Freemasonry In Vancouver's Island And British Columbia.

render all tho assistance he could in Masonry , and he felt great pleasure in having become a member of this , the first lodge under the constitution of the United Grand Lodge of England in this part of the world . The next toast , " The Officers of Alctoria Lodge ( No . 1085 ) , individually and collectively , " was duly responded to by S . W . Bro . GEORGE PEAKKES , who hoped , that having accepted the collars from the AV . M ., they would make such exertions

in their work as to reflect credit on the lodge , ancl in the name of himself and brother officers begged to return thanks for the toast . —The AV . M . said the next toast was a pleasing one , viz ., " The A'isiting Brethren , " who were heartily welcome to Alctoria Loclge . The toast was duly acknowledged hy Bro . Lewis from California . The next toast given by the AV . M . was "To all Needy ancl Distressed WorthMasonswhether dispersed over Land or Sea "

y , , which was responded to by Bro . Amir de Casmas in a most feeling manner . Several other toasts were drank and acknowledged , and the evening ' s labours and amusements were brought to a happy close ; the brethren separating at high twelve , much pleased and gratified at this their first Masonic banquet .

Architecture And Archæology.

ARCHITECTURE AND ARCH ? OLOGY .

ARCHITECTURE OP THE DARK AGES . ( Continuedfrom page 0 . ) About the middle of the 11-th century there arose a furore for the study of classic literature ( which , indeed , had been more studied during the middle ages than we generally creditbut then in an healthy way as food to be digested

, , and not so insanely bolted after the manner of bookworms as afterwards ) , antique manuscripts became eagerly searched for and pored over by the literati ; fragments of sarcophagi and every production of Rome ' s New-road masons' shops wore studied by sculptors , and voted to be admirable precedents ; the ruins ofthe Colisseum , of the temples of the Eormnand of the triumphal archeswere diligentl

, , y examined , and their proportions measured , ancl admired out of all proportion with their merits , and , as ill-luck would have it , a somewhat dogmatical treatise upon architecture , by an old gentleman who lived during the unpropitious days when Augustus had just strangled the Roman Republic , and who ivas , doubtless , a highly respectable member of a very worthy professional body at that time , was just then

brought into fashion , and a number of suggestions that he had made for the guidance of his pupils and professional brethren , whom he had the sense to see ( for he was a vcrj r sensible man ) wore not to be trusted to think for themselves , were propounded as a code of laws to regulate architectural practice , and to serve as canons of taste . The works of Vitruvius have sinco passed through many , perhaps too highly

valued , editions , while a cotemporary architectural romance , " The Dream of Poiypholus , " which is replete with artistic suggestions , has passed through too few . Most fortunately tho painters were not so successful as the sculptors and architects in their researches after the antique , and thoroughly can we sympathize with Rio , who , in his "Poetry of Christian Art , " rejoices that no picture by one of the

celebrated masters of antiquity was brought to light . " For , " says he , " had this been the case , modern art would have been in possession of a model , from which an unalterable rule of tasto , and an unerring theory of the beautiful might have been dodueed and applied to painting . " It was owing to this want of success on the part of the painters , and to their being forced to trust somewhat to their own

resources' , that their art flourished longer than its sister arts , and that in dying it shone , as the dolphin is said to do , with brighter lines , than during its life , casting not inconsiderable radiance over the decay of the rest . It was then the unfortunate discovery , ' galvanising and deification of the exhumed bones of Classic , or to speak strictlyRoman artwhich was the veritable Gorgon ' s head

, , that paralised true and healthy art . Its influence was doubly fatal ; first , by substituting precedent for thought , and , secondly , by substituting second-hand paganism for Christianity . One result of the undue regard " for precedent was , that the people ( for whom artists ought to paint , sculptors to carve , and architects to build , rather than for

their own compeers ) caring comparatively little for the defaced bas-reliefs and broken columns , whose stories had become obsolete and whose purpose was unintelligible to them ; and the subtile mysteries of proportion being beyond their comprehension , or , at any rate , but a small compensation for the loss of the human interest and phonetic power of the class of buildings to which from mediasval times they

had been accustomed , began to lose all interest in the works which they saw rising around them . They found that these very learned architects shot completely over their heads , and that when they asked for artistic bread , they got nought from them but stones . Certainly , we do not hear of bedridden old men asking to be brought daily to look upon any of the masterpieces of the Renaissance , as had been the

case with the Campanile of Giotto , at Florence ; for , in truth , theirs are not " bright , smooth , sunny surfaces of glowing jaspar ; " they have no " spiral shafts aud fairy traceries " for the eye to delight in , but rather uncouth , rugged , prisonlike rusticated walls and flowering cornices , such as those of the Palaces of the Strozzi and Ricardi , at Florence , and of the Farnese , at Rome , which plainly told them " we were *

built to keep you out . " And even if any , from the love of novelty , should in those days , as some I am aware from , force of prejudice have in these days , turned from the Doge ' s Palace and St . Mark ' s , at Venice , to the contemplation of the library , by Sansovino , on the opposite side of the Piazzctta , one would think that when the natural surprise at seeing so many almost identical females , angelic by virtue

of wings alone , somewhat awkwardly cramped into every pair of spandrels throughout the building , had subsided , and when sufficient pity had been bestowed upon tho Cupids in tho frieze , each condemned to bear in symmetricalbalance , on either side of him , a swag of flowers altogether too heavy for his size , that the proportions of the building ,, admirable though they may be , would not detain a spectator long after he had exhausted the iconography which is so . happily suggestive of its literary destination .

The consequence Of all this was that the public ceased to ask for pleasure or instruction at the hands of architects , and the latter forgot that it was their duty to tender it , and , as if in revenge , hedged themselves about with a set of rules ( the observance of which could , of course , only be appreciated by the initiated ) in oblivion that art should " pierce directly to the simple and the true . "

But the substitution of second-hand Paganism for . Christianity was even more fatal than the slavish adherence to precedent . It is absolutely impossible to produce good work without faith in what one is attempting to realise . In such faith had lain the strength of the early painters , in whom we can excuse shortcoming in their powers of execution for the sake of the purity and earnestness of their aim

, for while men wrought in the spirit of the statement of Buffalmaeco , recorded by Vasari , viz : — " AA e painters occupy ourselves entirely in tracing saints upon the walls aud on the altars , in order that by these means men may , to the great despite of the demons , be drawn to virtue and piety , " ' and so long as the intention of works of art remained the . same as that named in an inscription over the doorway of

S . Nixier , at Iroyes—viz ., that three windows had been painted from " servie de cateohisme et instruction du peuple , " we may foretell their success , and that , step by step , they will overcome the difficulties and technicalities of their profession without the aid of infallible precedents from the antique ; but when they began to pander their art at the bidding of princely patrons to the representation of the

labours andloves of Hercules and Venus , ancl other ofthe gods andgoddesses ofPaganmythology , we may as easily pro ] 3 hecy that , notwithstanding such splended genius and wondrous powers as those of the artists who congregated around the corrupt courts of Leo X . and the Medicis , the system has become rotten to the core , the lamp is flickering with an unhealthexcitement which but preludes the

speedextiny y guishing of the light altogether . Such was the fact which ensued ; the very prowess of Raffaelle and Michel Angelo seemed to prevent their successors from making use of the powers they undoubtedly possessed . They prated of the composition , the drawing , the colouring , and the chiaroscuro of their great masters , and humbly strove to follow them with such success as they were able to command in these