they may become acquainted with its real tendency and design.

The former would prefer the alternative, that errors and imperfections should eternally deform the institution, rather than see them dragged forth and exterminated by legislative enactment; and that silence on the subject will make the world believe Freemasonry to be perfect, and unimprovable even in the minutest particular. But mankind are not so easily deceived. They know very well that no human institution is perfect; and their lynx eye is too penetrating, notwithstanding all our secresy and all our care, to allow our imperfections to escape their notice. If, therefore, we wish Freemasonry to be publicly esteemed as a popular establishment, let us boldly apply the actual cautery, and expunge every questionable doctrine and practice from the system; for a cure cannot reasonably be expected, unless we discover the cause of the disease.

Amongst the latter class we find many successive Grand Lodges from the time of the great revival in 1717, as is evidenced by the organic changes to which they have given a decided and unequivocal sanction. As for instance, the gradual increase in the names and number of the officers of Lodges. Originally these consisted of three only. In 1721, a Deputy Grand Master was first appointed. In 1722, the office of Secretary was instituted; and this was succeeded in the following year by the nomination of Stewards; but it was not till 1730 that the office of a Treasurer was added to the list. In 1732 a Sword Bearer; but the office of a Deacon was unknown till the very latter end of the century. These were succeeded by Grand Chaplains, Architects, Portrait Painters, and, after the reunion in 1813, by an officer called Pro Grand Master which, however, appears to be considered necessary only when a Prince of the blood royal is on the throne.

These are all changes in the original system, and were introduced for the improvement of the Order, under the following law of the first Grand Lodge; "that any Grand Lodge duly met, has a power to amend or explain any of the printed regulations in the Book of Constitutions, while they break not in upon the ancient rules of the fraternity."

It appears, then, from the above authority, that alterations, not affecting the Landmarks or fundamental principles of masonry, may be lawfully made under the sanction of the Grand Lodge; and also that such alterations have, from time to time, been considered necessary by that body, to meet the requirements of an improved state of society.

The question then arises, what are the Landmarks of Masonry, and to what do they refer? This has never been clearly defined. I have already recorded my opinion on the Historical Landmarks, in a voluminous work, expressly written for their elucidation; but it will be remarked that these are only the Landmarks of the Lectures, which, though practised by the fraternity under the above high sanction, have been almost entirely introduced into the system since the period of revival in 1717. There are other Landmarks in the ancient institution of Freemasonry, which have remained untouched in that publication; and it is not unanimously agreed to what they may be confined.

Some restrict them to the O B, Signs, Tokens, and Words. Others include the ceremonies of initiation, passing, and raising; and the form, dimensions, and support; the ground, situation, and covering; the ornaments, furniture, and jewels of a Lodge, or their characteristic symbols. Some think that the Order has no Landmarks beyond its peculiar secrets. And the Rev. Salem Town, long the Grand Chaplain of the State of New York, whose book on the Speculative Masonry was published under the sanction of the highest masonic authorities in the country, expressly declares that our leading tenets are no secrets. And again, "by a full and fair exposition of our great leading principles, we betray no secrets." Colonel Stone, in his Letters on Masonry and Antimasonry, says, "from the period at which I reached the summit of what is called ancient masonry. I have held but one opinion in relation to masonic secrets; and in that opinion I have always found my intelligent brethren ready to concur. It was this;-that the essential secrets of masonry, consisted in nothing more than the signs, grips, pass-words and tokens, to preserve the society from the inroads of impostors; together with certain symbolical emblems, the technical terms apper

taining to which served as a sort of universal language, by which the members of the fraternity could distinguish each other in all places and countries where lodges were instituted, and conducted like those of the United States."2 Another American writer affirms that "the secrets of masonry are her signs, words, and tokens; these the oath regards and no more. The common language of masons, in conversation on the subject of masonry, is a proof that this is the opinion of the fraternity in respect to the application of the oaths."3

If we adopt any of the above views of the subject, it will lead to a full conviction that some of the Landmarks have sustained considerable modifications, in order to adapt them to the improvements in science and morals which have distinguished the period when they were introduced. For instance, it is generally supposed that the O B is a Landmark. The Ex-President Adams, in leading the crusade against Freemasonry in the United States, A. D. 1834, which he hoped would elevate. him to the presidency, calls it the chief Landmark of masonry, and that on which the very existence of the Order depends. And he adds dictatorially; "the whole cause between Masonry and Antimasonry, now upon trial before the tribunal of public opinion, is concentrated in one single act. Let a single Lodge resolve that they will cease to administer the O B, and that Lodge is dissolved. Let the whole Order resolve that it shall no longer be administered, and the Order is dissolved; for the abolition of the O B necessarily imports the extinction of all the others."

This is an extreme opinion; but there are many amongst ourselves who entertain a similar belief. Let us, then, enquire whether any alterations have been permitted on this vital point. There are very cogent reasons for believing that primitive Freemasonry had but one O B for all the three degrees, which was short, expressive, and compact; and the penalty has been handed to our own times as an unalterable landmark. It was in this form before the year 1500, as appears from the old masonic manuscript which has been published by Haliwell, "A good trwe othe ehe ther swere to hys mayster

2 Letter vii.

3 Ward's Freemasonry, p. 144.

and hys felows that ben there; that he will be stedefast and trwe also, to all thys ordynance, whersever he go, and to hys lyge lord the kinge, to be trwe to hym, over alle thynge. And alle these poyntes hyr before to hem thou most nede be y swore." The points here referred to were condensed by Desaguliers and his colleagues Payne, Anderson, Sayer, Morrice and others in the O B of 1720.

At present every degree has its separate O B, with penalties modelled on the original specimen. But even the first O B has sustained several alterations under the sanction of different Grand Lodges; and at the reunion under the two Grand Masters, the Dukes of Kent and Sussex, when a new arrangement of the Lectures was entrusted to the Lodge of Reconciliation by the United Grand Lodge, the ancient penalty was modified, and its construction changed from a physical to a moral punish

ment.

I would not have it understood that I disapprove of the alteration; although there are masons who consider it as the removal of an ancient Landmark, because I belong to that class who think that masonry, being a progressive science, is susceptible of improvement in accordance with the temper and intelligence of the age, without trenching on established Landmarks. I agree with Grand Master Tannehill when he says, "the Landmarks of the Order have existed through unnumbered ages, if not precisely in their present form, at least without any essential variation, although they have been handed down from age to age by oral tradition. The progress of society, the various changes that have taken place in the political, religious, and moral condition of mankind, have probably introduced various modifications in the forms and ceremonies of the Order; still its fundamental principles, and those characteristics which distinguish it from other human institutions, remain the same; so that by its symbolic language, a mason of one country is readily recognized and acknowledged in another. To preserve these Landmarks, and transmit them to our successors, is a duty we owe to posterity, and of which we cannot be acquitted so long as moral obligation has any force."4

4 American Masonic Register, vol. iv. p. 1.

The alteration of the Master's word is another instance of the discretionary power which is vested in the Grand Lodge, of authorizing organic changes; for although not expunged, it was translated from the third degree to the Royal Arch by the Grand Lodge, of England after the middle of the last century, and a new word substituted in its place. Before that period its masonic meaning was explained by the words, "the Grand Architect and Contriver of the Universe, or he that was taken up to the top of the pinnacle of the holy Temple." Now, as no one was ever taken to the top of the pinnacle of the holy Temple but Christ, or the second person in the Trinity, there can be no mistake as to the meaning which our ancient brethren assigned to that sacred and sublime WORD.

This construction was kept pre-eminently before the fraternity in every code of lectures which the Grand Lodge thought it expedient, as society advanced in intelligence, to recommend to the practice of the subordinate lodges. A series of types were first introduced; then they were explained as being applicable to the Messiah; and an illustration was appended explanatory of the five great points of his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The herald and the beloved disciple were constituted the two great parallels of the Order, and symbolized by the figure of a circle, point, and parallel lines, which I have already, in a little work, devoted expressly to the subject, examined in detail; and to which I would refer the curious reader for further information, respecting these two presumed patrons of masonry. The three great virtues of Christianity were embodied in another emblem on the same road to heaven; and which, as the authorized lectures expressed it, "by walking according to our masonic profession, will bring us to that blessed mansion above where the just exist in perfect bliss to all eternity; where we shall be eternally happy with God, the Grand Geometrician of the Universe, whose only Son died for us, and rose again that we might be justified through faith in his most precious blood."

Many of the above illustrations were expunged by Dr. Hemming and his associates in the Lodge of Reconciliation, from the revised lectures; Moses and Solomon were substituted as the two masonic parallels, and TGAOTU