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Article GLASGOW MASONICS. ← Page 7 of 11 →
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Glasgow Masonics.
monk , whose simpler truths confounded tbe complicated cycles and epicycles of the Ptolomaics , built up with so much labour and ingenuity , and defended by a scholastic logic deemed impregnable ; a discovery which destroyed forever their crystal spheres ; deposed the elder system from the attitude of " dignified repose , "—conferred upon it by the science of his predecessors , —the " world that we inhabit , " and launched it in its annual orbit round the sun . An instrument whichin the perfection of modern
, improvement , has revealed to science such wonders of space—dissipating at the same time the incomprehensible nebula ; , shown by it to be but the indistinctness of enormous distance , and the infant worlds of the nebular hypothesis . It was a native of that classic clime , who first dispelled the fallacy of Nature ' s supposed " horror of a vacuum ; " explained the true reason why the water follows the piston in the lifting-pump , placed the im - palpable air in a balanceand extorted from the circumambient
atmo-, sphere the confession of its weight and height . In another walk of science , not less sublime in its views , and not less startling in its revelations , than astronomy , —geology to wit , —we are under deep obligations to Italy and the Italians , who early discovered the true nature of the organic remains in which that country abounds , to the more perfect acquaintance with which , through the once contemned labours of
comparative anatomists , we owe the accuracy and precision of modern geological science . We are told of mountains in Tuscany , of more than a thousand feet in height , composed in great measure of microscopic-chambered shells , of which , in the bulk of one and a half cubic inches , Soldani discovered from ten to eleven thousand individuals . Some of the species were so minute as to pass freely through the perforations made by a fine needle , and would require five hundred of them to counterpoise a single grain . In reflecting on the immense
time , which we cannot but suppose to have been necessary , for the formation , elevation , and lapidification of such astounding masses of extinct animal life , the period since man ' s first occupancy of a place in this " breathing world " dwindles by comparison into the most insignificant speck ; and we at once acknowledge the truth of the sentiment expressed by the amiable and pious Paschal , that man is , " Un neant a . Vtigard de t'infiniun tout a I ' egard du neantun milieu entre rien et
, , tout . It est infiniment eloigne des deux extremes , et son etre n ' est point moins distant du neant d ' on it est tire que de Vinfini d ' on il est englouti . " "A nothing as regards infinity , everything compared with nothing , occupying a middle space between nothing and immensity . Infinitely removed from the two extremes ; and his position not less distant from the nothing whence he is taken than from the infinite into which he is absorbed . "
With equal propriety we might have alluded to the medical , anatomical , and theological attainments of the Italians—to their jurisprudence , their theology , to vindicate the general estimation in which their literature is so deservedl y held ; but we have confined ourselves , for want of space , of such allusions that are most commonly known , and which have most readily occurred to us . The petition of the Old Lodge of Glasgow , Freemen St . John , one of tlie few lodges still in existencewhose names are recorded in connection
, witli tbe charter granted by them to William St . Clair , in the year 1626 or 1628 , has at length been disposed of , and the recommendation of the Grand Committee , that the place , 3 bis on the roll of the Grand Lodge , be conceded to it , was all but unanimously agreed to , the solitary opposition offered having been afterwards withdrawn .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Glasgow Masonics.
monk , whose simpler truths confounded tbe complicated cycles and epicycles of the Ptolomaics , built up with so much labour and ingenuity , and defended by a scholastic logic deemed impregnable ; a discovery which destroyed forever their crystal spheres ; deposed the elder system from the attitude of " dignified repose , "—conferred upon it by the science of his predecessors , —the " world that we inhabit , " and launched it in its annual orbit round the sun . An instrument whichin the perfection of modern
, improvement , has revealed to science such wonders of space—dissipating at the same time the incomprehensible nebula ; , shown by it to be but the indistinctness of enormous distance , and the infant worlds of the nebular hypothesis . It was a native of that classic clime , who first dispelled the fallacy of Nature ' s supposed " horror of a vacuum ; " explained the true reason why the water follows the piston in the lifting-pump , placed the im - palpable air in a balanceand extorted from the circumambient
atmo-, sphere the confession of its weight and height . In another walk of science , not less sublime in its views , and not less startling in its revelations , than astronomy , —geology to wit , —we are under deep obligations to Italy and the Italians , who early discovered the true nature of the organic remains in which that country abounds , to the more perfect acquaintance with which , through the once contemned labours of
comparative anatomists , we owe the accuracy and precision of modern geological science . We are told of mountains in Tuscany , of more than a thousand feet in height , composed in great measure of microscopic-chambered shells , of which , in the bulk of one and a half cubic inches , Soldani discovered from ten to eleven thousand individuals . Some of the species were so minute as to pass freely through the perforations made by a fine needle , and would require five hundred of them to counterpoise a single grain . In reflecting on the immense
time , which we cannot but suppose to have been necessary , for the formation , elevation , and lapidification of such astounding masses of extinct animal life , the period since man ' s first occupancy of a place in this " breathing world " dwindles by comparison into the most insignificant speck ; and we at once acknowledge the truth of the sentiment expressed by the amiable and pious Paschal , that man is , " Un neant a . Vtigard de t'infiniun tout a I ' egard du neantun milieu entre rien et
, , tout . It est infiniment eloigne des deux extremes , et son etre n ' est point moins distant du neant d ' on it est tire que de Vinfini d ' on il est englouti . " "A nothing as regards infinity , everything compared with nothing , occupying a middle space between nothing and immensity . Infinitely removed from the two extremes ; and his position not less distant from the nothing whence he is taken than from the infinite into which he is absorbed . "
With equal propriety we might have alluded to the medical , anatomical , and theological attainments of the Italians—to their jurisprudence , their theology , to vindicate the general estimation in which their literature is so deservedl y held ; but we have confined ourselves , for want of space , of such allusions that are most commonly known , and which have most readily occurred to us . The petition of the Old Lodge of Glasgow , Freemen St . John , one of tlie few lodges still in existencewhose names are recorded in connection
, witli tbe charter granted by them to William St . Clair , in the year 1626 or 1628 , has at length been disposed of , and the recommendation of the Grand Committee , that the place , 3 bis on the roll of the Grand Lodge , be conceded to it , was all but unanimously agreed to , the solitary opposition offered having been afterwards withdrawn .