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  • July 1, 1855
  • Page 33
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, July 1, 1855: Page 33

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that immense field , whatever best suited his grandiose style ! How did he despise whatever refused to lend itself to his pomp of language !" Diderot and Montesquieu had little better sympathy with nature ;

Boileau , in his pictures of nature , invariably recurs to his melon-beds ; even Eacine , in the account of a journey to the South of France , was most sensibly struck by the horrible bitterness of the olives , and Voltaire ' s impressions of the country beyond the Rhine seems limited to the strong beer .

The age was one of " Renaissance . " Corneille and Eacine wrote fine plays on the Greek and Soman models , but without pourtraying either Greeks or Romans . People were taught to cut their trees into pyramids , and their groves on the plan of geometrical diagrams , harmonizing with the general tendency to assist nature . They could see little beauty in the lily till they had called for their pallet and brushes ; the violet , too , needed a trifling extra perfume ; and no

gold could in their eyes dispense with the last touch of the gilders . All mediaeval art was despised ; the cathedrals and other noble monuments of past ages were crumbling to dust ; no philosopher dared , if even he wished , to put forward a hand for their preservation . Voltaire suggested the old church of Notre Dame should be pulled down , and another more worthy temple substituted in its place . " Is it not of a barbarous architecture ? " he writes . " London was not so rich

as Paris when its aldermen erected St . Paul ' s , which is the second church in Europe , and seems to reproach us with our Gothic cathedral . " Did not his countrymen act wisely in raising his monument under the dome of w hat doubtless he would have called the third church in Europe ?

The same times produced a multitude of great names , that will stand in the estimate of this generation far above those we have selected as best calculated to mark the era of academical worship , and a classical renaissance that dressed Attila as a French marquis , and crowned the heroes of Greek and Roman story with well-powdered perruques . "InCinna , " says Voltaire , " Augustus was seen

entering with the strut of a bully ^ covered with a square wig reaching to his waist . This wig was stuck over with laurel leaves , and topped with a big hat , over which again nodded a double range of red feathers . " Pit illustration of the times that put into the mouths of Plato and Socrates the ravings of the encyclopaedists—an absurdity they could not see , but quite as apparent as the red feathers which they could all deride .

These times are happily past ; Voltairism is as much exploded as Tom-Painism . Infidelity has shifted its ground , as it ever must , till eventually driven wholly from the field . To be sure , we still have men who pride themselves on the ability to laugh at what others believe , and of whom it was once wisely remarked , that if they

refused to credit anything but what they fully understood , their creed was likely to prove of the shortest ; but with whom , nevertheless , there is generally found a superabundance of credulity when they forge systems for themselves , von . i . 3 l

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1855-07-01, Page 33” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 14 May 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_01071855/page/33/.
  • List
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Title Category Page
ART. Article 40
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 41
LODGES OF INSTRUCTION Article 60
ST. MARTIN'S HALL, LONG ACRE. Article 39
A FLIGHT. Article 25
A POETICAL ANSWER IS REQUESTED TO THE FOLLOWING ENIGMA. Article 26
APHORISMATA MASONICA. Article 27
REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS. Article 28
masonic songs-no. 1. Article 37
ON HEARING A LITTLE CHILD SAY THE LORD'S PRAYER. Article 37
MUSIC. Article 38
SPECULATIVE RAMBLES AMONGST THE STARS. Article 15
TRAVELS BY A FREEMASON. Article 20
PROGRESS. Article 1
NOTES ON ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCH. Article 9
NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 43
MASONIC INTELLIGENCE. Article 43
METROPOLITAN Article 44
PROVINCIAL Article 45
FRANCE. Article 57
GERMANY. Article 57
COLONIAL Article 59
NOTICE. Article 63
METROPOLITAN LODGE MEETINGS FOR JULY. Article 60
CHAPTERS OF INSTRUCTION Article 61
Obituary Article 62
LIFE AND DEATH. Article 62
NEW POSTAL REGULATIONS. Article 63
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 63
ERRATUM. Article 64
ANIMAL AND HUMAN INSTINCT. Article 6
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Page 33

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Untitled Article

that immense field , whatever best suited his grandiose style ! How did he despise whatever refused to lend itself to his pomp of language !" Diderot and Montesquieu had little better sympathy with nature ;

Boileau , in his pictures of nature , invariably recurs to his melon-beds ; even Eacine , in the account of a journey to the South of France , was most sensibly struck by the horrible bitterness of the olives , and Voltaire ' s impressions of the country beyond the Rhine seems limited to the strong beer .

The age was one of " Renaissance . " Corneille and Eacine wrote fine plays on the Greek and Soman models , but without pourtraying either Greeks or Romans . People were taught to cut their trees into pyramids , and their groves on the plan of geometrical diagrams , harmonizing with the general tendency to assist nature . They could see little beauty in the lily till they had called for their pallet and brushes ; the violet , too , needed a trifling extra perfume ; and no

gold could in their eyes dispense with the last touch of the gilders . All mediaeval art was despised ; the cathedrals and other noble monuments of past ages were crumbling to dust ; no philosopher dared , if even he wished , to put forward a hand for their preservation . Voltaire suggested the old church of Notre Dame should be pulled down , and another more worthy temple substituted in its place . " Is it not of a barbarous architecture ? " he writes . " London was not so rich

as Paris when its aldermen erected St . Paul ' s , which is the second church in Europe , and seems to reproach us with our Gothic cathedral . " Did not his countrymen act wisely in raising his monument under the dome of w hat doubtless he would have called the third church in Europe ?

The same times produced a multitude of great names , that will stand in the estimate of this generation far above those we have selected as best calculated to mark the era of academical worship , and a classical renaissance that dressed Attila as a French marquis , and crowned the heroes of Greek and Roman story with well-powdered perruques . "InCinna , " says Voltaire , " Augustus was seen

entering with the strut of a bully ^ covered with a square wig reaching to his waist . This wig was stuck over with laurel leaves , and topped with a big hat , over which again nodded a double range of red feathers . " Pit illustration of the times that put into the mouths of Plato and Socrates the ravings of the encyclopaedists—an absurdity they could not see , but quite as apparent as the red feathers which they could all deride .

These times are happily past ; Voltairism is as much exploded as Tom-Painism . Infidelity has shifted its ground , as it ever must , till eventually driven wholly from the field . To be sure , we still have men who pride themselves on the ability to laugh at what others believe , and of whom it was once wisely remarked , that if they

refused to credit anything but what they fully understood , their creed was likely to prove of the shortest ; but with whom , nevertheless , there is generally found a superabundance of credulity when they forge systems for themselves , von . i . 3 l

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