The Masonic University Of Kentucky.

from contiguous States , dreading the horrors of invasion , became uncertain in their attendance , and , eaii y in the autumn of 1861 , it became evident that the doors must be closed . Dr . Tremble removed to Chicago , Illinois , his facult y was dissolved , and for ei ght months the voices of

teacher and scholars were silent here . On the 24 th June , 1862 , the Board of Trustees re-organised the whole b y the appointment of Bro . Dr . Rob Morris , President ; Hon . R . AT Logan , A . M ., Professor of Constitutional Law and Political Economy ; and Rev . G . T . Moore ,

Principal of the Grammar School . B y the present arrangement it is designed to maintain the Grammar School , keep alive the germs of the classes , and await the better days , when a quiet country and re-animated business will enable Grand Lodge to fulfil the high purposes contemplated in the establishment of the Masonic University .

The Spirit Of Gothic Art.

THE SPIRIT OF GOTHIC ART .

" And there , how picturesquely tall above , The moss-clad tow ' r o ' ertops the umbrageous grove ; "While o ' er its Gothic honours , hourly shed , There , azure tints fantastic lichens-spread . " Man is the only animal that may bo said to possess the power of aggregate existence ; all other animals exist individually ; the aggregate powers of any one of their classes remain without material changeThey

any . may diminish or increase , according to the plan set forth by Darwin—by " natural selection in the struggle for existence , " but their faculties remain ever the same . "With man how different is the case ? He not . only makes observations and draws deductions from them , but he reasons upon the probable causes and finalities of those things which he observesand communicates the

know-, ledge so obtained to his descendants , and they carry the process still further—ever further , in what I may perhaps be allowed to call everlasting progression . Thus the experiences of ages furnish an accumulated and accumulating stock of knowledge , which , man applies to his

own use . It therefore follows that , whatever tends to facilitate the communication of ideas , must have a direct tendency to exalt the human family . By these means , too , the famous dead ever live in onr midst , and the great past in the living present ! and so the immortality of man is distinctly shadowed forth in his works . Oh , what a power is that of the intellect of man ; how vast the

scope of his ken ; how godlike in his majesty ! He wends his way in the wind tracks of heaven , and walks in the depths of the vasty deep ; he has described the mighty circles of science and the magic lines of art ; subjected old earth to his power and girdled it with chains ; he rides upon the sea-foam and makes the turbulent element to serve him . But where shall we stop P

He measures the stars , their courses , periods , and revolutions , and has realised the fable of Prometheus , by extracting lire from the clouds . But all this progress , has not been the result of hysterical starts , but rather of slow gradual growth . Now , as the knowledge of the universe , so the knowledge of his own capabilitiesin imitating what is around

, , above , beneath ! Thus arose the arts , poetry , painting , sculpture , architecture , music . As the cultivation of these , so their vast influence in aid of virtue upon the mind ; and , as Horace truly says" Pictoribus atque poetis Quidlibet audendi semper fuit axiua potestas . "

The advance of art has not been produced by servile imitations and transcendental copyism , but by throwing off the trammels of what we moderns call " red-tapaism , " and giving loose to the powers of the imagination ; striving ever , — " To give to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name . " making ideal beauty the study , and selecting and arranging cdl those redundant beauties which are ever surrounding us . Now , as of old , it is still important that the artist should ever be striking out new rules , according to the bent of his own geniusprovidedof coursethat his brain

, , , is not akin to that of Touchstone , " so crammed with observations , the which it vented in mangled forms . " There is too great a tendency at the present time to pooh-pooh every new thing—new idea—new arrangement—too great a tendency to consider that it is impossible to go beyond what was done some 500 , 2 , 000 , and 3000 respectivel as if a command had

, years ago y ; gone forth , " Thus far , and no farther , shalt thou go !" It was not thus that present beauty was attained ; for , — " Past and Future are the wings .

On whose support , harmoniously conjoin d , Moves the great spirit of human knowledge . " The origin of the styles of art should , perhaps , be primarily attributed to climate and national habits , aud not so much to religious differences as some imagine . Such differences may have guided , but not given birth to them . The reliious feeling has in all time been the

g great prompter , which directed to their legitimate goal the finer aspirations after the loftier , the nobler , the more beautiful in art ; therefore it is , that in the mundane dwelling of the Deity , we always find the complofcest development of artistic beauty . It is the same with the Jew , tho Pagan , and the Christian , and rightly so too ! " There is nothing , " says Baptista Alberti , " in which

there ought to be employed more thought than in that of laying out and adorning a temple , not to mention that a temple well built and handsomely adorned is tho greatest ornament a city can have , but is , moreover , the habitation of the gods ; and if wo adorn and beautify the house where a king is to dwell with all the art We are masters of , what ought we to do to those of the immortal gods , whom we expect , when we invoke them , to

bo present at our sacrifices and to give ear to our prayers ! And , though the gods may despise these perishable things which we most highly value , 3 'et men are moved by the purity of beautiful materials , and raised by them to reverence and devotion for the Deity to whom they are sacred . It is certain temples may be of great use for stirring up men to adoration , by filling

their minds with , delight , and entertaining them with admiration of their beauty . Seeing that when the temples are most frequented religion is most honoured , I would have tho temple made so beautiful that the imagination should not be able to form an idea of any place more splendid ; and I would have every part so contrived and adorned as to lill the beholders with awe

and amazement at the consideration of so many noble and excellent things , and almost force them to cry out with astonishment , ' This place is certainly worthy of a god !'" Thus the Pagan thought , thus the Jew thought , and thus the Christian has thought , and probably is beginning to think so again . The Pagan idea was expressed in temples of no great elevation ; generally without any windows , which , in another style ,

" Shoot down a stain'd and shadowy stream of light ;" and , moreover , usually without any roof , so that the light and air might play freely amid the long colonnades of the peristyle , the forms of which were pure and elegant , and the proportions exquisite .