Art-Jottings In Art-Studios.

beauty , is one educated as nearly to perfection as may be ; but this is not all , for in this educative process , progressive as it must be , the man becomes , not in this one particular of Art-appreciation but in every other mental quality , gradually softened and moulded , until complete civilization in the individual is the result . Nor is this process , once more , going on in the individual , without its results in his surroundings ; hence , one true Artist—that is true appreciator and expounder of this mental quality—might , nay

must , in time , mould tbe people to which he belongs ; , wherein consists the true value of Art . Once more , we do not , in the papers to which this preparatory one is but au introduction , intend to lay clown tbe principles of Art , so much as to give our readers some practical information in a concise form of the various processes used in " The Arts , " and by thus beginning , as it were at the bottom of the ladder of Art learning , we hope to

awaken such an inquiring spirit as may lead them to tread its rounds for themselves , assuring them that every upward step will more than repay them for the toil expended in the ascent . Nor should they delay , for as a poet-artist reminded us : — " Art is long , and Time is fleeting , And our hearts , though stout and brave , Still , like muffled drums , are beating Funeral marches to the grave . "

An Ancient Chaege.*

AN ANCIENT CHAEGE . *

T CONGRATULATE you , my Brother , on being initiated into the ancient and - * - venerable order of F . and A . Masons , an order which has often been decried ancl calumniated , and which you may have heard represented as wicked or trilling , whilst you may have heard our meetings designated as assemblies of riotous jollity or of destructive intemperance . I am glad that such misrepresentations have had no ill effect upon 3 our mindand that they have not deterred you from entering amongst us .

, Ton were doubtless aware that men the most renowned for Wisdom and Honour , and who lived in the practice of every domestic and public virtue , had in all ages , as well as in the present , been members of our Society , and most zealous to promote its present welfare and future prosperity , ancl yon must have been assured that this could not have been the case if such men had found themselves betrayed into anything wicked , trifling , or ridiculous .

If we look into the page of history , we shall find that from the commencement of the world to the present moment no other institution has ever been universal or durable . The most celebrated law-givers have been unable to render their institutions permanent , whatever were their laws , however excellent their s _ ystems , they eoidd not be extended into every age ancl every country . They had chiefly in view victories and conquests , and the elevation of one people above another . They , therefore , could not be reconciled to the interestsor congenial to the feelings of every nation . Philanthropy was not the

, basis on which their systems were founded . Tho love of country , badly understood and carried to excess , frequently destroyed the love of humanity . Men are not essentially distinguished by the difference of language they speak , the garb they wear , or the dignities with which they are invested . The whole world is one great Republic , of which every nation is a family ancl every individual a child . To