Masonic Symbolism,

yens < pmis ) } or initiated , or , as it were , an apprentice , whose duty is , as the word intimates , to learn from his master everything pertaining to the craft which he has just joined . E . B . AV " . ( To he continued . )

Stray Thoughts On The Origin And Progress Of The Fine Arts.

STRAY THOUGHTS ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE FINE ARTS .

Bx DlAGORAS . No . X . The Corinthian order is lighter than the Doric oi Ionic , and admits of a greater display of ornament than either . Its column consists of base , shaft , and capital ; its average height is ten diameters ; the base is composed

of three tori and scotial , divided by fillets , and standing on a plinth . The flutings on the shaft are divided or separated by fillets rather more than a quarter of each fluting in width ; the flutings are cut so deep as almost to be semi-circular ; at the head the flutings terminate in leaves , to which the fillets are stalks . The core of the

capital is cylindrical ancl of the same diameter as the shaft ; it is banded by one row of water-leaves , and by another of acanthus , or olive leaves , ivhich are peculiar to the order , and eoA * ered by a scooped abacus , between which and the leaves cauliculi , or little plant-like stems , spring up , curling gracefully in the spiral form of

volutes . The frieze of this order is plain ; the architecture is divided into three faces , by small mouldings or astragals , and is surmounted by a cymatmm , which is the same as the eyma I have already spoken of . Such , then , is a brief account of the three most celebrated orders in architecture , the Doric , Ionic ,

and Corinthian , as invented by the ancient Greeks ; but it must not be supposed that the Grecian architects followed the precise arrangements I have enumerated ; the love of novelty and variety is in every age so prominent a feature of the human mind , that Ave cannot be surprised to find that it is everywhere displayed in the existing remains of ancient Greek architecture .

Still the broad or self-evident characteristics of each order are adhered to ; and whatever variations are adopted , harmony is preserved , although in respect of proportion and ornamental detail , no tAvo examples may agree—one variation invented by the Greeks was the adoption of male and female figures , as a substitute for columnssupporting a massive Doric entablature . The

, male figures are usually represented in a crouching form , Avith their hands tied before them ; they are called Persians , and were introduced by Pausanius , 47 S E . G ., to commemorate the victory of Platasa , in ivhich the Persian invaders were completely overthrown . The female figures are represented in various sorts of

ornamental attire ; they are called Carians or Caryatides , and are meant to celebrate the defeat of that people by the Athenians , It Avould seem that the motiA'e which induced the Greeks to adopt this style was , that the figures of the Persians reminded them of their oppression by this people , whom they at last defeated ; the

Carians , also , Avith whom they had been long at war , at length shared a similar fate , and to represent them in the lowest possible state of degradation , they placed upon the scul p tured representations of them the heaviest entablature , viz ., the Doric . I willhoiveverremark that this account of the oriin of

, , g the Caryatid figures is given by Vitruvius , who , in his zeal to refer everything to its ori g inal source , often oversteps the bounds of earnest inquiry to deal in mere conjecture . Other writers maintain that the use of such

figures is more ancient than the invasion of Xerxes , and some suppose them to represent the virgins engaged in the worship of Diana , and bearing on their heads the sacred vessels of the temple . The laboiu's of modern travellers have thrown some light on the mechanical disposition of the building materials employed by the

ancient Greeks . The first material they employed in the sacred edifices was timber ; then brick-stone was next employed , and last , most beautiful ancl most permanent of all , marble . The wall enclosing the cella of the Parthenon was formed of horizontal rows of

marble blocks , each of the same thickness as the wall itself ; and the junctions in each alternate course were vertically over each other , securing by this plan great durability . The pavement is of square stones of equal size , and the joints are so accurately fitted as to be scarcely visible . This close junction of the marble blocks has often been the object of admirationand was effected

, by hollowing out the middle part of each block , so as to leave a small margin , the surface of this margin was highly polished , so that the corresponding margins of any two blocks came into such close contact , that the external line of junction is often imperceptible ; the object of hollowing out the middle part of each block

was to avoid the labour of polishing the whole siu-face . It was usual to add the ornamental parts after the edifice was erected , and not during the - progress of erection . The ornaments were cut out of the solid

stone , the surface being first smoothed . The architectural labours of the Greeks were chiefly confined to the erection ancl embellishment of their temples , places of public amusement and exercise , and the entrances of their cities . On their private chvellings they bestowed little or no attention , and public comi'orb was in a great measure unheeded . The Romans far sxnpassed the

Greeks in their care and attention to objects of national utility ; they not only gratified their pious vanity by erecting gorgeous temples to their gods , but they constructed roads and bridges , well adapted to the internal communications of their vast empire ; also gigantic sewers for draining their citiesand immense aqueducts for

, giving them abundant supplies of pure water . These magnificent works , of the P-omans have never been equalled for durability and extent . Long before any communication was established ivith Greece , the Italians cultivated architecture .

The people of Etruria , or Tuscany , are said to have invented a particular order called the TUSCAN ; and it is believed that the Somans employed Tuscan architects to execute their great works before they knew anything of the splendid achievements of Grecian art . It is h y some , howeA'er , supposed that the Tuscan is only a modification of the Doric order ; the DoricdiA-ested of a few mouldings

, and of its tri glyphs , its columns being reduced about tivo diameters in hei ght , would furnish the Tuscan order . It admits of no ornaments Avhatever , and is the most solid and simple of all the orders . No regular example of this order occurs among existing antique remains . Vitruvius refers to it under the appellation of

the Hustle , from its original simplicity and suddenness of style . It does not appear that architecture was known at Eome before the period of the Tarquins , but from their time various indications of a growing acquaintance with , the art present themselves . In the reign of Tarquin the Elderthe Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was commenced

, by Etruscan workmen . Cicero says it had two rows of columns in the interior , by which it was divided into three parts , and its front ivas crowned by a pediment : it was thrice destroyed and thrice rebuilt on the same foundation . "When a regular intercourse had been established between Italy and Greece , tlie Italian artists