A. It is said originally to have been composed of a representation of palm leaves; till the following incident suggested its present form. A Corinthian Architect, named Callimachus, passing by the grave of a young girl, whereon her nurse had deposited a basket filled with toys and other remembrances of the deceased, observing, that a plant of Acanthus over which the basket had been accidentally placed, which had forced its way from beneath the pressure, invested all sides of the basket with its beautiful leaves, which being again pressed backwards by the abacus or tile, which covered the basket, naturally formed a volute of the most elegant description, and that, from this circumstance, he borrowed the present rich and sculptured capital of the Corinthian order.

Q. What is the present height of the Corinthian Entablature? A. In all, five modules.

Q. What is the character of its Architrave?

A. Its height, consisting of one module and a half, divided into three fascials, differing from those of the Ionic in their proportions, and divided from each other by fillets highly ornamented with a band of sculpture.

Q. What is the height of the Frieze?

A. The frieze is also of the height of a module and a half and enriched with basso relievos suited to the nature of the building. Q. Describe the cornice?

A. The cornice is composed of a great variety of members richly ornamented with sculpture. The principal members are the Dentils and Modellions. And the channel of its corona is charged beneath with roses.

Fourth Section.

CLAUSE ONE.

(The following sections will appear better as lectures than as Catechisms.)

The emblematical objects, more especially characteristical of this degree of masonry, are the two brazen pillars, denominated Boaz and JACHIN; the winding ascent of seven steps; and the blazing star, in the centre of which is denoted the letter G. The two pillars, of which an imperfect representation is now before you, were erected by King Solomon in the eastern porch of the magnificent temple, which he founded in Jerusalem, to commemorate those miraculous testimonies of the divine presence andprotection, the pillar of cloud and fire, which alternately overshadowed and enlightened the children of Israel, in their journey through the wilderness. They were of molten brass, in height, eighteen cubits each, in circumference twelve, in diameter four: and the capitals were each of the height of one cubit, upon each was placed a chapiter or symbolical ornament, five cubits in height, composed.

of net work, chains, pomegranates and lily work, or opening. flowers, cast in the same material of which the pillars were formed,

It is difficult, at this distance of time, from the account handed down to us, to state the precise ornaments and combinations of these emblems; but our traditions give us to understand, that the chapiters respectively represented the whole system of creation celestial and terrestial.

This supposition is founded upon the emblematical nature of the several ornaments, when separately considered, which, however descriptive of the union, the power, the peace and plenty enjoyed by the people of Israel, under the reign of king Solomon, are emblems far more extensive. The net work denoting the strong and beautiful texture of the firmament and the intersection of its principal divisions.-The chain work, the orbits which the planetary bodies describe around the sun and their coexisting revolutions on their several axes.-The opening flowers denoting the mild irradiation of the fixed stars and the pomegranate having been invariably used by the ancients to denote the secret power by which the motions of the heavens was first granted and is still continued..

The place of these capitals is supplied by the terrestial and celestial globes, in the knowledge and use of these spheres. Instructions were anciently, as they still ought regularly to be, delivered in every lodge of Fellow Craft Masons, which, from the confined limits of our time and the unfrequency of our meetings, have in latter times been discontinued.

Our traditions further state, that, within the hollow of the cylinder of each pillar, were contained the sacred rolls, which comprised the history of the Hebrew nation, their civil and religious polity the works of the prophetical and inspired writers, and the complete system of universal science.

'On the exterior of the first of the pillars were engraven, in secret characters, the general divisions of the earth, and the mysterious economy of providence in the past and future rise, fall and succession of nations and empires*.-On the latter, the corresponding divisions of the heavens, the boundaries of the constellations and the periodical returns of the comets, with the eclipses, constellations, conjunctions, and other aspects of the celestial bodies, as shadowing out and prefixing the times of the most important revolutions.

And here let us use caution, my brothers, against giving any credit, on this account, to the vain science of profane astrology; for it is God alone, and those whom in earlier times, he favoured with express revelation, that could foreknow these things, and

*Abominable falsehood!

R. C.

1

recognize these combinations of the heavenly bodies, which were pre-ordained to be signs of times and seasons.

This tradition is thoroughly confirmed, by the practice of the Egyptian and other oriental nations, in times of the most remote antiquity, who were accustomed to record on pillars their discoveries, or improvements in science, in heiroglyphic sculpture, for the purpose of preserving them to future times and of concealing the knowledge of them from the unworthy. The first instance of this practice, whereof we have any authentic account, was the erection of two such pillars, one of stone the other of Brick, by the descendants of the patriarch Shem, in the land of Shinah. They were composed of these materials, in consequence of a tradition derived from the father of mankind, that the world should twice be desolated, by the judgments of water and fire, in the hope, that, if the judgment of fire should first takes place, the pillar of brick might remain uninjured, though that of stone might crumble into dust, If, on the contrary, the judgment of water should precede, the stone might resist the flood, although the column of brick should yield to its force.

The name of these memorable pillars respectively signify JACHIN. to establish, and Boaz, in strength, denoting the covenant first made with Abraham and the subsequent promises to David.

Their height also presents a striking memorial of our two grand masters, Hiram, king of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff, inasmuch as the word in the Hebrew language signifies 18 and

the

other branch of this respected name denotes high or lofty and let us observe that the sphere and cylinder have ever been considered as the most sublime geometrical emblems containing the principals of the two higher branches of Geometry, wherefore, it was beneath a monument of this constitution, that the ashes of the great Archimides were deposited.

Passing by these two pillars, we next arrive at the foot of the sacred stair-case, an epitome of that winding ascent, which led the Fellow Crafts to the entrance of the middle chamber. These steps, like the other sacred heiroglyphicks of masonry, are illustrative of the various points in natural, mathematical and metaphysical science and by opening us a most extensive range of speculative inquiry--In their delineation, the third, fifth and the seventh steps should be more especially noted, as those on which a Fellow Craft should particularly rest, and respectively consider the import of the several flights or divisions, which, in those stages of his progress, he will gradually have ascended.

Looking back from the third step, we are taught to consider the three divisions by which have ascended, as representing the three great interior senses or elements of human intellect.--The first of these is perception, which is the cause of simple ideas, or

impressions received from external objects, without any active exertions of the intellectual powers.-The second is judgment, or the faculty which the mind exerts in digesting, comparing, abstracting and reasoning upon such ideas.-The third is volition or the conclusion which results from the operations of the judginent, and concentrates the whole energy of the mind in a fixed and certain point.

From the next station, we look back on the five divisions, which we have surmounted, and contemplate them as the five external senses or organs, which regulate the several modes of that sensation, which we derive from external objects. These are the several links of that great and powerful chain, which binds us to the works of the creation, wherewith we can have no connection, exclusively, of those feelings which result from the delicate mechanism of the ear, the eye, the smell, the palate and the touch. Of these, four are confined to the particular regions of our frame, and which appear to have a more direct communication with, as well as a more immediate proximity to, the brain; While the senses of feeling, which exist in varied degrees of acuteness in the several parts of the body, transmit their impressions through the widely extended and complicated mechanism of the nervous system."

We now hasten from the subject, which alone might afford a series of useful and entertaining speculations, to complete our progress along this mystical ascent, and from its summit to look back upon the seven steps or stages, of which it is composed, as emblematical of the sevenfold divisions observed in the creation of the universe-the almighty fiat operating through six successive and primary divisions of time and hallowed the seventh as the sabbath or season of rest. These also represent the sevenfold divisions Sephirosh or mysterious scale of knowledge, which, according to the ancient Jews, was contained under so many septenaries. The whole crowned with one mysterious ascent of three steps.

The nations of the west follow the systematic distributions, exclusively, signifying, with the appellation of the liberal arts, those sciences, from the principles of which every other art or science derives its existence. These divisions, illustrated and enforced by the Jewish institution, were afterwards symbolically illustrated by the Pythagorean and Platonic Schools. They enumerated the liberal sciences under the appellations of Gram

This subject is much more clearly stated in No. 12 Vol. 10 of The Republican. The attempt to propagate science, through the medium of such a secret institution as Masonry, is more absurd than to confine it to Oxford and Cambridge. It can only be usefully propagated, where, free discussion is admitted and invited. Institutions for the teaching of science, without free discussion, are sure to cherish exploded errors. R. C

mar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astro

nomy.

GRAMMAR, is the science which teaches to express our ideas with correctness and precision, by certain conventional forms of writing or of speech. It consists of four several branches :

First.-Orthography, which instructs us in the nature and ori-' gin of literal characters, their relative powers and due combination in syllables, for the formation of words or rational signs of ideas.

Second.-Influxion, which teaches us the variations of words from the same root so as to express the several distinctions of existence-relation, mode and time.

Third.-Etymology, which instructs us in the composition and decomposition of such words as are made up of two or more single roots.

And Fourth.-Syntax, is an arrangement, from which we learn the rules necessary for combining words, in such order and relation as to form sentences.

RHETORIC, may be defined as the art of speaking or writing copiously upon any subjects, with all the advantage of force and beauty, or, in the words of Lord Bacon, it is the art of applying the dictates of reason to the fancy and recommending them there, so as to effect the will and desires. Its end being to fill the imagination with ideas and images, which may assist the operation of intellect. without oppressing or embarrassing the mind. Its' distinct branches are:

First.-Invention, or the discovery of the several relations of any given subject.

Second Disposition, or a lucid, beautiful and fanciful arrangement thereof.

Third.-Expression, or happy and appropriate choice of language and illustration,

LOGIC, is the art of thinking well and justly, or of making a right use of our reasoning faculties, in defining, dividing and reasoning. It is distributed under four heads:

First.-Inquisition, or the art of searching out what arguments each subject is capable of affording.

Second.-Examination, or the faculty of forming a true estimate of the force of such arguments.

Third.--Memory, which must be constantly employed to retain and connect them together.

Fourth.-Elocution, or the power of devising and adopting adequate means of communicating them to others.

ARITHMETIC, or the science which considers and treats of the powers and properties of numbers. It is divided into four' branches:

First. Arithmetic of integral numbers.

Second. Arithmetic of fractional numbers.