the affairs of the society; and, after the performance of these duties, they assembled in a large hall, where an entertainment was provided for them by the president, or master of the college, who allotted a certain quantity of provisions to every individual. They abolished all distinctions of rank, and, if preference was ever given, it was given to piety, liberality, and virtue. Treasurers were appointed in every town, to supply the wants of indigent strangers. The Essenes pretended to higher degrees of piety and knowledge, than the uninitiated vulgar; and though their pretensions were high, they were never questioned by their enemies. Austerity of manners was one of the chief characteristics of the Essenian fraternities: they frequently assembled, however, in convivial parties, and relaxed for a while the severity of those duties which they were accustomed to perform. This remarkable coincidence, between the chief features of the masonic and essenian fraternities, can be accounted for only by referring them to the same origin. Were the circumstances of reseinblance, either few or fanciful, the similarity might have been merely casual. But when the nature, the object, and the external forms of two institutions, are precisely the same, the arguments for their identity are something more than presumptive. There is one point, however, which may, at first sight, seem to militate against this supposition. The Essenes appear to have been in no respects connected with architecture, nor addicted to those sciences and pursuits, which are subsidiary to the art of building. That the Essenes directed their attention to particular sciences, which they pretended to have received from their fathers, is allowed by all writers; but, whether or not these sciences were in any shape connected with architecture, we are, at this distance of time, unable to determine Be this as it may, uncertainty upon this head, nay, even an assurance that the Es. senes were unconnected with architectural science, will not affect the hypothesis which we have been maintaining. For there have been, and still are, many associations of freemasons, where no architects are members, and which have no connection with the art of building. But if this is not deemed a sufficient answer to the objection, an enquiry into the origin of the Essenes will probably remove it altogether, while it affords additional evidence, for the identity of the masonic and essenian associations." In this apparently learned passage, our author, by attempting to prove too much, proves nothing. Had he stated that a guild of architects existed in Asia Minor, and that free-masonry is probably a continuation of that association, he would have advanced an ingenious and supportable proposition. But when he proceeds to assert that masonry also de rives much of its interior organization and ritual from the jewish sect of Essenes, he wanders into inconsistency and total inof the heathens were certainly not iden credibility. The Dionysiac fraternities tical with the jewish sect of Essenes; i masonry derives from the one, it cannot derive from the other. There is a great parade of quotation in the notes; but i the passages referred to had been ex mined by our author, he would have perceived that they offer little or no evi dence of the positions, in support which they are rashly adduced. A re markable instance occurs (p. 35) where Philo is twice quoted in proof, (1) the the Essenes admitted no women i their order; (2) that the Essenes had p vate signs of recognition. The page ferred to in Philo for both facts, is th 691 in the treatise of contemplative li Now it happens in this very page, t Philo tells us, "The women among Essenes sup apart from the men:" so the they did admit women into the order but that they had private signs of reco nition is no where in the least insinuate This fraudulent pedantry cannot much be reprobated Essenes has been zealously defended The derivation of masonry from th Hutchinson's Spirit of Masonry, 1775 and this book was sanctioned by then supreme head of the society, L. Petre. The derivation of masonry from Templars, has been curiously examined Nicolai's Versuch über die Beschulds und Geheimnisse des Tempelherren Silk 1789. Bode's idea that it was invented! English jesuits, because it was ind duced at Paris by the exiled cath friends of the pretender, is obvie putting the cart before the horse. society must have existed before the pulsion of the Stuarts, or the friends the Stuarts would have derived no, tection from assembling as freemason Ramsay's derivation of masonry in an order of chivalry; and Clinch's rivation of masonry from the Pyth rean societies, are far from satisfact We incline to suspect that the guild purse-clubs. of the different comp of tradesmen are not modern invent but of Syriac origin; and that they " carried by the Phenicians to most ( towns with which they traded. T may have been in Asia Miner such d of masons or builders. It must hose be admitted, that, at some period or other, the company of masons was thrown open to a set of philosophists and experimentalists, who, after the manner of the sixteenth century, gravely udied theosophism and alchemy. It is travenient to call this chemical platonical sect, rosicrusians; although the name is wag posterior to its origin. This sect, which has been the parent of experimental philosophy, Henry Cornelius Agrippa had the merit of embodying. Its union with the masons was probably accomplished in London, under James the First. The masons, by a natural consequence of their professional pride, had the best hall of meeting of any of the chartered companies. This might render the use of their hall an object to the philosophic society, of which lord Bacon had been devising the improvement, and of which king James was becoming a patron; and thus occasion the commixture of the two. In the Atlantis, at least, is presented the model of a ege for interpreting nature, to be led the house of Solomon, in which the mason must detect allusions to the craft: and we much suspect that the legend of St. Alban, so credulously in sisted on in Preston's Illustrations of Masonry, has resulted from the masonic aociation being devised at St. Alban's. Maier's Atalanta fugiens, printed in 1617, gives some idea of the rage for emblems which pervaded the philosophy of those Lanes: it is certainly not improbable that a somewhat extensive and popular philosophic society of lord Bacon and King James's friends should have delighted in the abraxas of pretended magic, and in such caryatids for their doorposts Jachin and Boaz. A just delineation, of the illuminees, or illuminati, occurs at page 142. "About the middle of the eighteenth try, the literati on the continent were divided into two great parties. The one may be considered as ex-jesuits, or adherents to catholic superstition, who were promote of political and religious despotist, and dicated the doctrines of non-resistance assive obedience. The other party was posed of men, who were friends to the eted religion, enemies of superstition dianaticism, and supporters of the absurd detine of the infinite perfectibility of the a rind. They were dissatisfied with But slavery which was imposed by the despasm of the continental rulers, and the supetition of the church of Rome; and ANS. REV. VOL. III. many of them entertained opinions adverse to the christian religion, and to every existing form of government. Between these two parties there was a perpetual struggle for power. The ex-jesuits accused their oppoand infidelity; while the others were connents as heretics and promoters of jacobinism stantly exposing the intrigues of priests, and the tyranny of despots. To this latter class belonged Weishaupt and his associates, who instituted the order of the illuminati for no other purpose than to oppose these corrupted priests, who would have degraded them as have enslaved them as citizens. The collichristians, and those tyrannical despots who sion of these parties was certainly productive of the greatest advantages. While the jesuits restrained the inclination of one part of the community, to overrate the dignity of the human mind, and anticipate ideal visions of religious and political perfection; the illuminati counteracted those gloomy opinions which debase the dignity of our nature, which check the energies of the mind, and and political servitude. Both these parties impose the most galling yoke of religious were, without doubt, deserving of blame. But had any of them prevailed, the triumph of the illuminati would certainly have been most desirable. As a christian, I would glory in the downfal of that papal hierarchy which has so long deluded and enslaved the world. As a man, I would rejoice at the overthrow of every throne which is raised happiness; and as a Briton, I would wish upon the ruins of civil liberty and domestic that all my brethren of mankind should enjoy those religious and political privileges, which have so long been the boast of our friends, and the envy of our foes. Mounier has well shewn, arose from other "After the French revolution, which, as bison ascribe it, the plans of these parties were not carried on in Germany so systematically. as before; and, notwithstanding the fabrications with which the jesuitical Barruel has calumniated the lodges in that country, freemasonry prevails to this day, respected by the most virtuous and scientific members of the community, and patronized by the most distinguished princes of the empire. causes than those to which Barruel and Ro "In Germany, the qualifications for a freemason are great and numerous. No per. son is initiated into the order without the consent of every member of the lodge: and it frequently happens, that a German even is excluded by a single dissenting voice. On this accomt, the lodges of that country are filled with persons of the first rank and respectability, and every thing is conducted with the greatest decorum and solemnity As masonry is there held in the highest estimation, an Englishman will obtain an easier introduction to the chief nobility and literati of Germany in a mason lodge, than in any other place; and will never repent of having N been initiated into the order in his native country. "After the publication of the works of Barruel and Robison, the progress of freemasoury in Britain was retarded by an act of Parliament in 1799, for the suppression of seditious societies, in which the fraternity were virtually prohibited from erecting new lodges in the kingdom. But this act was not prompted by the calumnies of these writers. It became necessary from the political condition of the kingdom; and the exceptions which it contained in favour of freemasons, are a complete proof that government never credited the reports of these alarmists, but placed the most implicit confidence in the loyalty and prudence of British masons. Dr. Robison, indeed, asserts, that the emissaries of corrupted freemasonry and illuminism were lurking in the British empire, and plot ting its destruction. But such monsters of iniquity have never yet been discovered with in the circuit of our island: they have never polluted the British lodges. Tell us then no more, that our lodges are the receptacles of sacrilegious and revolutionary miscreants.see the frequented by men of unaffected piety and undaunted patriotism. Tell us no more, that our brethren of the order are less holy and virtuous than the uninitiated vulgar. -I see them in the church and in the senate, defending, by their talents, the doctrines of our religion, and exemplifying, in their conduct, the precepts it enjoins; kind to their friends, forgiving to their enemies, and benevolent to all. Tell us no more that they pre traitors, or indifferent to the welfare of their country.I see them in the hour of danger rallying around the throne of our king, and proffering, for his safety, their hearts and their armis.-1 see them in the form of heroes, at the head of our fleets and our armies, and the day will arrive when a freemason sh sway the sceptre of these kingdoms, and f", with honour and with dignity, the Britch throne." A curious antiquarian history of the grand lodge of Scotland terminates the volume. As this extended portion, however accurate and authentic, is rather lo cally than britannically interesting, we lars it may contain. Those who purste shall wave any selection of the particn distinction in sects and subordinate as sociations, attain the natural reward c their body-spirit; they seldom aspire to. they would seldomer be wise to claim, a national notice for the efforts of ther local and circumscribed allegiance. But to win in the competition for popularity among club-mates and associators, is ominous of eventual success as a de magogue, and is a pledge of party-fide lity. ART. V. The History of Scotland, from the Union of the Crowns on the Accession James VI. to the Throne of Scotland, to the Union of the Kingdoms in the Reign of Quee Anne. By MALCOLM LAING, Esq. 2d Edition. DR. Robertson's History of Scotland maintains its ground, although the superior talent and eloquence of Gilbert Stuart attempted to supersede it: patient inquiry and honest equity outweigh and outlast the colourings of declamation and the prejudices of party. Mr. Laing has undertaken to continue, and is worthy to continue, the history of Robertson, by his similar laborious investigation and impartial estimate. He has, however, less neatness of redaction, less knack of abbreviation, and a less picturesque and characteristic selection of circumstance in his narrative and descriptive passages. Like Rapin, in aspiring to be complete, he risks to be dull; his style is polysyllabic and sonorous, but deals in abstractions and tautology. Beside the usual printed authorities, Mr. Laing has derived assistance from manuscript materials contained in the Advocates Library of Edinburgh; from Calderwood's, Crawford's, and other maLuscripts deposited in the archives of the 8vo. 4 vols. church of Scotland; from the records the court of Justiciary and of the Privy Council; and from various private repo sitories. Mr. Laing has especially dist guished the communications of Mr. F skine, of Mar: of Mr. Clerk, of Elder and of the Honourable Mr. Maule. The two first volumes are consecrated to a further investigation of the cordac of Mary queen of Scots. If any thing was wanting to confirm the sentence Hume, and of Robertson, it will here b found. Even the obstinacy of that in fallible church, which, in every contre versy, repeats, after refutation, the a cient arguments with the original p tiveness, must here, one would th have found its quietus. The partic tion of Mary in the murder of Darre supplies, however, no apology for Ele beth. It was not a crime within her risdiction; it extenuates not the unge rous jealousy of the English queen. Laing thus sums up his admirable very detailed examination of the muineness of Mary's imputed correspon- of the letters to Bothwell; the exuberance dence. "When the letters themselves are impartially examined, no doubts of their authenticity can remain In vain does Whitaker contend that the French and British languages were originally the same; that they were still the same in the time of our Saxon ancestors, (because Augustine, in his legation to Britain, obtained interpreters from among the Franks); and that many idioms in the two languages must continue the same The complaint of Scotland, and Bellunden's translation of Hector Boethius, the first prose compositions in Scotch, contain occasionally some French words, but the idioms of the Language are genuine Saxon, and in Pitscotts, Anos, Buchanan, Crawford's MS. and the state-papers and letters of the period, no Gallicisnis were afterwards introduced. Every impartial reader who examines, and compares the letters with other contemporary productions, will determine, without a comment, whether they are not replete throughout with those French phrases, words and kioms, which are unavoidable, and can only occur in a literal translation from the French. Every impartial reader of taste and judgment will also determine whether they are not the genuine productions of a female, and that female indisputably the queen. Amidst the numerous and daily productions of romance, no great discernment, or literary acumen, would be necessary to pronounce on each novel that occurs, whether the author were a male, or some female letter-writer, whom the most accomplished scholar would in vain attempt to imitate in her incessant volubility and easy chit chat; in the habitual amplication of the most trivial objects; and in the quick and incoherent transitions of female sentiment, passions, prejudices, intrigues and pursuits. Nothing can be more natural or characteristical, than the flippant loquacity of sentiment and affected gallantry; the sudden vicissitudes of love, grief, indignation, fear, discrimination, jealousy and hatred of Darnley, interinixed with compunction at his approaching fate. The first letter, in particular, affords a curious spectacle of the secret workings of the female heart. Nothing is explained of which Bothwell was informed; nothing omitted, of which he required information, and the murder is darkiv, yet undisputably intimated, as a deed to which Mary was impelled by her lover, but on which she could not venture to discourse, even with herself. But the letter, subsequent to the murder contained no mention of her late husband, to whom, indeed, the most remote allusion would be carefully avoided, as a subject of conscious and mutual guilt. As the letters were written in a cultivated and refined language, in which she excelled, the elegance, as well as the idiom of the original, breaks forth occasionally through the rude medium of a homely translation; and every impartial reader, who compares them with her subsequent letters to Elizabeth and others, will determine, from the same loose and voluble declamation, unrestrained invective, and passionate complaint, whether they are not the genuine indisputable productions of the Scottish queen. "The very disappearance of the originals, demonstrates that they were genuine. During the administration of the four regents, they were carefully preserved. From Murray they passed successively to Lennox and Morton, on whose execution they were conveyed se cretly to Ruthven, created earl of Gowrie, one of the confederates, from whom Elizabeth's solicitud: to obtain the custody of the casket, attests her conviction that the letters were authentic. It appears, however, that they were retained by Gowrie for the vindication of the confederates. As the young king was informed that they were then (1582) in See Whitaker, ii. 329, who struggles hard to obviate the French idioms produced by Hame. In limiting the idioms quoted by Hume to the similarity of a single word, it is ol vis, that he was ignorant of a plain proposition, that the idioms of a language may reside either in the p-culiar use and acceptation, or in the peculiar collocation, arrangement, or construction of a word, or of a phrase. To make fault, make breek, make gade watch, make me advertisement, make it seem that I believe, are evidently translated from the French phrases faire des faults, faire brecke, faire bonne garde, faire m'avertir, faire semblant de la croire, in which the construction of the phrase, and the use or acceptation of faire are peculiar to the tongue. Have you not desire to laugh, the place will hold until the death, are derived from French constructions; "n'avez vous pas envie de rire;"" la place tiendra jusque à la orts in the first of which the article is omitted, in the other inserted, in strict conformity with the French, and in direct opposition to the Scottish idiom. He may not come forth of the house this long time, put order to it, il ne peut pas sortir du logis de long tems;" metfordre à cela" in which Whitaker searches in the word, for that idiom which consists in the construction and acceptation of the phrases. Discharge your heart; this is my first jourhey; deschargez votre cœur; c'est ma premiere journée; the first of which I have never found 1 any letters of the period, and the scurrilous assertion, that journey, though unknown to Hume, who talked nothing but French in his sleep, still signifies, when uncompounded, a day's work in Scotland, is an assertion which Tytler himself was afraid to hazard. These writers forget the question, that it is not whether a few French words, as moyen fashions, have crept into Scotch; but whether a professe translation, word for word, from the original French, contains a literal transcript of such French idioms as a journey for a day's work, and a voyage for a journey. Whitaker, ii. 398, 400: Tytler, i. 226, n. his hands, as Mary was solicitous to get them delivered up or destroyed, and as the duke of Lennox, his 'favourite, who was entirely in her interest, had applied to obtain them, their disappearance on the attainder and execution must be ascribed to the desire of her son to suppress those documents of his mother's guilt, which, if spurious, would neither have been preserved by the four regents, nor destroyed by James. The records of justiciary; the acts or proceedings of the conferences at Westminster; and the books of the privy council of England, at the period when the let ters were examined, must have disappeared from the same cause; and the evidence is reduced to such of the first loose draughts of the minutes as Cecil retained, or communicated. to sir Robert Cotton, before the accession. But the loss of these volumes, which no simplicity can regard as merely accidental, confirms our conclusion, that the letters were intentionally destroyed by James, in order to efface the proofs, and to obliterate the memory of his mother's guilt." He examines every other document and argument adduced by the apologists of Mary, and is fully justified in his own confident assertion, that "the participation of Mary in the murder of her husband must rest hereafter as an established truth, which no prejudice can evade, nor the perverse ingenuity of disputants confute." The appendix is a very complete collection of the documents in discussion, accompanied with elucidatory notes. The Italian sonnet, in which Mary solicited admission to the presence of Elizabeth, in September 1568, deserves selection, as a specimen of the talents of this accomplished woman. Il pensier che mi nuoci insieme e giova- The character of Mary queen of Scots has, at all times, been a topic of greater interest in the northern than in the sou thern half of Britain, and its zest decays with Scottish nationality; the diminished animosity of the catholics and calvinists has contributed to abate the persistance of the rival advocates; the extinct claims of the Stuart family have annihilated every unfair solicitude to whitewash their ancestry. It may be presumed, therefore, that this controversy will henceforth lose much of its stimulus and all its bitterness, and will be preserved or for gotten in the state in which it has been left by Mr. Laing. With the third volume begins the reign of James the first. Its ecclesiasti cal history is well detailed. The perso nal character of the prince is overhung with a modest veil; his predilection for male beauty is stated by historians to have excited the jealousy of his queen. This monarch was probably the son of Rizzio, and in his love of art, literature, gaiety and magnificence, of power, peace, pleasure and profusion, rather resembled the princes of Italy than the kings of the north. The reign of Charles the first is nar rated in greater detail, and with superior skill: it illustrates many disputed parti culars concerning the origin and conti nuance of the civil wars, and the character, motives and condemnation et Charles I. The original authorities are carefully indicated, and many inflections of the later relations are brought back to their first form. This portion of the nar rative will be read with instruction, even by the proficient in English history. The fourth volume extends from the restoration to the union, from Charles the second to Anne. The proceedings c the Scottish parliament during the rev lution of 1688 form a distinguished, we had almost said, an enviable pot tion of these annals. The effects of the union are thus summed up. "Nor was the union productive, for mat years, of those advantages which at first wee expected. A feeble attempt to obtain a shut in the colonial trade was defeated by new gulations, which the commercial jealousy the English merchants procured. The gration of stock and trade to the north w visionary expectation. No new manufac Robertson, ii. 376. "For the recovery of the letters in the coffer, come to the han of the carl of Gowrie, I have lately moved him earnestly therein, letting him know the purpose of the Scottish queen, both giving out that the letters are counterfeited by her rebels. also seeking therein to have them delivered to her or defaced; and that the nicans which will make in this behalf, shall be so great and effectual, as these writings cannot be p that realm without dangerous offence of him that hath the custody thereof, neither shall that is once known to have them be suffered to hold them in his lands." |