The Spirit Of Gothic Art.

shadows ; inches filled with statues of prophets , apostles , saiuts , and benefactors to the church : —• " Figures that , with one broad glare , the gazer strike , — Kings , bishops , saints , apostles , all alike . Artist ! 'tis thine , from the broad windows' height , To add new lustre to religious light ; Not of its pomp to strip the ancient shrine ; But bid that pomp with purer radiance shine ; With arts unknown before to reconcile The willing graces to the Gothic pile . "

Nothing can bo more beautifully suggestive than the ideas conveyed to the mind by the details of Che Gothic art—ideas calculated to soften the stubborn heart , to impress the wondrous loving kindness of the All-Father , to cheer the . melancholy , to raise and exalt the lowly , to teach the ignorant , and . to keep before the minds of all the sublimest truth of the Christian religion . These

seem also to have been the same , for the most part , in all the previous temple buildings , both Jewish and Pagan ; yet it was only as the true light shone abroad on the earth that such , allegorical teaching could have its legitimate import . As Paganism grew old , it renewed its youth by allegory , until its mythological circumstances became philosophical

emblems of life , death , the soul , and immortality . This was the utmost that tho philosophy of Paganism coulcl -attain , and the wonder is that it ever attained to this . When Christianity had increased in the world sufficiently to form a body politic , and governed in every province by a regular system , then it appropriated many of tho old pagan symbols ; as , for instance , that well-known

allegory in the catacombs , where Jesus Christ is represented as converting the world , under tho figure of Orpheus playing on his lyre , and soothing the wild beasts , the trees , and the rocks . Indeed , nothing was more common in the early days of Christianity than to see rivers , cities , mountains , day and night , represented as divinities . The god of the Jordanfor

instancerest-, , ing on his urn , is present at tho baptism of Christ . Immortality and the Resurrection , too , are shown by Pegasus rising to heaven , attended by the goddess Yictory ; and sometimes even by Cupid and Psyche—Love and tho Soul . Pegasus was the name of a poetical winged horse , generated from the blood of Medusa , who became transformed into a constellation .

On the tomb of St . Calistns , Christ is represented by Pluto sitting on tho judgment-seat , with Mary , as Proserpine , attended byfive veiled women , representing souls , one of whom has a tambourine , an instrument used in the Greek mysteries . Those five women are led by Mercury Psychopompns , conductor of souls , wearing his winged hat , with wancl in hand , and tunic girt up . The

origin ofthe worship or adoration of Mary is thus , I think , very significant . If we pause for a moment to examine the human mind , we shall very soon perceive how strongly the love of the allegorical is implanted therein . It is a part of our very nature , and cannot by any means be dissevered from it . Language itself may be termed an allegory of the soulThe

. imaginative faculty , for which man is so pre-eminently distinguished above the other auimals , is highly allegorical . The Great Teacher himself taught by its means—nay , spoke of His own person and attributes by the most beautiful allegory . It is only allegorically that we know anything of the Eternal ! The rhapsodies and pagans of Heaven , as far

as weknowanytiiiiigof them , aresignifieanfcly allegorical . The whole Jewish polity , from first to last , was one splendid allegory . If , in imagination , we glance back afar , along the deep profound vistas of time , to the early dawn ofthepakeozoic age , and trace each geologic era as it evolved in the revolutions of eternity , down to the latest tertiary , and onwards to the human era , tho senses reel , and become drunk with the profound grandeur of the allegory in each ; pointing

The Spirit Of Gothic Art.

to , and centring m , Emmanuel , —and so onwards , to the culmination , when we shall reach to the divine , —the philosophic acme of our being ! Is it to be wondered at , that in all time God has spoken to man , and by means of allegory made known His will ? The last time such a communication took place in Patmos , it gave the world a most sublime piece of allegorical writing .

There is , therefore , nothing remarkable , that symbolism is the very soul of Gothic art , seeing that , as man is constituted , all the results of his imaginative faculty must of necessity be symbolical or allegorical , for I use the terms synonymously . FRANCIS DRAKE , in the Builder . ( To be continued . )

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

THE HISTORT OP THE ROYAL AECH . ( Continued from page 182 ) . Between that portion of the ritual of the [ Royal Arch which refers to the destruction of the first temple , aud that subsequent which symbolises the building of the second , there is an interregnum ( if

we may be allowed the term ) in the ceremonial of the degree , which must he considered as a long interval in history , the filling up of which , like the interval between the acts of a play , must be left to the imagination of the spectator . This interval represents the time passed in the captivity of the Jews at Babylon .

That captivity lasted for seventy years , from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar until that of Cyrus , although hut fifty-two of theseyears arecoimneuioratedinthe Hoyal Arch degree . During this period many circumstances of great interest and importance occurred , which must be perfectly understood to enable us to appreciate

the concluding portion of the ceremonies of that degree . " Babylon the Great , " as the prophet Daniel calls it , the city to which the captive Jews were conducted by Nebuchadnezzar , was situated four hundred and seventy-five miles iu a nearl y due east direction from Jerusalem . It stood iu the midst of a large and

fertile plain on each side of the river Euphrates , which ran through it from north to south . It was surrounded with walls whieh were eighty-seven feet thick , three hundred ancl fifty in height , and sixty miles in compass . These were all built of large bricks , cemented together with bitumen . Exterior to the walls was a wide aud deep trenchlined with the

, same material . Twenty-live gates on each side , made of solid brass , gave admission to the city . From each of these gates proceeded a wide street , fifteen miles in length , ancl the whole was separated by means of other smaller divisions , and contained sixty hundred and seventy-six squares , each of which was two miles

and a quarter in circumference . Two-hundred and fifty towers , placed upon the walls , afforded the means of additional strength and protection . "Within this immense circuit were to be found palaces and temples and other edifices of the utmost magnificence , which have caused the wealth , the luxury , and splendour of

Babylon to become the favourite theme of the historians of antiquity , ancl which compelled the prophet Isaiah , even while denouncing its downfall , to speak of it as " the glory of kingdoms , the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency . " To this cit y the captives were conducted . "What was the exact number removed we have no means of