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Article M. CLAVEL'S PICTURESQUE MASONRY. Page 1 of 5 →
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M. Clavel's Picturesque Masonry.
M . CLAVEL'S PICTURESQUE MASONRY .
WE have obtained some early sheets of this eagerly looked-for work A spirit of genuine inquiry into the statistics and antiquity of our great Craft is not , we are rejoiced to know , confined to England , the free nation of thinkers , but is extending itself—at least it is so of late yearsamongst our Brethren " at the other side of the water : " we confess , that when we saw the title of M . Gavel ' s forthcoming volume , Maconnerie Pittoresquewe had some natural misgivings as to how such a
, work could be carried out , with due respect to our antient landmarks , and to the writer ' s sense of his obligation . But that , which as yet we have been allowed to see , has removed our anticipatory doubts and misgivings . That our readers may be enabled to judge of the spirit in which our French Brother ' s publication has been written , as well as to give them a notion of his mode of handling his subject , we translate the portion that has reached us .
" It was a general practice amongst the nations of antiquity , to impart all . information appertaining to the sciences , arts , and trades , in secresy . Amongst the Egyptians , for instance , the priests formed separate classes , each of which devoted itself to the teaching of a special branch of human knowledge . Each of these classes made its pupils go through a fixed course of the studies deemed necessary for the science or art which it professed ; and made them , besides , submit , in each
secondary step of their noviciate , to proofs , the object of which was to test their advance in what they were taught , and which threw an additional shade of mystery on a system , instruction in which was carefully concealed from the people . " The Persians , the Chaldeans , the Syrians , the Greeks , the Romans , and the Gauls , adopted the same method ; and traces of it may be found amongst modern nations to so late a period as the 17 th century . Even in our days , the English traditionally use the word ' mystery' (
muster e ~ ) as synonimous with trade or calling . " ¦ Equally with the other sciences , architecture was taught by the Egyptians in secret . In addition to merely civil architecture , there existed amongst them a sacred branch of that science , which drew its emblematic types from the scenes which Nature offers to our view . The youth who were instructed in this science , were at the same time initiated into the mysteries of religion ; and formed , in addition to the
priesthood , a separate caste or corporation , whose duty it was to build , after the designs traced by the priests , the temples and other monuments , dedicated to the worship of the gods . * * * * * * * " The Egyptians brought into Greece their mysteries and the institutions which were founded upon them . Amongst the Greeks , according to the authority of Plutarch , Osiris took the name of Bacchus ; Isis that of Ceres ; and the Egyptian Pamilian mysteries became the Dionysian of Greece . Thenceforward we need not be surprised to find , that the organization of the sacred architects was the same in both countries .
" 1 he priests of Dionysius , or Bacchus , were the first who erected theatres and founded dramatic representations , which , in their origin , were essentially connected with the worship of the Deity . The architects entrusted with the building of these edifices were attached to the priesthood by initiation , and were called the Dionysian workmen or Dionysiasts . " About a thousand years antecedent to our era , the mysteries of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
M. Clavel's Picturesque Masonry.
M . CLAVEL'S PICTURESQUE MASONRY .
WE have obtained some early sheets of this eagerly looked-for work A spirit of genuine inquiry into the statistics and antiquity of our great Craft is not , we are rejoiced to know , confined to England , the free nation of thinkers , but is extending itself—at least it is so of late yearsamongst our Brethren " at the other side of the water : " we confess , that when we saw the title of M . Gavel ' s forthcoming volume , Maconnerie Pittoresquewe had some natural misgivings as to how such a
, work could be carried out , with due respect to our antient landmarks , and to the writer ' s sense of his obligation . But that , which as yet we have been allowed to see , has removed our anticipatory doubts and misgivings . That our readers may be enabled to judge of the spirit in which our French Brother ' s publication has been written , as well as to give them a notion of his mode of handling his subject , we translate the portion that has reached us .
" It was a general practice amongst the nations of antiquity , to impart all . information appertaining to the sciences , arts , and trades , in secresy . Amongst the Egyptians , for instance , the priests formed separate classes , each of which devoted itself to the teaching of a special branch of human knowledge . Each of these classes made its pupils go through a fixed course of the studies deemed necessary for the science or art which it professed ; and made them , besides , submit , in each
secondary step of their noviciate , to proofs , the object of which was to test their advance in what they were taught , and which threw an additional shade of mystery on a system , instruction in which was carefully concealed from the people . " The Persians , the Chaldeans , the Syrians , the Greeks , the Romans , and the Gauls , adopted the same method ; and traces of it may be found amongst modern nations to so late a period as the 17 th century . Even in our days , the English traditionally use the word ' mystery' (
muster e ~ ) as synonimous with trade or calling . " ¦ Equally with the other sciences , architecture was taught by the Egyptians in secret . In addition to merely civil architecture , there existed amongst them a sacred branch of that science , which drew its emblematic types from the scenes which Nature offers to our view . The youth who were instructed in this science , were at the same time initiated into the mysteries of religion ; and formed , in addition to the
priesthood , a separate caste or corporation , whose duty it was to build , after the designs traced by the priests , the temples and other monuments , dedicated to the worship of the gods . * * * * * * * " The Egyptians brought into Greece their mysteries and the institutions which were founded upon them . Amongst the Greeks , according to the authority of Plutarch , Osiris took the name of Bacchus ; Isis that of Ceres ; and the Egyptian Pamilian mysteries became the Dionysian of Greece . Thenceforward we need not be surprised to find , that the organization of the sacred architects was the same in both countries .
" 1 he priests of Dionysius , or Bacchus , were the first who erected theatres and founded dramatic representations , which , in their origin , were essentially connected with the worship of the Deity . The architects entrusted with the building of these edifices were attached to the priesthood by initiation , and were called the Dionysian workmen or Dionysiasts . " About a thousand years antecedent to our era , the mysteries of