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Article MASONRY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonry In The Middle Ages.
MASONRY IN THE MIDDLE AGES .
ONE of the most interesting chapters in the history of Freemasonry , is the record of its existence and progress during what are termed the medieval ages . It was at this period , that , by mingling the culture . of the imagination with productive industry , it gave a poetic vesture to the prosaic arts of civilization . It addressed itself to the higher faculties of
man , and thus elevated the practical by connecting them with the spiritual endowments of his nature . In nothing is this more manifest , and no more convincing proof of its truth can be required , than those glorious and venerable monuments of the past , the " religious structures" of the times to which we refer . " It was only" says an intelligent foreiBrother" by
, gn , devoting the noblest gift to the highest purposes , by the union of art with religion , which formed the spirit of Masonry in the middle ages , that such wonderful w-orks could be produced . Let us ever honour the men who have left such inheritances . I have wandered in the wide area , and climbed the thousand year'd arches of the Colosseum—I have stood under the
graceful dome of the Pantheon ; and , wonderful though the effect of these buildings be , yet the impression they make on the mind cannot at all be compared with that of the so-called Gothic cathedrals . I can only explain this , if explained it can be , by the spirit which raised those different edifices ; which spirit is most singularly embodied and illustrated in the
distinctive character of their styles : I mean the round and the pointed arch . . The one wide , stretching , solid , and massive , it clings strongly to the earth , and guides the eye horizontally to what is about us . The other slender , high , aerial , it strives and points upwards to what is above us , and leads the thoughts to higher things . Truly Masonicit
sym-, bolizes and spiritualizes , till it has transformed the most material of things , heavy , ponderous stone , into a permanent melody . That is what our ancestors in Masonry did . In their times Masonry was a reality , by which men , wise men , lived and worked , and did w ell . It is still good that we honour it ; it is still right and proper that we erect new
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonry In The Middle Ages.
MASONRY IN THE MIDDLE AGES .
ONE of the most interesting chapters in the history of Freemasonry , is the record of its existence and progress during what are termed the medieval ages . It was at this period , that , by mingling the culture . of the imagination with productive industry , it gave a poetic vesture to the prosaic arts of civilization . It addressed itself to the higher faculties of
man , and thus elevated the practical by connecting them with the spiritual endowments of his nature . In nothing is this more manifest , and no more convincing proof of its truth can be required , than those glorious and venerable monuments of the past , the " religious structures" of the times to which we refer . " It was only" says an intelligent foreiBrother" by
, gn , devoting the noblest gift to the highest purposes , by the union of art with religion , which formed the spirit of Masonry in the middle ages , that such wonderful w-orks could be produced . Let us ever honour the men who have left such inheritances . I have wandered in the wide area , and climbed the thousand year'd arches of the Colosseum—I have stood under the
graceful dome of the Pantheon ; and , wonderful though the effect of these buildings be , yet the impression they make on the mind cannot at all be compared with that of the so-called Gothic cathedrals . I can only explain this , if explained it can be , by the spirit which raised those different edifices ; which spirit is most singularly embodied and illustrated in the
distinctive character of their styles : I mean the round and the pointed arch . . The one wide , stretching , solid , and massive , it clings strongly to the earth , and guides the eye horizontally to what is about us . The other slender , high , aerial , it strives and points upwards to what is above us , and leads the thoughts to higher things . Truly Masonicit
sym-, bolizes and spiritualizes , till it has transformed the most material of things , heavy , ponderous stone , into a permanent melody . That is what our ancestors in Masonry did . In their times Masonry was a reality , by which men , wise men , lived and worked , and did w ell . It is still good that we honour it ; it is still right and proper that we erect new