by a king of England to retire to his dominions, where they devoted themselves to the cultivation of architecture and the fine arts. Ramsay pretended that the degrees originally established by the Templars were those of Scotch Master, Novice, and Knight of the Temple, and he even had the audacity to propose, in 1728, to the Grand Lodge of England to substitute them for the three primitive degrees of symbolical masonry, a proposition which met with no more success than it deserved.

In Paris, however, he was more fortunate, for there his degrees were adopted, not, indeed, as a substitute for, but as an addition to Ancient Craft Masonry.

These degrees became popular on the Continent, and in a short time gave birth to innumerable others, which attempted to compensate for their want of consistency with the history, the traditions, and the principles of the ancient institution, by splendour of external decorations and gorgeousness of ceremonies. Happily, however, the existence of these innovations has been but ephemeral. They are no longer worked as degrees, but remain only in the library of the masonic student as subjects of curious inquiry. The "hautes grades" of the French, and the Philosophic degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch rite, are not innovations on, but illustrations of, pure symbolic masonry, aud as such will be found to be the depositories of many interesting traditions and instructive speculations, which are eminently useful in shedding light upon the character and objects of the institution.

I. N. R. I. The initials of the Latin sentence which was placed upon the Cross: Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judæorum. The Rosicrucians used them as the initials of one of their hermetic secrets: Igne Natura Renovatur Integra-"By fire nature is perfectly renewed." They also adopted them to express the names of their three elementary principles, salt, sulphur, and mercury, by making them the initials of the sentence, Igne Nitrum Roris

* Cours Philosophique et Interprétatif des Initiations, p. 323.

Invenitur. Ragon finds in the equivalent Hebrew letters the initials of the Hebrew names of the ancient elements; Iaminim, water, Nour, fire, Ruach, air, and Iebschah, earth.

These speculations may afford some interest to the Rose Croix Mason and the Knight Templar.

INSPECTOR. See Sovereign Grand Inspector General.

INSTALLATION. The officers of a lodge, before they can proceed to discharge their functions, must be installed. The officers of a new lodge are installed by the Grand Master, or by some Past Master deputed by him to perform the ceremony. Formerly the Master was installed by the Grand Master, the Wardens by the Grand Wardens, and the Secretary and Treasurer by the Grand Secretary and Treasurer, but now this custom is not continued. At the election of the officers of an old lodge, the Master is installed by his predecessor or some Past Master present, and the Master elect them instals his subordinate officers. officer after his installation can resign. At his installation the Master receives the degree of Past Master. It is a law of masonry that all officers hold on to their respective offices until their successors are installed.

No

INSTRUCTION, LODGE OF. These are assemblies of brethren congregated without a warrant of constitution, under the direction of a Lecturer or skilful brother for the purpose of improvement in masonry, which is accomplished by the frequent rehearsal of the work and lectures of each degree. These bodies should consist exclusively of Master Masons, and though they possess no masonic power, it is evident to every Mason that they are extremely useful, as schools of preparation for the duties that are afterwards to be performed in the regular lodge.

INTENDANT OF THE BUILDINGS. Intendant des Batiments. This degree is sometimes called "Master in Israel."

It is the eighth in the Ancient Scotch rite. Its emblematic colour is red, and its principal officers are a Thrice Puissant representing Solomon, a Senior Warden representing the illustrious Tito, one of the Harodim, and a Junior Warden representing Adoniram the son of Abda. In the history of the degree, we are told that it was instituted to supply a great loss well known to Master Masons.

INTIMATE SECRETARY.

Secretaire intime.

The sixth degree in the ancient Scotch rite. Its emblematic colour is black, strewed with tears, and its collar and the lining of the apron are red. Its officers are only three: Solomon, King of Israel; Hiram, King of Tyre; and a Captain of the Guards. Its history records an instance of unlawful curiosity, the punishment of which was only averted by the previous fidelity of the offender.

INVESTITURE. See Apron.

IONIC ORDER. Next to the Doric the oldest order among the Greeks. It is more delicate and graceful than the Doric, and more majestic than the Corinthian. Its column is fluted with twenty-four channels, the abacus is scooped on the side, and the principal ornaments of its capital are its two spiral volutes. The architectural judgment and skill displayed in its composition as an intermediate order, between the rude massiveness of the Doric and the extraneous beauty of the Corinthian, has occasioned it to be adopted as the column of Wisdom that supports the lodge. Its appropriate situation and symbolic officer are in the E..

IRISH DEGREES. The establishment of certain degrees, called by this title, such as the Irish Master, Perfect Irish Master, Puissant Irish Master, and many others of a similiar nature, was an attempt on the part of the adherents of the exiled house of Stuart, to give to Freemasonry a political bias, and to enlist the

members of the fraternity on the side of King James, and his son the pretender.

ISH CHOTZEB. The hewers who were engaged in felling timber on Mt. Lebanon for the building of Solomon's temple. They amounted to 80,000. See 1 Kings v. 15, and 2. Chron. ii. 18. Webb calls them Fellow Crafts, but Webb's arrangement of the workmen at the temple is not a correct one.

ISH SABAL. The bearers of burdens at the building of the temple. They amounted to 70,000. See 1 Kings v. 15, and 2. Chron. ii. 18. They are the Entered Apprentices of Webb, but the old writers say that they were not masons, but the descendants of the ancient Canaanites.

ISH SOUDY. It is a corrupted form of the Hebrew

, ish sodi, "a man who is my confidant or familiar friend;" and hence it is masonically interpreted to signify "a man of mychoice" or "a select mason." A similar expression is to be found

in Job. xix. 19, mati sodi, that is," the men of my intimacy, "or as it has been translated in the common version "my inward friends."

IZABUD. Properly Zabud. He is mentioned in 1 Kings, iv. 5, as "the principal officer and the king's friend." Kitto, speaking of the position held by Izabud or Zabud in the household of Solomon, says that the term "king's friend" implies the possession of the utmost confidence of, and familiar intercourse with, the monarch, to whose person "the friend" at all times has access, and whose influence is therefore often greater, even in matters of state, than that of the recognised ministers of government.' Zabud, under the corrupted name of Izabud, is an important per

Cyclaped. Bib. Literat. in voc. Zabud. See also Jahn, Bib. Archæol. 236. IV.

sonage in the degree of Select Master, where his peculiar position in the household of King Solomon is correctly defined according to the definition of Kitto.

J.

JACHIN. The name of the right hand pillar that stood at the porch of King Solomon's temple. It is derived from two Hebrew words, jah, "God" and "' iachin, "will establish." It signifies, therefore, "God will establish."

JACOB'S LADDER. When Jacob, by the command of his father Isaac, was journeying towards Padan-aram, while sleeping one night with the bare earth for his couch and a stone for his pillow, he beheld the vision of a ladder whose foot rested on the earth and its top reached to heaven. Angels were continually ascending and descending upon it, and promised him the blessing of a numerous and happy posterity. When Jacob awoke, he was filled with pious gratitude, and consecrated the spot as the house of God."*

This ladder, so remarkable in the history of the Jewish people, has also occupied a conspicuous place among the symbols of masonry. Its true origin was lost among the worshippers of the Pagan rites, but the symbol itself, in various modified forms, was retained. Among them it was always made to consist of seven rounds, which might, as Oliver suggests, have been in allusion either to the seven stories of the Tower of Babel, or to the Sabbatical period. In the Persian mysteries of Mithras, the ladder of seven rounds was symbolical of the soul's approach to perfection. These rounds were called gates, and in allusion to them

Genesis, ch. xxviii.