saying. But I will say, that the legislature, the magistracy. and the people of this country are disgraced in having this association, in existence among them. I will say, that it is, a scandal to the intelligent character of this country, to its, magistracy and its laws, imperfect as they are.

The masons cherish the old tradition, that this earth is to be destroyed by fire. Often, in their ceremonies, I find a reference to the period, "until the world is on fire" This is a tradition traced to the Egyptian Priests and adopted as a physical probability by De Maillet. The theory of the thing goes thus:-that the earth, or any planet, begins its existence, if a new formation, as a body of water, or, as a body where water preponderates: and hence a succession of deluges produced by its motions, or by the growth of the earthy and rockey matter, its crackings, its kindlings into fire, its explosions of inflammable matter in its bowels, &c.; until its inflammable matter preponderates, and, from the aridity of the surface, produces an inflammable atmosphere, such as we have every reason to believe that of the sun to be. When a child, I learnt a singular tradition from almost every curious and calculating old woman that I heard talk. The masons have not even a theory upon the subject. They adopt it as a tradition, or a godly ordination, as the Devonshire women had done, and doubtless, still do.

I must now, my royal duke, draw my iascriptions to you, to a very respectful conclusion: and, in doing this, I must notice a report of the newspapers, that, lately, you did not hesitate to receive and answer an address from a Yorkshire Lodge of Orangemen. It is well known, that, in disposition, you are their grand patron, and whilst you respect such an association, you will never be the patron of any system, or society, or purpose, that is respectable.

Had you an idea of dignity, you would not countenance, you would spurn, a private association of the kind. Why, if the Orange Association, or any other private association, were to vote me a subscription and an address, I would not recognize them as the gift and address of a private association, if I accepted them on any terms. My fighting opponent, the Editor of the Palladium, I see, has started his paper to espouse the interest of the Orange Association; but be cannot make it answer; I see he will die, if he does not accept me for a doctor.

I began my first letter, with the admission of a circumstance asserted by Professor Robison, that Masonry was revived in the early part of the last century, as a means to No. 18, Vol. XII.

restore to this country the expelled family of the Stuarts. We have not proof positive upon the subject; though there are strong probabilities; and, it is probable, that the papers of that family, lately obtained from Mr. Richard Watson by the government, or by your family, would throw some light upon the subject. I do not object to Masonry on this ground; for, to a Republican, there is something gratifying in the idea of a king or a royal family expelled from a throne and a country; nor do I rejoice in the change made of the Stuarts for you the Guelphs, thinking the one family just as good, perhaps better, for the country than the other, and that the best would be to have neither. Still there is something curious in the circumstance, that your family should cherish this association that was revived for the purpose of driving you from the country. Mere sympathy or antipathy, one would suppose, would set you against it. If the association were now any thing more than an association of fools, you certainly would be afraid of it. There is not now any particular political purpose connected with it; but in case of a revolution, it would certainly turn upon you. At first, you may find a little support from it; but that support would not weigh a feather in the scale; and a few disasters would turn the association against you. I do not at present wish for any thing of this kind; for, it is a scene where ignorant ruffians are to apt to triumph; I am now for doing all that is necessary in the way of change by moral conquests; still, not shrinking from a physical effort, where it became essentially necessary. You will not misunderstand me, Companion. I never desire to be misunderstood. And I am not looking up to you for place or pension, as the consequence of these two letters.

I would illustrate the notion of Masonry being a revived institution for the benefit of the Stuart Family, by the fact, that Bible Allegories and Illustrations were very common in those days, and preferred to all others. The lost word of the Masons would answer to the lost family of the Stuarts. A seeking after that word, an attempt to restore them. Restoration is the foundation of the whole fabric.

To become a Mason, you must have taken the advice of a fool; and if you will take the advice of one, who will not allow himself to be a fool, he would advise you to renounce and to denounce it, and to set about doing something for the improvement of the condition of the people of thi country, that will bring you solid respect. It is never tog late to do this.

RICHARD CARLILE.

TO RICHARD CARLILE DORCHESTER GAOL.

FRIEND CARLILE,

Norwich, August 23, 1825. SEEING in your No. of the Republican, of August 19, your derivation of Prometheus, I have, I think, done what I consider a part of my duty, by sending you a few pages, wherein I have given etymologies, not only of him, but of his whole pedigree. He was father of Deucalion, whose wife's father's name was Epimetheus. You will remark, that 1 have not had recourse to the usual mode of making a new key to every word made use of by the ancients. I unlock all their mysteries by one master-key-the key of Urania. I know, that many, who dislike my first work, are desirous to speak of it in the voice of slander; but her voice will not prove any thing to be wrong. There are some people, who possess cunning enough to assist me with better etymologies, that will equally corroborate my hypothesis: but I have cunning enough to perceive their drift. A Reverend Gentleman of Norwich, offered me a better etymology to Nineveh. If you will publish his Letter and my Reply they shall be at your service.*

I perceive, in the same number, that you have mentioned the Tau of the Egyptians. This is not an astrinomical symbol. The cross with a ring at the top of Egypt, which is so like the cross of the Christians, is an abridgment of the Nilometre. The Egyptians had Nilometres of various forms. A post driven into the River, without any ornament on its top, is one form which I have seen given. Another has a knob to render it more visible; another has been described with a single bar across the top; others I have seen in books of various authors, surmounted by two or three bars across the top. Whether the different forms were erected by towns of different degrees, I am not certain, but we have a similar custom in England, of representing Towns of different strengths by Castles with one, two, or more towers.

* I will certainly do so if desired.

Thus

R. C.

Bungay is represented by a castle with one tower; Norwich, by a castle with three towers, and London by a castle with five towers. And among Catholic Christians, various families have distinctive forms of the cross, though none but his haughty highness holds the triple Tau or Cross. The Taus, as Nilometres, or measures of the Nile, were symbols of the Flood or overflowed Nile, called by the people in that country, Touphan. The abridged Nilometer, with a ring or chain to hang it up by, was called the deliverance from evil; or the abridgement of the overflowed Nile, or the Nile chained, or kept within due bounds. This was, in after times, supposed to possess the power of driving away evil, and was accordingly suspended from the necks of the sick, by way of an amulet or charm; and such was the degraded state of the human mind, at the commencement of the Christian religion, that, notwithstanding the surprising antiquity and Pagan origin of the Tau or Cross, Constantine, the great, found an interest in adopting it for the Roman Empire; which is still adored by the Catholic Christian Ladies, on whose white breast the sparkling cross is seen.

The figure of the "Triple Tau," given in your above mentioned number, appears to me to represent the Nilometre placed in a pool of water; the horizontal mark in the middle of the capital H, shows the height of the water, below the surface of which we see nothing of the Nilometre

This symbol, having no allusion to astronomy, has not been treated of by me at present. It will more properly come before me in my alphabetical arrangement of Mythological Etymologies; whenever I may be enabled to perform that task. If it will not tire your patience, I will write a line or two more on this antient symbol of cacofugation the dispeller of evil.

The' you say has been looked upon as a symbol of knowledge, and as knowledge has something of a divine nature in

* The Christians Great Serpent or Satan chained or bound down in the bottomless pit for a thousand years! R. C.

See preceding Figure.

it, the Tau or Cross is a symbol of divinity. But how came the symbol to be thus reverenced? From its utility to the Farmer. The knowledge of the exact height of the water was and still is, of so much importance to the Farmer, that, during the time of the overflowing of the river, the Common Crier of the Town makes daily proclamation of it, in solemn form. He goes to the Michiah, in Cairo, which is the Well that is connected with the water of the Nile, and, in that Well, there is a graduated pillar, denoting the height of the water. This, he views, and proclaims accordingly. Hence, we find the wonderful mystery, contained in the masonic symbol of the "Triple Tau," marked which is the Well and Post, called Michiak, which means the support of life. To this Well and Post, the Town Crier went for knowledge of the utmost importance. The Tau was, therefore, a symbol of knowledge. The Crier went to the Well and Post, for intelligence; therefore, the figure of the Well and Post, marked thus is the sacred symbol of Intelligence. - But, intelligence, is expressed in the Egyptian language by Kneph (one of their names of God). Let us see what sort of a God this Kneph was? The God Kneph or the God of Intelligence, was nothing more than this "Triple Tau3," i. e. the Post within the Well, at or near Thebes. It is the measure of the river, and is compounded of kane a stick or a rod; and oph, a serpent; i. e. the overflowed river.

As civilization descended towards the mouth of the Nile, the City of Memphis arose. It was then necessary to erect a Nilometre there: from which circumstance, the City was called Manophi, from Manah, to measure or regulate, and Ophis the serpent or river. In maps of Egypt, we still see the plain of Menophi where Memphis stood.