FEMALE DEGREES. About the year 1730 societies imitating Freemasonry for the admission of women were instituted in France. By whom they were invented or who first introduced them history or tradition does not enlighten us. They are evidently the product of the French mind. The forms of these associations were, however, not definitively settled until 1760; and they were not recognized or sanctioned by the administrative authority of Masonry until the year 1774, when the Grand Orient of France established a new system called the "Rite of Masonic Adoption," which was placed under the control of the Grand Orient. Rules and regulations were thenCeforth provided for the government of these bodies, one of which was that no men should be permitted to attend them except regular Freemasons, and that each Lodge should be placed under the charge, and held under the sanction and warrant of some regularly-constituted Masonic Lodge, whose Master, or, in his absence, his Deputy, should be the presiding officer, assisted by a female Presi dent or Mistress. At first these organizations adopted divers names and rituals; some of which were ingenious and chaste, while others were puerile, and sometimes of a char acter not to merit countenance. In 1743 the emblems and vocabulary were nautical—an orient was called a Roadstead, and a Lodge, Squadron—and the sisters made the fictitious voyage to the island of Felicity, under the sails of the brethren. In 1747, the Chevalier Beauchaine, the most famous and zealous of the Masters in Paris, the same who had established his Lodge in a cabaret, where he slept, and for six francs gave at one sitting all the degrees of Masonry, instituted the order of Woodcutters; the ceremonies whereof were borrowed from the society of the Carbonari, or Coal burners, which had been previously established in Italy. The Lodge was styled a Woodyard, and was supposed to represent a forest. The officers were known by the following titles: Father Master, President; Cousin of the Oak, God. father ; Cousin of the Elm, Introductor ; Cousin of the Beech, Keeper of the Wine ; Cousin of the Service-tree, Keeper of the Bread; Cousin of the Yoke-Elm, Guard of Hospitality; Cousin of the Maple, Guard of the Chair; Cousin of the Ash, Guard of Honor. The brethren and sisters were called Cousins, and the candidate was called a Brick. This rite had an extraordinary success; the meetings were held in a large garden, in the quarter of New France, out of Paris ; the most distinguished men and women of France went there in crowds, wearing blouses and petticoats of frieze, and heavy wooden shoes, and indulged in all the fun and noisy merriment of the common people. Upon a
reception, the Father Master sat on a log of oak, his left elbow resting on a table; a slouched hat and a crown of oak leaves were on his head. Round his neck was a cordon of green silk, at the end of which hung a wedge of box-wood. He held an axe in his hand, and a pipe in his mouth, and was dressed in coarse linen. All was so arranged as to .call the attention of the adepts to the lower classes of society, to make them acquainted with their poverty and misery, and induce them to labor to improve their lot. Among these people, apparently so utterly disinherited by fortune, were nevertheless practiced virtue, friendship, love and gratitude. The design of this degree was to call the attention of the candidates, who then belonged chiefly to the noblesse; or the rich Bourgeoisie, and who were soon to be called on to regenerate France, to their true relations to the people. An these mysteries, all these odd ceremonies tended to impress the minds of the candidates, to instruct them, and to bring the higher and lower classes together, in the bonds of equality and fraternity. Other societies of both sexes succeeded this, such as the orders of the Hatchet, of Fidelity, the forms of which more fully resembled those of the ordinary Freema sonry. In 1775 a Lodge of Masonic Adoption was instituted at Paris, with imposing solemnities, under the auspices of the Lodge of St. Anthony, and in which the Duchess of Bourbon presided, and was installed Grand Mistress. This rite consisted of four degrees, viz: 1. Apprentice; 2. Com panion; 3. Mistress; 4. Perfect Mistress. In 1785, under the patronage of several members of the Court of France, the Lodge "La Candour" was opened at Paris, as Grand Mistress of which the Duchess of Bourbon was installed with unusual pomp and solemnity. The revolution checked the progress of Adoptive Lodges; but they were revived in 1805, when the Empress Josephine presided over a Lodge at Strasburg. For some years past the rite of Adoption has been confined to the limits of Paris, as a distinct and recog nized institution. At the meeting of the Grand Orient of France, in 1866, formal application was made to have the degrees of Adoptive Masonry reorganized and administered by that body.