Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-08-07

lead. in large amounts or small, so that 9
huge building like this might be said 70
be the work OF half Christendom. The
designer is unknown, but still more
curious fact is this: The men
who did the stone-hewlnR, the
carving OF the figures that rep
resent the Trinity, arch-apgels,
angels, SAINTS and biblical personages
on rood, screen, pulpit, wall and porch,
the laying OF the stones, the springing Of
these great arches, we're the enemies OF
the church, and those who 10 this day In
herlt their secrets, passwords, formulas
l'and rites are prescribed by the church,
whose most marvellous edifices the orig
lnal Masons reared. At one end Of the
history OF Notre Dame we see the Chris
tian missionary SEEING the Druids' grotto
and explaining statue and legend 70 ac-
cord with his own faith. At the other we
see the pagans Of 1898 rising In rebellion
| against church and throne. Midway be-
tween we see the old pagan leaven rising
secretly in the meetings OF the Masons as
they live in their bsuhutten about the
slowly rising walls. The history OF Eu-
rope for 1000 years clings TO the founda-
tons and towers Of Notre Dame de Char
tres.
So much is this fact that the deeper
study OF the origin OF forms OF decoration
only possible In this age has developed
one proof after another OF the essentially
non. Christian spirit OF the old artifcers.
In this nicne poor man Is trodden under
foot by naughty saint In that strong
hold serves as footstool for bishop.
The artist, crushed and lifted, his very
name CONTEMPORARY Ignored, reyenged
himself by carlcature that none nut
initiated understood. The great rose
windows, filled with glass Of rude work
manship, but colored IN q manner 70 drive
the modern window-painter 10 despair,
were supposed by the ecclesiastics
of the day 20 be all that
Is Christian. Not so. They re-
reproduce the old heather symbol, the
wheel, the sign OF the sun-god, whose
flaming wheels are even to this day pre-
clpitated on the night of the summer
solstlce from the hills near certain VII
lagos far from towns. The clergy has
made war on such heather practices for
they were frequent In the last
century; they existed in the early part OF
this; they are nov almost extinct. But
the Masons and artdcers bethought them
where TO place the sun symbol so that
the clergy themselves would have to pro- I
tect IL, and so they wrought the pagan |
wheel into the great rose window, that IL
might be a more beautiful, a more |
striking, a more grandiose object than |
the cross itself. There was once god wor- |
shipped In Gaul whom the Romans iden- |
.ihed with Jupiter, but whose symbol, RS |
ye know from broUzes and bass-reliufs, |
ron coins, amulets and tokens Of an ear. |
Ter age was a wheel and its decorative /
This Is the god whom the !
oppressed workmen Of the middle ages
opposed to the cruel rule Of caste that |
TO love and follow the teach |
ngs Of a God Of peace They could not
make an image, but they might slyly in
reduce a symbol They had TO 90 to mass;
tut as they knelt they could look dp TO one 4
If the flaming wheels in the transepts and
lut up prayer for the ruin of ecclesias-
lcism and the return Of the "goOd old
lays" OF their forefathers Chartres
cathedral has wonderful glass the rose
IN the main facade can no more be de.
cribed in words than a symphony by
leethoveni but for this line of thought
Sotre Dame de Charities has wheel
window, said 10 be as early as the elev-
NTH century, which is probably without
! parallel The wheel has six simple
ipokcs, and in the field are six figures
the TRANSPORTATION, being |
Christ, Moses, Elias and Saints Peter, |
jobn aud James. Each spoke passes be- !
hind the aureole Of one of the six, ex- |
cept in the case OF 81. John; he kneels |
IS II to conceal the face. Christ stands |
On aud above the center of the wheel; his |
lureOle is a four-spoked wheel, and about |
aim Is an oval aureOlo. The idea Is taken |
from the wheel OF fortune, a |
leathen method Of diylnitation connected |
With the sun-worship, which fingers in |
Is secular shape in the roulettee of the |
airs and in its ecclesiastical shape in |
ew ancient chapels OF Brittany and the |
'yrenees. For In the early Christian cen
.uries this pagan device, forced itself |
INTO, or was appropriated by, the |
church, and the spokes were named |
after certain saints, so that when the de- |
'out turned the wheel he augured the
success of his wish or It's denial from the |
saint who remained on top when the
ceased. The church herself |
has had many an up and down on for
tunes wheel; where, we may wonder, |
Will the wheel come TO rest, say in
1882 viii return wave OF faith put
new blood into her veins or will she take
her place in the European section OF the
projected at Paris, museum in
tended to preserve everything that Is
connected with the belief in the super
natural, the other world, The hereafter
the Musee DIES Religlonsg