Q. What answer was returned? A. Let him be admitted. Q. What did the Grand Commander then observe? A. Pilgrim, having gained admittance to our asylum, what profession have you now to make in testimony of your fitness to be received a Knight among our number. Q. Your answer? A. Most Eminent, I now declare, in truth and soberness, that I hold no enmity or hatred against a being on earth, that I would not freely reconcile, should I find him in a corresponding disposition. Q. What was the Grand Commander's reply? A. Pilgrim, the sentiments you utter are worthy of the cause in which you are engaged; but still we must require some stronger proofs of your faithfulness; the proofs we demand are, that you participate with us in five libations; this being accomplished, we will receive you a Knight among our number. Q. What were the ingredients of the libations? A. Four of them were taken in wine and water, and the fifth in pure wine. Q. What was the first libation? A. To the memory of Solomon, King of Israel. Q. What was the second libation? A. To the memory of Hiram, King of Tyre. Q. What was the third? A. To the memory of Hiram, the widow's son, who lost his life in defence of his integrity. Q. What followed? A. The Grand Commander then addressed me: "Pilgrim, the Order to which you seek to unite yourself is founded on the Christian religion; let us, then, attend to a lesson from the holy evangelist." Q. What followed? A. The Most Excellent Prelate then read a lesson relative to the apostasy of Judas Iscariot. (See Templar's Chart.) Q. What followed? A. The Grand Commander then addressed me: "Pilgrim, the twelve tapers you see around the triangle, correspond in number with the disciples of our Saviour while on earth, one of whom fell by transgression, and betrayed his Lord and Master; and as a constant admonition to you always to persevere in the paths of honor, integrity, and truth, and as a perpetual memorial of the apostasy of Judas Iscariot, you are required by the rules of our Order to extinguish one of those tapers; and let it ever remind you that he who can basely violate his vow and betray his secret, is worthy of no better fate than Judas Iscariot." (The candidate extinguishes one of the tapers; the triangle is placed in the centre of the room, on which are twelve burning candles; between each candle stick a glass of wine; in the centre of the triangle is placed a coffin, on which are the Bible, skull and cross-bones.) Q. What followed? A. The relics were then uncovered, and the Grand Commander thus addressed me: "Pilgrim, you here behold an emblem of mortality resting on divinity--a human skull resting on the Holy Scriptures; it is to teach us that among all the trials and vicissitudes which we are destined to endure while passing through the pilgrimage of this life, a firm reliance on divine protection can alone afford us the consolation and satisfaction which the world can neither give nor take away."