Eheu Fugaces Anni, O Postume!

E en they are Avanting to us UOAV , No more their grace they lend , Gone are the promise and the vow . The partner , and the friend , Parted the mates of olden years ,

Vanished those laughing eyes Which served to banish hopeless fears , Whose smiles ne ' er turned to sighs ; For us the present is but cold , The streets seem all forlorn , For still Ave dream of the ' ¦ old and bold , " Of beauty ' s fragrant morn .

The stalwart mates , the gracious dames Whom once we knew so well , Forgotten are their very names , Their graces few can tell ; And yet some thirty years ago They were the " beau monde" of the toAvn : Why does Old Time thus treat us so ? A nd cast our Idols down ?

What recollections then remain For us when IIOAV Ave meet , What pleasant times come back again True hearts aud faces sweet , As AVC commune on the buried past , We two old men together , And think of our friendshi p firm and fast Mid fair ancl foulest weather .

If now , old friend , we grieve and si gh O ' er the changes AA'e haA'e seen ; If UOAV , Ave often sadly try To revivify Avhat has been ; The natural lave of human life , Deny it as you may , Still gives to all , mid joy and strife , But a \ 'ery little clay .

So let us cheer our hearts once more With our memories of the past , Let us linger by that sunny shore Not yet by clouds o ' ercast , When nothing came amiss to us , When we cast no looks behind ,

When those Ave loA'ed Avere true to us , Ancl all our friends were kind . CJELEBS .

Reviews.

Reviews .

A Defenccof Freemasonry . By A . F . A . Woodford , M . A ., Past Grand Chaplain . Published by George Kenning , 198 , Fleet Street , London , E . C . So much literary rubbish has been Avritten and published concerning

Freemasonry , both by friends and foes , that a sober-minded , but steadfast lover of the good old Craft , is rather inclined to look Avith a distrustful eye on any neAV Avork on the subject , in this day of catchpenny publications . As every good organization ,

hoAvever open to public inspection it may be , is apt to be misunderstood ancl maligned , it can be no marvel to the thoughtful Mason that a society like ours , in Avhich secrecy is one of the most marked of its features , should share the fate of inferior

institutions . It is an immutable Jaw of the Great Architect of the Universe , that His noblest creature , man , should bo purified by suffering , both in his individual and his corporate capacity . The Volume of the Sacred Law , forcibly impresses this knowledge upon us , and the experience of mankind , in all ages and in all climes , fully attest the truthfulness of this teaching .

Such being the great fact , Freemasonry could not possibly be the good thing which so many of us know it to be , if it was never misrepresented , and even hated by some of those Avhom it seeks only to bless . " Freemasonry is a union of men in all

parts of the world , who can forget the differences of sect and party , of nation and of social position , for the propagation of the highest order of intellectual and moral culture ; for , however high a state of intellectual attainment aman may have arrived

at , ancl , hoAvever elevated a standard of morality he may have set up for himself , or have practised , it will still receive an additional lustre Avhen once he becomes a Freemason . " Such Avas the able definition of the

Craft given to a female enquirer the other clay by an intelligent ; and virtuous Avoman in the humbler walks of life , the husband of whose bosom ancl the fruit of whose Avomb are alike "Brothers of the Mystic Tie . " Happy the man whose conformity to the grand principles of Freemasonry is such as to impress his mother , Avife , sisters