mulating accretions of shame, torment, and remorse. Surely these facts and reflections should render more precious to every Odd-Fellow, the Degree of Remembrance.

CHAPTER VII

OF THE FIFTH, OR SCARLET DEGREE.

1. HAVING been duly prepared to receive this highest degree of our subordinate Lodges, by a diligent acquaintance with those which have preceded it, and a proficiency in their duties and workings, the candidate will do well to give earnest heed to the instructions he will receive from those who confer this degree on him.

2. The former degrees have been devoted to the development and applications of LOVE; this has for its great theme, TRUTH as a principle of sentiment and of action. Love in the heart and Truth in the understanding are closely related. Both issue in the words of the mouth and the actions of the life; and are unitedly, therefore, the foundation of moral duty. Love is the motive power prompting to right action-Truth the guiding light to direct it. Truth is therefore the crowning virtue. It is the great good sought by candor; the great object of all our researches. Every appeal for righteousness and virtue rests on it; for it is opposed to all iniquity and wrong, all error and ignorance. To dwellers in time it may seem tedious in its progress, and hopelessly to struggle for conquest; but eternity will prove it omnipotent, and show it to be the victor at last. So sings the poet :

"Truth, crush'd to earth, shall rise again,
Th' eternal years of God are her's;
But error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies amid her worshippers."

only good, the It is in him a

He, therefore, who has Truth, is the only strong man-others merely seem so. perpetual power, springing up continually to eternal life. As such, he is an example in speech and action, blessing and purifying others, and blessed and purified in return. Whatever mutations, whatever convulsions and storms rage around him, he is stable and he is sure. In this spirit, and desiring to be thus truthful, should every Odd-Fellow assume the obligations and discharge the duties of this degree.

3. As the imperial virtue, Truth appropriates to this degree all preceding colors and emblems. White represents its purity, Pink its steadiness of purpose or irrefrangibility, Blue its persistence in right speech and action, Green its perpetual freshness and eternity; and, as the cardinal virtue, it appropriates to itself the Scarlet badge, and sways a sceptre of dominion over the rest. He, therefore, who has this virtue enthroned in his soul, is priest and monarch of himself and all around him; for its power gives him ministry and dominion. This is why the brother of this degree finds all stations of the Lodge open to him, and is enabled to speak as by authority concerning the laws of our Order. This is why we expect his life to be an example, and his word a precept. This is why we expect him to understand and preserve inviolate our mysteries, and to observe that his brethren do the same. If faithful in these duties, he will show the world that virtue only, ennobles men among us, and that our honors have been judiciously conferred in his case.

4. The propriety of the colors heretofore named has already been explained. The selection of SCARLET as the special color of this degree, will be seen to be no less appropriate. For, as justly observed in the article already freely quoted from,* "Scarlet vestments, as allusive to the glory, dignity, and excellence of the sacerdotal office, are given to the Fifth, or Degree of the Priestly Order. God said to Moses, Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron, thy brother, for glory and for beauty.' (Exod. xxviii. 2.) In the several specifications which follow the Divine charge, we find that scarlet was ordained to be a constituent part of the robe, the ephod, the curious girdle of the ephod, and of the breast-plate of judgment. (Exod. xxviii. passim.) It also entered into the composition of the ten curtains of the tabernacle, of the vail of the most holy place, (Exod. xxvi. 1, 31,) and of the hangings of the gate of the court. (Exod. xxvii. 16.) Thus it became pre-eminently a sacred dye. In its typical character, perhaps it had reference to the blood of the victimst which were sacrificed by the High-Priest's hands, as an atonement for sin. The prophet Isaiah seems to favor this hypothesis: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' (i. 18.) As a token of glory, rank, and power, it was worn by monarchs not less extensively than the imperial purple. (Compare Matt. xxvii. 28, 29, where the scarlet robe was put on Christ, in mockery of the regal claim.)

6

* "Covenant and Official Magazine of the G. L. U. S." for 1842, p. 71.

"The life of the flesh is the blood thereof;" (Gen. ix. 4; Lev. xvii 11; and Deut. xii. 23.) So Truth, the life-giving element of the soul, is emblematically pointed out as the pure and proper offering on the altar of Divine Truth.-A. B. G.

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Grouping these emblematic colors, as they successively appear in the five degrees, they clearly convey to every Odd-Fellow this sentiment:-FRIENDSHIP, Love, and TRUTH: ETERNAL, GLORIOUS!'-a sentiment as worthy to be had in honor, and to be profoundly cherished in the heart, as was the aphorism of Solon, Tvali σɛavτov, (KNOW THYSELF,) to be inscribed on the Delphic Oracle in letters of gold."*

Such is the language of the colors entitled to be worn by brothers as they advance to this degree, and attain this-especially by him whose life makes them his true colors-whose mind and affections reflect truly the ideas and moral principles they represent.

5. All the emblems heretofore explained, belong to this degree, for in their true symbolic meanings they all teach truth. Truth in the abstract-pure truth, freed from the attributes of materiality, cannot be as easily received and understood by man in the flesh, as when presented in a material garb. Hence parables and apologues, which are but word-emblems, are so acceptable among all nations; and this, too, is why, in all ages, the various objects in nature have been used as symbols. Humanity seems to require such representations. They are found in use as far as history reaches

* Since the article from which we have quoted was written, (in 1842,) our entire ritual has been revised and improved, (in 1845,) and several changes made in the instruction of the degrees, as will be seen in our remarks on each degree in regular order. Nevertheless, the explanation of the colors by this writer is so ingenious and beautiful, (and in the main, so correct,) that we have copied his remarks verbatim, as they were originally published in the Covenant. Our notes give such corrections or additions as we presumed would. be profitable. The brother of the Fifth Degree will be able to make his own corrections or comments on both.-A. B G.