Nesday, and the Right Hon. the Earl Of
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LOUDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 2S, 1S50 character as a man and a Mason, and with an earnest con- viction that the Craft will not allow a brother who has so GRAND LODGE long and faithfully served them to pass into the rank of that THE annual meeting of Grand Lodge was held on Wed- highly honourable body—the Past Grand Officers—without nesday, and the Right Hon. the Earl of Zetland proclaimed some recognition of the services he has performed and of for the seventeenth time as Most Worshipful Grand Master their appreciation of his honourable and upright character of Masons, amidst the applause of the brethren. as a man ; but will with one accord unanimously vote him Of the new Grand Officers we shall to-day say but little, the honorary distinction which the Grand Master has given as we intend to speak of them in their Masonic capacity notice to move, shall be conferred upon him. Wc trust that hereafter ; but we may observe that if the appointments do Bro. Jennings may long remain amongst us as an examp le to not give general satisfaction (when will they ?) they are not the younger members of the Craft, how highly is appreci- of a nature to challenge any great amount of criticism. ated a zealous discharge of Masonic duties, and to enjoy in First on the list we have the Earl of Londesborough, a young comparative retirement—for comparative wo are sure it will nobleman whose late father was justly popular in the Craft, only be—the esteem and affection of his brethren and all and who, we are informed, is an enthusiastic and excellent who have the honour of his acquaintance. Mason. We could have wished, perhaps, that the office had fallen into other hands—indeed, we know that it would have been generally acceptable to the Craft could we have CLASSICAL THEOLOGY.—XIX. announced thatthe Earl of Carnarvon was the new Senior Grand VII.'—VULCAN AND SEPTEJIKER. Warden. But it is not so ; though we have reason to believe SOME authors assert that Osiris was the founder of Thebes that the office was most cordially and gracefully offered to in Egypt, afterwards named Diospolis, and that his parents his lordship, who declined it for reasons which it would not were Saturn and Rhea ; while others describe him as the be becoming in us to inquire into or to discuss. We i-egret son of Jupiter Libyanus ; and again it is said that his father this the more, because, had his lordship consented to act, it was King Phoroneus of Avgos. Plutarch lias assured us would have placed the seal to that fraternal agreement now that on the day the great Osiris was born, " a superhuman prevailing in Grand Lodge; have proclaimed to the world voice was loudly hoard exclaiming, ' This day is born great that, though Masons may occasionally disagree on questions Osiris, the good and supreme governor of the universe.'" of policjr, no differences of opinion arc long allowed to sepa- If such a king ever reigned in Egypt, the "supreme governor " rate brother from brother ; and have given us the advantage was no doubt called after his name ; but it is probable that of his talents and business habits in upholding the honour he was only an imaginary mortal, and that, like Jupiter, his and dignity of the Craft. Although his lordship has de- name signified the heavens as the father or progenitor of clined the seat on the dais for the present, we trust that it is the sun, the brother of the moon and the other shining only for reasons which are temporary ; as wc can assure the spheres ; on the other hand, like '-' Titan," " Osiris" may have noble ea rl that there is no member of the Order whose ad- been an older name for the sun. At all events it is related vancement amongst her leaders would be hailed with more that Osiris chose the sagacious and inventive Hermes (the general and unalloyed satisfaction throughout the Craft than famous Mercury) for his prime, minister, who, among other that of the Earl of Carnarvon. many effectual services, restored to Isis the kingdom of The new Junior Grand Warden , .Bro. Algernon Perkins, which she had been deprived by her son Orus, in return is a member of the eminent firm of Barclay, Perkins and for her credulous weakness. .For the goddess had been per- Company—whose name is as a household word with the suaded by the subtle pleadings of Typhon to give him his great body of Englishmen who " love a drop of good beer " liberty after his opponents had for the first time conquered —an excellent Mason and most liberal supporter of our and captured him. All these imaginary transactions may be charities ; and, moreover, like the Earl of Londesborough, proved to have been jiriestly mystifications of theoretical the son of a former Grand Officer. history blended with astral theology, astrology, and some Of the Junior Grand Officers we shall as yet say but little particular occult sciences connected with certain sacrifical for the reason we have before referred to; but as a whole we magical attainments (this latter answers to the forbidden may be allowed to state that we believe there never was an knowledge of the Holy Scriptures), peculiar to the symbol- occasion when, apart from other qualifications, so many ized systems of the idol worshipped, constituting the cere- excellent working Masons received office at the hands of the monies and services appertaining to some pagan deity reli- Grand Master ; but we cannot allow the opportunity to pass giously or superstitiously invoked. This was the main gulf without paying our tribute of respect to a retiring Grand —the irreparable division—between the sacrifices of the Jews Officer, Bro. Jennings, the late G.D.C. Eor something like and the observances of heathens. Hidden investigations twenty-five years has Bro. Jennings been in office ; and, if we comprising the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God— hold to our opinion, that the system of constant re-appoint- (in the words of the Proverbs, " If thou seekest wisdom as ments is wrong, it is from no disrespect to Bro. Jennings, silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt for we believe that no brother ever performed his duties— thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the know- and they have occasionally been somewhat arduous—more ledge of God")—comprise also the revelations of things zealously or with greater ability. Bro. Jennings was appointed which are on no account to be named ag the same, with the under a system when a long retention of office was the denounced " forbidden " mysteries, by which was meant, rule and not the exception ; at a period when comparatively paying homage to devils in the hope of appeasing their little interest was taken by the brethren in Masonic matters malice, for a consideration. beyond the precincts of their own Lodge ; and when the Craft The worship of these princij)al Egyptian deities was in- in England was not half so popular and extensive as at the troduced into the eternal city in the time of Sylla, and present moment—and therefore his continued reappointments abolished about fifty years previous to the Christian era. appeared almost a matter of course. But Bro. Jennings has Serapis may be regarded cither as Pluto, Pan, or even himself read the signs of the times, and—acknowledging the Bacchus, and iEseulapius; at least it is shown by some justice of the arguments of those who urge that the honours authorities that he can so be traced by his forms of worship of the Craft should be spread over as wide a surface as thz'ough different nations ; but there are limits to such an possible—¦voluntarily retires from the position he has so long assumption proof. Plutarch has considered Osiris to have, and honourably filled. been the sun. How strange, then, literally it reads ; "After In congratulating Bro. Jennings on his retirement, we do the remains of Osiris were interred, there appeared unto the so with the strongest, feelings, of regard and respect for his Egyptians a stately and beautiful bull,, which they thought was the translated Osiris, wherefore they worshipped it and called of the universe. But there were no beings of a nature suitable to it Apis." He was called Sorcqm, because his body was sup- inhabit it; Adonis looked inquiringly at his mother, and on a enclosed in a chest* (aop and after- sudden a flower of unimaginably loveliness, sprung up out of the posed to have been found bs) wherewith it became Sevapis. The name of Osiris void. Adonis hastened and breathed upon it, wards by the changing of a letter, a beautiful young creature, nay, an aerial , embodied, youthful and comes from Os, which means in the Egyptian tongue, much, and smiling goddess, whom lie named after his mother, Urania. : My iris, an eye : whence signifying the same as iroXv^flaX ^oc, that sweet Urania,' said Adonis, ' I intend to bless you as the mother is to say, "many eyed," as in allusion to the sun's rays and sight. of a happy race that shall people the heavens and to conduct you Isis, in like manner is said to be the Minerva of the Athe- at last with all your children into that sublime and everlasting- nians, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the Ceres of Eleusis, the abode above the stars where my father dwells. The only restric- ine of the Sicilians the Roman Bellona, and so on to tion required of you is, that you never seek after nor request to Proserp , know called C C , more than the knowledge of your present state : such is the Venus of the Cyprians, ypria, ypris, and Cy- our will—the immutable decree of my father Belus and myself.'" prigena, as Ceres was called Cypre among the Cnidians, and as Cyprus obtained the name of Macaria , or the happy isle.