Bethel-Golgotha.

stood the altars of burnt offerings . Twelve steps higher you come to the house of God , within which is the Holy of Holies . Hence you may view that " place of a skull" UOAV covered with temples and minarets , and turbaued heads , aud uncovered feet , within whose sacred precincts rests indeed the Holy One of Israel , and hither come tho pious and

superstitious of thc earth to pray or quarrel . Here Gothic crypt and Byzantine arch mingle incontinently . Thus , since tho world began , have gone together in . raising to the Avorship of the deity , the tivo great emotions of our nature—fear of God and the reverence it inspires ; love of our kind and the gratitude it prompts to the giver of life and

good . Victory is won in mourning . Our greatest sorrow is enshrined in a greater hope . We have prefigured in our monuments and our churches , allegories framed by the pious and thc good of every age . The fruits and ( lowers are to us not merely enjoyment * for the senses , but symbolic of thc A-irtues which their beauty or their goodness typify . The

temple is as it were the tributary crown rendered by man to his maker ; the exemplar of tire results of virtue and intelligence offered by tlie apprentice to the Great Architect who marks the beauty of its outline , the proportion of its parts , the regularity and uprightness of its structure . Care , steady perseverancean object of goodincluding neihbourllove

, , g y , and zeal , and piety , arc needed in such a work . So may the architect bo buried within the chancel without irreverence . Viewing those sacred edifices and tombs , those scenes wherein tlie glory of the human race went from the fleshpots into fche wilderness aud received from tlie divine hand the laAV—where rose up thc temples of thc tribestier on tier

, , story and story , whose builders were men who adorned virtue scarcely less than it adorned them—may Ave not contemplate their works Avith pride , and Avhilst so employed emulate their virtue ? On Golgotha stands the holy sepulchre , and upon it temples raised by human hands , but often profaned by

inhuman practices . ' '• Not that the power of Clod is here More manifest or more to fear ; Not that the glory of his face Is circumscribed by any space—But that as men arc AA-ont to meet In court or chambermart or street

, For purposes of gain or pleasure , For friendliness or social leisure—So , for thc greatest of all ends To AA'hich intelligence extends—The Avorship of the Lord whose will Created , and sustains us still , And honour of the prophet ' s name

By Avhom the saving message came—Believers meet together here , Arret hold these precincts very dear . "

The Theory Of Light.

THE THEORY OF LIGHT .

AMOXH thc many interesting papers ivhich were read before the recent congress of the British Association , at Aberdeen , was u 'm by ( . ! -. J . Smith , Esq ., of Perth , on the "Production of Colour and the Theory of Light . " The author said that , in attempting to explain certain natural phenomena , he could not satisfy himself ' y itpp'I ying the principles of cither theory of light ; that many Natural phenomena indicated beats or vibrations in the luminous ether

very different from what science taught . That is , that there ivcrc greater intervals between them than Newton had demonstrated and scientific men believed . He therefore endeavoured to contrive a machine ivhich should be able to make as many ^ volutions or beats in a second as he considered the effective "•' ibratioiis of light were repeated in a second of time , and argued 'hat b y certain contrivances to produce light and shade in alternate

vibrations he should produce colour . In plain terms , he "ad come to believe that colour is formed by alternate light ; ll 'd shade in various proportions . To prove this , he caused a "'hitc rug to revolve at various speeds on a black surface . His ui- st experiment AVU S to move a small slip of white cardboard over a black surface . By this motion he obtained a distinct blue . A'tcnvards , in different weather , the same thing produced a Purple . He then made a disc with five concentric rings : one

The Theory Of Light.

ring was painted one-third black , thc rest of the ring being white ; the next ring AA'as two-thirds black and one-third Avhite ; the next was three-fourths black and one-fourth Avhite ; and thc fifth half black and half white . This disc , ivhen made to revolve , became completely coloured . There were no more blacks or whites A'isible , but five rings oi' different colours . On ; i bright day , ivith white clouds in the sky , the first ring was of a li ght much second le blue

green , yellow ; ring , purp , very ; third ring , nearly as first ; fourth ring , purple , darker than second ; fifth ring , pink . By means of eccentric movements a great variety of colours was obtained , amongst others a pure red and various shades of purple , pink , yellow , mid blue . There ivas a great variety of discs , each having on it a different proportion of black and white . It ivas by such processes that the author ivas led to

believe that he had demonstrated that colour is produced by a mixture of light and shadow at various intervals , aud at least he ivas satisfied that the- ^ cxperiniciits were ori ginal and not to lie explained by thc present recognized laws . The author produced the same results by cutting out spaces in the ivhitc card and causing it to revolve ! on a black surface . He produced also similar henomena by causing these fi to revolve when held

p gures per pendicularly and to take the appearance of coloured solids . He also caused these colouhkto be reflected on a white surface from the revolving disc . Theseexperiments and the views draivn from them ivere used for the purpose of giving a theory of thc prism to be published in detail ; and , referring to thc consequences of his experiments , the author said that , remarkable as these experiments are , they arc not more remarkable than the results they lead to .

They prove the homogeneity of the ether ; they prove the uiidulatory hypothesis , but oppose thc urulnlatory theory ; they enable us to dispense with thc different refrangibilities of the rays of light , as taught by Newton ; they remove thc necessity for the supposition of different lengths of waves or of a disposition in matter to produce waves of different lengths ; they help to explain many of thc phenomena of what is called the polarisation ol light ; they give a neiv explanation of prismatic refraction , and explain in a plain and simple manner many very interesting natural phenomena .

Freemasonry And The Useful Arts.

FREEMASONRY AND THE USEFUL ARTS .

Mccic has been said and written , and many speculations indulged in on the subject ofthe antiquity of our fraternity , and the influence which it formerly exercised over the spread of the mechanical and less useful branches of art . Hoivever dim and hoivever obscure may be the evidence Avhich AVC arc enabled to glean on these points from thc past , there is yet sufficient to show that the worldin centuries gone bwas under

, y , vast obligations to operative Masonry , as a secret scientific institution or study ; whilst ive have the proud satisfaction of viewing it at this clay , and in its free or speculative capacity , as one of the noblest and most benign of mere human institutions . AVe may leave the temple of Solomon in the ruins to which , in the lapse of ages , it has crumbled ; may turn from the stately and graceful monuments of Masonic skill found in Greece , when Greece was

great ; ive may cease to linger over dim tradition , or evoke from remote ages the evidences of its usefulness , and in the comparatively present day find all the testimony which reason can desire . The present , hoivever , we know ; let us therefore , for a moment , turn to that ivhich is assumed to be tangible in the past , not because , as we have said ,- of a demand for evidence , but a satisfaction of curiosity . In 1 . 735 an able English ivriter made the following

, rcference to the Dionysian artificers , ivho Avere celebrated for their abstemiousness , scientific skill aud attainments : — " They were a body of architects and engineers , ivho were employed in the erection of temples , theatres , and stadia , after the Ionic emigration , which took place ivhen thc Greeks had made a very considerable progress in the sciences . Those , together ivith their sacred mysteries , the emigrants carried with them into

Asia , where , after some years , the arts flourished with a prosperity unequalled , and an elegance of conception and execution Avhich far surpassed the productions of the mother country . They ivere very numerous in Asia Minor , Syria , Persia , and India , and it is highly probable that they ivere employed , Avith the Sidoniaiis , at the building of Solomon's temple . They were distinguished from thc profane and uninitiated btheir science and skill in architecture

y , by appropriate words and signs by ivhich they could at once recognize their brethren in all parts of the globe . They were divided into different Lodges , distinguished hy particular names , and so possessed of distinct jurisdictions , and each separate association , was under the superintendence of a Master and AVardens . " Mi * . Sharp , an Englishman , and au eminent and distinguished