of Brotherhood embodied in the Carpenter's Son-it tosses before me, amid clouds of rainbow beauty. Is it 1848-or is it 1884-there is a mist before my eyes-I cannot trace the figures plainly, but-The Deliverer of Europe-of the world-will come at last, and come with the arm to Avenge and the Spirit to Love!

"Kings will shrink from their thrones at his coming; the slaves of the old world will start into a people, and even the black slaves of the new, will dare to claim a portion for themselves in the Love of God, and grasp for themselves a share in the Brotherhood of Man.

"Even the red man of the forest, smitten by the iron finger of White Civilization, which poisons his heart and withers his brain, will look up and see the face of the Carpenter's Son, smiling, blessing upon him even from the ruins of Despotism and Superstition.

"Thus, my brothers, you have before you the three great Epochs which will mark the history of Man, within the next three hundred years.

"First, the Epoch of the Apostle, who, armed with the Love which dwelt in the heart of the Carpenter's Son, will rear the Altar of Brotherhood on the shores of the New World; thus promulgating to all mankind the Divine Truth, that the New World is not for Priests, nor Kings, nor for any form of superstition or privilege, but for Man—sacred, and set apart by God for the Millions who toil.

"Second, the Epoch of the Deliverer, who, called by God, will take up the Sword, and even as the Carpenter's Son scourged the moneychangers from the Temple of Jerusalem, so will he scourge the Oppressors of Body and Soul from that holiest Temple of Brotherhood, the land of the New World.

"In case the Deliverer, after giving freedom to the New World, proves false to his trust, and takes to himself a Crown and Throne, then the history of the Future is beset by clouds, that have no ray to lighten their Omnipotent gloom.

"But should he prove faithful to his great trust, and after accomplishing the work of freedom, yield his Sword in the hands of the People, and become, for the sake of the Holy Cause, a Man among Men, a Brother among Brothers, then will follow

"The Third Epoch. The Epoch of the Crowned Avenger, whose tremendous battles, supernatural glory, and Death, sublime in its very isolation, will prepare the World for the approach of the Holiest Epoch, for the Coming of the Universal Liberator.

"The Epoch of Brotherhood among Men--the Liberator of all classes, nations, and races of the great family.

In the year of the Carpenter's Son, 1848, or in 1884, the Epoch and the Liberator will be announced by convulsions over all the world.

"Monarchy, grown drunk with its habit of oppression and bloodshed, will press the Millions who toil, to the last extent of sufferance and endurance. Rich Men will say triumphantly that there is no God but Gold, no Heaven but in getting more wealth, no hell but in Poverty. They will regard the Poor, that is nine-tenths of the human family, as old fables tell us, the Damned are regarded by the Fiends-as the objects of alternate mockery and vengeance, as things of dumb wood

and stone, as beasts, as any thing, but souls born of God and redeemed by his Spirit, incarnate in the Son of the Carpenter.

"Rich Men will gather round the Throne in England, and urge Monarchy-already bloated with Crime-to new exactions, and place in its grasp incredible improvements in the kingly art of murder.

"Rich Men in Ireland will pour into the cup of that People's woethat cup which has been slowly filling for centuries--the last drop of bitterness. The Cup of Ireland's despair will be full at last, and the Rich Man will have to drink it, from the hand of a Demon, who was once a Peasant, once a Man.

"Rich Men in America will strengthen the chains by which millions of the Black Race are held in bondage. They will regard these Millions of the Black Race as the beasts of the field, and herd them together in profitable Incest, selling the fruit of the mother's womb, before it has seen the light, and holding Property in Human Flesh, in Human Blood, in Immortal Souls."

A groan echoed from the assemblage.

"This in America! This in the New World?"

"Yes! This in the land for which the Deliverer has consecrated his sword! In order that Man may know the value of freedom, it is necessary that he should first suffer the pains of Hell, in the ditch of Slavery. And of all the forms of Slavery which the world ever saw, or ever will see, that which will curse the American continent in the year 1848 or 1884-under the name of Black Slavery, stands arrayed before my vision, as the most appalling. It is-pardon the warmth of my utterance, for over the mists of the Future, I see it, even now, in its garb of crimes it is an Infernal Trinity, composed of Three Fiends, who are called Atheism, Incest, Blasphemy.

"Atheism, but not the honest Atheism which denies a God in Nature, and blunders upon a something called Chance, but a ferocious Atheism, which builds altars to God, worships him with the pomp of priest and ritual, and at the same moment shows that it does not believe in his existence, does not fear his vengeance, for it degrades his Image into a brute.

"Incest, for in order to make Flesh and Blood more profitable it encourages

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"Blasphemy, for it not only makes the New World a reproach in the lips of the Tyrants of the Old World, but it turns all that is holy in religion into a Lie. It cries 'Hail, Lord Jesus!' and with that cry, treads the Black Brother of the Carpenter's Son deeper into bondage.

"When the blessed Epoch is very near,-when the footstep of the Universal Liberator begins to move the earth-then the Black Slaves in America, the White Slaves in Ireland-in fact the Slaves over all the world—will rise upon their masters, rise without an object or an aim, but urged to ferocious action by an impulse which cannot be resisted or controlled.

"Then will occur the Jubilee of brute force, the Saturnalia of Murder. It will be a day of reckoning for the Rich Man over all the world. He will learn, at last, that it is better to give some light of education, some gleam of immortality, even to a Slave. He will, I say, learn that it is

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better to combat an educated Slave, whose nature retains some ray of its Divine origin-much better, as God lives! than to combat a Brute in human shape, who knows no limit in his vengeance, and sacrifices in his hellish fury, not only the rich man, but the beautiful wife who nestles in his arms, and the little child who clings to his knees.

"It will be a terrible Going out of Egypt-an Exodus of incredible carnage, which the Poor will accomplish, ere the great day of their Redemption.

"The Israelites of old, chained in Egypt, went forth one day, and the sea, parting or either side, left bare a safe pathway, for the liberated slaves. Their oppressors followed, and were lost in the waves. The freed slaves beheld their livid faces and heard their impotent cry of despair. This was indeed a terrible sight for Egypt, but a glorious day for Israel.

Remember, however, that the Israelites, enslaved by the Egyptians, only_symbolize the Poor Man over all the world, enslaved by the Rich. "Therefore, I say, it will be a terrible going out of Egypt, which the Poor Man will accomplish, when all at once he escapes from thraldom, through a Red Sea. That Red Sea nothing but the blood which flows from the veins of the tyrants of the Poor.

"It will, I repeat, be an Exodus of incredible carnage, which the Angels will behold, on that day when the Poor Man shall hear the voice of God, calling upon him in his bondage-Arise! The hour hath come. The cup is full. Arise, ye millions of the human race. Arise ye races and tribes of the Poor! Go out from this bondage, though the way of your redemption is paved with the bodies of the Rich, though their blood rolls before you like a Sea. Go out from bondage! For it is the Exodus of the Poor, for which ye have waited and endured, and wept your bloody tears so long!'

"And the same God who gave a Moses to the chained Israelites, will call forth, from the shadows of poverty in the year 1848 or 1884—the Liberator of a World."

The man with sunburnt features and knotted hands stood alone, near the veiled figure, the centre of a group, agitated by emotion too deep for words.

They looked upon him, as he arose in their midst, clad like an humble peasant, and felt that he was a Prophet-despite his toil-hardened hands. and coarse attiree-a Prophet called from the ranks of the Poor, to foretell the future of a World in chains.

Overwhelmed by the intensity of his thoughts, the Peasant rested both hands upon the shoulders of the veiled figure, while his chest shook as with intense physical torture, and the cold damps stood in beads upon his brow. His eyes grew brighter every moment, while the brown hue of his bold countenance was usurped by a death-like pallor.

"At last," he murmured amid the writhings of his inexplicable agony, "at last, blessed Lord, the lead will become gold and the sneer be changed into a smile.”

It was a long time, ere the sensation created by the words of this rude Prophet permitted the members of the secret Brotherhood to give utterance of their thoughts to speech.

The aged Swede arose.

His white hairs waved in the wind, which came in fitful gusts from the mouth of the cavern, and the faint light imparted its gloomy radiance to his withered features.

In a tremulous voice he spoke of the great objects which had called the Chiefs of the Rosy Cross from all quarters of the globe.

They had been called, not so much by the command of a Supreme Chief, as by the voice of a tradition, which had been treasured in the innumerable branches or Circles of the great Brotherhood, since the earlier years of the Tenth Century.

That tradition pointed out a particular year in the seventeenth century, which would witness a new Era in the history of the Order.

On the appointed year, at a certain hour of a certain day, the Chiefs of the Brotherhood, from all quarters of the globe, were to assemble— so the tradition enjoined-in the cavern of a German mountain, long known in the history of the Order.

They were to choose, by lot, a Supreme Chief, who would be known over all the world, to all the Brothers of the Rosy Cross, and to all secret orders, beneath the Brotherhood, by a certain symbol, engraven on a golden medal.

That symbol was a globe, a rising sun, and a cross, encircled by the Hebrew words, in the Hebrew character:

"VAYOMER ELOHEIM YEHEE AUR VAYEHEE AUR."

"These words," continued the aged Swede, "indicate the light which, shining from the councils of our Brotherhood, shall illuminate all the world. A light spoken into existence by the voice of God, which shall do the work of God in every human heart. Brothers, to me as the oldest of the Chiefs, has this Medal been intrusted. It was given into my hands by a Chief who had reached the remarkable age of one hundred years. I now surrender it into your hands; I place it upon this rock, which forms the altar of our worship. Let no one touch it, nor gaze upon it, until the Supreme Chief of the Brotherhood is elected."

He placed the Medal on the altar, where it glimmered with a pale golden light.

An inexplicable sensation pervaded the assemblage as every eye was centred upon this most sacred symbol of the Order. It was endeared to their hearts by a thousand ceremonies; it was linked with the overwhelming associations of the ancient renown and almost godlike power of the Brotherhood in the days of old.

The Hebrew words rudely graved upon it gave some colour to the tradition which taught that it had been coined by the hand of the High Priest Aaron, in the days of the Wilderness.

True, the globe and the cross seemed to indicate a much more recent origin. Yet the globe was known as an emblem in the secret Brotherhood, long before it was discovered that the earth itself was a globe. The cross is found in the Pyramids of Egypt, erected thousands of years before the era of the Carpenter's Son.

In a word, this medal, glimmering dimly upon the surface of the rock, overwhelmed the Brothers with the memories of three thousand years.

Now commenced the ceremonial of election.

Every chief wrote his name upon a tablet. These tablets were given into the hands of the Swede, who placed them in a hollow of the rock, which supplied the place of an urn.

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"One by one you will advance, my Brothers, and draw a single tablet from this hollow in the rock. It is asserted by the traditions of our Order, that the great work of Supreme Chief will fall upon the Brother who draws this tablet on which the sign of the Cross is traced. vance, my brothers-but, hold-let me first ask every Brother to raise his clasped hands above his head, and swear by the Globe, by the Rising Sun, and the Cross, to be faithful to the Supreme Chief, whom we are about to elect, from our midst―to obey his commands without hesitation, scruple, or reserve, and to recognise his power, whenever it is attested by the most sacred symbol of our Order!"

There was a pause-and then from every lip arose the solemn chorus-"We swear by the Globe, by the Rising Sun, and by the Cross!"

Perchance the outward history of the world, that history which only pictures the appearances, not the realities of things, never described a scene of sterner grandeur, than that which was now in progress within the walls of the mountain cavern.

The Representatives of the various Destinies of Nations were met in awful council to decide the destiny of all mankind, to elect, in fact, one man, who should in his turn embody the destiny of a World. One by one they came toward the hollow in the rock. The torchlight shone upon the various costumes, and displayed the workings of those contrasted faces, every one the representative of a People, the type of a race. The blanket of the Indian, adorned with the many-coloured wampum belt, contrasted with the turban and flowing robes of the Moslem. The tawny Hindoo, the bronzed Spaniard, the florid German, mingled together in that throng, and the hardy colonist from New England stood side by side with the stern soldier of Cromwell and the down-trodden son of Ireland.

The Jesuit, too, folding his hands over his black robe, with a deep thought upon his tonsured brow, stood near the worshipper of Confao-tse, from the far land of China.

The Black Man was not alone. His jet-black features, scarred with the traces of that incredible thraldom from which he was a fugitive, he joined hands with the agile Son of Italy, whose sculptured lineaments spoke of the races of ancient Rome.

The gray-garbed peasant stood alone, leaning upon the veiled figure with his knotted hands. Few could guess his country or his race. His bold features, darkened by the sun, spoke somewhat of an oriental The rumor ran from lip to lip, that he was from an island in the Mediterranean.

race.

His thoughts were absorbed by the overwhelming solemnities of the occasion. They were about to elect a Man, who could control for good or evil-for good or evil in the present age and through all future time-the immense organization of the Brotherhood.

On whom would the work fall?