friends and associates. The man who is ever trying to "best" his neighbor, either in business transactions or otherwise, finds himself sooner or later elbowed aside by others who have discovered his knavish tricks, and he has to seek for favor and companionship in "fresh fields and pastures new." The churl, the unscrupulous, the morally dishonest, may be tolerated in some degree, to avoid open disdain, but should he not feel sufficiently ashamed inwardly of his acts as to restrain him from forcing his way into the company of his whilom friends, he will soon be rendered conscious that he is there merely on suffrance by the polite hostility with which he is treated. So far as the two examples go they run nearly on all fours, for the boy at school, equally with adult members of society, in precisely similar manner, mark their detestation of a "dirty trick" in whatsoever form it may appear.

The term "boycotting" is of much more recent date, and we owe the origin of it to our lively friends of the Emerald Isle, who, to mark their sense of any fancied or real grievance, either against themselves personally or the cause they espouse, adopt the most stringent, and sometimes dastardly, means of showing their displeasure. There is a wide difference between the "Coventry" of ordinary modern society and the "boycotting" system under which so many crimes and outrages have been perpetrated in Ireland. The former is the deserved odium for wrong doing, while the latter is a planned and deliberate combination to injure those who dare to do what is right and just. We have no wish to tread on political ground in the consideration of this subject, nor is it necessary, for our readers are all perfectly aware how that honest people have been cut off from the rest of their fellows, their trade ruined, their persons and property jeopardised, even sacrificed, by this cowardly invention of modern coercion and persecution. It is hardly credibleit is a paradox most difficult of explanation-that in some measure this contagious spirit of evil should have found entrance into our Masonic circles, and to have worked its insidious way to the annoyance and disadvantage of some of the brethren. It would be injudicious in the extreme to give details of cases that have been brought under our notice, where feeble coteries have "laid their heads together" for the purpose of irritating and browbeating an individual against whom they may have taken umbrage, not because of any laxity of principle or want of probity on his part, but

simply because they cannot see, eye to eye, with him upon certain "points" of ritual or observance. Cliquism in Lodges has been denounced wherever it has appeared, as un-Masonic, and calculated to do great harm to the Fraternity, inasmuch as it cannot do otherwise than disturb the harmony and unity of the whole body.Favoritism has a tendency the same way, but with still greater force, for although there might be in the body of a Lodge some who do not discern quite as much as others may do of the good qualities of the favorite, yet they are prone to believe he must have earned, in some shape or form, a title to so much extra attention and adulation. But there is no redeeming feature whatever in the case of men, calling and professing themselves brethren, bound by the strongest ties of unity and fidelity, combining to do material injury to one or more with whom they may have become at variance on mere matters of routine in the Lodge-room or in their own little world of Masonic life. What should we think of half a dozen or a dozen brethren conspiring against another simply because he could not bring himself to support a resolution upon which they had agreed, and which they brought "cut and dried" before their Lodge? Is it in accordance with the principles of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth, that they should maintain a stolid indifference to such a brother in the Lodge-room, agree amongst themselves to "cut" him in the street or upon the mart, and even to persuade their friends to have no dealings with him, either Masonically, in business or otherwise? Such an idea is so preposterous that it is almost incapable of our comprehension, only that we know by observation that it is not an impossibility. Without applying the subject too personally, we know that attempts have been made by little knots of nobodies to taboo this journal from certain Lodges, the simple reason assigned being that, in our discretion, we may have declined to publish effusions of a virulent and offensively personal character, or have expressed our views candidly upon acts and deeds which we deemed inconsistent, and the exposure of which has been unpalatable to those who had participated in them. So far as a public print is concerned, the conductors have little to fear from being "boycotted" by a few malcontents, for a fearless and honest discharge of duty will always command the respect of the great bulk of the reading and thinking public. It has been brought home painfully and severely to many institutions, outside our own pale, that to exclude the representative of a journal which may have expressed

opinions not quite identical with those of the "leaders" of such societies has had the very opposite effect upon them that was intended. For every spiteful message sent to "stop my paper!" others are received in acquisition to the roll of subscribers, and in many other ways the truth of the old saw is exemplified, "Curses, like chickens, come home to roost." It is satisfactory to know that in Masonry such despicable practices are most emphatically condemned, and that where they are set in motion it is by a few shame-faced, bilious individuals, who would not have their names published in connection with them for the world." There always has been, and we suppose always will be, the leaven of discontent and narrow mindedness in every condition of life, for it is found even among religious sects, political parties, and indeed all combinations of men who profess to be in perfect accord and animated by one common aim. In Freemasonry less of it is seen than in any other society known, but nevertheless it does appear, and the snake must be scotched whenever it protrudes its unwelcome presence. Freemasonry is the very highest personification of the virtues of love, confidence and sincere good will, and we must not allow it to be in any way marred by the machinations of that very and significant few whom we have ventured to refer to in connection with this article.-London Freemason's Chronicle.

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THE regulations of Freemasonry require that no brother shall have a higher degree conferred upon him until he has.passed an examination in an open Lodge in the lower. The law does not lay down any particular mode of examination, nor does it absolutely specify that, as in Education Board examinations, a certain centage of marks must be obtained. It therefore practically lies in the discretion of the Master to pronounce the result of the examina tion satisfactory or otherwise. We cannot, however, but consider that Masters are generally altogether too lenient in this matter, and that the real intention of the Constitution is, in a multitude of cases, ignored. Surely the examination is meant to show the members of the Lodge that the candidate has some little knowledge of the teachings of the degrees he has taken, and that, in order to do so, it is absolutely necessary that, whilst the test is being made, he shall receive no assistance from any other brethren. We frequently see Masters conferring degrees on brethren whose examination merely proved their ignorance of those already received. Masters should forcibly impress on the proposer and seconder of a candi date that it is their duty to see that he is properly instructed, and if

the duty is neglected the advancement of a candidate to a degree should be postponed.-N. Z. Masonic Journal.

has

higher

CABBALAH No. XII.

"Then that old seer made answer, playing on him and saying,-Son, I have seen the good ship sail keel upward and mast downward in the heavens, and solid turrets topsy-turvy in air: and here is truth: but an it please thee not take thou the truth as best it pleaseth thee.-Truly as thou sayest, a Fairy king and Fairy queen have built the city, son, and as thou sayest it is enchanted, son, for,—there is nothing in it as it seems: *** Know you not, then, the riddling of the Bards ?-Confusion--and evasion,-and relation,elusion and occasion, and evasion ?"

It is thought best, as the start was taken in these researches from the Garden of Eden, to finish our essay by a brief outline of the concealed method of laying the foundation of the system of measures of the Holy Books, as it is to be found in the first and second chapters of Genesis, closing with the Garden of Eden...

The method was to intend a circle through the use of the square.*

*NOTE 1. In the terms of the Cabbalistic Philosophy harmony of shapes and numbering or measuring ratios, should also embrace harmony of conception of Divine and human. This is done in the very terms of conception of the circle and the square. The ordinary definition of a circle, as found in the books, is erroneous, viz., that its circumference is made up of points, each one of which is equally distant from a central point. This fallacy was necessary because each such point was conceived to be of itself an infinitely short straight line, or side of a polygon, from the mode taken to obtain the measure of the circle itself. A circle is essentially such in its very curvature. It is of itself, without relation to any other consideration, quantity or quality. Its true definition is simple, as it should be, and bears its truth of description in itself, as follows:

"A circle is a curved line, of such nature of curvature that any portion, even the least thereof, if protracted either way, will finally reënter upon itself and form one and the same curve."-(Skinner).

As will be at once seen this is a radically different definition. Now of itself such a figure can only be conceived of as a circle, but not as anything mea surable by any element belonging to it, for its curvature is its only element. To measure it at all can only be in terms of some known measure, and recourse for that purpose must be had to some element foreign and distinct from its own essence;-and such element wa was found in the measure of the longest right line across it, called its diameter, which diameter could numerically be called one, or any other number, at will. By use of the measure of this right line the measure of length of the curve and of the area of its embracement, might step by step, or progressively, be approximated to, but never reached. In similar view, the Hebrew conception of the First Cause was that of itself It was the Light, the Life, the Will, the Intelligent Artificer of the Universe, and of all things thereVol. 68.-No. 5.—2.

For the great circle of the firmament, therefore, take the square as representation, -and let it be divided into two oblongs for the “dividing between" the firmament. Let the upper half be light, or day, or heaven, and let the lower half be dark, or night, or earth. And as the elements were, in the terms of ancient mysticism, anthropomorphised, let the light signify male and the night, female. It is then said, "And God divided between the light, and between the dark," and not as translated, "between the

light and the dark," By this we will have this diagram:

12

This

If this be used in pavement work it will give the Mosaic, or checkered pavement as often represented. But it would be permissible to so arrange the light and dark that the square should show an alternate light and dark, smaller square. division is to show the double in all things, in which it was pleasing to the First Cause to manifest, as :—Light and dark, heat and cold, dry and wet, the opposite polarities in electricity and mesmerism, and in the animal kingdom male and female. This was the picture of the first day. Then followed the others to the full number of 6 The scheme is stopped just when the number of squares taken will form the 6 faces of a perfect cube for one cubical The word "Heavens" is, or Shamayim, and the

day.

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word "Earth" is . or Aretz, and these are the names, viz.,

92 1

Heavens and Earth, given to this firmament, or square. The sum of the digits of each of these words is 12, so that the oblongs of the square are, consequently, each 12. Therefore in 6 days there will be 72 of Light, and 72 of Dark, together 144 At the close of the description of the 6 days, and as their close, and in their close, it is said "God created Adam, 8-male and female created He them." That is Man became, as the substance of the close of these 6 days of 72+72=Adam, or 144. The number 72 was by Cab

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in, but at the same time unknowable in its fullness. Man could only ap proximate to knowledge by the study of Its manifestations, such as are material or substantive (whether in the realm of mind, or spirit, or matter);-as he had to advance in knowledge, and to an approximate definition only of the Creator, through the reality of His works, as his only pathway.