" Origin Of Masonry."

the sixteenth century ) Masons at their meetings were merely similar to those of other trades . The opened box was generally the sign of the opened meeting , and the ceremony at the admission of new members very simple , and without any of the

symbolic system manufactured when our present system was inaugurated in 1717 However , a "book" was sometimes used before 1717 , when females were admitted as well as men , which latter circumstance shows the similarity to other gilds or sodalities .

Pages 52 and 53 , about the old monks and their works , are worthy of much further elucidation and examination , so that what is said may be reliable aud our knowledge of the works of these , in many srepectsf worthy men extended .

At page 55 , he begins to give the Germans the credit of originating the Pointed Gothic , and of carrying it to perfection ! but I am much afraid his views thereupon are , to say the least , purely imaginary , and only to be excused upon the plea that the writer is himself a German , and therefore wishes to hand over to Ids fatherland the credit

of whatever is great and good . The German Pointed Gothic Avas copied from France in the thirteenth century * Both France aud England were much ahead of Germany in that matter then , and the remains of the Pointed Gothic of either

is much superior to German . In fact instead of the Germans carrying the art to perfection , they degraded it , they were first taught the art by French workmen , in the thirteenth century , and then did the very opposite of improving upon

their masters . In the thirteenth century , the Germans forsook their own Round-arched style before they had had time to perfect it , and began a slavish copying of the new style of their French neighbours . Besides , before they had got a

proper hold of it , they lost the grand moving spirit ofthe French and English Pointed Gothic . When the German Masons got hold of the work independent of the clergy , then farewell to real progress , and then we behold nick-nacks—Chinese

pagodas for spires , & c . The following quotation , is a fair specimen of the effect produced , when our author himself allows his imagination to run away with his judgment—¦ a wished-for fiction , taking the place of fact , viz :

" Unfettered by the shackles of arbitrary foreign laws and forms , and supported by a brilliant and natural science of technics , the national fancy gave utterance to its deepest thoughts , ( vagaries ' ) for

the first time , in its own language ; and the German-Gothic-style of architecture made its appearance ! Yea verily the German Masons might be good builders , and handy steinmetzen , but they where hardly the best of Architects .

At page 61 , the author leads us to infer that the only , or at least the chief skilled artizans of the 13 th century were the " Steinmetzen or Stone-cutters of Germany , " and that they were the fathers of all the others ! but if we examine the very buildings he points toin support of his ideas , we soon perceive

his mistake . He speaks ofthe Church of St . Gereon began about 1201 and vaulted about 1227 ; but it is nearly a century behind in the employment of all those expedients , which give character and meaning to the true Pointed style . Then St .

Elizabeth , dedicated in 1283 , has all its details of good early French style . And as for Cologne , began about A . D . 1270 , ( not " 1248 , " ) what is it but a grand copy , and that a late one too , at least after many of the great French cathedrals were

finished in all essentials . And certainly the design of it it- anything but perfect ; aud not equal to what we would have expected , under similar

circumstances , from either a good French or English architect of the period . As I have stated , the French were considerably before the Germans as the dates and style of the following French cathedrals will show , viz ., Paris began 116 * 3 , and

west front finished 1214 . Chartres going on about 1200 . Rheims began in 1211 , and completed in all essentials in 1241 . Amiens began in 1220 , and completed in 1257 : So here we have all these g lorious French works executed years before

Cologne was even begun ! And yet , Bro . Steinbrenner , would have us all believe that it was the Cologne Masons who were the grand teachers par