Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Of Decorative Art.

older than the date given it ; and instead of belonging to the seventeenth century , it was done very early in the sixteenth . Though there is very little or no attempt at the beautiful in these personages , and we be rather struck with the high cheek bones , the rather over-bushiness in the head

of St . John , —a somewhat common Florentine fancy—a slight liking for the hard and sharp in the lines of the countenances , the too stiff position of our Lord , the want of pyramidical position in the figures , and consequent row of three heads almost on the same strai ght level ; still ,

notwithstanding all these defects , there is so much deep , keen , heart-felt dignified sorrow on the countenances , ancl so nicety and touchingly graduated too , with the strongest touch of all shown upon the down-bent face of the weeping mother , that the feelings of the spectator must be deeply stirred .

But , for our present purpose of seeking how burned clay may be made available as an object of decorative art , the teachings to be gathered from this group are very important . The figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that of our Lord , as far down as the end of the bust , seem to have been

fired together ; but each leg and thigh—all iu one piece—apart , and afterwards joined on to His body . So very smoothly has the clay been wrought , that the surface of all the figures has taken a glossy look : if this is in reality owing to a glaze , it must have been put on so slihtly as to hinder that

g sparkle and glittering which , when ths glaze is too bright , will hurt the eye . After a narrow look at these burned clays , we find from the streaks yet remaining on a few of them that at one time or another some have been gilt , others coloured . In the instance of Lord

launton s large bust , of Lorenzo de' Medici , the colours were not , as in the ordinary practice , left to dry by themselves , but fixed in by fire . Not , however , having in them , nor put on them afterwards , any glaze ; those colours look , as they must have always looked , dull , dirty , dusky .

Bearing in mind that a glazing over clay which in its plain self is not a bad one , is about the worst grounding to be found for gold , there cannot be a doubt but that the beautiful chest-front was meant by Jacopo to stand in its first plain glazed condition ; and therefore the gilding , some traces of

which remaining on it , may still be found , was given it years , nay , a century , after its first owners had passed away . This mention of colour brings us to the second subject of this lecture , the so-called Delia Robbia Ware . ( To he continued . )

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KESTHAIX thy choler , hearken much , and speak little ; for the tongue is tiie instrument of tlie greatest good ancl the greatest evil that is done in the world ,

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

A BltlGHT HASO : * . Bro . Pierson , the Grand Master of Minnesota , gave the following apt definition of the word " bright , " so often used , iu sometimes very different senses : — " Masonry does not consist of words alouo . ' To be able to pronounce a few set phrases , and always in

precisely the same language , does not make a Mason . A bright Mason is not one who has learned the ritual by rote , and is at a loss if a syllable or a word be forgotten , ancl knows no more of Masonry . A bright Mason , if I understand the term , is one who is familiar with the ritualwho understands the nature and

, origin of our symbols , who has studied the meaning of our ceremonies , who appreciates and practices the teachings of our mysteries , one who is a good man and true . "—Ex . Ex .

THE INTLtfENCE 03 ? TKE OKDEK Olf THE FOEMATIOir OP CHABACTEE . Prom a right view of our moral condition , and the necessities it imposes , we learn to be law-abiding and virtuous . Indeed , without a direct recognition of the legal as well as the moral codeby our cheerful

obe-, dience to both , we cannot defend the rights of others , nor justly maintain our own . Order is heaven's first law , alike in the physical as the spiritual world . It is sublimely manifested in all the works of Jehovah , whose benign purposes are proclaimed

" As full and perfect in vile man who mourns , As tlie wrapt seraph that adores and burns . " It is , therefore , the analogy of a never-varying rule , by whicli the Craft are willingly controlled , not a slavish submission to mere power , but loyalty to principle , whose foundation-stone is eternal justice . Thus

it is the loclge room becomes holy ground . We are taught before we enter it to subdue our rebellious will , and become a part of tlie ' tesselated pavement , ' upon which all worthy brethren must stand ; nay further that there is a point within the circle of human dutieswhere the true Mason must ever be erect—an

, equal among his peers . This all pervading idea is the web and the woof of our ritual ; without it our institution would be an arch without its keystone , the ark without the tables of stone , the rod , the manna , and tlie candlesticks . Without it the cedar in the first temple would never have been hewn upon

the mountain , and the marble would remain unshaped . It was under this inspiring influence ' the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith , and he that smoothed with the plaue , him that smote upon the anvil . ' When we have a just conception of , order , we can apply it to our self government , thus learning to control our wayward passionsby the sacrifice of every private

, feeling which may interrupt the union between brethren ; and extending the principles still further , by our devoted submission to the laws of our country , we recognise in the magistrate the power that holds the social state in contact , while it vindicates the justice of God . No upriht Mason can ever be a

g disorganiser , nor yet an ultra partisan , in the many efforts to produce what is too often falsely called reform ; we should rather give it the name of disintegration . He cannot aid in the upheaving of the an-, cient foundations , to discover only the depth at which