The Secret Doctrine Of The Templars.

was not actually intended to be irreligious ; but which in the hands of unbelieving , or wicked , or immoral men might be fearfully abused . We do not see , despite M . L'Oiseleur ' s able work , that the question is any nearer advanced to its decision . If it be true that to Wm . de Beajen , G . M . ( as appears from a Paris witness ) , all these secret receptions are to be attributed we find , perhapsthe explanation of their origin in secret associations existing

, , in the East , the Templars , availing themselves of their secret Chapters , forming an inner secret fraternity of their own . Indeed , one witness at Paris describes a ceremonial which seems to us both significative and worthy of note . He says that he was deprived of light , and then admitted into the Chapter . He was not a Knight , but a serving brother . Having been previously left in solitude and darknesshe was led round the Chapter more than onceand lastly

ad-, , mitted on a corporeal oath ; but he mentions nothing improper or indecent . Are all these allegations , whether of indecency or heresy , the interpolations of inquisitors or prelates , anxious to uphold the infallible Bull of an infallible Pope ? To our minds , the point in dispute is still an open question , and one

which probably must still remain an enigma to general and Masonic students . That the Templars who died for the Cross were heretics , is , to our minds , simply incredible . That they were men of openly shameful lives and horrible vices is alike , as we think , most improbable . That they were mortal and therefore weak , enforced celibates ancl therefore exposed to great temptations , is , we think , likely to be true ; that they were not impeccable , and were corrupted by wealth and luxury , is also probablynay undoubtedlthe

, y , case . But their worship of an idol resolves itself into a " Reliquary "; their Islamism ancl grosser criminalities into the necessity of supporting the Bull of condemnation , ancl is a " post hoc propter hoc , " or is the product of the actual ignorance of the inquisitors . If proofs exist of a " secret receptio , " they seem to point to a Templar fraternity , which may have adopted as an universal formulu , " Le Dieu superieur du Ciel , " T . G . A . O . T . U . Be this as

it may , we leave the matter practically as we found it , inasmuch as we cannot accept the Florence inquiry either as truthful in itself or as representing to us the actual opinions and practices of the Florentine Templars in particular , or the Knights Templars in general . But M . L'Oiseleur ' s pamphlet deserves study . We fear we have made this paper all too long , but we have tried to place the matter fairly and fully before our readers .

Old Letters.

OLD LETTERS .

BY MAX . From the New York Dispatch . I LOOKED in the twilight this evening In a drawer guarded safe by a key , Where the ghosts of my childhood are hidd en

And the eyes of the world cannot see ; And there in a corner , forgotten , Neglected and yellow and worn , I came on this bundle of letters , With the edges all tattered and torn ,