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Article HISTORY OF MASONRY. ← Page 3 of 6 →
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History Of Masonry.
according to very imperfect ideas of astronomical correctness . The Julian calendar continued in use till it was again reformed by Pope "Gregory XIII . in 1582 ; which reform , after being received by a great part of Europe , was at length adopted in Britain in 1 752 ; and thus put an end to the- almost continual occasion of adverting to the distinction betwixt the old stile and new stilein public and private
, transactions with foreign countries . Julius Caesar and his legions had built much in Gaul : and at Rome he raised his great circus , three furlongs in length , and one in breadth , that held 260 , 000 people at the shews ; with his stately palace , and temple of Venus : he also ordered Carthage and Corinth to be rebuilt , about 100 years after they had been demolished . He had
attained that supremacy over the republic to which he so strenuously aspired ; but we cannot know certainly the use he intended to make of the plenitude of power he possessed , because he was prematurely cut off by assasination in the senate-house ; at a time when this act of treacherous violence , so far from restoring liberty to a worn-out republiconlleft the place Caesar occupiedto be contended for
, y , again by a renewal of all the horrors of unprincipled ambition and civil discord . [ A . M . 39 60 . Before Christ 44 . 3 But when , after a copious evacuation of the best and most illustrious blood in the state , supreme power once more centred in the hand of Octavius , afterward so famous under the name of Augustus , this proud mistress of the world became as truly the unrivalled seat of arts as of empire .
The death of Julias Caesar was soon followed by the conquest of Egypt , the death of Cleopatra , the end of the Grecian monarchy ; and the commencement of the Roman empire , by the victory-Augustus gained over Pompey the younger at Actittm . This illustrious patron of architecture , with his minister Agrippa , erected the great portico of the Pantheon , which has the following inscription on the frieze : ^ Before Christ 29 , 3
M . AGRIPPA L . F . COS . TERTIUM FECIT . This inscription has given rise to a general opinion that the whole of this beautiful temple was of his erection ; yet several antiquarians and artists have concluded that the Pantheon existed from the time of the . commonwealth . Dion Cassius , in treating of the magnificence of Agrippa , says , ' And he also finished or perfected the Pantheon : '
and Michael Angelo was persuaded that the body of the temple , and the portico leading into it , were the work of three several architects ; because the roof , and the order which supports it , do not correspond with each other , and want much of that elegance and symmetry so striking in the portico . The body of this temple , which was consecrated to all the Godsis roundor cylindricalcrowned with a
, , , dome ; it is 144 feet diamater within , and of the same height from the pavement up to the large aperture at the summit , from which the building receives its light . It is of the Corinthian order ; and the inner circumference is divided into seven grand niches , wrought in the thickness pf the wall ; six of which are flat at the top , but the 3 E ?
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
History Of Masonry.
according to very imperfect ideas of astronomical correctness . The Julian calendar continued in use till it was again reformed by Pope "Gregory XIII . in 1582 ; which reform , after being received by a great part of Europe , was at length adopted in Britain in 1 752 ; and thus put an end to the- almost continual occasion of adverting to the distinction betwixt the old stile and new stilein public and private
, transactions with foreign countries . Julius Caesar and his legions had built much in Gaul : and at Rome he raised his great circus , three furlongs in length , and one in breadth , that held 260 , 000 people at the shews ; with his stately palace , and temple of Venus : he also ordered Carthage and Corinth to be rebuilt , about 100 years after they had been demolished . He had
attained that supremacy over the republic to which he so strenuously aspired ; but we cannot know certainly the use he intended to make of the plenitude of power he possessed , because he was prematurely cut off by assasination in the senate-house ; at a time when this act of treacherous violence , so far from restoring liberty to a worn-out republiconlleft the place Caesar occupiedto be contended for
, y , again by a renewal of all the horrors of unprincipled ambition and civil discord . [ A . M . 39 60 . Before Christ 44 . 3 But when , after a copious evacuation of the best and most illustrious blood in the state , supreme power once more centred in the hand of Octavius , afterward so famous under the name of Augustus , this proud mistress of the world became as truly the unrivalled seat of arts as of empire .
The death of Julias Caesar was soon followed by the conquest of Egypt , the death of Cleopatra , the end of the Grecian monarchy ; and the commencement of the Roman empire , by the victory-Augustus gained over Pompey the younger at Actittm . This illustrious patron of architecture , with his minister Agrippa , erected the great portico of the Pantheon , which has the following inscription on the frieze : ^ Before Christ 29 , 3
M . AGRIPPA L . F . COS . TERTIUM FECIT . This inscription has given rise to a general opinion that the whole of this beautiful temple was of his erection ; yet several antiquarians and artists have concluded that the Pantheon existed from the time of the . commonwealth . Dion Cassius , in treating of the magnificence of Agrippa , says , ' And he also finished or perfected the Pantheon : '
and Michael Angelo was persuaded that the body of the temple , and the portico leading into it , were the work of three several architects ; because the roof , and the order which supports it , do not correspond with each other , and want much of that elegance and symmetry so striking in the portico . The body of this temple , which was consecrated to all the Godsis roundor cylindricalcrowned with a
, , , dome ; it is 144 feet diamater within , and of the same height from the pavement up to the large aperture at the summit , from which the building receives its light . It is of the Corinthian order ; and the inner circumference is divided into seven grand niches , wrought in the thickness pf the wall ; six of which are flat at the top , but the 3 E ?