The Moral And Religious Origin Of Freemasonry:

The accusation has been made , and even in our day the Masonic Order is ceaselessly accused of being " pernicious to the safety of the States , " and in permanent conspiracy against the sovereigns of the nations . If , as I have just proved , Masonry has no other orig in than that derived from the continuation of a dogma born with society , and which has always had for its mission to teach men to know and venerate divine truthand to

, inspire in them the love of virtue ancl abhorrence of vice , I cannot perceive how the existence of this Order can be considered "pernicious . " Ton say" But why surround yourself with mysteries ? " To which I shall boldly reply— -We have left you the liberty of communicating the traditions of the sublime truths which our order has always professed , and whose discovery has cost our brethren so many ages of constant study .

Let those who so virulently accuse us of retaining a secrecy the most inviolable tell us if your grim and sombre prisons have never resounded with the groans of our brethren buried alive , ancl if your axe is yet unstained with our blood—blood shed that we mi ght preach our doctrines in the open daylight .

Some ingenious sophist will answer me , perhaps , that since we enclose ourselves in the most absolute secrecy , our Order becomes useless , or is metamorphosed into an egotistic or selfish sect . Oh no ! a thousand times no ! For you , potentates of the earth—you who have calumniated without cessation and traduced and denounced us by your bulls , ukases , ancl proclamations , you know well to your cost and loss that the shaking of your tyrannic pbwer , which in the byegone weihed so cruelly on the massesemanated solel

g , y from our areopagi or cowacils , and that the spark which lit the flame of social emancipation escaped , notwithstanding the inexorable restraints of your persecutions , from the sacred fire that burns in all hearts which are truly Masonic .

And let there be no mistake as to what I have just said , ancl no kind of deduction drawn as to any sort of avowal which would lead to the belief that the Masons are in any way like a " permanent conspiracy , " for I shall tell to all of you into whose hands this treatise may fall that all those who have assumed to render odious the Masonic Order , by gratuitously associating with it ideas subversive of social order , have lied to their own profit alone , and

villify without one iota of reason . Ah 1 yes , truly , we conspire in our Lodges ; but with us it is justice which enters the lists against injustice—morality against depravation—knowledge against ignorance—tolerance against bigotry or fanaticism—fraternity against selfish egotism ! Behold here what our weapons are ! and our battle-field is humanity throughout the globe . ( To be concluded )

Beatrice.

BEATRICE .

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE " OLD , OLD STORY , " " ADVENTURES OF DON PASQTJAIE , " ETC . CHAPTEE THE LAST . > pIME , which , as some one has said , "always seems to look through a - * - kaleidoscope , " has passed on since first I began my little story , and today , in Bro . Kenning ' s magazine , I seem , as it were , to be looking back on