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LONDON, SATVKDAY, MAY 20, 1865. obvious the expediency of this project may a]3pear ; even the aspirations towards a " salutary reform " HISTORICAL SKETCH OF MASONIC have remained sterile on the whole. This result is EVENTS DURING- 1864. to be attributed partly to the advocates of' reform {Continued from page 354.) themselves. A total want of insight in the exist- The aspirations of a number of excellent bre- ing circumstances is evinced in most of those well- thren towards reforms in the organisation of Free- meant, but altogether unpractical, extravagant masonry are worthy of especial attention. The proposals. Many promoters of reform are utterly writer first mooted the subject in the Latonia in. contradiction with themselves, and in varying some years ago. For two years past it has been opposition to their fellow reformers. As an in- stance of those inconceivable blunders that result discussed in the Bauhiitte in a remarkable manner; the course of reform has found thereby many from this mania of changing, we may quote the zealous, nay over zealous, adherents, enspirited proposal for the establishment of " Masonry in polemics being awakened. The Freimaurer Zeitung action," lately started by Bro. Henne, the author of also has taken up the matter, in a series of excel- the valuable treatise " Adhuc Stat." lent articles, favourable to a moderate reform. Bro. Henne, in his project, first abuses the Every intelligent Mason will admit that Freema- tame progressists, whose aspirations he asserts sonry, no more than any other social institution, tend much less towards progress than return to -'-' can preserve its organisation unaltered for an age, the "rotten old platform. He bestows much en- if it means to live and flourish, and that, conse- comium upon the endeavours of the Masonic press quently, reforms are urgently called for by the to bring about the repeal of the useless and pre- spirit of the age in which we live. posterous high degrees, and then introduces his The history of the Craft teaches us that Free- Freemasonry of the future, whose degrees, seven masonry underwent serious alterations from time in number, he designates as follows :— to time in bygone ages. The confederation has 1. Apprentices. never been proof against the various follies of the 2. Assistants. times (Modethorheiten) ; but it has shaken them 3. Masters . off again, one by one, and in most parts of Ger- 4. Warriors of mankind, i.e., labourers for its many it has resumed its original form, though material good. somewhat affected hj the various previous trans- 5. Knights of mankind, i.e., superintendents of formations. Its history has cleared itself more the labours for the material good. and more, and thus the impediments have been 6. Teachers of mankind, i.e., labourers for its removed that obstructed its path. But, with all intellectaial good. due consideration and respect for the institution 7. Priests of mankind, i.e., superintendents of as it exists, erroneous opinions ought to be recti- the labours for intellectual good. fied by instruction, and undue restrictions, the in- Nobody will consider our energetic brother as a heritance from ages of darkness, ought to be lukewarm reformer after a perusal of his joroject, exposed and impugned—considering that with us by which he overreaches the mark entirely. How- prejudice itself enjoys a legal recognition and right ever we must leave our readers to judge of Bro. of existence. Henne's production as it deserves. This is the path that, for several years past, has Having alluded to various other adventurous been trodden upon by unpresuming friends of pro- reform projects, the other continues :—As a coun- gress, noiselessly, but not altogether unsuccess- terpart to Bro. Henne's " Grand Lodge of the fully. Their simple and honest aspirations, unadul- future," Bro. Schauberg proposes, in the Bauhiitte, terated by any selfish motives, have secured re- for the next general meeting of the association of spect and acknowledgment even fro m such anta- German Masons, to be held at Eisenach in August, gonists as considered the traditions of the past as to establish a German National Grand Lodge. Of a noli me tang ere, as a construction whose very course this requires but a firm will and a series of foundations would be endangered by the slightest articles as a platform, which Bro. Schauberg is movement. kind enough to supply with the bargain. Bro. All endeavours hitherto made to bring about a Schauberg is a thorough-going reformer. He does general Masonic Congress have failed, however away with the illustrious protectors, so obnoxious in many respects, and on the other hand he recon- fifteen centuries B.C.), the Egyptians not only ciles the adherents of the high degree system by recognised and faithfully represented on their allowing the St. John's degrees to remain, and monuments many distinct races, but possessed their own ethnographic systems leaving individual lodges and Masonic authoi'ities , and already had classified humanity, as known to them, at liberty create for themselves higher and more accordingly. They divided mankind into four intimate degrees of love and friendshi p, knowledge species, viz., red, black, white, and yellow. and experience. The objection may be raised that When Egypt first presents itself to our view, she -under the existing political circumstances, which stands forth, not in childhood, but with the maturity of manhood's are not likely to undergo any alteration at the age, arrayed in the time- worn habiliments of civilisation. Her tombs, hands of the Eisenach Congress, these high pro- her temples, her pyramids, her manners, customs, tectors alone have guaranteed the existence of and arts, all betoken a full-grown nation." We Masonry in many German States, and that upon are not going to follow7 Dr. Nott in the inferences their removal the further toleration of the Craft he draws from this early civilisation, our object would become questionable ; but the secondary being simply to show how ethnologists have turned to the architecture of the Egyptians as considerations are not of the slightest weight with to a storehouse of proof of the antiquity of Bro. Schauberg : no doubt he will settle with the man. In the same strain we have Lepsius writing protectors and the high degrees men, to his satis- (Briefe cms Egj/p ten),—"We are still busy with faction . structures, sculptures, and inscriptions, which of- The first articles of his new platform are a mere are to be classed, by means the now more accurately determined groups of kings, in an circumlocution of the existing constitution. Query, epoch of highly flourishing civilisation, as far where is the necessity of modifying the latter ? back as the fourth millennium before Christ." Bro. Schauberg proposes, for his German National Delitzch awaits the proof of a manifold division Grand Lodge, to organise a Universal Grand of the human race from an investigation of Lodge, in conjunction with the high Masonic au- Egyptian monuments. Ivenrick notes that, 1,000 years before the Deluge the same thorities of other countries. Unfortunatel , hierogyphics y, these were used on monuments as at the end of the latter authorities will adhere to the obnoxious old monarchy of the Pharoahs, marking an organised Constitution, and we are at a loss to guess how monarch}- and religion in that remote era. Addi- Bro. Schauberg means to carry out his proposed tional researches have been made in the same reform, supposing even he should meet with full field for the same purpose by Bunsen, Birch, Humboldt Hinclcs and entire approval on the part of the forthcoming , , and Osborn. The size of the human race, too, in old times, is determined by Eisenach Congregation. the same test. The traditions of former gigantic (To he continued.) stature are exploded by the passages, chambers, and sarcophagi of the pyramids. A gain, students of theology, decipherin g with microscopic care every passage in Holy Writ, find in architectural THE MAJESTY OF ARCHITECTURE. remains some of their most stupendous references. AH study confirms the proposition that there Thus, Dr. Colenso, connecting the mention of the are but few subjects in the range of history, art, tower of Babel with the famous unfinished temple and science, that are unindebted to architecture of Bolus (Birs Nimroud), quotes Kalisch for a either for illustration.or confirmation. Thinking, descri ption of that terraced pyramidal edifice,— in the exigencies of our dai ly task, of the re- " The tower consisted of seven distinct stages , or quirements of modern life to be provided for in square platforms, built of lime-burnt bri cks, each modern buildings, >we are apt to undervalue the about 20ft. high, gradually diminishing in diameter. versatility, overlook the anti quity, and deny the The upper part of the brickwork has a vitrified -majesty of the grandest of the arts. We have appearance ; for it is supposed that the Babylo- been especially impressed recently with the ser- nians, in order to render their edifices more vices architecture has rendered to ethnolog ists. durable, submitted them to the heat of the fur- No one now treats of the origin of the races of nace ; and large fragments of such vitrified and man without bringing forward in evidence the calcined materials are also intermixed with the .remains of Egyptian buildings. Dr. Nott, in his rubbish at the base. ' Professor Rawlinson thus "Types of Mankind," Dr. Colenso, Mr. R. S. interprets the history of it, as related on the Poole, all produce the testimony of Egyptian cylinders by Nebuchadnezzar, who endeavoured •remains in support of their views. Dr. Nott to complete the work,—" The building named writes,—" Ethnology was no new science even the Planisphere, whi ch was the wonder of Babylon, before the time of Moses.

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