CAGLIOSTRO & EGYPTYAN MASONRY

CAGLIOSTRO AND EGYPTIAN MASONRY


  LIFE of Cagliostro.—Joseph Balsamo, the disciple and successor of St. Germain, who pretended at the court of Louis XV. to have been the contemporary of Charles V., Francis I., and Christy and to possess the elixir of life and many other secrets, had vaster designs and a loftier ambition than his teacher, and was one of the most active agents of Freemasonry in France and the rest of Europe. He was born at Palermo in 1743, and educated at two convents in that city, where he acquired some chemical knowledge. As a young man, he fell in with an Armenian, or Greek, or Spaniard, called Althotas, a kind of adventurer, who professed to possess the philosopher's stone, with whom he led a roving life for a number of years. What became of Althotas at last is not positively known. Balsamo at last found his way to Rome, where he married the beautiful Lorenza Feliciani, whom lie treated so badly, ttat she escaped from him ; but he recovered her, and acquired great influence over her by magnetically operating upon her. There is no doubt that he was a powerful magnetizer. Visiting Germany, he was initiated into Freemasonry, in which he soon began to take a prominent part. He also assumed different titles, such as that of Marquis of Pellegrini, but the one he is best known by is that of Count Cagliostro ; and by his astuteness, impudence, and some lucky hits at prophesying, he acquired a European notoriety and made many dupes, including persons of the highest rank, especially in France, where he founded many new Masonic lodges. He was the author of a book called " The Rite of Egyptian Masonry, “ which rite he established first in Courland, and afterwards in Germany, France, and England. After having been banished from France, in consequence of his implication in the affair of the queen's necklace, and driven from England by his creditors, he was induced by his wife, who was weary of her wandering life, and anxious once more to see her relations, to visit Eome, where he was arrested on the charge of attempting to found a Masonic lodge, agaiast which a papal bull had recently been promulgated, and thrown iuto the castle of St. Angelo, in 1789. He was condemned to death, but the punishment was commuted to perpetual imprisonment. His wife was shut up in a convent, and died soon after. Having been transferred to tlie Castle of San Leo, he attempted to strangle the monk sent to confess him, in the hope of escapiag in his gown ; but the attempt failed, and it is supposed that he died, a prisoner, in 1795.

  The Egyptian Rite.—The Egyptian rite invented by Cagliostro is a mixture of the sacred and profane, of the serious and laughable; charlatanism is its prevailing feature. Having discovered a MS. of George Cofton, in which was propounded a singular scheme for the reform of Freemasonry in an alchymistic and fantastic sense, Cagliostro founded thereon the bases of his masonic system, taking advantage of human credulity, enriching himself, and at the same time seconding the action of other secret societies. If there were not now believers in spirit-rapping and table-turning, it would be difficult to understand how Cagliostro succeeded in gaining so many followers and so much wealth, considering his vulgar tricks and shallow pretences.  He gave his dupes to understand that the scope of Egyptian Masonry was to conduct men to perfection by means of physical and moral regeneration ; asserting that the former was infalible through the prima materia and the philosopher's stone, which assured to man the strength of youth and immortality, and that the second was to be achieved by the discovery of a pentagon that would restore man to his primitive innocence. This rite indeed is- a tissue of fatuities it -would not be worth wliile to allude to, did it not offer matter for study to the philosopher and moralist. Cagliostro pretended that the rite had been first founded by Enoch, remodelled by Elias, and finally restored by the Grand Copt. Both men and women were admitted into the lodges, though the ceremonies for each were slightly different, and the lodges for their reception entirely distinct. In the reception of women, among other formalities there was that of breathing into the face of the neophyte, saying, " i breathe upon you this breath to cause to germinate in you and grow in your heart the truth we possess ; I breathe it into you to strengthen ia you good intentions, and to confirm you in the faith of your brothers and sisters. We constitute you a legitimate daughter of true Egyptian adoption and of this worshipfal lodge.” One of the lodges was called " Sinai," where the most secret rites were performed ; another " Ararat," to symbolize the rest reserved for masons only. Concerning the pentagon, Cagliostro taught that it would be given to the masters after forty days of intercourse with the seven primitive angels, and that its possessors would enjoy a physical regeneration for 5557 years, after which they would through gentle sleep pass iato heaven. The pentagon had as much success with the upper ten thousand of London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, as the philosopher's stone ever enjoyed; and large sums were given for a few grains of tlie rejuvenating prima materia. There exists yet between Basle and Strasburg a sumptuous Chinese temple, where the famous pentagon was worshipped; and the lodge " Sinai" at Lyons was as gorgeous as a palace.

  Gagliostro's Hydromancy.—But beside masonic delusions, Cagliostro made use of the then little understood wonders of magnetism to attract adherents ; and as many persons are seduced by the wine-cup, so he made dupes of many by means of the water-bottle, which trick, as might be shown, was very ancient, and consisted in divination by hydromancy. A child, generally a little girl, was made to look into a bottle of water, and see therein events, past, present, and to come, the child having of course been well tutored before hand ; and as Cagliostro was really a man of observation, he made many shrewd guesses as to the future, and sometimes fortune favoured him—as in the case of Schieffort, one of the leaders of the Illuminati, who refused to join the Egyptian rite, at which Cagliostro was so incensed, that he caused the little girl to see in the decanter the exterminating angel, who declared that in less than a month Schieffort would be punished. Now it so happened that within that period Schieffort committed suicide, which of course gave an immense lift to Cagliostro and his bottle. In this respect indeed Cagliostro was a forerunner of our modern spiritualists; and as he did not keep his occult power a secret from allj but freely Commuiiicated it, magical practices were thus introduced into the lodges, wluch well serTed the purposes of the astute, but brought discredit on the institution. And all this occurred at the period of the Encyclopedists, and on the eve of mighty events !




ADOPTIVE MASONRY



  HIST0RICAL Notice.—According to one of tke fundamental laws of Masonry — and a rule prevailiag in the greater mysteries of antiquity—women cannot be received into the order. Women cannot keep secrets, at least so Milton says, through the mouth of Dalila : —
" Granting, as I do, it was a weakness In me, but incident to all our sex. Curiosity, inquisitive, importune Of secrets ; then with like infirmity To publish them ; both common female faults."

  But we have already seen that Cagliostro admitted women to the Egyptian rite ; and when at the beginning of the eighteenth century several associations sprang up in France, which in their external aspect resembled Freemasonry, but did not exclude women, the ladies naturally were loud in their praise of such institutionsj so that the masonic brotherhood, seeing it was becoming unpopular^ had recourse to the stratagem of establishing
"
adoptive"
lodges of women, so called because every such lodge
had finally to be adopted by some regulaj" masonic
lodge. The Grand Orient of France framed laws for
their government, and the first lodge of adoption was
opened in Paris in 1775, in which the Duchess of
Bourbon presided, and was initiated as Grand Mistress of the rite. The Revolution checked the progress of this rite, but it was revived in 1805, when the Empress Josephine presided over the " Loge Imperiale d' Adoption des Francs- Chevaliers" at Strasburg. Similar lodges spread oyer Europe, Great Britain excepted; but they soon declined, and are at present confined to the place of their origin.

  Organisation.—The rite consists of the same degrees as those of genuine Masonry. Every sister, being a dignitary, has beside her a masonic brother holding the corresponding rank. Hence the officers are a Grand Master and a Grand Mistress, an Inspector and an Inspectress, a Depositor and a Depositrix, a Conductor and a Conductress. The business of the lodge is conducted by the, sisterhood, the brethren only acting as their assistants ; but the Grand Mistress has very little to say or to do, she being only an honorary companion to the Grand Master. The first, or apprentice's degree, is only introductory; in the second, or companion, the scene of the temptation in Eden is emblematically represented ; the building of the tower of Babel is the subject of the mistress's degree; and in the fourth, or that of perfect mistress, the officers represent Moses, Aaron, and their wives, and the ceremonies refer to the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness, as a symbol of the passage of men and women through this to another and better life. The lodge room is tastefully decorated, and divided by curtains into four compartments, each representing one of the four quarters of the globe, the eastern, or furthermost, representing Asia, where there are two splendid thrones, decorated with gold fringe, for the Grand Master and the Grand Mistress. The members sit on each side in straight lines, the sisters in front and the brothers behind them, the latter having swords in their hands. All this pretty playing at masonry is naturally followed by a banquet, and on many occasions by a ball. And a very proper sequel to private theatricals ! At the banquets the members use a symbolical language; thus the lodge-room is called " Eden,'' the doors ''barriers," a glass is called a " lamp," water " white oil," wine " red on ;" to fill your glass is " to trim your lamp," &c.

  Jesuit Degrees.—The Jesuits, qui vont passer leur nez partout, soon poked it into Adoptive Masonry—for to get hold of the women is to get hold of the better half of mankind—and founded new lodges, or modified existing ones of that rite to further their own purposes. Thus it is that a truly monkish asceticism was introduced into some of them, by the Jesuits divided into ten degrees ; and we find such passages in the catedhism as these: "Are you prepared, sister, to sacrifice life for the good of the catholic, apostolic Roman Church V The tenth or last degree was called the " Princess of the Crown," and a great portion of the ritual treats of the Queen of Sheba. This rite was established in Saxony in 1779.




ANDROGYNOUS MASONRY


  ORIGIN and Tendency. — Gallantry already makes its appearance in Adoptive Masonry ; and this gallantry, which for so many ages was the study of France, and was there reduced to an ingenious art, manufactured on its own account rites and degrees that were masonic in name only. Politics were dethroned by amorous intrigues ; and the enumerators of great effects sprung from trifling causes might in this chapter of history find proofs of what a superficial and accidental thing politics are, when not governed by motives of high morality, nor watched by the incorruptible national conscience. And Androgynous Masonry did not always confine itself to an interchange of compliments and the pursuit of pleasure ; still, as a rule, its lodges for the initiation of males and females—defended by some of their advocates as founded on Exod. xxxviii. 8 —are a •whimsical form of that court life which in France and Italy had its poets and romancers; and which rose to such a degree of impudence and scandal as to outrage the modesty of citizens and popular virtue. It is a page of that history of princely corruption, which the French people at first read of with laughter, then with astonishment, finally with indignation; and which inspired it with those feelings which at last found their vent in the excesses of the great Eevolution. Every Revolution is a puritanical movement, and the simple and neglected virtue of the lowly-born avenges itself upon the pompous vices of their superiors.

  Earliest Androgynous Societies.—Some of these were founded in France and elsewhere by an idle, daring, and conquering soldiery. As their type we may take the order of the " Knights and Ladies of Joy," founded with extraordinary success at Paris in 1696, under the protection of Bacchus and Venus, and whose printed statutes are still in existence ; and that of the " Ladies of St. John of Jerusalem," and the " Ladies of St. James of the Sword and Calatrava." They, as it were, served as models to the canonesses who till the end of the last century brought courtly pomp and mundane pleasures into the very cloisters of France, and compelled austere moralists to excuse it by saying that it was dans le gout de la nation.

  Other Androgynous Societies.—In the order of the " Companions of Penelope, or the Palladium of Ladies " whose statutes are said to hare been  drawn up by fenelon (with how much truth is easilyimagined) , the trials consist in showing the candidate that work is the palladium of women ; whence we may assume the pursuits of this society to have been very different from the equivocal occupations of other orders. The order of the " Mopses" owed its origin to a religious scruple. Pope Clement XII. having issued, in 1738, a Bull, condemning Freemasonry, the Eoman CathoHcs, not wishing to deprive themselves of their fraternal meetings, instituted, under the above name (derived from the German word Mops, a young mastiff, the symbol of mutual fidelity), what was pretended to be a new association, but what was in fact only Freemasonry under another name. In 1776 the " Mopses" became an androgynous order, admitting females to all the offices, except that of Grand Master. There was, however, a Grand Mistress also. In 1777 there was established in Denmark the androgynous order of the " Society of the Chain, “ to which belongs the honour of having founded and of maintaining at its own expense the Asylum for the BUnd at Copenhagen, the largest and best managed of similar institutions in Europe. The order of " Perseverance," the date of whose foundation is unknown, but which existed in Paris in 1777, and was supported by the most distinguished persons, had a laudable custom, which might be imitated by other  societies, viz., to inscribe in a book, one of which is still extant, the praiseworthy actions of the male and female members of the association. But one of the most deserving masonic androgynous institutions was that of the " Sovereign Chapter of the Scotch Ladies of France," founded in 1810, and divided into lesser and greater mysteries, and whose instructions aimed chiefly at leading the neophyte back to the occupations to which the state of society called him or her. To provide food and work for those wanting either, to afford them advice and help, and save them from the cruel alternative of crime—such was the scope of this socifety, which lasted till the year 1828.

  Vicious Androgynous Societies.-— The Society of the " Wood-store of the Globe and Glory " was founded in 1747 by the Chevalier de Beauchene, a lively bqon companion, who was generally to be found at an inn, where for very little money he conferred all the masonic degrees of that time ; a man whose worship would have shone by the great tun of Heidelberg, or at the drinking bouts of German students. The Wood-store was supposed to be in a forest, and the meetings, which were much in vogue, took place in a garden outside Paris, called " New France," where assembled lords and clowns, ladies and grisettes, indulging in the easy costumes and manners of the country. Towards the middle of the eighteentli century, there was established in Britanny the order of the " Defoliators."

  In the order of " Pelicity," instituted in Paris in 1742, and divided into the four degrees of midshipman, captain, chief of a squadron, and viceadmiral, the emblems and terms were nautical: sailors were its founders, and it excited so much attention, that ia 1746 a satire, entitled, " The Means of reaching the highest Rank in the Navy without getting Wet," was published against it. Its field of action was the field of love. A Grand Orient was called the offing, the lodge the squadron, and the sisters performed the fictitious voyage to the island of Felicity sous la voile des freres et pilotees par eux; and the candidate promised ''never to receive a foreign ship into her port as long as a ship of the order was anchored there."

  The order of the " Lovers of Pleasure " was a military institution, a pale revival of the ceremonies of chivalry and the courts of love, improvised in the French camp in Gallicia. From the discourse of one of the orators we select the following passage : " Our scope is to embellish our existence, always taking for our guide the words ' Honour, Joy, and Delicacy.' Our scope, moreover, is to be faithful to our country and the august sovereign who fills the universe with his glorious name, to serve a cause which ought to be grateful to every gentle soul, that of protecting youth and innocence, and of establishing between flie ladies and ourselves an eternal alliance, cemented by the purest friendship." This society, it is said, was much favoured by Napoleon I., and hence we may infer that its aim was not purely pleasure ; at all events it is remarkable, that a society, having masonic rites, should have given its services to the " august sovereign" who had just withdrawn his support from genuine Freemasonry.

  Knights and Nymphs of the Rose. — This order was founded in Paris in 1778 by Chaumont, private secretary to Louis-Philippe d' Orleans, to please that prince. The chief lodge was held in one of the famous petites maisons of that epoch. . The great lords had lodges in their own houses. The Hierophant, assisted by a deacon called " Sentiment," initiated the men, and the Grand Priestess, assisted by the deaconess called "Discretion,'* initiated the women. The age of admission for knights was " the age to love," that of ladies, " the age to please and to be loved." Love and mystery were the programme of the order ; the lodge was called the Temple of Love, which was beautifully adorned with garlands of flowers and amorous emblems and devices. The knights wore a crown of myrtle, the nymphs a crown of roses. During the time of initiation a dark lantern, held by the nymph of Discretion, shed a dim light, but afterwards the lodge was illuminated with numerous wax candles. The aspirants, laden witli chains, to symbolize the prejudices that kept them prisoners, were asked, "What seek yon here?" To which they replied, "Happiness." They were then questioned as to their private opinion and conduct in matters of gallantry, and made twice to traverse the lodge over a path covered with love-knots, whereupon the iron chains were taken off, and garlands of flowers, called "chains of love," substituted. The candidates were then conducted to the altar, where they took the oath of secresy; and thence to the mysterious groves in the neighbourhood of the Temple of Love, where incense was offered up to Venus and her son. If it was a knight who had been initiated, he exchanged his crown of myrtle for the rose of the last initiated nymph ; and if a nymph, she exchanged her rose for the myrtle crown of Brother Sentiment. The horrors of the Revolution scattered these knights and nymphs, who, like thoughtless children, were playing on a volcano.

  Mason's Daughter. — This is an androgynous degree invented in the Western States of America, and given to master masons, their wives, and unmarried sisters and daughters. It refers to circumstances recorded in chapters xi. and xii. Of St. John's Gospel.




PERSECUTIONS OF FREEMASONRY.


  Causes of Persecution. — Tlie secresy with which the masonic brotherhood has always surrounded its proceedings is no doubt highly grateful to the members, but it has its drawbacks. The outside world, who cannot belieTC that masonic meetings, which are so jealously guarded against the intrusion of non-masons, have no other purpose than the rehearsal of a now totally useless and pointless ritual, followed by conviviality, naturally assume that there must be something more behind ; and what seems to fear the light is usually supposed to be evil. Hence all governments, as long as they did not know what modern Freemasonry really is, persecuted and endeavoured to suppress it. But as soon as they discovered its real scope and character, they gave it their support, feeling quite convinced that men who could find entertainment in the doings of the lodges, would never, as it is popularly called, set tlie Thames on fire. Thus one of the first persecutions against Freemasonry arose in Holland ia 1734. A crowd of ignorant fanatics, incited thereto by the clergy, broke into a lodge at Amsterdam and destroyed all its furniture and ornaments; but the town clerk having at the suggestion of the order been initiated, the States-General, upon his report, sanctioned the society, many of the chief persons becoming members. Of course when lodges were turned into political clubs, and the real business of Masonry was cast aside for something more serious, the matter assumed a very different aspect. The persecutions here to be mentioned will therefore be such only as took place against Freemasonry, legitimately so called.

   Instances of Persecution.— Pope Clement XII., in 1737, issued a decree against the order, which was followed by a more severe edict next year, the punishment therein awarded for being found guilty of practising Freemasonry being confiscation and death, without hope of mercy. This was a signal of persecution in the countries connected with Eome. The parliament of Paris, however, refused to register the papal BuU ; and an apology for the order was published at Dublin. But Philip V. Of Spain declared the galleys for life, or punishment of death with torture to be the doom of Freemasons ; a very large number of whom he caused to be arrested and sentenced. Peter Torrubia, Grand Inquisitor of Spain, having first made confession and received absolution, entered the order for the express purpose of betraying it. He joined in 1751, and made himself acquainted with the entire ramifications of the Craft ; and in consequence members of ninetyseven lodges were seized and tortured on the rack. Ferdinand VI. declared Freemasonry to be high treason, and punishable with death. When the French became masters of Spain, Freemasonry was revived and openly practised, the members of the Grand Lodge of Madrid meeting in the hall previously occupied by their arch-enemy the Inquisition. With the return of Ferdinand VII., who re-established the Inquisition, the exterminating process recommenced. In 1814, twenty-five persons suspected of Freemasonry were dragged in chains to  confinement ; but the subsequent arrests were so numerous that no correct account is obtainable, nor can the ultimate fate of the accused be recorded. In 1824, a law was promulgated, commanding all masons to declare themselves, and deliver up all their papers and documents, under the penalty of being declared traitors. The Minister of War, in the same year, issued a proclamation, outlawing every member of the craft, and in 1827 seven members of a lodge in Granada were executed; while in 1828, the tribunals of the same city condemned the Marquis of Lavrillana and Captain Alvarez to be beheaded for having founded a lodge.

  In 1735, several noble Portuguese instituted a lodge at Lisbon, under the Grand Lodge of England, of which George Gordon was Master ; but the priests immediately determined on putting it down. One of the best known victims of the Inquisition was John Coustos, a native of Switzerland, who was arrested in 1743, and thrown into a subterranean dungeon, where he was racked nine times in three months for not revealing the secrets of Masonry. He had, however, to appear in an auto-da-fe, and was sentenced to five years' work as a galley slave ; but the British Government claiming him as a subject, he was released before the term of his punishment expired. Thirty- three years passed without anything more being heard of Freemasonry in Portugal ; but in 1776, two members of the craft were arrested, and remained , upwards of fourteen months in prison. In 1792, Queen Elizabeth ordered all Freemasons to be delivered over to they Inquisition; a very few families escaped to New York, where they landed with the words. Asylum qucerimus. Among their American brethren they found not only an asylum, but a new home. The French empire ushered in better days ; but with the restoration of the old regime came the former prejudices and persecutions. In 1818, John VI. promulgated from the Brazils an edict against all secret societies, including Freemasonry; and again in 1823, a similar though, more stringent proclamation appeared in Lisbon. The punishment of death therein awarded has been reduced to fine and transportation to Africa.

  In Austria, the papal bulls provoked persecutions and seizures ; hence arose the order of the Mopses (274) , which spread through Holland, Belgium, and France. In 1747, thirty masons were arrested and imprisoned at Vienna. Maria Theresa, having been unable to discover the secrets of the order, issued a decree to arrest all masons, but the measure was finstrated by the good sense of the Emperor Josephl., who was himself a mason, and therefore knew that the pursuits of the order were innocent enough. Francis II., at the Diet of Ratisbon in 1794, demanded the suppression of all masonic societies throughout Germany ; but Hanover, Brunswick, and Prussia united with the smaller states in refusing their assent.

  The history of Freemasonry in Central Italy during the last century and this, as may be supposed, is a mere repetition of sufferings, persecutions, and misfortunes; the members of the craft being continually under punishment, through the intolerance of the priesthood and the interference of the civil power.

  But persecution was not confined to Catholic countries. Even in Switzerland, the masons at one time were persecuted. The Council of Berne, in 1745, passed a law with certain degrees of punishment for members of lodges; which law was renewed in 1782. It is now abrogated. Frederick I., King of Sweden, a very few years after the introduction (1736) of Freemasonry, forbade it under penalty of death. At present the king is at the head of the Swedish craft. The King Frederick Augustus III. of Poland caused, in 1739, enactments to be published, forbidding, under pain of severe punishment, the practice of Freemasonry in his kingdom. In 1757, the Synod of Stirling adopted a resolution debarring all Freemasons from the ordinances of religion. In 1799, Lord Radnor proposed in the English Parliament a bill against secret societies, and especially against Freemasonry; and a similar but equally fruitless attempt against the order was made in 1814 by Lord Liverpool. The Society is now acknowledged by law; the Prince of Wales is one of its members, and is now one of its Past Grand Masters.

  Anti-Masonic Publications.—One of the earliest English publications against Freemasonry is " The Freemasons ; an Hudibrastic Poem," London, 1723. It is written in the coarsest style of invective, describing the masons as a drunken set of revellers, practising aU kinds of filthy rites. Several works of no literary merit appeared at various intervals between 1726 and 1760, professing to reveal the masonic secrets, but their authors evidently knew nothing of the craft. In 1768, a rabid parson published a sermon, entitled "Masonry, the Way to Hell." It is beneath criticism. Numerous works of a similar tendency, or professing to reveal what masonry was, thenceforth appeared at short intervals in England, France, Germany, and Italy, such as " Les Plus Secrets Mystsres de la Maconnerie;" " Le Maschere Strappate" (The Masks torn off) ; " The Veil Removed, or the Secret of the Revolutions fostered by Freemasomy •"  Robison's " Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe carried on in the Secret Meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies,” a work which must have astonished the masons not a little, and for which they were no doubt in their hearts very grateful to the author, for he makes the masons out to be very terrible fellows indeed. Good easy men, who only thought of enjoying their "beer and 'baccy," and of going through a little mummery, to find that they were, "unbeknown" to themselves, very near upsetting all the thrones of Europe ! The work of the Abbe Barruel is of the same stamp ; it is entitled : " Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire du Jacobinisme," and is noteworthy for nothing but absence of critical power and honesty of statement. A great deal is now written against Freemasonry; but the writers in most instances know neither what Freemasonry is, nor what it pretends to be.



SCHISMATIC RITES AND SECTS



  SCHISMATIC Rites and Sects.—The pretended derivation o£ Freemasonry from the Knights Templars lias already been referred to ; but Masonry, the system, not the name, existed before the Order of the Temple, and the Templars themselves had masonic rites and degrees three hundred years before their downfall. Those who, however, maintain the above view say that the three assassins symbolize the three betrayers of the order, and Hiram the Grand Master Molay; and according to the ritual of the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes, a German degree, the lights around the coffin signify the flames of the pile on which Molay was burnt. To the Rosicrucians and to certain German lodges Hiram is Christ, and the three assassins, Judas that betrays, Peter that denies Him, and Thomas that disbelieves His resurrection. The ancient Scotch rite had its origin in other false accounts of the rise of the order. In the last century schisms without number arose in the masonic body. It would be impossible in a work like this to name them all ; a few only can be referred to. Out of the non-masonic society of the Rosicrucians was formed in 1777 an association, calling itself the "Brothers of the Golden Rosy Cross." It was very numerous in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. A second schism from the Rosicrucians was the " Society of the Initiated Brothers of  Asia," which was originated in 1780, and whose pursuits were those of alchemy. Its existence was but brief. Rolling, a member, in 1787 published in priut its laughable secrets. A lodge was founded in 1768 by one Schroepfer in his own house, where he conjured up ghosts ! The Ring of Saxony, being incredulous, had him flogged as an impostor. The charlatan disguised himself, assumed the title of Count de Steinville, went to the Court of Dresden and frightened the king with horrible apparitions. This was his revenge, but the French ambassador discovered the cheat. Schroepfer escaped to Leipsic and began afresh his mummeries. But having promised his dupes more than he could accomplish, he shot himself in the wood of Rosenthal, near Leipzig. The " Moravian Brothers of the Order of Religioua Freemasons, or Order of the Mustard- Seed," was another German rite, founded in 1739. Its mysteries were founded on the passage in St. Mark iv., in which Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustardseed. The brethren recognized each other by a ring inscribed with the words : — " No one of us lives for himself." The jewel was a cross of gold, surmounted by a mustard-plant with the words : — "What was it before ? Nothing." Nearly all the degrees of the Scotch rite are schismatic. In like manner all the English and American orders of chivalry, and their conclaves and encampments, are ridiculous parodies of ancient chivalry. In 1758, Lacorne, a dancing master, and Pirlet a tailor, invented the degree of the " Council of the Emperors of the Bast and West," whose members assumed the titles of " Sovereign Prince Masons, Substitutes General of the Royal Art, Grand Superintendents and Officers of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem." The ritual consisted of twenty-five degrees, and as it was calculated by its sounding titles and splendour of ritual to flatter the vanity of the frivolous, it was at first very successfal ; and Lacorne conferred on one of his creatures, a Hebrew, the degree of Inspector, and sent him to America to spread the order there. In 1797, other Jews added eight new degrees, giving to this agglomeration of thirty-three pompous degrees, the title of " Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite." The Grand Orient of France, seeing its own influence declining, proposed advantageous and honourable terms to the Supreme Grand Council, wliicli was at the head of the Scotch rite, and an agreement was come to in 1804. The Grand Orient retaining the first name, received into its bosom the Supreme Grand Council and the rich 'American symbolism. But the connection did not prosper, and was dissolved in 1805. Again, what is called Mark-Masonry in England is considered spurious ; whilst in Scotland and Ireland it is held to be an essential portion of Freemasonry, These are curious anomalies.

    Ludicrous Degree.—The following lodge was actually established about 1717. Some joyous companions, having passed the degree of craft, resolved to form a lodge for themselves. Aa none of them knew the Master's part, they at once invented and adopted a ritual which suited every man's humour. Hence it was ordered that every person during initiation should wear boots, spurs, a sword, and spectacles. The apron was turned upside down. To simplify the work of the lodge, they abolished the practice of studying geometry—which was sheer pretence, for the only geometry a mason studies in the lodge is that mentioned by Hudibras :
" For he, by geometric scale, Could take the size of pots of ale ; Resolve by sines and tangents straight, If bread or butter wanted weight."

  Some of the members proved that a good knife and fork in the hands of a dexterous brother, over proper materials, would give greater satisfaction and add more to the rotundity of the lodge than the best scale and compass in Europe ; adding that a line, a square, a parallelogram, a rhombus, a rhomboid, a triangle, a trapezium, a circle, a semi-circle, a quadrant, a parabola, a hyperbola, a cube, a parallelepipedon, a prism, a prismoid, a pyramid, a cylinder, a curve, a cyKndroid, a sphere, a spheroid, a paraboloid, a cycloid, a paracentric, frustums, segments, sectors, gnomons, pentagons, hexagons, polygons, ellipses, and irregular figures of all. sorts, might be drawn and represented upon bread, beef, mutton, ham, fowls, pies, etc., as demonstratively as upon sheets of paper or the tracing board, and that the use of the globes might be taught and explained as clearly and briefly upon two bottles as upon any twenty-eight inch spheres.