Old Antiquity.

the breasts of citizens of the United States causes those of them who are Freemasons to indulge in more public display than is consonant with the principles of a society which professes to have the exclusive custody of important secrets , and which conducts its business in strict privacy . But Freemasonry , like many other institutions , has its ranks , its degrees , and also its offshoots , and those parts of it which are least useful are the most demonstrative . One

addition to the ordinary degrees is that of the Kni ght Templars , being an attempt to carry on the tradition of the old foes of the Saracens and conquerors of the Holy Land . This degree is a favourite one in the United States , partly because the clothing is very showy and partly because all its members cease to be plain Jones , Brown , and Robinson , and become , for the time being , Sir Thomas JonesSir John Brownand Sir Joseph Robinson . It

, , is their custom to have an annual gathering- in some city , where they parade in public and march about with a mock military air . When the International Exhibition took place in Philadelphia in 1876 , the Knight Templars assembled there to the number of eight thousand , and proved themselves to be the most extraordinary sight which had been provided for the astonishment of the foreign visitors . In this country and in other European countries Freemasons

are seldom seen in public , and are not often the subjects of comment , except in a Papal Bull . Yet in Europe , as in America , they are neither few in number nor wanting in influence . A curious and interesting list might be compiled of the distinguished persons who have been Freemasons . Many men of note have been active members of the Order . The supposition that Cardinal Wolsey presided over a lodge may be classed among unauthenticated stories .

There is evidence in favour of Bacon being a Freemason , which every understanding reader can gather froni a perusal of his ' New Atlantis . ' An ingenious attempt has been made to prove that Shakespeare belonged to the Craft ; but , then , what is there that ShakesiDeare has not heen credited with

having done r Most of our countrymen of note during the last and the present century are known to have been Freemasons . In Prussia the Great Frederick was not only a Freemason , but was the head of the Order ; both the present German Emperor and the Crown Prince have followed the example set them by the illustrious consolidator of the Prussian realm . Germany numbers such men as Lessing , Herder , Fichte , and Goethe in the Masonic ranks . The latterlike his brother poet Burnsemployed his poetical talents

, , in celebrating the merits of the Order . Late in life Voltaire became a Freemason , and the majority of noteworthy Frenchmen since his clay have also been members of the fraternity . . It is supposed , not without reason , that the Masonic lodges were instrumental in fostering the First Revolution in France . Not long ago the Grand Lodges in this country and the United States severed their connexion with that of France , on the ground that the latter had expunged

from the formula of initiation the expression of belief in a Deity . Indeed , the French have always been disposed to practice Freemasonry after a fashion of their own . They even turn the lodge meeting to a very practical purposethat of promoting great engineering enterprises . M . Littre , being recently mentioned among those persons who deserved credit for setting on foot a scheme for piercing the Isthmus of Panamadeclared in explanation that the project

, had really been conceived in the Lodge of Clemente-Amitie , of which he became a member in 1875 . Should Freemasons' lodges add the furtherance of engineering to the practice of charity and good-fellowship , they will assuredl y become more important bodies than even their advocates have deemed possible . In dealing with the pretensions of Masonry it is necessary , indeed , to pass judgment in the dark . The general public cannot repose full confidence in a

secret society , whether , like that of the Freemasons , its objects are the practice of charity and the recognition of the personal equality anct mutual dependence of mankind , or whether , like that of the Jesuits , its aims are the advancement of the Church of Rome . Perhaps , if the Freemasons and the Jesuits disclosed