pierce the breast of the traitor, and declared to him that it was impossible to escape their vengeance. The candidate then swears, "that rather than betray the secret, he consents to have his head cut off, his heart and entrails torn out, and his ashes cast before the wind.' Having taken the oath, the master said the following words to him, which the reader may easily conceive have not escaped my memory, as I had expected them with so much impatience, 'My dear brother, the secret of Masonry consists in these words, Liberty and Equality: all men are free and equal: all men are brethren.' The master did not utter another syllable, and every body embraced the new brother, equal and free. The lodge broke up, and we gaily adjourned to a masonic repast.

"I was so far from suspecting any further meaning in this famous secret, that I could scarcely refrain from bursting into a fit of laughter on hearing it; and with the greatest simplicity, told those who had introduced me, if that was all their secret, I had known it a long time.*

"And certainly there was no occasion for being a mason, to learn that man is not born for slavery, but to enjoy a true liberty, under the empire of the laws; or if they understand by equality, that as we are the children of one common parent, the creatures of the same God, we are to love and help each other as brethren; such truths certainly are better taught in the gospel, than by the childish rites of Masonry. I must say, that though the lodge was numerously attended, I did not see a single craftsman who gave any other interpretation to this famous secret. The reader will see that it was necessary to go through many other degrees, before they were initiated into a very different liberty

*The Abbé's surprise and mirth at the secret are perfectly natural; yet that adopted by the French was so much added to our Free Masonry. They desired to have a secret; and Free Masonry furnishing none except its senseless words and pass words, it would seem that the political reformers of France artfully seized upon this: "Liberty and Equality."

and equality; and even that many who rose to higher degrees, were never initiated into the ultimate sense of their famous secret.

"Let not people be surprised that English Masonry should be chiefly composed of good and loyal subjects, whose main object is mutually to help each other on the principles of equality, which with them is nothing more than fraternity. Few English craftsmen are acquainted with more than the three first degrees already mentioned; and the reader may rest assured, that with the exception of the imprudent question* on obedience to the grand master of the order, there is nothing which can render the secret dangerous, were it not for the Jacobin interpretation. The English good sense has banished such an explanation. I have even heard of a resolution taken by some of the chief craftsmen, of rejecting all those who might seek to introduce the revolutionary liberty among them. I have read most excellent discourses and lectures on the avoiding of abuses in the history of Masonry. I have there seen the grand master telling the brethren, that the true equality of the craft does not authorize the brother, when out of the lodge, to derogate from that respect and deference due to the rank which any person bears in the world, or their different political degrees and titles. I have also remarked, in the secret instructions of the grand master, many excellent lectures, to conciliate the liberty and equality of the craft with fidelity and submission to the laws, in short, with all the duties of a loyal subject.

"Hence it arises, that though the English have every thing in common with the craft of other nations, as far as the degree of master inclusive; though they have the same secret, the same word, and the same signs to know each other by, yet as they generally stop at this degree, they

That is a question not put in the lodges of America.

+ Do the lodges of England generally use "Liberty and Equality" for their secret? I had supposed this originated in revolutionary France.

never are initiated into the grand mysteries, or we should, perhaps, be more correct, if we said they had rejected them. They have found means of purifying Masonry. We shall soon see how little grand mysteries could agree with the character of a nation which has given so many proofs of its wisdom."*

CHAPTER XLVI.

Abbé Barruel's Memoirs of Jacobinism, vol. ii. p. 158.Of the Grand Mysteries, or Secrets of the Occult Lodges.

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WE Comprehend, under the designation of occult lodges, or the higher degrees of Masonry, all Free Masons in general, who, after having passed the first three degrees of apprentice, fellow craft, and master, show sufficient zeal to be admitted into the higher degrees, where the veil is rent asunder, where emblematical and allegorical figures are thrown aside, and where the two-fold principle of liberty and equality is unequivocally explained by war against

*The Abbé wrote in London, and felt grateful for English hospitality to himself and to his fellow exiles.

Christ and his altars, war against kings and their thrones!!! In demonstrating that such is the result of the grand mysteries of the craft, it will not be the want, but the multiplicity of proofs, that will embarrass us. These alone would fill a large volume, and we wish to comprise them in this chapter. The reader will at least dispense with the emblems, oaths, ceremonies, and trials, which are peculiar to each of these higher degrees. To show their last object, and to develope their doctrine, is the essential point, and what we shall always have in view. We shall begin by general observations, which will enable the reader to follow these mysteries more accurately, according as they are explained.

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Notwithstanding that in the first degrees of Masonry every thing appears to partake of puerile inventions, they, nevertheless, contain many things which the sect have thrown out, merely to observe the impression which they made on the young adepts, and to judge from thence to what lengths they may be led.

"1st. It declares the grand object it has in view, to be at one time the raising of temples to virtue, and the excavating dungeons for vice; at another, to bring the adepts to light, and deliver them from the darkness with which the profane are encompassed, and by the profane are understood the remainder of the universe. This promise is contained in the first Catechism of the craft, and none will deny it. Nevertheless, this promise alone sufficiently indicates that the craft acknowledge a morality, and teach a doctrine which brands Christ and his Gospel with error and darkness.

"2d. The masonic and Christian era do not coincide.

*The use made of Masonry to disseminate the doctrines whose practical results were mournfully exhibited in the French revolution, justify this extraordinary language, as applied, at that day, to the leaders of French Masonry.

The year of light dates with them from the first days of the creation. This, again, is what no Mason will deny. But this custom clearly demonstrates that their lights, their morality, and their religious doctrines, are anterior to the Evangelical Revelation, or even to Moses and the prophets; they will, in short, be, whatever incredulity may please to style the Religion of Nature.

"3d. In the masonic language, all their lodges are but one temple representing the whole universe; the temple which extends from the east to the west, from the south to the north. They admit into this temple, with equal indifference, the Christian or the Jew, the Turk or the idolator; in fine, without distinction of sect or religion. All equally behold the light, all learn the science of virtue, of real happiness, and all may remain members of the craft, and rise in its degrees up to that where they are taught, that all religious tenets are but errors and prejudices. Though many Masons may view this re-union in no 'other light than that of universal charity and benevolence, which ought to extend to all mankind, whether Jew, Gentile, Idolator, or Christian, it is, nevertheless, much to be feared, that this reunion of error and falsehood, only tends to infuse an indifference for all religious tenets into the mind of the adepts, as a preparatory step to the denial of all, in the higher degrees.

"4th. It is always under the most dreadful oaths of secrecy, that the Free Masons communicate their pretended lights, or their art of building temples to virtue, and dungeons for vice. When both truth and virtue had every thing to fear from the reigning tyrants, it may be conceived that they taught their lessons in private; but, so far from exacting an oath of secrecy, they condemned silence as criminal, when their lessons could be made public, and commanded that what had been learned under the shadow of the night, should be preached openly at noon day. Either the doctrines of the craft are conformable to the laws of Chris