realized in universal life, and Christ's divine heartbeating in the bosom of Humanity-shall be the source of its activity for evermore, then shall be fulfilled the prophetic dream of a Golden Age. Then shall the human race march forward and upward, engirdled by the rosy hours, and baptized in the chorus of a heavenly psalm of Love. Then shall Astrea and Saturn descend again from heaven to earth, bringing to man the divinest gifts of the gods, and "THE AGE OF GOLD OVER ALL THE WORLD ARISE."

The Final Word.

THE facts presented in the foregoing pages are not without their importance or significance. It seems to us the utility of Masonic Societies has been vindicated. Their prevalence in all ages and among all peoples, their influence always for good, their connection with the progressive development of our race, their relations with Science, Art, Letters, and Philosophy, demonstrate their utility, if there be anything susceptible of demonstration within the circle of human experience or observation. That these institutions have ever wrought their great labors in secret, will not appear strange when we consider that all Life and Beauty are elaborated in Night and Mystery. As, low down in the unseen depths of Nature's bosom, the ever-active spirit of Order weaves the beautiful and magnificent net-work

of foliage, fruits, and flowers, which clothes the world with unspeakable splendors-as the divine grace and redolence of the Rose are wrought out in the invisible realm of Beauty-so the secret Brotherhood has labored "in the secret Pavilion," to throw over the waste and barren places of human life the beautiful flowers of Friendship and Love, and the fragrance of a heavenly virtue.

Appendix.

SECRET POLITICAL ORDERS.

BESIDES the "JACOBINS" of the past age, and others of a similar character, there have been, and are now some, which, from their resemblance to Freemasonry, deserve a brief notice.

THE VEHM GERICHTE OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE.

THE laws and institutions of society are always necessarily imperfect, and never meet entirely all the wants of those who live under them. Established for the protection of the weak, against the encroachments of the strong, and for the subjugation of force to the sentiments of justice and equity, they sometimes, even in the most favored times, fail to accomplish all they propose, while in rude and turbulent ages-in times of anarchy and violence-their influence is scarcely felt. Such was the condition of Europe in the thirteenth century.

The law of might everywhere prevailed. The old barons despised all law and justice, looked on the people with contempt, and impiously trampled all the sacred rights of humanity beneath their feet. Justice everywhere was outraged, the homes of the poor were desolated, and violence and crime filled every land. So powerful became those numerous oppressors, the royal authority could not reach them, and no law could compel them to appear at the tribunal of justice to answer for their misdeeds. In such circumstances, the oppressed have no resource, but to oppose a secret force to the open acts of violence.