When, whence, and by whom was it introduced, or how far back can it be satisfactorily traced?"

I propose, very speedily, to submit the result of my enquiries to the Masonic world, in a pamphlet, which is even now passing through the press, entitled, "Some account of the Schism amongst the Free and Accepted Masons of the last Century, showing the presumed origin of the English Royal Arch, in a Letter to R. T. Crucefix, Esq., M. D., &c., &c."

Scopwick Vicarage, Sept. 16, 1846.

Faithfully yours,

GEO. OLIVER, D. D.

ROYAL ORDER, &c.

TO THE EDITOR.

DEAR SIR,-In the last number of the Freemasons' Quarterly Review, p. 241, are pretended notices of the transactions of the Royal Order and Supreme Council of G. I. S. of the 33rd for Scotland. Having been present at both meetings alluded to, I beg to say that these two notices are calculated to give much offence, particularly to Bros. Gourgas and Yates, of New York, for that, as far as they are concerned, as well as in several other particulars, the reports are totally inaccurate. What did take place at the Grand Lodge of the Royal Order, or in the Supreme Council of the 33rd, neither I nor any other member have permission to lay before the public.

Sept. 15, 1846.

A.

[That our reporter may have been indiscreet we readily believe; but that the notices are pretended, we dispute. The entire proceedings assumed to be relating to the 33rd Degree in Scotland, are altogether without authority, and are therefore well calculated to give offence to all legally constituted authorities. With respect to the "Royal Order," we say nothing as to the permission to lay any thing before the public. Things that are good should not be concealed from those whom they concern.-ED.]

AEROLITES.

THE following are the facts known with reference to meteoric stones. They are similar in external appearance, and almost identical in chemical composition. They invariably contain metallic iron and nickel, which, as yet, has never been discovered among the productions of our earth. Some are entire masses of iron; and so much do metallic substances preponderate in them that meteoric iron is their most appropriate name. They all exhibit marks of recent fusion, and are intensely hot when examined immediately after their fall. Few years elapse without some instances of their descent, but many must escape notice, falling into the sea, or in uninhabited districts of the earth. Some, too, never reach the earth at all, but shoot as brilliant lights across the atmosphere, and form what are vulgarly called the shooting stars, so commonly observed on our winter nights. Their mass is sometimes very large. One which passed by us onward, in space, was estimated to be equal to Ceres, whose supposed diameter is about seventy-five miles; and another, which passed within twenty-five miles of the earth's surface, and cast down a fragment upon it, was calculated to weigh 600,000 tons. The month of November has recently become celebrated for exhibiting the grand and astonishing spectacle of stars proceeding in a copious shower from a particular point in the heavens, like streams from an artificial fountain. The occurrence is, perhaps, not so modern as the observation of it, as it takes place in the night, commencing about midnight, reaching its maximum between three and four o'clock, and finishing by sunrise. Indeed, in 1799, on the nights of the 11th and 12th of November, the Moravian brethren in Greenland witnessed the same splendid scene, the illumination of the sky as with an incessant play of rockets, which was observed as far south as Cumana, and east, as Germany. The phenomenon was again noticed in the November of 1831; and in subsequent years at the same period it has appeared, and been visible from a region of the earth extending from the far west of America eastward to the Red Sea. The most awful display was on the night of November 13th, 1833, from four to six o'clock, when globules of fire apparently radiated from a point in the constellation of Leo, and were almost as numerous as the flakes in a shower of snow. The attention of astronomers has been intently fixed upon this event. It is very likely that the November meteors, the meteoric stones, and the shooting stars of all ages, have one and the same origin. The most probable opinion is, that they are small opaque bodies revolving round the sun, which, coming into contoct with our atmosphere, are ignited by it, some being dissipated, and others of denser material falling to the earth. It has been calculated that a body moving through our atmosphere with a velocity of a mile a second, which is 1-20th that of the atmosphere itself in space, would elicit a heat equal to 30,000 of Fahrenheit; a heat higher than that of the fiercest artificial furnace that ever glowed. What these bodies themselves are-whether the fragments of a destroying planetor portions of a nebulous mass which part company with it owing to the earth's attraction, one of its extremities projecting towards that part of the orbit through which the earth passes in November-there are points of complete speculation.―Milner's Astronomy and Scripture.

ON FREEMASONRY.

THE PECULIAR PROPERTIES OF MASONIC NUMBER.

BY THE REV. G. OLIVER, D.D

IN selecting the subject of Number for an article in the Freemasons' Quarterly Review, as the organ of the Masonic world, I have been influenced by the hope of producing an illustration which, in conformity with the plan on which the revised lectures of Craft Masonry have been constructed, may combine information and amusement, and thus prove acceptable to a fraternity whose professed object is the union of "profit and pleasure." Such extended dissertations on many other detached portions of the authorized lectures of the Lodge, if offered by the W. M. in the spirit of harmony and brotherly love, would not only be kindly received by the members, but would be hailed with gratulation and thanks, under the impression that he was really doing what his station in the East requires—“ employing and instructing the Brethren in Masonry."

Every tyro knows that odd numbers are Masonic; and, if he be ignorant of the reasons why 3, 5, 7, and 11, have been adopted as landmarks, let him apply to the Master of his Lodge for information, and he will then be satisfied of the wisdom of the appropriation, because Number forms one of the pillars which contribute to the support of scientific Masonry, and constitutes an elementary principle of geometry. Thus, in the celebrated figure, the Pythagorean Tetractys, consisting of ten points

the upper single dot is the monad or unity, and re

presents a point, for Pythagoras considered a point to correspond in proportion to unity; a line to 2; a superficies to 3; a solid to 4; and he defined a point as "a monad having position." A line was thought to correspond with 2, because it was produced by the first motion from indivisible nature. A superficies was compared to the number 3, because it is the first of all causes which are found in figures; for a circle, which is the principal of all round figures, comprises a triad, in centre, space, and circumference. But a triangle, which is the first of all rectilineal figures, is included in a ternary, and receives its form according to that number; and was considered by the Pythagoreans to be the author of all sublunary things. The four points at the base correspond with a solid or cube, which combines the principles of length, breadth, and thickness; for no solid can have less than four extreme boundary points.

While employed in investigating the curious and unique properties which distinguish many of the digits, we no longer wonder that the inhabitants of the ancient world, in their ignorance of the mysterious secrets of science, and the abstruse doctrine of causes and effects, should have ascribed to the immediate interposition of the deity, those miraculous results which may be produced by an artful combination of particular numbers. Even philosophy was staggered; and the most refined theorists entertained singular fancies which they were unable to solve without having recourse to supernatural agency. Hence the science of Arithmancy, or divination by numbers, became very prevalent in the ancient world; and was used by Pythagoras as an actual emanation of the Divinity. By this means, as we are informed by Tzetzes, he not

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only was able to foretel future events, but reduced the doctrine to a science governed by specific rules, which he transmitted to posterity in his "Book of Prognostics."

The ancients had a kind of onomantic arithmetic, the invention of which they ascribed to Pythagoras, whether truly or not is of no importance here, in which the letters of the alphabet, the planets, the days of the week, and the twelve zodiacal signs, were assimilated with certain numbers; and thus, by the use of prescribed tables, constructed astrologically according to the aspects, qualities, dignities, and debilities, of the planets relatively towards the twelve signs, &c., the adept would authoritatively pronounce an opinion on questions affecting life and death, good and evil fortune, journeys, detection of theft, or the success of an enterprise. It must be confessed, however, that these predictions were not always correct; for the rules laid down in different systems varied so essentially, that the wisest magician was frequently puzzled to select the proper interpretation. The numeral system has been introduced into the modern practice of astrology, and very great things appear to depend on the trine, quartile, and sextile aspect of the planets in the horoscope.

Something of this sort was practised by the Jewish cabalists; and hence one of the rules of their cabala was called gematria or numeration, but it was chiefly confined to the interpretation of scripture. The letters of the Hebrew language being numerals, and the whole bible being composed of different combinations of those letters, it was supposed that the correct meaning of difficult passages might be ascertained by resorting to their numerical value. The Talmudists entertained an opinion that the mystery of numbers was actually taught in their scriptures; because, after the idolatrous priests of Baal had accepted the challenge of Elijah, they state that the prophet took twelve stones to construct his altar, to correspond with the twelve tribes of Israel; but they say that when he took this number for the special purpose of conciliating the favour of the Deity, it was not merely because the number of the sons of Jacob was twelve, but because those sons were twelve in consequence of that particular number containing a profound mystery. The system on which the doctrine is founded appears to be, that every letter in the Hebrew alphabet is a light or attribute, and hence the letters are symbols of every thing which the earth and heavens contain. The Rabbi Barahiel adds that numbers proceed from Him who was before all numbers, as they go not beyond ten. These lights are no more, and are denominated in the singular, which is derived from numbers; they are numbers, each possessing the property of the number it represents." And hence the theologians say that the Tetragrammaton represents the ten sovereign lights in which all the divinity is infused; because the words formed by these letters are invariable, and, although they admit of twelve transpositions and combinations, every one of them means the Great Architect of the Universe. Hence the prophet Malachi says, "I am the Lord, and change not;" for the Tetragrammaton or Sacred Name, however it may be transposed, never changes its meaning.

The Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel, in his explanation of the cabala, says, "the fourth rule is founded on the shape of the letters. If it be asked, Why does the law begin with a ? The answer is, Because it is formed by three lines, ors, which, being written at length, spell , numerically thirteen; this number being multiplied by three (the three lines,) makes thirty-nine, equal to TT, (the Lord is one,)

also thirty-nine. The cabalists say that this letter has a point above and another behind, signifying that the Lord who is in heaven created the world, which is represented by the antecedent letter, that is the N formed by twos, and a 1, making together twenty-six, the same number as the Tetragrammaton. Reason apparently supports the idea that profound mysteries are contained in the characters of this holy language; and who will contend that they do not all involve many secrets and reasons for being used in the law of God, from the perfect art with which they are formed?"

2 7 6

9 5

1

4 3 8

The same results were obtained by means of the Magic Square, which is a figure made up of numbers in arithmetical proportion, so disposed in parallel and equal ranks, that sums of each row, taken either perpendicularly, horizontally, or diagonally, are equal, as in the adjoining diagram. Such squares seem to have been so called because they were used in the construction of talismans. It is probable they were so employed in consequence of the ranks always making the same sum, a circumstance extremely surprising in the more ignorant ages, when mathematics passed for magic. The magic square was held in great veneration among the Egyptians; and the Pythagoreans, their disciples, who, to add more efficacy and virtue to this square, dedicated it to the then known seven planets divers ways, and engraved it upon a plate of metal that was esteemed in sympathy with the planet. The square thus dedicated was enclosed by a regular polygon, inscribed in a circle, which was divided into as many equal parts as there were units in the side of the square, with the names of the angles of the planet; and the signs of the Zodiac written upon the void spaces between the polygon and the circumference of the circumscribing circle. Such a talisman they vainly imagined would befriend the person who carried it about with him. See "Chambers's Tracts. Natural Magic."

Divination by numbers, or, to speak more correctly, the appearance of it, was not confined to Jewish or heathen nations, but occupied much attention at different periods of Christianity; and superstitious properties, I am afraid, are still attached to particular numbers, as forming climacterics or grand climacterics; for the days of a man's life are usually considered to be affected by the septenary year, which, as it is frequently believed, makes considerable changes in both body and mind. But the most remarkable change in a person's life is at the climacteric, or 7×7=49 years; or the grand climacteric 7×9=63, or 9×9=81 years; each of which is conceived to be fraught with a peculiar fatality. And there are numbers even in the nineteenth century, who contemplate these periods with some degree of terror, and esteem it a relief when they have passed over.

Several other numbers have superstitious meanings attached to them. Brown, in his "Pseudodoxia Epidemica" says, that, "six hath found many leaves in its favour; not only for the daies of the creation, but its natural consideration as being a perfect number, and the first that is completed by its parts; that is, the sixt, the half, and the third, 1, 2, 3; which drawn into a sum, makes six. The number ten hath been as highly extolled, as containing even, odd, long, plane, quadrate, and cubical numbers; and Aristotle observed with admiration, that barbarians as well as Greeks did use a numeration unto ten; which, being so general, was not to be judged casual, but to have a foundation in nature. So not only seven and nine, but all the rest have had their elogies, as