cy and result of which, our female friends by the unforeseen casualties of life, frequently become deeply interested. For it is the proudest boast of our association, that it has in view as a most prominent object of regard, this loveliest part of Nature's handy-work. In shutting the door of the lodge against their entrance, it exempts them from an intercourse of too general a kind, to be consonant with their sentiments and habits. Those estimable associations of their own sex, for the encouragement of industry, and the relief of meritorious poverty, which rank amongst the highest evidences of the philanthropy of our city, we hail as our co-workers in the cause of charity. Their associates we greet as our sisters, in the allied family of the feeling and humane. We offer our prayers to the beneficent Author of all good, for his continued assistance in their pious undertakings, and may the blessing of many, who are ready to perish, rest upon their heads.

To you, my Brethren of the Fraternity, it remains to submit a brief address. A great deposit has been placed in your hands. hands. On your fidelity to the delegated trust under your charge, depends, I will not say, the existence, but much of the character and usefulness of your laudable assemblages. I speak to you on this public occasion, with the anxious solicitude of one allied to you by the most sacred ties; but would make my appeal in the language of fraternal affection, rather than with the authority which my station gives me. I claim a brother's right, to avail myself of the present opportunity, of making some suggestions, and urging upon you some counsels, which this interesting epoch of our society renders peculiarly proper.

E

You have been of late favoured by our Supreme Grand Master, with a course of unexampled prosperity. The number of our Lodges, and of the members in cach Lodge, has increased beyond the measure of any previous calculation. Order and discipline have reigned triumphant at your meetings. Abuses have been corrected; intelligence and talents in the conduct of your labours, have succeeded, in many lodges, to awkwardness and deformity; neatness and regularity now occupy the stations sometimes disgraced by carelessness and disorder. The wisdom of the East, the strength of the West, and the beauty of the South, combine their energies to plan, to erect, and to adorn the several compartments in the edifice of the Lodge. Your leaders, selected for their talents and their worth, superintend and direct the work in which you are severally engaged, with sagacity and skill; and the literary acquirements of many of them, afford you means of instruction of the most valuable kind. Your employments, under such auspices, become the ministers of pleasure and improvement. Their variety, symmetry and beauty, delight the imagination; their tendency to invigorate the faculties and promote the best interests of the human race, ci.gage the understanding; and the disinterested benevolence of their practical operation, enchain the best feelings of the heart.

Under the controuling influence of intellect, worthily engaged in laying open the arcana of our order, dead and unir coming ceremony rises into life and spirit. -Beauties obscured, and hid by the rubbish, beaned upon them by undesigning ignorance emerge to the vist of the astonished noviciate An unchangeable attach

ment to a system, which only requires to be understood, to be loved and admired, is generally formed, and the mind and heart are strengthened and enlarged by the study and pursuit of its precepts and duties. Many of my brethren, who now hear me, and to whose zeal and knowledge and industry I am rejoiced to bear testimony, will bear me out in this just and unexaggerated statement; and they will lament with me, that truth, to which Religion and Masonry demand our adherence, cannot apply to the labours of every lodge under our charge, the praise which so many may justly claim.

Astonishing, however, is the influence of example, and the rising virtues of every branch of the Masonic family, have the double effect of increasing the happiness of its own members, and inciting the emulation of others. My brethren, can there be a more noble ambition than the ambition of well doing? Is there any strife to be tolerated among us, but the glorious contest of excelling each other, in all the qualifications that should characterize our profession, as masons? A mean jealousy of the merits and acquirements of others, the noble mind disdains; but the generous attempt to equal and surpass in intelligence and goodness, the brightest patterns of excellence around us, is our privilege and pride, both as masons and as men.

If there are any of my brethren now present, who have entertained unworthy apprehensions of the noble order in which they stand enrolled: if there are any whose understandings have not yet embraced the vast scope of its design: if there are any whose habits are at variance with the purity of the precepts enjoined upon them in the Lodge: if there are any whose depra

ved inclinations would lead them to convert the brief and moderate indulgence of social but rational enjoyment after the labours of the Lodge, into a shameful gratification of the lowest appetites of our nature; if there is a solitary individual, the weakness of whose resolution in the practice of his relative duties in society, has not been assisted by his union with the craft; to all such, I would present this honoured festival, this jubi lee of masonic gratulation and delight, as the most favourable moment of reformation and amendment.

We are in a few moments to be engaged in the most interesting ceremonials of our institution. Under the benignant smiles of the Supreme Grand Architect, we have accomplished a work, which is an honour to to us, and an ornament to our city. We are now to dedicate it to the honour of his glory. What mind so callous as not to feel awe the most reverent, mixed with the highest exultation, at this solemn, yet delightful service. Shall it be the mockery of senseless parade, and sterile and unmeaning form? Or shall we unitedly consider it, as a sincere consecration of the house of our future intercourse, to the best interests of virtue and humanity?

This day, let an irrevocable decree of exclusion be passed, upon every vice and impropriety that has ever intruded itself amongst us. The eyes of many are upon us, whose characters as our fellow citizens and friends, entitle them to the highest estimation and regard: they have witnessed the exhibitions of this day, and their good sense will prevent them from hastily joining in the sneers, which in some instances, amazed ignorance has thrown out, at what its shallow apprehension

has deemed trivial and unimportant appendages to light and insignificant pursuits. But on us, my brethren, on our future management and conduct of the affairs of this venerable institution will it depend, whether from this day forward the number of its patrons shall diminish or increase. In vain will have been the skill of the architect, and the labours of the craftsmen employed in the erection of the magnificent building, into which we are now about to enter, if the beauty and harmony of the interior correspond not with the elegance of its exterior appearance. Vice cannot be rendered virtue, by the splendours of outside decoration and embellishment. Her hated visage is often rendered the more disgusting, by laboured attempts to array her in the ornaments of virtue. Let us exhibit an exemplary consistency, between the grandeur and elegance of the place of our assemblage, and the conduct of all its internal transactions.

To you, who hold the respectable rank of masters in the several lodges, the duty of superintending the craft under your immediate charge properly belongs. Faithfully exercise it, with impartiality and diligence, but without fear. Let no unbecoming departure from good order and discipline, be for a moment countenanced. Be examples yourselves of the virtues you are called to impress on others. Let the eminent stations you occupy, receive a lustre from your able and intelligent discharge of all the duties they involve. If you have prematurely acquired the distinctions of the lodge, without the previous preparation requisite for a distinguished administration of their functions, retrieve your own character and that of your lodge, by an ardent