Who Built Our Cathedrals ?

opportunity of beseeching that journal to remove one great obstacle , viz ., the usual nonsense about Freemasonry . It is a pity that the columns of the Builder should have been allowed to disseminate such ideas as that a bishop of Noyon ( at column 3 , line 52 , St . Eloi , 6-1-0

659 is meant ) owed his episcopal dignity to this skill as a goldsmith ; and as that it would be a problem to find a mediaeval architect employed on different works . Has Mr . Wing never heard of Colchester ? or of Farleigh ? to say nothing of Winford ? He surely cannot be a diligent peruser of the Builder .

WHO IS HE ? * . >• . ' * This subject may be very usefully discussed ; but it may be done without acerbity .

Ancient Mysteries.

ANCIENT MYSTERIES .

It is a universal creed , and , so to speak , a tradition inborn with the human race , that man , by the aid of certain set forms of speech , and certain prescribed practices , sometimes borrowed from the rites of religion , sometimes from the rules of science , may alter the eternal laws of nature , subject invisible beings to his will , and , raising himself above his natural weakness ,

acquire absolute knowledge and boundless power . These superior gifts which he aspires to possess are sought for by him from the elements , from the combination of numbers , from the stars , from dreams , from the eternal principle of Good , and even from the Spirit of Evil—Satan and his angels . Blinded by overweening pride , he builds up an edifice of

pretended science , which rests upon no basis of positive observation , and , to gratify his insentiate desire to reign in absolute mastery over nature , he outrages religion , reason , and the laws . According to variety of time or place , this pseudo-seienoe , popularly known by the term Magic , takes a countless number of forms , and is divided into endless branches . Cabala ,

divination , necromancy , geomancy , occult philosophy , hermetic philosophy , astrology , & c , are the high-sounding designations assumed by the various branches of the so-called science , which springs from a poisoned source , and though sometimes sheltering under the cover of religion , has ever been opposed

to its true spirit , as well as to the highest interests of society ; and the baleful traces of which aro yet found to subsist in the superstitious belief in witchcraft , so common among tho less educated classes , and frequently leading , as has been lately seen , to tragical results ; while among the most enlightened , it has transformed itself into the rampant and blasphemous

absurdities of spirit mediums . The Avriters of antiquity , whether historians or poets , abound in passages which attest the importance of magic and sorcery in the heathen world . Ii \ India , these pretended sciences are found constantl y bound up with the practices of religion , while in Egypt , Thessaly , and Chalelea , in Greece , and iu Rome , they

nourish under various forms , and always encouraged and fostered by the priesthood . Several of the ancient writers , both Greek and Roman , who have treated of this subject , divide magic into two distinct branches . —One they designate Theurgia , and describe as springing solely from religion and science , and proposing to itself only good and righteous objects .

'The other they style Goelic , and ascribe to it a power derived from the infernal powers , and exercised only for evil and mischievous purposes . Opposed in their source and in their intention , these two branches were equally distinguished by practices of a totally different character . In theurgia , the ceremonial observed was' grave and serious . The first condition

Ancient Mysteries.

imposed on those practising its ordinances is purity . They are to abstain from food derived from anything that has- hud ! life ; they are to avoid the touch of any dead being , and their invocations are addressed to beneficent spirits alone , and to those who watch over tho actions of men for their well-being .. Herbs , gems , perfumes , each symbolising some particular divinity , were offered up to the deities who were to be

propitiated ; but to ensure a favourable hearing , they were hound to name every single divinity without omission , and offer to each the gift most grateful to its attributes . Iamblicus , a Greek philosopher , Avho practised this purer branch of magic , observes on this point as follows : — " A cord snapped deranges the whole harmony of a musical instrument ; thus ,

a divinity whose name has been forgotten , or to whom the gem , herb , or perfume agreeable to it , has not been offered up , causes the sacrifice to fail . " Theurgia , like religion , had . its initiations , its great and its minor mysteries , and was said to have been originated by Orpheus , who was regarded as the most ancient of magicians . This science vras in . perfect harmony with the religious tenets of the ancients , as regards the nature and genealogy of the gods , and followed the rites and

ceremonials of the heathen religion , with precisely the same ends in view . V & r different was the case with G-oetic magic , which dealt with divinities of evil , and those presiding over the passions of men . The practices it prescribed were of a sombre character ; its rites were performed in caves and subterranean

chambers ; poisonous herbs , the boues of the dead , were its mystic instruments , and their use was accompanied by imprecations as terrible as the object to be attained was malignant and wicked . In practice , however , the distinction , complete as it was theoretically between the two species of magic , Avas by no means strictly maintained , aud although the wiser

adepts of Theurgia endeavoured to render it a handmaiden to the more spiritual aspirations of the heathen religion , the multitude confounded the two sorts of magic , or rather recognised only the worse kind , which thus became the parent of modern witchcraft and sorcery ; while the mystic practices of Theurgia remained in the condition of an occult doctrine , and probably

gave rise to the various secret societies of the middle ages , and to the Freemasons , Illumiuati , Rosicrucians , etc ., of more modern times . —From an unpublished work by a Converted Sufi .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

THE ETE 11 XAL ARCHITECT . "Frater Dubrensis" is mistaken . The folloAving is the passage cited by me from Voltaire , " Dieu appelle par Platon 1 'cteruel Geometre , et quo j ' appelle ici l ' eteruel machiniste . " There may be a passage somewhere in . "Voltairo in Avhich God is called the Eternal Architect ,, but I have preserved no note of it . —OJIAKLES PUJITOS

Coornu . THE TEAIl'LE OF DIANA AT EMIESUS . This immense edifice Avas 425 feet long , and 220 broad . It was adorned both Avithin and without Avith 127 columns of exquisitely Avrought marble , 60 feet in height , of Avhich 36 had ornaments in basso relievo . All Asia was employed 220 years in its erection . It Avas raised ou a

marshy ground , at great expense , to secure it from earthquakes . The architect Avas Oherisphron . The beams and doors Avere cedar , tho rest of the timber cypress . A staircase made of the Avood of cypress vines led up to the temple . The form of the edifice Avas oblong , the length being twice the breadth . The statues of Praxiteles and the paintings of Thraso were its ornaments . — V . M .