Grand Masters as have granted Army Warrents, so far as my knowedge extends, have confined their jurisdiction to a particular regiment volunteering from their own jurisdiction."

DISPENSATIONS.

"The greatest call upon me has been for dispensations of time, etc., in conferring the degrees upon candidates called to the service of their country. Where the Work had been begun and a proper showing made, I invariably granted the request, and in a few instances dispensed with a portion of the time required in new cases, all other formalities being complied with. In one instance I conferred the three degrees in one night, in Perkins Lodge, on the captain of a company of artillery suddenly called into active service."

DEATH OF THE GRAND SECRETARY.

"Resolved, That in the death of our beloved Brother, SAMUEL G. RISK, Grand Secretary of this Grand Lodge for eight successive years, not only has this Grand Lodge and the Fraternity throughout the State and country, but society at large. and especially the benevolent institutions of this city, lost a most valuable ornament and useful member one ever ready to devote his time, means and life, if necessary, in the service of his neighbor and his country."

16 ROB. MORRIS'S VOICE OF MASONRY.-RAPID INITIATIONS.

ROB. MORRIS'S VOICE OF MASONRY. IN 'The Leipzig Bauhutte,' of August 30th, we find the following criticism on Rob Morris's Voice of Masonry,' says the New York Courier :

'The second number of the first volume of this lately revived Masonic Journal is before us. We cannot forbear expressing our regret, not only at the scantiness and worthlessness of its contents, but more particularly at the barrenness and failure of its aim. Bro. Morris has, as it seems, taken a backward step. In. stead of thinning out the primitive forest and sowing with corn the cleared land, planting it with fruit trees and flowers, he now begins to cultivate thorns and thistles, and to plant wild briers and weeds. Universal uniformity of Ritual' is his watchword, and in this uniformity of mere forms, he perceives the greatest undertaking since the institution of Freemasonry! And by it, he means not merely a unity of mode of work in the main points and essentials, but a strict agreement in words and syllables. Like starving philologists and captious critics he rides about on single words and finds the only safety of the Royal Art in saying hours of refreshment, not hour, compass not compasses, conceal not conceive, &c.

"Thus to make his chief employment of such a miserable retailing of words, is a melancholy aberration of the mind, doubly melancholy, because the restoration of a perfect uniformity and unity of ritual is an impossibility aside from the fact that Bro. Morris is not in a position to accomplish anything good in this field, because he lacks genius and deeper knowledge. If the whole volume is as distasteful, tedious and uninteresting as the second No., we pity the American Brethren with all our hearts, who hunger for Masonic food and must feed on stubble, weeds and thistles. We nevertheless hope that Bro. Morris may strike out on a new road, seek and find a fruitful field for his Masonic labors, raise the new Journal to a higher position, more worthy of the subject and then he may work profitably.'

RAPID INITIATIONS.

THE subject relating to candidates hurrying through all the degrees of our Or der, without adverting to the propriety of one step they pursue, or possessing a single qualification requisite for advancement, ought to be taken into consideration by this Grand Lodge. Candidates passing through the usual formalities in this hurried manner, notwithstanding, consider themselves entitled to rank as masters of the art, they solicit and accept offices, and even assume the government of a Lodge, equally unacquainted with the rules of the Institution they engage to support, or the solemn trust they engage to perform; and the consequence is, many irregularities and improprieties are introduced into our ceremonies, and the substance is lost in the shadow. If candidates were required to pass satisfactory examination before a suitable Committee, or in open Lodge, before advancement, in my humble opinion, a general reformation would speedily take place, and the Brethren would be constrained to acknowledge that our honors were deservedly bestowed. I am of the opinion that it is doing injustice to a candidate to confer upon him more that one degree at the same communication, and I would therefore recommend the alteration of the 21st section of the By-Laws of the Grand Lodge, which leaves it discretionary with the Lodge to confer more than one degree at the same communication.-G. M. Vt.

THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE FRATERNITY OF MASONS.

[Continued from page 375, vol. 21.]

THE Abbots, or ecclesiastical superiors of the monasteries, designed the plans of their churches and other religious edifices, and superintended their construction. Alliances were established between the different convents, and in the course of time, the Craftsmen who dwelt within the circle of these monastic institutions, and aided the monks in erecting their religious houses, likewise formed societies and associations of their own. From the latter sprang the Lodges, or " Bauhütten," of the German Stone

masons.

The erection of these immense buildings necessarily employed a very large number of artists and workmen, who were thus frequently for many years, closely associated in their social life and mutual labor. The permanence of their association, the maintenance of good order among the workmen, and the final realization of their object, could only be secured by strict subordination to a certain form of government. A peculiar social form was thus soon given to the association, the model of which was furnished by the Confraternities instituted by the monasteries in various lands, and which offered to their individual members many privileges. which otherwise they could not readily have obtained.

When in the course of time the Lay-brethren had acquired a theoretical and practical knowledge of Architecture, when their own self-reliance and the rising power of the cities had begun to impart a new form to civil life, the German spirit awoke in full and vigorous strength, and boldly essayed to surpass all former creations in magnificence. Unfettered by the shackles of arbitrary foreign laws and forms, supported by a brilliant and matured science of technics, the national fancy gave utterance to its deepest thoughts, for the first time, in its own language-and the German (Gothic) style of Architecture, made its appearance. The Christian architects adhered to the pointed and perpendicular style of Architecture, which in its perfected state is explained by the creative spirit emanating from the depth of German nature, bringing into the most beautiful harmony the various forms of building, and ever following one and the same fundamental plan, from the colossal mass down to the smallest ornament. Their art creations are, as it were, an invocation to the Deity, from whom emanated the genius of their art. The German style of Architecture is, in one word-elegant in its details--grand and imposing, as a whole-ingenious and fraught with deep meaning in all its parts.(1) The feathery, fairy-like spires, towering into heaven, and seeming so beautifully figura. tive, to connect therewith the dull earth; the slender and graceful columns, holding up, as it were in sport, the traceried roof, so easy, yet so confident; the problem which requires the maximum of strength, with the minimum of materials, everywhere so admirably solved; all bespeak an advancement in civilization, equal at the least, to that of which we boast, even at this period. How great then, must be the astonishment of every inquirer, when he finds that at this very time, ignorance, with superstition her eldest born, usurped the land; that few could even read; to be able to write entitled one to the appellation of scholar; and the knowledge of

a few elementary principles in physics, often proved but a passport to the stake (2)

The rules and principles of the German style of Architecture were sacredly preserved by the German Architects within their secret guilds, the Banhüllen. or Lodges; the peculiar organization of which embraced in a mutua! bond of fellowship, the workmen of all the more important towns. The versatile novelty-seeking and strongly Germanized inhabitants of northern France, are generally considered as the creators of the Gothic style in its first inception, and we find traces of this style among them as early as 1160. From thence it passed over to England, and then to Germany and the north of Europe, while the more southern portions of the continent were the last to adopt it. The further development of the Gothic, and its final perfection was reserved for the Germans. The mathematical proportions and rules of the style were taught in the Lodges of the German Stone-masous, and were handed down by them as the secret of their art.

These Lodges,-( Bauhütten,—huts of planks, erected near the build. ing in process of construction) were to be found wherever any extensive edifice was being erected. Around the Lodge were placed the dwellings of the workmen, and from these, as the building often required many years for its completion, arose colonies and convents. The actual founder of the German Lodges, is said to have been the Abbot William of Hirschau, Palatine of Scheuren (A. D. 1080-1091,) who had previously been Master of the Lodge of St. Emmeran, at Regensburg. For the purpose of enlarging and completing the monastery of Hirschau, he gathered together workmen of all kinds, connected them with his convent as Lay-brethren, and superintended their instruction and improvement. Their social life was regulated by certain statutes; and the preservation of fraternal pace and harmony was impressed upon them by the Abbot as their fundamental law (3)

The Lodges instituted by the Benedictines flourished until the beginning of the 14th century, at which period the ecclesiastics began to abandon their taste for architecture, and the architects originally trained and edu cated by them, gradually withdrew from the monastic community. As early as the 13th century there existed several Lodges which were entirely independent of the convents, and these in the course of time forined a general union of all the German Stone-masons. They had peculiar tokens of recognition, and were bound together by certain guild-regulations, or statutes, (Ordnungen,) to the due observance of which each member was bound by oath, and in which their privileges and duties were strictly defined. As to the nature and organization of these Lodges, and more particularly as concerns their knowledge and doctrines, there have been a variety of opinions. While some consider them as nothing more than associations of ordinary incorporated craftsmen, in which a peculiar degree of order and discipline was maintained; others see in them the depositaries of great and hidden mysteries. But in truth, the inediæval Masonic Lodge was as little the rendezvous of penetrative adepts as of mere ordinary every-day workmen. That the nature and organization of the institution had a deeper foundation than mere disciplinary regulations ard trivial journeymen's signs and tokens, we have the surest evidence, in that