wledge broadcast, they appreciated that
Tectonic Art and Iconography were the means by which they could best
permanently record and teach their aspirations to the masses. Every
beautiful thought found its expression in some symbol of artistic
design. Each Cathedral was, in fact, a beautiful complete _story_,
and, when this has been fully grasped, the enchantment of the whole,
the thread of gold running through the whole of that wonderful pile,
is what may be called the Glamour of Symbolism.

For the last 400 years, Archaeologists, Architects, and others
interested in the history of Tectonic art, have been trying without
avail to discover what is called "the lost secret of Gothic
Architecture"; even Sir Christopher Wren had a try and expressed his
opinion that it was lost for ever. They were all looking in the wrong
direction, confining themselves to the mists of physical intellectual
perception, and could not get beyond that limited range of thought. I
propose now, in illustration of this View, to show what this secret
was. It has the making of a fascinating Romance; it is the most
wonderful example of what I will call "the Evolution of Thought as
depicted by Human strivings after the Transcendental in Mediaeval
Mysticism." I shall give it in a brief form, touching only on those
essential points which require a very slight knowledge of Geometry,
but those interested in the subject may refer to _Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum_ (vol. xxiii., 1910), where I have given the whole
subject, _in extenso_, under the title "Magister Mathesios."

To understand the subject it is necessary to recognise fully the place
Geometry held, not only among Mediaeval Builders, but also in Classical
times; it was recognised in those early times as the head of all the
Sciences, and was the A, B, C of Hellenic Philosophy. Come back with
me 2300 years, to the time when the "Greek Age of Reason" was at its
zenith, and Plato, the greatest of the philosophers, was teaching at
Athens, working thus, let it be known to his honour, solely for the
love he bore to science, for he always taught gratuitously. What
qualification was required of those who attended his Academy? Look up
over the porch, and you will see written in large capitals these
words:

[Greek: MEDEIS AGEOMETRETOS EISITO
MOU TEN STEGEN.]

"Let no one who is ignorant of Geometry enter my doors."

At the root of Socratic teaching was the idea that wisdom is the
attribute