1798.) 
difpofed of at the diferetion of the officers 
of the veflel.”” 
Their principal place of meeting in 
London, is at the Surry Tavern, Surry- 
itreet, in the Strand. It is not in my 
power to entertain your readers with ex- 
tracts from their elegant, learned, and 
feientific leStures. If they have any tra- 
‘ditionary notices refpecting the antedilu- 
vian ftate, the primitive language, or the 
original peopling of the different regions 
of tne earth, it is a thouiand pities they 
“do not communicate fuch ineftimable 
treafures to the world, for the clearing up 
the perplexing doubts and difficulties 
which attend thofe recondite fubjeéts. 
However, it is in my power to make 
fome of your readers {mile, at the exqui- 
fite poetry of thete Noachites, and I thall 
then leave the venerable fraternity to vin- 
dicate the antiquity and eXcellence of 
their order from the charge of impofture 
and folly, which many will be difpofed to 
_ think it deferves. 
One of their principal poets is Brother 
Ebenezer Sibley, who is a doftor of phy- 
fic, and an aitrologer to boot, but Lam 
apprehentfive, that if his medical and fide- 
real knowledge does not exeeed his fkall 
in harmony, little faith will be put in his 
pre{criptions, or his predictions. But let 
, our venerable Noachite ipeak, or rather 
fing, for himfelf and his traternity : 
«© They entered fafe—lo! the delugecame on, 
And none were proteted but mafons* aid 
wives, 
The crafty and knavith came fioating along, 
The rich and the beggar of profligate lives: 
It was now in woe, 
For mercy they call, 
To ola Father Noah, 
And loudly did bawl, 
But Heav’n fhut the door, and the ark was 
afloat, 
So perith they muft, for they were found with- 
out 
‘There is, doubtlefs, fomething affeck- 
ing and tragical, inthis compofition ; but 
another of their lyrifts endeavours to im1- 
‘ 
> vO OO Oe 
* With Brother Sibley’s (and the Grand 
Noah's) leave, I fhould fuppofe that thefe 
venerable and ingenious builders of the ark 
Ought rather to be called carpenters, or fbip- 
_wrights, than mafons; but pérhaps they 
will plead as an apology for adopting that ap- 
ellation, that Noah was commandeé to pitch, 
Or'rather, as the Hebrew expreffes it, pla/fer 
the ark. Gen. vj. 14. But this kind of pic/- 
dering is very different from mafon’s work, fo 
called. I am afraid, then, that the modern 
Noachites have no grounds for calling them- 
felves MaYons. : 
Noachites...Tanning Liquor. 
_wifhes, of theirand yveur 
427 
tate Anacreon ; with what fuccefs, let the 
follwing ftanza evince : 
¢¢ Letus drink our wine to make our hearts 
id glad, . 
And not, like old Noah, get drunk and be 
mad; 
Left, like him, we may fall on our backs 
and expefe > 
% * * * 
To leave joking ; what can be more pre- 
fane and ridiculous, than to turn the 
{cripture hiftories into jovial fongs, efpe- 
cially by a fet of men who call them- 
felves after the mame of the patriarch, 
whom they here treat with contempt ? 
Upon the whole, Mr. Editor, you will 
clearly perceive, that while Free Mafonry 
confilts of fuch trifling follies as this, no 
legitimate government need be atraid of 
its producing a revolution. Men who 
can delight in fuch abfurdities muff 
make wretched politicians or  philofe- 
phers. Such inflitutions may indeed 
be productive of bad confequences in any 
country, by encouraging a tondnefs for 
filly fpeculations and frivolous purfuits. 
I with that thofe Free Mafons whe 
have a reoard for true knowledge, virtue, 
religion, and the interelts of their coun- 
try, would lay thele things to heart, ard 
fet. themfelves to clear away the rubbish 
which defiles and loads the building. By 
fo doing they will do pood fervice to the 
fociety, and herein they fhall have the 
cordial affifiance, asthey have the good 
¢ . Humbie fervant, De Ta Ne 
— eae 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR,- 
READ in your October number 
(page 244) a defcription of Seguin’s | 
mode of preparing and tanning leather: 
in France, remarking it te be a novel 
method,—Et comes within my eXperience 
to fay, that a fimilar mode has been adopt- 
ed in this country (I believe) long before 
Seguin’s practice, and which is now fo far 
eftablifhed here, as to have-a manufactory 
in the neighbourhood of Vauxhall and 
Kennington for extracting a Vegetable 
aftringent liquor for that purpofe :—the 
effect of which has been tried with fuc- 
cefs. (This liquoralfo contains valuable 
properties fer other manufactures.) The 
tan liquor thus produced is more thaa 
ten times the ftrength of ooze hquor made 
from oak bark; confequently, in its ope- 
ration, it muft be proportionally quicker, 
and of courfe much more advantageous 
than the mode heretofore practifed :—to 
| which 
¢ 
