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  • The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine
  • Aug. 6, 1859
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  • THE WORK OF IRON, IN NATUREART, AND POLICY.
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Aug. 6, 1859: Page 8

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The Work Of Iron, In Natureart, And Policy.

ivork . Another is , that whatever the material you choose to ¦ work with , your art is base if it docs not bring out the distinctive qualities of that material . . The reason of this second law is , that if you don't want the qualities of the substance you use , you ought to use some other substance : it can be only affectation , ancl desire to display your skill that lead you to employ a refractory substance , and therefore

your art will all be base . Glass , for instance , is eminently , in its nature , transparent . If you don't want transparency , let the glass alone . Do not try to make a window look like an opaque picture , but take an opaque ground to begin with . Again , marble is eminently a solid ancl massive substance . Unless you want mass and solidity , don't work in marble . Ifyou wish ' for lightness , take wood ; if for freedom , take stucco ; if for ductility , take glass . Don't try to carve feathers , or trees , or nets , or foam , out of marble . Carve white limbs and broad breasts only out of that .

So again , iron is eminentl y a ductile and tenacious substancetenacious above all things , ductile more than most . AV hen you want tenacity , therefore , and involved form , take iron . It is eminently made for that . It is the material given to the sculptor as the companion of marble , ivith a message , as plain as it can well be spoken , from the lips of the earth-mother , " Here's for you to cut , and here ' s for you to hammer . Shape this , and twist that . \/ liat

¦ A is solid aud simple , carve out ; what , is thin and entangled , beat out . I giro you all kinds of forms to be delighted in ;—fluttering leaves as well as fair bodies ; twisted branches as well as open brows . The leaf and the branch you may beat ancl drag into their imagery ; the bod y ancl brow you shall reverently touch into their imagery . Ancl if you choose rightly and ivork ri g htly , what you do shall be safe afterwards . Your " slender leaves shall

not break off in my tenacious iron , though they may he rusted a little with an iron autumn . Your broad surfaces " shall not be unsmoothed in my pure crystalline marble—no decay shall touch them . But if you carve in the marble what -will ' break with a touch , or mould in the metal what a stain of rust or verdigris will spoil , it is your fault—not mine . "

These are the main princi ples in this matter ; ivhich , like nearly all other ri ght principles in art , ive moderns deli ght in contradicting as directly and specially as may be . AVe continually look for , and praise , iu our exhibitions , the sculpture of veils , and lace , ancl thin leaves , and all kinds of impossible things pushed as far as possible iu the fragile stone , for the sake of ' showing the sculptor ' s dexterity . On the other hand , ire cast our iron into barsbrittle

— , though an inch thick—sharpen them at the ends , and consider fences , ancl other work , made of such materials , decorative ! I . do not believe it would be easy to calculate the amount of mischief done to our taste in England by that fence ironwork of ours alone . If it ivere asked of us , by a single characteristic , to distinguish the dwellings of a country into two broad sections ; and to set , on one side , the places where people iverelor the most

, part , simple , happv , benevolent , and honest ; and on the other side , the places where at least a ;> -reat number ot the people were sophisticated , unkind , uncomfortable , ancl unprincipled , there is , I think , one feature that you could fix upon as a positive test : the uncomfortable and unprincipled parts ola country would be the parts where people lived among iron railings and the comfortable ancl principled parts where they had none . A broad generalization , you will say ! Perhaps a ' little too broad : yet , m all sobriety , it will come truer than you think

Consider every other kind of fence or defence , and you will find some virtue iu it : but in the iron railing none . There is , first your castle rampart of stone—somewhat too grand to be considered here among our types of fencing ; next , vour garden or park wall of brick , ivhich has indeed often au unk ' ind look ou the outside , but there is more modesty in it than unkindness . It generally means , not that the builder of it wants to shut von out f 1 oin the view

- or his garden , but from the view of himself ; it is a . hank statement that as he needs a certain portion of time to himself , so he needs a certain portion of ground to himself , and must not be stared at when he di gs there in his shirt sleeves , or plays at leapfrog with his boys from school , or talks over old tunes with his wife , walking up and down in the evening sunshine , besidesthe brick wall has good practical service in itand shelters

, , you from the cast wind , and ripens your peaches and nectarines , and glows iii autumn like a sunny bank . And , moreover , your Di-ick wall , i you 1 ,,,,-Jd it p .-oporiy , so tlifit it shall stand ' long enough , is a beautiful thing when it is old , and has assumed if : ; grave purple red , touched with mossy gm-u . KexlU , your lordl y wall , in digi ' iity of enclosure , comes vour close set wooden paling , which is more ohiodioiiribh .. because it

commonly means enclosure on a larger scale than people want . Still it is significative of pleasant parks , ancl ivell kept field walks , and herds of deer , and other such aristocratic pastoralisms , which have here and there their proper p lace in a country , and may bo passed Avithout any discredit .

Next to your paling , comes your low stone dyke , 3 'our mountain fence , indicative at a g lance cither of wild hill country , or of beds of stone beneath the soil ; the hedge of the mountains —• delightful in all its associations , and yet more in the varied and craggy forms of the loose stones it is built of ; and next to the low stone wall , your lowland hedge , either in trim line of massive green , suggestive ofthe pleasaunces of old Elizabethan houses , ancl

smooth alleys for aged feet , ancl quaint labyrinths for young ones , or else in fair entanglement of eglantine ancl virgin ' s bower , tossing its scented luxuriance along our country' waysides : —how many such you have here among your pretty hills , fruitful with black clusters of the bramble for boys in autumn , ancl crimson hawthorn-berries for birds in winter . And then last , and most difficult to class among fences , comes your handrail , expressive of

all sorts of things ; sometimes having a knowing and vicious look , ivhich it learns at race-courses ; sometimes an innocent ancl tender look , ivhich it learns at rustic bridges over cressy brooks ; and sometimes a prudent ancl protective look , which it learns on passes of the Alps , where it has posts of granite ancl bars of pine , and guards the brows of cliffs and the banks of torrents . So that in all these kinds of defence there is some good , pleasant , or noble meaning . But what meaning has the iron railing ? Either ,

observe , that you are living in the midst of such bad characters that you must keep them out by main force of bar , or that you are yourself of a character requiring to be kept inside in the same manner . Your iron railing always means thieves outside , or Bedlam inside ;—it can mean nothing else than that . If the people outside were good for anything , a hint iu the way of fence ivould be enough for them ; but because they arc violent ancl at

enmity ivith you , you arc forced to put the close bars and the spikes at the top . Last summer I was lodging for a little while in a cottage in the country , and in front of my low window there were , first , some beds of daisies , then a row of gooseberry ancl currant bushes , ancl then a low wall about three feet above the ground , covered ivith stone-cress . Outside , a ^ corn-field , Avith its green cars glistening in the sun , and a field path through it , just

past the garden gate . From my Avindow I could sec CA-ery peasant of the A-illagc who passed that way , ivith basket on arm for market , or spade on shoulder for field . AVhen I was inclined for society , I . could lean over my wall , and talk to anybody ; ivhcn I ivas inclined for science , I could botanize all along the top of my Avail —• there were four species of stone-cross alone growing ou it ; and when . 1 was inclined for exercise , I could jump oi'er my Avail , backwards and forwards . That ' s the sort of fence to have in a

Christian country ; not a thing ivhich you can't walk inside of without making yourself look like a wild beast , nor look at out of your window in tiie morning without expecting to see somebod y impaled upon it in the night . And yet farther , observe that the iron railing is a useless fence —it can shelter nothing , and support nothing ; you can't nail your peaches to itnor protect your flowers with itnor make

, , anythink whatever out of its costl y tyranny ; ancl besides being useless , it is an insolent fence ;—it says plainly to everybody who passes— " You may be an honest person—but , also , yon may be a thief : honest or not , you shall not get in here , for I am a respectable person , anil much above you ; you shall only sec what a grand place I have got to keep you out of—look here , ancl depart in humiliation . "

This , however , being in the jiresent state of civilization a frequent maimer of discourse , and there being unfortunately manydistricts where the iron railing is unavoidable , it yet remains a question whether you need absolutely make it ugly , no less than significative of evil . You must have railings round your squares in London , and at the sides of your areas ; but need you therefore have railings so ugly that tbe constant sight of them is enough to

neutralize the effect of all the schools of art in the kingdom V You need not . Far from such necessity , it is even in your power to turn all your police force of iron bars actuall y into drawing masters , ancl natural historians . Not , of course , without some trouble aud some expense ; you can do nothing much ivorth doing , in this world , ivithout trouble , you can get nothing much worth haiing , without expense . The main question is only—what is

worth doing and having : —Consider , therefore , if this be not . Here is your iron railing , as yet , an uneducated monster ; a -timbre seneschal , incapable of any words , except , his perpetual "Keep out ! " and' -Away with you ! " Would it not be north

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1859-08-06, Page 8” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 11 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_06081859/page/8/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
CLASSICAL THEOLOGY. APOLLO AND MAY. Article 1
THE FAMILY OF THE GUNS. Article 4
THE WORK OF IRON, IN NATUREART, AND POLICY. Article 6
Poetry. Article 9
CLEVELAND. Article 9
BONNY MAY. Article 9
OUR ARCHITECTURAL CHAPTER. Article 10
MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 11
REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS. Article 13
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 15
METROPOLITAN. Article 15
PROVINCIAL. Article 16
ROYAL ARCH. Article 17
COLONIAL. Article 18
THE WEEK. Article 18
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. Article 20
Obituary. Article 20
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

The Work Of Iron, In Natureart, And Policy.

ivork . Another is , that whatever the material you choose to ¦ work with , your art is base if it docs not bring out the distinctive qualities of that material . . The reason of this second law is , that if you don't want the qualities of the substance you use , you ought to use some other substance : it can be only affectation , ancl desire to display your skill that lead you to employ a refractory substance , and therefore

your art will all be base . Glass , for instance , is eminently , in its nature , transparent . If you don't want transparency , let the glass alone . Do not try to make a window look like an opaque picture , but take an opaque ground to begin with . Again , marble is eminently a solid ancl massive substance . Unless you want mass and solidity , don't work in marble . Ifyou wish ' for lightness , take wood ; if for freedom , take stucco ; if for ductility , take glass . Don't try to carve feathers , or trees , or nets , or foam , out of marble . Carve white limbs and broad breasts only out of that .

So again , iron is eminentl y a ductile and tenacious substancetenacious above all things , ductile more than most . AV hen you want tenacity , therefore , and involved form , take iron . It is eminently made for that . It is the material given to the sculptor as the companion of marble , ivith a message , as plain as it can well be spoken , from the lips of the earth-mother , " Here's for you to cut , and here ' s for you to hammer . Shape this , and twist that . \/ liat

¦ A is solid aud simple , carve out ; what , is thin and entangled , beat out . I giro you all kinds of forms to be delighted in ;—fluttering leaves as well as fair bodies ; twisted branches as well as open brows . The leaf and the branch you may beat ancl drag into their imagery ; the bod y ancl brow you shall reverently touch into their imagery . Ancl if you choose rightly and ivork ri g htly , what you do shall be safe afterwards . Your " slender leaves shall

not break off in my tenacious iron , though they may he rusted a little with an iron autumn . Your broad surfaces " shall not be unsmoothed in my pure crystalline marble—no decay shall touch them . But if you carve in the marble what -will ' break with a touch , or mould in the metal what a stain of rust or verdigris will spoil , it is your fault—not mine . "

These are the main princi ples in this matter ; ivhich , like nearly all other ri ght principles in art , ive moderns deli ght in contradicting as directly and specially as may be . AVe continually look for , and praise , iu our exhibitions , the sculpture of veils , and lace , ancl thin leaves , and all kinds of impossible things pushed as far as possible iu the fragile stone , for the sake of ' showing the sculptor ' s dexterity . On the other hand , ire cast our iron into barsbrittle

— , though an inch thick—sharpen them at the ends , and consider fences , ancl other work , made of such materials , decorative ! I . do not believe it would be easy to calculate the amount of mischief done to our taste in England by that fence ironwork of ours alone . If it ivere asked of us , by a single characteristic , to distinguish the dwellings of a country into two broad sections ; and to set , on one side , the places where people iverelor the most

, part , simple , happv , benevolent , and honest ; and on the other side , the places where at least a ;> -reat number ot the people were sophisticated , unkind , uncomfortable , ancl unprincipled , there is , I think , one feature that you could fix upon as a positive test : the uncomfortable and unprincipled parts ola country would be the parts where people lived among iron railings and the comfortable ancl principled parts where they had none . A broad generalization , you will say ! Perhaps a ' little too broad : yet , m all sobriety , it will come truer than you think

Consider every other kind of fence or defence , and you will find some virtue iu it : but in the iron railing none . There is , first your castle rampart of stone—somewhat too grand to be considered here among our types of fencing ; next , vour garden or park wall of brick , ivhich has indeed often au unk ' ind look ou the outside , but there is more modesty in it than unkindness . It generally means , not that the builder of it wants to shut von out f 1 oin the view

- or his garden , but from the view of himself ; it is a . hank statement that as he needs a certain portion of time to himself , so he needs a certain portion of ground to himself , and must not be stared at when he di gs there in his shirt sleeves , or plays at leapfrog with his boys from school , or talks over old tunes with his wife , walking up and down in the evening sunshine , besidesthe brick wall has good practical service in itand shelters

, , you from the cast wind , and ripens your peaches and nectarines , and glows iii autumn like a sunny bank . And , moreover , your Di-ick wall , i you 1 ,,,,-Jd it p .-oporiy , so tlifit it shall stand ' long enough , is a beautiful thing when it is old , and has assumed if : ; grave purple red , touched with mossy gm-u . KexlU , your lordl y wall , in digi ' iity of enclosure , comes vour close set wooden paling , which is more ohiodioiiribh .. because it

commonly means enclosure on a larger scale than people want . Still it is significative of pleasant parks , ancl ivell kept field walks , and herds of deer , and other such aristocratic pastoralisms , which have here and there their proper p lace in a country , and may bo passed Avithout any discredit .

Next to your paling , comes your low stone dyke , 3 'our mountain fence , indicative at a g lance cither of wild hill country , or of beds of stone beneath the soil ; the hedge of the mountains —• delightful in all its associations , and yet more in the varied and craggy forms of the loose stones it is built of ; and next to the low stone wall , your lowland hedge , either in trim line of massive green , suggestive ofthe pleasaunces of old Elizabethan houses , ancl

smooth alleys for aged feet , ancl quaint labyrinths for young ones , or else in fair entanglement of eglantine ancl virgin ' s bower , tossing its scented luxuriance along our country' waysides : —how many such you have here among your pretty hills , fruitful with black clusters of the bramble for boys in autumn , ancl crimson hawthorn-berries for birds in winter . And then last , and most difficult to class among fences , comes your handrail , expressive of

all sorts of things ; sometimes having a knowing and vicious look , ivhich it learns at race-courses ; sometimes an innocent ancl tender look , ivhich it learns at rustic bridges over cressy brooks ; and sometimes a prudent ancl protective look , which it learns on passes of the Alps , where it has posts of granite ancl bars of pine , and guards the brows of cliffs and the banks of torrents . So that in all these kinds of defence there is some good , pleasant , or noble meaning . But what meaning has the iron railing ? Either ,

observe , that you are living in the midst of such bad characters that you must keep them out by main force of bar , or that you are yourself of a character requiring to be kept inside in the same manner . Your iron railing always means thieves outside , or Bedlam inside ;—it can mean nothing else than that . If the people outside were good for anything , a hint iu the way of fence ivould be enough for them ; but because they arc violent ancl at

enmity ivith you , you arc forced to put the close bars and the spikes at the top . Last summer I was lodging for a little while in a cottage in the country , and in front of my low window there were , first , some beds of daisies , then a row of gooseberry ancl currant bushes , ancl then a low wall about three feet above the ground , covered ivith stone-cress . Outside , a ^ corn-field , Avith its green cars glistening in the sun , and a field path through it , just

past the garden gate . From my Avindow I could sec CA-ery peasant of the A-illagc who passed that way , ivith basket on arm for market , or spade on shoulder for field . AVhen I was inclined for society , I . could lean over my wall , and talk to anybody ; ivhcn I ivas inclined for science , I could botanize all along the top of my Avail —• there were four species of stone-cross alone growing ou it ; and when . 1 was inclined for exercise , I could jump oi'er my Avail , backwards and forwards . That ' s the sort of fence to have in a

Christian country ; not a thing ivhich you can't walk inside of without making yourself look like a wild beast , nor look at out of your window in tiie morning without expecting to see somebod y impaled upon it in the night . And yet farther , observe that the iron railing is a useless fence —it can shelter nothing , and support nothing ; you can't nail your peaches to itnor protect your flowers with itnor make

, , anythink whatever out of its costl y tyranny ; ancl besides being useless , it is an insolent fence ;—it says plainly to everybody who passes— " You may be an honest person—but , also , yon may be a thief : honest or not , you shall not get in here , for I am a respectable person , anil much above you ; you shall only sec what a grand place I have got to keep you out of—look here , ancl depart in humiliation . "

This , however , being in the jiresent state of civilization a frequent maimer of discourse , and there being unfortunately manydistricts where the iron railing is unavoidable , it yet remains a question whether you need absolutely make it ugly , no less than significative of evil . You must have railings round your squares in London , and at the sides of your areas ; but need you therefore have railings so ugly that tbe constant sight of them is enough to

neutralize the effect of all the schools of art in the kingdom V You need not . Far from such necessity , it is even in your power to turn all your police force of iron bars actuall y into drawing masters , ancl natural historians . Not , of course , without some trouble aud some expense ; you can do nothing much ivorth doing , in this world , ivithout trouble , you can get nothing much worth haiing , without expense . The main question is only—what is

worth doing and having : —Consider , therefore , if this be not . Here is your iron railing , as yet , an uneducated monster ; a -timbre seneschal , incapable of any words , except , his perpetual "Keep out ! " and' -Away with you ! " Would it not be north

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