ornamental of the pure orders, and possesses the highest degree of richness and detail that architecture attained under the Greeks. Its capital is its great distinction, and is richly adorned with leaves of acanthus, olive, &c., and other ornaments. The column of Beauty which supports the lodge, is of the Corinthian order, and its appropriate situation and symbolic officer are in the S...

CORN. Corn, wine, and oil are the masonic elements of consecration. The adoption of these symbols is supported by the highest antiquity. Corn, wine, and oil were the most important productions of Eastern countries; they constituted the wealth of the people, and were esteemed as the supports of life and the means of refreshment. David enumerates them among the greatest blessings that we enjoy, and speaks of them as "wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart." Ps. civ. 14. In devoting any thing to religious purposes, the anointing with oil was considered as a necessary part of the ceremony, a rite which has descended to Christian nations. The tabernacle in the wilderness, and all its holy vessels, were, by God's express command, anointed with oil; Aaron and his two sons were set apart for the priesthood with the same ceremony; and the prophets and kings of Israel were consecrated to their offices by the same rite. Hence, Freemasons' lodges, which are but temples to the Most High, are consecrated to the sacred purposes for which they were built, by strewing corn, wine, and oil upon the “lodge,” the emblem of the Holy Ark. Thus does this mystic ceremony instruct us to be nourished with the hidden manna of righteousness, to be refreshed with the Word of the Lord, and to rejoice with joy unspeakable in the riches of divine grace. "Wherefore, my brethren," says the venerable Harris, "wherefore do you carry corn, wine, and oil, in your processions, but to remind you, that in the pilgrimage of human life, you are to impart a portion of your bread to feed the hungry, to send a cup of your

wine to cheer the sorrowful, and to pour the healing oil of your consolation into the wounds which sickness hath made in the bodies, or affliction rent in the hearts of your fellow-travellers?" -Discourses, IV. 81.

In processions, the corn alone is carried in a golden pitcher, the wine and oil are placed in silver vessels, and this is to remind us that the first, as a necessity and the "staff of life," is of more importance and more worthy of honour than the others, which are but comforts.

CORNER-STONE. The first stone, in the foundation of every magnificent building, is called the corner-stone, and is laid in the north-east, generally with solemn and appropriate ceremo- . nies. To this stone, formerly, some secret influence was attributed. In Alet's Ritual, it is directed to be "solid, angular, of about a foot square, and laid in the north-east." Its position, as Oliver justly remarks, "accounts in a rational manner, for the general disposition of a newly initiated candidate, when enlightened but uninstructed, he is accounted to be in the most superficial part of masonry."-Signs and Symbols, p. 225.

CORNUCOPIA. The horn of plenty. It is a symbol of abundance, and as such has been adopted as the jewel of the Stewards of a lodge, to remind them that it is their duty to see that the tables are properly furnished at refreshment, and that every brother is suitably provided for.

CORYBANTES, MYSTERIES OF THE. Rites instituted. in Phrygia, in honour of Atys, the lover of Cybele. The goddess was supposed first to bewail the death of her lover, and afterwards to rejoice for his restoration to life. The ceremonics were a scenical representation of this alternate lamentation and rejoicing, and of the sufferings of Atys, who was placed in an ark or coffin during the mournful part of the orgies.

COTYTTO, MYSTERIES OF. These mysteries were insti tuted in Thrace, and passed over into Greece and Rome, where they were known as the rites of the Bona Dea. They were celebrated by females alone, and were conducted with so much secrecy that their ceremonies are entirely unknown.

COUNCIL. In several of the higher degrees of masonry, the meetings are styled councils-as a council of Knights of the Red Cross, and of Princes of Jerusalem. A portion of the room in which a chapter of Royal Arch Masons or Knights of the Red Cross meets, is emphatically designated as the Grand Council.

COUNCIL OF ROYAL AND SELECT MASTERS. Bodies in which the degrees of Royal and Select Masters are given. The names and number of the officers vary slightly in different councils. They are perhaps most properly, a Thrice Illustrious Grand Master, Illustrious Hiram of Tyre, Principal Conductor of the Works, Recorder, Master of the Exchequer, Captain of the Guards and Steward. Some of the monitors add a Conductor of the Council, but I am not aware that such an officer is necessary according to the true ritual.

COUNCIL OF THE TRINITY. An independent masonic jurisdiction, in which are conferred the degrees of Knight of the Christian Mark, and Guard of the Conclave, Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Holy and Thrice Illustrious Order of the Cross. They are conferred after the Encampment degrees. They are Christian degrees, and refer to the crucifixion.

COVERING OF THE LODGE. Our ancient brethren met beneath no other covering than the cloudy canopy of heaven. The innumerable stars that decked its concave surface, were as living witnesses of the power and wisdom of Him, at whose

sacred name they were taught to bow; and were nightly winning from the virtuous Mason, by their bright effulgence, the prayer of hope, and the hymn of praise. Our lodges still claim this noble roof, emblematically, as their only covering, which admonishes them with a "sic itur ad astra," to aspire from earth to heaven, and to seek there the rest from labour, and the reward of toil.

COWAN. One of the profane. This purely masonic term is derived from the Greek kuon, a dog. In the early ages of the church, when the mysteries of religion were communicated only to initiates under the veil of secrecy, the infidels and unbaptized profane were called "dogs," a term probably suggested by such passages of Scripture as Matt. vii. 6, "Give not that which is holy to dogs," and Philip. iii. 2, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision." Hence, as kuon, or dog, meant among the early fathers one who had not been initiated into the Christian mysteries, the term was borrowed by the Freemasons, and in time corrupted into cowan. The attempt made by some anti-masonic writers to derive the word from the chouans of the French Revolution is absurd. The word was in use long before the French Revolution was even meditated. I have in my possession a copy of the edition of Anderson's Constitutions, printed in 1769, which contains at p. 97, this word: "Working Masons ever will have their own wages *** let cowans do as they please."

CRAFT. The ordinary acceptation is a trade or mechanical art, and collectively, the persons practising it. Hence, "the Craft," in speculative masonry, signifies the whole body of Freemasons, wherever dispersed.

CRAFTED. A word sometimes colloquially used, instead of the lodge term "passed," to designate the advancement of a candidate to the second degree.

CRAFTSMAN. A Fellow Craft.

CREATED. Knights of the Red Cross, Knights of Malta, and Knights Templars, when advanced to those degrees, are said to be "dubbed and created."

CREED OF A MASON. The creed of a Mason is brief, unentangled with scholastic subtleties, or with theological difficulties. It is a creed which demands and receives the universai consent of all men, which admits of no doubt, and defies schism. It is the belief in GOD, the supreme architect of heaven and earth; the dispenser of all good gifts, and the judge of the quick and the dead.

CROSS. The cross was an important emblem in the Pagan mysteries, and was used as an hieroglyphic of life. It is retained in one of its modifications, the triple tau, as an emblem of the R.. A.. degree, according to the English ritual, and is to be found plentifully dispersed through the symbols of the ineffable and philosophical degrees. As an emblem in the degrees of chivalry, it bears a strictly Christian allusion. But I do not recognize it as appertaining to symbolic masonry. See Triple Tau.

CROSS-LEGGED. It was an invariable custom in the Middle Ages, in laying out the body of a Knight Templar after death, to cross one leg over the other; and in all the monuments of these knights now remaining in the various churches of Europe, there will always be found an image of the person buried, sculptured on the stone, lying on a bier in this cross-legged position. Templars of the present day will readily connect this posture with an appropriate portion of the degree as now conferred.

When, in the 16th century, a portion of the Knights Templars of Scotland united themselves with a masonic lodge at Sterling, they were commonly known by the name of the "cross-legged Masons." Oliver relates the fact, but assigns no plausible reason