Historical Sketch Of Masonic Events During 1864.

in many respects , and on the other hand he reconciles the adherents of the high degree system by allowing the St . John ' s degrees to remain , and leaving individual lodges and Masonic authoi'ities at liberty create for themselves higher and more

intimate degrees of love and friendship , knowledge and experience . The objection may be raised that -under the existing political circumstances , which are not likely to undergo any alteration at the hands of the Eisenach Congress , these high

protectors alone have guaranteed the existence of Masonry in many German States , and that upon their removal the further toleration of the Craft would become questionable ; but the secondary considerations are not of the slightest weight with

Bro . Schauberg : no doubt he will settle with the protectors and the hi gh degrees men , to his satisfaction .

The first articles of his new platform are a mere circumlocution of the existing constitution . Query , where is the necessity of modifying the latter ? Bro . Schauberg proposes , for his German National Grand Lodge , to organise a Universal Grand

Lodge , in conjunction with the high Masonic authorities of other countries . Unfortunately , these latter authorities will adhere to the obnoxious old Constitution , and we are at a loss to guess how Bro . Schauberg means to carry out his proposed

reform , supposing even he should meet with full and entire approval on the part of the forthcoming Eisenach Congregation . ( To he continued . )

The Majesty Of Architecture.

THE MAJESTY OF ARCHITECTURE .

AH study confirms the proposition that there are but few subjects in the range of history , art , and science , that are unindebted to architecture either for illustration . or confirmation . Thinking , in the exigencies of our daily task , of the requirements of modern life to be provided for in

modern buildings , > we are apt to undervalue the versatility , overlook the antiquity , and deny the -majesty of the grandest of the arts . We have been especially impressed recently with the services architecture has rendered to ethnologists . No one now treats of the origin of the races of

man without bringing forward in evidence the . remains of Egyptian buildings . Dr . Nott , in his "Types of Mankind , " Dr . Colenso , Mr . R . S . Poole , all produce the testimony of Egyptian •remains in support of their views . Dr . Nott writes , — "Ethnology was no new science even before the time of Moses . It is clear and positive that' at that early day ( fourteen or

The Majesty Of Architecture.

fifteen centuries B . C . ) , the Egyptians not only recognised and faithfully represented on their monuments many distinct races , but possessed their own ethnographic systems , and alread y had classified humanity , as known to them , accordingly . They divided mankind into four

species , viz ., red , black , white , and yellow . . . . When Egypt first presents itself to our view , she stands forth , not in childhood , but with the maturity of manhood ' s age , arrayed in the timeworn habiliments of civilisation . Her tombs , her templesher pyramidsher mannerscustoms

, , , , and arts , all betoken a full-grown nation . " We are not going to follow 7 Dr . Nott in the inferences he draws from this early civilisation , our object being simply to show how ethnologists have turned to the architecture of the Egyptians as to a storehouse of proof of the antiquity of

man . In the same strain we have Lepsius writing ( Briefe cms Egj / pten ) , — "We are still busy with structures , sculptures , and inscriptions , which are to be classed , by means of- the now more accurately determined groups of kings , in an epoch of highly flourishing civilisation , as far back as the fourth millennium before Christ . " Delitzch awaits the proof of a manifold division of the human race from an investigation of

Egyptian monuments . Ivenrick notes that , 1 , 000 years before the Deluge , the same hierogyphics were used on monuments as at the end of the monarchy of the Pharoahs , marking an organised monarch } -and religion in that remote era . Additional researches have been made in the same

field for the same purpose by Bunsen , Birch , Humboldt , Hinclcs , and Osborn . The size of the human race , too , in old times , is determined by the same test . The traditions of former gigantic stature are exploded by the passages , chambers , and sarcophagi of the pyramids . Againstudents

, of theology , deciphering with microscopic care every passage in Holy Writ , find in architectural remains some of their most stupendous references . Thus , Dr . Colenso , connecting the mention of the tower of Babel with the famous unfinished temple of Bolus ( Birs Nimroud ) , quotes Kalisch for a

description of that terraced pyramidal edifice , — "The tower consisted of seven distinct stages , or square platforms , built of lime-burnt bricks , each about 20 ft . high , gradually diminishing in diameter . The upper part of the brickwork has a vitrified appearance ; for it is supposed that the

Babylonians , in order to render their edifices more durable , submitted them to the heat of the furnace ; and large fragments of such vitrified and calcined materials are also intermixed with the

rubbish at the base . ' Professor Rawlinson thus interprets the history of it , as related on the cylinders by Nebuchadnezzar , who endeavoured to complete the work , — " The building named the Planisphere , which was the wonder of Babylon , I have made and finished . With bricks , enriched with lapis lazuli , I have exalted its head . Behold