Contents.

CONTENTS .

OUR PREFACE i MASONRY UNIVERSAL i ROUND AND ABOUT . Bv " THE ' DRUID" 2 THE ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR BOYS 5

UNITED GRAND LODGE or ENGLAND 6 THE WORSHIPFUL MASTER . BY J AMES STEVENS 7 ;

EMINENT MASONS AT HOME : No . 1 . —H . R . H . THE GRAND MASTER 8 THE POET to MARK GRAND LODGE 10 THE CHEVALIERS OK PYTHIAS . . 11 MASONIC MEMS .. 12 COLONIAL AND FOREIGN ... 14 DRIFTING 15 A BOARD OF PAST MASTERS ... 16

Our Preface.

OUR PREFACE .

WE do not excuse our birth . We come upon the scene to supply something which is missing to the followers of our Craft ; a something which the existing Masonic journals have not attempted to supply . We shall not presume to influence the general literature of our contemporaries , but wc admit our

aim is to lead the literature of our Order . We come with a journal which shall be a faithful representative organ of English Freemasonry . It shall contain the ideas of men who are qualified by their education in life , and in the Craft , to express them , and it shall have no side issues or under-currents which might influence the tongue of truth , or make our pen anything but subservient to the interests of the Craft , of our subscribers , and

of our own . Our programme is simple . It is to chronicle all passing important events of a Masonic nature , and to make our pages bright and interesting . If wc criticise , our criticisms shall be just , even to the extremity of justness ; if wc censure , wc will not

sacrifice our honour for our smartness ; when wc praise , wc shall be sure our praises arc well bestowed . Our pages arc open to correspondents who address us briefly on Masonic or kindred subjects , and whose communications bear their signatures for publication . Wc have in preparation a scries of signed articles by

men high up in the public and social world , and whose views upon the doctrines of Freemasonry will be of the utmost interest and value . " Eminent Masons at Home " will be continuous , and our strong feature . We have nothing to sell . The English Craft has ever admitted the want of a

representative journal conducted by journalists . Upon this we cannot speak . Wc produce the MASONIC REVIEW to steadfastly acknowledge the ritual of our Craft , and live in an atmosphere of pure Masonic faith .

Thus we launch our well-trimmed barque upon that boundless ocean which will ebb and flow until the day of doom . Our course is clear , and our mariners are staunch . To the " wastepaper " island and the " butter counter" rocks we give a wide berth , and we arc hound for the port of Morocco , a port where

we may rest as a monument of our Craft , check-by-jowl with the venerable volumes which furnish the oaken shelves of the Englishman ' s library .

Masonry Universal.

MASONRY UNIVERSAL .

" How were these pillars further adorned ?"— "With two Spherical Balls . " " What were delineated upon them ? "— " Maps of the Celestial and Terrestrial Globes . " "What did they point out ?"— " Masonry Universal ! "—Ritual . WE arc , as Freemasons , told that Freemasonry is " spread the surface of the Earth" andin of itthat

over , , respect , the Sun is always at its meridian . Hence is claimed for the peculiar Science of Morality veiled in allegory—Universality . Is this universality a fact or a fallacy ? If the former , it cannot be too frequently or too strongly insisted upon in our teachings ; if the

latter , then in the interests of Freemasonry itself , and more particularly of the Grand Princi ple upon which , with others , the Institution is founded , the teaching cannot be too readily abandoned . The discussion of the question cannot , in its result , affect in any degree the welfare of the Order . Whatever the

resultant answer , whether affirming the universal spread of speculative Masonry , or entirely negativing the principle laid down , the progress of the Science would not be hindered thereby . Whether or not any practically beneficial result can attend the discussion is quite another matter ; but never yet , in the search after truth , has the time of the inquirer been altogether lost , or his patience unrewarded .

We shall assume that the earliest pretensions to the universal theory were made by the framers of the " System of Morality , " much after the same fashion as those in support of the antiquity of Freemasonry , and that in both instances they were altogether wrong in their premisses . That Masonry , as representing the art

of designing and building—in other words , operative masonrycomes to us from remote ages , and many distant and very different countries , there can be no doubt ; and the claim for some amount of antiquity and universality in respect of that art , may be admitted , though not in the broad sense which the word

" universal " itself expresses as all-embracing . For even now there arc portions of the habitable globe whereon the simplest rudiments of the operative art arc unknown , as there arc many and spacious tracts of land whereon the foot of a speculative Freemason has

never pressed . It is not with the operative art we have now to deal , but with that Speculative Science which is illustrated by reference to symbols of which the working tools of the practical Mason form the groundwork . And for this speculative science the claim for

univcrsality was set up within a century from its foundation , a century totally devoid of those means for rapid communication with distant lauds such as we now enjoy . Preston tells us that just prior to 1717 , to so low an ebb had the operative Lodges fallen , that " to increase the number of the members , a proposition was

made , and afterwards agreed to , that the privileges of Masonry should no longer be restricted to operative masons , but extend to men of various professions , " and that " in consequence of this icsolution , many new regulations took place , and the Society