Chinese Freemasonry.

in the word eternity . He who knows this eternity is called bright . He who does not know this eternity wildly works his own misery . " And now mark the argument . " He who knows eternity is magnanimous . Being magnanimous , he is catholic . Being catholic , he is a king Being a king , he is heaven . Being heaven , he is Tau . Being Tait he is enduring . Though his body perish , he is in no danger . " Can the immortality of the soul be proclaimed in plainer language ? And

in a few more words this ancient Grand Master points out epigrammatically the stages of belief and unbelief . He says , " In the highest antiquity people knew only of the existence of their superiors . In the next age they became attached to them , and flattered them . In the next they dreaded them . In the next they despised them . For , where faith is insufficient , it is not met by faith . "

The celebrated Dr . John Dee , a friend of Queen Elizabeth , and of the sage Emperor Rudolph of Austria , took as his motto , through similar studies , the words , " Simple faith excelleth all science , " but he was not aware that the Chinese philosopher hacl adopted it also . Describing himself , as a natural man , Lau-tzse says : " I am alone in my timidity , and show no sign of ambition . I am as a child not yet matured . I am forlorn , as if I had no home to go to . All other men have enough and to spare ; but I am , as it were , left behind . In mind how like I am to the fool ! I am all in a maze . The

common people are brightly intelligent ; I alone seem to be in the dark . The common people are discriminative ; I alone am without discrimination . I am tossed as the ocean , I roll as if never to stop . All other men have something that they can do ; I alone am good for nothing , and despicable . 1 alone differ from other people , but I glory in my nursing Mother Tau . " Across the dark centuries stretches the bond of human sympathy , and Lau-tzse , Dee , Ashmole ,

and more modern thinkers are seen to be bound by one common chain , that which we now denominate the Mystic Tie . Faith is the common mother of such associations , ancl such she will ever remain . The Chinese sage had an evident knowledge of the essence of God , derived through countless series of ancestors , from whom he had by succession derived pure and holy thoughts . The section headed the " Vacant Heart" is worth

y of our best study . " Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following Tan . { Tan , it will be remembered , was the mystic sign of reconciliation held up by Job , the Arabian patriarch , and by David in the presence of Achish , King of Gath ) . Tau is a thing indefinite , impalpable . Impalpable ! Indefinite ! and yet therein are forms . ( The doctrine of Plato ) . Indefinite ! Impalpable ! and yet therein are things . Profound ! dark ! and

yet therein is essence . This essence is most true , ancl therein is faith . From of old until now it has never lost its name . It passes into all things that have beginning . How know I the manner of the beginning of all things ? I know it by this Tan . He that humbles himself shall be preserved entire . He that bends himself shall be straightened . He that is low shall be filled . He that is worn out shall be renewed . He that is diminished shall succeed . He that

is increased shall be misled . Hence the sage embraces unity , and is a pattern for all the world . He is not self-displaying , and , therefore , he shines . He is not self-approving , and , therefore , he is distinguished . He is not self-praising , and , therefore , he has merit . He is not self-exalting , and , therefore , he stands high . And inasmuch as he does not strive , no one in all the world strives with him . " Again Lau-tzse says : " Now Tau is great ; Heaven is great ;

Earth is great ; a king is great . In the Universe there are four greatnesses , ancl a king is one of them . Man takes his law from the earth ; the earth takes its law from heaven ; heaven takes its law from Tau ; and Tan takes its law from what it is in itself . " I will pass over many sections of the Tau Teh King wholly engaged with the conduct of life evidently given by the great Chinese teacher as a code of