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Leader (1850-1860), 31st August 1850, Edition Town of 1, Page 543, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      on that head ; and if this would tend to induce emigrants to throw off their allegiance to Queen Victoria , what a pity ic is that the British Colonies are not made at once more accessible to the emigrant and more beneficial to the colonist , by good government and a well-organized scheme of colonization . These are the only means of averting the stream of emigration , from the United States . AV . M . S .

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      THE LOST KEYS . —No . IV . August 28 , 1850 . Sib , —Freemasons have among their symbols the sun . The master is supposed to typify that glorious object rising in the east to open , and setting in the west to close , the day , &c . The sun also , like true masonry , never sets , for it is at its meridian at all times . This might have been all very well as regarded masons in former ages , but , alas ! the fraternity in the west know as much about true masonry

      and building the temple of the sun as that luminary knows about them—perhaps not so much . The masonic halls formerly were very generally pictured with the sun as the central and chief ornament , and the signs of the zodiac around . Even in these dark ages of the craft some of the lodges were so embellished , and many have placed in a very conspicuous position a brilliant star . As modern masons know not the meaning of that token I will inform them . It is Capella of Auriga , and has , or ought always to have , six rays , to denote it to be the double triangle , or a star of the first magnitude . This Capella , or little goat of the charioteer , is merely the director , but for minute calculations \ , or lambda , of the lamb of Auriga , is the star intended . It is situate in right ascension , five days from the 21 st of June , or summer solstice ; that is , reckoning the astronomical Taurus with its 30 degrees to be June . Beneath Capella , at some distance towards the south , is a mountain called Mons Mensae , the summit of which points upwards to Capella . Twelve times twelve is merely a zodiacal figure of speech—denoting quantity : it is true , in matter of fact it means a hundred and forty-four : —

      " And I looked , and , lo , a Lamb stood on the mount Sion , and with him an hundred forty and four thousand , having his Father ' s name written in their foreheads . "Rev . xiv . 1 . There are with Auriga on his arm invariably two lambs joined " together : — " Let us be glad and rejoice , and give honour to him : for the marriage of the Lamb is come , and his wife hath made herself ready . "—Rev . xix . 7 .

      The type of Gemini is at the position ; and the Gemini in the east are represented by a man and woman , and called " husband and wife . " The two lambs of Auriga are sometimes designated " kids , " and this term will apply either to young children or to young goats . Our astronomers represent the Gemini as children . At the same right ascension ( within a few minutes of a degree ) with A ( lambda ) of Auriga , is Iiigel or Raguel—the name meaning 11 shepherd of God , " &c . Lambda of Aurigaand the other lamb are on the arm of Flagro , Auriga , and sometimes pictured as being in his bosom : —

      "He shall feed his nock like a shepherd ; he shall gather the lambs with his arm , and carry them in his bosom , and shall gently lead those that are with young . " Isaiah xl . 11 . Besides the two lambs , there is the little goat Capella , and , it being horned , some astronomers formerly designated it as a young cow , and made it the female of Taurus , the sign wherein it is to be found : " And it shall come to pass in that day , that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep . "—Isaiah vii . xxi .

      Freemasons reckon their craft to be of the date of creation . As mason—mason-astronomers , or builders in heavenly gems and precious stones , they unquestionably can date their science from the creation of the heavens and the earth , now called Mons Msenelaus , because all before was unformed space , omorika % and not till the Elohim were placed therein could time be dated . Some masons are satisfied with tracing their antiquity to the time of Babel . Here , again , they are correct , for Babel merely means confuMon ; and till the heavens were parcelled out among the Elohim into six signs of light , and the seventh been me that of the Egyptian misriam , or darkness , there must have been sad confusion in building the temple to the Most High . The number now used

      uennung age or cuscre enlightened men , because , no £ daring to tell the truth , they have merely added the figures of the type of the master mason to the anno Domini , or anno Elohim , of the priesthood of Crux . Thus four , or the square , ? •** , gives the present year of masonry , 5850 . The sun was with lambda of Auriga 1850 years back , at the summer solstice , when John wrote his revelations respecting the lamb , and , among other things , he saw un angel standing in the sun . " Rev . xix . 17 . It was here also that the sun tarried on the Mount , or Gideon , meaning ( the hill ) , already referred to , and the moon stayed in the valley of the deer or stag , " Ajalon . " If the type of Gemini tallies with

      Taurus , so does the type of Capricornus , the deer , tally with the white horse of Sagittarius opposite . Respecting this white horse , I have given some interpretation . The astronomer will laugh at my asserting that the sun at the solstice was with lambda of Auriga 1850 years back ; but my reply will be best understood by the answer that must be given to the question , why does the type of Gemini H overlap the sign Taurus ? . x - _* . The masons' certificate of former tunes set forth the day and month of the year A . L ., and , misinterpreting the meaning of the L ., many different suppositions have been offered . The correct version is

      anno—the year of Lumen— " the sun , the star , the eye , " &c , &c . , _ _ _ The principal festivals of masons aie the St . Johns one the Midsummer-day ( June 24 ) , or three days after the solstice on the 21 st ; the other on the 27 th of December , or five days after the winter solstice on the 22 nd I shall pass the three days of sblsticial slumber , or the sun in the cave , or hole , or merkere , because the two days on the opposite require minute calculations , and the key , the triple tau , is necessary to clear the apparent difficulties : Midsununerday , therefore , tallies with one John . Now , it was necessary for the astronomers to square the circle , and this could not be well effected when that circle

      was the solar year . The year was , therefore , reduced to twelve signs of 30 degrees each , or 360 days or degrees , or four nineties ; the five days were called dies non . Some of the learned calculated time by the mid-day sun only , and others by the sun and the midnight host of Heaven . The first gave the year as our astronomers do , twenty-four hours , this was the day of Elohim . ; the day of man was likewise of twenty-four hours from mid-day , and this practice is still in vogue in Italy , and at some other places . of

      Others divided the days of the year into two parts twelve hours , in the same manner as we do the ordinary diurnal period . For both the calculations—that of midday and midnight of Elohim—it was necessary to square the circle at each position ;—therefore , lambda of Auriga , closing on the astronomical 21 st of June , or Taurus , reduces the circle of the year to 360 degrees ; and the 27 th of December closed upon the 22 nd effects the same end , —so that the two Johns represent the positions of the sun at the summer and winter solstice 1850 years back .

      The principal tools of masons are the compass , the triangle , and the square ; the A is of two points , the A of three , and the D of four . The compass , circinus ; the triangle , triangulum ; and the square , ara ; the chief star of the latter was with the sun on Crux 1850 years back . ' And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath , that the net may be even to the midst of the altar . "—Exodus xxvii . 6 .

      These emblematical figures of masonry , then , are A A ? , and reversed , DAVi and what do they read but the mysterious numbers of the east that have puzzled our learned men—432 » ° » with tne zeros added , the Sabbatical 4 , 320 , 000—cabalistic numbers that will , when their meaning becomes known , explain another motion of the world now unknown to our astronomers and geologists . H . S . Melvilxb .

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      THE MOORE RAPHAEL . " APOLLO AND MARSYAS . " We have much pleasure in informing our Suhscriber that the Leader of Saturday , September 7 » toill contotn a finely-executed engraving of this exquisite picture , re » cently discovered by Mr , Morris Moore , whose kind pet mission enables us to publish it . The engraving will b * very nearly the size of the original , and a full accotajg of the picture and its discovery tcill be given , \ liif .

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      This week has produced a curiosity of literature in the shape of a fifth edition of Professor Skdgwick ' s Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge : the Discourse itself occupies 94 pages , the preface no less than 442 pages , and the appendix 228 pages . The work in short bears about the same proportion to its preface and notes as Falstaff ' s bread bore to his sack . It says but little for the influence of classical studies when such monstrous mistakes in art are committed by those who swear by the ancients ; and we shall examine , in a future number , whether the contents redeem such slovenly composition . .

      Bulweb has a new novel about to appear in Blackwoody which will be good news to the readers of that periodical , especially those who had not recovered their alarm by his formal leavetaking of the public in Lucretia , a threat which none who knew him could believe . He belongs to the race of "Workers , and loves his work too well to pause for any length of time . Within him dwells that divine impulse to create , to throw off forms of life as a plant throws out buds ,

      which the Greeks likened to a gadfly stinging the soul , and which keeps him unresting , let him " register a vow" as often as he may . In this , as in some other respects , Bujvwer resembles Balzac , whom—now that he is dead—all France seems anxious to celebrate with praise as exaggerated as their blame while he lived was harsh and unjust . To our minds there is nothing- rational in the com * mon adage , de mortuis nil nisi bonum—at least in the case of public men ; to speak only good of the

      dead is very often the stalking horse under cover of which to shoot at the living ; and there is no more generosity in it than there is in the liberality of dramatic authors who give away purses of—7 stage counters . In the case of Balzac , as recently we noted in the case of Peel , the public press no sooner records his death than it records an unanimity of eulogy , of appreciation , of deep conviction of his surpassing excellence , perfectly astonishing to those who remember how a few days before the language of scorn was not bitter

      enough to express their disdain and hatred . Is the praise a mockery , or was the virulence assumed for party purposes ? How came it that men were so deeply conscious of Peel ' s sincerity , disinterestedness , and commanding ability , yet could only avow it when the grave had closed for ever over those qualities ? If Balzac is now to be compared with Shakspeare and Moliere , why was he contemptuously thrown among the vulgar scribblers of the day ? Is it right , is it moral that

      the living author should be tortured b y calumny , contempt , ridicule , for the very works which , when he dies , will by the same people be eulogized as chefs-d ' oeuvre ? Of what good are praise and sympathy to the silent Balzac ? Will they repay him for the sufferings of his self-love ? Through poverty , through envy , through enmity Balzac toiled ; praise to him was cheering , as it is to all men , lightening his toil ; but he had to pay the penalty of success , and know himself the target for every malicious critic . Now that he is dead , now he no longer stands in anybody ' s light , now

      that malice cannot wound him , now that objection cannot disturb his felicity , no one has anything but Eraise to write . Yet now , if ever , criticism might e unsparing , for now it might teach the public without wounding the author . But it is a received opinion that you must only speak good of the dead ; and criticism will be silent . For our own parts we utterly refuse to credit the sincerity of the man who will not dare to praise the living , and has only eulogies for the dead : to speak the truth of dead ana living is the aim of every earnest man . Some have thought our article on Wordsworth too severe " because he is dead "—would they have

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      Critics are not the legislators , bxit the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—Ihey interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Mevteto .

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      Education and Gkegarious Labour . —As a check upon the demoralizing tendency of factory labour , 1 can conceive of no other means of nullifying and counteracting the external physical temptations than by erecting the internal fortification of a cultivated moral and mental

      nature . There is in every man and in every woman an intense desire for something other than the routine of toil , something in which the workshop does not enter . In the cultivated man this force , this aspiration , mrstly expends itself in intellectual forays over the great field of letters , in the delights and nobilities of study . But in the uncultivated—in those to whom the keys and passports of the intellectual reperto y are not given—those aspirations and forces take a physical channel , and expend themselves in drunkenness , licentious intercourse , and other rude corporeal recreations The remarks just made as to the means of resisting the demoralizing tendency of the factory system apply with equal force to the dangers and temptations of large towns . The only hope we have for emptying sin palaces , draining singing

      saloons , and thinning the streets of the unfortunate victims of prurient severity is , I believe , in a spread of cultivation , of refinement , of knowledge . And as regards the unwholesome of towns , is not that a pure matter of education ? The reading , intelligent operative lives not in dirt ; the reading , intelligent operative keeps no pig in a small back yard , nor has his windows semi-opaque with accumulated filth ; the reading , intelligent operative keeps an eye to the situation of his dwelling , and _ understands the economy of a dearer dwelling m an airier

      situation . It is the poor untaught man of toil , the stupid , overfed , blundering civic dignitary , as in London , into whose brain enlightened reading seldom enters , and whose philanthropy is bis vested interests , that pile up street after street in suffocating narrowness , and to whom the cry of physicians , and chemists , and philanthropists ascends unheeded , until cholera come to whip them into reason Force from without , in the shape of wise legislation , may do much in this matter ; but it can neither do as much , nor do it as well , as a diffusion of the power and taste for reading . —Mr . J . S . Smith , in the Lancashire National School Annexation Essays .

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      — ' Aug . 31 , 1850 . ] *** : *'**** «» 543

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 31, 1850, page 543, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1851/page/15/